Karol

Wasted Opportunity

I saw a lot of wasted opportunity this week. Let’s talk about it …

I spent the past 10 days enjoying the SXSW festival in Austin, Texas. What began as a music festival for unknown artists has morphed into a media spectacle covering tech, film, and music. This was my first SXSW so I can’t be one of those people who says “it was so much better way back when.” This is a common sentiment among SXSW loyalists. What I can say is that I’m glad this wasn’t my first exposure to Austin. It’s a great city, but the music portion essentially ruins it for 5 days. For local businesses and the local government it’s probably a good thing. The amount of dollars SXSW brings in is ridiculous and I’m sure quite a few businesses have their best weeks of the year during this time.

As for musicians? The majority threw away an outstanding opportunity.

I saw exactly one band (Vandaveer) sell CDs after their show. But even then they didn’t announce anything for sale while on stage. I understand it’s not cool to “sell out,” but you know what else isn’t cool? Not having enough money to do what you love.

There were a handful of artists I would have purchased music from and I don’t even have a CD player! (I would have had a friend rip the MP3s for me.) Instead I bought 3 albums off AmazonMP3 (Lady Lamb The Beekeeper, Leslie Stevens and the Badgers, and The Jezabels), from which the artists probably only got a few dollars. Wasted opportunity. Captive, slightly (or incredibly, depending) intoxicated audiences in a festive money-spending mood usually don’t come around very often. Yet the only people that seemed to be making money was everybody except the musicians who needed it most.

If you’re running a business (a band is surely a business whether the artist likes it or not) you are an idiot if you have a captive audience and you don’t offer them what they want.

I’m told that bands get paid only $150 for an official SXSW showcase. (The drummer for a 4 time SXSW band told me this.) Maybe that’s different depending on the band but let’s run with that number. Gas to get to the festival is probably at least a few hundred dollars for most artists. That means that you’re in the negative before you even play. Most artists only play one or two official shows and then a few unofficial shows (where they don’t get paid). So most band’s expenses to come to SXSW are out of pocket. It’s not worth it to play here for most artists unless they can at least break even. The days of being “discovered” and given a huge recording contract are behind us. But what SXSW offers is exposure to new fans, who will hopefully spread the word. It’s easy to make $50-$100 extra per show just by selling a few CDs and helping those fans spread that word. If you’re phenomenal you’ll make even more.

I could go on, but this article isn’t even about music.

While getting pissed off at the bands I wanted to buy stuff from I thought to myself: Where am I wasting opportunity?

When answered honestly this question can open your eyes to things you haven’t seen before.

I readily admit that I’ve wasted a lot of opportunity in my time and I wanted to take a moment to dissect where I’m currently wasting opportunity.

– When I meet people I do a bad job of following up.

I fixed that recently at SXSW Interactive by only taking biz cards from people I truly wanted to follow up with. Then I followed up. Simple. :) It only takes a few minutes per email and who knows, it might result in a good friendship or partnership in the future. Personal and business relationships all begin somewhere.

– I have a lot of customers from the business side of RE and I rarely follow up with them.

Not to sell but just to keep in touch. Offer some value. Let them know I’m here.

– The 72 hour sales have been a huge fun success and I haven’t been vigilant about setting up the next one.

Baker and I met up and talked strategy last week. The copycats won’t know what hit ’em. That’s not coming from a place of anger, but from a place of “we know what we have, we know what we can do, and we know what you’re not doing.” I don’t believe the pie is finite. I fully believe in expanding the pie so we’re doing just that. You’ll love what’s coming at Only72. :)

– I don’t give enough people enough credit.

This is something far too many bloggers get wrong. One of the reasons I started the Sweet Shit Saturday posts was so I could give credit to my favorite writers, but I still don’t feel I do it often enough. I’ll try my best to spread the love right now. I met a lot of fantastic people this past week. Some for the first time, some for the second time, and some for the umpteenth time.

Just a few of the great people I conversed with (action takers doing sweet shit): Nick, Markus, Heather, Ashley, Jenny, Jenny, Baker, Matt, Sean, Chris, Benny, Laura, Holly, Scott, Hilah, Christopher, Matt, Cody, Norcross, Adam, Dave, Monique, Joshua, Nicky, Anne, and many others.

Proof that I don’t give enough people enough credit is that I didn’t add this section to this article until a few hours before my scheduled posting time and I know I’m not remembering everybody as my brain/body are recovering from 10 days of sensory overload.

There are other places I’m wasting opportunity, but you don’t want to read another thousand words. Let’s wrap this up with …

The All-Important Question Guaranteed To Bring You More Clarity In Life and Business

Where are you wasting opportunity?

The Definitive Guide To Why I’m Vegan (+ An Announcement!)

I finally answer the question “Why Are You Vegan?”

Although I’ve written about veganism here and there (Stress-Free Vegan Travel) I’ve never discussed it at length. I’m writing about it today because I’m launching a new vegan site for non-vegans. How does that work? Read on …

I also get tons of questions from non-vegans as to why I’m vegan so here’s the skinny (double entendre!).

Over the years my thoughts have changed tremendously. In the beginning I wanted everybody to be vegan. Save the animals, save the planet, save yourselves! Mostly it was save the animals because if air quality and waistlines are any indication we’ve already ruined the planet and ourselves.

