Author: Karol

How To Spot Opportunity Redux

Ideas, opportunities, and delaying gratification …

Last January I wrote an article called How To Spot Opportunity. While the specific idea I talked about in that article doesn’t work exactly like that anymore (things change), the general idea is still the same and will work in perpetuity. That idea is simply finding a niche market and giving it what it wants.

The problem is a lot of people get too caught up in ideas. Specifically “the next big idea” or whatever you’d like to call it. Personally, I’m a fan of taking action on any idea because some of them turn out much bigger than imagined. And even if an idea isn’t a home run, I’m perfectly OK with getting lots of base hits.

For example, I didn’t expect much from the 72 hour sales. I was expecting a solid base hit or maybe a double. In other words, I knew the first 72 hour sale would be successful, but I had no idea it would be as successful as it was. With the second sale we had bigger expectations because of the precedent the first sale set. Those first 2 sales generated over $230,000 in revenue and almost $45,000 to charitable causes. Small idea turned big. Expected base hit turned home run.

So here we are. It’s January again. There are opportunities everywhere. Maybe you’ve passed on a lot of opportunities in your life. Maybe you want permission to see an idea to fruition. This is your permission. Today is the best day to get started on that idea you’ve been putting off. Even if it’s a seemingly small idea.

A lot of people ask me how to do what I do, or ask me for advice or A-to-Z coaching. While I’m always happy to give whatever advice I can, the reason I don’t take on coaching students is because I won’t work with anybody who hasn’t already attempted one of their ideas in the recent past. More than that, I want to know exactly why that idea worked or didn’t work. If you don’t get some kind or result from your idea we have nothing to work from.

And here’s something else fun about actually taking action: once people see you’ve taken action they’re more likely to help you for free. I’ve received a ton of advice from people for the simple fact that I had a specific question about a specific issue. Specific questions about specific issues don’t arise if you’re sitting at home twiddling your thumbs and doing nothing. The reason successful people are willing to help you succeed is because they want you to succeed. They need you to succeed. Your success breeds more success. And it’s exciting to help someone who is a doer. It’s not fun at all giving your time to someone who disrespectfully throws it away.

Maybe you’re wondering what an attempt at an idea looks like?

  • Tossing up a blog (which my 5 year old nieces could do) is not an attempt at an idea.
  • Writing a few articles is not an attempt at an idea.
  • Talking to people on twitter is not an attempt at an idea.
  • Subscribing to yet another blog is not an attempt at an idea.
  • Leaving a comment on a blog with the hopes of “connecting” is not an attempt at an idea.

Throwing away your TV and working from 6pm – 10pm every day and all day on weekends is an attempt at an idea. Sacrificing a few things in the present so the future is a little brighter (in other words, delaying gratification) is an attempt at an idea.

As always, I leave it up to you.

Opportunity is everywhere. What are you going to do with it?

Reflecting On The Past, Looking To The Future

A new year, a clean slate, looking back to look forward to live in the now …

Last year around this time I did an epic recap of my 2009 here at Ridiculously Extraordinary. I’m not going to do that this year. Instead, let’s talk a little bit about why recapping the year is cool, why looking forward is cool, but ultimately there is nothing like right now.

As Chris so eloquently stated right here, there is a lot of New Year’s Resolution bashing around this time.

The reason for that is, well, most resolutions are set like most goals are set. They’re vague, unmeasurable, and unfeeling. I talk a lot about this in Mind Control Method. Listen, I want to get more fit, be a better person, and save more kitties this year just like anybody, but without something measurable or without feeling behind these goals they just won’t happen.

That’s not being negative, that’s being truthful; honest with myself. We could use a lot more honesty with ourselves and with others, don’t you think?

How do you hold yourself accountable to being a better person anyway?

Conscious Reflection

One great way to look forward and set a good goal (or whatever you’d like to call it) is to look back. Conscious reflection, as long as it’s not all-consuming (meaning you’re living in the past), is important.

It doesn’t have to be complicated. You can learn a lot by asking yourself just two questions:

  1. What were your goals in the past year?
  2. Which goals did you reach and why?

If you’d like to get a little more involved in your reflection you can break down the “why” more thoroughly.

I did mostly ungoal goal setting this year. What I mean is, there were some things I wanted to experience, and I experienced all of them. I also had one Most Important Goal (I discuss the MIG concept in MCM), which I did reach.

You already know or have seen me accomplish what I wanted to accomplish this year. I learned how to build a guitar, I learned how to speak Polish without constantly fumbling for words, I learned that staying everywhere I travel for 1+ months is my ideal form of travel, and business-wise, I focused solely on what’s going on here at Ridiculously Extraordinary. (I haven’t done taxes yet, but RE did very well this year, way better than I would have imagined had I set an income goal.)

That’s not to say I didn’t do anything wrong this year that I can learn from. But all in all, 2010 has been my favorite year. This is cool, because 2006 and 2007 were my least favorite years. Being on the upward curve, and more importantly, feeling in control of the curve, is a good place to be.

The things that went wrong this year were not catastrophic. Actually, what I learned is that absolutely nothing is catastrophic. Nothing.

And the things that went right were outstanding. What I learned is that we can’t make epicly memorable events happen. We can only guide them, point them in the right direction. What happens will happen and enjoying the process is part of the fun.

