Okay… the title of this post is kind of contradictory… isn’t it?

"The Routine of Getting Out of Routines"… hmmm…

Well… let me tell you a story that might explain it a bit better to you… then I’ll tell you what I learned from it and how you can too.

The Broken Promise That Led To Profits and Disorganized Organization

You see, if you know me personally… you know that I have flashes of brilliance where for 2-3 weeks I have laser sharp focus on a specific project (or routine) and get stuff done like no other.

You probably have these too.  Think back to the last time you listened to a Tony Robbins CD and got all pumped up (for me it was Eban Pagen w/ his Wake Up Productive program … which absolutely rocks!)… go on a mission to reform yourself from your time wasting ways… and rule the world.  You know you’ve done that.

Well…

I had one of those kicks in November right before I wrote my post saying that I was going to chronicle my next 30 days and let you know the progress.  Check out the post… I sound pretty darn motivated huh?

The Broken Promise That Led to Profits…

In that post I basically laid it on the line saying that I was going to create a routine to wake up early (I’m a very unpredictable riser) and write every single day for the next 30 days… and if I didn’t I was calling out readers to pin my @ss to the dart board (not literally with some kind of punishment.

Afterall… isn’t it better to publicly state your goals and create real consequences if you don’t follow through with them??  I thought so…

Anyhow, I made the promise… kept it strong for a while (actually… more like 3 or 4 days)… and really hoped to blow past the point of "habit gravity" (the amount of time it takes to defy the gravity to resist making a good habit).

Well… as you’ve seen… it didn’t happen.

I made it to November 7th with I think my 4th post … I didn’t even make it 25% of the way to my goal!!

A broken promise at it’s best… and I let down the 2 readers who actually took the time to cheer me on in my little conquest.

So, you’re probably asking why and how that broken promise led to profits.

Well… technically… maybe that particular promise really wasn’t directly the cause of the profits.

It was my routine of getting out of routines.

Jumped From One Routine To The Next

So, what you don’t know is that right around this same time (Nov 7th), I was working my @ss off creating the best program on finding private money for real estate investors in existence… I mean… the 2 main teachers have recruited about 6 times more private money than the guy who currently has the "best selling" course on the topic… not kidding.

And… we launched the program to a few students (about 20) and had a very successful launch… but what made me even more happy was the fact that multiple students have already seen returns on their investment of 100x or more.

I don’t say this to toot my own horn… but say it to give an "alibi" for why my posts in my little 30 day chronicle stopped abruptly and have been in hiding since today.

Essentially, I tried to start this new routine in the midst of a huge new undertaking in one of my businesses… and one of those had to break… and I was determined to ensure that it wasn’t the routine (creating the product) that was putting food on my table (or at least buying me the flat screen we have in our living room now .

For my inner conscious it was an easy decision to break the "minor" routine of the 30 day chronicle rather than break the other new routine I had created the same time to work several hours a day creating the product to be the best it could be.

So in the end… it was my "routine" to create consistency in my writing to this blog that gave way to the "routine" to create growth in my business.  Does that make sense??

Well… now that I really have no clue where I’m going with this post… let me sum it up with what I learned and what I think needs to be done in the future to keep routines like this.

Creating A Routine Of Staying In GOOD Routines

We all have routines… both good and bad.

For some of us we have a routine of waking up late… I absolutely love the feeling of waking up at 6 am… love the productivity I see when I do it… but I already have a deeply ingrained routine of waking up late that I haven’t put in good effort to break.

As for good routines… well… that’s where my main problem is right now. I have a routine of getting out of routines.

I’m the type of guy that gets focused 30% of the time… and during that 30% I create 90% of my income and good results.

So, what I’ve learned the last 60 days is that I need to make it easy for myself to create and stick with good routines.

Here’s the elements that are necessary to create and stick with good routines:

• You must make the routine easy to do … If you want to make a routine for working out… make it as easy as possible. Put your workout clothes out right next to the bed and put your cell phone or car keys (something you need everyday) in your workout shoes so you HAVE TO look at those clothes EVERYDAY.  This simple act will force you to at least make the conscious decision to break your routine or stick with it.
• You shouldn’t try to create two new large routines at the same time … This is where I went wrong back in November. I tried to create two big changes in my everyday life and one of them had to give because my subconscious freaked out when too many new things were happening.  So, in the future I’ll work in 1 new routine at a time until the routine becomes… well… routine .  Only then will I add a new routine to the mix.  One at a time.
• Public commitments don’t always work … Just voicing something publicly doesn’t always work.  You have to be committed to it yourself… if you’re not it’ll fail.  Simple as that.

So… what all of this rambling means to me is that I’m going to create 1 solid routine a month in 2009.  Concentrate hard on just that one… and by the end of the year I’ll be dominating every part of my life. That’s the plan anyway.

