Happy Saturday!
These weeks are going by so fast.
Last Sunday, I went to Kabuki Spa with a friend.
Although I used to come here pretty regularly, I haven’t been here since COVID.
It is so nice to relax and have a day where you just take care of yourself.
The reason I bring this up, is not to promote self care, although self-care is important, but to talk about the dreaded cold plunge.
Yup, this is something that I have always shied away from. In the past, I may have dipped my toes, but I would never dive in.
As one who has been practicing a growth mindset and being okay with being uncomfortable, I was determined to get in – not just part of my body, but the whole thing.
What is funny is that while I was dealing with my own mental resistance to this process, standing in the cold plunge waist-deep, an older woman just walked right in and dunked. I was so impressed.
At the same time, I observed that the resistance I was feeling was mental. What was stopping me from bending my knees and immersing? Me.
I was the only limiting factor here, and it was my mentality preventing me from going in.
My fear of being uncomfortable.
The brain is such a saboteur; we can live in a jail that we create in our minds, which prevents us from ever being happy or reaching the success we desire.
Why is it that I seem to resist the things that I need?
It is not just the cold plunge…
It’s about giving up the sweets and treats for healthy food.
It’s about keeping going, posting content consistently despite having no followers and views, and feeling like you have no idea what you are doing.
It’s about writing and sending emails and nurturing your list no matter how uncomfortable you feel, suffering from imposter syndrome, or being full of self-doubt.
It’s about staying positive and keeping your mind in a state of no worries; I got this: tackling challenges head-on and pivoting strategies when needed.
In order to grow and be successful, you have to get uncomfortable, and this is why I bring up the cold plunge.
Taking control of your life and creating your dream life will definitely be met with many uncomfortable moments, and just like the cold plunge, you have to set your mind and just do it.
I am happy to say that I not only went in the cold plunge, but I did it several times throughout my visit, and to be honest, once you dunk in, it’s really not a big deal.
All the fear and apprehension I had seemed foolish.
And that is the lesson: if anything is holding you back, it is time to step out of your own way, stop thinking, and just do it.
This week Dean made a huge announcement. The Affiliate Systems platform that I have been lucky enough to be beta testing is going to go public soon.
This is really exciting because I will get to offer this program and amazing platform to others.
Immediately, my brain was like, but you’re not ready to offer this to others; you haven’t learned all the ins and outs yet. You are still learning all the bells and whistles.
It made me feel overwhelmed and behind, as if I was not where I needed to be – oh brain, why do you do this?
But this is so far from the truth. I am exactly where I need to be because this is where I am.
Slowly, one step at a time, I will learn everything this platform has to offer and I will develop the 4 skills necessary to be a successful affiliate marketer: 1. Traffic 2. Capture 3. Follow-Up 4. Sales System / Making Offers.
What I have learned so far is pretty amazing.
With this new announcement, it is more important than ever that I grow my audience.
This means being consistent with my organic traffic strategies:
1) Blogging and Blog hopping
2) TikTok
3) YouTube
Consistency is key here.
I want to admit that creating content consistently has been a little overwhelming, keeping up with posting daily is really challenging, and now I am adding YouTube into the mix…it takes a ton of time…
Setting aside dedicated time each day to work on each task has kept me in line. And approaching content creation from a mindset of having fun and just learning takes the stress out of it.
Because it is about documenting the journey, the good and bad, so as long as I am doing something, I am learning something, and that is what counts!
I learned a really cool trick on Canva with videos this week. I shared it on my social media, but if you missed it, you can check it out below. I show you how to add different transitions between video clips or images:
Besides creating content for TikTok and now YouTube, I have been doing some research on these platforms to better understand their algorithms.
I have picked up a book for YouTube from a friend’s recommendation: The YouTube Formula by Derrael Eves.
I also watched an interesting class on TikTok that another affiliate marketer shared with me. You can watch it by clicking here.
My Biggest Takeaways:
- Consistency is key
- Tell a captivating story
- Context is essential: Include words in the description and text of the video that make it clear what the video is about.
- Start your video with a strong Hook
- Utilize trends and make them your own
YouTube is a big beast, and I am only a few chapters in on the book The YouTube Formula. But I wanted to get started, because I have some momentum after Sophie’s training and I don’t want to loose it.
So, I am excited to officially announce that I have published my first Video on my YouTube Channel – actually, I published 3, but that’s my style (lol).
You can check them out by clicking here!
In these videos, I address skill set #2 Capture and show you step-by-step how to build a funnel in ClickFunnels and Affiliate System!
Wanted to play with the suggestions to add a recommendation for another video and include the thumbnail. Still have a lot to learn.
I will soon be recording a video breaking down all the steps needed to upload a video to YouTube!
If you want to stay up to date and not miss a thing, then join my newsletter by clicking here!
Please don’t forget to share and comment below! Are you ready to get uncomfortable? Are you excited to dive into the world of content creation? What traffic strategies are you working on?
Let’s ride from rookie to riches together!
To our success,
Alison Blaire
14 Responses
I’m so happy you joined the You Tube community! I look forward to diving deeper into Canva and funnels. I vow to wrestle this bear to the ground!
Hi Alison,
First off… you should have put a picture of you doing the cold plunge. I know I would have loved to see that. hahaha… brrrrr… I’m right there with you, i slowly walk into the water instead of just jumping in.. argg frustrating! Are you paying for Canva or is it the free version. I can’t seem to get around canva as well I wanted to.
