Category: Entrepreneurship

How To Do “Too Much” and Live To Tell The Tale

I used to only work on one project at a time. I’ve figured out the secret to working on more. It’s so simple …

I used to have a “problem.”

Like you, I always seem to have an overflow of ideas.

But if I’d try to work on more than one project at a time, all of the projects would suffer, and none of them would come to fruition.

You already know I preach focus. Especially if you’re just getting started in business or blogging or some other creative endeavor. Pick one thing and work on it until it’s successful or not.

But once you’ve reached a certain level of success (I don’t know what that is exactly, you’ll feel it) more opportunities begin opening up.

Some of them just aren’t right.

But some of them are absolutely kick ass.

The old me would put the kick ass ideas aside. “Ehh, I can’t work on that, I don’t have time.” Or “Ehh, I can’t work on that, I don’t want to lose focus.”

But lately I’ve completely changed my tune.

And here’s why: partners.

Partners! It’s so simple.

Find someone you get along with. Find someone who rocks. And co-create the idea. Not only does this take up less of your own mindspace, but I think it can result in a more kick ass product.

An example of all the projects I’ve been working on recently …

Just a couple of weeks ago I did the Minimalist Book Sale (aka Luxury of Less Launch). This involved 13 other kick ass people.

On November 15 is Mind Control Method. I hope I’m right in thinking that Mind Control Method will change your life. I absolutely loved creating How To Live Anywhere and writing Luxury of Less, but Mind Control Method is something unique. It’s the anti-Law of Attraction (which is a BS “law”) and it has worked for me since I was 8 years old. That’s 21 years! I’m having a ball writing/creating/mapping/brainstorming Mind Control Method. If you’ve sent in questions or suggestions I really appreciate that.

And that’s all well and good. But I’m also working on 3 other projects concurrently. One of them will see the light of day in 2010 (another 72 hour sale involving another bunch of kick ass people) but the rest are scheduled for 2011. I’m fully in the present, but that doesn’t mean the future isn’t going to happen. :)

The only reason these 3 other projects have any possibility of seeing the light of day is because I’m working on them with 3 different people. 3 other rockstars, I should say.

I love doing what I do and, as long as I have bad ass people helping out, I can take on more projects. Sometimes these partnerships just come together, but in case you could use some help …

5 Tips For Finding and Working With A Kick Ass Project Partner

Maybe finding a project partner isn’t for you. That’s cool. But if you’ve ever thought about it, this should help.

1) Don’t force anything.

If you force a project, if both of you aren’t fully into it, then don’t continue. It’s not going to work out. It won’t be easy quitting or changing directions on a project that you’ve already begun, but sometimes that’s the best option.

2) Be clear about who does what.

There will probably be overlap, but be clear on who’s creating what and how the project is being worked on. Again, there will probably be overlap where both of you work on the same things, but in general you should work on your strengths and your partner should work on theirs.

3) Be clear about your goals.

If both of you have different goals for the project it could result in lots of bad blood. Before getting started be sure you are both on the same page with what the project will and won’t be.

4) Set accountability deadlines.

When I’m working solo I don’t really deal with concrete deadlines. When working with a partner it helps for each of you to have deadlines so the project is consistently being pushed forward. A specific launch date helps to get both asses in gear. If there is no launch date then have “module launch dates.” That is, dates when certain parts of the project need to be completed.

5) Keep it light, keep it fun.

In my late teens I ran a company with 2 of my friends. I swore off ever working with partners again. I realize now that the problem wasn’t the partnership, but the fact that we didn’t have clear ideas, clear goals, accountability deadlines, and we forced it. The partnership was doomed from the start. The projects I’m currently working on all flow because they’re with people who rock *and* we keep it light. It’s not a formal, stuffy business environment. (It really can’t be since I haven’t even met 2 of them in person!)

1,687 Beautiful People Can’t Be Wrong (or What You Can Learn From The Most Successful Minimalist Product Launch In Internet History)

1,687 sales in 72 hours. You can learn a lot from that …

OK, so I don’t have facts to back up that statement. Find me a minimalist book launch that sold more than 1,687 copies at $27 each in 72 hours ($45,549 gross sales) and I’ll retract. ;)

I’ve done a lot of 5 figure launches in my time, but this one was the most successful. Not in personal profit (which I’m not revealing, but believe me, it wasn’t much, relatively speaking), but in every other respect. Mostly in straight up satisfaction. It was really fun, from start (when I began writing Luxury of Less) to finish (last Thursday at 10am). Even when things went a bit wonky and my site broke it was all good. :)

I got a lot of e-mails asking how I pulled this Minimalist Book Sale together. Besides “holy crap thank you for doing this!” type e-mails, the “how did you do this?!” e-mails were most common during those 72 hours last week. Actually, maybe “holy crap thank you how did you do this?!” was the most common. :)

Note: It was so fun I’m putting together another 72 hour sale for late November/early December in the business niche. Get on the notification list here.

There were a lot of factors involved in pulling this together. I’m going to do my best to explain them.

1) Education Is Important

If it wasn’t for my background in marketing I would never have thought of doing this sale.

And by “background in marketing” I don’t mean I went to business school. I actually know how to generate revenue. Find me an MBA who can say the same and I’ll give you a hi-five for finding the needle in a haystack. ;)

My business “school” was spending every waking hour of my life from ages 18-24 reading, thinking, and doing. Then, as you may have already read in The Luxury of Less, life got a little bit fucked up and I stopped caring. The point is, while most college students were drinking and smoking weed every night I was holed up reading life changing books. (I did my share of drinking as well, just not very often.)

