Don’t Wait to Win: Overcoming Procrastination in Dropshipping (Episode 38)

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🗣 ​​Lewis Smith and James Eardley take on the formidable foe of procrastination. This silent dream-killer often lurks in the world of dropshipping, and the hosts share their insights and tactics for defeating it.

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Topics Discussed:

★ The challenges of procrastination in the entrepreneurial world, particularly in dropshipping.

★ The real consequences of procrastination, including missed opportunities and delayed success.

★ The emotional triggers that lead to procrastination, such as fear of failure and perfectionism.

★ Tips for staying motivated and continuously progressing in the world of dropshipping.

Links and Resources Mentioned:

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Key Takeaways:

★ The Cost of Procrastination: Delaying action in dropshipping results in missed opportunities. 

★ Mental Triggers: Fear of failure and perfectionism are common emotional triggers for procrastination in the world of ecommerce.

★ Practical Strategies: Overcoming procrastination involves setting specific, measurable, and time-bound goals, establishing a daily routine, and using productivity tools.

★ Motivation: To maintain motivation, celebrate small wins, create a cue-habit-reward cycle, and always remind yourself of your "why." 

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★★★Dropship Unlocked - Lewis Smith★★★

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Transcript

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Lewis Smith: 0:00

That was definitely one hack that I think so many people write off. And it's a shame because that that that is the one thing that will hold them back from being able to experience the results and get up and running much faster.

James Eardley: 0:11

Procrastination can easily seep in at that point. So if you change the environment, you completely change the way that you will act.

Lewis Smith: 0:18

Something that makes this quite a hidden challenge is because it's it's deeper than surface level, just

James Eardley: 0:26

one step every day. It can really compound until you get into incredible place that you may never have thought possible.

Lewis Smith: 0:33

I wanted to focus today on actions that we can take to help us avoid and overcome procrastination. So I think

James Eardley: 0:39

it has to come down to having set a strong and clear reason why, if it's going to be difficult either way, just for different durations of time. We're looking at it rationally. Which

Lewis Smith: 0:50

one would you rather have the one that's difficult for decades or the one that's difficult for you? Welcome to the dropship unlocked podcast your key to unlocking the secrets of high ticket dropshipping. I'm Louis Smith, founder of dropship unlocked and with me is our Client Success Coach James Eardley. Now when we're not recording podcast episodes, we're running our own e commerce businesses and helping aspiring entrepreneurs launch their own high ticket dropshipping businesses. So if you're ready to learn how to build your own six, or even seven figure business, pick up a copy of my book, the home turf advantage, whether you're looking to replace your income or launch a side hustle. I wrote this book as a roadmap to help you launch a low maintenance high profit e commerce business that gives you the freedom to spend more time with your family, travel the world and work on your own terms of ready to join us visit HT a book.com To get your copy today. Now sit back, relax and let's unlock your potential with a dropship unlocked Podcast.

James Eardley: 1:59

Today we are confronting a formidable enemy that haunts the path of every entrepreneur, procrastination. I think everyone is guilty of procrastinating. But this adversary if we don't keep an eye on it can halt our dropshipping progress. But don't worry, I've got Louis with me today. And we're going to be discussing the tactics that we've learned, but how to avoid falling into the trap of procrastination. So Louis, are you looking forward to diving into this topic today?

Lewis Smith: 2:26

I am Yep, it should be a good one. I know procrastination is a bit of a silent dream killer. So yeah, let's get into it.

James Eardley: 2:32

Yes, I think everyone is familiar with procrastination. But why do you think it's such an issue with so many people? And in particular, with people starting an E commerce venture? Yeah,

Lewis Smith: 2:42

well, dropshipping and entrepreneur in the world of entrepreneurship, but specifically online entrepreneurship. In general, if you think about it, it offers such immense levels of freedom, which we as a society have not ever really been used to before this age, right. And it's that kind of that lack of structure can be a double edged sword, because on the one hand, it's amazing. But on the other hand, it's quite scary, because it's like, well, we have no structure. Now it's totally on us to steer our ship of our you know, what used to be a quite as straightforward, structured career, if you think back to when we worked in jobs, or if you are currently working in a job, or if you're at uni, or you've been through school, up until that point, where we decide to take the leap into entrepreneurship, usually, we've been assigned a job or a task, and we're told what to do. And it's all very straightforward. And it's you follow the path, there's a standard kind of career progression, that everybody follows the normal path. But that freedom is a blessing and a curse. Because, yes, it's the greatest benefit of entrepreneurship, it means you can travel the world, you can just pack your laptop in your rucksack and get on a plane and off you go. But also, not necessarily motivation, because I don't think procrastination comes through a motivation problem. I think that it's just a vicious like mental cycle that is deeper rooted and usually comes from a fear of what might happen if you take action. You know, what happens if you start to accumulate wealth and money that when people treat you differently, people going to attack you for it? Like, what's the, what's the fear deep down, and I think that's something that makes this quite a hidden challenge is because it's it's deeper than surface level, we don't just procrastinate because of, you know, like, on a surface level, we don't want to do the task. Typically we do we have the motivation and the will behind it. But there's something there stopping us deeper. So that's what we'll try and discuss in today's episode and uncover a bit more about that and how you can specifically catch that inaction and what you could do to rectify it.