For January… my routine is going to be waking up at 6am every day.  I’ll let you know what works for me and what doesn’t.  When I’m waking up at 6am everyday for 20 days I’ll consider the routine engrained… and I’ll move onto the new one for February which will be sticking to my "morning routine".

So… for ‘09 start creating positive routines in your life… but do them one at a time and make sure it’s something you truly do want to do… not something you think you should do.  See the difference?

Am I going to promise to write everyday now?

Nope… I’m going to write a couple times a week though… see you next week!

It’s kinda funny when you really sit back and think about success…

… I mean… what does the word “success” look like to you?  What picture do you see when you think about “success”?

Just this afternoon I was getting some work done and finishing up a few things on this little launch that we’re doing over at our private money website (an offshoot of the real estate site)… and I got to thinking about the success that I was *hoping* we would have next week.

And truthfully…

I kinda bummed myself out there for a few minutes.  Weird huh?

My Image Of Success Was…

As my wheels were turning in my mind thinking of the people we are going to help next week… and the profits we’d make in return for our time and effort we’re going to put into coaching our students to success… I seriously didn’t get all that excited about the profits.

Not because I didn’t think our coaching program didn’t rock (it surely will… we’re seriously giving waaaayyy too much for the chunk of change we’re getting in return.)

But… what it was came to me tonight when I was watching a video of a guy a year younger than me who has the freakin’ world by the toe right now… and is “successful” (in my eyes).  He’s in the real estate world… but that’s not what caught my eye… it was how he was out there having fun and doing things that most people wouldn’t do because “man… I’ll never do that” creeps into their minds.

Furthermore…

I’d be willing to bet that this kid still feels like he’s nowhere near where he wants to be right now because his picture of true “success” is bigger and grander than where he is now.

And to tell you the truth… earlier today when I was thinking about how successful next week would be, I was that guy that let the “I’ll never do that” creep into my mind (but just for a second .

Here’s The Thing

This little launch that we’re doing is a very small launch just to our internal list… and this is truthfully the first launch that I’ve ramrodded the marketing strategy from start to finish.

And…

Even at this moment I feel like there are a couple missing pieces in the whole thing that may or may not make a big difference.

You see, all of this crept into my mind and made me compare my “success” next week to a low metric that I had set in my mind as our “ultimate goal”… and this low metric still wasn’t all that impressive.

So, just about half hour ago I got up from my computer (finally) and started to clear my mind and really think of where I am and what success will mean… not only next week but in the next 1, 5, 25 years.

And truthfully…

I realized that I slipped into a trap of momentarily mentally shooting too low and not defining my success to where I truly know I want to take it… and where I know we will take it.

Redefine Your Definition of Success…

Here’s the deal, ever since that little mindshift (about half hour ago) I’ve been looking at the project in a whole new light… and have a new motivation to drive this project to success way higher than I had “hoped” for just a week or two ago.

And in the end, when the dust settles… I can guarantee that the launch will be better off… for my partner and I and for the students because I’m carrying this new definition of success forward.

It’s a small mindshift…. but sometimes all it takes is to redefine your definition of whatever success is… and stop shooting for just “success”… but shoot for “true success”.

What’s True Success?

Pretty simple really.

Think of if its an ideal world and if you could have anything… if your project (or launch in my case) could hit whatever metrics you would absolutely love and be completely thrilled at hitting… you know… that “ideal” outcome.

That’s true success.

Too many people (myself included… in momentary lapses) shoot too low.  Too many people have success in their minds and then over time that vision or picture of true success erodes down to just plain ol’, “Ya, that was a success“.

When in reality, it should be more like, “that freakin’ rocked! If I had to script it I wouldn’t have written it any differently than this!“.

Really, in my opinion… that’s when you hit true success… and thats when you live up to your potential in work, play, and this one and only life we’ve got.

Thats just me though.  How about you?

On day 4 (or is this 5) of my 30 day chronicle of my life and biz… in an attempt at creating a ritual of writing everyday… I am scatterbrained as ever.

Here’s the deal…

I’m in the middle of this little launch in my real estate business… and it’s heavy on videos and audio that to tell you the truth… I’ve crammed the last week to really create for our readers.

As you know… my wife and I are buying our first house… and we’re having some little speedbumps that are keeping us from closing when we want to close… and these speedbumps are costing us a bunch of money, time, and headaches.

And…

I’m working on about 3 other projects that are all suffering a bit as of today.

Here’s why…

I Can’t Focus Right Now!

I wrote a post about the importance of focusing a while back and… just like all entrepreneurs… sometimes fall off the focus train and become completely scattered.

Today I’m in one of those modes… and it sucks a big one.

You know the feeling… you have a few projects going… get phone calls… have new fires come up… and all of the sudden you look back at your day and you see that you pretty much got a whole lotta nothing done.

For instance, today I recorded a podcast, got our next video for the rei site done, put out a couple fires… one of which is really eating at me right now (the one about the house and it closing later than we wished… and costing us a bunch of money)… and a couple other things.