What do you do if this was your least favorite year? Well, since you’re still alive and reading this, that’s not a horrible position to be in. If it was your least favorite it probably won’t be difficult to make next year better, even if next year might not be your most favorite year.

An Important Question of Time

More than any goal or resolution, I like to focus on “what am I doing to make the coming year better?”

I didn’t try to make this year my favorite year, I just focused on making it better than the previous year. It’s a bit of a Kaizen approach. Small, consistent improvement equals massive improvement over time.

The beauty with this approach is that it forces you to look at right now. What’s happening now? What am I doing now to make my day great? If I have a great day, it’s only natural that I can have a great week, then a great month, and finally a great year.

If this year wasn’t so great, don’t reflect too much on the bad. Know that you will make the coming year better if you focus on that. And if this year was amazing for you, here’s to continuing on the upward curve …

Transitioning To The Cloud

Moving your data from the physical realm to the cloud …

I have officially become 100% reliant on the cloud for all of my important data. Within a few years everybody will be working this way, but because of my mobile lifestyle I needed to transition a little quicker. Let me tell you how this came about …

Six months ago my hard drive crashed and I decided I needed to come up with a better solution for living and working from anywhere. Being stuck to one piece of machinery (my computer) was no good. I’d already been using Google Docs and Word Press for a lot of my writing, but the majority of my data was still held in the physical realm, sitting no-so-pretty on my computer and my external backup hard drive.

Initially I thought I’d continue with this strategy. I figured instead of saving work on my laptop and then backing up to an external drive I would strictly use a Flash drive of some sort. They’re smaller, more versatile, and less prone to failure than hard drives with moving parts. I began researching and I couldn’t find a large enough flash drive for my needs that also didn’t cost hundreds of dollars. I put the decision off until a few weeks ago when I got a new computer.

Breaking Free From The Physical World

I decided external Flash drives, while awesome for certain uses, just aren’t the ideal solution for the technomad.

It was clearly time to begin using a remote backup system that I could access from anywhere. But there are about a dozen well-known services that do this, along with many lesser-known services.

Note: You might be thinking “well what about if you don’t have internet?” This is becoming less and less common. Last year while spending a week in the Daintree Rainforest there was actually an internet cafe at a hostel. Yes, it cost an exorbitant $9AUD per hour, but it was there. High speed internet (for Australia’s standards) in the middle of the oldest rainforest (135 million years old) in the world.

After doing my own research I asked on twitter what was recommended between SugarSync and DropBox, the 2 solutions I was most interested in.

Although there were a few lone rangers who recommended SugarSync, the overwhelming response was DropBox.

Here’s the problem: almost none of the responders had used SugarSync and didn’t give me any compelling reasons that DropBox was the best. In fact, it was just personal preference or “it does what I need.” Personal preference is all good, but it doesn’t mean anything is the best.

My Issues With DropBox

DropBox is definitely a good solution and they’ll give you 2GB of backup free right here so that’s cool. (Sign up through that link for free and you’ll get 250mb of bonus storage.)

But here are my issues:

  • Everything I want backed up must go into the DropBox folder on my physical hard drive. I’m not interested in reworking the way I organize my data. I want a solution that works with the way I already organize everything.
  • I can’t selectively sync folders that are outside of the DropBox folder to my DropBox account. So if I have a Documents folder inside my Blog Writing folder I can’t have that automatically backed up without moving the whole folder to the DropBox folder first. This is essentially the same as my first point, but it’s important enough to reiterate.
  • The online account doesn’t have media streaming. One of my reasons for wanting a remote backup is to send my 32GB of MP3s to the cloud. This way I can have my own Pandora anywhere I go. If you’ve ever transferred 32GB of music from computer to computer to computer you know what a pain that is.

I’m still testing out DropBox simply because of a bit of paranoia with having all of my data backed up in one place. And since the free account has 2GB of data it doesn’t cost me anything to keep it alive. That said, I really can’t see a compelling reason to choose DropBox. I’ve obsessed over this more than is probably healthy and I just don’t see what so many others see. I’m with the lone rangers …

My Main Cloud Computing Solution Is SugarSync

DropBox just doesn’t compete with SugarSync in any way, shape, or form.

My favorite features of SugarSync:

  1. With selective syncing I can choose any folder to be backed up automatically. Any time anything in one of my chosen folders changes it is automatically backed up. Boom!
  2. The online music streaming is awesome. I have my iTunes folder selected as a SugarSync folder so now any time I add new albums to iTunes they automatically get backed up to my SugarSync account. Boom!
  3. If you need a place to store your High Res photos, SugarSync has a beautiful photo gallery, with easy access from any device. Ba ba BOOM!
  4. Public access to any file with the click of a button. Say you want to share something (a photo, for example) with the world. Just click Get Public Link and you’re golden.
  5. You can send any file to anybody anywhere. The recipient does not need a SugarSync account to get the file.
  6. The free account is 5GB instead of just 2GB.
  7. In addition, if you register for a free account through this link you get an extra 500mb of data (you get 10GB extra if you buy an account) … and I get an extra 500mb of data in my account as well. :) Obviously they do this because they need to compete with the likes of DropBox, which it seems everybody blindly uses. ;) Every time you refer someone to SugarSync you get 500mb of data into your free plan. This is unlimited. With DropBox you get 250mb for every person you refer, but it’s limited to a total of 8GB.

