From Adversity To Freedom: Building A Business On The Road With Dave [VIDEO]

For all of its faults, it gives most hardworking people a chance to improve themselves economically, even as the deck is stacked in favor of the privileged few. Here are the choices most of us face in such a system: Get bitter or get busy.                 – Bill O’ Reilly

Want to learn how to build a freedom business whilst travelling on the road?

Well I couldn’t wait to introduce you to my friend Dave today who is doing exactly that.

We caught up with him for a video whilst he travels the world building and running his freedom business… I thought this was a perfect opportunity to sit down and chat to him about life, freedom business and how to do it all.

This Dave is one persistent dude.

For a start, he was born without the part of his brain that controls the whole right side of his body.

He was relentlessly picked on at school and had no respect from those around him.

“Basically I had no choice but to look up at the bright side, because it’s not going to get any worse”

… Dave told me in the interview below.

I got a taste of Dave’s persistence over email.

He’d signed up for my daily email and then kept replying and offering his services to me for free and I agreed – our relationship went from there and he ended up all the way from Bulgaria to Melbourne to film this video.

Quick tip: If you’re wanting to build a relationship to make a sale or just to connect with someone influential – think “what can I offer this person that is of real value to them and their business?”…  Chances are a free coffee is NOT that valuable.

If you’re personally in a situation that you don’t like right now – maybe it’s a job that’s numbing you or maybe you’ve been hitting your head up against a brick wall trying to get your freedom business off the ground, then this video will give you some great tips and insights from a dude who has probably started off in a much more disadvantaged place than you.

In the video above we talk about 3 really important things:

1. The Low Cost Freedom Business

A good low cost freedom business is a digital services agency, offering anything from mobile applications to website redesigns to social media strategies.

These types of businesses can be set up with very low capital and all you need is to get your first sale to know your business will be profitable.

It’s a good idea to get familiar with just ONE of these areas and find a good outsource provider (http://www.elance.com – http://www.freelancer.com) to guide you through their services.

You need a strong brand, a website and some tenacity to go sign on your first client.

Fun Experiment: Could you set this up and get your first client in 2 weeks?

2. No Matter What Business You’re In, Relationships Are EVERYTHING

Dave starts off every conversation with “Do you have a website?”…

This has led to sales, free office space and all sorts of great partnerships and friends.

It’s a brilliant conversation starter that is focused around your potential client and NOT YOU. This is very important because if you start talking to someone about how cool you are, they will likely tune out and not care.

On the other hand if you start the conversation focused around them, their needs and their frustrations then you can start to mentally build a solution  for them right their on the spot, offer some suggestions and sometimes even get a new client right on the spot.

Remember: Keep the conversation focused on THEM (and how you can help) not on YOU and how amazing you are (nobody cares).

3. No Room For Negativity

This is Dave’s personal life philosophy. Right now he misses his girlfriend back
home, but is making the most of the situation by enjoying his travels and connecting with new people.

“Instead of seeing the problem, like missing my girlfriend, I turn it into an opportunity – like setting a goal to sign on a new client so I can fly her out here to have fun with me”

Connecting your personal life goals with your freedom business is THE way to get motivated to build your freedom business and sign on some new clients.

Dave has kindly offered to answer your questions in the comment section below…

Fire away quick before he’s out on his latest adventure!

T

PS. Dave’s new business he built on the road can be seen at:
http://www.fusion-360.co.uk/

Get Your Very Own Virtual Personal Assistant (Part 1: How Your Assistant Will Change Your Life Forever)

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!

T

[VIDEO] Exactly How To Build And Launch Your Own $1000/Week Freedom Business

Click Play On The Video Above Before Reading On

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.

If you didn’t read the original post on the One Key Fan I suggest you brush up on your knowledge here.

3. Build – Cost $150 – $500 : Time 1-2 weeks

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:

http://www.elance.com

http://www.odesk.com

http://www.freelancer.com

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.

FREEDOM BUSINESS OVERVIEW DIAGRAM

Click To Enlarge/Download – Courtesy Of Carl Östlund

So there you have it.

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

How To Escape From Captivity And Go Live A Life Of Freedom, Fun And Adventure

“Life is either a daring adventure or nothing” – Hellen Keller

Hi I’m Natural Tim and this is my blog (i’ll tell you the story of my nickname later)…

Here i’m going to share with you the secrets to creating a little online business that funds a life of freedom, fun and adventure.

See a few years ago on my international travels I was lucky enough to meet a group of people who I now call the “secret society”.

These were normal everyday people that run cool little businesses from their laptops, anywhere in the world and I was privileged enough to sit down and have these guys show me the secrets and formulas to getting my own freedom businesses off the ground.

As you will find out in my free book – at first I was really scared about not doing the normal thing like everyone else, but once I took the leap there was no looking back.

These businesses have allowed me to work from any location, to travel and basically do whatever I like with my days.

Talking about freedom, I even have this beat up old van (now known as the FREEDOM VAN) that I use to go on surf adventures around Australia.

Anyway my close friends started saying “well how can I do this too?” so I started coaching them and even created a private online community called the “secret society mastermind” to coach a small group on how to do it as well.

And that’s what’s led me to create this action packed little adventure blog.

What this blog is about:

• How modern day work is hurting us. Even KILLING us. We aren’t meant to sit on chairs for long hours doing boring, repetitive nonsense. We are the most obese, medicated society in the history of the human race and it’s getting worse. People are more stressed and less connected to the real world outside than ever. It’s time to fight back. You are meant for something more. You were put here to make something amazing and put it out into the world.

• How technology can help us to create a freedom lifestyle where we can sleep the hours we want as long as the work get’s done

• Specifics on creating your own little income generating business that fuels a life of fun and adventure that our body and mind craves

• How to be more productive with your days. It’s all about the time you have NOW not some distant future that may not happen

• Personal stories and interviews from other members of the “secret society” who have managed to escape modern day captivity

• Travel Tips, Fitness and Health Tips, Outsourcing Tips and heaps more fun stuff!

What this blog is NOT about:

• Quick-fix make money online type scams. I’ve unfortunately been sucked in by a few of these and let’s just say the “super deluxe sniper system 9000″ DOESN’T WORK. Or rarely works. Creating a profitable long term business takes a little time, patience and work. It’s more rewarding that way anyway.

• This blog is not going to be filled with useless garbage theories that aren’t tested in the REAL WORLD. I want you to have useful take away stuff that you can go use to directly improve the quality of your life now.

The vision I have for this blog is a portal for people from all walks of life, coming together to create a movement towards a more rewarding and
free work/fun/life balance.

Ok so what’s next?

The first thing you need to do is enter your email address on the right or below and hit subscribe.

I’m going to send you access to my free ebook and audio on getting started with a freedom lifestyle. Plus a couple of other bonus things thrown in there as well.

I’ll be in touch through my daily email which I send every day to make sure everyone is motivated and on track to getting the freedom, fun and adventure they deserve.

So enter your email address, hit subscribe and let’s get this party started.

Your Friend,

Natural Tim

PS. Please leave a comment below and introduce yourself. I will be reading every single comment and participating in the discussion as well!

PPS. Don’t forget to add me to your google+ circle and facebook – it’s looking pretty bare over on that sidebar

“Your work is to discover your work and then with all your heart to give yourself to it.”
-Buddha