You want to build a new website, write a new book, create a new product, etc., but you can’t seem to do it.

Or maybe you just want to exercise more or eat better, so you have the energy to run your business.

Whatever the change is that you want to make, you might be having a tough time making that change ‘stick.’

Or perhaps you want to help someone else to make a change.

I’ve just started reading, “Instant Influence: How to Get Anyone to Do Anything,” by Michael Pantalon, and I want to share something with you.

It’s his formula for getting anyone to change.

Instead of telling them why they might want to change, you ask them why they might want to change, using these six steps:

Step 1: Why might you change? (Or if the person is you, ask yourself, “Why might I change?”)

Step 2: How ready are you to change – on a scale from 1 to 10, where 1 means “not ready at all” and 10 means, “totally ready?”

Step 3: Why didn’t you pick a lower number? (Or if the ‘influencee’ picked 1, either ask the second question again, this time about a smaller step toward change, or ask, “What would it take for that 1 to turn into a 2?”)

Step 4: Imagine you’ve changed. What would the positive outcomes be?

Step 5: Why are those outcomes important to you?

Step 6: What’s the next step, if any?

That’s it. I invite you to try this one yourself first, before you try it on someone else.

See what happens. I know when I used it to make myself give up a certain food that I was practically addicted to, it worked like a charm.

Next, I’m going to try it on bigger things and see what happens.

According to the reviews on Amazon, this simple process has literally changed lives, so maybe it will change yours.

That’s okay. If you don’t like this or you think it’s morally wrong, then simply don’t do it.

For everyone else, riddle me this:

What do Abigail Van Buren (Dear Abby), Anne Hathaway, Ann Rice, Ayn Rand, Dr. Seuss, Eckhart Tolle, Ellery Queen, George Eliot, George Orwell, James Herriot, John le Carre, Lewis Carroll, Mark Twain, O. Henry, Voltaire and Woody Allen all have in common?

None of these people technically exist, because they’re all pen names.

The other day on the Warrior Forum I saw an old thread with a question that went something like this:

“I’m thinking of using a pen name when I go into a new niche. Is that alright, or am I breaking some sort of rule?”

Answers ranged from a friendly, “There’s nothing wrong with that, go for it.”

…to an angry, “What’s your problem and why are you trying to hide? Are you a scam artist or something?”

If pen names are a benchmark for whether or not you’re a scam artist, somebody better tell the writers, and the descendants of writers listed above – I think they’ll be surprised.

From a marketing standpoint, pen names often make more sense than using your real name.

For example, you’ve got a good reputation online as the ‘go-to’ person in a particular niche. You want to enter an entirely different and unrelated niche. If you use the same name, readers in BOTH niches will be confused. And confusion is a sales and deal killer, by the way.

Another example: You’ve got a stellar reputation in internet marketing. You build rapport with your list, and you only try to sell them something now and then. But you want to try the churn and burn method of marketing, in which you promote products several times per DAY via email. Naturally you will want to use a different name for this list.

(Churn and burn are getting as many people on your list as possible and promoting to them like crazy until they can’t take it anymore and get off of your list.)

And by the way, no matter how much you and I don’t care for the churn and burn method, the fact is that it’s highly profitable. Which is why so many big-name marketers use a pen name to run their own churn and burn lists.

Another use for a pen name: You can recommend products created by your pen name and have your pen name recommend your products. Again, a lot of big-name marketers do this. I’m not advocating this method, but it does work.

I’ve also known marketers who only worked under a pen name and never under their own name. Usually this is because they have a name that is virtually unpronounceable and unspellable by most people on the planet, so really, it’s a question of branding.

And speaking of branding, you could always choose a name that fits your niche particularly well. For example, if your niche is gardening, then calling yourself Rosemary Greenfield or some such might be a nice touch.

There is one reason for using a pen name that – in my opinion – beats them all, and it’s this:

When you use a pen name to build an entire business, you can then SELL that entire business to someone else. They keep the pen name, and customers don’t even necessarily know it changed hands.

If anything goes wrong with the business after you sell it – for example, the new owner doesn’t deliver on the promises of the business – it won’t affect you or your reputation in any way because your name has never been associated with it.

Bottom Line: There is nothing unethical about using a pen name. They’ve been used for hundreds of years by some of the best writers in their field.

And there are some dynamite advantages to using one.

