Lately I’ve been recording quite a bit of video, mainly “direct to camera” so I wanted to briefly discuss what my tools are in my video production studio

My goal with the videos was to have as professional quality at the lowest possible price. I guess it’s the 80/20 thing setting in. Yes you can spend tens of thousands on professional grade gear, but what if you could get the same quality for way less.

My First Ventures Into Online Video

I’ve owned a Flip Mino HD camera for some time now. It’s an excellent small pocket with great quality video compared with the price let alone the size. I basically chose it because it won most test on image quality over other cameras and because it was small.

When I bought it I was still on my trusty iPhone 3G that certainly didn’t have any video capabilities to show for (well… it did do video… but nothing you could use for anything).

But as I wanted to do more than just small videos of me in the pool I quickly realized the shortcomings of this wonderful gadget.

I also found out why most other people wanting a similar small sized camera had begun to buy the Kodak Zi8 instead of the Flip camera series (even though the Flip Mino camera looks more snazzy).

It had external microphone input! While the video quality of the Flip Mino HD were really good, it only had the internal microphone and that is a no go if you want to do anything other than just small fun videos.

So I was now in a position where I could buy something like the Kodak camera (or something similar) or I could step it up a bit. I chose the last… Also because I’ve already wasted money on one pocket camera so I didn’t really come home to the girlfriend and have to explain why I needed yet another one (you know girls simply don’t understand gadget unless they come with flowers ).

So I went on the look out for something a bit more professional. Really my only requirement was that there was an external microphone input.

I quickly found a new Panasonic range of cameras that seemed to provide the best quality/price ration. I knew I didn’t want to go pro, but I also didn’t want to save a few hundreds and then be stuck with some crappy cheap consumer “play” camera. So I chose something in the middle.

DSLR vs. Video camera

When I started to look at video cameras I quickly also found myself looking into DSLR cameras. They have now become so good (and cheap) that many people are using them for professional video cameras. I’ve even seen TV and music videos being shot with DSLR cameras (although probably the top of the line stuff).

THe advantage of buying a DSLR camera instead of a video camera was obvious. I would also get a really good still photo camera for the same price.

But as I started to look into this category of cameras, I found a few things that didn’t quite resonate well with what I was gonna use it for.

1. Manual focus when in video mode (I could work around that since I was mainly going to use it for direct to camera, but most of the time it would require a second guy acting as a cameraman
2. Most cameras I looked at could not record much more than 15 minutes per take making it pretty much a no go for me as I also had record hour long seminars
3. No built-in stability compensation. Not really a problem for me as I was gonna use it mounted on a tripod, but it would still make it a problem if I had to use it without
4. They become really hot. Not sure that’s a problem – but it’s clearly that they weren’t designed for long term use

So for me the DSLR (at least at the time I was looking into this) was a no go, but perhaps in the near future I’ll go the DSLR route.

So I ended almost ordering the Panasonic HDC SD800 but realized that I couldn’t find anything about an external microphone input which was really my only requirement, so I went with big brother Panasonic HDC SD900 instead (together with a 32GB memory card)

After I had bought the camera I also got rather inspired by Smartphone Video Producer where this guy basically shows you how to get quality video production with the video camera in an iPhone. If I had seen this site before I’ve purchased the Panasonic camera I might have thought twice.

Because this leads me to…

The Secret of Good Video

The secret behind good and professional video is not the camera. And that’s a strange thing as this is usually the most expensive thing in the setup.

NO – doing good video is all about good lighting and sound.

And that is also the fact being teached by the smartphone video guy. If you have great sound and lighting no one can see that it’s recorded on an iPhone 4 (or similar smartphone).

So realizing this… now… – and having spend good money on the camera (and therefore could not see myself suddenly going over to recording on my iPhone) leads me to how my finished video production studio looks like.

Video Production Studio Elements

Video camera

Panasonic HDC SD900


This was the camera I bought. I produces good looking video. To begin with I recorded in Full HD but this gave me big files of the “MTS” format which is a killer to work with on my mac. So I quickly started recording in a lower resolution which the camera can output in MP4 format that is much easier to work with as it does not have to convert it first (which can take hours with the MTS files on my 2 year old MacBook Pro – “Hey Rasmus… a good excuse to go out and buy a new MacBook Pro….” => Exactly ).

