Adela Rubio is a Joint Venture Strategist who helps conscious entrepreneurs share their message and build their tribe using experiential list building strategies. I had first met Adela at an event on the East Coast in 2010, and saw her again in Atlanta in February of 2012.

In this interview Adela shares how she got started online and why she chooses to work with conscious entrepreneurs. We discuss what she means by ‘juicy joint venture partners’, and why she refers to her community of followers as her ‘tribe’. Adela encourages you to claim your authentic essence in everything you do.

Adela offers an Enlightened List Building training program that will help you to build your list, increase your joint ventures, and achieve massive visibility online.

As I continue to work with people in the area of building a profitable business, I hear the same excuses over and over. Some of the more memorable ones are:

“But you don’t understand. My business is different.”

“Sure, that works for you, but I’m new.”

“I’m too old.”

“I’m on (insert guru’s name here) list, and they said I should try (insert name of latest product or service here).”

And my all-time favorite:

“I can’t afford a mentor.”

When I started my serious exercise and eating plan at the first of this year I soon realized that I was making the exact same excuses!

Even though I was showing up at the gym each week, I found myself telling the trainers that they did not understand why I wasn’t making much progress because my body was different.

As I observed others losing weight and replacing fat with muscle I explained that it was working for them, but not for me, because I was new and needed time to settle in to the exercise and fitness routines they were teaching me. I also told them that I was too old to be able to make the kind of progress some of the others were making.

I soon began searching the Internet for help and found myself telling the trainers at my gym that people online were recommending an entirely different regime that I was going to check out. When they recommended that I work out privately with a trainer three times each week I told them that it was just too expensive for my budget.

I had effectively taken myself out of the game and ensured my failure by not trusting them to guide me in the right direction. When I finally realized this I apologized profusely and began to make a serious and consistent effort to follow exactly what they were recommending. The result was that I began to lose weight, increase my muscle mass, decrease my BMI (Body Mass Index), and feel better overall.

Once I stopped making excuses and started focusing on how to do the best I could under the guidance and direction of those I trusted, everything changed overnight.

Have you found yourself making any of these excuses when it comes to building a profitable business online, or in any other area of your life?

To Ray Edwards, copywriting is ‘salesmanship in print’. Ray was the very first professional copywriter I ever met, and in this interview I ask him about how he got started in radio years ago, transitioned to writing web sales copy for some of the greatest names on the Internet today, and continues to be a dominant force in the world of copywriting.

Ray and his wife, Lynn, pictured with him at left, travel the country in their motor home on a regular basis. This lifestyle gives them the freedom to work from wherever they happen to be while also enjoying the beauty and the seasons. They also have two pugs who enjoy taking to the road with them.

You’ll also want to check out his latest book, Writing Riches, as well as his membership site of the same name. Ray has graciously given this special link to my community, and if you are interested in learning more about becoming a copywriter for hire or just writing better sales copy for your products and services, this may be exactly what you are looking for. My favorite part of this site is that Ray personally critiques one of the members’ sales letters each month, giving everyone an opportunity to improve their skills. I’m sure you will benefit greatly from our discussion here.

Are you too comfortable at your job to become a successful entrepreneur? If you stop to think about the job you are currently working at you may discover that you have become complacent about starting and building your own business because your job provides a steady paycheck to pay your monthly bills and expenses. This can be dangerous!

I worked as a classroom teacher for twenty years. Every month I received a paycheck that I used to make my house payment, car payment, and for my other expenses. It wasn’t until I had cancer for the first time and was not able to work for six months that I realized just how much that job was costing me.

At the same time I was working in real estate as a broker and residential appraiser. This work allowed me to make my own hours, set my own appointments, and have control over the amount of income I could earn. If it had not been for my ability to make money in real estate while I was undergoing treatment for my cancer, I would surely have lost my home and would have had to file for bankruptcy. Instead, I had a steady flow of income coming in and was able to meet all of my financial obligations during this difficult time. This gave me peace of mind in a way I cannot fully describe.

How can you avoid being caught up in what I call the ‘paycheck comfort zone’? Ask yourself some serious questions to see where you are in this process. Are you satisfied with the number on your paycheck? Are you alright with the amount of time and effort required to stay at your job? If you or a family member were to become ill, if you’d want to relocate to another city to live, or to want to take time off to pursue other interests, would your job accommodate you? Is the amount of money you earn at your current job sufficient for what you need and want in your life? It may be time for you to quit your job and move on in your life.

There is a certain mindset that goes along with taking the leap from employee to entrepreneur. As an employee you look to your boss to find out what the company wants to do next; as an entrepreneur you make the decisions as to what actions and steps you will take to move forward. If it’s going to happen, it is entirely up to you to see it through. You must have the inner strength to trust your intuition and gut instincts when it comes to making smart decisions. This requires you to have the self confidence to know you can achieve your goals.

This is what I wrote about in my recent book ,The Inner Game of Internet Marketing, and it applies to other areas of your life as well. You can do it, and quitting your job to become an online entrepreneur will change your life forever.

Marnie Pehrson is a very special person. She’s the creative force behind Idea Marketers, a site where you can not only submit your articles but also become a part of a growing community of content creators and publishers. Idea Marketers was actually the first article directory on the Internet, tracing its inception back to 1998.

She is also an accomplished author, and I am thrilled to have contributed to Marnie’s most recent book, Trust Your Heart: Building Relationships That Build Your Business. This book shares insights from some of the top names online to give you an idea of how we all use relationship marketing to catapult us to success.

