The photo on the right is the first thing I see in the morning. It’e the view directly above my side of the bed. This morning when I heard the kids wake I up I grabbed my iphone and took this picture. Read on to find out why…
I keep getting asked about what I do on a ‘typical’ day. Well to tell the truth there is no typical day. I sort of make them up as I go along. I have a diary and certain things need doing by a certain time, but I’m not a good example of a dedicated marketer.
I do my Homer Simpson noise (Doh!) when I read about marketers who make a big deal of escaping the 9-5 then put in more hours than they ever did as employees. I’m not trying to tell you there’s no work involved when you’re a pro marketer, there IS.
But for me the whole point of having this sort of freedom isn’t to waste it – it’s to enjoy it while it happens. ‘But Tony why don’t you work your arse off and make $5million dollars this year, then relax? Well two reasons really, until my children start going to school full time I want to spend the time with them that I’ll never ever have again.
And secondly – to me the evidence all points towards internet marketers earning 5 million in a year and then continuing to work just as hard. It’s not for me I’m afraid. I could drop dead tomorrow while uncorking a bottle of wine, so I like to get my fun in while I can, not at some distant point in the future.
So with that in mind, I thought I’d tell you about my day.
First thing in the morning – 6.30am and it’s my turn to get up with the kids. We might not have a daily schedule but they certainly do -get up, bounce around and then off to various school and pre-school groups. So today they wake me at 6.30am and I herd them downstairs, without even enough time to nip into my office and check my emails.
It’s a glorious sunny day and warm already so we decide to eat breakfast outside. (Plenty of pulling funny faces for the camera) but these hazy, warm mornings are great. Especially as we now have a trampoline in the garden and the kids can eat then go bounce around for half an hour while I drink a pint of coffee and wait for them to throw up their Rice Krispies.
My wife joins us at 8am and after a morning chat I sneak off for a shower leaving her to clear away the breakfast things and dress the kids. Sexual equality my arse – if Germaine Greer came to my house she’d soon be making us all a cup of tea, bless ‘er. She’d go home thinking Feminism was a body spray.
(Ladies – before you email me complaining I will point out that although I wear the trousers in our house, I’m usually told what colour to buy and when I can put ’em on. In reality I’m the least sexist person you’re ever likely to meet.)
I take 10 minutes to check my email and stuff, in my workroom. I put a WSO on the Warrior Forum last night, purely as a list builder (although there is a back end to pay for the cost of posting). As it happens the one I ran 2 nights ago brought in a little less than $1,000 (that was a PLR offer) and the one last night has brought in 65 new subscribers and almost $100 in revenue. (Screenshot below) I keep saying that a WSO is the most under-rated, most targeted ad you can possibly place in my particular niche, and if you haven’t yet tried it you should. Just keep away from the whinging Nellies who call it home.
I open a new list in Aweber for each new WSO or squeeze page that I do. The reason for this is that I then stack up a series of three or four follow up messages and gently sell related products over the next few days while the new subscriber is still ‘warm’. It’s a bit like doing a minlaunch but it’s all automated.
Likewise I do a quick check on payments that have come into the Paypal and Clickbank accounts overnight. I’m always yattering on about ‘getting more payment buttons out there!’ but this is the reason why. Subscription payments, orders, and various other chunks of money have been dropping into the accounts over night and continue to do so. All these are the cumulative effect of continuously putting websites up, month after month.
The kids have been packed off to their various activites by now and my wife returns and starts work in the workshop / studio she made when she stole the dining room. Actually being able to work at home together is one of the things we decided we wanted to do years back, and it’s still good to be able to stop for a coffee and 10 minutes chat whenever we feel like it.
I follow up on a few things I need to do. I chat to a business partner, Tony Newton on Skype txt. We’ve got a few projects on the go and a few more in the pipeline so it’s pretty much a status report. He works from home like me. In fact last week we met up for lunch and a brainstorm and moved our projects forwards more than could ever be possible over the telephone and or Skype. So the long, relaxing meal was totally essential (that was for my accountant). After we came away from the country pub with bulging notebooks Tony tells me the exhaust fell of his car on the way home. Shouldn’t have crammed down that extra onion ring mate!
In my email I also find one from a member of the mastermind group I’m part of, about a launch we intend to support in August. Seems like a long time away perhaps? Actually by planning this one well in advance we hope to make a killing financially. We shall see. Also I find that a little planning in advance usually removes the horrible feeling of knowing you’ve got a sh*tload of work to do and only 36 hours to do it in!