Also I’m gonna use them for web use only, so while it would be nice to have them in Full HD there is really no need. Good sound and lighting is much more important

Microphone

Sennheiser FreePort Presenter Set


As sound is really important and I’m doing direct to camera, I wanted a clip on mic. First I bought a cheap one from China as again I’m an 80/20 guy figuring that I just need something that is good enough. And the mic was also “good enough”. The sound quality itself was fine, unfortunately there was so much “static background noise” that I threw it out and realized that I had to spend a little more than $15 on the mic.

I basically wanted the cheapest clip on mic from one of the more established names in the music/recording industry. As I have a small music studio I knew about Sennheiser’s products and found this set to be the cheapest one on the market. I think I paid approximately $200 for it here in Denmark.

It’s a complete set with lavalier mic, broadcast and receiver unit. It doesn’t attach to the video camera (like on the horse shoe) or anything, but for the price it’s awesome sound quality.

Lighting

PhotoSEL LS21E52 Professional Softbox Studio Lighting Kit


Next on my list was lighting. Again I didn’t want to spend a lot but wanting the minimum viable solution that would look really good. There was a number of good lighting kits in the Amazon.com store, but being from Denmark it’s much easier to buy from the Amazon.co.uk store that unfortunately didn’t have the same big selection of light kits.

I did however find the PhotoSEL kit that was quite reasonable priced. I started with one kit, but quickly realized that I needed more lighting. So currently I’m using two kits (which is four lights) and I’ll probably buy some smaller lights to ensure better background lighting in the future.

Tripod

Hama Star 63 Tripod


Not sure if I should list this as well, but it’s kind of the last piece of the puzzle and it was cheap

Screenflow vs iMovie

So what about editing your movies you might ask!

In the beginning I was editing my movies on iMovie but it’s a pain to work with. They “tried to make it super easy” but they failed miserable. I mean who has ever heard about video editing software without any timeline.

So currently my process involve editing my videos on Screenflow which is really a screen capturing application, but has much better video editing capabilities than iMovie (at least the 20% that you use 95% of the time).

After I’ve done with the video I export it and run it through Handbrake a fantastic free application for converting videos into MP4.

So what now?! What’s all the video for

Well, I’m glad that you asked (and you actually sticked to the end of this post).

I’m currently working on an online private coaching program. Over the years I’ve gotten a lot of questions on how I manage to not having to work all year, and since I mainly saying the same things over and over again I figured there might be a better way.

So if you are someone who is passionate about changing your life and willing to take action, then I would really love to work with you.

You’ll probably hear more about it on this site when I’m ready, but if you want to be absolutely sure to be among the first to hear about it, you should consider joining my newsletter (and get a free ebook at the same time).

If you got any inputs on the whole video setup thing, I would love to hear from you in the comments.

Related posts:

1. Now with video blogging (well, soon anyway)

Yeah I know… This might sound like one big ass rant… But I absolutely hate when people use the words “have to” or “should”.

If you’re a person that uses these words a lot, then don’t worry, I don’t hate you or anything – but chances are that you are not really that much in control of your own life as you might like to think.

Throughout our lives we’ve been indoctrinated with what is expected of us and what lifestages we should all follow in order to “have a normal life”, and we’ve learned to say things like “I have to do XYZ” or “I really should do ABC”.

Stuff like “I should go to school” or “I should be working for the man – getting a steady paycheck” or “I should really call my mother in law”

Let’s just get that big fat rat out in the open!

YOU DO NOT HAVE TO DO ANYTHING!

Instead you can choose to do something. That might sound like “same same” to you, but there is one big differentiator. If you say “choose” you put yourself in control instead of someone else really determining whether or not you should do something.

And if you are in control, then you can choose not to do XYZ.

“Are you crazy Rasmus” – you might ask… “if I don’t ABC, my boss/wife/mother-in-law/insert-more-terrifying-beasts-here will most certainly KILL ME!”.