James Eardley: 4:36

Yeah, it's a really interesting point. I think it's so structured as you go through school, uni or a job. And suddenly you're into the world of entrepreneurship, and there's no one there to tell you what to do. And so it has to come from self discipline. So it's a very interesting point that you make. Yeah, and

Lewis Smith: 4:50

often we don't realize that that's what it is. We spend, you know, days watching YouTube videos or researching stuff to do with E commerce, whatever we're into at that time. We listen to all the podcasts, maybe we read a book about it. And then suddenly, this weird thing happens where we find ourselves like, Okay, I'm going to today I'm going to reorganize my desk, because in order to be a successful entrepreneur, I need to have a really clean, tidy desk, everything's laid out in the right way. And then you've done that. And you think, well, actually, the living room probably needs a quick Hoover. So I just got to sort that out, and then sort some stuff out in the kitchen, or rearrange the fridge a bit. And you realize, like, you're not actually moving towards anything. And those are kind of like, maybe exaggerated examples. Although I've definitely been guilty of those types of things. Sometimes they fall into the digital realm as well. So like we're doing the equivalent of cleaning up the living room, within the digital world. So we're, you know, rearranging things within our project plan and like remapping different goals, and we're focusing on things that aren't actually actions that will lead to the end result. And so we just kind of get caught in this holding pattern. And we, yes, no wonder we don't move towards the goal if we're not taking actions to get there. And many people treat their dropshipping businesses, just like they're a hobby, initially. And so the expectation is, well, if you treat it like a hobby, then it will probably pay you like a hobby. You know, you got to ask yourself, do you want to be the type of if you're in a football team? Do you want to be playing in the Sunday League pub team? And is that it? Are the benefits that come from that? Okay, for you? Do you just want to do it for a bit of fun, but you're not ready to take it that seriously? Or do you want to play in the top Premier League Division? Because if you do, there's going to be a different level of sacrifice required in your life to reach those heights. But obviously, there are huge benefits that then come with that down the line that are much longer lasting. So it's just kind of a question, really, are you willing to sacrifice some of the things to get there? I know, when I first started my ecommerce business, I was still working at my old job at the time. And I was thinking about this the other day, like I would get a phone call maybe the evening before or you know, an email saying that I'd been put on an assignment to travel up to the country and you know, had to like, get trained for hours or get in the car. And I'd be on a really long rainy commute off to some office, you know, somewhere else in the country hours awake. And I guess at the time, because I knew that I had made the decision, I now wanted to be an entrepreneur, and I wanted to run an E commerce business, I could do all of that stuff with a smile on my face. Because deep down, I had the satisfaction of knowing that, yes, I was working on this thing. And yes, I would like nod and smile and go along with it and get the job done in the way that needed to be done. But deep down, I was working on something that would set me free. And that was like a level of excitement that is hard to describe unless you've really experienced it. Because when you do you start to realize that none of the other stuff matters. Yeah, of course, we'll go along, and we'll kind of show face and do what we need to do. But deep down, we're really excited because we can see that there's this like cliff face, which once we go past it, the world is our oyster, like we've got complete and utter total freedom, flexibility to travel time, freedom, financial freedom. Of course, you don't get there overnight. But once you make the decision to go for it, if you're anything like me, and you think well, once I set my mind to something, I'm going to do it, then it becomes really liberating. And I remember I was happy to sacrifice my evenings and weekends and even mornings before work, like after going to the gym really early, and then have a few hours before work started, I would sacrifice that time for the benefit of creating a business that I knew would provide me with a better future. And I think I didn't really see it as a sacrifice, I saw it as just the work that needed to be done the groundwork, the foundations for what was eventually going to replace my income and become a