I made the above video about my last week where I flew up north to tick off one of my bucket list items (snorkel the great barrier reef).
The two things I value pretty much over all else are EXPERIENCE and CONTRIBUTION.
Experience, as in doing as many things with this short time you have as you can, and contribution, as in creating a legacy or body of work that leaves the world a little bit better off than when you found it.
The only thing holding you back from getting out there really is fear.
Fear to get out there and start experimenting, failing, testing, winning and experiencing all the highs and lows that go with it.
It’s pretty scary. But what other option is there? Being boring?
I want to share with you a story from my past week when I was on that boat doing my snorkel tour.
This is a story I sent to my daily email people so if you’re not on it and want to hear from me during the week go here.
Daily Email Story:
You know that old saying…
What would you do if you weren’t afraid?
Got a BIG realtime lesson in this today.
Listen up!
Alright so several hours ago I checked off one of the things on my list of ultimate rad things to do: snorkel the Great Barrier Reef.
Yes. It was the shizzle. Everything I wanted it to be and more.
ANYWAY LESSON TIME:
There was a guy from Euro somewhere who, at the edge of the boat – FREAKED OUT and clinged for his life at the edge. Not daring to venture out and see all the amazing fish, coral and other world.
I feel like a really bad person for this but at first I thought: “What the hell are you doing you scared little girl – get the f**k out in the water!”
But instead I just dived in and decided to worry about myself – the guides were giving him help.
As I ventured further and further away from the boat in pure other-worldy heaven – taking in the brain coral, big ass clams, nemo fish in dancing purple and red coral, big ass fish, etc…
I thought LOOK AT ALL THE AMAZING THIS GUY IS MISSING OUT ON!
Just because he’s too scared to venture away from the boat.
So he is an extreme case of fear but then I thought about what boats I’m still clinging too? (as a metaphor).
What boats are YOU still clinging to?
Do you need to venture out into unknown waters and discover
the amazing?
See most people think that venturing away from the boat will result in failure and getting eaten by a massive shark.
The media and society would like you to think that. You’re safe if your scared. You can be controlled if you’re scared.
So as I sit here exhausted from my day in the ocean, I’m making a promise to myself: venture further into the scary unknown waters.
I’d like you to make this promise to me too. If you’re scared on starting a freedom business, asking out that girl you think is cute, or getting in great physical shape…
Then it’s time to let go of the boat.
EXPERIENCE IS EVERYTHING.
(and I hope I have contributed to you today)
Much love.
T
Quote Of The Day: “The whole secret of existence is to have no fear. Never fear what will become of you, depend on no one. Only the moment you reject all help are you freed.” - Buddha
The only real failure in life is not to be true to the best one knows.
- Buddha
A fantastic piece of marketing strategy you should include in your arsenal is giving away free stuff so your potential customers can trial and connect with you before they buy.
Guys like Gary Vaynerchuk (who I actually really like and think he has some fantastic, innovative marketing ideas) are constantly telling you to pour yourself out there FREE FREE FREE.
It’s great – but I feel it can all be taken WAY too far.
The FREE is designed as a TASTE.
If they like the taste, great – then you GIVE THEM THE PLEASURE OF BUYING SOMETHING FROM YOU.
Let me say that in another way…
Do NOT deny your customer the PLEASURE in buying stuff from you.
Here’s the thing…
Buying stuff is FUN. It releases happy chemicals in the brain. You are INVESTING in something that you feel worthy of your hard earned cash.
Heck. That’s why we work so hard – to afford things that give us a little pleasure in life.
I bought a new camera a week ago. It was expensive but I thought – hey – it’s going to allow me to shoot awesome videos for my blog and Secret Society crew.
So I enjoyed buying it and using it.
It’s ABSURD to deny your customers this pleasure.
It’s a great feeling when you have the money to buy something you really want and something you enjoy or is going to benefit you in the future.
The other thing is your customers will VALUE YOUR PRODUCT more if they pay for it.