Great info on here as always.. Keep up the great work.. And so glad you picked up a new phone! ☎️
Sandy
If I didn’t know any better, I would think you were talking directly TO me in this post! There’s so, sooo much here that is appropriate for me, right here right now. What’s stopping me from those things that I know I need to do in order to move forward with my business? Me. Me. Allll me. I think this is the reminder and the kick-in-the-butt I needed to go to the next step. I truly value your insight and these words of encouragement.
I personally have never tried the cold plunge… but I know the health benefits are phenomenal. I’m not familiar either with a Kabuki spa, but you make me want to research it more!
I think this was a big lesson I needed to hear this week. Thanks for being the cheerleader you didn’t know you were! 🙂
Hi Alison,
I love reading your blogs. You have a style of writing that is extremely easy to read and digest. I quite agree about the time it takes to create your content these days. I’m retired and find it hard; how you folks with full time jobs and demanding families do it, I just don’t know. Keep up the good work!
Andy
Andy Jacobs recently posted…It Was Progress Regardless
Hey Alison, congrat for starting your YouTube channel! Also I saw you on TikTok and I really your content by the way. These together with your blog, I have no doubt it could be overwhelming. I’m experiencing the same with my day job top. I understand you need to recharge your batteries and the SPA is great place to do that. Me I never found the courage to go in the cold plunge. I must admit I’m one of those who takes almost 20minutes just entering the water at the pool.
Again thanks for your great content.
Martin Lefebvre recently posted…Documenting For Traffic
Hi Alison,
I think you will do fine on YouTube. I have seen some of your stuff on TikTock, and you give a lot of good information. Just like this blog post. I subscribed to your YouTube channel. I can’t wait to see more of your posts. It is hard getting to that point of just doing it, but we all have to go through it. Kind of like our very first day of school ever, and we think all the kids are gonna laugh at us. 😂 You’re doing great! Keep up the good work.
Meredith
Meredith Moore recently posted…Crafting And Completing My Link Tree & Venturing into Social Media
Alison, as usual, an epic blog with multi facets. I love the analogy of taking the plunge in the cold water that you gave. And I think that’s exactly what we did when we first started affiliate marketing with Dean. There’s so many uncomfortable unknown areas that we now are comfortable in and we wouldn’t have been if we didn’t take the plunge. I like to short Canva for training video useful things to know. It might be worth putting them all together on your YouTube channel and indexing them so we can find them when we need them. Congratulations on your YouTube channel, I’ve had a look and it looks really good really professional. I like the consistency of your thumbnail pictures And I’ll be learning more from you when I build my one up. Great value as always. Thank you so much. Talk soon thanks, Atif
Once again, I am bookmarking this post. There is so much good information here I feel like I want to “study” the learnings! Do you use the paid version of Canva or does the free version accomplish what you need to produce. I look forward to your next post. And I a m going to review the TikTok training you recommend. Thanks for sharing your journey. It is so helpful for someone like me who is several steps behind.
Ernie recently posted…Smoothies
Great work Alison,
So much great information provided!
I also took the time to clock off a bit by going on vacation. Granted that this time around, I didn’t do a cold plunge (I did that while in the Army) but the time off did give me the time to recharge and decide on what steps I would be doing to grow my business.
Like you, I think I need to throw away any limitation and create videos for Tik Tok to grow my business!
Wishing you all the best!
Alison,
I’ve posted this quote a few times but it is so appropriate. “Courage is not the absence of fear but know that there is something greater than the fear”
One of the things that I’ve learned through the struggles I’ve encountered in life is to embrace being outside my comfort zone. It is like having a high. If I’m not outside my comfort zone forcing myself to grow, I truly feel lost. This is not to say it’s easy, as you pointed out the mind can play tricks and cause self doubt. When this happens we do become own worst enemy.
This is why training the mind on a continuous basis is so important. A mind trained properly will help overcome self doubt.
You got this & I believe in you.
CJ
CJ recently posted…Unlocking The Mystery of Domains: A Beginner’s Guide, Part 1 of 2
I love this quote CJ, and you are so right. Training the mind on a continuous basis is so important. I was visiting my mom this week in Florida, we went to the beach, having watched too much shark week, when I was ready to dive into the ocean, I kept thinking about sharks, and felt a ton of apprehension, as I stood there, I said just dive in, it’s the cold plunge all over, and I did! And I am committed to doing this each time fear arises!!! I appreciate you believing in me, it means so much. I am so grateful for your support, seeing your journey inspires me and I am learning so much every time I read your blog and get to know more about you and your journey.
Alison,
I agree that we have to get comfortable being uncomfortable. Congratulations on starting your YouTube Channel. I have started to investigate YouTube and this will certainly put me out of my comfort zone but I am ready to “take the plunge”. Thanks for sharing your takeaways for content. I must remember to use these points. Thanks for sharing the tip about Canva. I look forward to your next post.
Sherri
Sherri Pulcino recently posted…Videos: Just Do It!
Hi Alison,
This is a great example of feeling the fear and do it anyway!
And when we do it, we realize as you did, that the fear was all in our head.
But what I love most about most of these fears that hold us back is that we discover that
we enjoy doing that thing!!
I also love that you are pushing through and uploading videos, sharing your Cava tips (I did not know about editing videos),
and teaching AS on YouTube.
You are on your journey to becoming a YouTube expert and I will be able to say I knew you when ….
Eleanor Hope recently posted…When Thoughts and Beliefs Align
Gee Whiz, Alison!
I don’t dare to spray myself with cold water before stepping out of the shower! You go!
You have a very daring personality!
I’m going to check out The YouTube Formula. I’ve finally decided on my YouTube strategy. Now, I just need to figure out the practical steps of posting a video.
A big congratulations to you on both of your accomplishments!
Nakina Lawson recently posted…Using YouTube As an Affiliate Marketing Traffic Source