What’s Blocking You? Fear Perhaps

The last two to three weeks have been really frustrating. I was making great progress on building leads for Internet Profits. I have been following a two pronged strategy of solo ads and Twitter ads for my paid channels.  The leads stopped flowing.  It is time to draw on the art of managing blockages.

Blockages Emerge

I have a source of solo ads which delivers leads in batches every two weeks or so – so I can just let it run along in the background. Well it was doing that just fine and stopped – not sure why but no new leads since March 27 = nearly 4 weeks. I did get a generic email saying they had had some campaign changes that were not working properly and they would fix them this week. Nothing happening yet. I just regenerated the API key at Getreponse – let’s see if that triggers anything – otherwise it will be a support ticket after Easter break

I reported a little while ago that my Twitter ads account was reported ineligible. That has got me stuck a bit like the rabbit in the headlights. I reread the email this last week. It says I failed in the Unacceptable Business Practices part of their policies. 

What’s the policy?
Twitter prohibits the promotion of unacceptable business practices globally. Examples of unacceptable business practices include:

• Potentially deceptive, misleading, or harmful business propositions.
• Making misleading, false, or unsubstantiated claims.
• Promoting misleading information or omitting vital information on pricing, payment terms, or expenses the user will incur.
• Promoting offers or deals that are not available or easily located on the landing page.

That is it. No explanation in the emails from support – no specifics.

What really frustrates me is this is a blanket ban – not a pull the offending ad ban. What is more those words are so wide that any good lawyer could deem the speeches from the Pope on Easter Sunday as unacceptable business practices.  Here is one of my ad cards – you decide.

Headlights have got me dazzled and unable to move.

Breaking Through Blockages

I have to break out of this somehow. What I always do in cases like this is lay out some options. It has taken me a while to do that – here is a list. The smart way to do that is generate a list and then evaluate. That gives one a longer list and prevents prejudging things.

1. Obvious one is to appeal the Twitter ruling.
2. Start advertising on another Twitter profile (I have a few already)
3. Start another paid ads program – e.g., Facebook or Google Ads or Youtube
4. Ramp up organic traffic effort
5. Ramp up solo ads as a stop gap
6. Close down the last chance saloon and give up.

And this is where the real blockages begin. I found this blog post about that topic

What’s Blocking YOUR Path to Business Success?

Success does require the right tools, knowledge, experience and/or business plans. Now I kind of think I have got those but let’s see how that plays out. Training is available. Focus is on promoting the existing Internet Profits products and pursuing one free traffic channel and one paid traffic channel. My paid channel just ran into something of a roadblock.

What are the other obstacles – the article covers three

Block 1. Negative People

I cannot find excuses here. I live in a small reclusive world – mostly they are not that interested in what I am doing. Maybe that is the flip side of the problem. It definitely helps when one has somebody to bounce ideas off. My best person for doing that is just recovering from melanoma removal and treatment – he has his own problems right now. Internet Profits includes a mentoring and coaching process which operates on UK time so mostly events happen at 2 am in the morning my time. Excuses really – I could make it. Hard though as I stay awake every day until around 12:30 am to trade US markets when they open. My day starts around 7 am when they wrap up the day’s happenings on CNBC and Bloomberg TV. Long days already. And that is how I make my living.

Block 2. Not Believing in Yourself.

Do you catch yourself doing or saying this in those private conversations?

1. This will never work.
2. Who am I kidding?
3. This is a waste of my time.
4.  I’m too old/young/inexperienced/stupid to do this.

As it happens I don’t. My challenge is a different one and it plays its way into point 3 above. I suffer what the psychologists call a “low frustration threshold“. I get frustrated when things do not go right or well or when results do not flow. That sends me into a state almost like anxiety – high blood pressure mostly => light headed; pains in the chest; loss of focus; loss of will => and on bad days into bouts of depression. Now a 7 am to 12:30 am waking day makes this a whole lot worse. Depressed -> do not want to get up at 7 am.

Maybe there are some guidelines to draw from the article here – affirmation sort of stuff:

1. This will work because I’ve done the research and I’m persistent.
2. I’m smart enough to do this. I have experience.
3. This is a good idea.
4. The world needs this, and I need to deliver it to them.

What really needs to happen is step back – define what it is one needs to do or can do to fix a problem. Research it and leverage one’s skills and time to fix it.

Block 3. Fear.