Name a book on business or marketing and I have most likely read it. Especially if it was written prior to the year 2000. And especially if it was written before I was born. Name a business idea and I’ve probably tried it as well. eBay, content sites, info products, affiliate sites, pay per click, etc … along with a handful of offline business attempts. This is called “putting in work” which most people are just unwilling to do.

In the words of Detroit’s very own Trick Trick:

“Let’s work. You don’t work you don’t eat, I don’t wanna hear it’s hard on these streets motherfucker. Let’s work. If it’s money to get, get off your motherfucking ass and go get that shit. Let’s work. Live life on the grind, I ain’t trying to get yours, I’m just trying to get mine.”

It’s much easier to suck down quarter pounders and watch Lost than actually do something useful. Everett has been writing a lot about this lately so go check out his last ~10 articles.

This minimalist book sale is a variation of what is known as a fire sale in the direct marketing world. It’s used in tons of different ways. Offline direct marketers used to use fire sales to sell old stock or “gently used” stock (such as customer returns) at incredible discounts.

Everything about this sale can be learned from marketing classics such as The Robert Collier Letter Book (released in 1937). All I did was put it online.

If you’ve read my recommended books in the article 9 Essential Books For Bloggers and Freedom Seekers (or How To Save $50,000 On An MBA) then you already know this. If you haven’t read those books then … well … your loss. ;)

2) Mastermind Groups Are Important

In the book Think & Grow Rich Napoleon Hill writes extensively on the importance of mastermind groups. I’d spent the past 10 years trying to form one to no avail. Thanks to blogging I was put in a position to join a 4-person (including myself) mastermind group earlier this year that has helped me beyond belief.

I wanted to launch a $9.99 book, The Luxury of Less, with a bang instead of a thud. I had the idea for the sale, discussed it at a couple of mastermind group meetings (Skype conference calls) and achieved clarity of vision.

The most difficult part of the whole launch was writing the book. And that was only difficult because I’m one of those people who throws away 20,000 words and starts from scratch. :) But seriously, I love writing, so this wasn’t actually difficult. So let me rephrase: it was the most time consuming part of the launch.

3) Competition Is In Your Head

At Chris Guillebeau’s Book Tour in Ann Arbor a couple of weeks ago, a group of us were talking about how awesome the blogging community is. We all support each other (well, many of us do anyway) and competition really isn’t competition. This is known as expanding the pie. There is room for all of us. Yes, even you. You just have to be willing to take your slice. Don’t worry, feel free to take it, we’ll bake a bigger pie.

Yes, there are a lot of minimalist ebooks on the market. And there will be many more in the coming years. It’s all good. There is room for all of them.

4) Genius or Action?

A lot of people called me a genius during and after the launch. As long as I can remember I’ve also called myself a genius, but that doesn’t come from a place of cockiness. I say it because we’re all geniuses at something and sometimes we need to talk ourselves up a bit in our own heads. But I really think genius is misinterpreted (by myself and everyone else) as fearless action.

I tweeted last week: “The difference between genius and stupidity is action.” A real genius would’ve thought of a better word than “stupidity.” ;)

The point is, I’m not a genius any more than you’re a genius. I was simply willing to take action on an idea by asking a bunch of friends and acquaintances if they’d be interested in being part of something fun. And to be honest, I was actually a little bit afraid to send those e-mails because they could’ve been met with resistance. Then I remembered, fearless action. I also set sending the e-mails as an accountability goal with my mastermind group. I had no choice but to do it or face their wrath. :)

Going back to no competition: every single person I e-mailed wrote me back almost immediately with a “yes.” I didn’t get a single “no.” Everybody was happy to support the project.

To be completely honest, I personally didn’t really have to do much to make this sale a success. You made this happen by spreading the word on twitter and Facebook. Thank you sincerely for that (380 Facebook Likes!). And so did my partners in fun. Thank you again to Leo, Baker, Everett, Tammy, Joshua, Henri, Sam, Charley, Brett, David, Annie, and Meg for being so amazing.

5) The Real Secret To My Success and I Want You To Steal It.

I’ve failed more times than you.

That’s why I’ve succeeded more as well.

Your mission is simple.

Go fail.

Specific questions? Comment below and I’ll turn the answers into another article…

The Art of Selling Out (or Why Seeking Validation Is Stupid But Making Money Is Not)

Part 3 of a 3-part series on creating. Today we’ll talk about validation, selling out, making money, and other sexy things …

Note: This is part 3 of a 3-part series about creating. I’m using the topic of writing/blogging since that’s what I know, but the lessons can be extrapolated to any form of art. Part 1 covered How To Never Run Out Of Ideas, Part 2 covered How To Extinguish the Fiery Flames of Burnout, and Part 3 is on Validation (today!).

As a blogger (or artist of any sort) you may not get much validation … especially when you’re starting. The little validation you do get will be from people you know … family, friends, maybe co-workers. This kind of validation is empty because you’re not sure if it’s real. (Let’s be honest, it’s probably not.)

The validation most of us want is from random strangers. People we don’t know and who don’t know us. It makes us feel “famous” in a way.

“Somebody from Siberia said they liked my article! I have arrived!”

The Honest Truth About Validation

If you need validation then you’re not creating art.

That’s not to say that what you’re doing isn’t valuable. But the thing about art is this: your art should be valuable to you, first and foremost. Everything else is a bonus.

If your art isn’t valuable to you then you’re not an artist, you’re a factory. And probably unhappy.

What if nobody sees or appreciates what you do? Is it a waste of time putting your heart into something that gets no outside validation? No. Maybe you’re too progressive. Maybe people don’t understand you. Maybe you’re not good enough right now. It happens. If you’re doing it for yourself, none of that matters. You’ll press on.

