Tag: freedom fighters

Sweet Shit Saturday #036 (And We’re Back! Edition)

In which I discuss plans that died and share lots of sweet links …

‘Tis been quite a while since the last Saturday post. But now we’re back and … umm … better than ever?

I got some unfortunate news last week. The reason I came to Chicago (working out with vegan fitness bad ass Jon Hinds at his new gym) fell apart. They delayed the opening from January 3 to January 10 and then to February 14! And even that date doesn’t seem very confident. Which means I’m figuring out other fun things I can do while in Chicago. Apartment’s already paid for and I’m enjoying the city a lot (meaning I’m not leaving ahead of schedule) so I’m open to suggestions. Unlike the norm for these Saturday posts, comments will be open. No need for sympathy though, just suggestions. Everything’s all good. ;)

Unrelated note: my friend Jason told me about a great guitar shop in the city and I took my guitar in. The bridge was coming unglued, the truss rod needed adjustment, the wood was drying out, and the frets needed leveling. This happens when you take a guitar on 20 flights across 3 continents and put it through incredible temperature/humidity changes. And also, you know, making it myself probably had a bit to do with it. :) Total repair estimate? $200-$250! The guy at the shop said “Considering you built this yourself this looks great, but after we’re done, no offense, it’ll play better than ever.” hehe. I get it back on Monday and I’m excited to put Garage Band on my Mac to some use. Which means I’m going to record a mashup of The Fame / Reign In Blood (<– expressionless face was me being silly, but nobody got that joke). :)

Enough of all that, sweeeeeeettt linkssssss …

Leave The Sacrificing To The Pagans by Katy Dunnet

I met Katy (and Randy from yearlyglot.com) about a month ago in Austin for coffee/tea. She has a great life story and I enjoyed this article. My favorite part: “There are no sacrifices or obligations in my life these days, just choices.”

How To Be Non-Judgmental by Tammy Strobel

I have a problem common amongst humans: I’m quick to judge. In the past few years I’ve been much better and I feel like I’m good at catching myself when I do judge, but it still happens. And sometimes I’m sure I don’t catch it at all. If you’re in the same boat, check this one out from the always wonderful Tammy Strobel.

How To Change Your World, Part 2: Choosing Freedom by Lachlan Cotter

If you’re not reading Lach’s writing I highly recommend you check it out. P.S. Part 1 was good, but Part 2 is killer. :)

The Secret to Happiness by Jenny Leonard

I’m fully on board with Jenny’s secret to happiness. Great story herein.

Focus On A Freedom Fighter #005: Frank Paino

Frank writes about happiness at APermanentGrin.com. I love the honesty on his About page. I thought happiness would be a fitting theme to start the year so he’s our first Freedom Fighter to be featured in 2011. :)

If you’d like to be featured here you have to be a Freedom Fighter and wait ~45 days until you get an e-mail with the subject line “get featured on RidiculouslyExtraordinary.com.”

On with the questions!

Karol: Why did you join Freedom Fighters?

Frank: This one is easy. I joined Freedom Fighters because I want FREEDOM! Ridiculously Extraordinary blew me away and I knew, without a doubt, becoming a Freedom Fighter would be exactly what I needed to shift my dreams of freedom into high gear.

K: How has Freedom Fighters helped you?

F: Oh man … so many ways! I went from knowing absolutely NOTHING about blogging, how to build a site, etc., to having my own blog in a matter of days. I didn’t even use a pre-made theme. I’ve been learning to build my own with PlatformPro. I’ve even had a guest post on Tiny Buddha already (pretty cool since it’s the only one I’ve sent out yet!). [Karol’s note: I love Tiny Buddha!]

This was all inspired by Freedom Fighters. I still have a lot to learn, but I can honestly tell you becoming a Freedom Fighter has made me believe 100% that I can and will achieve my personal dream of freedom. How much cooler can anything get?