Quick Human Psychology Lesson:
Say you pick up 2 widgets in a store. They are both the same technically but one is a lot more expensive.
If you buy the cheap one, deep down you go home knowing that there is a better one out there.
So if it fails, you’ll kick yourself for not getting the “higher quality” one.
Even though the widgets are identical, the more expensive one will have a higher perceived value.
What’s the real problem?
The REAL underlying problem here is that business owners aren’t superheros.
Business owners have the same self doubt, negative talk and resistance as any other person.
So they sell themselves short.
Now am I saying take any crap product and put a higher price on it and watch the money rain in?
Hell no.
What i’m saying is if you create something of REAL quality and of real value – make sure you charge for it.
In my early business years I sold myself way too short. Working my guts out for customers and clients for well below what I was worth. I’d see other businesses charging WAY more money for inferior services and products. It was a hard pill to swallow. Please don’t make this mistake yourself.
To summarise:
1. Build amazing stuff that REALLY adds value and delivers what your customers want
2. Give them a taste for free, so they trust you and connect with you
3. Give them the pleasure of buying your product
4. Nurture, love and support those customers so they refer you to others
WARNING: Once you go cheap it’s HARD to then go “premium”. Don’t get stuck!
Be the best.
Here’s the scary thing though: You’re going to have to actually be the best. It’s a scary big responsibility and risk that many people aren’t willing to take. So most businesses be the same as every other business.
Step out. Take the risk. Make it happen and don’t forget: Deliver AWESOME stuff.
Here’s a neat video on this:
Hope this helps in you pricing your own Freedom Business product.
Let’s open up the discussion! Leave a comment or question below…
(and don’t forget to like/tweet/stumble)
Next to generating the cash as you travel the world, having your very own personal virtual assistant manage your email, calendar and even the ENTIRE business is the next best thing.
A MASSIVE trap that is easy to fall into is doing all the work yourself (not very freedom business like eh?).
The thing is when you start building your business up, making good income and having things go well, you don’t want to lose control and have everything crash.
There is a fear issue here that I personally had to get over. Handing over some of your business processes to someone in a country that is worlds away from you is really scary.
Here’s the thing though… Putting on assistants and outsourcers to do the actual work has been the single best thing I’ve done to turn a business that’s really just a created job into the REAL Freedom Business.
In this series of blog posts, i’m going to show you how to get your very own personal virtual assistant from the Philippines.
A personal virtual assistant should be the cornerstone of your Freedom Business setup.
Boracay Island, Philippines
I’ve found the Philippines to be fantastic for a number of reasons:
1. The majority of people looking for virtual assistant roles speak really good American english and sound great on the phone
2. They are extremely friendly and loyal
3. They are highly skilled (most have a university degree) and even more productive and efficient than a lot of workers/people I know here in Australia
4. Average MONTHLY salary is from $250-$450USD. Yes that’s correct. You can have your very own PA for less than $500 per month.
Here’s just some of the cool things that your own personal assistant can do for you:
1. Manage Your Email (huge).
Email is like a crack addiction. Well, i’ve never had a crack addiction but I imagine my old relationship with email to be something similar.
The problem is: If you are on email, you are not doing things that are important. You’re being REACTIVE as opposed to PROACTIVELY productive.
I personally try to limit my email to 1 hard hour from 2pm-3pm. The rest of the day I either want to be PRODUCING (business stuff, secret society mastermind stuff) or COOL STUFF (travelling, hanging with friends, reading, listening or making music).
How many days have you had where all you did was answer every email as it came in, WHEN it came in?
VERY bad news.
Some silly people nowadays expect email responses within the hour of sending. That’s just ridiculous.
Email is also switched off on my iPhone.
The solution: Batch process email (wait until they all build up and nail at 1 or 2 points in the day)
The mega solution: Batch process AND have an assistant handle SOME emails (repetitive admin stuff).