Ask Steven Pressfield how long it took before he could make a living from his writing. Actually, you don’t need to ask him, just read his blog.

Why did he continue on for 17 years before getting his first paycheck from his writing? Because he’s an artist.

An artist may want the world to see his art, but he does it because he needs to do it and not to seek validation.

When I started writing this blog I didn’t get much traffic, many comments, or many e-mails. I didn’t do a whole lot to change that either. I just wrote. Every day. And then posted articles on my scheduled post days.

It took 3 months to break 100 RSS subscribers. And that’s only because I did a guest post on ZenHabits.net, which brought a flood of traffic and ~1,000 subscribers all at once.

I was going to write anyway, whether I had 0 readers or 5,000+ readers (you rock!).

I committed myself to this blog. I never had plans to turn it into a business.

Amazingly, these days the income from this blog fully supports my lifestyle and then some. Wow, for something I started without any particularly concrete plans (and definitely no plans to make money) I almost don’t know what to think. I feel like thank you isn’t enough, but thank you.

Is Making Money From Your Art Selling Out?

No. Under one condition: if you support things you don’t believe in to make money then you’ve sold out.

For example, I would never accept money from the dairy or beef industries. They could say “Hey Karol, $1 million to advertise on your blog” and I would say “Hey, eat shit.” ;) (I guess they do eat shit if they eat their own products.)

If, on the other hand, a company that made vegan goods contacted me and wanted me to write about their products I may accept and write about them. I wouldn’t accept cash (that’s not my game), but I have no problem reviewing a product that you and I may find useful (especially if it’s travel related!). If that were to ever happen I would be up-front about it with you, of course. And obviously this isn’t a review site, I’m simply making a point.

So, again, is making money selling out? No. Anybody who thinks you shouldn’t make money with your art if you want to is an idiot. If artists don’t get paid we don’t have art.

Well, let me rephrase that slightly: there will always be art and artists. But I want my favorite artists to be exposed to more people and to create more art.

How and Why I Support My Favorite Artists

I want all my favorite artists to be millionaires (or, you know, whatever they want) so they can keep producing their art.

This is why I supported one of my favorite musicians, Jenny Owen Youngs, when she did her KickStarter. Not only does the $38,543 she raised help with her new record, but since she’s not on a label anymore she’ll have 100% creative control. Awesome! (I even drove from Austin, TX to Fort Worth, TX and bought 2 tickets (myself and a friend) to see her last year. That is supporting her art! hehe)

This is also why you see me promote other blogger’s blog posts every Saturday and, every once in a while, their premium products as an affiliate. Yes, it may produce income for me, but that’s secondary. Yes, it was awesome being Corbett’s #1 affiliate for the Affiliate Marketing For Beginners launch last month. And yes, that is validation. But even if none of that was the case, I want to support people who do good work.

The more people who are able to do good work, the better the world becomes.

Artists need this kind of support. Yes, they need you to spread the word and give non-monetary support. But you know what many of them need more than anything? Cash, so they can continue producing art.

Don’t let anybody make you feel bad if you want to make a living from your art.

I Don’t Understand, You Say Artists Don’t Need Validation and You Say They’re Not Sellouts If They Make Money. But If They’re Making Money, That IS Validation. What’s Going On Karol?!

Good question, Karol. (Yes, I did just refer to myself referring to myself. Or something.)

The difference is actually very simple: A true artist will continue with their art whether they receive validation or not.

Whether I make money from my writing or not, I will continue writing.

Whatever you choose to do, I hope that you’ll continue doing it whether you receive validation or not as well. We need more artists. We need more ass-kickers.

I can’t guarantee you will make a living with your art, but I can guarantee we need you anyway.

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If you enjoyed this series, would you mind doing me a big favor and supporting my art? Just click the Facebook Like button or Twitter Retweet button below:

How To Extinguish The Fiery Flames Of Burnout (plus 7 Guaranteed Burnout Busters)

Part 2 in a 3-part series about creating. Today we cover how to deal with burnout …

Note: This is part 2 of a 3-part series about creating. I’ll use the topic of writing since that’s what I know, but the lessons can be extrapolated to any form of art. Part 1 covered How To Never Run Out Of Ideas, Part 2 is about Burnout (today), and Part 3 is on Validation (Thursday).

Burnout can happen for a lot of reasons.

  • Overwork.
  • Being too difficult on yourself day in and day out.
  • Allowing outside forces get the best of you.
  • Getting bored.

From personal experience and from the experiences of people I know, the most intense burnouts happen with overwork and getting bored.

The others are usually more temporary.

How To Overcome Overwork (Time Off Is Not The Answer To Burnout)

We’re creatures of habit, so taking a vacation or extended time off probably won’t work for you. You’ll tell yourself “I’ll take just 1 day” or “1 week” and it almost always doesn’t work like that. 1 day becomes 2 becomes 3 becomes 4 …

If you have a boss then you don’t have the choice for it to work like that.

But as an artist, you are your own boss when you’re creating your art. Sometimes artists aren’t the best bosses. :)

The first question to ask yourself is: “Is this what I really want to be doing?”

Maybe you’re forcing yourself into your art and it’s really not for you. Maybe you went to a fine arts school, maybe you dreamed of being a painter since a young age, or maybe you’ve been hard at work on a novel for years.

It’s OK to quit. It’s OK to change gears. You won’t be alone if you decide on that course of action. Nobody worthy of your time will judge you.

