Asking the Right Questions to Your Audience – Jim Edwards (https://www.thejimedwardsmethod.com) and Stew Smith discuss some important issues that will help you with your energy levels and ability to get things done – but first you must quit the following:
Quit Unhealthy Habits
Quit Being Overly Critical (of Yourself)
Quit Wasting Time
Quit Thinking Instant Gratification
Quit Procrastinating and more….
Quitting is just as importing as Never Quitting. In fact, you may not get to a point to challenge yourself to Never Quit if you do not quit some of the bad so you can get serious and focus on what you really want to do.
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Jim Edwards: Hey guys, Jim Edwards here along with Stew Smith with episode 59 of the Sales Copywriting Content Marketing Hacks Podcast…
Today we’re going to talk about 5 things you should quit…
So we usually say you should never quit and Stew has a tee-shirt…
All of Stew’s merchandise says never quit…
And that’s his mantra is never quit though.
He doesn’t have it handy.
He is looking around for like, wow, I should really hold something up that says that.
Stew Smith: I have it handy.
Jim Edwards: But actually there are some things that you should quit doing, and I think that it would be fun to have too quick what?
Hold that up…
Oh, that’s your little pad that you send that never quit.
Stew Smith.
Jim Edwards: We’re actually going to trade this one back and forth.
I’m going to make it harder on myself because I’ll do number 1, number 3, and number 5, and you have to do number 2 and number 4.
Stew Smith: Okay.
Jim Edwards: Smarty butt Mr. setting Jim up person.
But it is funny, you talk about quitting the topic of quitting and people say winners never quit and quitters never win.
Well, sometimes there’s some stuff you should really stop doing.
Stew Smith: Yes, absolutely.
Or you will never even get to a point where you can challenge yourself.
You never quit.
You just spinning your wheels constantly.
Jim Edwards: Right?
I think the number 1 thing that everybody needs to quit is procrastinating because procrastination is the killer.
It really is.
I have all these little post-it notes around my desk, and everything one says regret is the real enemy.
But procrastination is the killer.
It’s the killer of all momentum.
And there’s some people actually think procrastination’s a good thing, especially when it comes to writing and putting things off and letting it cook in your subconscious.
And there’s some stuff to that, but pretty much procrastinating on getting stuff done and doing things that you know you should be doing that will have a positive impact on your life, your business, your family, your spirituality, your physical health…
You need to stop that.
It’s like that old Bob Newhart thing stop it.
He was a psychiatrist and the guy who told them all these problems and things he was doing, “Stop that.”
Stop that, stop that.
I think in procrastination, one of the biggest ways I’ve found to overcome procrastination in anything, whether it’s writing a sales letter, whether it’s doing sales videos, whether it’s creating scripts, whether it’s working out, is to have a really easy first step…
Usually, we procrastinate when we see something is too big…
Stew Smith: Yeah.
Jim Edwards: But if you have a really easy first step, then it’s a lot easier just to get started.
And once you’ve gotten started, it’s easier to keep going.
So, for example, with writing sales copy, one of the first things I’ll do is just write down my name cause I know I’m going to sign the sales letter with my name.
I know that sounds really stupid, but, I start with what’s my name, who’s my target audience, what’s the main thrust of this?
And it just kind of starts happening…
With working out starts with my stopwatch with me starting the stopwatch.
It’s a symbolic of it starting.
Or getting that first pushup done or that first burpee or that first pull up or that first 25-meter pathetic run.
But doing just the first step, the faster you can get to the first step, the faster you’ll stop procrastinating.
Any thoughts on that one Stew?
Stew Smith: Yeah.
My big addition to that is recognizing it.
A lot of times, people are procrastinating and don’t even realize they’re procrastinating…
And what I do is, I tend to recognize it when I have a to-do list one, you have to have a list that helps…
And, you know you’re not getting stuff done on that list…
And then say it, you know what, I’m just procrastinating…
I know I need to get this done…
I’m just procrastinating…
And almost hearing yourself say that and actually saying it…
Pulls you into a better mindset almost to like say, “Okay, I’ve got to get out of this…”
Otherwise, you just kind of spin your wheels and don’t know why you’re not getting to what you need to get done…
There’s always something else that pops up to distract you from what’s on that list that’s hard…
Like you said, I love the easy step…
That’s a great way to do it.