company that I could then sell or you know, exit for millions one day. But one of the things I did notice whilst I was working on the business, even in those short time bursts, while I was balancing it with still having a day job is that say I had a day to work on things or even a morning a few hours before work, I'd start checking emails, which is a terrible move for productivity, because that is just literally little nuggets of procrastination, that will just send you down different rabbit holes, you're letting someone else just, you know ruin your day. If you do that. First thing you do is look at the inbox. Then I like I said like reorganize the room or be like no, I need a new laptop to be able to run this. So I'd like shopping on there and researching and looking at YouTube videos for that, then I'd clean their house, I've been out of the car need to clean the actually. So again, sort that and you realize that it was the procrastination was a masking. The thing that I didn't want to do. So my brain was is what the brain do is do they tried to keep us in our comfort zone. And they try to prevent us from leaving it. So if we get the idea of like or if we're told that we need to perform the action of okay, you have to call suppliers to get these suppliers to sign with you to build your ecommerce business, or you have to follow some steps to get your ad campaigns live. You have to put your website out there to the world you have to you know all of these things. I think use your brain starts to take over and be like oh, you could just do all the kind of the busy work and put that off and kick that out into the long grass as they say. So I wanted to focus today on actions that we can take to help us avoid and overcome procrastination. So one of the hacks that really helped me to focus the mind was to join a training program. And it was for three reasons. Now, number one, it meant that I could get around others who were already way ahead of me, which what that does is kind of normalizes the result. So when you're surrounded by people who don't do what you're aspiring to do, you are the odd one out. But when you can get around other people who are further ahead and are where you want to be, they're all traveling the world, they have their work from their laptops, they have replaced, doubled, tripled their income and they all earn it all online. Now, suddenly, you're the odd one out for not being in that position. And so you you quickly want to conform to the tribe and but be like, well, I need to up my game then because I need to get there. So it's is that using that same psychology, but to your advantage rather than to your detriment? The second reason why joining a training program is amazing is the investment in it was the secret. You know, people always say I can get you know, those videos online on YouTube. And I'm like, Well, how much do you value them if they're free on YouTube, right? So when you invest in a program it for me, it made me sit up and pay attention. I was like, Okay, I've dropped a few grand on this here, like I need to treat this now. Like it's an inevitability, instead of a hobby, and really go for it. Because I want to see an ROI, I want to make it work. I'm holding myself accountable to do that. And think it means that the other people that you are surrounded by as well are a lot more serious, because they've all had that same level of foresight to invest in themselves and take their own future seriously. And then the third reason, and there are many reasons, obviously, but the third reason why training program was so important was the clear steps that I needed to take helped me avoid procrastination because it meant that when I got out of bed in the morning, and I was like, I've got two hours to work on the business before work starts. It wasn't like, Oh, let me just see what YouTube videos have come out or let me listen to a couple of podcasts. I'd still be where I was six years ago, right now, if I did that, instead, I was like, nope, module 1.1 module 1.2 module 1.3. Like just via through the content that is laid out in a sequential order sequential blueprint. And and, you know, there's no ambiguity, there's no way that I can then get lost. And so that was definitely one hack that I think so many people write off. And it's a shame because that that that is the one thing that will hold them back from being able to experience the results and get up and running much faster. And by the way, speaking of treating it seriously, and not as a hobby. We actually did an episode on this, I think a while back, didn't we so it was episode 27 titled How to launch a drop shipping business with zero experience. But we talked all about starting off on the right foot. So that one's worth listening to Episode 27 of the dropship unlocked