Setting Limits To Set Yourself Free

On the other hand, if your art is your life and you don’t want to quit, the easiest way to overcome overwork is to define limits. I’m not a big fan of limits in the long term, but for short term it’s perfect. The article you’re reading right now is part 2 of a 3 part series. That’s a limit that I’m perfectly happy with.

How To Set Your Limits

If your desired course of action to deal with burn out is to take a vacation or just a day off do this instead: set a limit to only work for 30 minutes. You can still take a day off (except for the 30 minutes) and you can still take the vacation (except for the 30 minutes every day).

I’ll tell you what will happen right now before you even attempt this: your 30 minutes will be a struggle for the first few days. Let yourself struggle. Enjoy the struggle. After some time (maybe 1 day, maybe more) your 30 minute limit will naturally become unlimited.

When Is It A Good Idea To Take Time Off?

Is there ever a good time to take time off? Yes, when you’re not burnt out. When you’re not burnt out you’ll actually want to get back to work so it won’t be a struggle. 1 day probably won’t become 2 become 3 become 4 … although you know yourself better than I do so don’t take this advice if you know it won’t work for you.

Is A Digital Sabbatical The Answer?

Digital sabbaticals are all the rage these days. They only work for people who aren’t burnt out. Tread lightly with a digital sabbatical (meaning, you cut yourself off from all technology for X length of time) if you’re burnt out. It will do more harm than good.

This is what will happen: “Wow, that felt great, I don’t feel like getting back to work now.”

This is what’s supposed to happen: “Wow, that felt great, I’m fired up for work now!”

How To Overcome Boredom

The technique to overcome boredom is the same as overcoming overwork, with a slight difference: if you’re bored with your art you need a change of scenery, a change of pace.

For example, say you’re bored with the novel you’re writing.

During your 30 minute limit, don’t work on the novel directly. Work on writing something you’re not used to writing. Non-fiction, a poem, an essay. All forms of derivative art will help your chosen art.

7 Simple Ways To Stop Burnout When It Starts Creeping Up On You

In addition to the ideas above, here are 7 ways I guarantee will help you overcome burnout and achieve clarity. My favorite is #1, but they’re in no particular order.

1) Exercise

My preference is riding my bike alone for an hour or two. When you’re exercising hard you can’t focus on much else except what’s happening in that moment.

If you hate exercise, get fit in just 1 minute.

2) Take a walk

Almost like exercise, but it lets your mind wander anywhere and everywhere due to the slow pace. It’s a different process than focusing on the moment and it might work better for you.

3) Relax

How To Relax. Sometimes we just need a few minutes to ourselves. Or, if you’re like me, you need a lot of minutes to yourself every day. :)

4) Do something scary

Karaoke is my recommended “scary” course of action for most people simply because most people absolutely refuse to do it. Guess what? Nobody cares that you can’t sing. Have fun, smile, and sing out of key. Karaoke is an exhilarating experience the first time, and it has never failed in getting my endorphins (natural pain and stress fighters!) pumping every single time I’ve done it.

5) Cook

But don’t cook your favorite meal or a recipe you know. Make it something that opens your taste buds to new flavors and forces you to stretch your skills and concentrate on the task at hand.

Alternate: take the mishmash of vegetables and whatever else you have around and create your own recipe. Who knows how it’ll turn out, but that’s half the fun.

6) Skype with someone who’s doing great things

Every single time I talk to someone on Skype who I haven’t spoken with before I get incredibly inspired. I don’t do these chats too often, but I absolutely love it when I do.

My preference is to connect with someone I’m already well-acquainted with, but have never spoken to.

7) Interact with a new social circle

It’s simple. Go to CouchSurfing.org’s Group for your city and see if anything’s going on. For most cities there will be! Go out and meet some new people. Meetup.com and Facebook Events are also good for this, but CouchSurfing is more international and exceptionally welcoming.

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On Thursday we’ll cover Validation.

How do you feel good about your art if nobody sees it?

How do you share your art with the world? *Should you* share your art with the world? Is selling your art “selling out”?

Subscribe to my RSS feed by clicking here to make sure you don’t miss that update.

How To Never Run Out Of Ideas – My 100% No-Fail System

Part 1 in a 3-part series on creating. This is why I never run out of ideas …

Note: This is part 1 of a 3-part series about creating. I’ll use the topic of writing since that’s what I know, but the lessons can be extrapolated to any form of art. We’ll cover Ideas (today), Burnout (next Monday), and Validation (next Thursday).

Idea generation is a topic that comes up pretty regularly amongst bloggers and would-be bloggers.

“Do you ever run out of things to write about?”

My Writing Process

I write most of my posts a little bit in advance because I write them whenever I feel inspired to write them. Then I schedule them with the WordPress scheduler. As I’ve mentioned before, the majority of my writing isn’t for this blog, so sometimes my scheduled post days come upon me out of nowhere.

“Whoa, it’s 4am Eastern and post time is at 7:11am … how did that happen?”

(I’ve still never written about why I set most of my posts to run at 7:11. It’s not superstition, and the truth is I don’t think it’s even worth writing about.)

I’ve consciously created my life to be as stress-less and enjoyable as possible, but it seems this would be a stressful situation to put myself in. It’s not.

The Definition of Definition

On the one hand, I don’t have a well defined niche like Corbett (help small businesses get more traffic), Baker (sell your crap, do what you love), Everett (minimalism), Pat (passive income) or Leo (simplicity).

On the other hand, I get to write about whatever I want. That’s why I never have a problem writing an article here at Ridiculously Extraordinary, even if I have to write it at the last minute.