And, of course, with SugarSync your data is available on virtually any device. PC, mac, iPod, iPhone, iPad, Android OS, and so on.

Pricing Differences

Pretty much all online storage companies follow a similar pricing plan, but even here SugarSync wins out. DropBox is $99/year for 50GB or 2GB for free. SugarSync is $99.95/year for 60GB or 5GB for free.

My Ultimate Plan of Cloud Covered Action

Simple: use SugarSync and spread the word about it so I get even more data storage. Let me explain: I’m hoping you’ll help me by registering for a free 5GB account (you need this anyway if you want to work in the cloud), in which case you’ll get an extra 500mb and I’ll also get an extra 500mb. (If you register for a paid account instead you’ll get 10GB of extra storage and I’ll get 10GB of extra storage.)

Get your free SugarSync account (5GB + 500mb bonus) here.

Whatever you decide to do, if you want to become a technomad, or even if you just want to do a bit of traveling, backing up your data in the cloud where it can be retrieved from anywhere on any device is a smart idea. Nobody has ever regretted backing up too much data, but I know quite a few people who have been pissed off for not backing up enough (*ahem!*). ;)

### Update: well over 300 SugarSync registrations since this article went live. Thanks! :) ###

The Future of Giving

Giving a very small amount directly to someone who needs it results in massive impact …

A few years ago and a few days before Christmas I was at a thrift store on Gratiot Ave looking at old records. Old records make good gifts for people who like old records. ;)

I saw an older lady, maybe about 70, who looked very frazzled. You know how sometimes when you see someone you can just feel that they could use a little help? Specifically monetary help. I’m not going to assume everybody who’s doing their Christmas shopping at a thrift store needs help, but I felt compelled to do something in this particular situation. I opened my wallet as I walked towards her, took out a $100 bill, and as I gave her the bill said “I’m supposed to give this to you.” I wasn’t sure what to say exactly and that’s the first thing that came to mind. What do you say to someone when you’re giving them money without coming across as condescending or “I’m better than you”?

She was obviously very thankful. To be honest, I don’t know how much that $100 helped her. I think it probably did since if you take a random sampling of people at any time of the year $100 will probably help the majority of them.

Since that time I mostly stopped giving to large charities. It’s not that I have a problem with giving to large charities, but without seeing the direct impact of my giving it’s difficult to feel it. If you give someone even just $1 when they’re short at the grocery store you can see and feel the direct impact. That’s a lot more fun and in line with how I’d like to align my life.

I can’t say I go around all day handing out wads of cash. I do it when the opportunity presents itself, but how often do these opportunities present themselves?

In other words, how often are we present enough to notice when someone else is struggling? Usually when we’re out we’re too caught up in what’s happening with ourselves and our grocery lists and our cell phones to notice. We’re generally lazy like that. That said, now that you’ve read this I have a feeling you’ll be a little more aware when you’re out and about.

Marc Gold, My New Hero

I don’t know Marc Gold, but he’s a new hero. I just read about him and his 100 Friends project a few days ago. You should read that site to get the whole story, but essentially Marc spends a few months every year raising money which he then takes directly to Third World countries to help people in need. He gives small amounts that make massive impact. A dental visit. A wheelchair. Fixing a broken rickshaw.

Each one of us has the power to change a life. You have the power to change someone’s life. It doesn’t take much.

Microfinance and The Future of Giving

And this is why I like the idea of micro finance, small giving directly to people who need it. I’ve been a member of Kiva.org since October of 2007. Through Kiva I get a similar feeling as what I felt during Christmastime at the thrift store on Gratiot Ave, but I get it far more often because Kiva gives me ready access to people who need just a little bit.

The Kiva Lending Team I started on March 4, 2010 has already loaned $11,925 to entrepreneurs around the world. We’ve got 30 fantastic members who have made a total of 110 loans so far and I’d love for you to be a part of that team as well. Click here to check out our Team.

I’ve received a few e-mails about Kiva and how it works, how I choose who to loan to, and how to make sure I loan to someone who will actually pay back.

The way Kiva works is that you give an interest free loan to someone in need. Over time, they pay it back. Technically you lose money due to inflation, but as money is paid back you’re able to reloan it over and over. $25 can be reloaned for the rest of your life and affect the lives of literally thousands of people over time.

There is, of course, the risk that your money will never be paid back. The current repayment rate (which can be found here) is 98.91%, meaning 1.09% of loans aren’t paid back. So far every loan I have made is either in the process of being repaid or has been fully repaid.

How To Choose A Loan

Kiva allows you to choose your loans by many factors. Male/Female, specific regions, certain industries.

I don’t focus on anything except industries. Male/female/country/age and superficial things like that don’t matter. I focus on the business aspect of the loan. In my entrepreneurial mind there are a few business that will always be in need. Services (such as auto repair), transportation (taxis), and food (stores and farms). I don’t loan to any food places that sell or slaughter animals, but I do loan to general stores.

Once I’ve selected an industry I click on a few of the available loans. My first point of interest is the Field Partner (the organization out in the field who actually gives the loan). I want to know how long they’ve been on Kiva, how many loans they’ve given out, and, most importantly, what their default rate is. If the default rate (the percentage of loans that aren’t paid back) is anything other than 0% I move on to a different loan. Let other people take that risk.