Heck, I wasn’t even going to write this blog post today because I thought I didn’t have the time to do it… until I remembered that I had already publicly voiced that I’m going to write for 30 days straight and if I didn’t I would do something big that I really don’t want to do.

Here’s Where I Went Wrong Today

Okay, I finally sat down and reflected on the day a bit.  What made me less productive and more scattered today than usual?

Here we go…

• I went to bed late last night (2am) because I was pushing to get a client’s work done
• I woke up late because I’m the type of guy who has to get 8 hours of sleep or I’m total garbage the next day
• Waking up late pushed back my schedule and I didn’t go through my morning ritual like usual
• I started working BEFORE I wrote out my priorities for the day… and got off on tangents
• I ate breakfast late and still haven’t had a 2nd meal…

All in all, this is the perfect recipe for a very unproductive day and being scattered as heck like I have been today.

How You Too Can Have The Most Unproductive Day Ever

Here’s my simple 5 step roadmap so you too can have your most unproductive day ever.

1. Stay up late and do work that you hate doing… it’s really great for your energy and morale
2. Be sure to wake up as late as possible… then first thing go and open up your computer and check your email (the first thing you do everyday should always be getting distracted as heck by 92 emails in your inbox)
3. Forget about eating breakfast… in fact… forget about eating lunch too… because you’re too busy answering emails and putting out “fires”
4. Don’t plan anything at all… just work on whatever comes up and even then… most importantly don’t completely finish everything you start
5. Stare at the computer screen for 6 hours straight… it’s like the technology version of carrots… very good for your eyes and energizing as heck.

And a bonus step… to follow that day up with another awesomely unproductive day… be sure to stay on your computer all evening and after midnight… then repeat the whole process again.

For the longest time I’ve been one of the biggest advocates for consistently posting great content on your blog… I mean… that’s the one sure way to get your site on the map and to start to generate some traffic. But I haven’t’ been doing it… until now…

Here’s the deal…

Right now I’m in the middle of a ton of huge changes.

1. My wife and I are buying our first home right now (I own rental properties… but it’s never made sense to buy a house until now)
2. I officially am completely on my own now (as far as my work)… working fully for myself and no longer having to answer to anyone else… which is great… and I’ve seen two of my highest income months ever the last two months (October w/ just my online income I jumped over $12k for the month… we’ll see if I can keep it up
3. Moving to a new town where we know pretty much no one
4. I’m taking part ownership of an existing business with a very well known marketing and sales consultant… gonna be fun as heck

You’re probably asking where I’m going with all of this… aren’t you?

Well…

Right now is a time of huge change for me (good change)… and last week I decided that this is the perfect time to go ahead and change pretty much everything that I’ve been putting off or sucking at lately.

Moving Toward Change… and The Chronicle

Okay, like I said… since I’m already going through a bunch of changes… right now is the best time to integrate some other positive changes into my life… including:

• Consistently posting to this blog and my real estate blog at least 4-5 times a week… each (I’ll need help with this one)
• Really ingraining my morning ritual into my life.  Waking up early, working out, a bit of meditating, etc. Basically… getting my day going right rather than waking up at 9 am every morning and being tied down by my email all day (I started out trying to do a morning ritual a few months back… it didn’t stick… but I changed my ritual around a bit and it’s been sticking great so far!)
• Building a team of awesome people around me and my business(es).  A couple months back I hired my first Virtual Assistant… and still haven’t used her to her greatest potential.  I’m still doing a lot of things I shouldn’t be doing… so I’m going to work hard to systematize my biz and build a team of people around me so we can all prosper together

There are a few other small changes I’m going to make in the next couple months too… but the ones I mentioned are the most important.

So… what I’m going to do is set out to do each of these new changes every day for 30 full days… at the end of those 30 days they should be part of my life and become rituals that I’ll keep on doing.

But…

It’s important that I stick to it EVERYDAY for 30 days or I could fall off the wagon… and these changes are so important that I guess I’ll just have to kick myself in the @ss and make sure I go through with it.

The Start Of A Chronicle

I’m not sure if the word “chronicle” is the best word for it… but that’s what I’m going to use because it just sounds right.

Anyhow, the next 30 days is going to be crazy as heck for me… and I’m going to write in this blog everyday to show some accountability… and to show how I progress from where I am… to where I want to go… and we’ll see how that affects my income and the amount of extra “leisure time” I can create for me and my wife… because in the end… that’s what its all about… working less and doing what you want to do in life.

So, I’ll post updates daily… I can’t go back now because I’ve already written it down as part of my new “morning ritual” that I’ve been following everyday this entire week so far.

Who knows what the heck I’m going to write about… maybe things like:

• Things I find out about myself and little tricks to make creating rituals easier
• How my new rituals affect my income and “leisure time”
• Marketing or business building stuff I’m trying right now in my own biz… and how you can apply it to your own biz
• How daily posts affects my traffic and blog subscription stats versus posting once or twice a week
• Random things I just want to pass on

… who knows.