Jim Edwards: Yeah.
Stew Smith: I find it happens to me quite often with writing deadlines sometimes.
And I’m sitting there (Stewing) on it, and I’m trying to figure out what I’m doing, and I just realize I’m just procrastinating and then I actually able to move into it and get it done.
Jim Edwards: The only thing I would add to that is read that book by Dan Pink “When” a lot of times you procrastinate because you’re trying to do things during the time when you really shouldn’t be doing them.
So if I tried to write an article at nine o’clock at night, it ain’t going to happen, dude, I’m ready to go to bed.
It’s not procrastination.
It’s just, I’m not ready.
That’s not the time I should be doing it.
So another thing that helps us doing things during the time you should, that’s the best time for you to do them with biorhythms and stuff like that.
So, okay, Stew, what’s the second thing everybody should stop doing in our world?
Stew Smith: I would say this is right up…
My alley is to quit unhealthy habits…
And whatever that is, there can be so many we have…
When I’m talking to unhealthy, I mean actually physically, mentally unhealthy poking excessive drinking, overeating, overworking, overthinking, overspending we can overdo everything…
And next thing you know you’re overstressed, and then you’re just really not functioning…
Optimally when you get to that level.
Jim Edwards: It’s interesting, you people will be like, well, how does this apply to sales, copywriting, content marketing?
It does. You don’t see a whole lot of unhealthy old people.
You don’t see a lot of happy, unhealthy people…
The people that you see really getting after it typically are in pretty good shape.
They take pretty good care of themselves.
They don’t let stress get to them.
They don’t eat lard like it was a fifth food group.
Stew Smith: Yeah.
Jim Edwards: Now, there are exceptions to every rule…
We can all think of somebody who is not healthy, who is killing it in the world of sales, copywriting, content marketing.
But pretty much you see the people who have longevity in anything, they take care of their health.
So what would be somebody’s first step if they were not taking care of themselves the way they should?
Stew Smith: My recommendation is always to like yours, and the previous one is start off with something easy…
Where people, a lot of people screw up is if you have one bad habit that’s unhealthy, you tend to have several others as well.
Like if you’re smoking, you’re probably not eating well, or you might even be a drinker, or yeah, there’s a variety of things.
The last thing you want to do is start an exercise program…
Start eating healthy, quit smoking, quit drinking all in the same week.
But my first recommendation for anybody is just get moving.
That moving can be a variety of activities from walking to yard work to riding a bike or whatever you need to do is just get moving and make moving a habit…
And then you’ll find that things tend to start falling into place…
You may not feel like eating as much, you may not feel like drinking as much.
And work off some of that stress physiologically versus it getting to you mentally…
Jim Edwards: Yeah, absolutely.
That’s a great point.
I experienced that firsthand.
I mean just deciding to start walking every day for 30 minutes, and it transformed ultimately every aspect of my life that I call those slipstream goals.
Stew Smith: Yeah.
Jim Edwards: Where it’s like a truck going down the highway…
It’s going so fast, and it’s so big that it just sucks else along behind it.
Okay…
So the third thing I would tell you to stop doing things you should quit now is judging yourself and others.
A lot of times, we have this internal dialogue where we’re making judgment calls all day long about everything, about how we look about how we feel about someone else’s intentions, just about other people, about emails that we get about events that happened in the news…
There’s so much judgment, internal judgment going on that it closes us down to being able to be open to possibility and opportunity and other stuff.
Cause we’re so busy judging, we’re not paying attention to other stuff.
I mean I’m talking about even stuff like when you’re walking down the street, and you look at somebody, and you don’t know them, and you start talking shit inside your own head about that person you see over there, it’s like, don’t do that stuff.
Stew Smith: Yeah, stay away!
Jim Edwards: It’s just not a healthy thing.
Just practice not doing that.
And you’ll be amazed at how much calmer you are consistently and just how you’re not stressed out all the time because you’re not judging everything as good or bad or as a threat or stuff like that…
And I’m not telling you to tape a hundred dollar bills to the outside of your clothes and walk in the bad part of town because you’re not judging.
I’m just saying that watch your internal dialogue as far as judgment.