If the default rate is 0% I read about the entrepreneur, why they’re looking for a loan, how long they expect it to take to pay back, and my general feeling towards them. If the payment term is anything longer than 12 months my feeling is that they’re asking for more loan than they need and I move on. In a few cases, based on the story, I have given loans with longer than 12 month payment terms, but I generally stick to this rule.

If I like their story and everything else is good I go ahead and loan. The allowable loan is as little as $25, but depending on how I feel, I’ve given upwards of $250. Most often I give $25. In my mind it’s more fun having a few dozen people give $25 each to help one person than just a single loaner giving the whole amount.

The Future of Giving Isn’t Only About Microfinance

While giving small amounts of cash is cool, the reality is the future of giving is helping in seemingly small ways that have a direct impact.

Maybe there’s a hungry stray kitty who hangs around your house? You don’t have to take it in, but for $50 you could get it spayed/neutered and help control the exponentially growing homeless pet population.

Or maybe you live in a freezing cold place and can put up a small bird feeder to help the birds that didn’t head south for the Winter actually make it through the deep freezes?

Or maybe you consistently see a guy on a street corner begging for change or food? How many of us stop and actually give a sandwich? It’s not a massive gift, but it helps.

It doesn’t take a lot to change a life. Marc Gold has proven that, Kiva has proven that, and I hope I’ve proven that as well.

You can get started giving by simply sharing this article with one person via e-mail, or sharing it on your Facebook or twitter. The more people who realize how powerful small giving can be the more powerful small giving will be …

One Compelling Reason To Change The World

You only need one compelling reason to make massive change in your life …

The title of this article might be a little bit misleading so let me clarify: if you want to do anything that’s important to you, something that will change your world, you need just one compelling reason.

As you may know I strongly dislike cold weather. I also strongly dislike constantly saying how much I dislike cold weather. :)

I’ve written many times that I refuse to travel to cold destinations (except to Michigan for the holidays) because there are a few lifetime’s worth of warm weather places to visit. Why waste my time in place that make me decidedly miserable? Doing something that makes one miserable is something only fools do. Unless …

Cold Weather and Compelling Reasons

Unless you have a compelling reason to visit your cold weather destination it will be an insurmountable (or miserable) hurdle. (Cold weather can be anything for you. Hot weather. Rainy weather. Rocky geography. A certain state. A particular restaurant. Etc. Etc. Etc.)

I’ve decided my next mission, from January 2 – March 11, will be in a very cold weather destination. It’s not even an “exotic” cold weather destination like Stockholm or Oslo or Antarctica.

Nope.

I’m heading to the land of the Magnificent Mile. The Field Museum. Millenium Park. Chicago Diner. Soldier Field. Navy Pier. The former Sears Tower. Monkey Bar Gym.

Monkey Bar Gym?

Yes, Monkey Bar Gym. For the purposes of this article: my compelling reason.

The specific compelling reason is vegan fitness bad ass Jon Hinds.

I first heard about Jon Hinds about 4 years ago when I purchased jump ropes from LifeLine USA, the company he runs with his father. If you look at my ultra light packing list you can see I travel with the LifeLine USA speed rope. When I learned Jon was vegan and that he did training with high level athletes I was immediately intrigued. I put “train with Jon Hinds in Madison, WI” on my things to do.

But Madison, WI?

My thoughts: “Why would I ever want to move to Madison? What’s in Madison? I don’t want to move back to the midwest. Nah, I’ll just put this off.”

We all put things off, no matter how much we lie to ourselves that we want to do something. The important thing I’ve learned is not to force it. I follow my heart and inspiration. I wasn’t ever in a proper frame of mind to drop everything and go to Madison to train with a vegan fitness trainer, no matter how well respected he was/is.

That is until my Brazil plans starting falling apart a bit. See, I originally planned on heading to Brazil for multiple reasons.

  1. It’s warm. (Good, but not compelling reason.)
  2. I’ve been wanting to visit the Amazon since I was in 3rd grade and my class did a month-long assignment on Brazil. (Good, but not compelling reason.)
  3. I wanted to bike Route 66 in the US in 2011 and I needed a warm place to train. Curitiba, Brazil is on many lists as a very bike friendly city so I chose that. (Compelling reason!)

But when I knew I wouldn’t do the Route 66 trip in 2011 I had a feeling Brazil would fall apart. I just didn’t have a compelling reason to go there.

A List of Compelling Reasons (or How I Changed My World This Year)

Let’s break down the compelling reasons for me to visit every place I’ve visited this year.

Baga Beach, Goa, India

Chiang Mai, Thailand

  • Consistently shows up in lists of the top vegetarian cities in the world. I needed to see what that meant with my own two eyes and my thousands of taste buds.

Wroclaw, Poland

  • I was born in Poland and wanted to experience the city my Parents grew up in as a real resident instead of just a passerby. I was also incredibly embarrassed by my lackluster Polish and wanted to learn the language better. (Success on both counts, I believe!)

Austin, TX

Metro Detroit, MI

  • Holidays + Family

Chicago, IL

  • I contacted Jon Hinds and asked him whether he is training people anywhere. I was fully ready to move to Madison and even began searching for apartments. But Jon replied that he’s moving to Chicago and opening a branch of the gym there. Boom! Next destination settled with compelling reason in place. I’ve already registered for the Jan 10 – March 10 60 Day Challenge and put down a deposit on a Gold Coast apartment.

