Deconstructing My Fear

This week, we had the opportunity to read about deconstructing our fear experiences.  We went through an exercise that had us list our different fear, list our strategy to help mitigate the risk, and then list how we would rebound if that fear were to manifest itself.

It was a great exercise, and the point was to help us realize that most of our fears probably won’t come true, and if they do, we can have a plan to get through it.  This should offer up some relief for us, and make it so that we don’t have to worry about things that may, or may not, happen.

As we finished this assignment, we were asked to respond to some questions as our journal posting for this week.  The first question asks what the chances are that our worst case scenario will really happen.

I think that, as long as I work diligently, and I seek out the guidance of my Father in Heaven, my worst case scenario will probably not happen.  I’m confident in my abilities, and I have great faith that my Father will help to guide me along the way.

The next question asks what themes might emerge as we list our various fears.  I think the theme that comes up as I populate my list of fears, is one of failure.  Almost all of my fears are based around not succeeding, and not fulfilling what I need to do.  This is where I need to act on faith, and know that I will be successful.

The last question asked, prompts us to think about what the risk is, in taking no action.  What would happen if we let fear take us over and stop us from moving forward.  I think the risk here, is not living up to my full potential.  I know that I can always go from one job to another, and more than likely continue to keep steady work.  But, the risk to me, is not building what my Father has made me capable of building.  I know that if I use my talents, and my resources, I can be very successful.  And I know that this success will lead to greater opportunities to share with those around me.

The lessons learned this week were very valuable to me, and I look forward to implementing them in my every day life.

Honesty and Integrity

This week, we learned about the importance of honesty and integrity in business.  I am grateful for this lesson, because I know the importance of honesty and integrity in our lives each day, and specifically in our business dealings.  I think it is so easy to think “it’s just business” in response to a variety of situations that help to justify something dishonest.  It’s important for us to remember who we are each day, so that we may be a good representative of the church, and of our Savior.

I really enjoyed a talk we read this week, by Elder Lynn G. Robbins.  In this talk, he discussed the importance of making sure that our motives are good in the work place.  He spoke of how it’s not only important to make a living, but that we need to focus on making a good and honest living.

As he continued with his talk, Elder Robbins spoke about the motives that drive people each day.  He showed us several examples of primary motivation and secondary motivation.  He then graded these different scenarios with an “A” being the best, and an “F” being the worst.

I think the grade of “A” is what we all strive for, which would indicate that our primary motivation is love of God and our fellowmen while our secondary motivation would be income.  From there, the primary motivations of people become worse with each drop in grade value.

This really helped me to realize where I am at personally, and where I want to be in the future.  It also helped to look at the company I currently work for, and the grade that I would give to it, using these parameters.  I realized that, not only do I want to be a better person, but I want to work for a much better company.

I’m grateful for the opportunities that are coming into my life, as I know that I will be able to build a company that will have an “A” reputation.  I’m grateful for the teachings this week, as it helps me to focus my attention back to myself, as I try to become a better disciple of Christ.

Making a Bucket List

This week, I have really been learning just how important it is to have a vision in our lives.  Without a vision, and without knowing where it is that we want to go, we can’t expect to get there.  As we went through the lesson this week, we made a bucket list, and we also made a life plan, identifying different things that we want to make sure and accomplish during our lives.

I have never put together a bucket list before, but I really enjoyed doing it this week.  As I searched around for ideas of things to do, I really found a lot of things that I think would be a lot of fun to do.  I am going to keep this list close, and start working on accomplishing each of them.

During our reading this week, we also learned about Randy Pausch.  We read from his last lectures and watched him in a video clip as well.  I think that Randy was able to achieve so many of his childhood dreams, because he received a lot of encouragement from his parents.  They made sure not to stifle him, and to encourage his creativity from a young age.  I think he was also able to achieve so much, because of his making the things he wanted to do a priority in his life.

One of the questions that we are asked to answer this week, is whether or not we believe that dreaming is important.  I think that it is very important in our lives.  To dream, gives us hope for things to come.  Without that hope, I think that life would be pretty boring and unbearable.  It’s these dreams that keep us going, always striving for something more.

As we discuss dreams, we are supposed to share one of our childhood dreams.  One of my childhood dreams was to learn to become a pilot and fly a plane.  Although I’ve never pursued this dream, I think that I could still do it, and I know that it is still possible to achieve.

As we learned this week, anything is possible, if we plan for it, and if we keep fighting to make it happen.

Starting my Entrepreneurial Journal

This week has really been busy, as we have started a new semester at BYU-Idaho.  I have to admit, this semester I am feeling a little overwhelmed this first week.  But at the same time, I am really excited at what we are going to be learning.  For the next few months (and hopefully continuing on for a long time after this class ends), I will be posting each week to share what I am learning, and my thoughts, in regards to my Introduction to Entrepreneurship course.  This will serve as my Entrepreneurial Journal, and I hope to create a habit that I will continue far into the future.

As we start this course, I am already loving what we are starting to learn.  We had to watch quite a few videos this week, as well as read several different readings.  I want to share the video that affected me the most this week.