Anyhow, thats about it for today.

I just created a sense of accountability to YOU… if I hit a road block and don’t update… I hope that you’ll call my @ss on it and whip me into shape by posting a chiding remark or comment (or you can be nice too here on the blog.

I’ll Take It One Step Further

Hey… I’ll take it one step farther and create even more accountability for myself…

If I miss a single day of updating this blog between today (10/30) and 11/30… I’ll personally do something that I truly DON’T WANT TO DO… not sure what that is yet… but it’s gotta be good for it to stick.  This is a little experiment… lets see if it works.

And…

Hey… if you have an idea of what I will have to do if I don’t make a post everyday… post it in the comments section below. No matter how crazy it is… I’ll consider it and pick the best “motivation” by this next Monday.

It could be that I donate $5 for every comment I receive on ANY blog post between today and 11/30 to a charity of YOUR choice…

… or that I do something stupid or embaressing…

… whatever… but it’s gotta be good.

So, have an idea?… don’t be shy… this single “away from” motivation could mean the difference between me succeeding and failing… no pressure huh?

Okay, I’m sitting at my desk this morning listening to some great inspiring music… and thinking about how I got to where I am.

Yep, I’m still on my upclimb as an entrepreneur… my lifelong goals are still way out in the future…  but this morning I was looking at a goal sheet I wrote up over a year ago (that I haven’t looked at since then)… and my jaw literally dropped…

Why?

Because almost every one of those goals I set for myself over a year ago are either met or surpassed.  Pretty damn cool feeling if you ask me. While I did meet those initial goals… in my mind I’ve already transitioned into going for the next level of goals… so still in my mind I’m not anywhere near where I want to be.

I got to thinking about how I got there… and realized that it amounted to just one or two things… simple things actually… but most entrepreneurs simply don’t do it.

Want to hear those two things?

You’re probably looking for that magic bullet that will solve your problems… I can honestly tell you over a year ago I was too.  We always want a quick and easy way out.

Well…

Here it is…

Making it as an entrepreneur is easy as long as you’re:

• Consistent
• Focused
• Committed

That’s it.  I know… you’re saying, “holy hell… I already knew that!  That’s nothing new.”.

But, this is where I ask you… have you reached your goals yet?  Are you successful in your own mind?

A Quick Story…

Early in ‘07 I was technically “self-employed”… although it didn’t feel like it… nor did it have the cool advantages I was thinking I would have as an “entrepreneur”.

Here’s what the deal was…

I was a contract worker (I’ve never been “employed” by anyone else since I graduated from college) doing marketing for a couple companies.  But the way I had set up my work with them I basically set myself up just like an employee of those companies.  Not a lot of “freedom” (at least in my own mind), I wasn’t doing exactly what I wanted to be doing, and I wasn’t making all that much cashola.

Not an ideal situation…

So, what I finally realized is that there were a couple big constraints to my success that I NEEDED to get past.

1. I needed to separate myself from the way I felt I had “bound” myself to those other companies.  Don’t get me wrong… the companies I was “consulting” for I absolutely loved… I loved the owners, the workers, etc. Great company.   But deep down inside I knew I wasn’t doing what I really wanted to do so I felt somewhat trapped… and felt guilty whenever I would do “my own” work (even on weekends).
2. I needed to finally focus on what made me happy… and focus on moving my most important projects forward with full force.  In the past I’d be working on a project “on the side” for months and months… and never push it forward.  But, finally about 8 months ago I decided to give myself what I deserved and to really pick a project of my own (not one of my clients projects) and focus on it until it was successful.

The funny thing with this is…

As soon as I DECIDED to focus on and get done a specific project OF MY OWN… it took less than 3 weeks to have it make a huge difference in my life and my business.

Separate From Your Constraints and Focus…

So, there it is.

Find out what is between you and your success… separate yourself from those things… then focus on ONE specific project that can immediately produce results for you.

For me, like I said… I needed to separate myself a bit from the idea that I had to always work on my clients work… and I had to learn to not feel guilty if I spent time growing my own business (rather than my clients).  Yes, that thinking was backward as heck… but I’m sure I’m not alone.

As I said… within 3 weeks my whole outlook on my business changed and I actually created 2 new income streams that are completely PASSIVE and pump out more than $1k in income (from less than 2 hours of work) each and every month whether I work or not.  And… just that little bit of money was enough to make me realize that I was really wasting my time doing what I had been doing for the past 2 years.

That’s a liberating moment.

Since then I’ve been able to create multiple other passive income streams (that are enough for most people to live off of) and have several other exciting projects that will boost my business into the next level that will be happening before the end of the year.

Long Story Short…

It’s nothing new… nothing revolutionary… nothing so kick ass that I should write a book over it…

But…

It’s so important that I can guarantee you that if you’re not as successful as you want to be… those three things can make all the difference in the world for you… it did for me.

