Zeb Summers started off the year as an IT Manager, but after 15 years of hard work was laid off when Covid hit. Instead of deciding to go back to corporate America, he took the leap to turn his affiliate marketing side hustle into a full-time career. He wanted to do something that gave him full control of his time. As a 45 year old father of 2, he was looking to get some time back to spend with his family.
Zeb loves affiliate marketing and has grown a passion for it, which is why he decided to do it full time. By full time I’m not talking 8 hours of labor each day. Full time as in 3 hours of work each day, and the rest of the day to spend with his family and do whatever he wants.
We recently had him on our morning show, Wake Up Legendary to talk about his strategy for success. So what is Zeb’s strategy for success?
Planning A Month At A Time To Focus On Money Producing Activities
When Zeb first started his full time affiliate marketing career, he felt he wasn’t producing the results that he should be. He began focusing all his time on money producing activities. He plans out his schedule a month at a time, and makes weekly and daily schedules for himself.
He schedules everything he wants to do in his 3 hour work window in his planner. He does this by focusing on certain things each day. For example, one day may be a planning day for his Tik Tok videos, and the next may be a day where he creates his Tik Tok videos.
One key to this process Zeb feels, is getting a good night’s sleep. The human brain cannot function to its fullest potential without a good amount of sleep. Whenever Zeb feels like he has an idea for the next day, he always makes sure to write it down. By writing it down, it helps him to sleep better because he doesn’t have to think about it while he’s trying to sleep.
Zeb creates 3-12 Tik Toks to post throughout each day along with creating Youtube videos. He plans out each video and it’s headline. Planning is a huge factor in keeping his work day to only 3 hours.
Create Goals For Yourself To Accomplish And Create To-Do Lists To Keep Track of Them
Zeb takes his goals for the month and the week and divides them down into weekly, then daily goals. He creates an amount he wants to make for the month. He then decides how many emails he has to send, how many Tik Toks he has to create, and how many sales he has to make to get the commission.
Once he has created his monthly goals, he takes them down to weekly goals. Every week he knows he has to send out a certain number of emails each day, a certain number of Tik Tok’s, and a certain number of customers to follow up with each day.
But he doesn’t stop there…
Zeb says that once he breaks down his goals into daily goals, the magic starts to happen. Zeb says he has to tune into his daily goals and be self disciplined and present.
“It’s not about taking action, it’s about taking daily action,” Zeb said.
He starts off each day writing emails to his email lists. Sometimes he spends up to an hour writing emails and interacting with his email list. He creates a goal number of emails to write and sticks to that goal.
He wants to humanize himself to his customers and stay present because that’s something that is very important in affiliate marketing. The more authenticity you show, the more your customers can relate to you and build trust with you.
He also creates a goal amount of Tik Tok videos and Youtube videos to create. Once he’s planned out and created those videos, he spends his 3 hour work day creating those videos to be readily available to post throughout the day.
[Image description] Zeb’s Tik Tok @zebsummers
One great tool for this that Zeb uses, is Trello. Trello is a planning website that allows you to create to-do lists and organize different lists to check tasks off of. Trello also shows you a percentage of how much you have completed each day and can refresh so that you have a clear list of tasks to plan for each day you’re working.
Zeb typically uses a pen and paper for his planning. For more tech savvy people, Trello has a mobile app. Another useful tool is the notepad or calendar on your phone or computer.
Becoming The Creator And Tracking Your Progress
Zeb always says that at the beginning you can’t focus on the money. He says to focus on creating the foundation and creating content. Once you create the content, the money will come. At first, it’s hard to figure out where to start. He says that when starting out create goals for yourself and get out of your comfort zone.
He says to take 60 to 90 days and track the progress that you are making. Focus on your goal and track the progress of your videos and work. If you aren’t meeting your goal, take a few steps back and figure out what exactly you need to do to meet that goal.
The money might not flow in at first so it’s important to make a realistic goal for yourself that you can track. Once you’ve reached your goal you can assess what you did that month to reach that goal and continue to repeat and tweak that process.
In the beginning when you’re creating your baseline, it’s important to consistently do content creation in a channel or two, such as Youtube, Facebook, Tik Tok, or your email list. Once you’ve succeeded in making content, you can track what is working and do more of it.
When Things Don’t Go As Planned, Keep Moving Forward
When a day doesn’t go as planned, Zeb says to always keep moving forward. “You’re going to be on top of the mountain and you’re going to be in the pit of despair,” Zeb said. It’s important to move forward and try your best to not let the little things bother you.
You don’t have to get analytical to keep track of your progress. Just simply writing things down and keeping track of them is enough when starting out to monitor what’s working and what isn’t. Don’t give up even if it feels like you’re not being successful. Behind an unsuccessful day could be a thousand dollar day, but you won’t know unless you stick it out.
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