Bring meaning to your life through being purposeful

Good Day all another For-purpose blog post, this one I stumbled on
was on Cole Hatter who is a professional
speaker and the owner of various for-purpose organisations. He
also has a podcast which I actually
think i would check out. He talks about his life struggles and
also how he got into doing this whole for purpose life mission. He
gives tips and tricks for not only how to start a for-purpose but
about public speaking and how to surround yourself with the people
you want in your life. So be sure to take in the podcast as well
as read what I gathered for you below. In addition I also did my
own audio analysis here on soundcloud if you wish to just listen
instead of read.

Here is the podcast link

Cole Hatter’s Background – 0:00
Going from Guilt to Glory – 14:49
What is a For-Purpose organisation – 17:38
Why does he think the for purpose model is more profitable – 20:39
How do people start a for purpose business – 24:35
So how did he get into being a speaking mercenary? – 28:56
How to surround yourself with people who are above you – 31:25 
What is thrive? – 38:15

Key Points

Cole Hatter’s Background.

Cole went through some very tragic events during his time on earth
that change the way he does things in life. He goes against the
grain compared to what everyone else is doing and has found life
to be better this way. He uses his ambition and enthusiasm and goes
all out in business and in life and this has resulted a lot of
success, money and a great family. Now his aim is to go out and
share this same message and strategy with the world.
Graduated Highschool and realized that the corporate world
was not suited for him. He wanted to do something that he could
see a measurable difference in his world through his actions. This
notion led him to becoming a firefighter. All was well since being
a firefighter resonated with his want to help people, until the
day he and two friends (Steve and Matt) got in a serious car
accident. He and his best friend steve were ejected from the car
and carried to the hospital where Steve died later.
Grieving, Guilt and another one Gone – After the death of
their friend Steve, Cole and Matt felt guilty about the loss. Matt
saw that Cole was going into a deep depression and as a way to
cheer him up he suggested they go out into the desert and ride
dirt bikes as a way to get their mind off things. While biking out
in the desert Matt fell into a mine shaft hole and died, Cole
nearly fell in as well but was saved by a shrub and Scott who
pulled him back out. This was just 2 months after the death of
Steve. In both incidents Cole was lucky to have survived. The
grief was so much that he used to take his meds to ease the still
ongoing pain from his car accident with hard liquor and pass out
as to not be conscious of the current state of his life. His
friends all took turns carrying him around the house to use the
washroom, to eat etc. This went on for a month till he got his Aha
moment and everything changed for the better, he now had a new
vigor and reason to live.

Going from Guilt to Glory.

Guilt was still looming over Cole, he was still popping pills and
taking the hard liquor to pass out. One day he was cursing God and
ranting out loud alone in his house, asking why they were stolen
from him and he still got to live. Then it clicked, he thought
instead of being sorry for himself that he would live a life of
purpose so that both Steve and Matt deaths would not be in vain.
He aimed to live a life of three instead of one so when he meets
them again they can be proud of their legacy. He began a non
profit and realized quick that they are not profitable and he
needed to make money. He took his ambitions and enthusiasm along
with learning about entrepreneurship and began earning a lot of
money, losing a lot of money but ending up on top.

What is a For-Purpose organisation.

Adam Braun of Pencils of purpose is
a for purpose organisation, it more or less means you make money
while you are making a difference in life. Design your business
model around a purpose while you remain highly profitable, but the
structure of either how its being run or what you do with the
product or service is to benefit others while benefiting yourself.
Aim to make a wake of purposeful profits where in the end the
money made from sales also is accompanied by the feeling of
knowing that you helped someone in need. Cole entered the world of
real estate investing and quickly made a fricking killing then the
economy turned and he quickly got killed. Although he was being
thrifty with his earnings, he was also helping out friends here
and there, he went to africa for 3 weeks and help out there and
also in south america. After picking up a trend of earning money
then giving it away to charity picked up steam he realized that
the feeling from giving far out weighed the feeling of the earning
a ton. This made him take a step back to reevaluate how he can
bring the two together, which changed him into being a
philanthropic entrepreneur. He also claims that this model has
made much more money than the traditional way of just being a
business making money.

Why does he think the for purpose model is more profitable.

Cole uses Toms shoes http://www.toms.com/ as an example which has
made billions selling shoes on the one for one concept. Blake Mycoskie  the founder
of Toms shoes created a way that the cost to give away the other
pair of shoes to someone in need is already being compensated for
in the payment from the customer. Building a brand where you as
the customer know you would be helping someone in need in someway
gives you more incentive to purchase the item even if it may cost
a bit more. This is a great way to distinguish yourself in a very
noisy market place. Having a competitive edge over your rivals
will help more than it can than ever before. So why not have a
meaningful movement behind your brand to influence your customers
to support you. Ensure to build within the product or service the
buffer you need to give that resource or money away. An example of
this is Sevenly by Dale Partridge who adds 7 dollars to every
product he sells so that he can donate that amount to charity per
item. Build your business around a give component, Cole guarantees
that not only you would distinguish yourself from the market but
at the end of every year you would feel great about how much you
have given away to your cause.

How do people start a for purpose business.

1) Decide that this matters to you and you don’t want to be a for
profit organisation running on greed. If everyone loves what you
are doing then you don’t stand for anything.
2) Find a cause or initiative that resonates with you and ensure
that what you are donating towards is making a measurable
difference. For example if there is a group that is buying food
for the homeless instead of just cutting a check you can go to the
grocery buy the groceries and compile them in customizable bags
which contain equal amounts of various items and personal give
them out. Hang out with them give them more than just the physical
item, give them your time, have a meaningful conversation with
them.
3) Design a business that funds that initiative, this can either
be directly giving away the product in need like TOMS or directly
giving away money like sevenly does. One of Cole’s friend has a
organization where he only hires army vets or so-called people who
are deemed unemployable because of PTSD.
4) Understand how to brand your product so that you can
distinguish yourself in a noisy market while providing more than
your competition. Even if you are not taking a significant market
share at the moment with your sales due to loss, you still didn’t
lose because you changed people lives, so consider that an
investment of buying happiness.

So how did he get into being a speaking mercenary.

Being able to Articulate your thoughts along with incorporating
sales language in a versatile manner is valuable skill in today’s
world. If you are able to speak in a way to win over the listener
into what you are selling, (be it an idea, a product, a service
etc) it will bring you a lot of profitable opportunities. The
ability to move people to action is key when selling. Cole said he
learnt from the great Tony Robbins https://www.tonyrobbins.com/
who is a motivational speaker, he didn’t really listen to what he
was saying but how he phrased, framing, looping his stories and
doing things in his talks. So immediately Cole began his R&D (Rip
off and Duplicating) on Tony and then took free speaking gigs.
Losing money along the way but he wanted to learn the skill so bad
that he took any small chances he could get once it gave him the
opportunity to refine the skill and get good at it. When he
thought he was good enough he began pitching for paid gigs but was
only allowed to do so if he is selling the clients product on
stage. You have to be knowledgeable about the topic for example
Cole spoke about real estate then would give a plug for the
product his client was selling and then would get a cut for every
product sold. He never speaks on stages about people or products
he doesn’t believe will help people or he can’t vouch for.

How to surround yourself with people who are above you.

To get their attention you need to be able to research or observe
everything they do or are interested in and find a way that you
can help them do whatever they do better. Try to think of every
avenue that you can simplify or improve something that they are
interested in. Then find a way to contact them, in this case Cole
found his email address and sent him 2 or 3 of the ideas every 3
or 4 days. He did this process for months until he got a response,
which booked him a meeting for an hour. I think of this as the
subliminal message technique, where you are in their head nearly
everyday so much so they give you an opportunity that you can’t
mess up.

What is thrive? 

It’s a seminar where various notable speakers will talking about
three different areas of interest.
1) How to make money.
2) How to protect your money.
3) How to make money matter.

Pay it Forward Pizza with a Purpose.

Good Day, I always love giving to others without really thinking about getting back. It has been apart of my nature since I was small, always trying to be selfless and think about the needs of my friends, family and even people outside my circle before myself. It’s a good feeling to have when you see the dividends of your labor even better when they show appreciation for the deed. As a thriving entrepreneur my end goals are to be an active philanthropist where the needs for our community within my country and a larger scale are met by not only myself but all who are willing assist as well. That’s why my initiative to learn more about and create a Pay it forward system in Trinidad and Tobago has led me to listening to this podcast. I saw this story a while back about a pizza owner in the states who had a pay it forward system where people buy a slice for a dollar there after they pay for someone else’ slice and leave a little message on a post it. It grew quickly, so much so the homeless got a free meal when they needed throughout the year. This is an interview between Cause talk radio which consists of both Megan Strand from Cause Marketing Forum and Joe from SelfishGiving and the man behind it all Mason Wartman owner of Rosa’s Fresh Pizza.