Running Blind vs Tunnel Vision

When most people set goals they set empty goals devoid of emotion or experience. If you’ve read much of my work you know I don’t believe in specific goals. I believe in specific experiential goals. A specific goal is good and provides some direction. A specific experiential goal provides tunnel vision and a compelling reason.

Which of the following goals is better?

Goal 1: I will earn $250,000 this year.

or

Goal 2: I will earn $250,000 this year so I can indulge in my childhood dreams and become one of the first civilians to take a trip to space.

Goal 2 is immeasurably better. And while that might not be a compelling enough reason for you to earn $250,000 this year it’s much more tangible than “I want to earn $250,000 this year just because.”

I’m willing to bet that the very large majority of people who set specific (but not experiential) goals don’t ever reach them. This holds true for the people I personally know. The people I personally know also kick ass when they set specific experiential goals. An experience gives you something to work towards and it involves your emotions which are very powerful motivating factors.

What’s Your Compelling Reason?

Do you have something you want to accomplish? What’s your compelling reason? Without it you’re running blind and you’re setting yourself up for quitting or failure.

If you’d like, share your compelling reason(s) in the comments below.

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The Little White Book Of Life, Lies, and Love

About a girl. About a life. About everything …

I hated school. I hated work. I hated boredom. I had no interest. I had a happy childhood. There was school, adolescence, growing up, questions about the future. I was twenty-one. I had no dream.

I dropped in and out of college. After three years I wasn’t going back.

Students sat on lawns, drank coffee, held books, discussed ideas, wore expensive sandals and footwear. Professors taught classes on campus greens. Students basked in youth, in the fine times of college. I was told I’d meet my friends for life in college.

Everywhere people smoked, sat on wide steps of academic buildings, enjoyed the outdoors together, like people in glossy-paged catalogues.

I hated college atmosphere.

I left college for the last time as impulsively as ever – free and happy – like I had a bottomless pocket of money, fully funded, like my lungs were fresh and I could still run a mile in under six minutes.

Cars passed slow with the wind brushing up my hair. I listened to the dusty dirt on the bottoms of my new leather shoes. I felt slow like a fish underwater, like a soft cloud pulled along.

I was content to be slow, away from the vague traps between cause and effect.

Birds made noise along the roadsides, up high in the light-green pine needles. I smelled the sandy heat. When I closed my eyes I believed I had a grand future; I had no problems; the past didn’t matter.

I was going to make my life an adventure.

### END EXCERPT ###

A few days ago I was at Book People in Austin, TX and stumbled upon a small white display of 4 white books. When I say white book I mean the cover is completely white, no title, no author, no publisher, no copyright. 200 pages of text. $5.

I immediately picked it up and went to check out. The checkout girl made a comment. “This book confuses me every time I stock it. I don’t know where or how to put it, but it appeals to my teenage anarchist younger years.”

I thought that was funny. Mostly because it’s obvious she didn’t read it. Even so, she was drawn to the book in some way.

That’s on purpose. It’s mysterious. No author, no design, it’s cheap. While I’m sure there is a little profit in the $5 for the author, it can’t be much. The lack of cover is meant to draw people in. The first page (reprinted above with “permission”) is meant to draw people in.

It obviously drew me in.

I still can’t fully figure out what the book is about. It’s about a man who is lost yet found. He knows where he is, but doesn’t know where he’s going. It’s about sex, drugs, and rock ‘n’ roll. It’s about travel. It’s about finding your own way within a system that wants you to comply to their way.

It’s about consumerism. It’s about minimalism. It’s about alcoholism. It’s about a lot of isms.

It’s scattered, it’s plotless, it’s completely incomplete. It has no defined beginning and no known ending. But that’s life, isn’t it?

If you’re a fan of Catcher In The Rye (I am) or On The Road (I’m not) or Fear and Loathing In Las Vegas (awesome) I think this book will appeal to you.

In some ways I feel like I’ve been fooled into some kind of sick mass control by writing about this little white book. Like it’s a trick played by some evil corporation or government. It answers no questions and and yet it answers them all. What more could I ask for?

The book is called Manifesto. You can’t buy it anywhere. But you can buy it somewhere. Enjoy. ;)

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I’m in Michigan! This Monday I’m posting about my next (frigid) destination, where I will be residing from Jan 2 – March 11. But more than that I’ll write about compelling reasons and why we need them to accomplish anything important. Subscribe to the RSS, follow me on twitter, or Like the facebook page so you don’t miss this update.

How To Stop Negative Influence Dead In Its Tracks

Positive influence is good. Here’s how to stay on course in the face of influence …

In the regular course of your day you’re bombarded with messages and propaganda from other people. Print media, radio, TV, blogs, movies, friends, acquaintances, the guy on the corner on his soapbox screaming into a megaphone. (Really, how effective is that? Come on guy with the megaphone.)

Someone asked me recently how I keep my eyes on the prize when so many people are trying to influence me with their point of view.

It’s really pretty simple. Although I’m confident in my ways I’m open to other ideas. I don’t shun influence. It can be a good thing. Hell, if it wasn’t for influence I wouldn’t be doing what I’m doing today. Starting this blog was heavily influenced by Chris, Cody, and Tim.