Sure, that could be a consequence, but notice the word here. Consequence. When you have the control you can weigh out the different potential outcomes, risks etc and determine for yourself if you believe if you feel that you can live with the consequence.

If you “had to” then you “had to” and then you would have to eat the consequences in any given outcome.

So if you start substituting the words “I have to…” and “I should…” with “I choose to…” you will put yourself back in the driver’s seat of YOUR LIFE!

And isn’t that’s where we really want to be?

BONUS: Can’t

If you say that “you can’t do something…” well guess what happens. Your brain will automatically shut down and spend brainpower somewhere else (I mean there are plenty of areas that could use some extra brainpower right )

But! If you tell your brain that the situation is really doable, your brain will like a miracle start looking for solutions, because guess what… That’s what our brain is doing. Finding solutions to stuff we throw at it – whether that is riding a bicycle and coordinating our limbs at what first seems like an impossible action or inventing the next line of smart phones.

So when you say can’t you are really speaking the truth… You can’t and you won’t be able. But if you tell your brain it can be done… You most likely can!

Ahh… so glad that’s over

So what are your thoughts here? Have I stretched it a bit too far this time? Let me know in the comments…

No related posts.

So we’re on the border to a new year and it’s always a great opportunity to look back and evaluate what worked and what didn’t and to look ahead and make promises.

And while I don’t really believe in new year resolutions (if you want to change something – you should do it NOW), I certainly believe in setting goals for one self.

And if you don’t want to any read more about my highs and lows in 2011 and my goals for 2012 let me just take this opportunity to say HAPPY NEW YEAR!

2011

So looking back at 2011 I’m really not that proud of my progress, although a lot of things certainly happened, I still feel that I should have accomplished more. But before I talk myself totally down, let’s see what actually did happen.

We (my family and I) started out the year in our house in Thailand – so that was great. While Denmark was having snow and ice – the only place we could find ice was in our drinks .

And while we’re on family – 2011 was also the year where my girlfriend got pregnant again (the second time that is) and we expect a little baby boy here in the beginning of January.

Personally we also moved to a new house here in Denmark (as of 1. of December) so the last part of the year was pretty much spent packing and unpacking – talking to banks, lawyers and so on.

But what happended on the business side, well besides me growing my businesses in Denmark, I also got much more targetted on what it is I really want to do (more on this later). So during 2011 I’ve spent time terminating projects that was taking too much time but wasn’t really getting me in the direction I wanted. Some of it was business that gave me money and some of it just took my time.

I worked six months as a consultant as I’ve budgetted and as part of my focus, I’ve actually transferred some of my clients to other freelance consultants. Was this necessary? No I could have kept the client. Didn’t I earn money on the clients? Why sure I did. Good money actually – but the fact remain. If I still have to work some months each year as a consultant, I really just want to do so for ONE client, I don’t want to go around having to work a week or two on that client and then jump to another client and then to a third.

It’s really too much “client maintenance”. These kind of clients also usually tend to think that I’m “always available” so when they have a small one week task, I can just get to work immediately. NO – even though my hourly rate is higher with these kinds of customers – I prefer just one client buying my services for 3-6 months in a row.

When that is said, I do not expect that I have to work 6 months as a consultant next year as my cashflow looks currently (but if I get a really interesting job I might…. “no Rasmus – bad dog…. Remember the focus… no more IT consultancy…” )

But what didn’t work then? Well I was going to launch a big online membership site together with a friend in Bangkok and while we’ve certainly worked on this – and even launched a beta program – we didn’t get to launch as planned in 2011. When that is said!! We’ve worked up some really interesting JV partners, we’re in a market where a lot of money is being spent, and we have a really interesting niche product with an angle where there is not much competition, so I’m really optimistic about this in 2012. Currently it looks like we will be able to launch in February, but let’s see after a planning session in new year.

Also I know that I like taking it slowly (kick back and relax and everything ), I did expect that I would be able to do more “products”. I did a couple of information products (ebooks – one I wrote myself and one modified PLR product), but not really something I had my heart in – and I mostly did it to get some experience with the whole process.