Joining Freedom Fighters is like the difference between trying to break out of prison on your own or having one helluva partner to help you out–one who has all the right tools, knows all the tricks, secret passages, etc. [Karol’s note: Prison?! hehe]

K: What are your goals with your website?

F: My goals with my blog are to share what I have learned about happiness with other people so they can rise above living a life of just going through the motions. I have been through some serious shit in my life and I have learned a lot along the way. I KNOW I can help a lot of people and that matters a lot to me. My other goal is to help change the world. People think that’s impossible, but it’s not at all. Every positive thing we do changes the world for the better. I want my blog to inspire people to make those changes.

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

F: Absolutely! I want to tell the world that we are all connected in ways science is only beginning to understand. What we do to each other, to animals and this planet matters a lot. I want the world to know the future is going to be what we make it … and that begins with what we are doing right here and now.

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Thanks Frank! Don’t forget to check him out at APermanentGrin.com.

That’s all for this week. Stay tuned this Monday when I reveal what your future holds. Just kidding, I don’t know what I’m writing about yet and I’m not mental so I can’t pretend to see the future. ;)

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!

Sweet Shit Saturday #013 (Stats! Numbers! Wheee! Edition)

Last month was a big one for this blog. Here is some info about that plus “super mega” stuff you should check out …

I’m a big fan of tracking important stats (sales, ecourse subscribers, stuff that matters). I’ve mentioned before, but by tracking stats you find out where to focus your time because you know which of your efforts are paying off. When you can focus your efforts on only things that work guess what happens? You save time and work a little less. ;) With things like Google Analytics and Google Website Optimizer tracking stats is not only easy, but free!

And with that …

June was a record month by every imaginable metric! It’s my first month of more than 100k pageviews (I don’t include StumbleUpon traffic in this number), which is more than double May’s pageviews. Much more importantly, the total RidiculouslyExtraordinary.com readership doubled as well. I put more focus on gaining Freedom Fighters than RSS, but each went up by 4 figures. Woohoo!

The reason for this massive increase is simple: I launched How To Live Anywhere and with it came lots of new traffic (hi!).

While I did orchestrate a small launch, it wasn’t that much work. I realized on the Saturday before launch that sending more e-mails to people who don’t know me would be a waste of time. Annoying people who do know me with launch e-mails would be a waste of time as well. I let things happen as they would and the results were fantastic.

Thank you for making the 12th month of this blog amazing. :)

Affiliates!

Affiliates did a fantastic job selling How To Live Anywhere last month.

Here are the top 5 (in terms of how much $ they made) for June:

  1. $1,514.40
  2. $1,488.65
  3. $511.45
  4. $379.50
  5. $379.50

All told there were 14 affiliates who made at least 1 sale and affiliate revenue was about 70% of total revenue.

Thank you if you linked to HTLA last month. You rock!

Super Mega Tangents

Everybody in Poland uses the words super and mega. e.g. “Mega zajebiste!”

Benny tells me it’s rooted in Latin. But I don’t know Latin. I know Polish and my English is at a 4th grade level according to my perfect marks in 4th grade English when I was in 4th grade. If you read it 4 times it makes sense.

(EDIT: My bad, I don’t listen well. Benny told me “super” was rooted in Latin, but “mega” is Greek. It’s all in the comments below if you care. ;) )

How about I take a tangent from the tangent so I can get to the links? Super mega idea Karol!

Tangent that has exactly nothing to do with the above but everything to do with my life: If you’re ever in Berlin go to Dolores Burrito on Rosa Luxemburg Str and get the Dolores Vegan. Holy wow, it may be the best burrito this side of Freebirds (Austin, TX).

