Guide

One of those days again: Your alarm goes off, you open your eyes, and all you want is snuggling back into your sheets and sleep a few more minutes.

But duty calls, so you get up, wash your face, and grab your first cup of coffee to compensate for the lack of recovery from the night. What follows are hours of operating in automatic mode just to get through the morning before you actually feel awake.

While we all know how this daunting scenario feels, a lack of sleep doesn’t only come with short-term sacrifices. …

At the age of 17, I wanted to become a lawyer. At 19, I changed my opinion and started studying business administration. And shortly before my 20th birthday, I discovered the creator economy.

Five months later, I launched my first online course on Udemy, one of the world’s largest platforms for e-learning. After a month, I received my first paycheck as a digital entrepreneur:

Reading a great book is like borrowing the brain of the author. If it’s a good one, you get a condensed collection of their lessons and strategies.

And in the best case, the book is a shortcut and helps you save some time.

In 2021, anyone willing to do the work can build and scale an online business. Thousands of courses, articles, podcasts, and books can teach you how to escape the rat race and build a digital business around content creation.

The problem is that most people don’t like the idea of educating themselves and starting from scratch.

But…

Most of us know that daily routines shape our lives. And just about everyone wants to build better habits. The problem is, we barely validate our current routines and thinking patterns.

Instead, we often mistake certain habits as negative even though they might actually add lots of value to our daily lives. In fact, we often focus on building and avoiding the wrong routines because we only look at the surface. The real power of habits, however, is often hidden behind.

Some patterns might not have an immediate impact on your life but subtly change how you think and behave…

In the past three years, I supported hundreds of people to increase their productivity. I hosted dozens of workshops until Covid forced me to switch to webinars.

No matter if in-person or online, my key message was always the same: Eliminate distractions and work smarter, not harder.

And for most of my attendees, this advice works perfectly.

It works because they don’t have ambitious goals. All they want is to finish their studies, get their job done efficiently, and have more free time.

However, there’s a limit to “working smart” that most people overlook or consciously ignore.

You can only work smart if you’ve done the hard work first

I read Girlboss…

As a content creator, you can have various income streams:
Advertising products (brand collaborations), running ads on your content (Youtube), asking for donations (Patreon), publishing your content behind a paywall (Medium), or selling products.

Most creators prefer the first four options: ads, donations, and paywalls. I love the path less traveled: Selling.

I prefer selling digital products because that’s the only way I can control 100% of the outcome. If you’re selling a digital product, you’re responsible for:

• Creating an epic product
• Building an audience (preferably an email list), that’s interested in that product
• Creating a killer sales page
• Writing…

Most people think of topics like likeability and charisma as a form of manipulation. As if trying to be more likable means that you want to manipulate and (negatively) influence those around you.

The reality is that being more likable means you’re able to better connect with those around you, even if it doesn’t lead to a superficial goal like more income or status.

It’s qualities like sincerity, transparency, and capability of understanding that make someone genuinely likable, not their looks, status, or intelligence.

The good news is that research proves even adults can learn how to be compassionate, empathetic…

One of the most impressive concepts I studied during my year-long qualification to become a communication coach was Aristotle's three persuasive appeals.

More than 2,300 years ago, the Greek philosopher defined the three main drivers of persuasion: Ethos, Pathos, Logos.

And to this day, Aristotles simple approach is one of the most effective ways to get people from saying no to saying yes. In ancient Greece, public speaking was a highly respected skill because they appreciated public political participation, which was mainly driven by speeches.

Originally, Aristotle developed his three persuasive appeals to help people master the art of persuasion…