A growth mindset and affiliate marketing should go hand in hand. For a long time I looked to affiliate marketing as a means to only make money. “Where’s the money?” I thought. But over time I’ve come to appreciate that there’s a great “gem” to be taken from working an affiliate marketing business. That gem is personal growth. I’d always been fascinated by psychology and self help books have been my constant companion for many years.
In my 20’s and 30’s panic set in. I was broke and desperate so I though this was the perfect time to start an online business! Ha ha! Of course I didn’t realise that the mindset I brought with me almost guaranteed failure. Being broke and desperate meant I tried all the free stuff and quit too soon.
Growth Mindset & Affiliate Marketing Course after Course
I couldn’t afford to pay for training and courses, and I didn’t have the time either! I needed money now – yesterday in fact. The debt was eating me up and I was desperately unhappy while being desperately poor too.
So I looked to the internet as a means to solve my problems. Of course there was “easy money” to be made – I knew this because the “guru’s” told me so! But after months of struggle I knew this couldn’t be so. “Perhaps I hadn’t found the right get rich quick scheme yet”, I thought to myself. So I would buy another one, and another, and another.
Being addicted to “make money online” courses was as addictive as self help books. They always promised but never seemed to deliver. So I would abandon the course I was on, and look for another one. One which worked this time!
But of course I never thought to look into my own mindset – filled with fear and dread, desperate, broke! That’s not a good state of mind to go to the doctors, let alone start a business. But I didn’t want a business, I just wanted quick cash from the internet!
Giving Not Getting
I had a poverty consciousness and wanted to “get” not give. I had nothing to give, or so I thought. Over the years things changed most dramatically for my affiliate business when I understood that I needed to be of value. I let go of getting and started trying to give first.
When you’ve struggled for a long time through it becomes part of who you are. I was definitely becoming more “me” centric as I became entrenched in my personal drama of struggle. But after learning from coaches mentors about learning to let go of my own personal needs and wants, that’s what I set about doing. I had built a list by this point and had a few thousand people on it.
So instead of sending messages such as “click here” get money, I changed my emails to a more educational angle. I talked about my struggles and what had helped me, rather than sending spammy messages with an “urgent click here” rhetoric!
Low and behold things changed. People started buying, not because my products had changed, but because my attitude had!
Growing Vs. Making Money
There’s no doubt that personal growth is linked to income potential. But if you’ve been in a frustrated energy for a while, it materialises into physical life in many ways. Money was most definitely one of them for me. When you’re in a desperate “energy” of never having enough, you simply create more of what you focus on: not having enough. If you have looked into the law of attraction, and The Secret – the Rhonda Bryne book, you’ll have seen this concept before.
A desperate shop keeper is a good example of how someone pushes money away by trying too hard to sell to his customers. As a customer, you came into his shop to look around. You get a vibe for the place to see if you’re comfortable. A pushy sales person comes up to you and won’t leave you alone. Do you buy something? For me the answer is always a no! Yet that is what I was effectively doing with my desperation to make online sales – pushing people away!
If you find yourself in a similar place, go back to learning and growing. Put yourself in a growth mindset where you see personal growth as the answer before the actual cash/sales. Join webinars and seminars, and network with other entrepreneurs. You can join a program through this website. Simply sign up using the form and you can access the free video series.
See also affiliate psychology.