Google me and you’ll discover that I am an entrepreneur with over 350,000 social media followers, an author of 14 books, and an instructor of over 20 training courses.

When I first became an entrepreneur, I wanted to become successful, but I didn’t want to sacrifice the teenage lifestyle. I didn’t want to sacrifice my friendships, running, my grades, or anything that constituted my life excluding entrepreneurship.

It’s time consuming but very fun. The fun part is getting paid for doing what you love to do.

To grow as an entrepreneur but continue living like a teenager, my primary goals were to get more time and to use that time more efficiently.

I wish I could read a blog post like this when I started as a middle schooler (I wasn’t even a teen yet). I would have had more time to pursue more opportunities earlier.

The purpose of that blog post is to show you that you CAN become an entrepreneur regardless of your schedule.

It doesn’t matter what your practice schedule or midterm week looks like. I’ve been there and I’ve made it work. You can too. Here’s how:

#1: Squeeze In Some Time

You don’t have to commit hours upon hours of each day to become a successful entrepreneurs. On some days I can commit an hour, but on other days, I’m lucky if I get 15 minutes.

No matter how much or how little time I have, I always do something for my business every day except on vacations.

If you do some work for your business each day, you’ll eventually have an unbreakable habit. According to science, it takes 66 consecutive days of doing something (i.e. turning your passion into a business) to make it a habit.

If you hang in there for the first two and a half months, it will be very easy for you to get and stay strong for many years to come.

#2: Instant Pleasure VS Long-Term Benefit

I could have named this section “Don’t Procrastinate,” but before I became an entrepreneur, I didn’t like the way “Don’t Procrastinate” sounded.

I prefer to use “Instant Pleasure VS Long-Term Benefit.”

I used to watch hours upon hours of TV each day. Once I started my business, all of that changed.

I suddenly became conscious of my lack of fulfillment after watching the TV. Don’t get me wrong. I’m laughing with everyone else during the comedy.

But there’s no feeling like the one you get after turning off the TV after watching a bunch of rerun episodes. The pleasure suddenly vanishes.

I still watch TV, but not nearly as much. I enjoy working on my business far more than watching TV.

We naturally respond bad to change, so make a gradual change first. Try out turning off the TV 15-30 minutes earlier and working on your business.

If you keep doing that day by day, you’ll have a habit that will make the work come easier to you.

#3: Start With A Friend

If you are worried about how much work this will involve, you can start out with a like-minded friend. If you create a blog, you can write half of the content and have your friend write the other half of the content.

I write about half of the content on this blog. My brother writes the other half. Working together has made the workload of content creation much easier for the both of us.

Having a friend will also help out with accountability. When your friend writes a blog post, it’s your turn to deliver. If you need more help, ask additional friends to help you out with your business.

#4: Use Your Current Time Wisely

The way you use your time determines what you become in life. The more of your time you pursue to your dream business, the more likely your business will live up to your dream business.

I always look for ways to get the same tasks done in a shorter amount of time and cut back on doing things that leave me unfulfilled. I do as much homework as I can during my free periods so I don’t have to do that homework when I get home.

This approach with time has allowed me to expand my business while preserving and growing my teenager lifestyle.

In Conclusion

Anyone, regardless of their age or schedule, has the time to become an entrepreneur.

The story you tell yourself determines what happens next.

If you tell yourself you can’t, then you won’t.

If you tell yourself you can make it work and then take action, you’ll have a business based on your passion.

If you are a teen or approaching your teen years and want to start a business, why not start now?

And while we’re at it, make it easy for you to start your business. You can use WordPress to create a blog in minutes if that’s the direction you want to take.

Take the path of least resistance and commit to your passion for a long period of time. Soon enough, you’ll have a business that won’t impede on any of the important parts of your teenager lifestyle.

Business Whiz Kids and its staff work to establish a clean work environment. We are in the process of filtering through paperwork, learning resources and office materials used in 2014, and projecting what we will need for 2016. You discover useful materials and items when you decide to clean up your work space. For example, one of my members found a software for heightened image quality deep in a storage corridor. Now, we can utilize the resources we already had to leverage our content.