Here is the podcast link

 

• Mason’s Background – 0:00
• When did he know that the program had taken off – 1:29
• How the system grew – 3:02 
• Do most customers pay it forward? – 5:01 
• Using Post-its and other Signage to make customers aware 
  without pressuring them – 5:53 
• Replicating the Pay it forward system in other ways – 8:08 
• How much has the pay it forward system impacted his success 
  as a business? – 8:43
• Can his system be used in a more upscale pizzeria? – 9:43 
• Pay when you can vs a pay it forward system – 10:35 
• What does the future hold for himself and his business – 14:34 
• Getting in contact with Mason – 16:33

 

Key Points Taken

Mason’s Background

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QdDAil6T2So

Worked at wall street and always wanted to start his own business.
The Startup was called Rosa’s fresh pizza which sold a slice of pizza for a dollar and its main customers were homeless. One day a person wanted to pre purchase a slice for the next homeless person that came in short, Mason created a post-it to remind himself and also introduced the idea to other customers. They liked it and he had a bunch of advanced payments and post-its for any homeless who came in for a slice in the future. Eleven months later the word of the selfless pay it forward system has spread and is now viral and has made him a very popular restaurant owner.

 

When did he know that the program had taken off.

Two months in he realized that the system was not a burden to his business expenses wise and it was helping a lot of the homeless. He plans to expand the business after hearing feedback from the homeless on how inefficient the feeding programs are around the city.

 

How the system grew.

Initially the post-it notes were kept away from the customers and was used as a method of accounting and proof of transparency for customers. Eventually the amount of post-its became too much for the area they kept them so he moved it to the eating area and kept track of it on the register (one button for paid slice and one for any slice that was taken via post-it). Then at then end of the day he adds up how many times each were hit to keep track. This process in place help the business in two ways:
1) It is an easy and reliable way to manage the sales and pay-it-forwards.
2) With the post-its on the wall of the eating area it raises awareness of the system to customers encouraging them even more to take part.

 

Do most customers pay it forward?

First time customers do and regulars but there are always some who came to purchase the pizza because its affordable and that is all they can spare at the moment He wants the program to be known but doesn’t want to pressure people into buying extra slices.

 

Using Post-its and other Signage to make customers aware without pressuring them.

He used signage such as a typed up letter at the counter and the post-its to advertise the cause but not have it be forced upon. Most of his customers are ones on the struggling end of the economy so to keep them comfortable its better just to have them come in and purchase their food and leave. Giving them the choice to add a dollar or not. So this brings up a good point of giving someone awareness of information, having them consume it but without having it forced upon them to act lets them make the decision to do so. This process should be done in a way also to pique someones interest in something, in this case the awareness towards helping the homeless is apparent to each customer.

 

Replicating the Pay it forward system in other ways.

Strip down a meal to be as basic as it can be so that its affordable and can be pre purchased. An example from Mason is a rice and beans special from chipolte, no increased capital needed and it increases sales because of the incentive of doing good.

 

How much has the pay it forward system impacted his success as a business?

Since the popularity of the pay it forward system he has been on many things one of which was the Ellen show. His business is more or less the last one standing in on his street, most of his neighbors have either closed down or have been gutted. Being a foot traffic business this would have eventually forced him to close as well but because of the popularity of his program its has gone very well in his favor.

 

Can his system be used in a more upscale pizzeria?

Depends on what you consider upscale, because no one will consider buying 1 dollar slice pizzas with a waiter service. This system caters more to items which can be sold at a cheaper cost, where the burden of buying another is not high. Offering an option on the side to give away for example Mc Donalds you buy a meal and have a side of fries for another person.

 

Pay when you can vs a pay it forward system.

Panera Cares is an organisation where you pay what you can when you have a meal and is more funded by donations, but they also try to have a line in the sand based on who can pay and who can’t. Some people have to pay the full amount or even more at times and others can pay next to nothing.
With the pay it forward system its simplistic all you need to do is either pay an extra dollar for a meal or not. There is no need to find out who looks like they should pay or not. There are too many more questions that need to be asked before charging someone for their meal, which over complicates the whole scenario of just feeding the less fortunate.
Another great bonus to Mason’s model is that you can immediately see who it’s helping. “Charity just like business should be very streamlined and simple, especially for something as simple as food.”

 

What does the future hold for himself and his business.

He wants to have more chains of restaurants with the pay it forward model and charge varied rates based on customer. Also have a more robust menu with more protein foods, but they all must be economical for his patrons.

 

Getting in contact with Mason.

http://www.rosasfreshpizza.com/ where you can buy a slice of pizza over the internet for someone, order pizza and buy t-shirts where half the sales funds go towards the homeless as well. You can buy a sweatshirt which will give a sweatshirt away to someone who is homeless. On the sweatshirt of the homeless recipient is a tag that gives them information on where he or she can get meals, shelter and computer classes.

100 Days of Rejection

Jia Jiang is an Entrepreneur a key note speaker, an author of the book Rejection Proof, a blogger of the page http://fearbuster.com/ and a youtuber (here is the list of his rejections for your view pleasure) that has inspired many people to withstand the fear of rejection and instead embrace it with open arms. Today I decided to check out his podcast interview on the Unmistakable Creative with Srinivas Rao which I have visited many a time to see who he’s interview. One of which was one with Jadah of simple green smoothies. Rejection is a problem alot of us are faced with on a daily basis, for me its very hard to overcome and sometimes it builds fear so i miss out on opportunities because im not willing to venture forth on taking a chance. Jia has used this rejection to create a whole new life for him so much so that he is featured all over the web even here. That video made me want to check out his stuff even more and what better place than through an podcast interview.

Here is the link to the podcast

• Jia Jiang’s backstory – 0:00
• Overcoming the fear of uncertainty – 2:47
• Make yourself an example not an Excuse – 4:39 
• Abandoning Excuses and taking action – 5:03 
• How to turn events that seem really bad into something worth going through – 6:07 
• Turning failure into opportunity vs the one who doesn’t – 8:06 
• How to discover the bigger meaning or purpose in your life – 9:40 
  
• How the 100 days of rejection project began – 12:04 
  
• Learning from rejection – 17:35 
  
• The misconceptions about rejection when we are adults – 19:23 
  
• Taking Rejection personally – 20:55 
  
• Can we overcome our own biology – 24:26 
  
• An example of what Jia asked for – 24:50 
  
• How can we become rejection proof – 27:02 
  
• Some of the people he has inspired – 28:50 
  
• Doing this process can free you from expecting results – 30:46 
  
• Example Writing a book without the limit of expecting results – 31:47
  
• What makes something or someone unmistakable – 33:02 

 

Key points taken

Jia Jiang back story.

 

Overcoming the fear of uncertainty.

There is no right time to do something, you have to act on things and see where it goes from there. Sometimes it takes life changing moments to either ignite the action you have been holding back on or extinguish them. For Jia it was the birth of his son which became the cross-road event in his life where he had the choice of quitting his dream or continue pursuing them. He didn’t want his son to be his excuse but more a catalyst so that he could be an example for him to chase after his. Look at adversity as stepping-stones towards achieving greatness, the challenge is usually rewarding once you have the tenacity to overcome them.

 

Make yourself an example not an Excuse.

 

Abandoning Excuses and taking action.

A sense of urgency helps with making you want to take action, also setting deadlines which weigh a heavy price for not taking action.

 

How to turn events that seem really bad into something worth going through.

Turn bad situations into good ones by taking action, with Jia when he felt rejection he had a few options he could either sulk and quit or try to move onto the next thing as quickly as possible. For him it became a trans-formative moment because he analysed the problem and changed it into a form of self-help for his rejection. Failures are always good checkpoints where you can reevaluate your current status and make adjustments. Also if you can understand and learn from your failure, you can help people avoid going down that same path by teaching them from your experience.

 

Turning failure into opportunity vs the one who doesn’t.

Having that awareness to see the purpose of the failure towards the bigger picture, creating opportunities where it seems like there are none. Thinking of it as a story towards your life mission, being an author along the way using these stepping-stones to bring meaning to your life.
A great example of this is Steve Jobs’ speech to the graduates of Standford university, where he described the different obstacles he overcame which made him the man he is such as being adopted, dropping out of college, being fired from the company he created.

 

How to discover the bigger meaning or purpose in your life.

Jia refers to the book Mindset which explains how elastic our Mind or ability or talent could be, so if we have a growth mindset we can then have a thought process that failure is a means to an end and not a finality.
“It’s not the failure that defines us, its our reaction to the failure the defines us.” With the right mindset you can turn anything into a positive.
Everyone has dreams when they were growing up no matter how far fetched they are, some people when they are adults forget their childhood dreams or are compelled somewhere else because of circumstances. But if there is still this urge or feeling still in the back of your mind or in your gut to pursue it still despite all the failures you have faced, don’t you think there is a reason?

 

How the 100 days of rejection project began.

Based on his first attempt at getting rejection he did what he always did ran away, but after some grit and self talk he held his ground and the pain became less and less to bear. One of his examples where he ran was asking a security guard to borrow 100 dollars, the guy said no, then why? Jia ran immediately but the thing about that situation is although the man said no he ask why, if Jia stayed he would never know what direction could have gone. So at times we look at rejection in the wrong light and instead we should pull out the positives, even when the response is a straight up “No”, in reevaluation you can think maybe my approach was wrong and how can I switch it up to get a more favorable result.
The third day he rose again – Krispy Kreme rejection. This is what changed it for him, instead of worrying about getting a yes or a no, he decided to just worry about having the bravery to ask and see what happens.

 

Learning from rejection.

