Treat your business like a business – not a hobby

Hey, I know you came here and you're listening to this audio to get some great information on how to run your business better or how to be more effective, but the value that I'm about to share with you in this audio is going to totally blow your mind. Hey, my name is Pat Patterson and I wanted to share with you today kind of the struggles that I went through and how I endured and got myself out of it and now I am very successful. And the main thing is you have to treat your business like a real business and not a hobby. This is why 97% of most home-based businesses fail because they treat it like a hobby and not a business. So let's talk about that.

See, back in 2013 is when I got my start, but before that I was a police officer. I was a proud police officer for 17 years. I was severely injured while on duty and it took me completely out of law enforcement. You see, I was attacked by two male perpetrators and a very large pit bull. Now in the end I managed to put the dog down and the two suspects, well, they were arrested.

They went to jail, but I suffered severe injuries including two broken ribs, a fractured left wrist, multiple injuries to my left arm and three ruptured discs in the back of my neck. So during the next 14 months I endured four surgeries on my neck and spine. All I wanted to do was just get back on duty, just go back to work. But after that last surgery, the doctor gave me the worst news that I could possibly imagine at the time. He said, Officer Patterson, you're not going to be able to return back to active duty.

So I'm like, now what? What am I going to have to do now, go guard a telephone pole in a parking lot somewhere for some security company? That was my option because law enforcement's all I knew. Now I'm on a 16-day restricted movement after the last surgery. So I had heard people could make money online.

I didn't think it would be that difficult. So I got my laptop because I'm having to lay on my back and I can't move my neck left or right because he's wanting me to stay as still as possible for 16 days. So my laptop is on my stomach. It's too low for me to see the screen. So I put a pillow underneath it and brought it up.

And I began searching the internet for a way to make money online. And boy, I found it with Empower Network. That's it. Why wasn't I so successful working 8 to 10 to 12 hours a day? Because I still, like many of you listening to this right now, I had an employee mindset.

I work for two weeks. It's time to get a paycheck. Does that sound familiar? You can't have an employee mindset because you're not an employee anymore. You're a business owner.

And this is why I was failing. This is why 97% of all home-based businesses fail because they don't treat their business like a business. They treat it like some hobby. You're not building model airplanes here. You're building a business.

And it's not going to happen overnight. Obviously it's not. But I'm telling you, if you dedicate your time, dedicate your energy, and dedicate yourself to your business, it is almost impossible to fail. As long as you put the work in and the time and the effort in, you can make it work. But the problem is, again, going back to that 97%, they treat it like a hobby.

Here's what they do. Now, this is going to sound familiar to a lot of you listening to this right now. You start off in the first two weeks, you're 100 miles an hour. You're going at it. You're working your business.

You're so proud of yourself. And then what happens? You know, the last two weeks, you've been coming home, dedicating those two hours a night or three hours a night or however many hours you work your business a day. And if you're full-time, you're working at six, eight hours a day, you're just going 100 miles an hour, like I said. That's junk.

It doesn't exist. Get that out of your mind, because that does not exist in the real world. So after the two weeks, you go from working those two hours, I mean, you were dedicated those first two weeks, then it becomes a hobby, because those two hours working five days a week or three hours working four days a week, whatever you were working, it goes down by half after the second week. So now you come home, you're tired, you're like, you know what, let me work an hour so I don't feel guilty. And that's what you do.

You work an hour on your business for about another five or six days. And the next seven and eight and ninth and 10th day, guess what happens? You go from working that hour to working 30 minutes or 15 minutes. And before you know it, before the month's even over, you're not working your business at all. And what do you do?

Most people look at it, ah, that was a scam, that didn't work. That didn't work at all. Instead of looking in the mirror and saying, what are you doing? I'm failing because of you. You need to get to work and start treating this like a business.

Now, people won't do that. They won't blame themselves. They want to blame the product. They want to blame the company. They want to blame the weather.

Oh, it's too cold outside, even though you're working inside. Wherever you can put the blame is where you're going to put it, except on you. Stop doing that. Look in the mirror and put the blame where it goes. It's your fault if you're not successful.