You’ve gotten that email, too, right? I think we all have.

Which got me to thinking…

What if you set up a squeeze page that has an offer like this: “30 day course on how to start your business and earn $X money in 30 days. Pay nothing now, and simply send me $100 when you’ve earned your first $1,000.”

Do you think you would get some subscribers? Of course. This isn’t your typical offer at all, and people will recognize this.

So, you get your subscribers and every day they get another email from you with another step in how to build their business.

For the content, I recommend getting one of those big PLR courses with 30 steps or 40 modules or whatever number of lessons that teach how to build an online business. The number of steps will determine the number of days your course runs.

Each day you email out a link to the next step / course / module.

Pretty soon your new subscribers will realize that this is a lot of work, and they’ll be wishing for a shortcut.

~~cough cough~~

And you give it to them, of course.

This is a much sexier course, such as how to earn $5,000 in the next 20 days by working one hour per day, or whatever.

You place the link in each email and on each daily page of the course.

And you will make sales.

Now then, if you’ve been paying attention, then you realize this is simply a variation of a very tried and true method:

Teach them step-by-step how to do something, then offer them an easier or faster way to get the same or better result.

You start out teaching, but when things get too hard or time-consuming, you come to the rescue with a shortcut.

People love shortcuts, and they gladly buy them every day of the week.

This is just another way to frame it, and you can use this method in other niches as well.

“Pay nothing until you find your dream spouse.”

“Pay nothing until you find the home of your dreams.”

Pay nothing until your investments earn you at least $x money.”

“Pay nothing until you land your dream job.”

And so forth.

It’s all in the positioning. And because this method hasn’t been done to death, I guarantee it will afford you plenty of traction and a good amount of sales, too.

If so, I’ve got a business plan for you. And I don’t care if you’re 20 or 70 – this can work.

One note before we get started: Anything that you either can’t do, don’t want to do or don’t have time to do, you outsource.

If you’re going to actually, really, truly retire in 5 years, taking this from zero to a 7-figure payday, then you need to get work done FAST.

And in many cases that’s going to mean outsourcing some of this.

Oh yes, did you notice how I covertly slipped that “7 figure payday” in there? I’m serious about that. Doing what I’m about to lay out for you, you can indeed retire in about 5 years with about 7 figures.

Your results may vary – in fact, they might be a whole lot better than that, I don’t know.

Let’s get started:

What I’m about to propose isn’t rocket science. It’s not even new. But it is profitable, and here’s the key:

You can do this in parallel, meaning instead of doing just ONE of what I’m outlining, you do several.

I recommend 3 – 5 of them.

What you’re going to do is build an entire business from the ground up, with an eye on selling it.

That’s right – the entire time you’re doing this, you have your exit strategy in mind.

It’s sort of like someone marrying for money, knowing they’re going to be asking for a divorce in 5 years. The money is a sure thing, they just have to put in the time and work.

Okay, that was maybe a bad analogy, but you get the point.

If you put in the time and do the work, you will get the money.

You’re going to choose a very popular and not too broad topic. For example, weight loss for busy women, dating for men, traffic generation for online marketers, etc.

It needs to be a topic that has plenty of interested people willing to buy plenty of products, and of course there needs to be plenty of affiliate products continually coming into the market.

Now that you’ve got your topic, you’re going to build a sales funnel.

Run a free offer on a squeeze page to get subscribers and place a couple of products in your funnel for them to buy.

Maybe you’ve got a $7 report and a $37 video course, or whatever.

These should be quality products that YOU own. And yes, they can be built around PLR, or you can outsource, etc.

For your high-ticket offer, create a membership site and drip feed content into it. Your goal is to get lots of people into that membership site.

I know what you’re thinking – thus far I haven’t told you anything new, except for the fact that you’re doing all of this with an eye to selling it.

Yet who does this? Very few people, but those who do end up with BIG paydays.

Do everything under a pen name.

Make no mistake – EVERYTHING must be under your pen name.

And for each of these businesses that you build, you need a different pen name.

Okay, you’ve got a squeeze page to capture names, a funnel with a low-priced product, a mid-priced product and a membership site.

Now you need a blog. Get a great logo, excellent branding and make it look super professional. Do NOT skimp on the branding and logo.

Post on the blog at least a couple of times a week, preferably more.

Link from the blog to your free and paid products.