Catalyst #1: A Girl

It all began when I was 19 and dated a vegetarian. I’d never been exposed to that culture before. In actuality, I don’t think I ever met a single vegetarian in my previous 19 years of living. And I was a staunch meat eater. “I need my protein! It’s natural! We have evolved to eat lots of animal products. This is healthy.” Sad misinformation, which I still hear to this day.

And so I began incorporating more vegetarian meals into my diet. Some of it I didn’t like at all (most veggie burgers). Some of it I loved (lots of veggies!). Some I was surprised about (Oreos are vegan).

Note: There is actually a lot of accidental veg*an food. Most of it is junk food, of course. Note #2: when you see “veg*an” it means vegan or vegetarian.

Over the next few years, while I still wasn’t veg*an, I came to appreciate it more and more. While I didn’t necessarily like how certain organizations would go about spreading their message, I liked the general message. Whether we like it or not, factory farms are horrible. Factory farms are where you get most of your animal based foods unless you run your own little family farm. According to the WorldWatch Institute, as of 2006, 74 percent of the world’s poultry, 43 percent of beef, and 68 percent of eggs are produced in the diseased squalor of a factory farm. If you live in North America or Europe (and other “First World” areas) the numbers are much greater and increasing every year because we utilize small farming far less than less industrialized countries.

Knowing all of this, and seeing video of the torture, grossed me out.

Catalyst #2: Jessie The Cat

Finding a sick stray kitty after Hurricane Charley in 2004 may have been the biggest catalyst for my change. Here was a small cat who would’ve died if we (my girlfriend at the time and I) hadn’t intervened. I began feeling compassion for helpless living things more than ever. Why would I eat an animal that had to live in a tiny cage in its own filth and excrement before being hung upside down and slaughtered? It just didn’t make sense.

But I still did it.

I mostly didn’t cook with meat because raw meat always grossed me, but I still ate a lot of meat if I’d go out. Burgers, hot wings, and sliced beef sandwiches were a normal occurrence. And cheese on everything. (No milk though, because milk has been nothing more than putrid pus-ridden liquid for me since I was young. Although it was forced upon me for many years.)

The point: I would never eat Jessie and she was/is treated like a Queen. Why would I eat an animal that was treated like garbage? What made Jessie better than other animals besides the fact that she lived with me? Again, it didn’t make sense.

But there was still no big change. Sure I ate more veg*an meals than usual, but I was neither vegetarian or vegan. Until …

Catalyst #3: The 2008 NBA Finals & McDonald’s Cheeseburgers

What do the NBA Finals have to do with my going veg*an? A lot, actually.

My friend Kenny would have people over his house for the games. Each of us would choose a player and for every point he scored we’d have to do 5 pushups. Since I hated pushups and never had any upper body strength I’d choose a player who barely scored, like Kendrick Perkins.

So one game the stakes (steaks?! hehe) were raised. Every quarter whoever did the least pushups would have to eat a McDonald’s cheeseburger. I was fine with this. I actually liked how McDonald’s cheeseburgers tasted. (It was the onions.)

After the first quarter I ate my burger and did my pushups.

After the second quarter I ate my burger and did my pushups.

After the third quarter I ate my burger and did my pushups.

But I was starting to feel less than stellar. Eating garbage food and doing pushups (even if it’s only 15 or 20) doesn’t go well. But it continued …

After the fourth quarter I ate my burger and did my pushups.

I don’t think I made the declaration out loud, but right then I decided I was done with meat. I was grossed out beyond belief. It took years of being more and more grossed out to finally push me over the edge, and the combination of the garbage McDonald’s meat and pushups did the trick.

How I Did It

At the time I actually made the decision to go vegan, but there was a little issue at hand. I loved cheese. I get this a lot. “I can’t go vegan, I love cheese!” I know!

And I had a lot of food with cheese at my house. I couldn’t just throw it away. So over the next month or two I slowly made my way through all the food in my house that had animal products. Whether that was a jar of spaghetti sauce or frozen fetuccini alfredo (yuck!) it’s not respectful to the animal that died for it to just throw it in the trash. I ate it until there was nothing left in my cupboards or refrigerator that had animal products.

I haven’t looked back since.

But Wait, There’s More! (From Junk Food Vegan To Health Food Vegan)

I would say 98 out of 100 vegetarians I meet are junk food vegetarians. Everything with cheese and butter. Lots of soda. Lots of pre-packaged garbage. I have no problem with this because a lot of people don’t care much about their bodies. I’m appreciative of their willingness to sacrifice their health to save a few hundred animals every year by not eating them.

I would also say that at least half of the vegans I meet are junk food vegans. You’d be surprised how much vegan junk food there is out there. Veggie burgers, veggie wings, the aforementioned oreos. Lots and lots of trash. Again, I’m all for this. If it’s about saving the animals and the planet, veganism works well even when you’re treating your body like a garbage disposal. :)

In the beginning this is exactly the type of vegan I was. Lots of veggie burgers, lots of crap. I did eat a lot of veggies, more than ever, but it still wasn’t an extraordinarily healthy diet.

Then my cousin gave me the book The China Study: The Most Comprehensive Study of Nutrition Ever Conducted and the Startling Implications for Diet, Weight Loss and Long-term Health and everything changed. I won’t get into the details, but if you’re interested about living a long healthy life this is a fascinating (and well-cited) read.

Almost immediately after reading The China Study I quit eating pre-packaged garbage and other junk vegan foods. I began cooking for myself more and more, which was a fun learning experience. I bought vegan cookbooks and searched for vegan recipes and just tried stuff out. It was an outstanding time of personal growth.