Having cleared the ticket desk, my support person (hello J!) emails me asking if I’ll pick up something for her from the village shop, that she can’t get where she lives, and drop it off when we have our monthly meeting on Saturday. Who works for who eh?? It’s no trouble of course – she’s saved me from several disasters in the past, and is now used to the way I work, which is unusual to say the least.
Another email from another techy who’s jumped on board to help with the change over to another affiliate system. He’s completed the request I emailed him last night and everything is now a step closer. Good stuff.
I realise it’s far too nice to stay in the house so I grab my netbook and head into the garden, and plonk myself down at the picnic bench, taking a quick snap with my iphone to show you.
Within minutes I realise it’s too bright to see the screen (which I usually can) and go for a bounce on the trampoline instead. Once I manage to push the prolapsed vertabrae back into it’s rightful place and the nausea passes, I sit back down on the bench, but this time with a pen and my ‘ideas’ book, to see if anything flows.
After jotting down a few ideas and generally chilling out for half an hour I decide to go back upstairs to my main computer to write up this blog post.
Upstairs I find something that I was going to mention in a blog last week but forgot so I go back into the garden and bug my missus to take a picture of me holding a certificate that Clickbank sent to me last week.
It’s to celebrate my status as ‘One of Clickbank’s top vendors” . I’ve been part of various Clickbank things over the years but I don’t remember getting a certificate before. Over time I decided the years the best apsect of being a ‘top vendor’ is that they give you a dedicated number to phone with your own account manager at the end of a phone line. The first time they told me about this I phoned it, not expecting it to be an actual person. but bugger me it was! I don’t know who was more surprised – me or him.
We ended up chatting about the weather in our respective countries. On a slightly less positive note, a few years back I wouldn’t have had a hope in Hell of getting into the top vendor ‘club’ (which I’m told is the top 1% of all sellers) because BIG gurus were making BIG sales through Clickbank.
These days, although my sales are in the six figure bracket, it seems that they’ve lowered the bar quite a bit, and now it’s easier to become a top vendor. To paraphrase Groucho Marx (I think) It’s not as much fun being in an exclusive club, when they’ll have someone like me in it!
I also thought this photo would show the truth about what a total scruffy sod I am while I’m working. So yes, I do work in jeans, t shirts and whatever else I decide to fling on in the morning. That said, as I’ve said before, I’ve worn £1,000 suits and still make them look like someone’s thrown a homeless person at me. What can you do eh?
A little more ‘pottering’ and a bit of time at my PC somehow brings the day to 4pm, which is the time I’m writing this. It doesn’t seem like I’ve got a lot done, but I’ve left instructions for people I work with, been brought up to speed with various projects and consulted with partners about the next steps. It has been a lazy-ish day, but I’ve been truthful about it, and I’ve got some ideas in my book along with a to do list for tomorrow.
Much of being an internet marketer is about thinking, not sitting at your computer endlessly doing the rounds of Facebook, your Paypal account, your email and the Warrior Forum. That is NOT work, it’s fannying about on a computer. There’s a big difference.
I’ve also sent some stats downstairs to the other computer (I don’t even currently have a printer in my room!) so that later I can read some stats to do with sales, conversions, opt-in’s, unsubscribe rates etc and make any changes in my biz based on those. I do this regularly, although certainly not once a day as some of my more anal colleagues do.
Would I be able to judge my actions more precisely if I did check my stats once a day? Absolutely, but it would bore the tits off me and I’d have missed the trampoline part of the day. Which is more important? Ahhh – now that’s YOUR decision, for YOUR business.
This evening, judging by the weather my wife and I wil be eating outside once the kids have gone to bed. A few nights ago we were out until 10pm as dusk came, chatting, drinking wine, watching the sunset, and watching the bats swoop over our heads. As I said in a chat with Martin Avis when I was telling him about it the other day…..
‘They’re supposed to have radar or sonar or something but you should have heard the bloody clang when one of them came into the house and flew into the radiator’
The day I’ve just described has been real. It’s the closest I can get to a ‘typical’ day. Some days I work harder, some not at all. ALL of them I enjoy. Sometimes I enjoy working through the night when everyone else is alseep and the house is quiet and still.