Two methods to implement before 2016 to improve your work environment and establish a better mental flow are:

1. Commit to enjoying the cleaning process. Skimming off under-utilized resources, or deciding to use them can empower your sense of action.

2. Relish in the victory of a well-organized, purposeful room. Recently, Business Whiz Kids reorganized one of its studios. Furniture-repositioning and lighting alterations, which took over four hours for optimal alignment, resulted in a beautiful studio. The staff celebrated in the achievement, and we have been talking about the room’s positive transformation ever since.

It is my hope that these strategies arm you with the abilities to elevate your life. Please comment below to describe how you will optimally organize your work environment to propel into 2016, and to join our community of conscious motivators and entrepreneurial achievers.

Merry Christmas Eve!

As always,

Dream Big.

Achieve Greatness.

Unlock Your Potential TODAY!

The methodology to spur such massive attention is congruent across the activewear titans. Inclusion of athletic achievers, celebrities and occasionally the average person provides for company-to-consumer rapport. The initial 1988 Just Do It ad featured Walt Stock, the then eighty year old running icon (2). Lumbering across the Golden Gate Bridge, the shirtless legend describes his daily seventeen mile workout. The color contrast of such commercial adds to the distinct edge the lightweight footwear provides a person; the advantage is simply black and white, which remain the branding pigments that grace the performance logo’s Twitter, FaceBook, Instagram, and Pinterest profiles. The blatant nature of Nike’s commitment to convert top performers to brand ambassadors is exemplified in their immediate 1985 partnership with then rookie stand out Michael Jordan. Their 1988 commercial pitting Jordan with an extremely curious Spike Lee demonstrates performance psychology, with Lee searching for Jordan’s success secret by constantly questioning  “Is it the shoes, Michael?” (2). The same year, Bo Jackson emerged as the world’s top athlete, and shortly thereafter starred in a Just Do It Bo Knows ad (2). Mixing lyrical and sports culture, Nike amalgamated rebellious tennis player Andre Agassi with The Red Hot Chili Peppers to enlarge viewership interest. Two years later, Charles Barkley’s I’m Not a Role Model ad demonstrated the pitfalls of societal athlete glorification, revealing a realist company view (2). The basketball legend’s quote, “Just because I can dunk a basketball doesn’t mean I should raise your kids,” established Nike’s edgy authenticity. The company furthered its humanitarian image when Agassi and tennis rival Pete Sampras set up an impromptu tennis court in the middle of New York City, and in the 1995 If You Let Me Play video highlighted how female inclusion in sports reduces breast cancer and partner abuse probabilities (2). However, instances of athlete regression and consequent societal resentment can make a Nike endorsement seem out of place. Nike’s alignment with Tiger Woods in 1996 fostered years of successful branding until his scandalous affair, which occurred the same year that brand superstar Lebron James left the Cleveland Cavaliers for the Miami Heat, disgusting basketball loyalists. Company damage control re-oriented public opinion from the athletes’ life decisions to their sports performance with the phrase, “winning takes care of everything” (2). Fortunately, Derek Jeter’s impeccable image and 8.7 million retirement video views brandishing the Swoosh logo atop his uniform ameliorated the company image in 2014 (2). Novel emphasis on real world experiences demonstrated in the Find Your Greatness video featuring an overweight male jogger struggling to trudge down a remote road also garnered public favor (2). As the words, “Greatness is no more unique to us than breathing. We’re all capable of it,” echo through the tape, Nike appeals to the average person fighting to get in shape, a demographic encompassing its consumer majority (2). Supplementing their four years of relatively strong ads, the company published its Bradley Cooper voice-over Possibilities video featuring ordinary people completing against Lebron James and Serena Williams (2). Product-result association via alignment with celebrities and top athletes encompass effective marketing strategies for such activewear companies.

Works Cited

1. “Under Armour Inc.” Under Armour | Mission & Values. EOE, Web. 25 Apr. 2015.

2. Taube, Aaron. “25 Nike Ads That Shaped The Brand’s History.” Business Insider. Business Insider, Inc, 01 Sept. 2013. Web. 25 Apr. 2015.