James Eardley: 12:39

podcast. Yeah, great plug there. And it makes a big difference to the topic of procrastination, the environment that you put yourself into, and what you're alluding to there with yourself getting into a program, it switches the environment from just being on your own sat at a desk with no and watching. And I think that's the perfect environment for procrastination, when you don't have that sort of accountability around you, you don't see other people really getting on with the goals that you want to achieve. And then you're just in a room on your own. And procrastination can easily seep in at that point. So if you change the environment, you completely change the way that you will act in that environment or go towards the goals that you have. But I'm interested to dig into what is the real costs into for a drop shipping business. If you fall into the trap of procrastination?

Lewis Smith: 13:25

Well, the cost I guess, is missed opportunity. It's the the delaying of taking action is just going to lead to missed opportunities. You know, there's no way that sometimes when I'm driving along, underneath, like where the planes take off, you know, at the airport, and I kind of think of this as quite an interesting thought exercise. So experiment to do. So. Imagine in six months from today, if you've taken action today, right? If you've made small steps every day, compounding taking consistent actions every single day, you could very well have your eCommerce store up and running. So that in six months time, you can say I'm going to take a month holiday, you know I'm gonna go traveling, perhaps take that financial burden off your shoulders that's been there for so long. If there's some like bills you need to pay or if you've got children, and you've felt that that strain of the finances suddenly for the first time ever in six months, because you took action consistently every day, you no longer feel that that's an amazing feeling, right? You maybe you go and hand in your notice to your boss and say that's it, I'm out, I quit, I'm done. I've replaced my income. I remember the day that I did that and what it felt like walking into my boss's office to hand in that piece of paper, and the look of like shock and the reaction. And the surprise when I told him that I wasn't just going to a competitor like 99% of people do when they hand in their notice because they've been offered another job a slightly better pay, hadn't been headhunted. You know, this wasn't that and I wasn't just going traveling to find myself and going to spend all my money and then hopefully come back again. afterwards. I was quitting my highly paid stable call. for a job handing back the keys to the company car, give him back the AMEX, give him that the laptop, the company phone, the full package, and go move to the other side of the world to travel the world with my wife and get paid while I did it. Like that was a great conversation to have. And in six months from now, if you take consistent action, that could be the position you find yourself it of course, there's no guarantee because it depends on the work you put in. And this is down to you. This is one of the scary things of entrepreneurship, you know, it is down to the the entrepreneur to lead that charge, because it's your life and your journey. But here's where the thought exercise comes in. Right? So you're on that plane, imagine you're on that plane, you're taking off, you're looking out the window down at all the cars, that could very well be you in six months, you know, in business class being like, I can't wait to go and experience this new life. But then there's the other scenario, right? That could happen in six months from now. And there are the dabblers that we call them, right. And those people are the ones that procrastinate, and they say, I just need to digest everything a little bit, or I just need to do a bit more research. These are the kinds of the words that you'll often hear from people who are procrastinating, maybe I need to consider a few of options. And you know, watch a few business model videos just to kind of decide on which one I want to go with. You know, before they know it, they've watched hundreds of hours, usually of conflicting YouTube tutorials that are all teaching slightly different models that don't quite gel or don't quite fit together. And some, by the way, are being taught by people on YouTube who've literally ever run a business for themselves. And it shows as well. You know, once once you kind of know behind the scenes of a business, you can tell when someone's just, you know, it's talking absolute fluff. And even if they do know the steps, right, so even if the dabbler is like right, I've got the steps, they spend months deliberating over, like, I just need to pick the perfect niche, or it's not perfect, because they haven't kind of got a system to validate it with data, we see this time and time again. Or maybe they're like, I don't know about Shopify, I might use a different ecommerce platform or whatever what color their header on their website has to be or their logo and things like that. And on that same day, in six months from today, just as your plane is taken off to leave for Thailand, or Mexico or Australia or wherever it is you're jetting off to in business class, beneath the plane, you look down out the window, and see one of those tiny ant sized cars, you know, on the motorway that looks like it's nearly still because you're so high up. And they can see the plane out the window in the dabbler sitting there exactly where they were six months earlier. You both listened to this same episode of the podcast. But they took no action. They just absorbed, they're still sitting in traffic commuting to the jobs that they hate. And they're wondering how you did it. So those are the options. And you have the choice, right? Will you be the one sitting in the business class seat looking down at the tiny cars jetting off to experience a new form of life and get the most out of your life with the people closest to you and earning more probably from your current salary than you did currently in your job and doing it all from a laptop? Or are you going to be stuck in the same traffic jam sitting in the car looking up at that plane and thinking wish that was me, you know, I could really do with a holiday, I'd love to go and travel. So the funny thing is, it is your choice, and you have total control over it. But it all starts with what you decide to do to date, whether you take action. And

James Eardley: 18:19

the crucial thing is that those six months are going to pass no matter which option you take. So you have the choice. And wherever you choose to do will decide where you are in six months from today. So it's up to you, those six months are going to pass. Do you want to be sat in the motorway commuting to work again as normal, or do want to be in the plane flying over the motorway, knowing that you'll earn the same amount of money from the other side of the world. And I had that exact decision and I knew exactly the decision I wanted to make. And as you say, Louis, within a few short months, if you leave procrastination to one side, and actually take action, just one step every day, it can really compound until you get into an incredible place that you may never have thought possible, just a few few short months ago. So inspirational really to hear that Louis and it's nice to be able to put it into those two camps, and to really realize the true costs of procrastination, if you allow it to seep in and stop you and hold you back from taking the action that you need to take. So we mentioned a bit earlier that we think procrastination is a bit more of a symptom than the cause. You mentioned the cause is maybe having a lack of a real strong reason why you're doing the work. And perhaps it's a fear of failure or a fear of the unknown. But what are the sort of emotional triggers that maybe trigger you for procrastination or triggered you in the past? What sort of things do people need to watch out for that often leads to procrastination?