Bonus tangent: If you’re ever in Berlin you probably don’t need to get the standard fare AB zone U / S-bahn tickets for 2.30 EUR. For just 1.30 EUR you can get a Short Trip ticket that allows up to 3 transfers on one trip within AB zone. I didn’t discover this until 12 hours before leaving Berlin. :)

Triple bonus bonus bonus bonus bonus tangent: Before heading to the main train station (Hauptbahnhof) in Berlin make sure you actually figure out how to get there first. Because, you know, that helps. And it saves you an expensive Taxi ride to make your train back to Poland. ;) (The Taxi cost almost as much as the train from Berlin > Wroclaw. haha!)

Now for some sweet link lurve:

How DJ Sean Gallagher Went From Broke To Surfing Mexico Thanks To His “How To DJ” Online Business by Yaro Starak

I’m a sucker for these kinds of stories. :) (This is a downloadable MP3.)

My 2 Bucks on Pricing by Chris Ashworth

This article could also be called “How To Make As Much In 3 Days As I Used To Make In 1 Month.” Love it. This is a must-read article if you ever plan on releasing a product of your own. And especially if you plan to make your prices low. The psychology behind pricing is fascinating and there are multiple reasons why I priced How To Live Anywhere at $110 as least one of which is touched upon in this article. :)

Small Volume High Price vs Large Volume Low Price by Brian Evans

If we’re going to talk about pricing, let’s talk about pricing! Brian provides really great insights into pricing. If you’re at all interested in marketing you really should be reading Brian’s blog.

Take Action by Kyle Durand

I’ve said it a million times, and I’ve linked to at least a few articles on this topic. I will keep linking to them. Taking focused action is important. So important that if you write an article about it I’ll probably link to you as well. :)

Validation Is Overrated by Seth Godin

Alright, I know it’s trendy to link to Seth Godin. But he is impossible not to link to. His work is good day in and day out. This article, in particular, stood out for me. Validation has gotten a lot of people into a lot of messes. Student loan debt. Banking debt. Credit card debt. And other debts. The root cause for all of them is seeking validation. Although Mr. Godin didn’t touch on any of those points, they’re still valid. ;) (Do I even need to point out what I did there? Wait, I just did. Dammit!)

I assume I’m below average by Derek Sivers

I don’t do this nearly often enough. It’s not that I think I’m great. I’m just a regular dude. It’s that I’m not afraid to give myself credit if I’m good at something. I like this approach to self improvement as long as it’s not taken from a negative stance. e.g. “I suck at this!” If we all took this advice the world would be a better place. :)

The Karol Gajda Weight Loss Method (Results Guaranteed) by Karol Gajda

This got a lot of @ replies on Twitter when I posted it a few days ago so I’m sharing it here with you as well. :)

That’s it for this week. Let’s hang soon, OK? How about Monday? Mega zajebiste, it’s a date!

Questions/comments/wanna have a zombie staring contest? You know what to do …

Fits and Starts (or How I Lost 5,000 Words Of Content And Busted Ass To Rewrite It!)

I launched this site exactly 8 months ago. All that time culminates in this: The free Freedom Fighters eCourse is FINALLY ready for you…

Today is a big day.

Not only because I’m launching the Freedom Fighters eCourse (more below), but because it’s Holi! The Festival of Colors! I’m probably outside right now getting covered in colored powder and water which I hope doesn’t come out for days. :)

As you may know, before I launched RidiculouslyExtraordinary.com I spent 30 days writing at least 1,000 words/day for it. This gave me a base of articles to launch with and gave me some leeway in case I was too busy and didn’t have another article ready on my scheduled post days.

You’ve seen maybe half of that content so far. Some of it wasn’t very good and some of it I just haven’t released for whatever other reason.

Part of the content you never saw is the 7 Day eCourse I created called “How To Be Extraordinary.”

I knew one of the best ways to connect with friends and fans was through e-mail, but I never launched the course.

I kept telling myself: “Ehh, I’ll wait until I have more readers.”

Do you ever do that? Put things off that you know will benefit you and others?

A few weeks ago I decided I was finally going to release the course.

Lost!

But I couldn’t find it.

5,000 words don’t just disappear!

