Is Your Consumer Mentality Holding You Back?

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Do you often ask yourself why it is taking so long to move forward with your online business. You have studied hard, learned a great deal, developed new skills, built your website with targeted keywords, yet nothing is happening - no buyers, no profits. What is going on?

A website is not a business - until you make it one! In the beginning, it is like a house with rooms. Each room has a different purpose. You have filled it with nice furniture, and your lawn and gardens look beautiful, and people come around to visit for a while; then they leave.

Let's examine your daily activities according to the table below.

If you recognize yourself as doing more of the activities listed in column A, then you are operating with a consumer mindset.

If you recognize yourself as doing more of the activities listed in column B, then you are operating with a business mindset. Congratulations, you are investing your time wisely, performing activities that will add to your bottom line. Because...

Reality Check: Are you a consumer or a producer?

  • People who teach you - make money.
  • People who write and publish what you read - make money.
  • People who record videos that you listen to - make money.
  • People who produce info products that you consume - make money.
  • People who give free gifts that you download - make money.
  • People who are building the list that you subscribe to - make money.
  • People who outsource time consuming admin tasks - make money.
  • People who sell things make money from those who buy things.


The activities in column A - learning, reading, research, planning, preparing, helping - are all necessary.

We do a lot of that at the Wealthy Affiliate online business community. Learning is a lifelong journey and should never end, no matter what our age or circumstances in life.

The hurdle is that many of us bring a job mentality with us when we arrive online seeking income. That is understandable because most of us have been an employee in the workforce for a long time. We are used to getting paid as an employee and spending money on consumer products that sustain our daily lives.

All of us, including business owners, are consumers. But when we operate a business, we must think, act, and talk business. Doing business is not the same as preparing to do business.

The time will come when you will need to allocate 10% of your time on actions similar to those in column A, and 90% of your time on actions in column B. It is the difference between knowledge and profit. Knowledge is not power; real power comes from applying your knowledge effectively to produce results.

Hope this makes sense. If it does, the "like" button always loves it when readers give it a bit of love. Thanks!

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Recent Comments

101

Hi Jude, excellent and inspirational post:) The chart showing Activities A and B really made me reflect quite a lot on how I invest my time and the change in midset necessary to move from a customer to a business viewpoint. Clearly there is always new things to learn but there is a time when you need to swift from dedicating most of your time to B activities rather than to A.

I will for sure put this into practice starting today.

Thanks a lot for your contribution.

Marta, I'm so glad you found some inspiration in my post. You are right, it is about knowing when we have to change gears, so to speak, and get our priorities in the right balance. Thanks for reading and leaving your comment. ~ Jude

Switching mindsets has been the biggest factor in my recent successes. Good post, well written.

I am a fan of your work and greatly appreciate your feedback, Paul
~ Jude

Hi Jude,
Great post and well said.
You've highlighted something most business startup people somehow overlooked while trying to build their pot of gold. They spend long hours on things that do not directly contributing to building their business or generating revenue.
It is a good reminder to everyone, to observe how we spend our time daily.

Hi Reuben, thanks for taking the time to read my post. You've summed it up nicely, we must "observe how we spend our time daily". I appreciate your feedback. ~ Jude

Great post Jude. It's time I moved more away from column A and into column B.

G'day Ian, thanks for taking the time to read my post. Yeah, moving from A to B, I know, sometimes it's like pushing a big elephant. But it can be done! ~ Jude

Your table above really struck a cord with me. There are 3 items on it that I had hoped to start by today. Instead here's what happened. I've spent 3 hours today, and goodness knows how many hours the previous days trying to fix up a problem with my google account. My computer has been playing up all day. I've cleaned out files, registries, etc, etc. Google has finally decided to accept my website email address as verified and I think I'm up and running again, finally.

Seeing your blog has been a "gentle' reminder to me to now get back on track with my initial plans. I llooaatthhee google. I refuse to write it with a capital letter. It doesn't deserve it in my books.

Just a thought. I do several activities on list "A", They are listening to positivity, watching training videos, reading training/ blogs, learning as I go
along and taking down notes. But I do know what you mean.

Thank you Judy for a great blog. Inspiration is flooding me!

I've have had many days like that Annie, where distractions get in the way of getting our to do list done. So frustrating. I'm glad you are back on track and that my post struck a cord with you. You are not alone when it come to the big G! ~ Jude

I wish somebody would give it huge opposition. Yeah it's got some great freebies, , you tube, google +, etc, but the trade off we are starting to find out about, as we learn more about the Internet and websites is, ie. no support from them, keeping up with them ruling the roost, their stupid ads on my gmail account, blah , blah.

I feel better now after having a whinge, Jude! :)

Rather than loathing Google we should embrace it, learn it's ways, then master it. Every annoying ad you get is someone like you trying to get their message across. And it works(or it wouldn't happen).

Once we start to see that embracing Google, Google+ and the systems it puts in place that boost our visibility is in our best interests, and stop seeing Google as the enemy, then we will truly have adopted a producer mindset.

I write this after discovering that four of my business pages are on page one, position one for my chosen keywords, and I'm on page one or two for some pages I haven't even started optimising. All due to Hummingbird (and writing for Hummingbird and humans).

Yes I was grumpy with them Paul. I agree it needs to be mastered, and I don't have a problem with their updates. It would be nice though if they had some decent competition. I may like them a bit more tomorrow if they accept my UN details all the time, instead of some times. Personally I'd like less ads on gmail, but of course I understand your point. If all is well tomorrow then I can start actioning some of Jude's B activities. That is at least a positive note for me to go to sleep with tonight. :)

If Google had more competition we'd have to master yet another SE. Oh noes! Sleep well and come out fighting.

Hi Jude,
Great post! Very true that you can learn all you want, but if you don't apply what you've learned you still won't get anywhere with it. Thanks for sharing :)

Sherry, exactly! Thanks for taking the time to visit and read my post. ~ Jude

Superb stuff. You can learn all you like and be as smart as all hell, but if you do nothing with it, it's a waste and means nothing.

Thanks, Josh. I appreciate your feedback. You've summed it up nicely. ~ Jude

G'day, Jude! A highly valuable and excellent post! Most illuminating and utterly sensible.

Your Reality Checklist really shines a giant searchlight on who makes money and who spends it - and why! I'm off to visit your last link. :) george

Thank you, George. I'm glad you found it valuable. And thanks in advance for visiting my site. Much appreciated. I hope life is getting back to normal in your neck of the woods. ~ Jude

Now, I'm consuming the books that I've just downloaded! A great resource, Jude! :) G

It's hard to get out of the consuming habit, isn't it. Glad you found something to download, George. Appreciate your visit. ~ Jude

I love the graphic differences between columns A and B. So very clear! Good job

Thanks, Gordi. I'm glad you liked it. I appreciate your feedback. ~Jude

I like this JB well written and well thought out and I see myself in the wrong mind set Getting out of it is the task

Hello Bert. I'm glad you liked it and got something from it. It happens to all of us who have worked in a job for years. It takes a while to realize that we have to make a mindshift and start thinking differently. Thanks for your feedback. ~Jude

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