Positive influence is good. Even when I don’t agree I welcome opinions and ideas from people I respect. And that’s key. Respect.

So the real goal is to keep negative influence out of your life.

Here’s how to do that:

  1. Take a few minutes and write down what you value. What is important to you? Morally and otherwise. Write down what you think and how you feel about controversial and mundane topics alike. It helps to write this stuff down so when you’re confronted on your views you’re clear in what you believe.
  2. When you’re confronted with someone who has opposing or different views, don’t react right away. Ask yourself if it’s coming from a place of love and respect or is it maybe coming from a place of “I don’t care what you think, you’re wrong, it’s my way or no way.”

You might almost think that because of the way I approach certain topics I’m contradicting myself here. Even when it sounds like a “it’s my way or no way” situation it truly is because I want you to feel it when something has positively affected my life. Vegansim, no TV, minimalism, whatever the case may be. It’s impossible to state how important those things are until you’ve attempted them. I only know because I was on the direct opposite side of the issue on all of them at one point in my life. I thought vegans were crazy and I ate meat every day. I thought TV was OK and I literally left mine on for 12 hours/day. I thought owning stuff was important and I owned a lot.

Who has your best interests at heart?

You do. Nobody else ever totally has your best interests at heart. If they say they do, they’re lying. When someone is trying to influence you it’s because they have a foot on the court, a ball in the game. That doesn’t mean it’s a bad thing, it’s just the truth. Yes, I want to positively influence you. And yes, that benefits me.

The more people who subscribe to my RSS feed, join the Freedom Fighters, or Like my facebook page, the more people I get to interact with who are similar to me. Geographically speaking it’s not easy to find a whole lot of people similar to us. But spread out across the whole world there are many. If you’re part of this movement it benefits you to spread the message because you get to interact with all of these wonderful people. And that’s how we’re growing this massive, positively influential, community.

I don’t talk about numbers here much, but we’re closing in on 7,000 total subscribers and that’s really kick ass.

Thank you for doing what you do, being who you are, and spreading the message far and wide.

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My friend Tyler has a course coming out tomorrow called Guerrilla Influence Formula all about how to use your influence as a force for good. It’s a really solid course and comes with a 1,000 subscriber guarantee. (In other words, if you follow what Tyler writes about you’ll gain at least 1,000 subscribers to your website/blog/cause or you get your money back.)

Side note: Tyler interviewed me for the course.

Bonus side note: buy through this link, forward me your receipt (and your mailing address), and I’ll mail you a copy of my favorite business book (#1 on my list) that is perfectly complementary to Tyler’s course. That book, of course, is Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion by Dr Robert Cialdini. (I’ll ship to anywhere in the US or Canada. Live somewhere else? Get in touch and I’ll figure something else out for you.)

Sweet Shit Saturday #035 (The Future Is Now Edition)

I planned 4 months of my life in 1 day. Also, lots of sweet links …

I’m not much of a planner. In fact, I don’t usually enjoy planning at all. Planning the future and living in the present is an interesting situation, but sometimes you gotta do it. :)

Thursday I spent all day planning 4 months of my life, from Late May – until September and I actually felt a sense of excitement doing so. I’m still working on the specific dates, but so far I know I’ll be visiting 83 places in 72 cities in 33 United States, and one city in the United Arab Emirates. (And that doesn’t include a stop in Portland, OR for World Domination Summit.) If you know what I’m up to (5,000+ people do know, but it’s still fairly secret) please keep it quiet for now. I’ll officially announce it in 2011. I’m doing something extraordinarily fun that I’m 99.99% sure nobody has attempted before. And I’m doing this big with a separate website (it took me 2 years of pleading to buy the domain from the guy who owned it for 9 years), sponsors (to offset the ~$25k estimated price tag of the trip), and fun times. And I hope to meet you along the way if our schedules align. Woohoo!

But first things first, I still haven’t announced what I’m up to January – March. That’ll be announced after I finalize details. Nothing is final until details are finalized. ;)

How about some sweet links?

How To Love Your Readers To Death by Pat Flynn

I love you. Also, Pat rules.

Birke Baehr: What’s Wrong With Our Food System on TED

Birke is an 11 year old bad ass.

Horror Stories by Steven Pressfield

“To be passive is to die.”

Interview with Jake Nickell of Threadless by Chris Garrett

Although I’ve never, to my knowledge, purchased anything from Threadless, I’ve known about and respected the company for years. It’s one of those rare companies that just screams “awesome.” I think that’s because it’s based on such a win/win/win model. (Win for artists, win for customers, win for the business.) A win/win is good. A win/win/win is great. That’s why the 72 hour sales are so fun. They truly are a win/win/win. (Actually, if you include all the money we raise for charity, they’re a win/win/win/win!)

Focus On A Freedom Fighter #004: Leslie Cao

Leslie is officially the youngest Freedom Fighter who has ever contacted me. She’s smarter at 15 than I am at 29. Leslie runs the site Radical Turtle: Teenage Experiments In Personal Development, Health, and Minimalism.

If you’d like to be featured in this section you gotta join the Freedom Fighters and wait for the “get featured” e-mail in 45 days. :)

On to Leslie …

Karol: Why did you join Freedom Fighters?

Leslie: I joined because I already enjoyed your awesome content on your website so I was interested in what you offered to your email list titled “Freedom Fighters.”