Lewis Smith: 19:38

Yes, some of the common triggers are being very, very aware and catching yourself. Having that fear of failure, and looking for perfectionism in that real like striving for everything to be perfect before it goes live. That will lead to procrastination because it perfect is very difficult, if not impossible to achieve. And so you can't certainly be like, Oh, well, I'm just quoting this cycle because the thing is not ready yet. And therefore I can't put it out. So let me work on some other stuff. And it becomes this mental battle that you can't ever win. And so you know, it's like if you want to write a best selling book or something, and you say, I just want to be a best selling author, I want to, I want to write this amazing book, but you never write the first word, you have to take those incremental cumulative compounding actions that compound over time and lead to the end result. It's not all going to happen overnight. It is a step by step sequential process. But yeah, the other thing I think, as well as perfectionism, and fear of failure is just being overwhelmed by all the options available we talked about. Society has always given us a very clear path up until the point where we're then off the edge of the cliff into entrepreneurship. And suddenly, we have this plethora of options available in entrepreneurship, that I mean, entrepreneurship, incredible amount of options, you could narrow it down slightly and say, Well, I like E commerce as a model. But even within e commerce, there's so many options. So I think that can often lead to that kind of paralysis by analysis. Like you're, you're so overwhelmed with the options that you just do nothing. You're like the rabbit in the headlights, it just freezes. I think the thing has helped me if I was going to real actionable steps here is try and break the tasks into small, manageable chunks, really try to break down something that big that you want to achieve. And you know, read the book, the 12 week year by Brian Moran. It's a great book. And it allows you to really break down things, we've designed the dropship unlock program in that format, so that you feel this sense of achievement and accomplishment as you go will give you those micro wins. So that you constantly feeling like the pat on the back that, yeah, I've done this, I've signed the supplier, I've registered my company, I've got my ads lab, I've got my site, I've I've, you know I'm running, I've got my VA, I've just made my first 10 grand, I've just made my first 100 grand, so you kind of worked your way up there. But it doesn't all happen from day one. And I think sometimes we're looking so far at where we want to be at the end of the journey, that it almost feels like How will I ever get there, I don't know, I just give up, you know, or I'll just do something else. And that's where procrastination seeps in and steals people's dreams certainly does.

James Eardley: 22:01

For me, definitely an emotional trigger is looking at an overwhelming goal in the future. Like when you build an E commerce business, you might have all of these overwhelming tasks in your mind, like, Okay, I need to sign for suppliers, I need to build a Shopify store, I need to build a marketing campaign, I need to start selling the products, I need to hire a VA, if you look at it in such a broad spectrum like that, you feel overwhelmed and you don't know where to start. But if you just break that down, the beauty of it is you can break it into little tiny tasks that only take you half an hour or an hour each day. And you do that over the course of a few weeks and a few months. And before you know it you're looking back and realizing how much you've achieved. And it never would have been achievable. If you'd have seen it as one big task to do. Instead break it right down in those small chunks. And then that builds momentum. So you can tick things off your list, you feel good, because you've just launched a store, you've just launched your first ad campaign. And each milestone, you can really feel that you're getting that momentum going, and you're going towards the goals that you have. And importantly, keeps procrastination to one side because I don't feel overwhelmed then by having this big task on my mind. So what other practical strategies do you use to get around procrastination,