You can have your assistant literally be you if you want and learn how to respond as you but I personally just have Jennifer (my assistant) chime in on emails that she can solve or knows the answers to.
I also have Jennifer send me a txt message if there is anything very (VERY) urgent that comes into the email inbox.
2. Manage Your Calendar
I use google calendar which makes things easy to share and update. This is shared with Jennifer.
If I happen to decide to make an appointment, i’ll txt message Jennifer the name, phone number, place and time of the meeting and wether or not I want her to call the person to confirm.
Very cool and impresses people you are meeting with that you are so organised.
Jennifer will even send meeting requests via email that automatically sync and put the times in peoples calendar.
3. Make Phone Calls
Jennifer has a Skype account with credit I’ve loaded in to make phone calls on my behalf.
She uses this at the end of every work day to call me and give me an update on what she has done. If I don’t answer she leaves a voicemail detailing her day, what she has completed and what she needs help with (more on this later).
These are the top 3. The truth is your assistant can pretty much do ANYTHING that is repeatable in your business.
I would go as far as to say at least 80% of what you currently do in your business (or job) can be outsourced to the Philippines.
The best part about it all really is you actually have an ACCOUNTABILITY PARTNER.
I get text messages from Jennifer saying “Don’t forget to record that video today” or “I hope your meeting with Craig goes well in 5mins”.
It can get lonely running a Freedom Business by yourself, so having a cool assistant who cares about you and the business is just awesome.
Here’s a sneak peek interview as to what Jennifer sounds like:
And a couple of snapshots of our conversations on Skype:
When you get an assistant, you have to get used to being called “Sir” and “Boss”. It’s customary and quite nice I think.
Stay tuned for the next post in the series on “how to get your own personal virtual assistant.”
Please ask questions or anything you would like covered in this topic below!
Would you like to wake up each day and do whatever the hell you like?
Feeling tired? Go back to sleep.
Feeling productive? Smash out some work.
Feel like going out to the beach for a surf or partying all day/night? Go hit it up!
Whatever it is you TRULY wish to do with your days, it can all be accomplished by having a Freedom Business running in the background working SO YOU DON’T HAVE TO.
Now this concept isn’t new at all but it was REALLY hard in my early days to wrap my head around the fact that you don’t have to actually work to earn money.
The little voice inside my head was telling me that SURELY this can’t work. But it does… and there’s a select group of everyday normal people called the “Freedom Secret Society” that make it happen.
When I made my first “freedom sale” something clicked in my mind forever and I knew there was no turning back. This is the way of the future.
So today I wanted to dive right into the MEAT of what a freedom business looks like and provide an overview and example of how the whole process fits together. This post, in a lovely combination of video and text, will show you exactly how test your very own freedom business idea and make your first freedom sale.
This is also an insight into one of the training resources I use with the Secret Society Mastermind crew.
HELMET CAM – PLEASE WATCH AND ENJOY BEFORE CONTINUING:
How was the helmet-cam?
Spark some freedom business ideas for you?
See how the little guys like you and me can take on the big corporations simply by BEING BETTER AT TARGETING AND TALKING TO THE ONE KEY FAN?
At the end of the day business can seem like this big hard monster dominated by the privileged. RUBBISH!
Just remember this golden rule: People like doing business with people they like.
How do you get someone to like you? Easy – pinpoint their deepest desires or fears/frustrations and help ‘em out with your snazzy new product or service.
Time and time again we are seeing cases of normal everyday people starting their own successful freedom businesses that rival large firms from their bedroom.
Now obviously you don’t have to go into selling iPhone apps for real estate agents. This was just an example to illustrate some of the processes involved.
The whole thing really isn’t that hard once you break it into chunks and create a map of where you’re going.
And what is the total cost to set one of these up? $150-$300.
This is a tiny investment to test out your first FB idea.