It's your fault that you're not working your business because you're treating the business like some hobby. This is not a hobby. Imagine for just a second, in corporate America, if every business owner treated their business like you treat your business. Imagine that for a second. We would have a financial fallout in this country.

You cannot even phantom that you're going to be successful if you're not willing to put the time and the effort that it takes to make it work. Here's another thing that just really gets me. People come into this business, and I know right now you're at the inner circle level, but you have to ask yourself, are you all in? I talk to so many people, and the first thing I ask them is, what do you want to do? Are you wanting to leave your job?

Are you wanting to do this full time? 99% of them will say, yes, I want to do this full time. No. They all say, well, no, I'm not. Yes, that's what I need.

But not $10,000, because we can get to $3,000 in the next three to six months. Again, we're talking about money here, so I want to make it perfectly clear, look, Empower Network goes way over and beyond the income disclaimers. Just go to EmpowerNetwork.com forward slash income. I'm going to get into the viral blogging, and I'm going to get the inner circle, and I'm going to get to the next levels from my profits. First of all, that is no different.

Now, stay with me here, and just close your eyes for a second and think about this. That's 19 sign-ups per day. I'm pretty good at this, and I get only three, four, five, six, sometimes eight sign-ups a day, and like I said, I've got experience. Telling me or telling anybody that you want to get up to the inner circle and use profit money to get the rest of the way is no different than saying, I'm buying a McDonald's franchise, and what I'm going to do is I'm going to sell Cokes, and I'm going to take my profit money from those Cokes, and hopefully within the next three to six months, I'm going to move up to French fries. Yes, sirree.

Three to six months from now, I'm not only going to be selling Cokes, but I'm going to be selling French fries, and if everything works out great, and I work my business like a business and not some hobby, I'm going to advance to hamburgers, and boy, then I'm really going to be pulling in the money. Do you see how stupid that sounds? That sounds just as stupid when somebody tells me, I want to just go to the inner circle or the viral blogging level and use the profit money to move up, or I want to see how this goes first. Are you kidding me? You want to see how it goes?

Look in the mirror and tell yourself how it's going to go, because you've got to get away from that employee mindset. You've got to have a business owner's mindset. You have to take it to the next level and say, this is my business, 100% mine, and it is not going to work unless I do. This is what happened to me. That was my mindset.

I also had it in my mind, even though I was working, only because I didn't have anything else to do. I mean, I'm looking up at a ceiling in a trailer, a trailer that was 40, 50 years old that belonged to my son in the back bedroom. This place was nasty, but I had no choice. I had to stay there, so I'm looking up at the ceiling and looking at my screen on my computer that's sitting on my stomach that's sitting on a pillow. Now I know it's not a scam.

I'm working eight to 10 hours a day, but most of those hours that I was working was learning. I was in training mode and taking action at the same time. I just didn't know that. I didn't realize, okay, I'm in training mode, but when you're trying to do something on YouTube and you're trying to do something on Craigslist, because let me explain something to you. YouTube, to me, was a place where you went and watched blooper videos, you know, people falling off their skateboard, busting their ass on the concrete.

Craigslist was just a garage sale online. I never looked at that as a form of marketing until I got with Empower Network. So here's what happened to me. I'm working eight to 10-hour days, and again, most of that in training, because I had to learn what I was doing, and several times I wanted to literally pick up my laptop and just throw it completely out the window. I got that frustrated.

I got so irritated that I had to slowly, and after a while, I was able to walk. I didn't have to be confined to the bed, so I would slowly walk down this little skinny hallway, and anybody that's been in a trailer, you know what I'm talking about. I would go outside and easily sit down, and literally, it would take me 10 minutes to walk from the back bedroom up to the front door and get on the porch to sit there and smoke a cigarette, just to calm down, just to take a breather. So I didn't tear up my computer, because I needed that to build my business. So here I am, and I realized, sitting out there on that porch, I don't know what happened.

I'm not going to say, and it hit me, or some miraculously miracle happened. I'm not going to say that. I'm just going to say, I came to my senses. I figured it out sitting out there, fully frustrated, irritated, aggravated, and it's just like, you know what? I'm treating this like I'm an employee.