Lewis Smith: 23:11

one of them is to just set really specific, measurable and time bound goals as well. So just making sure that you're not just saying I just want to I'm going to build the business by you know, in a few months, it has to be like I will have my first 100 product uploaded by, you know, 21 days from now, then I can go live with the next step of the process, you know, having my ad campaigns up and running in life. So then you can kind of break that down into micro goals and say, well, in order to do that, I need to assign suppliers, how many suppliers do I need, maybe five, okay, well, then I need to supply sign one supplier every three days for the next few weeks. And that's going to require some phone calls and emails. So just see how like, there are two, like the end result is the same but one is very blurry, whereas the other one is very specific. And so that's the one that you will usually get to mean I would take my laptop to the gym each morning. Because then after the gym, I could just go straight away to kind of the lobby of the hotel that was at the gym in and just start working on whatever I needed to for that day, or in a coffee shop in the evening, I would just go and be in an environment where other people were all kind of working. And I'd set myself a daily goal, you know, I would, I would arrive there knowing what I needed to do, whether that was building a new page of the website or uploading 30 products myself before I had a team of virtual assistants, or maybe just set one ad campaign live like whatever it was, I would just see that go through to completion before leaving a really set myself a clear goal. And then I do things in the daytime could only be done during working hours. So maybe on my lunch break, I'd go out and call suppliers. And I'd sign it because I knew that was the time during the week between Monday to Friday nine to five that they would be open. So I'd use that time to call suppliers. Have a chat with them. Get the contract signed get there products over to us. And by the way, there's something we run through, we give you all the supplier scripts and stuff. So if you think in how do I call supplies, how do I find them like this stuff all covered don't work. But we, I'd really try and use that time wisely. Because then at 10pm, when I'm sitting in the cafe, I've got the list of product supplies, I'm not sitting there thinking half and I wish the suppliers was our supplier was open right now, so I could call them. So it's just being smart with what you do, and also when you do it. And then the other thing is just create that daily routine, and try and stick to it. Because discipline is like a muscle. It's like something you train in the gym, you know, the more you exercise it, the stronger it gets. And so we can use productivity tools to help us keep on track. So tools like Trello have been helpful for me in terms of doing that and make it but even just simple things like Google Calendar, if I need to do something, I will block it out in my calendar, and I'll title that appointment, you know, that two hour appointment is not just like work, it's upload 30 products so that I know exactly what I need to do in that timeframe. And then when I get to it, I hold myself accountable to it and sake, right? Well, that's the next two hours, I need to do that, because I've set myself the goal of it. So I put my phone on airplane mode, or Do Not Disturb headphones in no distractions until it's done. And just sometimes, if you have to work in shorter bursts, it's just setting a timer. Like, it's very different now because I have children and family. So I would probably say to them, look for the next half an hour, I just need 30 minutes to just get something seriously important done here, set a timer on the phone, 30 minutes and just power through. And it really focuses the mind because you're watching it like 2726 Like you say, I've only got a few minutes left, like I really need to focus it. And it's amazing what we can get done in that timeframe if we force ourselves to focus.

James Eardley: 26:40

And you can surprise yourself as soon as you're intentional with how you're going to spend your time you stop yourself just sitting down at a desk allowing three or four hours to pass by. And I think to myself when I was asking you that question, what was the main thing in my journey that got me away from procrastination and started me taking action consistently every single day towards the goals I had? I think it has to come down to having set a strong and clear reason why. Why was I doing that work? What was the end goal? That was really what it was, I think procrastination comes down to if you don't have that clear and strong reason why you can't reconnect to that. And you can easily fall into hours of scrolling social media or watching YouTube videos messing around, doing things that you know a video games or watching Netflix too much. It's things that you fall into if you don't have a clear purpose or strong reason why you should be worth focus on business or other areas. And you can easily fall into that trap. Definitely the case for me. I think back to my early years, I was quite a late developer in terms of enjoying learning and developing myself. I didn't get to that stage until I was about 19 or 20 years old. I struggled in school, very average mediocre GCSE results, a level results very mediocre average. And I really struggled to really concentrate or take any consistent action until I got past school at a levels. And then I really started to knuckle down and avoid that procrastination and achieve the goals that I set for myself. I think the difference was that I realized what it was I was going for. I got really excited about that. And I created a clear vision of how I wanted my life to look. And then I could move away from the procrastination and mediocrity and average results. I really started to get the incredible results that I knew I was capable of. If I had a very strong reason why and a strong purpose to go after. So discipline became quite important for me. How important do you see the role in of discipline? In getting away from procrastination? Yeah,

Lewis Smith: 28:37

discipline is vital. It's like the foundation of success for everything. You know, it's the difference between those who build a long term business that becomes a saleable asset that they could exit and sell for hundreds of 1000s of pounds in the future. And then those who like the dabblers, we talked about who are like just to make a bit of side cash with a side hustle, that personal development and like thirst for learning and knowledge. I think you're doing yourself a disservice by saying you are late to the game by not realizing that to you in 19 because that some I mean, a lot of people don't realize that until their way later in life. You know, I think the average age of an entrepreneur in the UK is like 35 to 40 or something so you know if you're currently in that age range or beyond like don't feel like you've missed the boat there's a lot of very successful people who start later but equally if you are in that younger category and you're listening to this now and thinking yeah, I liked like the sound of this this is the way I think as well then you're potentially way ahead of the curve. So yeah, in both in both scenarios, it can work but I think yeah, consistency over time with that type of stuff builds momentum, the you know, the the book, The Power of Habit by Charles Duhigg. In there, he kind of talks about this concept, this cycle of like you have a cue something that's like a stimulus something that triggers a habit or a routine. Then you have the routine itself, which is the thing that either a good or a bad habit then You have the reward, which is like, the reason why you did it is because it then leads to this nice reward this, you feel good when you eat chocolate, that kind of thing. So the cue for me might just be now to go to the gym and go for a run whenever. And or maybe back in the day, it was when I just got back from work. And so the routine, the action that I knew I needed to commit to was to maybe upload products, it was to do the task that I needed to do at the time, get a website, live, post a virtual assistant, job, AD, whatever it was, but then I could, so I could substitute the routine in for something that was productive and constructive and worked in a cumulative way to build the business. But then I've got to choose what the reward could be. So I might say, my reward is I get to play a game of Fifa, or my reward is I take my wife out for dinner, or my reward is, you know, have a evening just watching Netflix and just chill on the sofa. And so when you start to do the routine, the next time your brain starts to associate the routine that you're doing with the reward that comes after it, and before you know it, you've got a habit, and the habits good, and it's sustainable and constructive, as well. So that's a that's definitely a psychological hack to make this work. And to bake this into your everyday without it becoming such an uphill, motivation based willpower based struggle, you just bake it into something that you really enjoy doing. And before you know it, you're up and running.