One of the ebooks (it’s in Danish) is something I really expect something from. I know that the product is solid, and again we’re in a market where a lot of money is being spent. Even for a small market like Denmark. The main problem is that the niche is targetted women, and let’s face it… I’m a guy. So I’ve had some trouble with the marketing. I’m totally aware of this, and I need to redo the marketing part (not the product). The problem is that I really want to do some video marketing but I need a woman to record the sales video. Unfortunately my lovely girlfriend is not up for the task, so I need to figure out what I could do then.

If this was an English language product, I could just have used something like fiverr.com (a lot of voice talents will do almost anything for five bucks. And if that didn’t cut it, go somewhere like elance.com.

But it’s not only the video, it’s also all the site graphics, product “package” and so. But because this product is not my #1 priority (I’ll get back to that in a moment) I have put this off for now. I guess that I will come back to this later in 2012 – I still think it’s a great product.

Lessons learned…

I’ve learned that when I do partnerships I really need to be the one being in control. I’ve helped out on a few projects where I was paid a percentage of the revenue. Not that the idea or implementation of that idea was bad, but I can just see that I work best when I’m calling the shots and can set the direction.

I can also see that I really need to focus on only one or two things at a time. I way too easily sidetracked and I certainly no stranger to the shiny objects syndrome. So that is why I’ve found it necessary to cut out a few projects and put other projects on standby for a period.

Bu what is my current focus then?!?

2012

I did “coach” a few people in 2011. Some people contacted me through this blog, while other people came from my network. This was mostly something I did without charging anything, basically because I’ve found out that I enjoy working with people, inspiring them to take action and help them pursue their own dreams.

So I thought why not do an online coaching program and be able to help even more people? I mean… I kind of tell people the same things anyway. And this way I might also make a little money at the same time, although I currently do not expect this to be my primary source of income. So I started in November creating the content, and I should have started recording videos in December, and while I did succeed in recording some of the content (two out of six core modules) most of the month went with our moving process.

So I’ll continue to record videos in January although also this month might go past quickly as our baby son is planned to be born in the beginning of January. Hopefully I will be done with the content in January and start the launch and marketing process in February. If you keep reading this blog and/or if you’re on my newsletter list, you’ll certainly hear more about it. Unfortunately I cannot reveal much more right now, however I can say that it’s all about following your passion, working less and enjoying life more…

So as you might see, I expect to have two membership site launches in the beginning of the new year!

Other news for 2012

I’m starting studying for a NLP Practitioner certification (that’s Neuro Linguistic Programming). I love to develop myself and learn new stuff, and being my own boss enables me to do these kinds of courses and events that a “normal” employer might not have found relevant for my line of work and therefore didn’t want to pay for or give me the time needed for it.

Also I’ve begun to brainstorm ideas for a book, it’s still way to early to say anything more about it, but I certainly hope that I will be able to write one in 2012. While it’s not so much of a goal because I’m still very unsure about the whole process so……

Argh… Who am I kidding… IF I DO NOT TELL MYSELF THAT IT’S A GOAL – IT PROBABLY WON’T GET DONE…. So.. infront of the entire world! I promise to write a book in 2012 (a real one… not “just” another ebook ).

You can hold me accountable!

So that was about it… What are your plans for 2012? Is this the year where you quit your job and pursue what you’re passionate about?

Related posts:

1. 2010 Looking Back

I’ve never lost so much money before. NEVER. And I don’t fancy loosing so much money never again. When that is said – this is the story about I lost more than $100.000 but ended up with a smile on my face.

It all began when we bought a house

We originally lived in an old small house in a Copenhagen (that’s Denmark folks ) suburb. Though it was a nice house, it was originally bought back when I was single and wanted a bigger place that I could have my music studio in.

The house was pretty old (from 1930 I think) and it needed a loving in a few places. And since I’m really not that handy (well not handy at all) we sold it and started looking for something new.

Because we came from an old house – we were looking for a new house and we found one in another Copenhagen suburb. The house was just built (not a year old at the time).

This was back in late 2008. The property market had already started to decline but as time would tell – it would go down for several years to come.

To keep the story short what basically happended was that I got a daughter and we decided that we wanted to live somewhere else and we had to sell our house in the absolute worst market in years.