Or do they?

Interestingly, losing the course didn’t even affect me. I was probably going to rewrite it anyway.

When I wrote the original eCourse I hadn’t yet found my voice. I’m still not fully there, but I’ve got a much better idea of where I’m going with my writing style now.

What all that means is I had to get to work writing a new course from scratch. Being that I’ve been drinking far too much coconut juice I also thought it would be a good idea to write an eBook at the same time as writing the free course!

The eBook, How To Live Anywhere, comes out Friday March 05, 2010 at Midnight EST (use time.gov), also considered Thursday night to some folks. It’s currently at 10,000 words, but you’ll learn Friday about a secret I have about turning that into at least 30,000 words. I already feel like, even if I didn’t write another word, you’ll really love it. (Don’t forget, if you’re first to buy it’s only 10 cents and goes up 10 cents after every sale.)

As far as the free Freedom Fighters ecourse. Well. That?

That comes out right now…








(I hate spam and you will never get any from me. That’s a promise.)

Who Freedom Fighters Is For:

– You, if you want to achieve Ridiculously Extraordinary Freedom.

– You, if you want to connect with what I do beyond the scope of this site.

– You, if you want more in depth insight into the Freedom aspect of what I write about.

Who Freedom Fighters Isn’t For:

– People who don’t take action.

– Readers of this site who like my writing, but don’t necessarily want Ridiculously Extraordinary Freedom. I know there are a few of you. That’s cool. No worries. I’m still keeping up the regular blog posting and I love and appreciate that you’re here. :)

– Anybody who already has a freedom business. I might be able to teach you some things if you’re already free, but this ecourse is designed for somebody who is just getting started.

Get Your Free Freedom Fighters Subscription Here:








(I hate spam and you will never get any from me. That’s a promise.)

Nothing Is As Bad As It Seems (Or How I Quit Being A Whiny Baby And Got What I Needed)

The title is misleading. This is about the future of Ridiculously Extraordinary and about shipping, being an artist, and being a linchpin. Read it now…

(Important notes in the Don’t Skip This section of this article. If you skip the article, please read those.)

As you may know I’ve been having a difficult time with technology here in India.

A few days ago I spent 3 hours trying to get a USB Modem. Total time spent on trying to get an Internet connection the past couple weeks? At least 10 hours, but probably closer to 20 hours.

The internet wouldn’t really be an issue if I didn’t have things to ship. (More on that in the Don’t Skip This section below.)

I understand it’s because of terrorists and all of these rules are new so it’s a bit of a mess on all sides. And while the rules didn’t stop the restaurant bombing last week in Pune, maybe it is stopping the frequency of similar bombings. (I doubt it.)

Disagreeing with the way things are does nothing for me.

Figuring out how to make things happen in spite of the way things are causes change.

While sitting frustrated in my guest house what a lot of you commented/e-mailed me with during my whiny post a couple weeks ago finally hit me: “It’s not the end of the world.”

So I don’t have Internet. Who cares?

I can’t get any work done. (more on that in a bit!) Who cares?

I scheduled blog posts and I can’t respond to or moderate comments on my blog in a timely fashion. It sucks, and I feel bad, but you will stick around or you won’t.

Obviousy I want you to stick around and I figure you probably understand I can’t be stuck to my computer moderating/responding/commenting when I don’t have Internet. :)

Some people tell me Goa is a bit backwards (as far as tech and a few other things) and I should head somewhere else. While that sounds like a good plan, I’m not interested in being on the road. I want to stay put and get work done. i.e. Ship! (more on that in a bit)

If I’m going to leave it’s to move on to where I want to go, not some random place in search of an “easier time.”

I actually never planned on coming to India in the first place, so it’s all a bonus. I planned on going to Thailand and when I heard about the guitar workshop I’m taking (I’m just finishing the guitar as this post goes live!) I decided to delay Thailand and head to India.