(Actually, some of my most trafficked/commented/facebook shared/stumbled/tweeted articles were all last minute articles.)

Evergreen Niches

Some of you have read my Evergreen Niches Report dissecting the best niches to go after if you’re starting a small business. I recommend you only choose one, but my blog and premium products cover all of the niches. (OK, there’s only 1 premium product right now, but as you can see in the sidebar, 2 in the pipeline.)

From a marketing standpoint this is dumb and I don’t recommend it. It’s difficult to brand this blog and Baker has even asked me a million times to define what this site is about.

My tag line sucks: Freedom, Health, Travel, Life. What does that mean? How much more vague can I possibly be?

For a guy who has studied marketing for so many years I should know better.

And yet, even with all of that working against me, it’s working.

I fully admit I stole this from Tim Ferriss. Before starting this blog I thought to myself, “I don’t care if he’s a NYT best selling author, if he can write about whatever he wants and be successful, so can I.”

How To Define Your Niche (And Should You Even Bother?)

There are a couple of easy ways to define your niche:

1) Define it yourself.

Matt did it fantastically with No Meat Athlete. There is absolutely no questioning what the site is about. Matt’s a veg athlete and he writes for others who either are veg or considering it.

Kenny has done it with Me vs MJ – My Journey To Jordan Camp. It’s targeted to basketball fans, but with a personal story and helpful articles which non-basketball fans can connect with as well.

2) Ask your readers (once you have a decent amount) to define it for you via a reader survey.

Why Define?

When a new visitor hits your site and doesn’t know what it’s about they probably won’t stick around unless you’re incredibly compelling.

Here’s the fun part about defining your niche: you can actually still write about almost whatever you want, no matter what niche you’re in!

For example, Baker’s blog is ManVsDebt.com, but does he stick to the same boring personal finance topics as other personal finance bloggers? Not a chance.

And to go back to the MeVsMJ.com example: does Kenny only write about basketball? Not exactly, but everything he writes about has the common thread of basketball worked into it.

It might take a little bit more work, but you can tweak almost any topic you’d like to write about into your defined niche.

Defining Your Niche Actually Makes It Easier To Generate Ideas

Defining your niche also instantly gives visitors something to connect with.

When all your synapses are firing on a common goal, the ideas just don’t stop.

What you may find is ideas may come at inopportune times, but instead of getting pissed, embrace it. Some days I write 3 articles for this blog and then go another week without writing another one. Some weeks I write 10 articles and then never post any of them. :)

If I’m inspired to create, I create, no matter what else is going on.

I discussed that concept in The Absolute Idiot’s Guide To Inspiration.

Define your niche and don’t stifle inspiration and I guarantee you won’t have trouble generating ideas.

How You Helped Clarify My Niche

I asked in a survey a few months ago what you thought this site was about and the answers were incredibly varied.

From a marketing standpoint that’s not good.

But most of the answers had one element that told me I’m on the right track: “inspiring.”

Ridiculously Extraordinary is about minimalism. Because that is what I am at the core.

It’s about entrepreneurship. Because I’ve been entrepreneurial my whole life

It’s about doing what you want, and doing what you love. Because that’s what I do.

It’s about kicking ass and thinking for yourself. Because I follow exactly that.

It’s about questioning everything and everyone. Because I’ve learned the hard way that that is the only way to make it.

But it all boils down to this: Ridiculously Extraordinary is about inspiration. You inspire me and my goal is to inspire you. Inspiration is my niche.

And because of that simple fact, I have a fire lit under my ass when it comes time to write here. I hope whatever you decide to do that you’ll have this same fire lit under your ass as well.

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On Monday we’ll cover How To Extinguish Burnout (plus 7 Guaranteed Burnout Busters).

It will focus on these common questions (and more):

“Do you ever feel like not writing?”

“Do you ever just want to quit?”

Subscribe to the RSS feed by clicking here so you don’t miss that update.

Behind The Scenes Of A Stress-Free Product Launch In 5 Powerful Lessons

I’ve done 3 product launches this year. Here is how I made the last 2 incredibly successful and stress free …

If you’re interested in what it takes to launch a product successfully or just want to get behind the scenes of my own product launches then this is for you.

Launching a product is fun, it’s exhilarating, but it can be stressful. Unless you do it my way. ;)

Over the past 10 years I’ve done a lot of product launches. This year I’ve done 3. How To Live Anywhere (twice) and, most recently, my Manifesto: The American Dream Is Dead (Long Live The American Dream!).

You might think, “Wait, your Manifesto is a free download, how is that even a product launch?”

The truth is I spent more time orchestrating or thinking about how to orchestrate the launch of the Manifesto than I did on How To Live Anywhere. From a revenue standpoint there was a 5 figure difference (i.e. the free Manifesto made $0, obviously), which brings me to launch lessons #1 and #2.

Launch Lesson #1: Know exactly what you want out of your launch.

For the How To Live Anywhere launch I wanted to get closer to helping 100 people achieve Freedom, generate revenue for my business, and increase my blog’s audience. All of those goals were reached quite successfully. Over 1,000 new Freedom Fighters in the first week of launch!

For The American Dream Is Dead Manifesto I wanted to create something that would inspire lots of people and increase my reach on the Internet. Obviously it’s a little too soon to tell exactly how far and wide it will reach and measuring impact (besides number of downloads) is tough, but the message is evergreen. An evergreen message means the Manifesto should spread for years to come. If you enjoyed it please share it on Facebook, Twitter, and via e-mail. :)

Launch Lesson #2: It’s not how much work you put in that determines how much you make.

