Sometimes it takes me a good two hours to get to sleep.

My brain is often on worker bee mode when I go to bed, and it has a tendency to formulate ideas when I’m trying to get my gratuitous 5 hours of shut eye.

Oh my gosh, it used to drive me insane!

I would wake up and look at the notebook on the side of my bed. There would be 5-10 different business ideas, book ideas, marketing ideas.

After getting all excited about one these new ideas, I’d immediately get sidetracked from a project I was working on.

Next thing you know, it has taken me 5 months to complete a project that should’ve been done in 30 days. It’s a gift and a curse.

And if you too are an idea person, you’ll completely identify with what I’ve just said.

Today I still have the same creative overdrive when it comes to generating ideas. But I’ve learned to handle the influx a little differently. I’ve discovered how to use my talent for good, while staying on track.

The One Thing You MUST Do To Keep Idea Overload From Slowing You Down

Okay I have some good news, and some bad news.

The bad news is that you’ve got to develop some internal discipline for what I’m about to tell you to work.

People are always looking for some ‘magic’ pill to solve all their worries. Wave a wand, and your troubles are gone. In reality, you have to develop some sort of boundries within your own mind to stay on track. That’s first and foremost.

Next, I want you to go to your local grocery store, dollar store, discount store, or whatever, and pick up a 70-page notebook.

Now whenever you get an idea, I want you to stop and write it down in your notebook.

It doesn’t have to be in any particular order. I often just give a page a title, and then write down the idea.

For example, I have a Infoproduct Ideas page, and a Blog Topics page, etc.

I also create mindmaps to further flesh out an idea.

When I’m finished writing the idea down, I close the notebook, and go back to whatever I was doing.

I only read through the notebook for a few reasons:

1. I’m mentally blocked and need some inspiration.
2. I’m finishing up a project, and seeking some new ideas for the next one.
3. I’m looking for ideas for my consulting clients.

The awesome thing about keeping these notebooks is that over the course of a year or two, you will have compiled hundreds or even thousands of ideas.

I just found a notebook that I did back in 2004, and it was a goldmine of ideas. I was amazed at all the stuff I can still put into play today. Much of what you’ll read in this blog comes the brain sparks culled from that forgotten manuscript.

Write it down… forget about it… then come back, and grow rich,

Alexis Dawes

P.S. – I’ve actually developed an entire no-nonsense system to help me stay on track. This is just one of my tactics.

Keep reading this blog to learn how I’ve used this system to maintain a “consistent” 6-figure infopublishing business.

Here we are – you and me – maximizing our brains and bank accounts in the throws of the online world.

You don’t know what I look like. Where I went to school. Whether I bite my nails to a nub – or if I have claws like Godzilla and just type on a really big keyboard.

The only way you get to know me is through my cleverly crafted words on the screen.

Speaking of cleverly crafted words, yesterday I received an e-mail from a customer, who in the e-mail called me a ‘guru.’ Yes me… the hot tamale sitting on the other side of the screen in Fruit of the Loom boxer shorts. (How’s that for an uber foxy image.)

I laughed to myself though. I’m no guru. Just a hard-working single siren, with a gaggle of intelligent girl children to support.

My customer thinks I’m a guru because of an image I’ve built online.

It’s not an image that everybody loves and admires. Sometimes I can get a bit ‘cheeky.’

But this is who I am in real life.

I’ve been cussing since pre-kindergarten, and writing with the goal of being a published author since I was eight. I’m happily prolific at both. 

I’m polite, and as sweet as sugar in a glass of iced tea. If your feet hurt, I’ll give you the Gucci loafers off my feet.

But I’ll also tell you to “sit-and-spin” if you cross me. This is MY business after all.

The people that other people remember tend to be cocky or super smart or drop dead gorgeous or smelly or they possess some strongly noticable trait.

What type of image are YOU putting forth to your online readers?

Are you putting forth an image to your online readers?

Or are you blending in with the background?

I was doing a consultation for a reader of mine last week. He just had an e-book ghostwritten for him, and couldn’t figure out why he didn’t get a single sale despite the 1,001 bullet points he’d included in the salesletter.

The biggest problem… the salesletter read like a freakin’ 2,000 page electrician repair manual. Strong technical performance. But it lacked human-ness. It had no personality.

No matter what you’re writing about, it’s vital that you interject your own va-va-va-voom into the equation.

Earlier this year there was a lot of brouhaha about an online marketing guide being sold at The Rich Jerk. Some folks didn’t like his peacock like behavior. Others loved it.

Regardless of your opinion, he got a lot of attention, and made a lot of money – hand over fist – because of his rich jerk attitude.

If you’re a Polyanna type in real life, then be the world’s sweetheart in your sales material. If you’re an angry lunatic, don’t hide behind a demure attitude. Be who you are.

In the end you’ll attract die hard fans who love you to death because you’re just like them.

And you’ll wake up every day with a smile on your face ready to work because you know you’re living an authentic life AND making money.

I realized a couple of years ago that I cannot possibly please every single potential buyer within my niche. Nor can I quell all the critics.

So I don’t try.

Instead I just continue being me. Selling how I want to sell. Saying what I want to say. Doing what I want to do.

And you know what?

My profits have only gotten bigger.

Be who you are and grow rich my friends,

Alexis Dawes