On the beginning of this journey, I did not see myself as the most productive individual. My brother Marc is the model of such ideal as he manages emails, coaches individuals on how to build a social media empire, prospers incredibly in junior year of high school and provides peak content for his 181,000 Twitter followers. His twelve Amazon published books supplants his legacy as an ultra-productive Business Whiz Kid. On the other hand, I entered the business-academics balance with my familiar tactics for accomplishing tasks, only to learn they no longer suffice. In order to balance both entities, I had to become more mentally and physically than before. As the demands mounted, I learned the power of simple resource management systems. For example, penning my responsibilities on an index card linked me to a past association that empowered my mindset in the present. I linked index cards to productivity as a child. They were my tool to study for quizzes and tests, bearing strong results in middle and high school. Embedded from years of effective use, an index card became the place to write down my activities that needed attention. In retrospect, the intellectual tie between these cards and action propelled me.

However, I can learn many methods to accomplish my tasks, but if I lack the mindset, my efforts will be fruitless. This realization spawned a mental evolution of how I must see myself. Originally, the dominant belief was, “If a business demands you to perform four times as many items as usual, you must become four times better than you are now.” I still occasionally revisit this belief as it has served me before (again I gather comfort from a past understanding that I associate with success). Now, the focus has evolved into, “If I could only complete one task today, which would it be?” Singularity of focus provides for uplifting direction when reviewing the tasks one must complete. Rather than start six projects and have them idle half-baked, I dedicate myself to one. This can be difficult since old patterns of lesser productivity try to invite watered down performance. The most potent temptation of the antiquated frameworks is familiarity. It is easy to wade down into the comforting pit of complacency where the notion of challenge has no residence. However, just as atrophic muscles are born from non-activity, weakened productivity arises from the absence of challenge. Hence, I strive to manifest stellar results in the two fields.

Nuancing into principles, I discovered that intellectual limits are self-imposed. Years ago, I believed that there was a number of tasks I should complete in a day, and past that threshold, my quality of execution would only decline. I relied on my body to cue the peak. Afterwards, motivation to continue was neutralized so as not to compromise effectiveness. This is not an empowering sentiment. Through reflection, I discovered that mental growth is a requisite for higher performance. Just as an individual reorganizes furniture in a room, I redesigned my mental beliefs lest I snare myself in outdated intellectual paradigms. The process of uncapping my daily potential empowered my mind and body. Sensing a conceptual and corporal shift, I began acting in my novel belief. My productivity has increased as a result of mentally unhinging my hindrances. “I Choose” became and remains my psychological center. I decide to be tired, energetic, fearful, upbeat, or beat up. Negative information can be interpreted as positive, while positive information can be viewed as disempowering. Each individual makes these choices; anyone believes that they do not have free will does not, and has simultaneously given up the most powerful attribute they could have possessed. My lifestyle is rooted in self-improvement, which others may view as painful, intellectually tedious or a “sticky situation”. Their perception is strengthened by the fact that I must balance scholastics with business responsibilities. In their eyes, I “get out” of that sticky situation by adopting new practices and beliefs that empower me. In my view, I just choose an elevated life, the mindset and methods of which I teach others through my business Business Whiz Kids.

There is no dearth of factors to consider when creating your FaceBook ad. Questions common from first-time advertisers include, “how can I make my copy compelling,” “what image should I use,” and “what amount of text will spur the most clicks?” The headline, body text, and link description should reflect your brand message. One strategy to establish dialect to align with such message is to create a Style Guide. This instructional reference will outline what words you would and would not allow in a social media post representing your company. For example, if your enterprise was recognized for an achievement, would you post, “Honored to be featured in/by…” or “Wahoo! We got coverage in…”? Individuals can often discern which words they would not use before the ones they would. Surveying other social media accounts that you admire can also help you build a Style Guide.