You know, like right now, I'm on a smoke break. I'm not an employee. I am a business owner. I don't have to ask anybody to take a break. I don't have to ask anybody to do anything.

Whether I succeed or fail is 100% up to me. It's my fault. If I think I can do it, I can. If I think I can't do it, I can't. Either way, I'm right.

I'm sure you've heard that before. But here's the most important thing that happened to me. Are you listening to me? Listen to this. As soon as I realized that I'm approaching this whole thing as an employee and not a business owner, everything began to change for me.

And when I say begin to change, that's an easy word to say. Marketing got easier. Doing things on YouTube got easier. Absorbing information on training videos got easier. Why?

Because now I'm dedicated to my business. I'm no longer an employee. I'm not treating this like some hobby, like I'm going to build a model car or I'm going to go throw some Frisbees around. I'm treating my business like a real business. And you remember that 97% that fails?

This is why. They fail because they refuse to treat their business like a business. Instead, they look at it as a hobby. That may or may not work. Why should I waste my time on it?

Look, you're at the inner circle level or you wouldn't be hearing this audio. A lot of people's results in Empower are not typical. I'm not promising you anything here. I'm saying if you work your business, if you treat it like a business and not a hobby, if you get rid of that employee mindset and start dedicating your time and your efforts to your business, it is almost impossible to fail as long as you listen to the inner circles and go through that top producer formula because here's another thing that happened. In September of 2014, I finally watched the top producer formula and it'd been out two or three weeks, I guess.

And if you don't believe me, go look at the leaderboards right now. Ever since I went through the top producer formula and I implemented what David Woods said in that training, I have been on the leaderboards ever since, way past six months. At the time that I'm doing this audio right now, I am number two for the last six months on the Empower Network leaderboard. You don't get on these leaderboards treating your business like a hobby. It just doesn't happen.

But I'm telling you, I went from $164 to about $394, from $394 to $900 and some change, from $900 and some change to $1,600 and some change. Why did I see such quick results? Why from October, November, December, January, why didn't I see all these results? Because I was an employee. An employee only makes a salary.

An employee only works by the hour. Even though I wasn't making money by the hour, I was still an employee. I was still treating this like some hobby. And I remember sometimes I would sit there and say, let me watch this training video. And after about 15 minutes, this is what I heard from the training video.

Blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, because I didn't hear anything after the next 15 minutes because I was treating my business like a hobby. I was only watching that training video just to make myself feel better. So at the end of the day, I could say, what the heck, I worked my ass off today. You know, I did five videos. I watched a training video.

I did great. I was kidding myself. That was a joke. And if I'd have failed back then, guess what I'd have done? I wouldn't have looked in the mirror and blamed myself.

I would have blamed Empower Network. Oh, that's a scam. That didn't work. Oh, what the heck? What was I thinking?

You cannot even expect for a second to run your business like a hobby and see any kind of results. And, you know, even a blind squirrel finds a nut every now and then. So you may get lucky every now and then and make a pretty good commission. But in reality, that was pure luck. Because until you leave your employee mindset and become a business owner, in your mind, a good friend of mine by the name of Patrick Meyer told me that you have to be all in mentally before you can go all in financially.

Now that does that not just blow your mind? Think about that for a moment. What is he saying there? He said, basically, you have to have a business owner's mindset before you invest your money. Wow.

You've got to be all in mentally. That means you're not an employee. You're a business owner. Start treating today. Make it your mission to start treating your business like a business and not a hobby, not an employee.

You've got the keys and everything. You own the building. You own the business. It's yours to run however you want to. If you take nothing else out of listening to this audio, but this, you're not an employee anymore.

You're a business owner. Start treating your business like a business and I'm telling you, miraculously things will just start happening. Of course, that means you're putting in the time and effort that it takes to make it work. That's not saying, okay, I've got a business owner's mindset. I know I'm not an employee.