Whatever your own personal view on my lifestyle, and how you’d do it very differently or in the same sort of way, the message you’ll get from me is the same. Start setting up a few simple systems now. Start building a few blocks. I live a blessed life for all sorts of reasons, but it didn’t appear in a flash of smoke and involve a magic wand.
But if you start building your business right now, in a few weeks you’ll be able to see how far you’ve come, and in a few more weeks, well your life could seriously start to change.
Here’s my deal. If you want to check out the systems I’ve put in place, the business I’ve built and how you can do exactly the same, then why not check out my Kickstart Course. It comes with email support and a full satisfaction guarantee, which means plenty of time to check out the first couple of lessons. The if you like it, stick with me and we’ll build a business together. If not, just leave. It’s as simple as that.
So what will tomorrow bring?
It depends on the weather, my inbox, my mood, the kids, my diary…………
Comments welcome as always 🙂
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Hi Tony
Really enjoyed your post mate. This is just the sort of thing I love reading about and I’m sure others will agree – you’re one of the few people who make internet marketing ‘real.’
I think your post proves that anyone can be successful online. You are clearly extremely wealthy thanks to your online business, yet the day to day things you do are nothing out of the ordinary. The difference to most people is that you DO a bit each day.
Sounds like you’re loving every minute of life and that’s the way it should be.
Once again excellent post.
Daniel
Hey Tony,
Thanks for sharing. I enjoyed “creeping on you” a little bit (as my teenagers would say). It’s nice to see another marketer taking time for life, or in my case a short nap that I just woke up from. 🙂
Peggy Baron
Hi Tony, again another brilliant post, I really love the way that you run and describe your business, its about enjoing your life style and your irreverant attitude to what most of the “gurus” do always makes me laugh when you contrast it to your own approach.
Rob
Hi Tony
Thanks a lot for sharing this post. I’m also working at home, most of the time, but only a few hours in Internet marketing, because I’m starting. I work at home on my other business.
BUT sometimes I felt a little bit “guilty” for spending two or three hours, some days, without doing anything, just thinking.
I always thought “What are you doing you lazy donkey? Move that a** and go do something, the others are making money…”
So I always had the feeling that you must stay a lot of hours facing your computer if you want to get something done.
Thanks for showing me that “thinking” and being idle in terms of “computer-typing” is also work and maybe the best work you can do.
Cheers
Jorge
hi Tony
Loved your post, my youngest of 5 kids is just starting half days at nursery, our day now is so broken up i see myself sneak upstairs to grab an email or blog post lol. My wife felt sorry for me she has now given me my own room so i can work on untangling the confusion i had online lol.
James
Hi Tony
Very refreshing to hear that it doesn’t have to be 18 hour days working online…I’m really looking forward to that part.
Enjoyed the trampoline bounce…I do that too 🙂
Cheers
Steve
Great Post, Thanks Tony! That’s the way to do it.
Life is short and I’m all for making the most of every day
Love the look of that garden as well!
Cheers
Jerry
I enjoyed reading into a day in your life Tony. All my brood have grown up but I now have two grandsons and they give me more pleasure, maybe because I can hand them back when they play up. 🙂
It’s good to know that you don’t spend morning, noon and night sat in front of your computer and plenty of time to those who matter most.
Congrats on the certificate by the way.
Gert.
Hi Tony,
Loved your post about your day…your kids brought a smile to my face – Precious!
You’re the only marketer I resonate with regarding leaving the 9 to 5 for a more relaxed lifestyle. Too many in IM work their behinds off-and for good reason-it’s HARD work!
But I did not leave my job to drill myself into the ground running my own business. Like yourself, I take the time to enjoy the day my FREEDOM brings. Then, there are days that I work harder..but you know what?..by MY choice!
To be totally FREE of an overly critical and hovering boss…there are no words to explain it – JOIE DE VIE!!
Now I can Play hard and Work hard…and have more financial security and less worry doing it! You and I are living proof of this…like peas in a pod! :):):)
Yeah, lying under my car on the hard shoulder of the M65 ripping my exhaust off wasn’t quite in my plans for the way home!
Great post mate and very encouraging for me and I’m sure many others reading it for inspiration.
Tony
Hey up there Tony,
Great blog post mate…thats the good news, the bad news is that you owe me a new laptop.
Why ?
I’ll bloody tell you why !