Planting a flower in someone’s yard. When faced with a no ask WHY? With the incident of planting the flower he was rejected, but when he asked why the owner of the yard explained he had a dog that would dig it up and also suggested to Jia that the neighbor would appreciate it more. Rejection not only plays a role in figuring out a new solution for the problem but also opens up your options for new opportunities you may not have even thought of. Another thing is the want to have everyone agree with your idea or suggestions, you can’t get that from everyone so at times you just have to accept that not everyone will be on your wavelength and that is fine. The final thing I gathered is that recording rejection in some form (written, video, audio) can bring forth fruitful rewards since you can analyse where things went wrong and adapt.

 

The misconceptions about rejection when we are adults.

Rejection is not necessarily a bad thing, we can change rejection into something good. What doesn’t kill us makes us stronger and rejection if we let it can make us stronger. Expand your comfort zone by putting yourself out side of it to be rejected and this will gradually put you in positions to ask and do things that you would have never had done before. Use rejection to build your mental muscle.

 

Taking Rejection personally.

It’s biologically rooted in us. Use muscle memory to remember small rejections to build up the confidence to overcome big rejections. Embrace rejection, for example Jia before starting new projects preps himself to see how many no’s he can take before giving up and because he is mentally prepared he accomplishes his goals long ahead of his breaking point.

 

Can we overcome our own biology.

 

An example of what Jia asked for.

One thing he asked for was to Teach a lecture to a class.

 

How can we become rejection proof.

Start something small when attempting to build rejection muscle, for example when going to a store try to negotiate a discount for an item. Have fun stay engaged despite the rejection, move on to the next opportunity like buying something other than the product they sell that’s too simple for them to say no (spoons, pens, paper). Over time you would be amazed how some of these interactions can turn out and one key thing to always remember is that your life will not change drastically before or after the rejection.

 

Some of the people he has inspired.

 

Doing this process can free you from expecting results.

Looking for results limits your actions and creativity and makes you fearful. Focus on actions, just ask and try new things, this usually leads to better results.

 

Example Writing a book without the limit of expecting results.

“Strategy is based on people and results are based on God.” – Chinese proverb

 

What makes something or someone unmistakable.

Own your story and live it to the fullest.

Analyze your competition, do something different and puncture your market.

Good Day all, its Friday the 20th of February, how are you. I’m well (sounds like I’m talking to myself) anyway the podcast today was a tough decision, since I didn’t really have a theme to search for. As you know I try to get something that is inspiring and as well under the area of helping people realize that you can make a business or have a side hustle which is aligned to a passion or life purpose. At this time I am using this as a way to encourage myself also educate in the ways of being an entrepreneur. I continue to find more and more resources and have been so consumed by data that at times it’s really hard to keep up on what to view within the limited periods I have each day. While I try to come up with ways to provide more content in a more condensed way, I think I found the podcast I would breakdown for you it’s from Andy Drish and the Foundation podcasts, I have done a podcast with him way back in the earlies (like have done so many (30 something). His guest is Derek Halpern the creator of Social Triggers a blog that shows readers how to increase web traffic and sales using human psychology. In this podcast though he will be telling us that trying hard to come up with a unique business idea is wasting time when you can just implement something that could lead to a business even more valuable.

Here is the link to the podcast – http://hwcdn.libsyn.com/p/2/d/8/2d86163acde5bc42/SFN004-DHalpern.mp3?c_id=5757138&expiration=1424488157&hwt=40b2344af820901bcb7c3707b8537621

• His first businesses – 2:18
• Playing chess for push ups – 6:09
  (8:29) Chess influenced the way he thinks about life and human behavior
  (9:28) When you fight with someone our default reaction is to deny
  (12:25) Another example of redirection
• Quitting poker to make a real living with a gossip site >_> – 15:41
  (17:21) When starting you first business the initial order of business is getting it going
  (18:18) Belief and Persistence
• People want instant results – 22:11
• Depression made him do something crazy – 25:57
• Direct Response Marketing – 29:18
• Sales copy vs Gossip copy – 30:36
• Reading and doing to learn copywriting – 31:51
• How did he get good at feeding content to his audience – 33:13
• What if a person doesn’t have the traffic – 35:59
• What is Derek aiming for with Social triggers – 37:48
• Building networks with the gravity approach – 39:19
• Do something you know works but do it differently – 42:48
• Advice on following your passion – 45:03
  (46:04) Two analogies to further drive the point
  (46:51) You cant strike oil by digging 100 1 foot holes you have to dig 1 100 foot hole.

Key points taken

His first businesses – 2:18
He had an ice tea stand in multiple locations. He sold them for 25c per cup but the strange thing that people did was give them a dollar instead. So since they were being given dollars, might as well sell it for a dollar.
(3:24) Ad business in College – He used to read a website column a guy on campus had made and one day by mistake he clicked an ad on the site. He found out that the guy was getting paid 500 dollars per ad and on the side bar had about 5 ads which meant he was getting 2500 dollars for this site. This instantly made Derek make a website talking about the dumb things he did in college but wasnt as entertaining and no traffic was coming to his site. So he went to the source and found a link to gossip blog and that site had ads which were giving them 1000 dollars a week.

Playing chess for push ups – 6:09
He and his dad played chess for push ups and he lost a lot initially.
(8:29) Chess influenced the way he thinks about life and human behavior – If you say a word in a certain way to someone you should expect an automatic response. Once you can play moves ahead of time, meaning you know how the entire script will play out in your head before time, you can than manipulate the conversation.
(9:28) When you fight with someone our default reaction is to deny – An example of this is going to a coffee shop and ordering decaffeinated coffee, but how do you know that its decaffeinated? If you contest this by asking if its caffeinated since the person will not want to be put under the gun as being wrong they will deny it and answer that its decaffeinated. This is the use of redirection, the social trigger here people don’t like to be wrong and when they are challenged they will defend themselves or even lie about it. So you want to put people in the position to be right.
(12:25) Another example of redirection – “You ever wake up and feel really frustrated with how much email you have?” The initial reaction by the reader is to say no and they get disenchanted and stop reading. Instead you should state it like this: “The other day I woke up and I realized I was frustrated about the amount of email I had.” It puts people in position to say “I’m not frustrated but I know how he feels, let me keep reading.” You are turning it from a challenge to a place where people have the ability to save face.

Quitting poker to make a real living with a gossip site >_> – 15:41
For his site content he went through the net reading different pieces of advice then he implemented the advice and if it didn’t work moved on to the next thing. If something did work he would do that until it didn’t work anymore. No strategy just trying as much different things till he found the perfect answer.
(17:21) When starting you first business the initial order of business is getting it going, get the product or service out there. The blog Social triggers was not Derek’s first blog he had the gossip blog, then a fashion site, then a makeup blog, then blog that helped launch a software company. So by the time he reach to launching social triggers he had all this track record of experience and strategies to get tons of traffic.
(18:18) Belief and Persistence – Derek believed if there was someone out there doing a gossip site for money why can’t he make money with a gossip site. Once there is someone in the world that is doing something that you want to do don’t believe you can’t do the same. He and a friend start the site, the friend walked away after not seeing hits and no money coming in, around month three of the website Derek began seeing money and each month it got bigger so much so by the time the site was 11 months old he made about 20 thousand dollars.

People want instant results – 22:11
Most people don’t like rewards that happen in the future, that’s why we eat unhealthy today and complain in the future, this is why people don’t save for retirement. We just can’t delay gratification, but we need to learn to do this by selling ourselves on some sort of benefit that’s worth it. The example Derek gives is with social triggers which had now began getting some traction, he had talks with a well-known entrepreneur. He asked him what is his plan, Derek told him his plan is to get 10000 loyal subscribers then went I get there I will figure out what to sell them later. This is a good showing of delaying gratification because it proves that Derek was seeking the following and not the profits. When he reach 100000 then he finally decided to make a business out of the blog.

Depression made him do something crazy – 25:57
From having a popular website that was making money to selling it off and start working for fortune 100 club. All because he had no life outside maintaining the website, despite him just having to work a few hours a day. He yearned for a social life which was why he got the job. He stayed in corporate America for 2 years and then he read a biography on jack welsch of GE. With aspirations to be a CEO of a fortune 100 business, he rose through the ranks and then ended up quitting because there was not way he can reach to the top in less than 15 years.

Direct Response Marketing – 29:18
Derek got into this by reading books while riding the train to work, one of these books was my life in advertising by Claude C Hopkins. One thing he took away was in chapter 4 “The advertising man must learn psychology the more he knows the better.” That was his aha moment right there that triggered combining direct response and psychology and this made him think if the whole world is governed by why people do what they do then decided I should know exactly why people do what they do all the time.

Sales copy vs Gossip copy – 30:36
Same thing not any different to him, he was mainly focused on getting content out there that would spread quickly.

Reading and doing to learn copywriting – 31:51
Read all the books he could then began practicing it more and more till it became muscle memory.

How did he get good at feeding content to his audience – 33:13
Christine Day the former Ceo of Lululemon, she always looked for way to make them one the most profitable stores in their market. She was encouraging people to get feedback from the customers, the reason they were buying and weren’t buying by setting up folding tables close to the dressing rooms so employees can eavesdrop conversations. She had blackboards so customers can write their comments, she also personally went around eavesdropping in different stores. She then took all this information to see how she can make a better store, why he is bring this up is that you have to put in the time to learn your market inside out.
With social triggers when you sign up you get an email asking you to tell him what you are struggling with even if its something small, he reads every response. So reading each one gave him an idea of all the people who signing up for his site and the problems that they have. All that information at his disposal he didn’t have to create content on a whim he made content tailored to the people and the problems he read about.