And it’s easy to do also with emails and with texts and stuff where you don’t have all the other communication tools in your hands or at your disposal…
Like someone’s tone of voice, their body language, their other stuff…
Think about how easy it is to misconstrue what somebody says in a text or an email and then all it’s like you spend an hour trying to respond to somebody the right way, and you delete the email, and you think it through when you talk to everybody about “Hey, what do you think this means?”
And all this other stuff, you can really burn yourself up with that.
So I would tell you to not do that.
Stew Smith: Definitely being over critical, whether it’s of yourself or of other people, especially yourself.
Sometimes we tend to get over critical of ourselves when we’ve made mistakes, or we failed at something.
The biggest thing to do is just accept it, grow from it, move on…
There’s no such thing as a failure or there are always learning experiences…
Right…
You can call them whatever you want…
But yeah, avoid dwelling in the past and nor worrying about the future because that just leads towards depression from the past and anxiety of the future.
Jim Edwards: And you can’t learn.
You can’t learn.
Probably the most valuable feedback that you get is when you make mistakes.
Stew Smith: That’s true!
Jim Edwards: That’s when you get really valuable feedback.
Stew Smith: Yeah.
I love Edison’s quote on the mistakes are, what did he say?
He didn’t fail 10,000 times…
He figured out a way not to do something.
Jim Edwards: To figure down how not to make a light bulb.
9,000, 909 times.
Exactly.
All right.
So that was number three, judging yourself and others…
What’s number four Stew?
Stew Smith: I would say, quit wasting time.
Jim Edwards: Was that in that kind of go with procrastination?
Stew Smith: Yeah.
But it, yes it could, but there are some people that just been way too much time on non-working electronics.
Right.
It’s fine if you are on social media, but you’re doing social media for work, right?
Or you’re on a computer for work.
I think it’s fine to relax too…
Don’t get me wrong, I’m not saying don’t relax and watch a movie.
Jim Edwards: its X-Box.
Okay…
One hour every week.
Stew Smith: X box is fine.
It’s just being unproductive for a greater part of the day than you are productive.
Jim Edwards: Okay.
Stew Smith: Would be considered what I would call wasting time.
Jim Edwards: Okay.
So quit wasting time on things that aren’t either adding to the world, adding to your business, adding to your family, or adding to truly recreational stuff and just frittering away time because you can’t be bothered to figure out something more productive to do with it.
Stew Smith: Yes, that is correct.
Jim Edwards: Cool.
Stew Smith: And now we’re all guilty of it.
Jim Edwards: Oh yeah.
Stew Smith: Yeah.
Jim Edwards: I think we go through stages too.
Like right now, I’m going through a really intense work period thing that’s going to last for about two months.
And when I get to the end of that, I’m going to do some time wasting.
Stew Smith: Yeah, exactly.
I just did the same thing, I just wrote a book.
It took me a couple of months of constant focus, and I just did a little binge session the other day on a Netflix just to kind of unwind my brain.
Jim Edwards: But you don’t need weeks of it.
That’s the thing I think we don’t understand.
I saw a documentary one time where it was a study about people who dealt with sleep deprivation, and I mean, you obviously know all about that from going through hell week and being a Navy Seal and all that stuff.
But they showed that these people, they kept him awake, I think for 36 hours and they were showing how they were losing motor skills and function and other things like that…
And then they showed how long it took for them to recover…
And when they asked him before and how long do you think it would take somebody to recover from this?
And people were saying, “Oh, it would take easily three, four days to catch up on sleep, but pretty much it just took one good night’s sleep, and they were good.”
Stew Smith: Yes…
Jim Edwards: So the point is that you may think, okay, I’m putting out all this effort and like let’s say I work 5 hard days, 6 hard days…
If you do it right, you can recover mentally, especially, or even physically in about a day, day, and a half.
You really can, if you get rid of all the other crap and really focus on recovery.
Stew Smith: Yeah, we’re recovery and wasting time are two different things.
Jim Edwards: Right.
But that’s what I’m saying is people think that sometimes though that it’s like you got to have an equal amount of this to equal out this and you don’t.
Stew Smith: True
Jim Edwards: Is the point.
And I would say the fifth thing that you should stop doing is worrying because worrying about stuff never solved to Jack.
I used to be a terrible worrier.