James Eardley: 31:21

It's a great hack. And having that framework of cue, routine reward for a habit reminds you that you can adapt the cues that you're putting in front of you, so that you then trigger a different routine that you want to follow. And then you can choose the reward that you give yourself after doing a certain routine to make sure that that habit becomes easy and sort of unconscious eventually, then you just fall into the good habits that you want to have. So finally, Louis, what sort of tips would you say for anyone that's thinking about starting specifically dropshipping or E commerce businesses, but they feel held back by procrastination? Well,

Lewis Smith: 31:56

the thing to remember is, it's probably going to be hard either way, you know, depending on what your definition of heart is. But you take the easy option now. And it becomes hard later and for a very long time, right, you take the hard option now or the perceived hard option now, but we there are ways you can hack that to actually be quite enjoyable, like we talked about. But that difficult option now leads to delayed gratification later, that leads to the easy life later the life where you can travel the world in business class and have your own business and have that time freedom. And so if it's going to be difficult either way, just for different durations of time, we're looking at it rationally. Which one would you rather have the one that's difficult for decades, or the one that's difficult for six months, and beyond that becomes a lot more enjoyable. Of course, entrepreneurships still difficult, you know, even to this day, but once you have the resources to be able to put the right teams in place and hire the right people and empower them it's takes on a mind of its own. So it's yeah, I'd never ever swapped what I do today. For what I did back then. And so I can only speak from that experience, it's it's just a completely eye opening way of viewing life. You know, if once you've seen it, you never want to go back once and once you've experienced it, you'll never want to return. So the other things that you can do, try and celebrate the small wins as you go, because that's the fuel that keeps your engine going. Make sure you're recognizing those things, as I say our programs designed in a way that encourages that. That feeling of like micro wins as you go. So they always feel like you're getting momentum that you're moving ahead. Use the cue, habit, reward or cue routine reward cycle to your advantage. Put in what you need to get done as your routine and then choose the reward that that suits you. The other thing would be like you said, to keep reminding yourself of your why the deep rooted reason why you're doing it. It's like keeping your destination in sight when you're flying on a plane. You know, sometimes you might veer slightly off course. But if you keep going back to it every day, and again, this is something we bake into the first week of the program that you can course correct, you can navigate back towards the direction that you need to be going in. And so yeah, I think the other thing would be just to make sure you're getting around other ecommerce entrepreneurs for motivation and accountability and also to renormalize at that new level. And so that you are the odd one out because that's what you want to be, you know, if you're in this, if you're the smartest one in the room right now you're in the wrong room, get in a room where you are the least knowledgeable about something that you want to uplevel to. And by osmosis, you'll start to just attract the knowledge that you need from those people and before you know you'll be one of them. Just a quick heads up. If you'd like to share your questions, stories, successes or challenges, you can email us directly at podcast at dropship unlocked.com. And you never know we might even feature you on the next podcast episode. Also, if

James Eardley: 34:48

you want access to today's show notes or any of the resources we've mentioned in the episode today, then head over to dropship unlocked.com forward slash podcast we also have a small favor to ask if you if you enjoyed the show so far. If you could take a minute to leave us a rating and review on your podcast platform of choice, you wouldn't believe how much your reviews help us grow the podcast. We'll even read out some of our favorites on the next episode. So

Lewis Smith: 35:09

if you want to be featured on the show, please do go ahead and leave us a review today. Thanks so much for your support. We really couldn't do it without you. And we absolutely love hearing what you think of the podcast. Now