K: How has Freedom Fighters helped you?

L: Freedom Fighters has helped me learn many new affiliate marketing techniques and provided me examples of different ways to provide useful content. You pack a lot of actionable and helpful content with honesty and without fillers or fluff which I find extremely refreshing. It’s a push, a reminder of what we’re able to do.

K: What are your goals with your website?

L: My goals for my website are to have fun, be adventurous, and document my insight and journey while letting go of emotional baggage. It really makes me happy when I see what I put out there has helped others with their own realizations.

K: Is there anything in particular you’d like to tell the world?

L: Become aware. Become aware of the environmental impact you have on the planet, become aware of those nagging feelings tugging away at your body, and become aware of the power you wield over your own life. Once you have awareness, it’s your choice of what to do from then on.

Thank you Leslie! Again, check out Leslie at RadicalTurtle.com.

That’s it for this week. I’m heading to Michigan on Wednesday. Whoa, my time in Austin flew by. See ya Monday!

Being An Entrepreneur Is The Ultimate Life Hack

Are you unemployable?

A few days ago Tynan wrote that entrepreneurs don’t want jobs. His thesis is that entrepreneurs value freedom far too much.

I tend to agree.

But even more than that, entrepreneurs are a rare breed of unemployable people.

A Story of Employment

In my senior year of high school I did something they called co-op. If you joined co-op you’d get out of school early to go work at a job in your field of interest. For someone who hated school it was a pretty sweet gig. Especially because my school counselor was actually awesome and worked hard to find me a job that fit within my personality. I loved programming and computers and I got to maintain the website and backend database for a local Oldsmobile (remember them?) dealership. This was 1998. They were getting a steal by paying me only $7/hour.

To stay in co-op you were supposed to work 15-20 hours per week, or 3-4 hours every business day.

Which is all well and good for most people.

But my entrepreneurial mindset wasn’t one that could sit around the office and do nothing. Freedom is too valuable to waste. I would get a week’s work done in one day, then for the rest of the week I’d go in for about 1 hour (because I had to). The only practical work experience I gained was that I didn’t want to gain any practical work experience.

Because I was so efficient and so good at the job, I asked for a raise. I could easily sit around for 3-4 hours/day and get the $7/hour, or I could continue getting everything done in 1 hour/day and get paid $15/hour (the raise I asked for). It was a bargain as far as I was concerned. I’d get the same amount of work done and it would cost them less.

They didn’t see it that way. I didn’t game the system by wasting 4 hours/day in the office so I had no real leverage to get the $15/hour for less time … I was already working less time for $7/hour.

The First Step To Being Unemployable: Quit Doing Shit That Disrespects Your Time

I quit as soon as I was there long enough to earn my school credit.

The freedom of being able to go home and play guitar, or read, or hang out with friends, was much more valuable to me than sitting around an office pretending to do work for 3 more hours for an extra $21/day.

If that sounds like you, then you’re probably unemployable as well. Congratulations, you might just be an entrepreneur!

In Tynan’s article he asks the following question to entrepreneurs: “How much money would it take for you to take a job?”

Most of you know that if Mark Cuban offered me an unpaid gig working with him I’d take it. Not to build a CV (resumé). Not to make money. But to learn from a unique entrepreneurial mind. So my answer is, no amount of money would do it, but if the right person asked me to work with them, I’d take a job. (There are currently 2 people who fit into this “right person” criteria. It’s important to decide on your criteria before you succumb to other temptations, like a higher paying job or “career path.”)

What Is Freedom Worth?

Is it worth 40 years of your life?

If it worth dreading waking up every morning?

Is it worth looking forward to weekends instead of enjoying every day?

Sure, once you’re retired you’ll be free, but at what cost?

Would you be willing to make less as an entrepreneur to have more freedom?

If you’ve found your “enough” point the answer is probably yes.

Most entrepreneurs I’ve spoken with would much rather earn less on their own than have to go into work and make more money. Entrepreneurialism isn’t just about money. It’s about working passionately for the simple fact that you’re passionate about the work. Some weeks I work far more than 40 hours. Some weeks I work less than 5. The freedom to choose is worth more than any dollar sign.

Which leads me to the same question Tynan asked. If you’re an entrepreneur, what would it take for you to get a job? Money? A specific employer? A title? Nothing?

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You Don’t Need A Job, You Need Guts

My friend Ash (who I’ve linked to many times before) just released a great book called You Don’t Need A Job, You Need Guts (<– click there). Full disclosure: I bought it during presale and Ash refunded me. The point is, it’s worth the small cost and if you’re unsure about your track in life you’ll be happy you read Ash’s book.

The Single Most Powerful Strategy To Building Your Massive Audience

How to build your audience using big ideas …

A few months ago I began thinking about building an audience (you, this audience) from a different angle. What prompted that is I wrote a few guest posts (which I spent hours on) that didn’t produce very good results by my standards. I needed to try something different.

Now, before I continue, I still believe in the value of guest posting. Besides the tangible traffic, quality links, and subscribers that come from guest posting there are a couple of huge intangible benefits to guest posting.