Really bad, dude.
I mean, especially when I was a kid, I would worry so badly that I would be up all night worrying.
As a first-grader, I would be up all night worrying about stuff, and then somebody told me, “Look half the stuff you worry about is never going to happen.”
40% of the stuff you worry about, you have total control over, and you can do something about and 10% of the stuff you worry about, you got no control over, and you’re just going to have to figure out how to deal with it, which you will.
So there’s really no point in worrying…
You just make the best plans you can…
Be prepared and take things as they come.
And I didn’t really take that to heart until I was about 30.
It definitely, once I took it to heart, it made a big difference.
But needlessly worrying does just it’s a never-ending downward spiral.
Stew Smith: Yeah, I would agree with that.
I’m going to add one more to this list.
Jim Edwards: Okay.
Stew Smith: Cause I think a lot of people forget about the process that occurs in life.
Everything’s a process.
There’s no, I mean, yes, we live in a world of instant gratification.
Typically things that we want to do require a somewhat of a journey and time.
No matter what you want to do.
I know right now you can push a button and have things delivered to your front door the same day even if you want to, but things such as learning and mastering the skill, require time, right.
You can’t start a job and be the CEO in a month, right.
Unless you’re an entrepreneur.
And even then there’s a big journey to that actually producing the results that you might think it’s going to produce.
A journey of progression that you have to logically go through in order to reach those short term and longterm goals.
Jim Edwards: I heard a guy from your world say it takes 30 minutes to dress up like an operator, but it takes 10 years to become one.
I thought that was pretty cool.
He was ripping on all the tommy-tactical people.
Stew Smith: I love that.
Jim Edwards: But that’s, you’re absolutely right.
I think that’s you’re gotta put in the time.
Okay…
And I got one to finish this off.
So this is 7 things you should quit now.
All right, but you should quit comparing yourself to others because I think, and this brings it back full circle to the sales copy content marketing and all that stuff.
We tend to see people out there that we think are doing better than we are.
And we wonder if we’ll ever get there and we see what they’re doing, and we’re like, “Man, I’m not doing that…”
Or “I’m not able to do that,” or “I can’t produce that or all these things…”
And it makes us feel bad about ourselves instead of looking at what we have done and comparing ourselves to where we are from where we’ve been.
If I were to compare myself 20 some years ago to where I am now if I’d have looked and I hadn’t known who I was, I would have been like, there’s no way I’ll ever be able to do what that person’s doing.
And so that applies in business, it applies physically.
And that’s one of the reasons why you need to track.
You need to track your newsletter subscribers, you need to track your conversion rates, you need to track your views, track your likes, track all of these things that are indicators of whether your sales.
The number one thing is track your sales but are indicators that show whether you are progressing or not.
And as long as you’re getting better, that’s great.
Don’t compare yourself to others because there’ve been so many people that I have seen that have come along, and they make this big flash, and then they disappear.
And if you want to be like them, you’re going to flash maybe and disappear, definitely.
So comparing yourself to others, people with 100,000 on their list or a million on their list, there’s always somebody who’s going to make more sales…
There’s always somebody who’s got a bigger list…
There’s always somebody who’s got more followers…
There’s always somebody who’s got more views…
So if you want to feel crappy, compare yourself to others…
But if you compare yourself to where you are, to where you want to be…
A year ago, we had like one podcast episode…
Now we’ve done 59 a year ago I had a hundred people in the Sales, Copywriting Content Marketing Hacks group…
Now we’ve got over 12,000.
So, but if I compared myself to somebody like Clickfunnels where they’ve got 250,000 people in their group, then I’m like, “Aw, my group’s nothing.”
That’s stupid.
So comparing yourself to others, don’t do it.
And there you go.
Any final thoughts?
Stew Smith: That’s a good one.
I think I’ll just sum it up with sometimes quitting is just as important as never quitting.
Jim Edwards: Absolutely.
I agree with that a hundred percent one of the things that you should never quit is creating lots and lots of offers.
Putting them out there and seeing what works.
The thing that you should never quit is creating content on a daily basis because that’s the smartest thing you can do to be viewed as an expert, a guru, whatever you want to call it, in your niche, no matter what it is…
So head on over the jimedwardsmethod.com you can get all kinds of cool stuff there.
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