• Committment
• Consistency
• Focus

Thats it.

Let me know your thoughts… what’s holding you back?  I’d love to help ya find out and blast through them.

Chat soon,

- Trevor

Okay, for quite a while now I’ve been saying that I’m going to start working more and more away from the home office and at other places like Starbucks and other places around the city.

Well… I’ve finally been forced to do it for a whole week and I’ll report on it as I go… and I already have a feeling I’ll be doing it a lot more when I get back from my road trip.

But, first… I want to get out my first impressions and what I’ve learned so far this week in working remotely.  All in all… I love it… but there are both downfalls and big positives which I’ll pass onto ya as I find them.

Here are a few…

Why Working Remotely Is A Great Thing…

1. The music is pretty cool (listening to Bob Marley right now… great for creativity!)
2. The change of scenery and location gets the creative juices flowing… it’s good to break up the routine every now and then
3. Your office follows you where ever you go… and there’s a billion places with free internet access (even Starbucks… to a point .
4. I’m getting a bunch more done… way more productive today.  I think it’s mostly because I had an iced coffee and it gave me a bit of a buzz .
5. It gets you out of the house or office… and into the real world where you interact with more people.

So far, I really love working remotely… but I have a feeling that I’ll have to find 4 or 5 different places to rotate between to break up the “routine” once again.

Okay… working remotely isn’t all roses.  Here’s a bit I found that I don’t really like all that much.

Why Working Remotely Can Be A Pain In The Arse…

1. Can’t control your environment totally. If you’re in a Starbucks (or a small computer repair/internet cafe like me today in Roseburg, Oregon… small town), you’re in someone elses environment… and they for the most part control it.  For instance, right now I’m in this little place in Roseburg (my wife has a job interview today in Roseburg… so I’m working from the road)… and there is a lot of talking in the background because there is a customer who just brought in a computer for repair.  No biggie… but it is background noise I can’t control.
2. Finding free internet access can be tough sometimes. Internet isn’t always free out there… especially if you’re in a small town.  As I said, I’m passing through a small town in Oregon right now and the choices are pretty slim for wifi spots.  There are two Starbucks here… but both are in grocery stores and aren’t all that nice.  So, I just drove until I saw an “Internet Cafe” sign and went on in.  This particular place cost me $5 for the whole day… and I got a “free” iced coffee out of the deal.  So, I found a cool place… but it took me 20 minutes to find it.
3. It’s not totally private… so I have to walk outside for some phone conversations.  Earlier today I had to take a call with a client where we were talking about semi-sensitive stuff (not FBI stuff… but things that the whole world shouldn’t know).  Of course, I had to walk outside to talk to him and it’s almost 100 degrees today!  Also, there are a couple video screen capture projects I need to get done but I don’t want to slap on my headset microphone and start talking with my “radio voice” right in the middle of this little place.
4. The connection sometimes sucks. Even if you have wireless broadband… the connection can be in and out sometimes and really ticks me off.  Cross my fingers, but for the past 3 hours my connection has rocked… but for the first hour I was here it went in and out about 7 times.  So, be prepared to have to fiddle with your connection every now and then if you’re on the “house” wifi network.

That’s about it for now.

Tomorrow I’ll be down in Medford, Oregon (town of about 100k in Southern Oregon)… and will be searching for a Starbucks tomorrow morning to get a bit of work done.  I’m actually excited about it… cause this really is the “internet lifestyle” (read my “lifestyle entrepreneurship” article) and I’m loving it.

By the way… I may start to report every month on my progress in my different business endeavors so you can see what I’m doing, how I’m doing it, and how profitable it is for me.  For instance, last month I created another $800/month in recurring revenue (an additional $800/month) that pumps out to me whether I work or not… I know when I got started that I wanted to know this exact same stuff… so I’ll pass on the wealth.

Hey, I know I’m a bit behind the curve in the whole mobile working thing… but what are your experiences in working remotely?  Where do you like to work at?  What are your tips for being more productive when working remotely?

Okay, as you can see… I’ve been away from my personal blog for quite a while now (wayyyyy tooooo loooonnnggg).

Really, there’s no good excuse.  But, let me fill you in to what the heck I’ve been up to that has pulled me away from my personal blog.

Just a quick note:

I’ve said it time and time again that your own personal brand is possibly even more important than the brand of your company (not in all cases).  If you are a consultant, marketer, employee, etc… your personal brand is huge and should be constantly built over time.  As you see… I’ve neglected my personal brand in exchange for building the brand of another company of mine… and to tell you the truth… it feels terrible!

Okay, What The Heck Trevor Mauch Has Been Up To…

Don’t pay attention to my "3rd person" title.  Every now and then the 3rd person just seems to fit right.

Anyhow, over the past month or so I’ve been crazy busy.