So again, India’s a bonus.

I’ve made a couple of friends and met a bunch of people I never would have met had I not come. Bonus.

I’ve been able to eat some of my favorite foods daily. Bonus.

I learned I love running barefoot on the beach. :) Bonus.

I drink/eat a fresh coconut every day! Bonus.

Said coconut is chopped open with a machete in front of my eyes. Free show. Bonus!

If you’ve read this far, thank you.

If you enjoy what I’ve been doing here, thank you.

If you’ve e-mailed me or commented and haven’t received a response yet, thank you for your patience, I’m catching up. :)

I appreciate you hanging out here.

Oh, and by the way, once I stopped worrying about it, and after another (short!) visit to the electronics store, I ended up getting a USB modem and one month of high speed internet for 4,000 Rupees! ;)

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Don’t Skip This Part. ;)

In other news, I’m working on something interesting.

Well, 3 things.

– A free newsletter and e-course about achieving Ridiculously Extraordinary Freedom. It will be focused on the Freedom aspect of this site and not so much on the other topics I talk about. (You know, like how I cured my allergies.)

– A corresponding eBook called “Ridiculously Extraordinary Freedom: How To Live Anywhere” which will be released using an incremental pricing model, starting at 10 cents and going up 10 cents after every sale. The sooner you buy, the less you pay. First day sales (+ my matching of that amount) will go to third world entrepreneurs via Kiva.org.

– An over-the-shoulder, here’s what I’m doing (including live examples), paid membership area. Because I get a lot of e-mails/questions about what I do, I’m releasing a paid membership area where you can look over my shoulder and see actual live niche projects I’m working on. I’m currently working on something unique I call “Product Leasing” in which I sell a product I didn’t write and don’t own. And it’s NOT about affiliate programs. I don’t know if anybody else is doing this. If they are, they’re keeping quiet about it.

To get on the notification list for the member’s area and ebook launches just fill out your name and primary e-mail address. (Don’t worry, I hate spam, and you won’t get it from me.)

If you’re reading via RSS/e-mail and the form doesn’t show up, fill it out right here.








The Timing Is Never Right

I hadn’t planned on releasing the newsletter (the e-course isn’t even close to “ready”) or eBook (barely started it!) for a while and I didn’t even have the idea for the membership area. Then I read Linchpin by Seth Godin and a quote from Tim Ferriss: “The timing is never right.”

The main takeaways I got from Linchpin were: “Artists ship” and “Give gifts.” (Another takeaway: sprinting, getting an enormous amount of work done in a short amount of time, is good on an irregular basis. The next 10 days I’m going to be sprinting.)

While I have been shipping (and hopefully giving gifts) by consistently posting to this blog, I don’t think that’s enough. So maybe you can understand my frustration with the internet issues. I wasn’t able to ship!

What was also stopping me was my lizard brain (Seth Godin term) telling me “These things won’t be successful, you don’t have enough readers yet.” Which may be true, but whatever. It’s happening.

Here is how it’s all going down:

This Thursday (Feb 25, 2010) you’ll read a free article called “How To Make Money With Free Traffic” with an action plan to earn an extra $300/month passively.

Next Monday (March 1, 2010) I’m releasing the Freedom Fighters newsletter/e-course.

Next Friday (March 5, 2010 at Midnight EST) comes the eBook. You could consider that Thursday night if you wish. But it’s being released on Friday because that’s my birthday and I’m going to send all the money (x2) generated that day to third world entrepreneurs via one of my favorite sites: Kiva.org. I don’t have enough readers here to write as large a check as I’d like, but that’s ok. Artists ship. ;)

Then on Monday March 8, 2010 comes the membership area.

Join the notification list for the member’s area and ebook launches here (hint: you’ll get a discount):








Again, if you’re reading via RSS/e-mail and the form doesn’t show up, fill it out right here.

Whew! Thanks for reading. And thanks for being such a big part of everything I do here.