As you create your FaceBook ads, urgency and importance are two potent psychological triggers to integrate. Phrases such as “limited time”, “deadline”, “act now”, “last chance” and “don’t miss out” spawn a desire to take action in many viewers. You should fulfill the time-honored business principle of demand satisfaction; your offer or discount must add value to the consumer. FaceBook’s ad sets, or targeted audiences, allow advertisers to pinpoint character traits they believe would lead to conversions. For example, a company is targeting an audience of entrepreneurs who interests include “social media”, which would amass 78,880,210 people. One compelling headline to capture those individuals’ attention could be, “Sign up for 20% Savings: Social Media Mastery Summit”. The inclusion of numbers in headlines and text grips a person’s attention longer than a mere body of words. Since people are exposed to advertising every day, a helpful question to ask yourself as you create ad images and text is, “Would I click on this ad if I saw it in the Newsfeed?” If the immediate answer is “no”, revisions are needed. If the answer is “yes”, be sure to test at least one more ad image or text alteration to see which performs better. The belief that one ad will captivate a targeted audience on its first attempt signals out a novice marketer; the willingness to A/B test and thereby understand consumer preferences crowns a savvy one.

A marketer must select equally compelling imagery to grab prospects’ attention. An image displaying emotion and vibrancy of color stands out in Facebook’s Newsfeed. Emotion evokes more responses than stoicism simply because of its societal rarity. Pigment choice can illuminate an image against Facebook’s blue and white background, thereby designating orange, yellow, green and red as the optimal colors to garner attention. In later posts, we will discuss connecting your campaigns to images, audiences, and demographics.

Following the landing page, a person would need to create a “Thank You” page, which subscribers are directed to after they enter their contact information. The “Thank You” page provides the incentive that enticed a person to enter their contact information such as a free report on the Nine Mental Musts of Entrepreneurs or an instructional CD gift. Page copy could inform, “Thank you for subscribing to my blog/website/newsletter! Check your inbox for the [name of gift] to start succeeding as an entrepreneur now.” If the free incentive is a physical item such as a DVD or CD, the landing page may read, “Thank you for committing to your personal and business development. All you need to do is enter your mailing address so we can send you the [name of physical gift] at no charge!” Delivering on the promise of the landing page is critical lest viewers mark your website as spam, complain about your brand on social media, or detach from you for lack of follow-through.

To consistently market yourself to subscribers, a business owner can send out a weekly email. This email must provide some valuable content, such as a video or article on a topic of interest to the reader. If you are promoting an online course, you can set up an email autoresponder to inform your prospects. For example, you will launch the Social Media Mastery online course two weeks from now. You create a Facebook ad targeting business owners interested in social media. When they click on the advertisement, they are directed to an email collector page. They enter their name and email to receive the incentive, such as a coupon to enroll in the course, VIP access, a free report, etc. The autoresponder follows up with the subscribers. By creating an autoresponder before you promote the email collector page, you can send an email three, five and seven days after the subscriber opts-in. A model autoresponder first informs the subscriber of your purpose and who you serve, then provides a valuable email, perhaps about optimizing in-office productivity, and lastly reiterates the offer to enroll in your online course. You can space these emails out over five, seven or ten days.

Until now, we have created an email collector page, “Thank You” page, and synced them with an autoresponder. Finally, in offering your online course, you would create a sales page, preferably with a video to engage viewers. If they would like to purchase your online course, they click your “Buy Now” or “Reserve Your Spot” button, re-directing them to Paypal or another fulfillment service. Then, they receive an email via an autoresponder congratulating them for taking action, and providing a link to your Login Page. Members will enter a username and password in this Login Page, which allows to access a Membership Home Page. From there, they click on the lessons, or Content Pages, to view the training you promised.

To offer a basic online course, you need to create the following pages: Email Collector, “Thank You”, Sales, Membership Home, and Content or Lessons. Sync those with a fulfillment service and autoresponder, and you are on the path to establishing a passive income by packaging your advice online.

Works Cited

1. “19 Mobile Marketing Stats That Will Blow Your Mind | Oracle Marketing Cloud.” 19 Mobile Marketing Stats That Will Blow Your Mind | Oracle Marketing Cloud. Web. 07 January 2015.

Since “95 – 98% of text messages are read within minutes of receipt”, your brand awareness will spike with mobile subscribers. The origin of such development is rudimentary. When a person receives a text message, often it is from a friend or update regarding phone software enhancements. Spammers can flood inboxes with ease as compared to phone numbers. We have become conditioned to expect positive notifications via text and cumbersome, time-consuming tasks from the inbox.

The average text response time is 90 seconds; average email response time is 90 minutes. A text message appears on the lock screen, often alone and able to demand a person’s entire focus. The email application is locked inside the phone competing for attention amongst other applications.