1. Relaunch Of The REI Brain, my real estate investing website – I started The REI Brain (The Real Estate Investors Brain) back in 2006 as a little hobby.  First it was a crappy little website that I designed myself and threw up there with information that I’d learned in my own real estate investing endeavor.   Actually, Alexa still shows the old crappy design as the image for my site (how long does it take for the image to be updated… anyone know?).

   Anyhow, for the past several months I’ve been working on launching a new redesign of the site to bring it up to date now that there’s a good bit of traffic to the site now (over 70k pageviews a month).  Well… we just launched the new design (with the help of two awesome wordpress designers)… and right now I’m just working out the kinks and selling ad space like crazy.

   Check out the site << … and let me know what you think!

2. Finalizing Projects With Consulting Clients –

   Technically, right now most of my income comes from my consulting projects.  Small to medium sized companies who already have websites… but are struggling to make them drive the new clients in the door like they want, hire me to dissect their overall web presence, develop a plan to effectively market their website online (using a lot of "Web 2.0" stuff), and execute that plan.

   Anyhow, so I can focus more on my own projects I’ve decided to cut back a bit on my consulting so only about 25% of my income is consulting… and the rest is from my own internet ventures.  I’ve heard it said a few times before… the best SEO’s don’t consult… they can make more money optimizing their own websites than they can getting paid to optimize other people’s websites.  This is sooooo true.

   To me, for an internet marketing and SEO consultant… I make way more money when I apply what I know to benefit my own online businesses.  The economic model just isn’t working for me as well as a consultant unless I were to hire a staff to run the consulting company… so I could spend more time on my own projects.  I’m not sure I’m ready for that.

3. Golfing Waaayyy Too Much –

   Well… I guess I shouldn’t say way too much.  You can never get too much golf… can you?  I’ve been volunteering at a local municipal golf course here in Lake Oswego (Oregon) in exchange for free golf.  I work only 3 hours a week… but get free golf the whole summer.  Pretty good trade off for me… and I get to meet a ton of new and interesting people.

   The other day I recorded a bunch of video with my Flipcam while I was at the driving range to see what I could correct in my swing… man… after watching that video I found a couple things that will instantly change my game… I’ll keep you posted.

4. Family Stuff –

   If you don’t know me… I’m married (2 years this year) and don’t have any kids yet.  My wife is graduating from graduate schoole next month so I’m helping her wrap up some things with her school and helping to plan a little lunch get together for family after graduation.  That doesn’t take all that much time… but it’s definitely high on the priority list.

   Also, I just got back from camping in the high lakes of Oregon with cousins… and am heading to the Oregon Jamboree next week… heading down Bend and Roseburg, Oregon to go on job interviews with my wife (she’s graduating as a Physician’s Assistant) in two weeks… heading back down to Southern Oregon to camp at Emigrant Lake with family again… then after that it should be quite for a bit (I hope).

   This is what entrepreneurship is all about… doing what you want… when you want.  I wouldn’t ask for anything else.

Other than that… I’ve just been doing some "behind closed doors" projects that we’ll release later in the year in the real estate investing world.  I’m really excited about that… I’ll let you know when it’s time.

Whew!

Okay… to tell you the truth.  I really don’t expect you to care about why the heck I’ve been a slacker on this blog.  Bottom line is that I’ve been slacking big time and there’s no excuse for it.

I think a big reason for the "slackage" (I’ve trademarked that word… don’t use it is that I haven’t focuses the topic of this blog down enough. It makes it way harder to write great content when I really don’t have a specific aim behind the blog other than to promote my own brand.

The Future

The future of this blog will be two fold:

1. To further build up my own personal brand
2. To chronicle my entrepreneurial ventures, ramblings, and "life wisdom" that I pick up as I go

In the past I think I tried a bit too hard to be everything to everyone as far as marketing and the internet goes.

Guess what!  I’m not all that great at a ton of things!

So I’m going to stop writing about things that don’t put that fire in the pit of my stomache… those things that other people are way better at and that I’m just mediocre at (like web design, offline marketing, etc.).

From now on, I’m ONLY going to write about things that really inspire me and get me out of bed in the morning.

Things like:

• Entrepreneurship and helping others break the entrepreneurial hamsterwheel
• Internet marketing for honest, ethical, and cool people
• A bit of search engine optimization advice (since I’ve had a pretty damn good track record of cracking competitive search terms effectively)
• Life success ramblings as I learn the "game of life".  People can always learn from the mistakes and successes of others… so I want to share mine with the world to see if I can help to make a difference (no matter how small) in someone’s life

That’s it.

Be on the lookout… over and out!

A couple months ago I was presented with an opportunity that many people would think I’m absolutely crazy not to take.

A very high leadership position at a $26 million (will likely surpass $40 million this year) company that is at the top of their industry and has some of the best marketing minds around right there in the office. If you are in the internet marketing space… you have most definitely heard of this company.