James Eardley: 35:18

we're going to answer a question that's coming from a listener of the podcast. So thank you very much, Claire, for your question. Claire has got her question in by emailing us. It's podcast at dropship unlocked.com. If you want to email us your questions, and I'm going to ask you Claire's question now, Louis, so Claire has asked, Hi, I'm absorbing everything from your podcast episodes are in learning mode. At the moment, I wanted to ask what are the differences between your book and the full course, as it seems that both have a community and a step by step guide? So who would you recommend each for? Yeah,

Lewis Smith: 35:53

great question, clan. Thanks for asking that. So I can clear this up for you. And for anyone else. That's wondering the same thing as well. So as you mentioned, we have a couple of options for anyone who'd like to achieve the freedom that comes with owning an E commerce business. So you can either choose to pick up a copy of my book, the home turf advantage, and you can get that from H T A book.com. Or you can join our full Mentorship Program, which is called the dropship unlocked masterclass. And you can apply for that at dropship unlocked.com, forward slash apply. So these options have very, very different levels in terms of depth of training, mentorship, community supports kind of the full package, so I'll run through them. So my book, the home turf advantage, is a step by step guide in written form. So you take the actions as you read through the book, you also get access to the dropship unlocked Launchpad community, which is filled with other people implementing the lessons from the book. Okay, so that's the book. The dropship, unlocked masterclass, includes step by step training videos, I think we've got 30 plus hours of training content in there, where it's over the shoulder tutorials where you're watching my screen, as I go through and build one of these businesses from scratch everything from how you register your company niche selection, to assigning suppliers, building your store, running your ads, hiring your team processes automation, the full works. But on top of that, with the program, you get access to twice weekly question and answer calls on Zoom. So also, you've got community support within the masterclass that is unbelievably strong, because the people in there, as we said before, have all invested in themselves, and are all serious business owners who have all got their businesses up and running, or are in the process of doing so. So you'll have access to hundreds of drop shipping business owners all looking to help you out. It's an amazing community spirit in there. We've got such a great culture. And honestly, it's palpable, you go in there and you realize I'm in the right place it you really feel like you found your tribe. So it's incredible. And we're very protective of that, which is why we have an application process to join. And so yeah, if you're interested in that it's dropship unlocked.com forward slash apply. But I hope that clears up the difference between the two options. If you think that the book is your starting point, then you can head to HTA book.com. But if you'd like the advanced training and support of the masterclass is dropship unlock.com, forward slash free to watch the free training or drop shipper not.com forward slash apply if you just want to apply for the program straightaway.

James Eardley: 38:24

Fantastic. Thanks for your question, Claire. Thanks for clearing that up, Louis. For anyone else who's considering working with us to get your dropshipping business set up either option is a great option. Okay, so we're also going to highlight a review that we've had in from a listener. And this review has come in for the podcast from Jay more 74. So thank you for sharing your thoughts and sharing your review with us on Spotify. So JMO 74 said brilliant content, really love listening to this podcast. Can't wait to start. So fantastic. Thank you very much for your review. JMO 74. Really appreciate your review. And thanks for listening. Yeah, that's

Lewis Smith: 38:59

very kind of you. Thank you for your review. And we're so glad to hear that you've been enjoying the podcast it makes it worth doing for us so good to hear. To truly influence our podcasts journey. There's a simple but very powerful way. If you enjoyed today's episode, then we'd love for you to leave us a review on your chosen podcast platform. Or if YouTube's more your style, then maybe just leave us a comment below this video. Your thoughts can be highlighted in an upcoming episode. We love to feature people's comments, questions and reviews. And as we wrap up, think about passing this episode along to a friend. Maybe you know someone curious about e commerce or dreaming of a digital nomad lifestyle. Will sharing our talk today could spark the pivotal conversation that sets them up on their own path to freedom. Remember, every great journey begins with a single step or in our case, a single share. Thanks

James Eardley: 39:51

for joining us on this episode of the dropship unlocked podcast. We hope you found the discussion both inspiring and entertaining.

Lewis Smith: 39:57

If you're ready to begin your own high ticket drop shipping journey then here's what to do next. I've taken all of the years of my own experience both of running my E commerce businesses and teaching hundreds of others how to do the same. And I've condensed it all into my book, the home turf advantage. It's your comprehensive guide designed to help you create your own e commerce business. And you can grab your copy today at H T A book.com.

James Eardley: 40:22

Stay connected by subscribing to the podcast. This way you'll never miss an episode packed with valuable insights. And if you enjoyed what you heard today, please leave us a review. Your feedback motivates us and we love sharing our favorite reviews on future episodes. And thank you for deciding to spend your time with us today. We

Lewis Smith: 40:37

really appreciate you and we look forward to sharing more high ticket dropshipping insights with you on our next episode of the dropship unlocked podcast.