Note: I’m not saying I don’t eat any junk food. When I’m out and about and have to eat at a restaurant the options are usually limited to a veggie burger and a salad. I’ll take that no worries.

Why I Won’t Try To Force You To Give Up Meat (Plus Announcing NoMeatMondays.org!)

I know preaching the benefits of health or saving animals or the world doesn’t do much. Most people don’t care enough to make a massive change to their lifestyle. As easy as the change has been for me I will readily admit that it is a massive lifestyle change.

But small changes are easy and more people are willing to make small changes than big ones.

My goal is for small change scaled far and wide.

If you don’t eat meat for just one day per week it does a world of good (no pun intended). Not only will this small change result in massive change when it’s scaled, but it’s actually very easy.

To make it easier, I have enlisted the help of vegan cook (and RidiculouslyExtroardinary.com reader) Robin to create one new easy and tasty meatless recipe every Monday at NoMeatMondays.org. The tagline of the site is “Because You Can Eat Burger Any Other Day” so feel free to do that. Give yourself, the world, and of course, the animals just one day of positive food eating per week. I promise you’ll feel great about this decision to eat No Meat on Mondays.

To join us subscribe to the site by clicking here and check out the recipes Robin has already created here.

The No-Business-Plan Business Plan

A lot of people get caught up in business plans. You don’t need to …

I’m not a big fan of business plans (or plans in general, for that matter), but it can be good to get ideas out onto paper.

I get a lot of questions from people who are stuck. They’re not sure which direction to take or what to do. Unfortunately, I can’t tell you. What I can do is help you figure it out yourself. If you complete the exercise below you will have a business plan of sorts. But remember: more important than any business plan is to get off your ass and do some shit. Test out your ideas. If you succeed, great! If you fail, learn from it and try something else.

Get out the pen/paper (important) and go …

1) What are you good at?

List all your skills, both professional (stuff like computer programming) and hobby (stuff like playing an instrument).

2) What are you not good at?

Answering this question is important because it will keep you from going after something just because of the money. Following the money is OK if it aligns with you, your skills, and your personality. But otherwise you’ll be swimming upstream and that’s not fun.

3) Of all the things listed in Question #1, what can you teach well?

If you needed to show someone how to do your skills, which would be most fulfilling? Do you love showing people how to do anything?

4) Can you see yourself doing that for the next 5-10 years?

If not, you’re not really interested in starting a business. Choose something else.

5) Do people pay for that skill?

In other words, are people already making money teaching what you’d like to teach? If not, you won’t make any money. Choose something else.

6) Where do those customers hang out?

How can you reach your potential customers? Get really specific. Do they hang out in certain online spaces? Do they hang out in certain physical spaces? Also, are they a certain age, gender, nationality (demographics) or do they have similar thoughts/philosophies (psychographics)? (The demographics and psychographics go deeper than just these few things, so buckle down and really get into it. Write down a complete profile of your target customer.)

7) Is there something missing in this market?

Another way to look at this question is: Do you teach your skill in a markedly different way than the norm?

This question is important, because to gain a foothold in any market you need a hook. What makes you different? Why should people give a shit about what you have to say?

I don’t know many people who do this better than Benny. He pisses a lot of people off because a lot of his information is contrary to what others teach. And he makes a lot of people fall in love with him because his information is contrary to what others teach. (Did you catch that?)

8) What product can you create based on all of the above information in 40 hours?

40 hours is enough time to create a great product, but it’s not so much time that you’ll never ship. 4 hours per day for 10 days and you’re done! Or 2 hours per day for 20 days! You can have a product ready to go in less than a month.

Easiest to create: PDF, audio, video. (You don’t need any fancy skills to create any of those so no excuses.)

Sell!

Once you’ve created your product, go back to the places your customers hang out and get your offer in front of their eyeballs. Maybe that means PPC or Facebook ads. Maybe that means having affiliates or bloggers review it and send it to their e-mail lists. Maybe it means having your inner circle tweet it out. Whatever it is, make it happen.

Wrapping It Up

Answer those 8 questions (it should take less than 3 hours to get down to the nitty gritty) and you’ve got yourself a business plan. Do it or don’t. The choice is always yours.

Announcing The Future! RollerCoasterTour.com

1 man (me!), 3 months, 13,000 miles, every roller coaster in the United States …

I’ve been dropping hints on twitter and facebook, but it’s time for the big reveal: RollerCoasterTour.com is aaaallllliiiiiivvvvvveeeee!

Beginning May 21 I’m going on a massive tour of the United States where I’ll ride every roller coaster in the land … and then end in Abu Dhabi at the fastest coaster in the world! It goes almost 150 miles per hour so it’s fitting that it’s located at Ferrari World.

If you’ve read How To Live Anywhere you already know I had this planned for a long time, but the logistics never worked out. A roller coaster tour must happen between late spring and early fall. Before or after that and too many parks are closed. May 21 seems to be like “opening day” in the roller coaster world.

Usually I’d have other plans that would make it difficult to fit a 3 month commitment. And normally I wouldn’t want to spend my Summer driving 13,000 miles. But I cleared my Summer and this road trip will be special.

