Month: March 2024

‘Identity shifting’ is a term that has seen a rise in popularity over the years, especially in the self-help niche.

So what does this term really mean?

It basically means that you’ll be adopting new beliefs, behaviors, interests, or even personality traits that may differ from your current identity – while staying true to your authentic self.

The goal is to become a brand new you.

The focus is no longer on ‘fixing yourself’… because if all you see are things to fix, the universe in all its wisdom will keep giving you more things to fix.

This may sound woo-woo… but…

• Have you ever found yourself in this situation?

No matter what you do, no matter how many self-help books you read, no matter how many motivational videos you watch – sooner or later, you always find yourself back at square one.

If you’re trying to lose weight, you may do so successfully for a month… and suddenly, in one week, you let your diet and training slide and you gain back whatever weight you lost.

Or maybe you’re trying to save up and build a nest egg… and once again, something happens to make you spend all your savings. Maybe the car breaks down, or some new bill arrives… and you find yourself back where to you started.

This process may have been repeating over and over for years or even decades, and you have no idea why!!!

• It’s your identity!

We are all born with a clean slate. But as you get older, parents or adults or society, instill beliefs in you which are nothing more than opinions and ideas.

If you were given lots of food as a kid and you gained weight, you parents may have said that you have ‘fat genes’… and you grow up believing this.

You look around and most of your family members are overweight because nary a thought is given to what goes in their mouths.

Everything around you is reinforcing your beliefs… which were not even yours to begin with. Now, you identify as a person who becomes fat easily.

But is this even true?

When you become an overweight adult years later because of the mental conditioning you had when you were young, you may try to do better and lose the excess pounds.

Here’s the worst part of it all – your best efforts will yield results. That’s an excellent thing! You have put in the work and you see the results.

But guess what?

Your identity rears its ugly head to put things back to ‘normal’.

You can’t have an identity of someone with ‘fat genes’ and lose weight, can you?

No way!

So you start binge eating and skip a few workouts… and you know that you shouldn’t be doing what you’re doing, but here you are doing it.

And you can’t stop yourself – because you are fighting your identity, and it’ll almost always win.

You gain back the weight you’ve lost and you feel disappointed and miserable and you tell yourself, “I guess I do have fat genes.”

This self-fulfilling prophecy is nothing more than false beliefs and trauma that’s rooted inside you which are causing chaos in your life. The key to solving this problem is not so much about changing your habits but shifting your identity.

The weight loss example above applies to most other scenarios like your money habits (you’re always broke) … or your relationship habits (you keep picking the wrong partners) … or even other habits such as alcohol, smoking, etc.

Now let’s see how you can elevate yourself above these issues!

• Release the trauma!

The first step will be to practice deep breathing techniques. Inhale deeply with your nose so that your belly (diaphragm) rises… then exhale smoothly. Practice this style of breathing throughout the day whenever you can.

With deep breathing, your body (and cells) will gradually release the trauma that’s trapped inside you. This may sound strange, but do try it.

Breath is life… and deep breathing is highly beneficial to your body. It’ll prevent anxiety attacks, depression, and myriad of other negative thinking issues.

The next step will be look back on your past and see all the different ways you were hurt, mocked, laughed at and so on.

You’ll remember times when you felt embarrassed, stupid, etc. These painful memories are traumatic and you’ll be amazed to find that they’re directly or indirected connected to the problems that you may be having in life now.

For example, if you grew up in a family where money was an issue and your parents were always fighting over it… when you’re older, money will probably be an issue for you too.

It’s in your identity that being broke and constantly worrying about money is normal. This is your default setting.

Once you’ve analyzed yourself, you may wish to write down these memories so you can analyze them.

Now it’s important to understand that all your beliefs until now are NOT yours. You got them from other people. Whatever you think you know is a reflection of their opinions… and your experiences which are reflections of their opinions.

If all you have is a hammer, everything looks like a nail.

• To he who hath, more is given

The cruel irony here is that the universe or law of attraction – call it whatever you want – will give you more of what you believe.

So if you thought that it was normal to have money problems, you’ll always find yourself in debt, or you may lose your job… or never seem to be able to pay off all your bills without more bills finding their way to you.

Your identity is made up of beliefs and the universe is giving you exactly what you believe in. It has to, otherwise you’d go insane.

Since you need to make sense of your reality – what you think/believe must come to pass.

But now you know better.

Understand that all your beliefs and even your identity was unconsciously created when you were young.