In this process, we had to sell our house for more than $100.000 less than we’d paid for it just a couple of years before.

But to cut to the chase this is not a story about losing money on selling your home. It’s about how you think about money.

DISCLAIMER: It’s important to point out that I’ve actually earned money on all past property sales. You win some and you loose some.

Accepting the loss

First when we got the low offer I was both sad and angry, not so much on the market or people who’d made the offer, but most of all on myself. Why the f… did I not see this coming? Why had I paid so much for a house that had lost so much of it’s value so fast? At first I didn’t want to accept their offer, not at this price, and had the made the same offer just after we had put the house up for sale, I would surely have declined it. But here we were a year after we had first put the house up for sale, and we really just wanted to move on.

So in the beginning I had all these negative feelings but we signed the papers anyway.

Programming your mind

I’m not quite sure when it hit me. Maybe it was seeing the joy in my girlfriends eyes after we’ve signed the papers or maybe it was realizing that there are far bigger issues in the world than loosing a little paper money selling your house.

But at some point I simply decided that I wouldn’t have anymore negative feelings about this. The deed was done, the house was sold. How was negative feelings ever going to help me?

So I started thinking about all the positive aspects of the sale. And as I added more positive thoughts to the whole situation, the less space the negative had and the money seemed more and more irrelevant.

In the end… it’s only money, I can always earn it again. Did it hurt in the moment? Yes absolutely, but I will not spend time punishing myself or feeling bad.

So if you have a problem that might seem like a really big issue, try to focus on all the good things that can or will come from the situation. The more positive thoughts you associate with it, the less space the negative thoughts will have, and the less of a problem it will seem to you. You will also be in a more positive flow which will follow you in everything you do.

Don’t swallow in negative emotions, cry if you have to (even if you’re a big boy), get over it and go out and kick some ass.

We’ve moved on to a new place that suits our needs better, so lately it’s been all about moving which is also why I haven’t blogged so much lately (you know boxes everywhere…). Hopefully that will change

credit: Jim Larson

No related posts.

So you want to start your own business but are unsure how to do this? In this post I will list 3 different strategies you can use and also give you an idea on when to use it.

So you still have a “normal” 9-5 J-O-B like most people but want to quit the rat-race and become your own boss… I often get people who think that there’s a big threshold to starting businesses and it can be, but of the time it’s really just a decision! Once that decision is made – there’s no stepping back and everything becomes much easier.

DISCLAIMER: First of this is not some kind of magic bullet or shortcut method, I absolute recommend working hard at reaching your goals (my goal is getting more time, so I focus on setting online businesses up that scales well and does not require me much in the operation). These are JOB EXIT STRATEGIES, and they of course do reqire that you actually take action and do something.

So this post is not a online business model or anything, I think I’ve written a lot about business models in the past, they are overall strategies and I would generally advice you select one of them and adapt it to your own situation.

Freelancing

You’re currently working with something. Instead of being an employee you could simply be doing the same thing you’re doing now, but for different companies as a freelancer.

As a freelancer you’re typically paid a little more (because you’re more flexible and has to do all stuff regarding healthcare, pension etc yourself). The main point is however that you get much more control over your time. You can decide when to take on a new client, often also when to work for that client. And you can better structure your time and work on your own business ideas.

This was the strategi I used when I went from an employee to self-employed entreprenuer. It is of course not in all jobs that you can instantly go out and become a freelancer, but do not close that door without at least looking into the opportunity. The strategi allowed me to gradually cut down on freelance hours as I got more passive income in from my own businesses.

A few tips if you want to start as a self-employed freelancer.

Specialize

Don’t try to be a jack of all trades. The more you specialize the easier you will find companies that will pay you for your services. Think about it. All companies that are looking for a freelancer want’s to have a given problem solved. There’ll be a big pool of people who could probably solve the problem, but wouldn’t you prefer to hire someone who specialized in just that problem?

This worked wonders for me, and I never have trouble finding a job when I still freelance (now down to only 3-4 months per year).