  1. By providing high quality articles to other bloggers you’re building goodwill. There are a lot of great blogs out there seeking quality content. Believe me, blog editors truly appreciate receiving high quality articles from you.
  2. Public writing practice. If you’re trying to be a writer, it’s good to take every opportunity you can to practice your craft. Obviously, at a certain point, you might have so many of your own writing projects to work on that taking most guest posts isn’t worth it. But in the beginning stages of your website it’s a good idea.

That’s not what we’re here to discuss though.

The Big Idea Strategy

The big idea strategy is nothing entirely new, but I can’t recall anybody discussing it and breaking it down. And to be honest, it doesn’t always work out as well as you might expect or hope. I think that’s OK. If you continuously use The Big Idea Strategy you will hit on a few really successful ideas.

Why Big Ideas Work

They get people talking about you, usually in a decidedly positive light. While writing guest posts is all well and good, when somebody talks about you and links to you there is an instant bond of trust established. What I mean is, assuming the person who links to you has built trust with his/her audience, that trust is forwarded on to you in a way that just doesn’t happen with a guest post.

Below are 4 Big Ideas I’ve used in the past 3 months and there is no reason you can’t use them as well.

Big Idea #1: Free Manifesto / Collaborative Article

My first conscious attempt at a Big Idea was The American Dream Is Dead (Long Live The American Dream!), my free manifesto. Writing a free manifesto is fairly common these days. Writing a blog post where you solicit advice from X number of other bloggers is fairly common these days as well. I hadn’t seen anybody put the two ideas together, so that’s what I did.

Results: initial results were less than stellar. For whatever reason, August 30 (launch day) wasn’t great. But since that time over 10,000 people have downloaded the manifesto and it continues to be one of the most visited articles on this blog. In addition to that, I get a consistent stream of e-mails thanking me for writing the manifesto. Positive feedback is always welcome. :)

Total cost: $250 for the design of the manifesto by Charlie. Time investment: ~20 hours, including writing and soliciting/editing the launch day post.

Big Idea #2: Create A Holiday

This idea hit me out of nowhere and I immediately acted on it. I’m not known as a minimalist blogger because I don’t write too much about minimalism, but I live minimalism so I wanted to make myself more of an authority in the niche. Enter International Minimalist Day, a new holiday that will be celebrated every 23rd of September. :)

Results: in the minimalist community this article was passed around everywhere. And that was the exact plan. Now, in the future, in case anybody ever thinks “Hmm, I wonder if there’s a minimalist day” hopefully my name and my site will come to mind or pop up in a search. :)

Total cost: $0. Time investment: ~4 hours to write/edit the International Minimalist Day article and send some personal e-mails.

Big Idea #3: 72 Hour Sale #1

2 weeks after International Minimalist Day I released my own book on minimalism, called The Luxury of Less, via a 72 hour minimalist book sale. Another big idea to get my name out in the minimalist community.

Thought process for creating this (watch out, we’re directly entering my brain):

  • There’s a price cap on minimalist eBooks. I’m going to price mine at $9.99, which will result in a lot of sales, but how can I increase the value for all buyers, and raise the price at the same time?
  • Hmm, I wonder if everybody else who has minimalist eBooks available would be interested in a fun promotion for 72 hours. I’m already friends with all these guys and gals, let’s see what they think.
  • What would be a good price point, higher than normal, but not too high so as not to detract from sales? The minimalist community is generally known as frugal so I wanted to pack in as much value as possible, while still releasing a profitable product.
  • $27. It’s higher than any single minimalist eBook, and by packaging them all together, it will be an almost no-brainer insane value.

Total cost: $350 for The Luxury of Less design, 72 hour sale images, and Amazon S3 hosting. Total time investment: ~40 hours, including writing the eBook and putting together the 72 hour sale.

Results: Besides sending $9,388.40 to Kiva.org entrepreneurs, I got my new minimalism eBook into the hands of 1,687 sweet people in 3 days and made almost $10k for myself. How many authors can say that?

Big Idea #4: 72 Hour Sale #2

For this sale, due to its massive scale, I brought on Baker as a partner, which severely cut down on my own workload and also made it a lot of fun to work on.

Our goal with this sale was to create a package that would sell for about $100, but to provide more than $1,000 in real value. It was the same concept as the first sale in that regard. The first sale was $224 in real value for $27. We met with a little bit of resistance, and almost didn’t reach the psychologically important $1,000 mark. But Baker made it happen. :)

Total cost: ~$700. This included design services, programming, domain, e-junkie, aweber, and Amazon S3.

Results: Over 1,900 sales (I believe it’s 1,915, but we’re still waiting on some eChecks) and over $30k to Charity:Water. This was a completely different niche than the first 72 hour book sale and about 20,000 unique visitors came to our site in 72 hours. Being exposed to that many eyeballs for something that is such a huge win/win/win is a big … win. ;)

The Big Wrap Up

The Big Idea Strategy isn’t something you’ll be able to use every single day, but it it something you should think about in addition to any other audience building strategies you use. Since first consciously utilizing The Big Idea Strategy in late August, my audience has grown by leaps and bounds. And it has been a lot of fun thinking about big things I can do instead of simply writing guest posts (which I will also do, of course).

You can use this no matter where you are in the growth phase of your audience. The Internet is the great equalizer. You have all the same opportunities as I do and vice versa. In actuality, you can copy the same Big Ideas I used above if you’d like. They will adapt to any niche, any audience.

How are you going to use the opportunities available to you? What Big Idea are you going to take action on today?

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