Having giggled like a yorkshire man who had just found his twiced used sun dried ready to use again tea bag, reading about your daily antics had me howling with laughter which was fine until I had a mouthfull of red wine and was reading about your recent bat survey.
Have you any helpfull tips on how to dry a laptop out? Or shall I just send you the bill direct ? I know where you live….I recognise the tree in your back garden !!
I’ll have to cut this post short now but again thanks for speaking so much sense it must be a yorkshire thing eh ?
Allthough I do think you are as daft as a brush for selling the Kickstart course for such a small amount it really is worth a “helluva” a lot more !
If anyone is thinking of giving it ago it really is a must ! It is the best money you will spend online anywhere!
Hope to see you around soon Tony and if you are ever on the East Coast be sure to look me up…you wanna see the size of my trampoline !
Best Wishes
Darren Todd (Scarborough)
Hi Tony,
You talk in your Kickstart course about finding someone to follow/learn from in this IM business that we are all involved with.
Well, like many others, I chose to follow you. I actually did so many moons ago and a post like this is exactly why.
It has everything that I want out of life and my business – Time and freedom. full stop.
As you say, these $5 million a year guys don’t earn that on their own. They have staff and premises and inevitably – a job again. What’s the point in this business if you don’t use what is given to you to enjoy your family and your free time.
Thanks again for another slice of inspiration.
Andy
Damn! Gutted there’s no photo of you on the trampo!!! 😉
How true your comments are – we could all drop dead tomorrow. I spent years doing the ‘normal’ daily commute…and I may be working all day now but I’m a relatively newcomer in this way of life…as your income grows it’s so important to know why you wanted the money in the first place…lifestyle.
By all means work hard to succeed, but remember, success means more than a large sum of money sitting in the bank, not being put to good use.
Good luck to all…cheers, Andy
Hmmm. Sounds a lot like MY days, with ONE significant difference…… the sales. LMAO. I’m not ready to give up, though. Thanks for an entertaining post!
Great post Tony, glad to see you are making the most of the weather 🙂
Just curious as to what you have in your village shop that Janet’s does not????
David
Having the freedom to do what needs to be done when I want to do it — right now, or later today, or this evening — is what I value most about online marketing. So I spent two days this week helping my widowed Mom. And it feels so very good to be able to do this without have to ask for anyone’s permission to be gone from the cubicle. The KickStart Course is what helped me get to this point, so if anyone is thinking about trying it out, do it. You won’t regret it.
Thanks, for the inside look at your life.
Congrats on the framed thing from clickbank.
Many Blessings.
Tony from Ohio
Kids and Internet Marketing…
Thanks for sharing Tony.
I know what you mean about this $5m dollar thing. If you get to that then you have to keep working to maintain it – and the lifestyle that goes with it.
Suffice to say it becomes more than a 9-5!
Once the kids grow up they’ve grown up and that’s it. No rewind. No amount of money is worrth missing your kids grow up. I think you’ve got the work to life balance sussed.
Cheerio
Will D
Great post as usual. I’ve found myself looking forward to your posts. When I decided to try to work from home it was very rough at first. I was working long long hours and was harder on myself than any boss I’ve ever had. My husband would tell me I am my own worst enemy and I needed to stop fighting with myself. Reading your posts helps keep me inspired to do just that. Thanks again.
Great post – you really do “keep it real”
Everyone is nosey deep down so we all love to have a nose into someone else’s life! Especially when the IM lifestyle is one that we are blessed to have.
Cheers
Ian
Great Post Tony, love the lifestyle you are the true image of a person living their dream.
Congrates on the Clickbank certificate. I also need to take some of your words on board and stop checking my email, facebook and generally fannying about.
Cheers
Kerie 🙂
This is the life style poor newbies like dream about. It’s a matter of finding a great mentor and then doing the heavy lifting to get things going. Also, I believe it was Woody Allen who said the thing about being a member of an exclusive club.
You have a smart wife
“One of Clickbank’s top vendors” that sounds like an excellent goal to shoot for. Its nice to see that nice people are becoming successful. I like how so many of your blog posts are so personal.
I loved your post!! The kids, the spouse, the garden….all sound exactly like what many of us want in life and the time to enjoy it all….
You just kept me in the game again. Your lifestyle is what I crave for myself and my children. I always keep in mind that what I am building today is something that I can leave to my children. This business is just beginning but I am in it for the future too.
Michele