Make each upsell in your funnel a stand-alone product, too, and promote those on your blog.

Promote affiliate products to your list to make some good money as you go along.

Now write a book. See? I told you there was work involved. You can use content from your blog to create your book, or hire someone, or just write it yourself.

Link from inside the book to a squeeze page to capture more subscribers.

Get a great book cover. I mean a cover that looks like it should be on the New York Times bestseller list. Don’t skimp on this, either.

Put your book on Amazon and get your subscribers to review it for you. Yes, the book is under your pen name, too.

Don’t worry too much about promoting the book. Your real motivation here is to build credibility. A book on your topic with your pen name on it looks AWESOME when you put the thumbnail at the TOP of your blog.

Wow! You (your pen name, actually) are an EXPERT.

Cross promote from any existing lists you have to get more people onto your new blog and get more subscribers there.

If you create a big product such as a $200 – $1,000 course, get affiliates to promote it. Or get affiliates to promote your memberships site.

Your goal is to build your list BIG, make some nice income along the way, and put together a very professional looking business which you then sell for six or seven figures.

If you do this simultaneously in 3 to 5 different niches, you will have an AWESOME retirement in about 5 years or so.

What I recommend: Start in ONE niche and get everything into place. Hire someone to write the blog posts for you and do some promotion.

Now that you know everything that is involved, take some of the profits from your first site / list / business and those profits to outsource a lot of the work in your second, third, and fourth businesses.

You see where this is going. Five years of hard work, along with rolling some of your profits back into the business, and you then get to sell them.

Sites like these that have products, big lists and a BOOK sell for a healthy six figure income. Sometimes even seven figures. Apiece. And you’re going to have 3, 4, maybe 5 of them.

Remember to keep everything separate on each site. Separate hosting. Separate autoresponders. Separate everything. This makes it super easy to turn control over to someone else when the time comes.

Turnkey online business are always in demand. From a buyer’s perspective, they pay a big chunk of money but then they get a guaranteed stream of income. All the buyer has to do is continue what you started.

You can even turn over your outsourcers to the buyer if they don’t want to do the work themselves, and often they won’t. For them it’s an investment in their future. For you it’s a major payday and a plane trip to the islands.

One more thing… if you would like to continue to make a nice, easy income after you sell your sites, then I recommend you promote your own personal site to the folks on these lists you’re building.

For example, your pen name is Jon Smith. Your real name is Abby Jones. Jon Smith often recommends Abby Jone’s product or blog or freebie to his readers.

Thus you get people subscribed to your list, too, who get to know you, not just your pen name.

You retire, and you can continue to send out emails promoting affiliate products.

So not only do you get a big payday – you also get some large lists of your own that you can continue to promote products to.

Remember – 5 years of hard work, and then you can retire.

No job in the world that I know of, offers you a retirement plan like that.

You have a list of buyers and a list of prospects, right?

Rent out your list of prospects to product owners, advertising their “Product of the Day.”

This is different, because nearly all solo ad sellers won’t let ad buyers send traffic directly to a sales page – they have to send it to a squeeze page.

But some product sellers want to focus only on getting sales, which is where your “Product of the Day” series comes in.

Each day, you rent your list of prospects to product owners. You’re not sacrificing your own buyers, and you’re giving marketers a chance to make sales directly from your list, using your good name for added credibility.

It’s a nice way to monetize all those freebie seekers who for one reason or another aren’t attracted to your products.

Remember, just because they haven’t bought your product yet doesn’t mean they won’t be enticed by someone else’s product.

On a day that you don’t sell an ad to your list, you could promote affiliate products… The sky is the limit!

For example, instead of aiming to punch your opponent’s face, you aim to punch a point just behind their head.

This gives your punch much more force, because your target is well beyond their face. You need more effort to make it happen.

And in exerting more effort, you make your punch stronger.

Plus, if your target is their nose, you will subconsciously pull your punch, meaning your fist will actually slow down as it approaches its mark.

Now then, let’s say your income goal is $1,000 a week. Instead of aiming for $1,000, aim for $1,500.

You will have to work harder to reach this goal and push further, with higher expectations. All of which will lead to a better result.

And even if you ‘pull your punch’ before you hit $1500, you will still exceed the $1,000 goal. I know this sounds strange but try it.

I think you’ll be pleasantly surprised at your results.