So let’s take an in-depth look at what was covered in the video…
COMPONENTS OF A FREEDOM BUSINESS – HOW TO TEST YOUR VERY FIRST FREEDOM BUSINESS IDEA FOR UNDER $500
1. Figures First – Cost $0 : Time 2-5 hours
This is EXTREMELY important. You need to have a target to set your sights on and check in on this target daily to see you are on track.
Before you start ANYTHING and get swept up in the nitty-gritty of your business, you also need to set strict criteria as to what the business should look like day-to-day.
E.g. “It needs to be able to be run from anywhere in the world with just a laptop. I only want to be working on it 2hours a day”
This will stop you from going into business ideas that are going to suck away all your time and leave no room for freedom. There’s a million great ideas/niches and industries to go into but the ones we want are going to give us freedom (not just another self created job!).
So at the end of every week all you need to do is ask yourself one question “Did my Freedom Business make $1000 this week?”
If the answer is no, then you go back over your map and see why.
Quick tips/suggestions:
Link some PASSION AND ENERGY to your $1000/week. What would this amount of money mean for you? Could you quit your job and travel/creating freedom businesses on the road?
Vision-boarding is a great tool for this. Go to http://images.google.com and search for cool images on how your life will change when you reach your goal. Refer to each day for that little extra drive and motivation.
2. Idea Generation – Cost $0 : Time 1-2 days
Freedom Business Saying: “Before the idea, comes the fan.”
There’s 3 steps to this… WHO? WHY? and WHAT?
WHO do you want to fall in love with what you do?
It’s these fans/lovers that will sustain your business (and ridiculously awesome life) in the long and short term. So you definitely choose people that YOU LIKE.
As discussed in the video, in my early days I made the horrific mistake of selling stuff to people I didn’t really like. Even though my business made money I ended up selling it because I just didn’t want to deal with these people anymore.
WHY will that person buy something from you?
The two main reasons people buy something are 1. A deep, burning desire and 2. To alleviate a fear/frustration they have.
Spend some time crafting an image of your typical “One Key Fan”. How old are they? Where do they live? What are their deepest darkest secrets and goals?
WHAT will you actually sell them?
Do you want to offer an info product, a service, a physical product OR a combination?
Quick tips/suggestions:
If you combine some of these you can add the value and therefore increase the price!
The One Key Fan concept I created is an adaptation of Kevin Kelly’s 1000 True Fans post, so for some extra coolness I recommend you get familiar with it.
First things first, you are going to want to do some competitor analysis on your idea then build your website.
Now let’s not get too technical here. Competitor analysis sounds all corporate speak crap for what really is “Searching in google and snooping/spying on other businesses”.
Open google, think like your One Key Fan – what search terms is he/she going to use? Plug em in and start looking at the competition.
Take out a notepad or open up a spreadsheet and note what others are doing well in terms of their website design and sales copy – then think about how you can inject your own personality/brand into the stuff you feel that your competitors are doing good.
Below are a few of the sites you can use to find anything from website designers to sales copywriters to iphone app developers. Whatever can be done, WILL be done at a fraction of the price from someone highly competent another world away from you:
You will need a freelancer web designer and website coder for a start. You may want to chat to some or post a project around your potential product as well.
Quick Tips/Suggestions:
Think about it this way: These days – there’s not a business out there that can’t be replicated.
Don’t attempt to learn and do everything yourself. Things like Photoshop, HTML, Web Design, etc can all be done on the SUPER CHEAP by somebody who has had 5+ years experience and will be a lot better and faster than you.
I had a hard time with this and found myself trying to do everything in the early days. It’s not your job. Get it in someone else’s hands and drop the ego…
You have a business to RUN, not work in.
Set up google analytics on the site so you can track your stats as well (it’s free and important).
4. Marketing – Cost $0 – $200 : Time 1 week
The easiest and most inexpensive way to test out your new site/business idea is to go out into the real world and have conversations about it.
Do you know someone who knows someone that your product/service can help? Get a coffee with them. Sit down and talk about their DESIRES or FRUSTRATIONS (one key fan style).