What if a person doesn’t have the traffic – 35:59
Create a customer avatar based on the problem you are trying to solve, then write to that person. Also have things in place like getting them to respond emails, surveys etc to reality test your assumption. Note you may not always attract who want attract with your content. You will attract some people who are outside your assumptions but this helps you tweak your approach.

What is Derek aiming for with Social triggers – 37:48
“There is a gap between what science knows and what business does” Dan Pink This is what Derek is searching to find out.

Building networks with the gravity approach – 39:19
Just do something so big and so amazing that people reach out to you. Most of the connections fell in his lap mainly because the people were impressed by something he did or it was something they care about. To speed up this process it’s all about what you can deliver or how you can help them. Never ask a busy person for help, see how you can solve a problem they have and over to help for free as a way to get connected to that person.

Do something you know works but do it differently – 42:48
When he started the gossip site, he analysed all the top gossip blogs and grouped them based on topic (gossip blog on babies, one on celebrity makeup, one written by a gay guy to a female audience) etc. but there were none by a straight guy making snarky comments. As for Social triggers there are thousands of marketing blogs out there but none were talking about the psychology of conversion. This approach made him break into the industry and break in. You have to analyse the space and see what the top people are known for and do something different no need to be outlandishly unique.

Advice on following your passion – 45:03
Good advice but sometimes your passion is not connected to a business model, this means you better find a business model and get passionate about that.
(46:04) Two analogies to further drive the point – Its like lying on a bed of nails, when you create a website and you have no main focus point in your topics its hard for you to puncture the market. The reason being you are not going deep enough you are not applying enough pressure. But if you find that position to go deep enough to break through, there will be no problem.
(46:51) You cant strike oil by digging 100 1 foot holes you have to dig 1 100 foot hole. Niche down and be specific break in and then branch out.

Derek gave a great contribution in the podcast with anecdotes, psychology and straight facts. His advice analyzing the market you want to penetrate, as well as using chess to read people and using redirection as a way to figure if people are lying. Sticking it out and delaying gratification in the belief of your product or service for later rewards. Direct response marketing and learning from various resources to master copywriting and serving your customers by learning what their problems are. Using a customer avatar and prepping content to serve the customers you aim to attract, also building networks by helping others with their problems for free. Do something different from your competition and make a puncture in your market by focusing on one topic that can strike you oil. Finally following your passion may not always bring you a marketable niche but try to find a business model and be passionate about it.

Building Communities with the Going Green Dream

Good Day all, Thursday has come around once again and I am in a good mood today so lets see how much of this positive impact I could put into this creative work of art. Speaking about impact I am doing a podcast analysis on a woman named jadah sellner (pronounced Jah-dah) who is the owner of Simple Green Smoothies a website that promotes drinking smoothies made of greens, fruits and vegetables. Combination of these ingredients provide you with energy and also a healthier lifestyle as its been proven that blending is a much better way of getting the ingredients from the fruits and vegetables we eat. So with this initiative they have brought to the table of drinking one green smoothie a day, it has begun a movement for vegetarians all over the world. The interview comes from the unmistakable creative group  with host Srini Rao, they aim uncover the story and turning points that have made people unmistakable. The talk focuses on Jadah’s story and how she found impact that feeds her soul.

Here is the link to the podcast – http://unmistakablecreative.com/finding-the-impact-that-feeds-our-souls

• A bit of background on Jadah – 1:07
• Going even further back – 4:00
• How do you cultivate an ability to keep starting from scratch – 7:16
• Igniting the Fighter within us – 11:47
• How do you maintain that balance of success – 15:42
• I want pajama friends – 19:34
• Finding impact that feeds your soul – 23:18
  (25:32) Evolving with the people you serve
• Things you have done with kids how has that shaped your life going forward – 26:50
• Creating inviting communities – 32:44
• Navigating a period of turmoil with hope – 35:07
• Simple Green Smoothie movement – 40:41
• Getting started with Simple Green Smoothies – 45:40
• Testimonials and Friday love notes – 49:19
  (50:01) One special mention is Joanne
• What is it that makes someone or something unmistakable – 52:08

A video about Simple green smoothies

Key points taken

A bit of background on Jadah – 1:07
Co-founder of simple green smoothies which was launched November of 2012 and have created a movement of over 1million people over two years say yes to their health by changing over to drinking a green smoothie once a day. She is a multi-passionate person who is insanely curious and has dug her hands into a lot of different projects, one of these was a creative plan learning center for children in kauai Hawaii that she and husband ran together. It became over burdensome and not sustainable due many factors and they had to move back to California to live with her in-laws. She being the persistent type she took imperfect action and encountered every life lesson on purpose and used her insane curiosity to experiment with ideas to serve others. That curiosity turned into a blog named family sponge which turned into simple green smoothies and she recently created her personal site that helps world changers dream big and find their tribe.

Going even further back – 4:00
She is beautifully blended, her father is black and Cherokee and her mom is Chinese and white. They moved around a lot because her parents were entrepreneurs at heart always seeking the next big thing, which made her accustomed to starting from scratch. She is a fighter the reason she says this is because her dad was physically abusive to her mother and sister but when he came around her she was the only one standing up to him. These incidents made her a very protective individual later on in life, always wanting to stand up for her “people”, which is ironic because being multiracial she never thought she fit in with any group of people. Wishing at times she was black enough so she could have super curly hair or being white enough so that she could fit in when she was in predominantly white school.

How do you cultivate an ability to keep starting from scratch – 7:16
It’s a resilience thing, since she has been doing it all her life she has created a tough skin to prepare to do it again and again. For us common folk her advice is to embrace the fear starting a new because its gonna be there no matter what. One thing you have to realize is that there is no need to do any drastic thing when you are planning to start from scratch, to overcome the fear of the entire event take small steps if you can. Having this mentality of fleeing is her crutch, its ingrained in her that she must run when things get tough. She had that experience when she was trying to build her online business and it was not working out for her so she was thinking to move to a third world country in hopes of having the business thrive while having a lower cost of living. They moved but it was to an area where they agreed to stay for at least a year without fleeing and that’s when her online business started blowing up.

Igniting the Fighter within us – 11:47
Be committed to pushing boundaries for yourself, being able to be open to opportunities and possibilities and it gets harder the more success you gain. Not doing this will in Jadah’s case will prevent her from serving more people and making that impact that feeds her soul. Her energy comes that uncertainty place of building something new whereas being comfortable with a sustainable lifestyle just doesn’t feel fun. To stay accountable she constantly surround herself with people who get what she’s up to, this way the world can see her strengths and ensure she that she does her best work.

“If you are going to push hedges in your life, you are going to keep inviting a better set of challenges into it.” – Matt Gordon

How do you maintain that balance of success – 15:42
She created a vision board and everything she wanted 2 years ago she has acquired, she also has created a mantra of saying “I deserve this”. Being a big dreamer she is always thinking of receiving more, don’t get her wrong though she is very thankful of everything has in her life. This combination of growing into her uncomfortable place along with gratitude she has for everything she has. Having people around you who support your vision and being able to be a leader and still ask for help is a very important aspect of staying humble while gaining great success.

I want pajama friends – 19:34
While searching for people where she fits in is difficult as she said before cause some drain her energy, some ignite her but she wants pajama friends, these are people who make her comfortable in her own skin. In terms of business she wants people she can take on vacation with, one of the criteria they have when hiring is going for a weekend in a house somewhere. If the conversations they have doesn’t have any kind of flow then they may not be the right fit. Someone who she can just call up at anytime to go for a relaxing time and it always feels like she’s home. This sounds cool but it’s not really easy because there’s a lot that could make you connected or disconnected with a person. As with most things like business, art and creativity you get a vibe when you find that right person it just flows effortlessly with them.

Finding impact that feeds your soul – 23:18
She recommends serving people who you are passionate about serving, creating a product, a service or an offering that transforms someones life that you really care about. With her business the reason they are able to make the impact that they make is because they are so in love with their community and their main focus are moms. So to reiterate the point server people who light you up and also surround yourself with people who gives you a higher vibration of joy and happiness.
(25:32) Evolving with the people you serve – What you create for the people you serve can evolve into new products or services, since they are growing with your business and can bring new options to helping them. As you learn and earn new things you can keep teaching and inviting them back into your space while selling them new things.

Things you have done with kids how has that shaped your life going forward – 26:50
She is still serving the same person that she used to serve in kauai which were moms. She created a moms group at the time of the economy crash name ohana mommas, which was just a meet up group so that she could find new friends on the island. What she noticed from the meetups is that on rainy days their kids didn’t have any place to play, since Hawaii is a very out doorsy place to live. So she wanted to create a space for the kids, she googled how to do a business plan fixed a legit one up and got her mom and step dad to lend them some start-up capital to rent a building. With that began little sprouts playhouse was born and it became a community hub for families, also the beginning of Jadah learning about business. The problem with this structure was that they wanted just to have a place for them to play and have music time and what not but it ended up being more of a preschool setting. This restricted them and what the market wanted is not what they wanted to supply full-time.