I'm all hyped up, but then you don't go and even turn on your computer. You think you're going to get results? Good luck with that because it's not going to happen. You have to put the time and effort that it takes to make this business work. I did and again, let me go back to March of 2014 when I changed my mindset from an employee mindset to a business owner's mindset.

When it truly happened, when I was fully all in mentally was March 21st of 2014 and everything in my mind changed. I was excited to wake up. I couldn't wait to get in front of that computer. I couldn't wait to market. I couldn't wait to learn something new today.

I was so excited. Could you imagine buying that McDonald's franchise because you had the $300,000 or $400,000 to invest? buying that, and then never opening the doors, never working your business, wow. You wouldn't do that, because you've got too much money invested. Same with your online business, same thing.

You've got your time invested, and you've got money invested, and until you treat it like a business, it's not gonna work. That's just a cold, hard truth right there. If you don't treat it like a business, you're wasting your time. Go do something else, because this isn't for you. Now, was it for me in the beginning?

Obviously not, because I had an employee mindset. And again, let me go back to March 21st, 2014, and I apologize for jumping back and forth, but March 21st, 2014, I remember the day very clearly. I woke up, and like I said earlier, I could not wait to get started, because I'm starting, it was kind of like my very first day as a business owner, my very first day, and it took me from February to March 21st to finally get that business owner mentality and get rid of the robot mentality, that hobby mentality, because again, I'm not building a model airplane here. I'm building a business. March 21st, 2014, I worked eight, 10, 12-hour days every day, six days a week from March 21st.

Now, I'd been doing that before, but let me tell you the difference between before and after March 21st. Yes, I was putting in eight to 10 to 12-hour a day from October, November, December, January, February, but was I really putting it in, or was I just sitting in front of my computer wasting time? You remember the part where I said I'd watch a training video, and after about 15, 20 minutes, blah, blah, blah, that's all I heard? Is that really working? Now, something that I found out, being a business owner, now when I listen to those training videos, I didn't hear any more blah, blah, blah.

I was soaking it in. I was absorbing everything I'd learned, because I'm a business owner. I have to know this to succeed. So instead of just sitting there wasting my time, making myself feel better at the end of the day, because I watched a training video, I'm actually listening to that training video. I'm not just watching it.

I'm listening. I'm absorbing, because once again, I'm no longer creating a hobby here. I'm creating a business. And for those of you that think that this is gonna happen overnight for you, for those who think that, look, if I just put 30 days really hard into this, this is gonna work, yes and no. It depends on your work ethic.

It depends on how much time you actually dedicate to working and not just sit like I did, just sitting there in front of the computer. But remember this, you're building a home by yourself with a saw, a hammer, and some nails. You gotta start with the foundation and build it all the way up. Let's say a five-bedroom home. It's not gonna happen overnight.

It's gonna take time. I started out with zero people on my team, and now I have over 8,000 people on my team. Did that happen overnight? No, that took me over 18 months to accomplish. And actually, when I say 18 months, you gotta realize the first three months was wasted because my mindset was totally out in left field.

I only did this basically to prove to myself it would not work the first three months. Is that a business owner's mindset? Absolutely not. This is what I want you to take away from this audio. When you turn this off and you go back to start working your business again, close your eyes for a second.

Maybe as your computer's booting up, maybe it's already booted up and you're just waiting to go to work, but close your eyes for a second and say to yourself, I own this. I'm the business owner here. I'm not an employee. This is not my hobby. This is my business, and no matter what, I will not quit and I will make it work.

That is exactly what I did, and now I make thousands of dollars a month, thousands of dollars a month. Now, I'm tripling that. So treat your business like a business, not a hobby. Get rid of the hobby, get rid of the employee, and I'm telling you, everything will begin to change for you. Just like Patrick Meyer said, you have to be all in mentally before you can succeed, before you can get this done.

Are you kidding? Good luck with that. Get all in. Do not think of your business as how much it's gonna cost me, but how much it's gonna make me. Do you think the guys in corporate America think, oh my God, what is the light bill gonna be this month?

Oh my God, what's the, no. That's a business expense. That's just the cost of doing business. Same with this. You know, your inner circle, your viral blogging, the top producer, the top team builder, the mass influence, it's the cost of doing business.