During your formative years, you were like a piece of clay… and you were shaped by the beliefs that was foisted on you by people with their own issues. Now you’re hard, baked in the oven of life, and it seems like you can’t change things.

But of course you can… anytime you want to.

It’s time to break this clay pot and build a new one. The days of fixing and reshaping are over. We’re building a new identity from scratch now.

• The Art of Identity Shifting

First things first, ask yourself what it is you truly want. It’s imperative that you have a clear picture.

From here, you need to write down in present tense who the new you is. For example, if your name is Sarah, this is what you’d write…

“Who is Sarah?

She’s a happy, go-getter who eats clean and is in shape. She’s great at yoga and looks after her health.

Sarah works for herself and has a 5-figure monthly income from her writing business which she does at home.

She is focused and meditates daily. Sarah loves traveling and takes a trip to a new country every 4 months…”

What you’re doing here is describing the new you. The new you is NOT in the future. It’s in the present but on a parallel track to your current life.

If you’re always forward projecting, what you want will always be out of reach.

By looking at your new identity and saying what the new you is like, you’re not creating any internal resistance where you feel like you’re lying to yourself.

What you’ve written down is what the new you is, if only your instilled beliefs had been positive when you were young.

You’re not there yet, but you’re easing yourself into it.

Once this is done, it’s time for the last step…

• Being present

Now that you know how the ‘new you’ lives, it’s crucial that you remind yourself of this DAILY… multiple times a day.

So you’ll not only be doing the breathing techniques, but you’ll live like you’re the new you.

There’s nothing to fix because there’s NOTHING wrong with your new identity. You’re starting off with a clean slate.

For example, the new identity will be focused on being healthy… NOT weight loss.

When faced with food temptations, you’ll bring yourself to the present, and think, “Hmm… new me wouldn’t eat this cookie!” – and so you don’t.

Because it’s a new, different you who does what’s right.

The question to always ask when faced with a temptation/decision would be, “What would new me do?”

In this situation, you’d probably eat some cold fruit or just not eat the junk food.

It’s inevitable to face some resistance because the old identity is still in you… but it will NEVER be as difficult as it was before.

You’re not in a fight with the old you because you’re constantly present and living as the new you.

There’s nothing wrong with you and there’s nothing to fix because you’ve shifted your identity.

You may notice that procrastination disappears because your new identity will do what he/she needs to do to win. That’s what winners do.

Do you get it?

With the breathing techniques, knowing what you want, and most importantly, living as the new person that you want to be – you will bring whatever you desire to reality.

Life will be ‘lighter,’ fun and an exciting adventure. When you take 2 steps forward, you’ll keep going forward instead of taking 3 steps back.

Your actions will multiply and you’ll make up for lost time.

Results will come faster than you can imagine. The universe is on your side now, and it must give you what you believe in.

This is the real power of identity shifting.

Don’t fix a faulty identity. Just shift to a new one.

New Azon Affiliate AI Compliance Tips

When artificial intelligence (AI) first crashed onto the Internet marketing scene, entrepreneurs were thrilled with the new technology and how easy it was then going to be to handle their content creation needs.

But one thing that no one was sure about was how businesses like Amazon and Google would view the content of those using AI. On Kindle, if you are self publishing, they make you list the extent of your use of AI.

Google seems to be okay with the use of AI assuming the content is high quality, relevant and accurate. But now some things are tightening up when it comes to using AI content, one of which is the Amazon Associates program.

Amazon’s New AI Compliance for Associates

Recently, they published and sent out a notice to all of their affiliates that stated: “Program Content and Special Links should not be used in connection with generative AI.”

That statement alone is not even fully clarified, with some believing it means you can’t have a chatbot recommending products and others believing it means if you used AI to create the content, don’t put your Amazon links in it.

Amazon is not known for being very forthcoming with detailed explanations. They publish their rules and you’re expected to abide by them, even if there’s confusion. People often have their account shut down with no way to appeal – and they’ve closed their forum for affiliates, so you can’t even actively discuss it with company moderators or fellow associates.

Even if you ask AI if that statement means you shouldn’t be using AI for Amazon affiliate content, it agrees that it is “advisable to avoid using AI-generated content directly in your Amazon promotions.”

Now that you’re of their disdain for AI-generated content when it comes to affiliate marketing, you need to be proactive in minimizing or eliminating the possibility that your account will be shut down, and I’m going to show you how to do that.

This doesn’t mean you can never use AI for your affiliate business. In fact, there’s a great way to use it – even as an Amazon Associate! But first, we have to take corrective measures.