I’m buying a 1986 Cadillac Hearse (which I will then sell or otherwise get rid of, maybe auction for charity?) so I can relive my childhood fantasies of being on The Munsters. I’ve always felt a connection with Herman Munster. He was tall, awkward, weird, misunderstood, and drove a hearse. He was awesome. :)

Logistics and Planning

If you know me you probably know I’m not a fan of planning. Well, figuring out the logistics of this tour took weeks (spread out over the past few months). I’ve probably spent close to 80 hours dissecting park websites and roller coaster databases. This is something I could have outsourced, but part of the fun in doing an adventure like this is getting down to the nitty gritty. Copying/pasting hundreds of coasters into a spreadsheet is not really a good use of time … but you learn a lot about what’s happening and where you’re going when you’re involved in the details.

More than that, I feel like I appreciate what I’m doing more because I know what a massive undertaking this is.

I’d like to especially thank UltimateRollerCoaster.com for being around. I don’t have any contact with them, but I used their database exclusively to figure out which coasters I’d be riding.

There were a lot of snafus along the way. For example, Google Maps (and every other major map site) has a limit of only 25 map points. I needed about 70. (Although I pared it down to 59 because some of the parks I let slip through the cracks had really weak kiddie coasters that were not worth visiting.)

I paid $29.95 for 250 map point credits at MyRouteOnline.com to get the job done. The map looks pretty good (you can see it here) and all I had to do was upload my spreadsheet to calculate the route and the total mileage. According to the site my route is actually 12,951.27 miles, but I’m sure you won’t kill me for rounding up to 13,000. In actuality, I’ll get lost at least 17 times and my mileage will end up being 26,000. ;) (Don’t worry, I will use a GPS.)

Another problem was figuring out the beginning of the tour. I wanted to start as soon as possible and get to Portland, OR in time for World Domination Summit (June 3-5). But certain parks aren’t open every day in late May, so I had to contact a few parks to figure out open days and work around that. More snafus will probably present themselves along the way, but I’ll deal with those as they arise.

I Can’t Do This Without Your Help!

As you can imagine, my estimated costs for this tour are not small. While I can pay this out of pocket, I’d much rather find an amazing sponsor who will subsidize the cost of the tour in exchange for a crazy amount of promotion via RollerCoasterTour.com, videos (of every coaster I go on), t-shirts (I’ll be wearing a Tour shirt on every coaster), and a car (err, hearse!) wrap.

If you work for an awesome company that would like to sponsor the tour please get in touch. If you know somebody that might work at an awesome company that would like to sponsor the tour, also get in touch! More info about sponsorship can be found here: http://www.rollercoastertour.com/sponsors/

South By Southwest!

I’ll do my best to connect with companies without being an annoying asshole over the next week at SXSW (I’m leaving for Austin tomorrow!). For the first time in a long time I actually have business cards. RollerCoasterTour.com business cards, but business cards none-the-less!

If you’ll be there we should meet up. I’ll be at a ton of events. Just look for the tall dude who looks like me. That will be me!

More More More

I could talk your ear off here (wait, wouldn’t it be “write your eyes off”?), but all the information about the tour is at RollerCoasterTour.com so go check it out.

Thanks for reading this decidedly abnormal article. Back to regularly scheduled programming on Monday.

Who The Fuck Am I? This Is About You

Because sometimes it’s easy to miss the point …

I closed off The Guest Post Not-Contest a few days ago and it was interesting reading the e-mails and comments over the previous three weeks.

One person commented to me that it was “a great opportunity, but your rules are like that of a 4th grade school teacher.” He said some other stuff, but I deleted it before getting bogged down with the loser mentality. That person completely missed the point of the not-contest. (I’m actually pretty sure they don’t regularly read this site. Mostly because it’s not written for them and there is purposefully nothing of value here for that person.)

The point of the not-contest was NOT to get a guest post here.

Seriously, who the fuck am I?

Some dude with a site that gets a mid-level amount of traffic.
1 of almost 7 billion people on Earth.
A guy who knows what it takes to be successful and what it takes to be a failure. Yay! I’ve been both!

And that last part is where the not-contest was coming from.

You want a chance to make it to the NBA? Train with people who have trained other NBA players.

You want to have almost no chance of making it to the NBA? Train with your neighbor. The fat one who watches TV and eats McDonald’s all day.

You want to run a successful restaurant? Apprentice with a successful restaurateur.

You want to run an unsuccessful restaurant? Learn from someone who has never owned a successful restaurant. (Probably one of your business school teachers.)

You want a successful blog / online business that you can run from anywhere? Learn from the people who do exactly that. Maybe their lessons are created for a reason.

Here was my thinking:

Make it seem difficult by having lots of rules and details. I wanted to scare you into not submitting, because if all it takes is a few pesky details (which, honestly, were not tough) to stop you from creating your best work then you’re in for a massive surprise in the future. And it’s this: you will never be successful. It might not hit you today, or tomorrow, or even any time soon. But some day in the future you’re going to think “I know what Karol was talking about now! How can I possibly expect to be successful if I scare myself out of taking action?”

Bonus: read this story and then this one about how Derek Sivers was “born with singing talent” after only 15 years of practice and doing the crazy exercises his teacher demanded.

The rules were in place because that way I would only read articles by people who ship no matter what. People who if not already incredibly successful today, will be. Without all the rules I would’ve received an overwhelming amount of articles, many of which would not have been your best work.

There’s that phrase again, your best work! We’re onto something …

Anybody who followed the directions and dug deep created a piece of their best work. Whether I post that work here or not you know what happens when you know you can create great work? Your synapses start firing like never before and you achieve a bit of clarity. You know you can create more great work.