Creating inviting communities – 32:44
Jadah always wants the groups she created for the people she serve to be inviting and of a welcoming positive vibe to make you feel like you belonged. With Simple Green Smoothie she continues in that same vein by ensuring that the initial hello pulls you in like you were always apart of the community. They make sure they are more than a business and a resource for their customers, where all your questions are answered and the support is always there.

Navigating a period of turmoil with hope – 35:07
Hope is her number one strength, she went from being homeless at the age of 5 to living in a 2 acre home with 2 horses and 2 Lexus’ then back to bankruptcy and sharing a room with two other siblings. With so much ups and downs she has that tenacity to rebuild time and time again despite circumstance. Being ok with change and knowing things can get better has made her thankful for the things she have no matter how little and with that brings out the glimmer of positivity that’s worth holding on to. Be happy and don’t complain about the situations that you sometimes you end up in, when you do it still will not solve the problem. So while they were in California with Jadah’s in-laws she was thinking about going back to school but decided to stay with their daughter while her husband worked. She slowly worked on her online business during the times her daughter was sleeping. The other thing she needed to do was removed the deadline that she put on herself to accomplish the goal of an online business. With burden off it gave her more freedom to experiment and stay in a creative flow space. When you do that to yourself its harder to create freely and be in a happy space.

Simple Green Smoothie movement – 40:41
While at the in-laws the only thing she could control is what she ate and what she ate was junk food. She gained 25 pounds quickly and began feeling sluggish, so she began having a diet of Green smoothies. Within three months of beginning that regiment, she lost 27 pounds and her body just craved more fruits and vegetables. With this change she felt better and at least she had a control over one area of the life which was what she was putting in her body. She started spreading the word to all the people she loved and showed them what it had done for her. It quickly moved from friend to friend then onto instagram in July 2012 where she shared the ingredients and recipes along with photos. After 3 months Simple green smoothies was live on the web, and in January 2013 they had their 30 day green smoothie challenge. Over 30 thousand people signed up to their email list to receive weekly shopping lists and recipes. Funny enough this was done without any other form of social media or paid advertising.

Getting started with Simple Green Smoothies – 45:40
Starter recipe is named beginners luck. It’s a very healthy she says as none of her family has been sick in so long and her doctor told her she doesn’t need to come for a check up for two years. So invest your health now so you will save money and time in the long run, another thing is that grocery bill will become less filled with processed food costs. As for equipment you don’t need to start with any impressive blender but as you get into it more you can upgrade to better, the only reason that you do is for warranty and its efficiency.

Testimonials and Friday love notes – 49:19
The community happiness specialist as she calls them dig up comments from the website, instagram and other social media outlets and share them with the entire team every Friday. This is a way of them celebrating their community internally and its a continuous reminder of why they are doing this.
(50:01) One special mention is Joanne – Joanne, who is a breast cancer survivor and she did both the 30 day challenge and the 21 day cleanse. She was about to do her last surgery and the team decided to make a video for her and she replied on the Facebook page sharing her thanks.
Every dollar they receive is someone saying yes to their health and that has convinced them to choose love over metrics, better yet people over profits. “True community building is touching one person’s life and impacting that through spreading the word through word of mouth.”

What is it that makes someone or something unmistakable – 52:08
Its showing up in the world as a dreamer and a doer. Creating great impact in the world by being a dream builder. She ends with a dream builder manifesto –
“This is for the dreamers, the ones who say their dreams out loud even if it’s just a whisper. If this is your stand up. This is for the difference makers and the imperfect action takers, stand up. This is for the doers, idea hackers, movement starters, answer seekers, stand up. This is for the freedom chasers the ones who chose their own path, using failures as building blocks to make something greater and better. This is for the visionaries, the weekend warriors, the world shakers and the makers, stand up and dream a better world. Choose people over profits, choose peace over chaos, choose faith over fear. This is for dream builders who choose love, if you encounter every lesson in life on purpose stand up.”

Slow start or maybe I was too impatient with seeking things that I read in the show notes. But Jadah in the second half of this interview started providing some good information to the people like me who are looking to serve a community that I care for and not looking for the profits. As you can see she really has the vibe of positivity where she really loves what she does and prefers to build a community where she can grow with the people she serves. From the stand point of starting over constantly and being a fighter is a very strong message for people who are discouraged easily and this message can help you find a way to push your boundaries into uncertainty but ensure that you with happiness and hope on the other side you will survive. She promotes health and benefits to being green and with a positive grateful out look on life it shows that this movement she has built will never shrink but continue to improve and expand. Well that’s it for me thanks for reading and see you tomorrow.

5 step plan to help you quit your job and start an online service

Good Ash Wednesday, are you ready for lent? Are you cleansed of your sins? Did you take the ash cross on your forehead? Have you at least made a fasting pact for the next 40days. All questions to reflect and answer in your own time but for now you are here on my blog because you clicked on my link shared on FB or you were curious about the weird title of this blog post. Today the post is about people seeking to either quit their job and find creative ways to make money out of an online business or people like my self just wanting to learn some additional stuff that can be beneficial to being an aspiring entrepreneur. The podcast I will be listening to today is from sidehustlenation with Nick Loper and the person he will be interviewing is Bryan Harris of which is a site dedicated to help people change their business with a formula of step by step guides. He has been on many other podcast shows but I decided with the limited time I have to choose the shortest one with the most valuable content Bryan is willing to share.

Here is the podcast link – http://www.sidehustlenation.com/how-to-quit-your-job-this-year/

• Steps for quitting your job in 2015 – 3:47
  (4:46) Step 1 Identify a problem to be solved
  (6:46) Step 2 Re-engineer your solution to that problem into a service
  (8:47) Step 3 Choose ONE person you want to work with
  (11:43) Finding a problem to solve when you have a unique skill
  (13:48) Another example of selling based on being specific
• If you don’t know want you want to offer? – 15:39
• Step 4 How Bryan pitches to clients – 16:37
  (17:51) Relate to something they already done
  (18:27) Establishing your reputation
  (21:08) Show them your work
  (23:44) Run down of all the steps in another example
• From providing a service to selling a digital product – 28:30
• Step 5 Give them a must have Experience for free – 30:31
• Final tips – 33:18

Key Points Taken

Steps for quitting your job in 2015 – 3:47
Bryan’s number one goal was to leave his day job in 2013, didn’t matter what it was just the quickest way out. The 3 options he had for making money online were:
1) Sell advertising on a site which has a lot of traffic.
2) Offer a product for example a course, a physical product like a book, crafts etc.
3) Offer a service.
To him offering a service is the quickest way to make money, because you don’t need any resources only thing you need is a solution to a problem that you can fix.
(4:46) Step 1 Identify a problem to be solved – What Bryan did was offer video content for popular marketing blogs, he first did it for Neil Patel the owner of quicksprot. He loved Neil’s content and realized that he didn’t have videos on his blog and offered to fix that for him. He took one of his popular infographics from Neil’s other site kissmetrics turned it into a video and gave it to him.
(6:46) Step 2 Re-engineer your solution to that problem into a service – Bryan read a blog post about how to increase your twitter following, the key concept was to follow people and a percentage of the people you follow will follow you back. Also people tweets that you favorite will follow you as well, once you do that over and over and over again your following will go up. So Bryan did it as an experiment and built up about 6 – 7000 thousand followers, then he began to offer it as a service. Take a pain point and offer to fix that pain point for a person, for example the skyscraper technique teaches you how to increase your search traffic through back linking and one of Bryan’s friends began offering it as a service to everyone who had shared that post on social media. Basically he is just doing the steps in that blog post for people.
(8:47) Step 3 Choose ONE person you want to work with – Using a site named topsy can help you see how far your blog posts have reached through sharing socially. In the case of the story he got his service shared to people and now there is opportunity for more customers to reach out to for the chance of doing it for them. What this essentially comes down to is most of the work is done for you, as in the person you learnt the technique from is a reputable figure on the internet. So all you are doing is providing the tedious practice that customers aren’t willing to take the time to do themselves.
(11:43) Finding a problem to solve when you have a unique skill – Using Buzzsumo in this example Bryan shows if you are a copywriter you can look for problems by searching for key words (how to posts about copywriting). He chose a post 51 questions to optimize every element of your online copy, he then would then see what is the most popular one is and offer it as a service. So in the end you are still offering your copywriting but being very specific.
(13:48) Another example of selling based on being specific – Writing landing pages for premium courses that are selling for over $1000 dollars is a much easier sell. Reason being you are looking for clients who have $1000 dollar courses that need to advertise on a website. Audit their sales page and offer to rewrite it for them. So look for a broad skill by looking on a popular blog site that’s teaching a skill you can learn.

If you don’t know want you want to offer? – 15:39
Find a popular how to article that teaches something that resonates with you and offer that service as the starting point. Use as a 90 day objective find all the clients you can, at the end of it if its working for you continue, if it’s not find something new.

Step 4 How Bryan pitches to clients – 16:37
Make sure you give first before you ask, in the initial email with any customer you offer something that is free and beneficial to them. Bryan shares sample email for Hubspot and then explains:
(17:51) Relate to something they already done – Ensure you reference something they have done and how you admire it, this is key because if you come across just looking to get something out of it initially you seem disingenuous. Also if you are able to read something on their site and actually tried it out, it proves further interest in what they are contributing.
(18:27) Establishing your reputation – Establish a 3rd party validation of your reputation by calling on the person on the article you about to pitch or if you have past work to show share it with them.
(21:08) Show them your work – Do proposal of what you can do for their benefit, showcasing how you would go about it and how the end result will look. Bryan gives the example of a guy who pitched to him how he can optimize his WordPress site by explaining what can be changed in a 15 minute video. He then told him you can do it yourself or I can do for you and in no time Bryan responded. Think quality not quantity, if you really going to provide a high-end service.
(23:44) Run down of all the steps in another example.