People spend a large amount of time using their mobile devices, evidenced by the prominence of cell phone suppliers Apple, Samsung and others. Effective marketing is getting in front of the most people that are interested in your expertise, and phones are in front of everyone almost all the time.

The stark juxtaposition of mobile dominance, and the opportunity to enhance your enterprise with mobile marketing, is revealed in viewership comparisons. 98% of SMS messages are read, while 20% of emails are opened.

Is a 78% visibility spike worth your investment in mobile marketing? Answer carefully.

Works Cited

1. Varley, Laura. “7 Key Statistics for SMS Marketing.” SMS Marketing. N.p., 31 Mar. 2014. Web. 08 January 2015.

Human beings can make a case for anything in their minds. If you were driven enough to support a cause, you would find reasons to believe supporting that cause was the right thing to do. Perhaps that is why people have incredibly varied beliefs. Compelling evidence can be found or made at anytime. Corporally, the Internet is an incredible source of data and statistics to highlight why the economy is weakening or strengthening. Articles joust about the effectiveness of push-ups. You can find evidence to support almost any argument via the Internet. You can find stronger evidence in your mind.

When a person decides to do something, and will complete it beyond a shadow of a doubt, they have all the support they need for the argument at hand. By research standards, the idea can be totally “illogical”. But how many modern staples in society started as “illogical”? You can think of them—The MacBook Pro, 3D-Printing, Tesla Motors (I mean, come on, electric cars?).

Don’t think through the lens called limit that society gives you.

Unlimit the power of your mind through your imagination.

And become the visionary that history remembers.

How can you break a belief that does not benefit you? By the way, in this context, benefit means motivate you to take action, improve your mindset, or both. If you do not believe you can prosper, you have convinced yourself of it. Well, if you managed to convince yourself that you will not succeed, you can go in the other direction and convince yourself that you can succeed. Since you are such a good internal negotiator (you’ve made yourself believe that you can not do something—that is hard to do), negotiate hope into the argument. Usher in willpower. Usher in drive. Bring in ambition and a desire for greatness into the conversation. Suddenly, the result begins to change.

Stack up the positive reasons, and degrade the negative counterparts. Point out the flaws in the disempowering or demotivating thoughts, and build up the positive, motivating, stoking characteristics.

Keep building up the reasons that say why you can succeed in your mind.

Flood out all the demotivating thoughts.

And watch success walk in.

Wake up earlier. We are at our peak level of productivity in the morning. Not only does waking up in the morning allow you to access more of your peak level of productivity, but if you wake up earlier, you are adding extra hours to your day. I used to get 9-10 hours of sleep every day because I just thought getting more sleep was better for health. Then, I read an article on the Buffer blog that said we should only get 6.5 to 7.5 hours of sleep every day. I tend to stick with the 7.5 route, but by making this transition, I now add 1.5-2.5 hours to my day. Among boosting your GPA and developing problem-solving skills, Forbes listed the following benefits to waking up earlier:

• Becoming more proactive
• Setting Better Goals
• Finding Time to Exercise
• Improving your sleep
• More Optimism
• Faster Commutes
• Uninterrupted time to focus
• An Increase in Family Time

Write your goals. Most of the goals you accomplish will be the ones you write down. The human mind registers 4,000 thoughts every day which makes it easy to forget things such as the goal for the week. I always write my goals the moment I think of them because it is easier for us to forget things than it is for us to remember them.

Use sticky notes. My office is a sticky note experiment gone out of control. I always have sticky notes on my desk, and I can no longer work at home unless I know my pile of sticky notes is nearby. Sticky notes allow you to write down certain tasks that you must accomplish in a given day, week, or month. I rarely use sticky notes for long-term goals (I use a notebook for those).

Keep it simple. Many people insist on giving themselves dozens of goals every day. That’s too much work, and if only half of those goals get accomplished, that hurts self-esteem (which is very important for maintaining a highly productive rate). Instead of giving yourself dozens of goals every day, I recommend starting at three goals every day. From my experience, you should never give yourself more than 10 goals in one day, and you should rarely go above five.

Which tip was your favorite? How are you more productive? Do you feel like your productivity needs work? Please share your thoughts and advice below.