You know what happens when you continuously create great work? People. Fucking. Notice.

I think everybody who submitted got it because along with most submissions were comments like “Even if you don’t choose this, it was worth it. I really pushed myself and it feels amazing.”

Although I can’t accept all of the submissions I will choose 3 that I did receive. Everybody I don’t accept will get a link to their site with a paragraph about themselves in a special post on April 18. Boom! Everybody wins.

I alluded to this in tweets and on facebook. “Less than [X amount of time] before the guest post not-contest ends. You ship or you fail.” Thanks to everybody who submitted.

If you thought about submitting and talked yourself out of it, it’s OK. You failed this time. Reframe it, learn from it, and use it to light a fire under your ass. Get pissed at me, get pissed at yourself, do whatever it takes to create.

###

Very special announcement on Thursday. I’ve been sending out cryptic tweets with maps and other malarky over the past couple weeks, but the big reveal is coming. It’s going to be a fun ole time. :)

Now Hiring! Help Wanted! Apply Within …

The application is inside …

It’s about that time. Maybe you guessed this was coming based on Thursday’s article. Or maybe not. Either way I’m looking to hire good people and would like to give you the opportunity to become part of the Ridiculously Extraordinary Team.

There’s lots of interesting work going on around here and I’m looking for a talented virtual assistant (or two or three). This is not a full time position right now and I can’t guarantee any minimum or maximum amount of work.

I’m looking for people who are excellent with the Internet, have incredible attention to detail, have a good command of the English language, and are relentless workers.

In order to find good people I’m using this simple hiring exam which I’ve adapted from the venerable Clay Collins. It should take about an hour to do. Please follow all the instructions.

– After you’re done with this exam, please email me (KarolGajda at Gmail) with your cell phone number and include a link to a WordPress.com account that you have created.

– On that account, please select a blog name and please change the theme’s design to something other than the stock theme.

– Please answer or complete the items below. You may arrange your site as beautifully as you can (like anybody, I like a good design). Only the last question must be at the top of the page:

What would you do if a co-worker (who’s also a friend of yours) was stealing?
Upload three screenshots of what you think are the three best designed websites on the internet.
Post the contact information to the man or woman in the most watched video on Youtube that is not a music video. How would I best get in touch with him or her?
If I handed you $25 USD and asked you to find a way to use the money to thank a 31 year old musician in Belfast, Ireland for his excellent album, what would you do?
Write a thank you email to a client named Beth that I just had lunch with. We ate at a Vegan restaurant called “Vegalicious.” The food was good, but when I presented my proposal to Beth, she was not interested.
I’m in my car on the way to Anaheim, CA. I don’t know the city at all. I need to know a vegan-friendly restaurant that has something other than veggie burgers and fried food. Call (352) 577-0173 and leave a voicemail with your recommendation, including hours and address so I can pop it in my GPS and satiate my hunger. End the voicemail with your name or e-mail address so I know it’s yours. (You can call the number 24/7. If I answer the phone you’ll have to tell me live!)
Post one Creative Commons Licensed (for commercial use) photo that would fit with Thursday’s article about not using photos.
Post a favorite inspirational quote.
Summarize in one paragraph one article I’ve posted recently. Include a call to action and a link to the article.
Please indicate how long it took you to complete this entire site.
If I was to hire you in the future, how much would it cost for 3 hours? (The answer to this must be at the top of the website).

Thanks so much for completing this exam. I’m hiring at least one person within 2 weeks and you’ll receive an e-mail back from me whether you are hired or not.

Quit Being A Fucking Wuss and Stop Doing Things You Hate

How much of your day consists of things you hate?

A little while ago I wrote a short essay to myself to stop doing things I hate. Then a few days ago a friend gave me a copy of his almost-ready-to-send-to-the-publisher book (print book) and part of it was on this topic. It spurred me to revisit my words and turn it into an article.

How much of your routine do you absolutely hate with every fiber of your being?

My least favorite part of writing here (actually, the only thing I dislike) has always been finding images for my articles.

I hate the whole process.

I hate thinking about the photo. I hate searching for the photo. I hate uploading the photo. I hate linking to the photo.

How To Lose $19,500

Dealing with photos for this blog is a seemingly simple action, but it would sometimes take me upwards of 30 minutes to complete the process. 30 minutes x 3 times per week x 52 times per year = 78 hours. It’s a completely inane task that costs me $19,500 in lost productivity (based on $250/hour) every year. I’d have to be clinically insane to pay $19,500 for something I hate.

Interesting things come to light when you put an actual dollar amount on your time, don’t you think?

Recently I was reading ZenHabits (Leo removed photos last year) and I thought to myself, “What would happen if I stopped using photos in my articles? So what if almost everybody else uses them on their blogs? Is it necessary?”

Do you know what has happened since I stopped wasting time on photos?

Did you guess nothing?

You’re right.

Nothing has changed, things are going well.

Even more than that, what I definitely feel by not posting images is relief. A sense of happiness when I’ve finished an article instead of a feeling of “ugh, now I gotta find a photo for this.”

Sometimes I have a strong vision for a photo that I’d like to include in the article. In those instances I can usually find that photo in a couple minutes and I’m happy to do it. But you’ll see that, for the most part, there haven’t been images on this blog for a while.