From providing a service to selling a digital product – 28:30
Bryan explains how learning how to provide a service effectively overtime may potentially become a system that you have tweaked and then sell as product for others to learn. At first he started providing video services to customers and then he made it into a course to teach others. Then he moved onto list building then he began helping others build their own lists and now he creating a course to do the same. Another course he has in development his how to help people reach 10 thousand email subscribers.

Step 5 Give them a must have Experience for free – 30:31
His example with greyhound dogs was soooo good. Specify a niche area in this case greyhounds training, collect contact info (phone number, email) from people who own greyhounds, create free content eg. a video showing how to properly train greyhounds and share it with them for free. Propose doing it for them because they may not have time to do it themselves.

Final tips – 33:18
Get Built to Sell and be extremely specific in what you want to sell.

Good podcast Bryan really laid out how to go about with a service to sell to customers online. 5 key steps:
Step 1: Identify the problem
Step 2: Re-engineer your solution to that problem into a service
Step 3: Choose ONE person you want to work with.
Step 4: Create a proposal
Step 5: Give away your “Must Have” experience free first
Which seem very straight forward and worthy of trying. He really has a way of influencing you into how easy it is to do with his examples. Well that’s all for today, see you tomorrow.

Ted Talk Thursday with Derek Sivers

New segment I wanna test out, this morning I was doing my daily reading and came across a topic in chapter 8 (Find Your Voice) of Todd Henry’s Die Empty, named Do the Obvious. In it he talks about Derek Sivers and him doing something that is obvious (his blog post here) to him but amazing to others. For me im on the other end of the spectrum where I see people doing amazing things and they seem to think its nothing. I see so much wastage of talents that could be put to monetary gain or be exposed on such a higher level, yet they only seem to share it in circles where a person will give it a “like” or maybe a “that’s so awesome comment.” which makes the creative feel nice for a period, then what? What I mean here is there is no motivational action on their part to go beyond, that hobby in this day and age can reach soo much further than long ago.

Well back to the topic, I decided to just search his name like I do with any other interesting people I read or hear about and came across three short Ted talks. So as I do with most of my posts lets analyze all three.

 

Weird, of Just Different?

Key points taken

:13 Location, location, location in Japan – Interesting the difference between Japanese and American cultures when it comes to streets, in America and maybe most countries there are streets with names and not blocks. In Japan there are no streets with names but blocks with names. To further elaborate if you want to know where you live in japan, you first go by district (district 8) then block (block 16) and finally house number (house number 32). What makes this even more awesome is that house numbering goes based on which house was built first in that block, so your house could be number 5 and your neighbor can be house number 125 which means your house is way older than your neighbors based on how often buildings are built on your block.

1:42 Chinese Doctor’s Oath – There are doctors in china who believe it is their job to keep you healthy, so any month you are healthy you pay them and any month you are sick you don’t have to pay them because they failed at their job. They get rich when you’re healthy not sick.
1:56 West African Music – In music you typically think of 1 as the downbeat or the beginning of song but in west African music, the 1 is often thought as the end of a phrase like the period at the end of a sentence.

Something about India – 2:18
“What ever true thing you can say about India the opposite is also true.” So what ever brilliant ideas you have or hear that the opposite may also be true.

You need to take everyone’s perspective into consideration when dealing with situations, your way can and most likely will totally different to the way someone may take action. People are different and not because they are doesn’t mean they are wrong, you never know their way might help you learn how to make your way much more unique or effective. This is also a talk about thinking differently, you can approach a problem from many different sides but to more effectively do that you can have someone put in their two cents so you can try attacking it from that angle.

How to start a movement

Key points taken

Watch movement through leadership happen right before your eyes – :13

• First a leader needs to have the guts to stand out and be ridiculed.
• Getting people to follow is tough unless what you are doing is easy to learn and adapt to. The first follower’s role is crucial as it shows everyone else who is hesitant to jump in how easy it is to follow.
• The leader has to embrace him though as an equal, so that potential followers can see he or she will not be ridiculed if they want in. Then it is not about the leader anymore its about them.
• For the first follower he becomes sort of leader as well because it takes guts to follow. The first follower is the person who transforms a lone nut into a leader.
• When a third joins, it’s not 1 or 2 nuts but 3 nuts and 3 is a crowd and a crowd is news, so a movement must go public.
• Its important not to only show the leader but the followers because you find that new followers emulate the followers not the leader anymore.
• As word gets out you get more and more people till there is a tipping point and then you got a movement.
• When more people join in its less risky.

Recap – 1:55
If you a are the type like the shirtless dancer, remember to nurture your first few followers as equals so it’s clearly about the movement not you.

The real lesson – 2:12
Being a leader is over glorified, yes the leader may get all the credit but you should be brave enough to follow and show others how to follow. Be more of a first follower than a leader it shows people on both sides of the void that you are willing to believe in the leader’s cause and offering the ones who afraid that its worth the risk of joining the movement.

Keep your goals to yourself

Key points taken

Telling someone your goal makes it less likely to happen – :13
Anytime you have a goal there are steps that need to be done so you can achieve it, but when you tell someone your goal you have tricked your mind into thinking it has been accomplished. The happy feeling you get when you tell someone about a goal you are excited about accomplishing also makes your brain think this good feeling is one of success. Now that the satisfaction is up and gone you are less likely to go on to completing the goal. But this goes against the usually convention where you should tell people your goals so they can hold you accountable for them.

Here is some psychological proof – 1:27
Kurt lewin called this substitution

Wera Mahler said When its acknowledge by others it felt real in the mind.

Peter Gollwitzer did a book and some tests in 2009 – 1:47
163 people were told to write down their personal goals and half would say out their goal and the other half would keep it to themselves. They were then given 45 minutes to do tasks that would in someway help them on their way towards accomplishing their goals. Those who kept their mouths shut worked the entire 45 minutes and thought they still had a long way to go to accomplish their goals whereas the people who talked about their goals stopped during the 45 minutes and said they were much closer to achieving their goals.

What you can do – 2:26
1)Resist the temptation to announce the goal.
2)Delay the gratification the social acknowledgement brings.
3)State it in a way that gives you no satisfaction for example I need to run a marathon and I need to train 5 times a week and tell a friend to kick my ass if I slack off.

Well those are the three ted talks from Derek hope the short but sweet presentations were worth the time watching. Thanks for taking the time to read as well.

There’s a System to his Financial Madness

Good Carnival Monday Morning all, gasp! Yes I’m doing a podcast analysis on a day that I am supposed to be grinding on a woman behind a big truck shout “Like ah boss!”. Regrettably no, I’m the unlucky bastard who chooses to spend his time here with the handful of you reading this post about topics that may or may not appeal to you. Anyway enough about my wonderful life back to the work at hand, this blog post will relate to a name that kept popping up in the books I read as well as the podcast episodes I had to choose from on my go to sites. His name is Ramit Sethi and he will be teaching you how to become rich but unfortunately only by the rate of a dollar at a time. Yeah I know at very slow rate but for us Trini’s its $6.45 dollars at a time give or take a few cents, so be grateful. Ramit is a financial Guru and is the author of the New York times best-selling book I Will Teach You To Be Rich also has a blog on many other topics. Today I will be joining his interview on Entrepreneur on Fire and see what I can learn instead of reveling in the streets next to some drunks.

Here’s the podcast – http://www.entrepreneuronfire.com/podcast/ramit-sethi/

• Ramit mini back story – 1:33
  (3:17) Systems over everything
• Success Quote – 4:17
• A series of experiments – 6:01
  (6:45) The failed online course
  (9:18) There will be critics
• Packaging value and neglecting those in debt – 11:02
  (12:20) Who are you really serving?
• Dont look for quick results – 14:17
  (15:58) AHA Moment
• Some tactics when building a brand – 18:26
  (23:29) “People are most motivated to take action when they have just taken action”
  (24:50) Webinars for higher price points
• Proudest Entrepreneurial Moment – 28:56
• I want students for life – 32:17
• What was holding you back from becoming an Entrepreneur? – 36:22
• Whats the best advice you’ve ever received – 36:52
• One of his personal habits that contributes to his success – 37:39
• His personal favorite resource – 38:12
• His favorite book – 39:01
• Final question in the lightning round – 41:44
• Parting words of Advice – 43:24

Key Points Taken
Ramit mini back story – 1:33
Back in college around 99-2000 Ramit invested half of his scholarship money in the stock market and promptly lost it, this loss made him want to learn about investing. Along with that he was learning at the time about human behavior, social influence and persuasion, which slowly lead him realize what the masses were telling you do such as keep a budget, stop spending money on latte’s etc to save on money was not working. Being the systems guy he is decided to create some around personal finance, entrepreneurship, negotiating your salary or even finding your dream job added with the psychological aspect of it on his site.
(3:17) Systems over everything – Scott adams says “losers have goals and winners have systems.” In the end of it all we want to know that our money goes where it supposed to go, you want to know how to act in social situations, if you want to start a business how to get about doing that and his site shows your how to do so with the systems that he developed.