Marnie and I discuss how she initially came online many years ago, what success means in today’s world, and how what she is doing at Idea Marketers is changing the way we all create and publish our content on the Internet.

You may know that I have once again challenged myself to write one hundred articles over a one hundred day time span. I first did this in the spring of 2007 as a way to turn myself into a writer. That time it only took me 78 days to complete my challenge back then, and I have gone on to write more than 1,600 articles since that time.

This time the challenge was more difficult for me for a variety of reasons, including the fact that I’m in the middle of writing my next book on becoming an online entrepreneur. You can see my other books here if this is of interest to you. Time management when it comes to writing is crucial to your success, but the creative energy required is another story.

As far as the article writing challenge, I was so excited when my friend Susanne Myers decided to step up and join me this time. Susanne is one of my smartest friends, as well as a gifted marketer. She’s been using article marketing to build her business for years. Here is an article she wrote recently on the topic of autoresponders:

The Magic Of AWeber – Why AWeber Is One Of The Best Autoresponders Out There
By Susanne Myers

If you read my blog, this won’t come as a surprise to you. I love AWeber and have been using them as my autoresponder service since 2004. I have quite a few lists and some of them have well over 30,000 subscribers on them. They are responsible for a big chunk of my monthly income and I wouldn’t trust anyone other than AWeber with those lists. Here are a few reasons why AWeber is one of the best autoresponders out there.

It’s Easy – Lots Of Tutorial

It is very easy to get started with AWeber. Once you sign up, you’ll find plenty of tutorials on how to do just about anything with their service. They’ll walk you through setting up your first list, creating your first optin form and plugging it into your website. Some of the tutorials are presented as a step-by-step wizard, others are text and of course there are also plenty of “how-to” videos. On top of it, I’ve found their customer service helpful and ready to walk me through just about anything I can’t figure out on my own.

Plus since AWeber is so well known in our industry, you’ll also find plenty of video tutorials on YouTube. Don’t forget to check there if you get stuck somewhere along the way.

It’s Inexpensive To Get Started

When I started out building websites and email lists, my budget was almost $0. I didn’t have hundreds of dollars to spend on my online business, so AWeber’s $1 trial was a perfect fit. It allowed me to get comfortable with the service and start building my list without much of an expense. After that it didn’t take me long to make more than the $20 per month fee from my growing lists.

Sign up for the introductory trial and get to work right away. Make it a goal to build a list of 100 subscribers as fast as possible and start monetizing that first list. It won’t take you long to make AWeber pay for itself by following this strategy. Keep growing your list and you’ll be profitable in no time at all.

Excellent Deliverability

The best and biggest list won’t do you much good if your readers don’t get your emails. It’s hard to make sure your website and email stay white-listed and don’t get redirected into spam folders. AWeber does an excellent job at making sure they have high delivery rates. They consistently rank among the highest rates in the industry, making them a great choice.

Ready to get started with your own list?

Ready to build your own list? Sign up for a free 7-day ecourse on getting started with list building at http://www.affiliateecourse.com/listbuilding

This is an example of how to properly reprint other people’s articles as a way to connect with them and to add content to your own sites. By my publishing of this article I get more content for my site and Susanne benefits by the exposure to my readers who may not know her already. Be sure to read the TOS (Terms of Service) carefully before you use anyone else’s content on your sites or in your ezine.

The article writing challenge continues through June 21, and I encourage you to write and publish more of your own articles as you build your business.

Cathy Demers is an award winning entrepreneur with more than twenty successful years in business. She has worked with Microsoft and IBM in business development, and took her own company, The Electric Mail Company, public as a stock exchange traded company while she was the President and CEO.

Cathy now runs the popular Business Success Cafe, where entrepreneurs and small business owners have the opportunity to find practical solutions to business-building problems they encounter, through the use of Masterminds, education, and resources. During our call we discussed how she got started in business, the way in which she helps business owners to achieve the success they are seeking, and how to avoid ‘bright, shiny object’ syndrome when you are trying to move forward with your goals.

Working from your home computer is the best possible way to earn a living. I believe this because it is working for me and I am passionate about what I am doing, but you may have a completely different reason for wanting to work exclusively online and start home based business. I’d like to explore the possibilities and business models here so that you can make an informed decision about your business future and work at something that will truly make your heart sing.

Take a look at the reasons you were attracted to working from home in the first place. You may have young children that need to be cared for, elderly parents or other family members that need your help, or you may have health issues that make it difficult for you to work outside of your home. I had an elderly mother who needed more of my time, as well as some serious health issues that made it extremely difficult for me to be at a job for many hours every single day.

I must admit that when I made the jump from employee – I was a classroom teacher for twenty years – to online entrepreneur I had no idea of how I would be able to make any money. Looking back to that time, in 2006, it’s amazing that I was willing to resign from my teaching job and take that leap of faith to start a home-based business when I had no experience at all in this area.

You now have the benefit of learning from the experiences of everyone who went before you when it comes to getting started online with a business. You also have the opportunity to choose the business model that feels right for you. My business is a mixture of affiliate marketing and my own digital information products. This means that I also host my own courses online so that I can once again be a teacher.

Spend time thinking about the way you would like to run a business. Discuss it with your family as well so that they will be on board and have an idea of what to expect once you embark on this journey. Also, this requires at least a minimal understanding of technology, the ability to write at least at the eighth grade level on a regular basis, and research into the niche markets that you will work in. If this sounds like work, it is. It is also the most rewarding work you will ever do, so it is worth every moment you invest.

What are your thoughts on this?