Why is it that we let ourselves get stuck in these situations that don’t have a positive impact in our lives?

What are you currently doing that you hate doing?

Or where are you following the crowd just because you “have” to even though you don’t actually want to? Do you really have to continue doing it or have you just brainwashed yourself into believing that?

Do you really have to answer every comment / tweet / e-mail / facebook message?
Do you really have to “connect” with people on Twitter?
Do you really have to do your laundry?
Do you really have to drink to have a good time even though you feel like shit afterwards?
Do you really have to choose the “safe” (although not safe at all) path of University > 40 year job > 20 year retirement > death?
Do you really have to wash your hair with shampoo?
Do you really have to pop pills and waste money to deal with allergies?
Do you really have to post to your blog on a set schedule?
Do you really have to write long articles even though you enjoy concise thoughts?
Do you really have to make breakfast every morning?

You never have to do anything you hate doing.

You can always find somebody else who will be happy to do whatever you hate. Or you might find that you don’t need anybody to do what you hate. It might not need to be done at all!

Does this mean you’ll be perfect and never do anything you hate? No way. I do a lot of things I hate.

Sometimes it’s because I can’t find someone to do it in the time frame it needs to be done. Sometimes it’s because it’s 4am and I want it done right away. Sometimes it’s because I want to get a better grasp of how something works and I know I’ll only have to hate it one time.

But now when I have a feeling of “I hate this” I mindfully step back and ask myself: “Does this need to be done? If yes, who can do it for me or how can I love it?”

What part of your routine do you hate doing? Are you going to quit being a fucking wuss and stop that?

The Greatest Offer I’ve Ever Made

To use a cliche, I’ll make you an offer you can’t refuse …

This offer is now closed, but the lessons below still apply.

In exchange for reading this post you’ll learn how to make a win/win/win offer that is guaranteed to make you more sales than you’re used to. All you have to do is copy what I do here for your own business. Even if you’re not interested in my Greatest Offer you need to read this and use it yourself in the future.

Tomorrow my friend Corbett is releasing a product called Traffic School that I’ve seen go from pre-conception to completion. Corbett is in my mastermind group. It’s a very small group (4, including me) that meets (virtually) every week to discuss business/life/everything. I remember months ago when we were discussing the naming, content, price points and lots of other fun business stuff for Traffic School. I’ve seen Corbett grow Traffic School from a gleam in his eye to a full fledged baby and it has been a great personal learning experience observing his creation process.

Note: Last year our tiny little mastermind group collectively grossed over $400k. This year we’ll probably double that even though we actually only have 3 people in the group right now. Bonus lesson of the day: Mastermind groups work.

I believe in Traffic School. (Hell, I wrote the landing page headline!) Traffic School is, without a doubt, the most thorough framework for taking any website (blog, online store, etc) to a new level of traffic. From 0 to at least 3,000 visitors/month if you’re brand new, or double your traffic if you’ve been around a while. Corbett has done it multiple times, he’s helped other people do it multiple times, and I’ve done it myself multiple times as well. I can say straight up that what he recommends works.

Now for the greatest offer I’ve ever made …

Traffic School is only available to 100 students tomorrow and you need to go to Corbett’s site to register today before the sale starts.

If you are one of those 100 who buys Traffic School through this link you will get the following from me:

Bonus 1:

All of my products if you don’t already have them. (Just wait, this is the baby bonus just to get this started.) That’s How To Live Anywhere Long Haul ($97), Mind Control Method ($77), and Luxury of Less ($9.99). Value: $183.99.

Bonus 2 (the huge bonus):

My next product, which I haven’t even announced yet! I’m tentatively calling it Your First $500 and the price when I release it will most likely be $500, although I still haven’t discussed this with the mastermind. You get this as a bonus when it is released (timeframe: end of Summer). Value: $500. (Getting better here, aren’t we?)

Bonus 3:

A one hour online group conference where you can talk/type with Corbett and I. This will be held March 22 and if you can’t make it we’ll record it and send it to you later. Corbett and I each charge in the vicinity of $250 for one hour of consultation. Put us together and that’s another $500 bonus. But I’ll be conservative. Let’s say this is valued at only $50. So far we’re up to $733.99 in bonuses.

Bonus 4:

On April 21 we’ll have another one hour online group conference (with just me this time) because I want to follow up and make sure you’re implementing what you’ve been learning in Traffic School. You’ll be about 6 weeks in so you’ll have had a chance to go through quite a bit of the course. Value: at least $50.

Total value of my bonuses: at least $783.99. And that’s not even inflated value. That’s a straight up “if you were to buy all this stuff separately this is what it would cost” value.

This is, by far, the best offer going for Traffic School. Beyond that it truly is The Greatest Offer I’ve Ever Made.

All you have to do is be one of the first 100 to buy Traffic School through this link when it goes on sale tomorrow (go to that link and register so you don’t miss out). After you make your purchase tomorrow forward your receipt to KarolGajda at Gmail so I can get you your bonuses.

Why Am I Doing This?

There are a multitude of reasons why I’m making such an outstanding offer out in public instead of keeping it private via the Freedom Fighters and I’m happy to be transparent about it.

1) I believe in Traffic School.

What better reason than that to support it?

2) This is a case study.

I’m using this as a case study for a future speaking gig.

I want to prove that you don’t need a big audience to make a lot of sales if you position the offer well.

3) This is a presell.

