I see it all the time.

Newbie marketers see the potential in what being their own boss could mean, and they get all starry-eyed, imagining the lifestyle and freedom that is possible.

Was that you, sometime in the past few days or weeks?

You looked around for a while and found (or were shown) a product or system that held the promise of living the laptop lifestyle, firing your boss, and living free of the rat race.

And you dove in, didn’t you?

Heck, I did!

But there is a journey to be made between “What’s a sales funnel?” and “Congratulations on your first commission!”

I remember feeling that deep uncertainty of… “Now what?!”

There’s learning that has to happen, information that has to be taken in and processed, ideas that have to form and mature and be put into action, technology and systems and strategy to learn…. and there is no magic button to just make it happen...

It takes real work.

So what do you do when you’ve just signed up, you feel it in your gut that this is “the one” -- this is your moment -- this is the chance -- this is your ticket to the life you’ve always dreamed of -- but you don’t even know what the first steps are?

There are a few specific things that are going to be true, no matter what your product or opportunity,  your business style, etc...​

So.... here are 5 things that need to be on your very first todo list!

1. Get dialed into the system

If your product or opportunity includes training, take advantage of it. It will generally be offered by people who have already been where you are, and found their way past it to reach some level of success. If there is a coaching plan, even better. Look for

2. Learn Healthy Habits For Managing “Overwhelm”

The biggest tip I can offer when it comes to managing overwhelm is to focus strictly on the system that you’re learning.

This is a technique that I call “deferred distraction”, and it really helps me stay focused even today, but it was a godsend when I was getting started!

Then, when I was done studying for the day, I would sometimes pop open that doc file and go poking around places...but always after.

It’s easy to feel like you have to learn everything before you “should” start. And for that matter, it’s impossible when you’re just getting started to know what things you need to learn right away, and what you should focus on later.

This is a great opportunity to ask your community or coach for guidance with your specific product or opportunity.

When you’re getting tired, stop listening to whatever training, YouTube video, webinar, etc, that you’re listening to. As your brain gets fatigued, it will stop remembering as well.

3. Model Someone You Know, Like and Trust

Anthony Robbins says “If you want to be successful, find someone who has achieved the results you want, and copy what they do, and you’ll achieve the same results.”

Choose someone whose training resonates with you, who you like to listen to and watch, and who has a clear way of communicating that works for you. Look for people who you are comfortable with and can identify with, whose message (and perhaps more importantly, the delivery of their message) feels honest and genuine.

If you are a laid back, no pressure type of person, you don’t want to learn your sales skills from someone who is high-intensity and high-pressure, right?

Once you’ve identified someone that you want to follow, pay attention to what they’re doing and start learning how to model it in your own style... and more importantly, ignore everyone else!

When you ignore everyone but one (or perhaps two) teachers, you eliminate the amount of different processes and systems and opinions on “the right way”, etc, that you’ll be bombarded with.... which brings us to....

4. Avoid Shiny Object Syndrome

There are literally tens of thousands of websites on the internet, trying to teach you how to do internet marketing (and sell you products and services in the process).

Many of them will just push product after product in front of you, hoping that eventually, one of them will ‘stick’, and they’ll get a commission. This is definitely one way to do internet marketing, but not one with a lot of longevity (but that’s a topic for a different post).

Reach out to either your chosen mentor, others who are following that person, others who are in your company, or even this website, and learn about what tools you really need to do online marketing. Start with the basics, and be very critical about adding anything unless you truly believe it’s going to be a part of your core process.

Don’t look at a product or service and say “That’s amazing, I bet I could use that!” and then buy it. Instead, look at new products and services from the standpoint of “Do I have a known vacancy in my business model that this product will fill?”

5. Create A Daily Action Plan

This is the big one.

Once you have an idea of what all the parts of your business are going to be, take a moment to sit back and detach yourself from the mindset of "what do I do next?!?" and ask yourself "What do I want my business to look like in 6 months?"

Think about it like you're building a house. Not a drop of concrete or lumber gets put into place until the architect signs off on the blueprint, right? So build yourself a blueprint.

Once you have that blueprint, ask yourself “What actions are going to begin laying my foundation?” Will you be blogging? Creating videos? Creating products? Selling affiliate products?

What action or actions can you take every day that will start building up your skills, or building up some content, that will start moving toward that foundation?

Create a list of these actions. As you learn new skills or practices that resonate with you and you want to make them a part of your business, put them in your daily action plan.

​What sorts of things might be in a daily action plan? Here are some examples:

As you're creating your daily action plan, think about what steps will move you closer to your goals, not just "what are other people doing?" or just to be doing something.

Don't worry if you don't have all the knowledge you need to have a fully complete action plan... just put down the 1 or 2 things you think will move you towards your goals every day.

The next time you find something that you think will do that, you just add it to your action plan, and the plan will evolve over time.  Don't hesitate to remove things from your daily action plan, too, if you do them for a while and then feel like they aren't helping you at all.​

Putting It All Together

There you have it… 5 must-have tips that will jumpstart your journey and get you started moving in the right direction.

Over the course of your learning and training, your new skills will start to make sense, your daily action plan will start to take shape, and you’ll begin to have a solid understanding of the steps necessary to go from novice marketer, not really knowing what to do next, to having an actionable list of tasks to do every single day.

Before you know it, the commissions will start rolling in!

There you go -- follow these tips and you'll definitely be well on your way to getting your business off on the right foot. I hope this post has given you something to think about or, more importantly, do something about... and I hope that you’ve gotten real value from it. If you did, I’d love to know both what you liked and what you didn’t like, or any thoughts or comments you’d like to share..