Do not sell yourself too cheap

Do not just charge what you’re currently being paid in your given job. There are always expenses with having an employee, so make some market research beforehand to find out how much you can actually charge as a freelancer

Focus on selling your results

In the “old world” when you needed to land a job, your resume with your educational background and past jobs was usually the main document to use. When you sell yourself as a freelancer, try justifying the cost of you and focus on the results you have provided your customers with (or the results that you have generated in your current job).

Get jobs through companies that got the jobs

When you start out as a freelancer, your biggest concern will be how to get jobs! You could perhaps do a deal with your old company to be hired on a freelance contract instead of being an employee but that will only get you your first client.

Another way is to go through consultancy angencies. Yes they do take a cut of your salary (in my industry that’s around 10%-25% not sure how this relates to other industries) but this is money I’m more than happy to pay them. Because they got something you don’t…. Clients. And you save all the time trying to do cold canvas calls to potential clients.

But…

Notice that you are still selling yourself for hours just like you did as an employee. So do not get stuck in this strategy! Your end goal should probably be to create something that scales a little better than just selling hours. I know a lot of freelancers who just work the entire year. This will give them a little more in their bank account but they will still be selling their time and it doesn’t scale. Remember money is not everything – you need to factor in time and mobility as well.

Another thing to notice… When I’m saying freelancing, I’m not talking about doing jobs on elance.com, odesk.com or similar. I know a lot of people doing this, and you can of course investigate the opportunity, but let’s face it. On those portals you usually end up competing on price and you will typically loose to someone who will do it cheaper.

Bootstrap In Your Own Time

Second strategy is simply to spend time outside of your job to simply build your own new business that in time will give you enough money to quit your job.

This can be hard work and it will typically require a great deal of dicipline from your side as it will require a lot of effort over a long period.

However this is a common way of starting your own company and eventually quitting your 9-5 job. There are a few tips that can help you with this strategy.

Have a definite major purpose

Know why you’re working so much to be you own boss. What is the life that you’re reaching for. How should your life look like in 3-5 years?

If you don’t know why your are going home to work on your own business after you’ve just spent 8 hours in your “normal job” – then it can be really hard staying on track and motivated over a longer period and with the first sign of opposition you will most likely quit.

So define how your life should look in 3-5 years in 1-3 sentences, print it out and stable it to your computer or somewhere else where you’ll see it daily! Also read it out load at least once per day to keep it fresh in mind. You might think that it sounds like mumbo jumbo… but your brain will always look for the easiest solution and if it does not know “why” it has to do something, it will simply tell you that you do not have to do it. And working against your brain is REALLY DIFFICULT!

Divide work and leasure time

Know when your working on your own business and when you’re being a good spouse, father, friend etc. Make clear rules so those around you know when they should not disturb and when they can get some quality time with you.

This could be as little as setting up 1-2 hours each evening after dinner and the kids are put to bed (if you got any of those as I’m writing this I have my second on the way ).

People in the western world are typically watching way too much TV, so instead of spending time in front of the idiot box try spending that time working on your next business idea!

Get support from your family

If your family and friends are not supportive about what you’re going to do, it can be an uphill battle. So it’s always easier to take that battle up front and tell them why you are doing it (your definite major purpose remember?).

Here you can also agree on when you are working on your own business and when your father/spouse/friend etc.

If your still and got no family or strong commitments, now is the time that you should focus on getting something off the ground

Be more productive when you work

Because you do not have all the time in the world, you should focus on becomming more productive.

There are tons of strategies for this, I usually have an 80/20 mindset and only focus on working on the stuff that really gives value. But it could also try to timebox tasks and block outside disturbances like email, phone etc. If I’m working in a place with other people I also tend to put on earphones even if there is no music in them simply because it indicates to other that I really don’t want to be disturbed.

But this is not a post about productivity, there are other posts about that.

Just focus on getting the most out of the sparse time you got.

Save and Execute

This last strategy involves you working your ass off and saving enough money to give you a buffer period (could be 6-12 months). Then quit your job and live of the money you’ve saved.

This is not for everyone because the strategy assume that you can actually save money and not just spend all you get on your monthly paycheck. It also assumes that you are willing to take the risk of simply quitting your job without more than your savings.