To launch How To Live Anywhere the second time I used one strategy: affiliates. And even more than that: people I already had relationships with. That’s a pretty easy launch strategy and I spent less time on that launch than on the Manifesto launch.

It goes something like this: “Hey [Name], I’m launching [Product] soon. Here are the details. Interested?”

When you’re dealing with people you know there’s not much more to it than that.

It’s only when you’re branching out to do joint ventures with people you don’t have a relationship with that it takes lots of effort.

I made a conscious decision to make the How To Live Anywhere launch stress-free. I actually didn’t even work for the 3 days leading up to launch day. :)

On the flip side:

I mulled over multiple strategies for launching my Manifesto. Obviously I couldn’t use affiliates since it’s a free download. Yes, I could have an affiliate program that pays 25 cents (or whatever amount) for each download someone sends, but that’s not something I was interested in.

I brainstormed various ideas with my Mastermind group.

What I ultimately decided on was to get a lot of people I respect to contribute to the launch day article. The benefits of that would be 3-fold:

1) Launch day wouldn’t be just about me and my product. Contributors would get exposure to new audiences as well.

2) Readers would have lots of different perspectives to read from lots of amazing people.

3) Contributors would be more invested in my free launch. Maybe they’d spread the word, maybe they wouldn’t, but at least it would be on their radar.

I also wanted to include 1-3 contributors inside the Manifesto. I chose 3 very well known people, all of whom had built multi-million dollar businesses. Two of them I had never connected with in the past, and I didn’t get positive responses.

Derek Sivers, on the other hand, not only responded, but his response fit perfectly in with what I was writing. I couldn’t have scripted it better if I tried and he didn’t even have a preview of the Manifesto to read. It just fit. I don’t believe in magic, but sometimes things just fall into place. :)

Lesson #3: Send short pitch e-mails.

I set aside about 2 hours one day and contacted over 50 people asking for a contribution to the Manifesto launch using the 5 sentence e-mail rule. People who already know me probably expected this, but I was putting the 5 sentence rule to the real test by using it with lots of people who I had never corresponded with before.

Based on the fact that the launch article contains 24 responses (+1 inside the Manifesto), you know I had about a 50% acceptance rate. I only had 1 outright no.

8 of the people who contributed I had never corresponded with before. Lots of people who I had corresponded with before never replied to my e-mail. :)

To be fair, I had to pull a trump card when I asked Chris Brogan for a contribution. I’m a member of Third Tribe and he’s one of the co-founders. Which brings me to lesson #4.

Lesson #4: Be courteous, but use whatever resources you have available to get what you want.

I’m not a member of many “clubs” other than Third Tribe. And while I didn’t really use that to my advantage for the launch like I should have, I did use it to get through to Chris Brogan. Being that he’s an in-demand speaker, best selling author, and prolific blogger … and being that I’d never corresponded with him before … I did what I had to do. (If you’ve read the Manifesto, that might sound familiar.)

You probably have some trump cards in place somehow, somewhere. They might not be readily obvious, but they’re there. Use them.

Lesson #5: Don’t take a “no” personally.

You’re going to meet with some resistance on your launch no matter who you are. Maybe even from friends and acquaintances. It’s not personal. Sometimes promoting something or contributing to something just doesn’t fit with a person’s schedule.

There are a lot of people who I hoped would contribute to the Manifesto launch, but they didn’t. There are a lot of people who I hoped would promote How To Live Anywhere, but didn’t. That’s OK. Dealing with this rejection helps if you don’t seek validation from others, but from yourself. (Easier said than done, I know.)

I know people are busy, and I don’t hold it against anybody just because they don’t want to promote something of mine. No worries, you know? :)

Bonus Lesson: Don’t put in work where you don’t have to.

What I mean by that is busy work. Scrambling to send lots of e-mails to people to get them to promote your stuff isn’t usually worth the effort. It’s definitely not worth the effort if you don’t already have some kind of previous relationship. That said, once your product is live, do send an e-mail to whoever was a part of it.

Your Turn

Have you ever launched a product? What did you learn?

Have you not yet launched a product? What other information would help you?

How Much Is One Dollar Worth To You?

One dollar can change your world. Here how …

You’d almost think this was going to be a political post or maybe me shedding light on the Third World.

Nope, this is about making money.

One Dollar Can Change Your Life

I’ve been hanging out with some very successful people in a top-secret location somewhere in Europe. ;) (Hence my train ride last Thursday.) It got me thinking.

Can you figure out how to make one dollar?

If you can figure out how to make one dollar, do you think you can figure out how to make $2?

How about $10?

If you can do $10, you can surely do $100, right?

And once you reach $100, you’re really not that far off from $1,000. So on and so forth.

The point is, don’t get caught up in making a million dollars right now. Don’t get caught up in making job replacement income right now. Do get caught up in how to make that first dollar right now.

You do need to think big, but there is no shame in starting small. Too many people get so caught up in trying to hit home runs that they never even swing the bat.

Once you make that first dollar a “switch” will go off in your mind. A transition of sorts. Making money for yourself will no longer be a dream, but a reality.

The One Dollar Experiment

Many years ago (2002) I had a Web site called the One Dollar Experiment. The goal then was to start with $1 and grow it into something much greater. It took me 6 months to get than $1 to $450 and then I quit the experiment. I was doing it more for publicity than to make money, and the publicity was non-existent.

So I thought, why not do another One Dollar Experiment?

But this time it’s your experiment. The only rule is that you have to earn $1 for yourself.

True, it’s just one dollar, but every single person in history had to start at that point. You’ll be in good company. ;)

Is one dollar worth your future, your freedom? I hope so.