Success Quote – 4:17
“We are stubborn on vision. We are flexible on details….” – Jeff Bezos. This boils down to the focus on long-term goals and not being expectant on results immediately, being steadfast and when challenges appear along the way be flexible and change course but with the vision in mind. Put in the time to become a true master at what ever you seek out to be.

A series of experiments – 6:01
Ramit thinks of failures as a way to experiment to see how he can improve, he even has a system for it in his Gmail inbox which is a tab dedicated to failures and if he doesn’t add 5 or more failures a month, he thinks he hasn’t failed enough. An example of this is you asking someone out for coffee and they said no or it could be as big as we did a major product launch and we under performed by 72%.
(6:45) The failed online course – Before writing his best seller book, he had written an ebook which was for 4.95c which now is laughable because one of his recent courses was 12thousand dollars. His sales copy was horrible, check it here, for the 3 years his site was up the content on it was free, he never wanted to do it for money, he just wanted to have the best psychology money website on the internet. When he put this book out for sale on the site, the hate comments came out of the woodwork, claiming he was a sellout, that the build up was just to get money out of his members, which really hurt him. It was so damaging to his self-esteem that he didn’t even bother to properly set up a processing system, he just waited until paypal notified him of payment and he would manually email it to them. Note he eventually got sales coming in so he had to email hundreds of these ebooks.
(9:18) There will be critics – But you have to differentiate between the freeloaders and the ones who want to invest in themselves. Doesn’t matter if you charge 5 dollars or 10,000 dollars, students will be able to multiply that hundreds of times over in their lifetime. Also be aware of the people who genuinely care about you, for example your mentors, if they say they think you are charging too much and it’s not a good product, take it to heart. Pricing will not matter to the ones who you are out there to serve and they will get the most help from it in the long run.

Packaging value and neglecting those in debt – 11:02
Ramit had one of his courses on sale and 1 million people viewed it and less than 5 people complained about the cost, he says that is the result of years of knowing how to properly package a product to the market. One thing he does as well is inform customers if they are in debt he will be not accepting their credit cards, if they neglect the warning and join his course he refunds them their money and permanently bans them from doing any others. The reason for this is that he wants them to need that money to clear off their debt far more than taking his course.
(12:20) Who are you really serving? – Ramit challenges everyone to target the right people for your product or service, don’t try to serve everyone. Because what you are selling will not apply to everyone, for example if you go to Louis Vuitton to purchase a bag and ask what can i get for $10 dollars, you will get laughed out that store because their market is for high-end customers. Now if you go to a store with bags for low-end customers and have 10 thousand dollars they may have something for the most at 100 but they will still look at you wondering why are you looking for a product in this store.

Dont look for quick results – 14:17
Ramit built 2 online courses one that was a bit of an introductory version taking about 6 months that yes did very well and made enough sales but then he and his team decided to work a bit longer about a two years on another course which took more research time and investments and this one did extremely well. The second course despite the long prep time did 1000 times better than the first, he calls this disproportionary results, where you work 2 times as hard and get ten times the results.
(15:58) AHA Moment – His friend comes to him a day and tells him I got a lot of traffic coming to my site and i wanna make money off of it. He showed his friend an example of data recovered from the two projects like before, the easy one and the hard one, then explained you can do it the easy way and get easy results or do it the hard way and get disproportionary results. The thing is everyone is doing it the easy way, why not take the extra time and invest into bringing something to the market that no one has ever seen before and charge appropriately for its value.

Some tactics when building a brand – 18:26
1) Survey more – Get into the heads of your potential customers based on the proper questions around your product.
2) Beta Test your programme – Get ten people and show them through power point your bare bones product and then have them fill out a questionnaire. Tell them that you will give them the programme for free when it launches.
3) Pricing – Hold the line on pricing your final product, if your product is good, price would not be an issue for the people who know it will solve a problem in their life, those are the people who prefer value over cost any day.
(23:29) “People are most motivated to take action when they have just taken action” – Here is how you can apply this to your business. Right at the bottom of a blog post or after they have bought something from you ask them if they want to take more action by offering them to sign up for your mailing list so you can share more value and at the same time you have another potential customer for later products.
(24:50) Webinars for higher price points – Ramit’s suggested prices based on value:
Ebook – $47 – $97.
Ebook with Video – $97 – $297.
Video Course – $297 – $497.
Beyond just video – $1000+.
The higher you go the more interaction you need to sell the product.

Proudest Entrepreneurial Moment – 28:56
Ramit launched a course about a year and a half ago and despite the team thinking it was good, it under performed with the public. People were refunding within 1 hour which never happens with his courses which made them put the course on hold and Ramit put together a team to find out what went wrong. While doing their inquiries they found out that there were very subtle things that the research team did not expect that caused such a response. So they spent 2 – 3 weeks fixing the product based on what they learnt and relaunched it to a new group and the numbers skyrocket. The thing that he is proudest about is that they took a failing product and invested the time to resolve the problems and put it back out to the public and received successful results.

I want students for life – 32:17
He doesn’t want a one time relationship with his customers, he wants a life long relationship where he can provide for that customer not only in a financial way but in any aspect in their life they may have problems. When he changed his mindset to wanting to be their ally for the next 40years, it changed the way he interacted with them. If you join one of his courses you get a call personally from a real person, if you want a reminder they have someone text you. His aim to dig deeper and provide support on a personal level with all his members.

What was holding you back from becoming an Entrepreneur? – 36:22
He was offered a job at Google and accepted it.

Whats the best advice you’ve ever received – 36:52
A year from now you’re gonna be a year older, what you gonna do? – his parents, This advice is means you need to take action on the tasks you want to accomplish so that when that year reaches you would have much to look back on than just wondering what could have been.

One of his personal habits that contributes to his success – 37:39
If it doesn’t exist on his calendar it doesn’t exist at all, for example the gym is on his calendar so for the past 3 years he only has missed the gym about 3 times. He puts time for writing, he puts time phone calls and he puts time to go out with friends.

His personal favorite resource – 38:12
Delicious – Discover, share, and organize the hottest links online.
Ramit’s personal links 

His favorite book – 39:01
Getting Everything You Can Out of All You’ve Got by Jay Abraham – It’s a book on Business Strategy, putting your clients first and how you can serve them more than thinking about earning money.

Final question in the lightning round – 41:44
His advice is to write passionate emails to people who you admire for example I loved what you wrote about in wired, I especially liked when you mentioned x but I think you forgot about y and here are some interesting points for your next article. This is to impress them and build a relationship, when you have built enough of relationship invite them out to coffee or lunch. Over time they would become allies, mentors, advisers and they would introduce you to their network.

Parting words of Advice – 43:24
Dont think of yourself as the kind of person who can do something. It takes a lot of hard work, a lot of luck and a lot of time but its possible, also be sure to ignore the noise and negativity.

Nice podcast, Ramit was entertaining also he was able to give good advice. How he prefers to work the hard long way and get disproportionary results than doing the easy short way and getting ok results. How he has a failure tab in his email inbox and not failing enough is a bad sign 5 to 10 is a month. Learning to differentiate the critics into two categories the ones who are negative and the ones who care, also the price of a product will never matter to the ones who value what it will do for them in the long run over the money. Targeting the right people for your product and service and tactics for building your brand. Growing relationships with people you admire through email and coffee. Finally dont downplay yourself you are capable of anything it just takes time, luck and hard work along with a positive mindset. Thanks for reading, see you tomorrow.

Quotes: February 9th – 14th

Good Morning all, this is the fourth week of quotes that I gathered from all the podcasts I listened to from February 9th to the 14th. Thanks again for all who take the time to read my posts.

Procrastinate on Purpose with a Funnel.

“Success is never owned, its rented and rent is due everyday.” – Rory Vaden 
People don’t buy what you do; people buy why you do it.

“People don’t buy what you do; people buy why you do it.” – Tom Sinek
4 Levels of Health to a Better Life

“People who succeed have momentum. The more they succeed, the more they want to succeed and the more they find a way to succeed. Similarly, when someone is failing, the tendency is to get on a downward spiral that can easily become a self-fulfilling prophecy.” – Tony Robbins

4 Levels of Health to a Better Life

Good Valentines Day all, no I am not going to share love in this post, just some vibes with James Altucher the brilliant mind behind Choose Yourself which I am reading right now. The book is quirky but makes a lot of sense when portraying its ideas of choosing yourself when doing anything. This interview is from Lewis Howes and the school of greatness podcast. He and Lewis have done numerous interviews if Im not mistaken 4 of them, I decided to go old school and check out the first one. In this one James is gonna be talking about being Happy, making millions, living the Dream I know its gonna be put across in a very unique way. James has a blog with many good reads and has been involved a lot of start-ups, he has earned lots of money and lost lots of it but its his resilience to keep at it is what shocks me the most. Based on what I have read so far in his book he is very good at taking rejection and moving on like nothing happen, he tells how you can overcome that too but I have yet to reach that chapter. Anyway let’s see what else he has in store in this latest analysis.