How do you do that?: “So what’s the biggest frustration you have in your business right now?” “What do you really need help with?” “What would be amazing for you?”
Hot tip: Don’t try to make a sale right away, offer to do some help for free in exchange for a testimonial to give your product/site more credibility. If you do some free work you will also learn the sales processes and delivery timelines for your product or service (which are always hard to estimate).
Aside from offline marketing, there is Pay Per Click, Search Engine Optimisation, Social Media and some other crafty ways to get some initial sales/customers.
In the initial testing phase, forget SEO and social media. If you want responses real quick and to see if your idea is going to work go for some PPC on Google Adwords or Facebook Ads (there are other ad networks like MSN if you don’t like google, too).
Google adwords allows your ads to show up on the right hand side of searches in google and they also provide great training on how to setup your first campaign. Spend $100 or so to drive 100+ visitors to your site to test it out. Use google analytics to track what people are doing on your site.
Quick tips/suggestions:
Not making sales? not getting enquiries? Always come back to the One Key Fan. What are they REALLY looking for in terms of their search keywords? Is your website really speaking to what they need?
Social Media, PPC, SEO, etc are all TOOLS to help you CONNECT with One Key Fans. Get to the CORE of the fears/frustrations and desires when designing your Adwords ads and website sales copy.
5. Automation
Once you have made some sales and are confident with your new business – it’s time to put the freedom on turbo!
This is the exciting (an my personal favourite part) where you get an assistant (or team of assistants) to REPLACE YOU in the business.
The golden rule: Anything repeatable is outsourced.
Stuff like customer support, delegating tasks to other freelancers and email can all be handled by an assistant.
Use freelance websites to posts full time positions. I’ve had great successes with people from the Philippines. The majority speak American english and are very competent.
You can get a full time Filipino with a university degree for approximately $250 a month.
A small price to pay for freedom!
Quick tips/suggestions:
Get your assistant to send you a DAILY EMAIL detailing a) what they have done for the day b) where they ran into problems c) what they need you to attend to or teach them
It’s going to feel SUPER WEIRD not checking your email all the time. You’re going to have to adjust to all the free time you have.
The first week I set this up successfully I found myself having to find stuff to do. My brain wanted to check email all the time even though I didn’t need to because I was so used to it.
You have been warned: it’s FREAKY when you can do what you like with your days.
I hope this has sparked some Freedom Business fire in you. This may seem like a lot, but after your first one or two businesses this entire process becomes a breeze – especially as you start to build long term relationships with great freelancers.
Still not convinced? Check out some of the people in the “Secret Society” that are using this stuff to change their lives here…
Obviously this is a detailed overview and not a full in-depth formula. I’ll be covering topics in more detail in future posts SO KEEP AN EYE ON THE DAILY EMAIL AND THE BLOG FOR MORE AWESOMENESS!
Cheers to your freedom.
T
PS. Do you have some questions/comments or just wanna show some love? PLEASE COMMENT BELOW. I love hearing from our new community. Big things happening
“If the Sun and Moon should ever doubt, they’d immediately go out.” - William Blake
I got an email the other day that made my heart sink:
Tim,
I’m still struggling. I don’t know what I can offer [as a freedom business]. I have the impression all services are already taken. there is a lot of professionals there. And I just don’t know what to offer to people. How do I find the service?
I’m good at nothing.
Thanks
-C
That last sentence “I’m good at nothing” really made me stop and think that there’s a bigger issue at play here with this email than just finding the right idea.
I suspect that it’s haunting ALL of us here on the freedom journey.
That big problem that’s going to smack you right in the face is SELF DOUBT and it’s something you’re going to need to be prepared for.
No matter how big (or small) your dream may be – this little self doubt sucker will come and try to mess with you just at the time when you need it to go away.
Wether you’re selling something for $2 or $2000 the self doubt/scary feeling is still the same:
Right before you decide on a Freedom Business idea, self doubt will come and tell you that your idea is total and complete horrible garbage – to which you should be ashamed of yourself for thinking up such rot!