You don’t need to let me know if you’re in. I want you to let me know when you succeed. You can e-mail me or post here in the comments.

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Will be back in Wroclaw tomorrow and will catch up on e-mails/comments then. I’ve only responded to about 5 e-mails in the past 4 days, sorry about that!

The Disturbing Reality of a Scarcity Mindset

Dealing with scarcity in a world of abundance …

“Setbacks are discouraging, but you should always try to channel that feeling into positive action.” – Richard Branson

I don’t know where or why it came upon me so suddenly, but for the past couple of weeks I’ve been hit hard with a scarcity mindset. Scarcity is an incredibly toxic mindset to have. In my particular case, it’s the feeling that bad things happen to good people. Kind of a “nice guys finish last” approach to everything.

I usually focus on abundance. Whatever you or I want, we can have. I believe it and I live it.

And yet …

Scarcity is running rampant in my mind lately.

I feel like this blog isn’t growing as quickly as it should. (Even thought it’s growing phenomenally well.) I feel like HTLA isn’t selling enough. (Even though it’s selling quite well.) I feel like my Polish language is getting worse. (Maybe it is?) I feel like my guitar playing is weak and uninspired. And so on … I won’t continue with the depressing details!

Sometimes I feel like I can blame it on the weather. Shitty weather (i.e. the weather here for 90% of the past 2 weeks) utterly ruins me. It’s one of the only elements of life I have not been able to defeat with a mind-over-matter attitude.

Not Alone

I know I’m not the only person to have feelings of scarcity at some point or another.

Chris Guillebeau has written about it in Expanding The Pie. That was written in February of 2009 and I remember reading it back then and thinking “man, it must be normal for successful people to feel this way sometimes.”

I identify with so much of what Chris writes in that article.

And yet …

That doesn’t help break through the feelings of scarcity.

In most ways, life is better than it has ever been.

Money?

This scarcity really has no basis.

a) There’s nothing I want to buy. And if there was, and it fit with my goals, I’d buy it.

b) Everything I want to do, I do. (OK, I can’t afford a trip to space right now, but I’ll make that happen somehow. ;) )

Health?

Maybe it’s the fact that I somehow caught a cold for the first time in forever recently and that has me questioning my diet. Truthfully, I know I’m just supporting the local veg restaurants a little too much as opposed to eating my regular awesome diet. I also know that there is no such thing as a perfect immune system and the fact that I haven’t been ill in such a long time should be a consolation.

And yet …

It’s still hanging over me. (And I just realized the statement about making the trip to space happen somehow is a straight up abundance mindset. Hmmm …)

Relationships?

“I don’t want to be lonely, I just want to be alone.” – Daniel Johns

Maybe it has something to do with the fact that relationships like the ones you make when you only stay in a place for a few months (give or take) are fleeting. What’s the point of investing a lot of time in a relationship (platonic or romantic) if there’s an almost certain end point?

If you know me you know I love spending time alone, so sometimes I’ll cut myself off from people for no real reason. I actually need to spend a lot of time alone. (I even own the domain HowToBeAlone.com!) Being social is fun, but it’s incredibly exhausting for me. I haven’t found a balance. It’s usually all or nothing, which I know is no good.

Annoyances

Things have been annoying me more lately. Maybe that’s related to the scarcity mindset? Stupid petty things like people walking in the middle of the sidewalk (instead of off to one side) and not allowing any room to pass on my bike. Or seeing an overweight person devouring a burger while walking down the street. (A regular occurrence now that Poland is getting more Westernized and waistlines are exxxxxxxpppaaaannndddiiiinnngggggg.) People are free to walk on a walkway and eat unhealthy fatty foods however and wherever they want. Why should I care? I usually don’t. What’s different lately?

An Abundance of Ideas and Scarcity of Action

Sometimes it might seem like I’m some kind of superhuman. And part of that might be on purpose. :) But I’m no different than you. I struggle with things. Maybe not the same things, but I have problems just like anybody else.

Lately I’ve been having more ideas than ever, both business and “other” (as in, awesome stuff I want to do), but I don’t take action on them. The reason is simple. Focus. There are very few people (looking at you Pat Flynn, you bad ass; Pat’s blog: Smart Passive Income) who can successfully devote time to multiple projects concurrently.

The fact that I have all of these ideas and no outlet for them might be breeding this scarcity mindset. I’m devoting all my focus to writing lately and I love it. So no complaints about that. But what happens to everything else? It sits in a Google Document called Awesome Ideas and nothing ever comes of them. Maybe purging all of those ideas is the answer?

As we all know, ideas don’t mean a damn thing. Action is almost everything. So what would it matter if I deleted all those “great” ideas? I don’t know what would happen, but I can’t bring myself to do it.

Get Pissed

I recently did an interview with Henri Juntilla for his self improvement blog (you have to subscribe to his e-mail list to get it … although not sure when he’s releasing it) and he asked me about getting things done and making shit happen. Actually, I don’t remember the exact question. The answer was (paraphrased): “When something doesn’t work out I get pissed at myself and work at it until I figure it out.” Henri and I both agreed on that “getting pissed at ourselves” point and I wonder how many other people use that same strategy.

Maybe the problem is I haven’t gotten pissed about this yet.

How To Deal With Scarcity?

Most people will probably say focus on others. And I agree. I think a lot of it does boil down to focusing more on others instead of myself. Exactly how, I’m not entirely sure. I give a lot to entrepreneur’s through Kiva. I help people like crazy via e-mail and I love doing that, especially when the Five Sentences E-mail Rule is followed. ;) I even help people on Skype when I’m on and somebody contacts me.