Replace Any Amazon Reviews You’ve Created with AI Immediately

Don’t panic, but don’t waste time fixing what they have announced they won’t tolerate – because this rule went into effect on March 1^st, so your account could be jeopardized at any moment.

The unfortunate thing about this situation is that AI has been out and widely used for about a year now (if not longer) so many of you reading this may have an enormous amount of content to sort through.

If you’re unsure of what’s AI and what you created yourself, simply unpublish this content as you go through it. Return it to a state of draft. You don’t have to delete everything you (or AI) has done.

You just want to be able to deal with it without having it dangling on the Internet waiting for Amazon to find it and take action against you. The corrective measures can be done in three ways.

First, you can simply go through and rewrite each product review from scratch (and I don’t mean rewrite the words of AI with synonyms). Second, you can replace the AI content with private label rights (PLR) content, which is allowed if you’re in a hurry to get the content back up.

The third method is to put everything in a draft state and one by one, go through and apply the method I teach in the section called “Using AI Without Detection for Amazon Affiliate Reviews.”

Understand Where and How You Can Still Use AI for Amazon Promotions

Amazon has always been persnickety about their rules. You have to have the disclaimer that you’re an affiliate, you can’t put links inside emails or PDF files, etc. So this is kind of the same concept.

You can still use AI to warm up your audience with an email that sends them to your blog for the original written review. AWeber, for example, has no problem with AI – and it even has an AI built into it.

So you could whip up a teaser email and include a link to the blog post so subscribers will go see what the hot, new gadget is that you’re recommending. Then, on your blog, which is 100% uniquely written by you, you’ll have your Amazon links.

Social media works the same. You can create content for Facebook, TikTok, YouTube, and elsewhere using AI and drive that traffic to your blog for the review post, which is 100% in compliance with Amazon Associates’ TOS.

In the next section, I’m not only going to show you how you can use AI for your Amazon reviews, but also how you can use it on social media accounts and still be abiding by the rules they’ve set forth.

Using AI Without Detection for Amazon Affiliate Reviews

This is where the strategic compliance comes into play. You never want to try to trick Amazon or bend the rules because they will smack you down hard in an instant and you’ll lose your account.

Instead, play by the rules but still use AI to help you get those reviews off the ground and published faster than if you had to do everything yourself.

When you think about the creation of a review, what all goes into your process? For many, they have to think of a problem for their niche demographic, then figure out what solutions (Amazon products) might be a good fit.

Next, they have to consider what the consumer will think is important when shopping for that type of solution (is it price, durability, reviews?). They then have to compare all of the products to see what might be the best option, and figure out how to present it as the best one to meet the needs of the consumer.

If they’re publishing it for their blog, then the goal is to have it rank well and convert nicely. If it’s going to be on social media, they need it to be discovered by the right audience.

The content has to be well-crafted and comprehensive if it’s going to be competitive. And if you’re publishing it somewhere on social media where images, video or audio is used, that requires more steps.

All of this, AI can assist you with. As long as your mind is the one doing the final work in creating the content, you’ll be safe. But you have to be careful in how you’re using it for these steps.

Consumer analysis is something AI can easily do for you that Amazon won’t realize. For example, you might go to AI and prompt something like this: “I have a blog where I publish reviews for products for dog owners. Give me 10 problem areas dog owners have where they purchase products from Amazon as a solution.”

AI can tell you to focus on chewing and teething, potty training, leash pulling, anxiety and stress, flea and tick control, grooming, destructive behavior, weight management, joint health, and traveling with pets.

It also tells you what kinds of products they buy on Amazon – like joint pain supplements for dogs, orthopedic beds, dog puzzle feeders, dog brushes and dremels, chew toys and more.

So let’s say you get that list in mere seconds (your consumer analysis partially complete using AI). Now, you can ask AI: “Brainstorm 10 different titles and slants I can write about on my blog addressing the destructive behavior concept where I can promote Amazon products to address this need.”

Now here’s where you have to be careful. AI is going to instantly deliver your ideas for you with titles. Don’t use their title! For example, they might have: “Taming the Chew Monster: Solutions for Destructive Chewing Habits in Dogs.”

That is a cute title and you’ll be tempted to use it as is. But don’t do it unless you want to risk your account. Instead, think of other ways you can title it, such as: “Banish Your Dog’s Destructive Chewing Behavior!”

You really want some ideas for wording (like destructive chewing) and if you spot other random words in the other options, you can use those in a mix and match scenario. Words like chaos, calm, combat, etc., can be used in the title – just not in the way they used it.