Fear is an insidious thing.  And you may not know that what is blocking you, or even driving you, is FEAR. Maybe that is the root of the low frustration threshold = the fear of failure. I have never thought about it like that. I have always believed that I can crack almost anything I try APART from heights, that is. I will not jump out of an aeroplane BUT I have jumped backwards off a mountain with an abseiling rope or out of a moving army truck in my time as a soldier.

The blog talks about the disguises that fear likes to wear. Procrastination. Perfectionism. Busy-work.

Depression likes to combine a few of these, especially procrastination and busy-work. I hate routine as it tends to stifle thinking and creativity. That said, I do follow something of a routine every day.

• Update stock prices from overnight markets;
• Account for all the trade activity;
• Write and publish a journal of the activity. I do that every day I make trades.
• Then I take a break and start to check what is going on in the world

This is where the busy-work begins. Facebook scrolling; a few news things; Twitter scrolling, Bloomberg TV on in the background, etc. The more depressed I feel, the longer it takes – I am looking for connectedness perhaps. OR am I just putting off solving my Internet Marketing challenges.

Luckily I have never been a perfectionist – “good enough is done enough.” There are a few things that need to be right AND I do take care in my investing journal. After all it is currently the most important payer in my daily activity. Good journalling leads to fewer mistakes and better trades.

Busy-work is another beast especially when it fails the “good enough is done enough” test. Maybe it is what befalls me many days. Maybe written down lists of tasks would help nail that. I have set tasks in my investing – no list – but set tasks. I have a blackboard in my study – it has a list of tasks on it. Been like that for months. Time to use it and do the stuff on it OR some other stuff.

Here is the link to the article post

https://dralex.tv/business-success/

That helps. The real driver of my problem is frustration grows when results do not flow. I hate seeing that sales number not climbing – 2 sales in 5 months is wearing me down.

Going Forward Clearing Blockages

Now to the options I set out above.

• Appeal Twitter ruling = done last night. I did not want to do it as their emails are so abrupt and their policy so vague that it is hard to avoid a pissing match. But I did it – they say 1 to 2 days to respond.
• Use a different Twitter account: I have several established accounts though the main one affected is my most prominent with 24,000 followers. It could be against the terms of service. As my accounts are quite specifically set up with different focus points, I might win that argument. I will need to change the ads AND I would love to be able to use my retargeting audiences. I will wait for the ruling
• Switch to another paid ads channel:I am wary of Facebook’s approval process (though they at least do it up front). I started Google Ads training. I have a Google ads credit I could utilize. Google ads does require some changes to deal with analytics = need to do that anyway. It did require next steps on my page builder to fix domain pointing.  I started and did a few hours of the training. Some of the analytics stuff can be done in a way that flows to GDN and Youtube ads – like that multi-purposing for later down the track.
• Ramp up organic traffic: I prefer to use paid channels. I have the capital and not the time. My organic model does need work – Twitter to Facebook Groups is the idea BUT I have not really got the time or patience
• Solo ads: My channel will hopefully deliver some more leads – I have contracted 6,000 of which 1.500 are delivered = let them flow. Later I can do the work to improve conversions. Hoping the new API key does the trick.
• Give Up: This has been a strong inclination. I have spent a lot of time and money and not got results I wanted or even expected, I keep saying YET. A few weeks ago I committed to co-branding with Dean Holland on his new book. I really need to keep the last chance saloon open to give that a chance.

As I sit and reflect on the tasks implicit in these options, I come back to the real blockage = OVERWHELM.

I start out on a path and get overwhelmed with the amount of stuff to learn; about the time it takes to go through the training videos. I hate training videos as one cannot fast scan them, especially the second time around. I did this week start transcribing the trained steps onto Trello boards. That means I can come back later to review steps and implement again.

Managing Overwhelm

Now I have written about managing overwhelm before. This is the list of ideas I wrote then (borrowed from my mentor, Dean Holland. Dean talked a lot about doing more with less. He ended off with a call to arms – these were his keyword words (in bold) and the words after that is what I heard. He may not have said those words.

• Commitment: Build your own business
• Focus: Cut out the distractions
• Dedication: Keep at it no matter what
• Work: Make a plan and execute to the plan
• Time: Put in the time – at least one hour a day
• No Excuses: Take responsibility

Make a plan and execute to the plan does require a re-plan when things get changed or do not work out – that has been the blockage for me this last two weeks since Twitter red flagged my account.

Credits

Head in Hands Image by Gerd Altmann from Pixabay I added the other bits using Canva.