Here is the link to the podcast – http://lewishowes.com/podcast/james-altucher-be-happy-make-millions-live-the-dream/

• Quote before the interview – 4:31 
• Excerpt from book Choose Yourself – 9:11
• How James first got into business – 10:08
  (13:40) How to blow 15million in 15 weeks
• Motive to the money – 15:19
  (17:15) His children’s survival became his motivation
  (19:08) Some habits that changed his life
• The means to being happy – 23:47
  (25:51) Become a money magnet
• Achieve abundance by adding value – 27:31
  (29:24) Apple
  (31:07) “Money will come to you when you’re ready for it and when you add enough value to people’s lives.”
  (32:20) Being a mini version of any company
  (33:24) Start with these two small steps
• Strengthening the idea muscle to add value – 36:17
• How did he learn all these things – 39:33
  (40:58) Discipline as a form of freedom and flexibility
  (42:41) Idea muscle important for daily life
• His influential books – 43:36
• Living the dream – 45:15
• What’s James definition of greatness – 47:46

Key Points Taken
(4:31) Quote before the interview – “People who succeed have momentum. The more they succeed, the more they want to succeed and the more they find a way to succeed. Similarly, when someone is failing, the tendency is to get on a downward spiral that can easily become a self-fulfilling prophecy.” Tony Robbins

Excerpt from book Choose Yourself – 9:11

How James first got into business – 10:08
He didn’t want to be a business man, all he wanted to do is either make a tv show or write a novel and at the time his brother-in-law was running a business making CD-roms. He was working at HBO at the time making their websites and outsourced the work to his brother-in-law. He then left HBO to join his company to become CEO and his job was to do the programming and internet website for it. James only did it because he thought it was temporary gig till he moved back to doing his novel but the company grew and he began making website for clients like the WuTang clan, puff daddy, death row records, Miramax, Warner Bros., HBO, Time Warner, New line Cinema, Disney Channel just to name a few. Being one with the philosophy of selling a business over as quickly as possible because he finds the process of running a business becomes unpleasant. So he sold the business because he lived the dream for like two seconds and it turned into a nightmare. It seems he had Shiny object syndrome in terms of business start up, he quickly made successful businesses then sold them off as soon as he made enough money. He had this mindset that once the money was made there was nothing more to achieve, which he then learned was the quickest way to fail as a human being. Note the money he earned he didn’t save it he splurged it out very quickly and went to rock bottom more than 3 times. Till he realized what were his problems and found a way to resolve the mentality he had as a curse on him for years.
(13:40) How to blow 15million in 15 weeks – This man was spending millions in cash a week, he spent all his earnings from the first business sold. It got so bad that there came a time he had to call his parents to give him some money to pay for diapers for his kids. They were 200miles away to make things worse, his house was being foreclosed around the same time. They declined to give him the money and he stopped speaking to them for a about 6 months at that time his father got a stroke and died. This just proved how money can be the root of many situations good or bad, in this case money was so tied up in our emotions, how we feel about our life and others. Which brings us to James’ main point, it’s really important to learn the internal lessons of health first so that when things are going well you can appreciate it and grateful for it and survive and succeed.

Motive to the money – 15:19
He didn’t have any ambitions to be making money in that way, he still thought he would be doing something artistic with his life which was writing a novel. But suddenly he became a business man, closing on clients and managing people (1000 people before he sold the first company). Then he got crazy, he thought 15 million was not enough to make him happy and wanted to earn 100million and have a super bowl ad with him walking around doing nothing (Yes that was his goal). So he took exorbitant amounts of money and invested it in start ups and stocks etc with no sense of direction or the value of money lost it all. Now that he blew his chance at being a success and having money to support his kids, he thought the only way they could have a good life was to kill himself and have them live off the insurance money.
(17:15) His children’s survival became his motivation – He had no one to support him all his friends and family had left him. Knowing that his children would not be able to eat because of him kept him alive and also that he didn’t want to die anyway :). So he took a step back and analyzed the situation and realized the problem was that he let his physical, emotional (his relationships with his friends and family were nonexistent), mental (since he had success he didn’t think he needed to work his brain anymore for ideas) and spiritual (lost his attitude of gratitude) health go down the drain. He then began putting these 4 things in the forefront everyday, and constantly focus on what can he do today to improve his health (emotional, physical, mental, spiritual) in all these areas.

(19:08) Some habits that changed his life:
1) Change his sleeping habit – from 2 – 4 hours a day to 8 – 10 hours. To further help this he had to eliminate screen time (no TV, no cell phone, no computer etc) from after 6pm so that he can get to bed at 8pm, instead he would read books or spend time with family.
2) Start working with a waiter’s pad – He would go out to a cafe and start writing ideas one after the other. It could range from ideas for himself or ideas for people, this helped him either get jobs or find people to connect with which build his network. You build your network when you help other people and they never forget it, you never know what connection you might be able to use in the long run.

The means to being happy – 23:47
Lets say you have no expectations each day, that means everyday you exceed your expectations. When you have that outlook on life it would greatly increase your levels of happiness since you would never be as disappointed based on how things turn out in every situation. This is near impossible to do but it brings up a great exercise, check if the expectations you are setting for yourself are not goals but actually prison bars. This means for example if you say to yourself I’m not gonna be happy unless I have 10 million dollars in the bank, you are actually training your mind into thinking that be sad until this is achieved, also you are constraining your ceiling for success.
(25:51) Become a money magnet – This happens when give up limiting goals and focus on the four aspects of health (emotional, physical, mental, spiritual) and the feeling that you are already abundant. You have access to a lot already, you live in a time of the internet, you are privileged to learn and start a business that could reach people outside of your country if you wanted. And accepting the abundance and embracing it all the time when scarcity is trying to make you afraid and anxious that’s when money gets attracted to you. Its unbelievable and its difficult to predict how it happens but have faith in it and just be patient.

Achieve abundance by adding value – 27:31
Google for their first 6 years made no revenue and had no clue how to do so, but every day Larry page and Sergey Brin sat down to discuss how can they make the most incredible search engine that would change the world. By accident almost they came across a company named Applied Semantics which they acquired and turned into Adsense and that was the start of cash flow. Quick joke James had a chance to buy a share in Applied Semantics way before Google acquired it but he declined and because he thought search engines were gonna die out. Now if he did he would have been 200million dollars richer, added side joke to that is he and the guy who started Applied Semantics are third cousins.
(29:24) Apple – Steve Jobs was very dedicated to making the most beautiful and most useful products of all. His mind wasnt on the money, he just wanted to bring products that were of great artistic value and of worth to the user. The money flow was automatic.
James says from 2002 to 2007 the only time he didn’t looked at my bank account 5 times a day and didn’t get scared to death was when he was making a company that was actually helping people and delivering value.
(31:07) “Money will come to you when you’re ready for it and when you add enough value to people’s lives.” – Chris Hawker.
(32:20) Being a mini version of any company – Lewis was emulating LinkedIn (which is a social site business men and women) in a real life capacity linking people in person through events. in that sense he was adding value to people who made the money come in for him. So choose a company to emulate on a personal level and provide value in a way that they can, you will be successful. James always tries to emulate Google.
(33:24) Start with these two small steps – Apply these two things into your life, sleep well and view everything in your life as abundant.

Strengthening the idea muscle to add value – 36:17
Come up with 10 ideas every single day, when you are able to exercise you brain thoroughly you will be able to deliver the value to others in helping them make more money.

How did he learn all these things – 39:33
It was self-taught based on how many times he failed and regain success, then he began consistently doing the things that brought him the success. But he realized the one thing he was doing wrong was he never finished, when he reached a certain point of success that he thought was comfortable to stop, he did. For example he would say I arrived at a good idea well I guess I don’t need to try to come up with anymore, I don’t need to sleep anymore, I don’t need to be around the people who love me anymore. Its back to the thought pattern of having a ceiling for your accomplishments, when the sky is the limit.
(40:58) Discipline as a form of freedom and flexibility – James example of this since he goes to bed much earlier he can get up early and get a fresh start on things like reading, yoga, talking a walk, forming ideas, tennis etc.
(42:41) Idea muscle important for daily life – An example James gives is if you get a flat on the road, with your brain muscle in tact you will have many good ideas on what to do or how to get home. You are now an idea machine where situations no long have you in a worrying state and throw you off.

His influential books – 43:36
He skims through various books each day, so he doesn’t have a book to suggest but books. Some of which are Abundance by Peter H. Diamandis, the rational optimist by Matt Ridley, the tools by Phil Stutz and Barry Michels.

Living the dream – 45:15
Being healthy in the 4 levels (emotional, physical, mental, spiritual) will allow you opportunities adventures and money pour in.

What’s James definition of greatness – 47:46
Being able to consistently stay healthy on the 4 levels, all we have in our lives is today, the future is unpredictable and the past is dead. The only thing you know about tomorrow is that the sun is gonna rise. So being great today is greatness, love today cause its the only thing you can work with.

This one had me typing plenty, so much to record. James supplies so much information that some of it seems at times unreal well the stories he tells of earning and losing money so quickly. That crazy nature made him lose his friends and family, money, health and sense of direction. Once he got himself in order with the 4 levels of health which im gonna try to implement in life, abundance came in and the mindset of adding value to others. Become an idea machine is another good point, sleeping for 8 hours, having lower expectations in life is great too. Emulate a company that you admire on a mini stage and see how your life changes. Some books I will check out to read too and finally his definition of greatness which eds with love today cause its the only thing you can work with. Thanks for reading. See ya Monday with another one.