Next, ask AI to help you outline what should go in the review. Word it like this: “I want the review article to be heavy of valuable tips as well as introduce the most effective product solutions for destructive chewing habits. With the concerns of the consumer in mind, tell me what needs to be in my comprehensive outline with the goal to rank this content high in Google SERPs and convert into sales.”

AI will give you an outline that includes the valuable ideas you can write about plus tell you where to weave in your Amazon product recommendations, like this:

III. Tips for Managing Destructive Chewing

          A. Provide Ample Exercise and Mental Stimulation

                     1. Importance of physical and mental exercise for preventing boredom

2. Suggestions for engaging activities like walks, puzzle toys, and interactive games

          B. Establish Clear Boundaries and Consistent Training

                     1. Importance of setting rules and enforcing them consistently

2. Tips for positive reinforcement training and redirecting inappropriate chewing behavior

            C. Create a Safe Environment

                     1. Strategies for puppy-proofing the home and removing tempting objects

                     2. Importance of providing appropriate chew toys and rotating them regularly

When using AI for outlining purposes, be sure to not use their exact titles – and you might even want to rearrange the order of things as long as it doesn’t mess it up logically.

For example, setting up a puppy-proofed environment can easily come before the sections about creating boundaries and being consistent with training or providing exercise and mental stimulation.

For writing, you’re going to do all of that yourself (initially). So if AI tells you to talk about the “importance of physical and mental exercise for preventing boredom” do it – but don’t say it verbatim, like, “It’s important to provide physical and mental exercise for preventing boredom.”

Instead, word it in your own way, like this: “Dogs are going to get bored. It’s inevitable. To prevent problems with destructive chewing, have a routine in place that stimulates them both physically and emotionally. You want to wear them out so they exhaust their pent up energy and give them fun things to do so they don’t have to find them.”

That’s easy enough! Let AI guide you so that your content creation process goes quickly, but don’t let it speak for you. Next, you can have AI help with product recommendations and research.

For example, you might prompt it like this: “Give me information that proves puzzle toys are beneficial in helping curb destructive behaviors in dogs.” ChatGPT can tell you about positive association, enrichment and environment and other solid details you can share with your readers.

When you Prompt Google’s Gemini with this, it gives you links to articles – which Google loves (resources). You don’t want to link to someone else’s page who is selling products.

Find a resource in the list like an article from the AKC (American Kennel Club) that discusses giving your dog a chew toy in a dog-proofed room whenever you’re out and about and can’t keep an eye on it.

With product research, you can have AI help you warn consumers about what not to buy. For example, prompt it like this: “When it comes to chew toys, what are some products that are not advisable for dogs – those that we should warn them against?”

AI can tell you not to get rawhide chews (and why), small or hard plastic toys, toys with squeakers or eyes that can be swallowed, and so on. You’ll want to include these in your review because it gives you a way to contrast those with the good recommendations you want to give in your review.

You can prompt AI like this: “What features should consumers be looking for as a good chew toy to prevent destructive behavior?” AI will give you a list, like durability, and it’ll explain what that means – made from strong, non-toxic material like nylon, being the appropriate size, and it clarifies what that means.

Read it, rearrange it, write from scratch in your own words. Ask AI if there is anything else you need to consider, too. It will give you more insight, like considering the breed of your animal – a chihuahua unable to destroy a toy as easily as a pitbull, for example.

After you write your content, you can ask AI to help you in these ways, too: “Review the attached article and suggest anything that needs to be improved, without rewriting it yourself. Just give me advice.”

It might spot something you need to include that you haven’t covered, or something you need to expand on that you briefly glossed over. Then, prompt it like this: “If my goal is to get this article ranked at the top of Google SERPs, what metadata should I use and what other SEO tips should I apply to make that happen?”

You can even have AI come up with a competitive analysis detailing what someone else is doing to rank in those top spots for your keywords and help you plan how to dominate over them.                                 

Next, you have the ability to use AI for your social media posts. Again, don’t use it to create things from scratch. Instead, have it guide you. You might prompt: “What's a good idea for an infographic I can publish about destructive dog behaviors where it would link back to my review post recommending chew toys? Give me the details for it.”

Don’t have AI create it and then publish it on your social media pointing to Amazon. Instead, listen to its advice. If it gives you a title, alter it to something new. It will tell you things like the type of image to choose (a dog chewing on a shoe), a title (change this), and a lit of bulletpoints to create on the infographic.

Now if you’re linking this image to your blog, then by all means have AI create it in full if you want to. Amazon can’t do anything about that. But don’t link from that image (or video or audio) straight to Amazon.