So when I tell you to treat your business like a business and not a hobby, that also includes invest in your business. Get all in if you're not already. And if you are, man, my hat's off to you. I salute you because you're already invested. You're already halfway there on treating your business like a business.

Invest in your business. Look at how much this is gonna make you, not how much it's gonna cost you. That's a business owner's mindset. And you remember this whole audio has been talking about get rid of that employee mindset. So those are not bills.

Those are investments in your business. So now that you're a business owner, now that you're gonna walk away from this audio as a true business owner, and congratulations, I wanted to share something that really worked for me as far as goals. And we all need goals in our business, so we know we're accomplishing something. You reach for it, you set a goal, and you go for it. But here's where I found was my biggest mistake, making my goals about money.

Never ever, and did I say never ever? Make your goals about money because you'll be disappointed every time. I was. And you don't reach it, it takes the wind right out of you. It's like you just got just punched in the chest and somebody just knocked the wind completely out.

Make your goals about opt-ins. And an opt-in is where somebody goes to your capture page and they put their email address in there and clicks yes, let me in. And they go and watch the Empower Network sales video. That's an opt-in. For those of you who didn't know that, make it about opt-ins, not about money.

Do you go to your job now if you have a job? Do you go to your job and say, okay, if I do this and I do that and then I type this for my boss and I make the coffee or whatever you do and I'll make this amount of money if I do that and then I'll make this amount of money if I do that. No, you don't do that. You go to work, you do your job to the best of your ability and guess what? The money's automatic.

At the end of the week or two weeks, it's automatic that you're gonna get a paycheck. This is no different. If you treat your business like a business and again, like I said many times and not a hobby and make your goals about opt-ins and this is what I mean. You want five opt-ins a day for 14 days straight. Now, if you only get five opt-ins for 12 straight days and on the 13th day you only get three, you start back with day one.

So you get five opt-ins for 14 days straight. After you reach that goal, then you get 10 opt-ins for 14 days straight. Once you reach that goal, you get 15 opt-ins and increase it by five opt-ins every time you reach that goal. Mentally, what that does for you is just explode your business because you're reaching goals. You're accomplishing something and guess what?

The money's automatic because we all know this is a numbers game. So you're treating your business like a business. You're now a business owner. Now you have a goal. Instead of thinking about money, if you think about opt-ins and get those five opt-ins a day, 10 opt-ins a day, 15 opt-ins a day, the money's gonna be automatic because this is a numbers game.

If you get five opt-ins a day, 10 opt-ins a day, 20 opt-ins a day, you're gonna get conversions. It's like next to impossible not to. Now, I'm not talking about hiring somebody from Indonesia and buying all this fake traffic and that stuff you wanna stay away with. Be very cautious when you start buying traffic or solo ads and all that, but the main thing is don't make your goals about money. Make it about opt-ins because now you're a business owner and when you turn this audio off and you get back to your home office and you're sitting there in front of your computer, I want you just to close your eyes for just a few seconds and just think to yourself, wow, I'm a business owner.

This is mine, all mine. It's mine to do and run however I see fit and now, not only am I a business owner, but I have a goal. I'm gonna get five opt-ins a day. I'm gonna get 15 opt-ins for the next 14 days because if you're already getting 10 or 15 or 20 opt-ins, just whatever you're getting, increase it by five and say that's what I'm gonna get for the next 14 days and remember, this is not like playing golf where you're gonna take as many mulligans as you want because you're out there by yourself. This is, you get 25 opt-ins a day, say your goal and on day 12, you only get 24.

You start back from day one and get 25 opt-ins a day for 14 days straight, 30 opt-ins a day for 14 days straight. That gets your mindset away from money because the money's gonna be automatic and it gets you to focus on a goal that you can accomplish. So, now that you have your business and you're a business owner and a business owner's mindset and you're all in mentally, take this goal that I just gave you and go reach it. Keep your feet on the ground and keep reaching for the stars. Hey, this is Pat Patterson.

I really appreciate you listening to this audio. I truly hope it helped you and you have a super blessed day.