Does that help? Lately, it only helps temporarily.

And since this is no different than what I usually do, I don’t think it’s supposed to help.

Maybe I have to go above and beyond? Maybe, but I’m not sure what that even means.

Awesome E-mails

As you may know, I have a Gmail Label called “Awesome E-mails.” If you’ve sent me an e-mail praising me or this site your e-mail gets tagged as awesome. I posted on Twitter last week that I’ve been getting a lot more of these e-mails than usual.

To me, this proves that what I’m doing here is working out exactly how I originally planned.

Why hasn’t this erased the scarcity mindset?

Why Post This?

I had no plans of posting anything about this. This article doesn’t have any apparent lessons, does it? Or does it? I’m posting it because I do my best to be open here and this is what’s happening right now. I know it won’t last, but I’m in the thick of it. I didn’t expect it to last as long as it has and I’m not sure if I should just let it pass or somehow actively destroy it.

I don’t have all the answers and I don’t currently have a good answer for this.

Comments Turned Off

I’ve shut off comments on this post. I definitely appreciate all the help, but lots of comments were mistaking depression for a scarcity mindset. While they can be related, they are two separate beasts here. I also appreciate all the kind words, but I wasn’t fishing for compliments. ;)

Reading this over now I see how this mistake could easily be made and it’s my fault for not being clear in my writing here.

Thank you so much for your support! You rock!

17 Minuscule Actions That Produce Massive Results In Business and In Life

How one small change added $600 in revenue to this blog + 17 improvements we can make in business and in life …

You probably haven’t noticed, but 2 months ago I added two links to the bottom right corner of this blog. One for the Web host I use and one for the WordPress theme I use.

Nothing special. Just small links that, again, you probably never even noticed.

Baker actually suggested I do this a good 6 months ago, but I just never got around to it.

In the past 2 months, those tiny links that almost nobody notices have resulted in an extra $600 (ok, something like $570) in affiliate commissions. Not extravagant, but wow, pretty amazing for something that took 5 minutes. They’re both products I’ve used since Day 1 of this blog so I can feel good about recommending them as well.

And this got me thinking.

Where else can we make tiny improvements in business and life that will produce massive results?

If you’re familiar with the Japanese philosophy of kaizen, you know how important small, consistent improvements are.

Following are 17 ways we can massively improve our businesses and our lives.

Business

1) Send just one e-mail per day to somebody you respect, but have never connected with. Nothing crazy, just a few sentences saying “hey, I really like your work.”
2) Schedule Skype chats with people you’ve connected with via e-mail/twitter. I’ve done this so rarely it’s sad. Especially because I always come away from these chats incredibly energized.
3) Test a new sales page headline.
4) Test out a new place to advertise.
5) Create more quality content. This could be a whole list unto itself. Maybe a future article? :)
6) Form a mastermind group to bounce ideas off of and to have people who will hold you accountable.
7) Read a new (or classic) business book and take action on what you learn.
8) To get noticed by someone “out of your league” send them a lot of traffic or make them a bunch of sales. (If you’ve listened to the HTLA interview with John Reese you already know this.) If you don’t already have a big audience you can do this with paid advertising (like Google Adwords or Facebook Ads). I assure you it will be worth the tiny investment.
9) Write one really good guest article and send it to somebody with a huge audience.

Life

10) Say “hi” to more people. In actuality, and I’m guilty of this, most of us probably go days (weeks? months?) without introducing ourselves to someone new. You can start small. Say “hi” to one person and see what happens.
11) Eat at least 1 piece of fruit/veggie with every meal. That doesn’t seem like much, but it’s a lot more than most people eat.
12) When you’re bored read a book instead of turning on the TV. If you’re not sure what to read, check out the awesome comments here.
13) Remove one cause of stress from your life. Maybe it’s a messy desk. Maybe it’s a toxic friend. Whatever it is, removing the stress will make you feel better.
14) Put yourself on a 30 day trial. Maybe you’ll stop drinking alcohol? Or maybe you’ll exercise for just 1 minute every day. Or maybe you’ll write in a journal. There are countless things you can test out for 30 days.
15) Stretch. But I don’t mean physically. I mean do something that makes you a little uncomfortable. It could be something small like going to the movies alone. Or maybe you’ll be brave and sing karaoke for the first time. You don’t have to do this every day, but regular stretching will do you wonders.
16) Scratch something off of your bucket list. If you don’t have a bucket list, do something you’ve always wanted to do but, for whatever reason, haven’t yet.
17) Relax.

What other small improvements can we make in our businesses and our lives?

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The Only Productivity System That Actually Works

If you struggle with getting things done, here is your “magic pill” …

4 words: Just. Fucking. Do it.

I don’t use to-do lists. I don’t use a productivity system. They don’t work.

And I know they don’t work for millions of other people. If you’re one of them, don’t fret. You’re not alone.

You know what does work?

When there’s something you have to get done, do it.

When you need to exercise, exercise.

When you need to make dinner, make dinner.

When you need to go shopping, go shopping.

When you need to floss your teeth (daily!), floss your teeth.

When you need to go to the doctor, start eating a better diet. Then go to the doctor.

When you need to call someone, call them.

When you need to send an e-mail, send it.

When you need to write a blog post, write a blog post.

When you need to write a thank you card, write a thank you card.

When you need to practice, practice.

When you need to have a difficult conversation with a friend/business partner/significant other, have that conversation.

Stop making excuses.

Stop searching for a productivity system that will “magically” make it all work for you.

Just. Fucking. Do it.

Whatever it is.

More? Kill your to do list and focus on one thing at a time.

More, more? Just fucking write.