The position was pretty darn good pay (six figures w/ benefits, bonuses, etc.) … a great work atmosphere… a great location… and would have been world class networking and learning.

This opportunity came at me through a reference from a close contact (and friend) of mine in the internet marketing industry… and I’m completely flattered that he has the confidence in me to put his reputation on the line by recommending me for the position… and that the CEO of the company had the confidence in me to go the length with me through the interview process.

You know what, opportunities are funny.

Right off the bat the word "opportunity" is a positive word to most people. Most people look at opportunities as something for the taking… if it’s an opportunity it must be something that you desire… otherwise it wouldn’t be an opportunity. Right?

Up until this opportunity I only had one definition of opportunity in my mind. If an opportunity is awesome… you take it. If you don’t take it… it fades away and doesn’t have the chance to benefit you a whole lot in the future.

The Struggle…

However, when I was pondering about taking this opportunity and moving my wife and I across the country I really had a struggle.

I mean… this is a once in a lifetime job offer (at least that’s what my 25 year old mind told me) that would give me great experience, excellent connections, and possibly a head start in my career. On the other hand, I’m an entrepreneur and am seeing my businesses steadily grow toward my goals… and that of course would be put on the back burner if I were to take the position.

To help get some perspective on this life changing opportunity I called on someone in my network that I trust… and that has a ton of life experience in his pocket. While we chatted outside of a Starbucks about the opportunity and life… he said something that was so simple… but so powerful.

While we were chatting he could sense it in my voice that I was definitely struggling with a decision that really would be much easier for most people. Give up my business (or at least put them on hold) that is growing the way I had envisioned it would and stay in Oregon which I love… or head to sunny Florida and take this awesome position as the head of this company’s largest marketing division… that was my struggle.

But what he said was this:

"Sometimes opportunities are meant to not be taken. Sometimes they come about to force you to really evaluate where you are… where you want to be… and where your priorities are."

So simple… and pretty darn powerful. To me, this was huge because instead of putting pressure on me to make the decision I thought was "right"… I dug deep and figured out whether the opportunity would help me get where I truly wanted to be in life, my career, and everything else. That’s it.

Long story short. .. I ended up not taking that opportunity (I know… crazy huh?). Deep down inside there was something that just didn’t feel right… and I knew my heart really was in growing my business and leveraging the connections I’ve made here in the Northwest. In the end… it really was a simple decision that I analyzed way too much.

So, next time you’re faced with an opportunity… just remember… some opportunities are meant to NOT be taken… they merely are there so you can evaluate your life and find where your priorities really lay.

I’ve heard the term “lifestyle entrepreneurship” chatted about quite a bit recently. Namely, from great entrepreneurs and bloggers like:

• Tim Ferris
• AnyWired
• Yanik Silver
• etc.

To me, “lifestyle entrepreneurship” is all about creating a business (or businesses) that allows you to truly lead the life you want to live.

For me, that life is one where I’m able to make enough income to make it so I don’t HAVE to work everyday (although, us entrepreneurs tend to love what we do… so it’s not work), where I can spend more time traveling with my wife and family, where I can technically not work for a week and still have that income coming in whether I work or not, where I’m able to golf during the week anytime I want, and where I’m truly making a difference in other people’s lives.

That’s me. That’s why I am an entrepreneur and do what I do.

Am I In My Ideal “Lifestyle Entrepreneur” Position Yet?

Right now… probably not. I DO believe that I’m on my way and will be there pretty damn soon… but I’m still trying to work my way out of my previous mindset of what it is to be an “entrepreneur”.

I graduated from college with degrees in Marketing and Entrepreneurship (yes… that’s a real degree). In college we were taught what it is like to run a traditional company… with the “entrepreneur” working tirelessly for the rest of his/her life to have that “freedom” we all look for as entrepreneurs.

After college I carried that mindset forward… and even worse… I carried the mindset that “If I can do it… I’ll just do it myself… heck, it’ll save me a ton of money”. After 2 years of “entrepreneurship” doing it “myself”… I began to look at what I had created.

Here’s what my “entrepreneurial” efforts created me:

• 15 hour+ days (no biggie… I love what I do so it’s not USUALLY work)
• A decent income… but not all that much
• Trading time for dollars
• Burn out just around the corner… I was doing EVERYTHING myself… EVERYTHING
• A devalued impression of what my time was worth to myself and my clients
• Lack of clarity on what I really wanted out of life

Wow… sounds like quite the “entrepreneurs lifestyle” huh?

We As Entrepreneurs Need To Do One Thing…

I’m trying to keep this post on the shorter side… so I’ll sum up what the heck I’m getting at.

We as entrepreneurs need to figure out why we are entrepreneurs… and what we really want out of our businesses deep down in our core beings. More work, less free time, and less value on your time isn’t what I wanted out of entrepreneurship. That’s a load of crap that I for some reason let take over my brain.