As you are about to click “go” on your new website, self doubt will whisper in your ear that it’s not ready yet and needs massive amounts of tweaking and other crazy useless upgrades
When you go to tell a potential prospect about your new business self doubt tells you that you’re a “straight up poser, good for nothing, and need to research more or get more sales experience before you can possibly ask for a sale – HOW DARE YOU ASK FOR A SALE!”
Self doubt almost always disguises itself as “rational, logical thought”. It says stuff to you like “There’s bigger businesses out there that are smarter and better than you”.
It’s also at it’s strongest right when you are at the finish line.
Yep. It sucks.
Here’s the thing: The underlying cause of ALL self doubt is SELF PRESERVATION.
The human body and mind don’t want to change as that takes EFFORT and a step into the unknown. Even if it’s for the better, our internal self-preservation alarm bells don’t want us to venture into the unknown where it’s dangerous. Little do we know that these preservation systems were built into us evolutionarily at a time when venturing into the unknown meant getting eaten by a giant sabre tooth tiger.
Hence, this is why fat people stay fat and broke people stay broke.
Here’s a little secret from my own world: EVERY SINGLE TIME I’ve upgraded my life (financially, health, relationships) I had a serious PANG! (is that a word?) of self doubt, RIGHT BEFORE I leaped and just did whatever it was that I wanted to do.
Quick Examples from Natural Tim land:
1. Right before I met one of my gorgeous girlfriends upon seeing her at the bar – PANG! “She probably has a boyfriend and won’t like you anyway”
SELF DOUBT: WRONG. Approached (scared out of my brains) and it went smashingly. Relationship though, not so smashingly.
2. When I started eating well and working out crossfit style – PANG! “This probably won’t work, don’t workout today and wait until you have a better plan”
SELF DOUBT: WRONG. Although it was tough, I stuck to my plan and shredded off the fat, not to mention being more clear headed and focused.
3. When launching a new freedom business – PANG! “Nobody is going to want this. You need to go research the market more or fiddle with the website”
SELF DOUBT: WRONG. I’ve proven this so many times to myself… Just get it out to the market ASAP, make a sale ASAP – then adjust on the fly!
Even stuff like sitting down to write this article – PANG! “Nobody want’s to read about self doubt”.
And yet – here I am writing and will post this up even if you don’t like it. All I care is that I had a commitment to make a post today, so come hell or high water it’s going to happen (even if it sucks!).
Most people can’t handle the PANG!. Yet the “PANG!” is keeping them trapped in lives they don’t like.
I know it’s a weird word that I just made up – but that’s physically what it feels like. In your stomach and mind. PANNNNNNG!
So here’s the true spirit and secret in defeating your self doubt
1. Recognise the “PANG!”
It’s when your mind hits the panic button or subtly suggests you stop/defer taking action on your important task.
Notice how it’s either a big PANG! panic – or a subtle suggestion that slips in unnoticed and before you know it you’re on the couch eating ice cream instead of doing your blog post.
2. Ignore the “PANG!” and keep pressing forward
If you’ve recognised that your in-built self preservation system (self doubt) is warning you – then you can politely choose to ignore it and press on.
What matters is not that the end result is a success, but that you ignored the PANG! and pushed something through to completion.
Nobody can take that glory away from you.
One of my favourite all time speeches on this subject is by self made multi-millionaire Art Williams – please enjoy this wisdom (forgive the cheesy intro and old-school feel – skip to 2:41):
I actually listen to this at least a couple of times a week and it still hits home every single time.
Please share with me some of your “PANG!” moments in the comment section below. Where are YOU struggling and fighting with self doubt the most?
T
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The easiest and most inexpensive way to test out your new site/business idea is to go out into the real world and have conversations about it.
Once you have made some sales and are confident with your new business – it’s time to put the freedom on turbo!
