2110: [Part 2] Succeeding by Helping Others Succeed by Steve Pavlina on Shared Success

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[00:00:56] This is Optimal Work Daily. Succeeding by Helping Others Succeed. Part 2 by Steve Pavlina of StevePavlina.com It isn't necessary to be some kind of uber-guru in order to help people. You don't have to make a ton of money, find the perfect relationship, or achieve your ideal physique before you're able to contribute. You can start by sharing what you know, which is probably a lot more valuable than you give yourself credit for.

[00:01:24] A couple of my most popular articles are How to Cook Brown Rice and My Guacamole Recipe. Would you believe that those two articles attract thousands of monthly visitors just from search engines? Do you think I spent years training to be the brown rice guru? You don't need to be a guru to write articles like that. It's not that difficult to share what you know. You don't have to be the best at everything. You can still put yourself out there. You can still make a contribution. You can still give something of value to people.

[00:01:54] How do you know if what you have to share has value? Well, share it first and you'll soon find out. If it provides value, people will tell you. If it doesn't, people will usually ignore you. As long as you're getting ignored, keep experimenting by trying to provide value in new and unique ways. Maybe you have a sweet voice and would be better at podcasting than blogging. Or perhaps video would be a better outlet for your creativity. The only limits are in your thinking.

[00:02:23] When I released my first independently developed computer game, it was largely ignored. It took me six months to develop it, but nobody cared. My next game sold a little better, but it was still basically a flop. I tried different game styles and different genres. It took several releases, but eventually I created an award-winning game that sold well for years. It took about five years of trial and error to align my game development skills with creating value for others.

[00:02:51] Five years may seem like a long time, but I was coming from a place of knowing virtually nothing about how to run a business when I started. It took a long time to calibrate my skill set to market realities. In the beginning, I was trying to create a product to sell, something that would make me money. But in the later years, I focused on offering games that people would love. That is a huge difference in mindset. When I launched stevepavlina.com, I was able to start providing value to others much more quickly

[00:03:21] because I wasn't stuck thinking about making money. I focused on the service side. I soon figured out how to use my skills to give people what they need and want. I sometimes get emails from people complaining that they aren't getting rich after blogging for only a few months. One blogger emailed me today to express disappointment that he hasn't yet surpassed 100 visitors per day. He started his blog less than a month ago. Is it me or are people getting a little impatient these days?

[00:03:48] The most important result to track isn't how many visitors your website is getting or how much money you're making. Instead, figure out whether you're actually making a difference in people's lives. Are you helping people? Are you providing strong value? If you're providing genuine value, time and referrals will take care of most of your other key metrics. Recently, I was talking to a friend in the personal development field. Business-wise, he and I both had record years in 2008,

[00:04:15] and we each expect 2009 to blow it away. We joked about the rest of the economy crashing down around us. Why do we feel so optimistic when so many people are nervous? Because we know that we're providing real value to people. We know that our skills are aligned with contribution. We also have the capacity to do a lot of good for people who are financially struggling, looking for career changes, or feeling uncertain about the future. Aaron is in the same boat.

[00:04:43] During a recession, more people feel uncertain about the future, and she offers intuitive readings that provide people with great clarity about their lives. Consequently, her income saw significant growth last year as well. Why? Because her skills are aligned with helping people get what they need. Helping people grow is a service that's in very high demand. It doesn't matter that we're in a media-fueled recession. That just means people are more keen to reduce low-value expenditures,

[00:05:10] and they're more sensitive to spending money wisely on purchases that provide them the best bang per buck. If you're providing weak value, you're on shaky ground during a recession. But if you're providing solid value that meets human needs, a recession can create even bigger opportunities for you. People will drop the fluff from their lives and seek you out instead. When your business model is no longer fed by sufficient demand, you can always switch to something else.

[00:05:38] But if there's one thing humanity needs right now, it's for more of us to step it up and embrace our true potential, instead of settling for the limited roles assigned by our social conditioning. In our current environment, there's still plenty of room for more people to start businesses based on helping and encouraging others to grow. We're a long way from being oversaturated in this area. You just listened to part two of the post titled,

[00:06:07] Succeeding by Helping Others Succeed, by Steve Pavlina of stevepavlina.com. Google is offering free AI training and tools to U.S. small businesses so they can innovate in ways both big and small. Built by Google experts, the Google AI Professional Certificate equips small businesses with practical AI skills. Through hands-on projects, they can start using AI to get more done and unlock new opportunities for their business.

[00:06:35] This is a new era of American innovation. Find out more at grow.google.com. When you need to build up your team to handle the growing chaos at work, use Indeed Sponsored Jobs. It gives your job post the boost it needs to be seen and helps reach people with the right skills, certifications, and more. Spend less time searching and more time actually interviewing candidates who check all your boxes.

[00:07:01] Listeners of this show will get a $75 sponsored job credit at Indeed.com slash podcast. That's Indeed.com slash podcast. Terms and conditions apply. Need a hiring hero? This is a job for Indeed Sponsored Jobs. And thanks again to Steve for this great post. A little bit more about him. He's a really fascinating guy, and I didn't tell you too much about him yesterday. Before he started blogging about personal growth, which was back in 2004, he ran his own computer game development company for a decade,

[00:07:29] mostly focused on non-violent puzzle games. For five of those years, he wrote articles on the side to help other software and game developers. Well, readers kept requesting more articles on a wide range of topics, and that eventually motivated him to get into blogging. And he retired from game development when he realized that he could actually create more positive ripples in the world by shifting to personal development work. He says he still enjoys programming and does occasionally write his own software tools to assist with personal growth experiments.

[00:07:57] And nowadays, he does everything he can to support the growth of readers of his blog. So come check it out at stevepavlina.com. That's P-A-V-L-I-N-A. And that is going to do it for this episode and for this two-part post from Steve. I thank you so much for being a subscriber to the show. We do really appreciate it. And I'll see you right back here tomorrow, where your optimal life awaits.