I’m effectively preselling my next product before producing it. By purchasing Traffic School you get my next product Your First $500 free. Or you can think of it as buying Your First $500 in advance and getting Traffic School free.

4) I love making insane offers.

As you already know, I’ve been part of some insane sales (the first two 72 hour sales). It’s simply lots of fun putting together crazy value for people who deserve it.

Wrapping It Up

Important: Do not click any other links for Traffic School besides this one. If you do click a link elsewhere come back here and click this link before you purchase. If I don’t get credit I can’t give you your bonuses.

– Get Traffic School through this link (register at the site; it goes on sale tomorrow, but you have to register to get it) and forward me your receipt after your purchase: KarolGajda at Gmail.

– Whenever you’re making an offer (whether it’s an affiliate offer like this one or a regular offer of your own products), make it a win/win/win if you want it to be extraordinarily successful. You can copy what I did here straight up and I guarantee it will work for you.

– Thanks for reading The Greatest Offer I’ve Ever Made. I’m going to leave comments open here because I’m interested in your thoughts about this.

Sweet Shit Saturday #042 (The Greatest Offer Preview Edition)

Just what the title says. A Preview of “The Greatest Offer I’ve Ever Made!”

Here’s the deal. On Monday I’m going to post something I never post, a straight up promo for my friend Corbett’s Traffic School (go there today to get some sweet free content). He’s releasing it Tuesday to just 100 students and, being that I’ve had access to it for a while (you’ll learn why on Monday), I know it’s a necessary course for most people who want a framework on how/where to take their website (any kind of website) to a new level of traffic.

But there’s a macro reason why I’m posting a promo on Monday. Among other things, it’s a case study for something else I’m doing. Suffice it to say, whether you’re interested in the promo or not, you will learn from it. And that’s what this site is all about it.

Monday’s post will include, and is called, The Greatest Offer I’ve Ever Made. You’re going to think I’m crazy, in a good way. I promise you it is, indeed, the greatest offer I’ve ever made. That’s all I’ll say right now, but keep your eye out on Monday. (If you’re a Freedom Fighter you already got a hint about what’s going on! Check your e-mail.)

Links!

Productivity Advice From A Drug Addict Turned Self Made Millionaire by George

I don’t know George’s last name, and the advice he espouses isn’t new, but it doesn’t matter. Sometimes things don’t “hit” unless they come from a slightly different angle. Although you’ve heard me say many of the same things George writes here I’ve never been a high school drop out, drug addict, or millionaire. That’s a sufficiently different angle. Enjoy.

Blogging Is Dead Just Like The Web Is Dead by Matthew Ingram

In other words, it’s not dead, no matter what some people might try to tell you (in weak attempts at shock/awe and getting more traffic).

A-B Split Test Plugin by Randy Hunt

The beauty of Twitter –> Real Life Interaction. I met Randy (who writes the language blog Yearlyglot.com) last year in Austin and then again at the first Ridiculously Extraordinary meetup here in Chicago. A couple days later I asked on twitter if there was a way to split test the HelloBar. There wasn’t. Randy asked me what I wanted to do exactly and a day later he created this free WordPress plugin! It’s free for you and anybody else who wants it! If you’re using HelloBar you must split test or you’re crazy. :)

When To Buy Airline Tickets and More Travel Advice by FareCompare

If anybody has the research to back up claims on when to buy, it’s FareCompare.

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If you’ve read How To Live Anywhere you know I talk about a certain self-created tour that I dreamed of doing. It’s happening this Summer. If you know what it is please keep it quiet until I reveal it publicly, but know that it is now reality and it’s going to be really fun. ;)

Have a great weekend!

Blind Followers vs Smart Followers

On health and trusting those who shouldn’t be trusted …

A few years ago I meticulously tracked my food intake for a month. When you’ve adopted a lifestyle that is against the norm you at least want to be sure it’s not detrimental to your life. Since my general food intake is the same on a week to week basis I didn’t need to track more than one week, but I wanted to be sure of myself. No harm in spending an extra 10 minutes/day for a few extra weeks to gain piece of mind.

What I found:

I was definitely getting enough calories. Some days it was around 2,000, some days around 2,500. It averaged out to about 2,200. If you’ve met me you’ve probably noticed or even commented that I’m skinny. My weight is normal, not underweight, not overweight. (This whole “you’re too skinny!” thing says a lot about our society.) I’ve weighed the same for years. Without dieting. Without checking my weight more than once/year. (I’ve never owned a scale.)
I was getting all my RDA (now DRI) of most nutrients except B-12 which is difficult to find in plant based foods that aren’t supplemented. I began drinking fortified soy milk, but eventually phased soy milk out of my diet and began taking sublingual B-12. (Sublingual simply means you put it under your tongue and let it sit there for 30-60 seconds before swallowing. It’s absorbed more quickly into your bloodstream.)
I got lots of fiber, which is more important than people realize. Simplified, fiber is the indigestible portion of your food that keeps your GI tract in tact (tongue twister) and disease free. Most people do not get nearly enough fiber, because most people don’t eat many veggies/fruits/beans. Tangent: even though iceberg lettuce isn’t a nutritional superstar it does have fiber and, therefore, it doesn’t suck. Iceberg lettuce gets a lot of negative press, and it’s true other leafy greens are better, but iceberg is acceptable.
I felt awesome. Still do. :)

Since that meticulous tracking a few years ago my diet has not changed very much so I never felt the need to track again.