In 2002, President Gordon B. Hinckley spoke at BYU Idaho.  You can watch the video here, and I would recommend doing so.  The thing that really stood out to me the most during this video, was President Hinckley talking to us about how much potential we all have.  And how we need to not sell ourselves short.

As I start this semester, and as I struggle with feelings of being overwhelmed, this talk keeps coming to mind.  Things have been tough at work for me recently also, and this talk helped to remind me that I really can do anything.  I can be successful in business, in my family, in my calling, and I can succeed in the courses that I am taking.  I am really looking forward to the next several months, as we learn about how to become successful in our lives.

Optimizing the Website

We’re getting really close to the end of the semester here, and we’re really starting to analyze what is good about our websites, and what can be improved upon.

This week, we looked into the different keywords that are driving traffic to our sites.  We looked at those that are doing good, as well as those that need to be improved.

We also looked at woorank.com to see how our sites are being ranked.  Now that we have done these things, the last part of the class will be made up of making some changes, and trying to improve the ranking.

This class has been great, and I’m looking forward to finishing the semester next week, and continuing on with the business.  Although I haven’t had any conversions yet, I have made some sales, due to the fact that several people that I know have gone on to make purchases.

Now that I have the basic understanding of what to look for in regards to Google Analytics, and Google Adwords, I am really excited to start concentrating on growing this business.

I think that most of my attempts have not been successful, due to the fact that I’ve only been pushing to sell one product.  And that one product is used sparingly by a select number of people.  I have several different products where I have reached deals with the manufacturer’s, and I will start promoting soon.  I think these additional products will help me appeal to more dental laboratories, and help me to make more sales.

Social Media

This past week, we’ve been learning about social media, and how we need to use it to drive traffic to our sites.  I think we all know how much impact social media has had on our lives over the past several years, so of course we need to try and utilize it to help us with our goals.

Many people will check their phones multiple times throughout the day, and we need to have a strategy in place, in order to capitalize on that.  As we come up with this strategy, we need to track the traffic that is coming to our sites, and identify that which is coming through social media.  This will help us to refine our presence online, and hopefully drive more traffic, and ultimately, more conversions.

I am going to start a Facebook page for my company this week, and try using their Facebook Ads, to see if I can drive more traffic to my site.  I’m hoping that I will be able to target even more people, and start to see some conversions on my site, in this next week.

This week has been very interesting, and it is nice to see how all the strategies we have been working on are starting to come together.  I’m looking forward to the last couple of weeks of class, and I’m excited to keep this going past that point.

Landing Page Optimization and SEO

This week has been rough for me in terms of working on school assignments.  I have been at scout camp for this past week with the Young Men from my ward, and I haven’t been able to turn everything in that I have been working on.

The area we were camping in, was not near any spots that could be used to get onto the internet and/or submit any assignments.

For this weeks reflection, I am going to discuss what we are working on, and how I will catch things up this week.

We are working on optimizing our landing page for our websites.  This needs to be done, because we want to make sure that as people are looking at our ads, and clicking on them, they are taken to a spot that will help them to spend money.  Our whole goal as a business, is to make money, so we need to make sure that when someone clicks on our ad, it is easy for them to buy what they are looking for.

I will be optimizing my landing page over the next couple of days so that when someone goes there, after clicking on my ad, it will show them exactly what they are looking to buy.

The other thing we are looking at, is our SEO, or Search Engine Optimization.  This is important, as it is what helps determine if the search engines can find us or not.  We want to utilize good techniques and good keywords, so that the traffic to our sites starts to grow organically, in addition to our ads.  Without the proper set up, and the proper keywords, it can be difficult for the search engines to differentiate our sites from thousands of others out there.

Over the next couple of days, I will get my assignments finished off and submitted.  Unfortunately, I know that I can’t go back and do the discussion boards, as these are needing participation by others, and the time is past for them.  Hopefully, I can continue to finish off the next few weeks, and continue to build this online business that has been created.

Launching our Campaign

This week, we started our campaigns so that we can start tracking them.  It was a great week, and very interesting as I can start to see the benefit from utilizing adwords and tracking those that come to our sites.

At first, I was a little disappointed, because I thought that I would see some impressions right away.  After starting my campaign on Monday night, I checked my account Tuesday morning, but only had 10 impressions.  I’m not really sure what I expected, but I was hoping for more than that.  Plus, there were no clicks on my ad.

I had to wait a couple of days, but I started to see that the traffic is being increased, thanks to the ads I have running.  I still need to look closer at how to adjust the campaign and change up the keywords so that I can get more traffic, and start to get conversions as well.

Since the whole point of this business is to make money, it really doesn’t matter how many people see my ad, or how many click on the ad.  If they don’t convert, and actually spend some money, it’s not worth it.

As I’m writing this, my number of impressions has grown to 7,213, and the number of clicks has risen to 78.  I think this is great, but I know I still have a lot of work to do.  I look forward to this next week, as we work on enhancing our ads, and trying to get conversions for our business.