Amazon can give you scripts and storyboard ideas for video content for YouTube or TikTok that you can tweak so that it’s unique and then drive traffic to Amazon. Or, use it as is and send them to your blog first, where the content is all your writing.

AI can also help you with social content optimization. Juts as it can advise you about SEO (search engine optimization) for your blog post, it can help you get your content discovered on platforms by telling you what hashtags to use, giving you content design advise about things like thumbnails, and even advise you of the time and day to post.

Using Safe PLR in Conjunction with AI for Amazon Promos

Private label rights doesn’t have restrictions against it when it comes to Amazon. You can find tons of articles in your niche and even product reviews blatantly promoting something on Amazon.

You can feed this into AI and ask it how to improve upon it, how to make it different from others who have published it as is, how to optimize it, or even how to repurpose it into something new – like a video or image, for example.

One way to use AI for PLR content is to take an ordinary PLR article, like an article titled: “10 Survival Skills You Need for Bugging Out in the Wilderness” and run it through AI and prompt it like this: “Based on this article, tell me what Amazon products my readers would need.”

It can advise you about things for building shelters, fire starting, and so on. Then ask it what consumers need to know before shopping for one, and apply all of that insight to your review while using the PLR intact – but adding in the review elements you write yourself. Amazon isn’t trying to foil anyone’s goal of earning money as an affiliate. But they’re trying to protect consumers from AI users who are sloppy and who might not use good oversight in publishing exactly what AI suggests, even though it admits it can provide misleading, wrong information to consumers

Letting Go Of The Need To Control Everything And Finding Harmony is a Balancing Act

As chaotic as modern life can be, you can find balance. It's difficult to get it right, especially when you're trying to embrace life's spontaneity while also creating an efficient routine to maximize your time and opportunities.

There's a big part of it that requires control, the problem is that the desire for too much control can stress you out and make you incredibly anxious. This need for too much control steeps you into a state of perpetual tension. Here, we talk about the balancing act and the art of letting go.

Control is an Illusion

Control is an illusion, it's the idea that you can dictate all of the outcomes throughout your life. There are, of course, certain things you can control. If you're getting a degree, license, or qualification in something, you can control the level of study you put in for the testing process. That's in your hands.

Not everything is that simple, though, and the reality is most things in life are inherently unpredictable. So, the more you cling to this illusion of control, the more stressed out you become and the more frustrated and disappointed you feel when things don't go your way. Accept that there are limits to what you can control.

Embrace the Uncertainty

Some of the beauty of life lies in its unpredictability, some of the greatest moments of your life probably came from nowhere. Embrace that uncertainty, it might be a shift in your perspective, but it gives you the freedom to navigate new situations with more grace and patience. Don't resist change, don't avoid unpredictability, lean in, and recognize there's a chance for growth.

Cultivate Mindfulness

Mindfulness is a useful tool and a powerful one in your journey to let go and find balance. By cultivating a level of mindfulness, you are detaching yourself from the desperate need to control everything. Focus on the present, find peace, and enjoy clarity in the here and now instead of getting caught up in the past or obsessing about the future.

Identify Your Areas of Control

As important as it is to understand how limited your control is, it's just as important to recognize your areas of control. When you understand what you can control, you can focus your efforts and energy on those areas to maximize that control. It also gives you a deep sense of empowerment, without the added burden of managing something that's unmanageable.

The Process

While some people think letting go is showing weakness, the reality is it's recognition that you are human. Sometimes, you have to surrender to the process and let life do what it's going to do without trying to control every single detail. You can't micromanage, so don't bother trying!

The Joy of Imperfection

There are two big issues that plague us – the need for control and perfectionism and they go hand-in-hand. When you embrace imperfection, you're letting go of control – you're letting go of the idea that everything needs to be flawless and freeing yourself from the unrealistic expectations society places on you. Find joy in those imperfections, that's where you can flourish.

Embrace Self-Compassion

Self-compassion is the final piece of the puzzle because you can't let go and find balance without it. You need to recognize that it's okay that you don't have it all figured out, that it's okay if you're still making mistakes – it's all part of the human experience. `Treat yourself with kindness in those moments of uncertainty.

Final Thoughts

There is a delicate balancing act between leaning into life and letting go of control. You have to make a conscious effort to loosen your grip on those reins, but in doing so, you will finally be able to find harmony in life! The biggest secret out there is you'll find harmony in this moment, which means letting go and enjoying every moment for what it is.