This is a really great method for young people who haven’t started a family yet and who have not yet tasted French fine wines

Cut down on expences

This might be obvious but if you just plan on this from the beginning you could perhaps add another month or two in the end. And in this situation time is probbly more important to you than that new LCD display!

This of course assumes that everyone is on the same pace. If you have a HMW (“high maintenance wife” – sorry ladies ) then it can be an uphill battle to get her to turn down the spendings in the period. You know… once you’re used to getting a lot of nice stuff each month and that second car and all.

I know people who’ve sold there appartments and started living on a shoestring budget simply because they believed so much in their idea and their definite major purpose that it was totally ok for them (even though they were used to a much higher living standard before this).

Have a little extra buffer

Getting income streams up and running usually take a little longer than planned. Assume worst case and then some! Initially you should focus on getting even small income streams up and running instead of working on that one big contract/business idea that will remove all your financial worries in generations to come!

Cashflow is much more important. If you got 6 months worth of cash, if your just get a little cashflow in you could perhaps make that 12 months or even sustain you on a small budget! You can always spend more time optimizing your cashflow channels once they are up and running.

Believe strongly in your idea

This should be tied to your definite major purpose! You should be able to visualize your entire business idea in your mind and believe that it’s just about setting everything up and then see the money pooring in.

If you do not believe strongly in your idea, your brain (remember that from before) will try to sabotage you because it finds that little corner of doubt in your mind. You should be 112% dedicated to your idea and believe that it can be done while you are still having money in the bank (or under your mattress).

There you have…

Three different strategies, so get off your ass and start taking action .

I chose one of these strategies and I know people who’ve used the other two. They can all be used to great success, but it requires that secret ingredient… YOU TAKING ACTION

credit: epSos.de

No related posts.

Or Why You Should Fire Your Designer – Or probably not hire one in the first place.

By reading this post, you will be able to save thousands of dollars on website design. Actuall you can have a complete website that look better than what your designer would probably end up doing completely free or less
than $50.

Here’s the deal… Someone wants a website and they go out and hire the first and best designer. Often it’s a friend or friend of a friend, and sometimes it’s even a family member.

It is however not limited these segments. Everybody who can open up Photoshop call themselves a designer, including tons of people on the usual places like elance.com, odesk.com, guru.com etc.

I see this pattern again and again. “I want a website but does not know anything about it, so I’ll have someone else do it” On paper that might sound like a great idea (I mean, I’m all for -outsourcing-)

The sites they end up creating is usually “ok looking” but nothing more. The site owner ends up paying them per the hour so they usually end up spending a lot of money because design is subjective and they want
something changed.

Often I see people pay $1000-$5000 for these kind of website designs

After having this amount of money you should now have a killer website, but a lot of the time, that’s not the case!

The problem is that all websites have a goal. They want to hit a certain people segment, they want to sell products, they want to generate leads, they want to establish a brand etc.

When you simply tell a designer to do a site, you never get through these thoughtprocesses. Your designer might be interested in who your potential audience is and will modify colors and style to this, but doing a complete
“information architecture” as it’s called is seldom done my entry level designers (and you as a client do not want to pay for something that you don’t know exists).

5 Things That Are Typically Wrong With These Sites

• No clear benefit statement (why should the visitor want to stay on your site (or take action)
• No clear call to action (what do you want the visitor to do?)
• Way too much text and bad imagery (I feel like stabbing myself with the nearest pencil whenever I see two shaking hands).
• Overdesigned websites
• Bad navigation

It’s Partially Your Fault!

Basically you are trying to purchase something that you know absolutely nothing about. You basically do not know what to ask for. Imagine going to the grocery store and telling them that you want a box with something
inside. The problem is that you basically do not know what’s inside the box and let the grocerystore make that decision. And remember that we’re not talking about a pound of butter here… We’re talking about thousands of
dollars here.

Good News

I Can Tell You How To Get A Professionally Looking Website Free

I’ve done several online businesses and most of the time I end up spending less than $100 on the entire website (that’s including the design ).

It’s basically a three or four step process.