So, to get what we really want… we need to go after “lifestyle entrepreneurship” rather than the “entrepreneur lifestyle”. To me, the “entrepreneur lifestyle” almost has a bad connotation to it right off the bat. When I think of that term, I picture what I had been doing for the last 2 years… not much of a lifestyle.

However, “lifestyle entrepreneurship” on the other hand is just that… you form your entrepreneurship efforts based off of the lifestyle you want. Your lifestyle isn’t directed by your entrepreneurship efforts. Thin line… but in my mind it’s quite a big difference.

For me, I’m not quite where I want to be yet… but I know I’m on the verge. One of my favorite things to do is hear fellow entrepreneurs tell their stories of when they finally created their reality “lifestyle entrepreneurship” goal.

Let’s hear it… are you after “lifestyle entrepreneurship”? If so, have you reached it… when did you finally realize that you reached it?

One Last Thought…

Money is cool… but lifestyle is better. My goal in life is to use entrepreneurship to help me live the best lifestyle possible in this one life we get here on Earth… and to meet the most amazing people I can. That’s it. Pretty simple really…

A Collection of Great Articles on The Subject…

• Check out the article over at AnyWired … excellent collection of articles and resources on the topic.

It has taken me quite a while to learn this simple of the simplest of things in life and business.

But… once I started to pull my head out of my @$$ and realize that I had a whole heck of a lot going for me… things really started to turn around in a big way.

For me it’s simple…

Whatever the heck is good about your life… show big ol’ amounts of gratitude each and every day for what you have… and what you will have.

I’m not really talking about THINGS. Ya, you should be thankful for the car you drive, the house you live in, and all of those other little luxuries of life (ya… your house is a luxury… think about how people live in Africa and other places like that… yes… your house is luxury).

What I’m really talking about is to be thankful for the stuff that is here when all of the extra stuff (car, money, nice house, etc.) is gone.

We as a society need to be way more thankful about our family, friends, health… and if we’re a business owner… about our customers and the fact that they are placing their trust in us to help them get from where they are to where they want to be.

That’s what it’s all about. People helping people live better lives… and people being thankful for what they have and grateful for the important things in life.

Gratitude + Attitude = Latitude

That little formula above is one that really works… and in a big way. As far as I know… I invented that formula (I haven’t seen it anywhere else anyway)… so don’t go claiming it as your own or I’ll send some internet voodoo your way (just kidding).

But… I made that formula up to illustrate a point and to give myself two main points to work on each and every day.

1. Gratitude: Please… please… please… be grateful for what you have. Be grateful for the talents you have been blessed with, the health for you and your family, the food you have to eat, the friends you have, your customers, your competitors… be grateful for simply being around to experience your life to the fullest. Without gratitude life just sucks… and you really get wrapped up in the things that really don’t mean a whole lot in the whole scheme of things.
2. Attitude: For me…success and having fun is all about attitude. If you think life sucks… I can guarantee you that life surly will suck. If you think it’s impossible to make $1,000,000 a year (if that’s a goal of yours)… it most definitely will be impossible for you. However, as soon as you start to take a positive outlook on things and look for the good in everything… you’ll see things begin to change a whole lot for the better. By nature I’m a pretty positive guy. People actually get pissed quite a bit about how positive I am and just doesn’t understand how I can always turn “bad” things into something positive for myself. I guess it’s just how I’m wired. But, for me… it’s simple. We only get one spin here on this earth… and every second I spend with a negative attitude or with thoughts that don’t make me feel happy… are seconds wasted out of my life that don’t get me 1 inch closer to where I want to be. Negativity is cancer. So, I make the conscious decision to be positive about pretty much everything… and find a way to feel happy all of the time. Hey, why not?
3. Latitude: To tell you the truth… I picked the word “latitude” because it rhymed with the other two words. But, when you really think about it… it fits in quite nicely. For me, latitude is freedom… it represents choices… the ability to basically do what you want. Who doesn’t want that? To me, that’s what life is about. The only thing is… I never really was able to have freedom and to do what I wanted to do until I started to be grateful for what I had and to until I really made sure I looked at things with a positive attitude. If you think about it… this same formula works pretty darn well if you use the opposites of these words.
   

Ungrateful + A Bad Attitude = Restriction

As soon as you start to be ungrateful about things and have a crappy attitude… your options start to close up and you don’t let yourself see the true picture of the kind of life you can really lead.

Hmmm…

So, how grateful are you of the people in your life?

How grateful are you for the skills you’ve been given?

How grateful are you for your health?

How grateful are you for your business and your customers?

Do me a favor and at least for today out loud (or in an email, IM, or over Twitter) let the people in your life (including customers) know how grateful you are to have them in your life.

And… to whatever higher power you believe in… express your gratitude for what you’ve been given and for what you are going to be given.

It feels so good and always comes back to you 10 times more in the end.

Oh… big props to Gary V. for inspiring this post in this video. If you’re not hooked on to the Gary V. train… get going so you can learn from one of the best.