When somebody would ask me “Are you getting all the proper nutrition?” my answer was, of course, yes. (Interestingly, I’m sure not a single person who ever asks me this is healthy or tracks their own nutrition.) When somebody would ask “Do you take supplements?” my answer would always be “No, they’re not necessary, except B-12.” Pardon my ignorance.

The Blind Leading The Blind

Maybe you noticed what I slipped in there, maybe you didn’t. The RDA is Recommended Dietary (some say Daily) Allowance, but now they’re using something called DRI (Dietary Reference Intakes). This is set, in my case, by the USDA, part of the US government. The same government I already don’t trust one bit for any aspect of my health. They are so blind they can’t even read braille. Why trust their nutritional recommendations? The best answer I can come up with is laziness.

After reading 4-Hour Body by Tim Ferriss, and then (more importantly) Transcend by Ray Kurzweil (genius inventor/scientist) and Dr. Terry Grossman (Ray’s MD cohort) I took another hard look at my diet and what I am or am not getting.

The first thing I learned, more than food intake, is that the amount of nutrients in any food is an inexact science. Not because it can’t be measured, but because we don’t know exactly how it will react with our own individual bodies. If you and I both eat a Fuji apple of equal weight the nutritional benefit to you might be greater than to me, or vice versa. The apples may very well be of equal nutrition, but my body may not absorb the nutrients the same way your body does.

The second thing I learned is that the RDA is the minimum. Since when is the minimum Ridiculously Extraordinary? The minimum is for less-than-average less-than-stellar folks. Call it ego or whatever else you’d like, but that’s not me dammit! I’d like to believe that’s not you either. Let’s shoot for optimum not minimum.

(Tangent: This holds true for other aspects of my life. Minimalism itself is not about the minimum number of things, but the optimum number of things necessary for my life. No more and no less than I need. Maybe I should change the name to Optimalism?)

Blood Doesn’t Lie

That leads us to a bit of a dead end, right? I mean, if you can’t know how your body is reacting to the food you’re eating, how are you supposed to know whether you’re getting the benefits you should be getting. And how are you supposed to know how much you should or should not be supplementing?

The answer: blood tests. Our blood holds the answers to most of these important questions and our blood doesn’t lie. If someone asked you “Do you eat healthy?” I’d venture to guess that you would say “yes!” even if you’re 40 pounds overweight and can’t run 100 meters without breaking into a dripping sweat. But if you ask your blood your blood will tell you the truth. Which is kind of scary for those of us who may lie to ourselves about our health. I’ve officially put myself back into this “lying to myself” category. Not because I think I’m being unhealthy, but because I don’t have the data to prove what’s going on in my body (yet).

There are a few problems with blood tests:

They’re probably not covered by your insurance. A normal blood test is probably covered, but the blood tests you actually need to get a clear picture of your health probably are not.
You’ll probably have to fight with your doctor to get the blood tests you want. Most Doctors are just as blind as you and I. Which is a problem. They don’t think independently. They think what they’re told based on what they memorized at school and by whatever pharmaceutical company is paying them off with free trips to the Bahamas.
You will have to get them regularly instead of just once if you want to consistently monitor what is going on with your body.

My plan of action: Figure out which blood tests are most essential (this is a whole article unto itself, and after I get mine done I may post a new article) and make an appointment to get them done in 2 months. (I’ll be on the move too much in the next 2 months to get all of this taken care of right now.)

Are Supplements Evil?

The third thing I learned is that supplements aren’t just a means to create expensive urine. :) No matter your diet you’re probably not getting enough of quite a few vitamins/minerals. Personally, I’ve always known I wasn’t getting enough B-12 because I wasn’t getting any, which is why I began supplementing with B-12. That said, just because you eat meat doesn’t mean you are getting enough B-12 (or other nutrients) since I guarantee the majority of the meat you eat is not of high quality. (You can lie to yourself if you’d like, but it’s not worth it when your health is involved.)

I’ve now begun taking a multi-vitamin as well as additional Vitamin D and Vitamin C. Most of us don’t get enough Vitamin D, no matter what our diets. Until I get the results from my blood tests I’m not going to mess with this formula since it’s safe. Taking too much of certain vitamins/minerals won’t cause problems, but taking too much of others will cause big problems. Causing big health problems defeats the purpose of wanting to living forever.

Supplementation is another reason regular blood tests are important. You need to know where you’re deficient and which supplements are helping or hurting.

Is Optimal Nutrition Possible On A Vegan Diet?

Yes. But what’s important for you is that the smartest people in the world advocate a mostly plant based diet even if you do eat meat. Even then, all meat is not created equal. And just so we’re clear, the bun on your hamburger, the ice cream for dessert, and the eggs in your breakfast does not count as plant-based.

The Bloody Wrapup

And I mean that in an English slang sort of way, not in a blood as a life-force sort of way.

Essential reading: Transcend by Ray Kurzweil and Terry Grossman.

Bonus not-essential reading: 4-Hour Body by Tim Ferriss.

Blind Follower: Someone who follows public opinion (or even just one person) without questioning anything.

Smart Follower: Someone who follows public opinion (or even just one person), but questions and verifies.

Also, eat more whole plant-based foods.

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Questions for you:

1) Have you ever taken a scientific approach to what you’re putting in your body? It’s OK if you haven’t, but if you have I’d love to know what you’ve done.

2) Where else in our lives besides our health do we regularly let the blind lead us? Why?

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