1. Use WordPress
2. Know what good design looks like
3. Select a free or paid theme
4. Optionally: Have modifications done to your theme (like getting a real logo)

Use WordPress

You’ve probably already heard of WordPress, it’s basically a content management system (CMS). There are other systems out there (too many to count actually) and I’ve also seen designers recommend some custom
developed (or perhaps no CMS at all).

All you need to know is that you should use WordPress period!

• It’s search engine optimized out of the box
• It’s typically a “one click install” with your webhosting company meaning that you can click that button yourself and thereby remove the need for a programmer/developer)
• It’s so widespread that you can get thousands of plugins or extensions to the system so if you like some special functionality chances are that it’s most like already developed (and in most cases free)
• There are also so many people who know the system, so if you actually did want to outsource small tweaks, it’s really easy (and cheap) to get people who know the system.

See this is where mediocre webdesigners/developers fail, they tend to focus on features of the CMS itself, forgetting the ecosystem that the system is part of, and the whole lifecycle of your website (like who can work on it, and when should it be updated. I’ve seen numerous sites made on some proprioraire system where the developer stopped working on the system years ago and he was the only one knowing the sytem)

I know that you got a good friend/cousin/even a son who’s telling you that you need Joomla, Drupal, Mambo, INSERT ANY NAME HERE, etc. Don’t listen to them! They might enjoy playing with tech stuff themselves but most of us really just want to start a website and focus on content (I’m really a programmer at heart and still do some consultancy some of the year – so I should know).

Know what good design looks like

Sorry to say, but you probably need a little education. Design is subjective, what I find attractive you might hate and the other way around.

There is basically no wrong or right when it comes to the design itself, BUT. There certainly is a right and wrong when it comes to archiving a certain goal online.

The three things that your design MUST HAVE

1) A clear big font statement telling your visitors exactly what the benefit of your site or product is

It’s hard getting visitors to a website, and when they get there you most often only have their attention for ten seconds before they leave again. It is vital that the visitor in that 10 seconds. By guiding the visitors’ eyes by having a big ass font clearly explaining why they should stay on the site you give them a reason to spend just a little more time!

2) Super clear navigation in the top with no more than 7 menu items (and preferable less)

Some years ago a lot of sites used left navigation and even other kinds of strangly positioned menus (I’ve even seen menus in the bottom of the page!). If you take a look at every major website outthere (and there are of course always exceptions that prooves the point) they all use a simple horizontal top navigation. No need to reinvent something here. Go with a simple horizontal menu in the top. Don’t try and make anything fancy here.
The goal is to make it easy for your visitors to find information on your site, everytime you make something “fancy” you’ll probably end having frustrated visitors.

3) A clear call to action, big buttons are awesome

Now if you’ve managed to get the visitors to stay a little more than ten seconds, you probably want them to do something. Even if you’re just having a blog and not selling anything you probably want them to stay a little long. So look at the end of all my posts, they contain “Related posts” in order to keep you a little longer.

But also if you’re selling something, you either want to get the visitors to buy or at least get a lead that you can sell to at a later stage.

So make it clear to your visitors what to do if they’ve bought your message and want to know more or even buy something from you. Don’t be afraid of big ass buttons so the visitor doesn’t need to look all over your website (again, if they need to spend more than ten seconds looking for a “Buy Now” button or “Get In Contact” or “Signup For My Newsletter” button, you’ve probably lost them).

There are of course tons of other things you could look for, but if you just look for these three things you are ahead of 95% of the competition!

An example is the Extatic theme that I’m using for one of my sites:

Select A Free Or Paid Template

A template (also known as a theme) is a predesigned web design that is being given away or sold.

The last many websites I’ve started have been using standard themes (mostly costing me less than $20).

The main strength with themes is that you can instantly see what you’re getting and decide then and there if it’s something you like and feel will appeal to your target audience.

You don’t have to wait months for your cousin to make you that first draft you end up hating but use anyway because you do not want to spend two months more waiting for another

Just remember to look for the three things that I outlined above 1) prominent placed (big ass) headline, 2) Simple horizontal navigation and 3) clear call to action and quickly discard the theme if it does not live up to these criterias.

Get Your Design In 5 Minutes Instead of 5 Months

So you might ask where you can find these free and paid themes, well let’s start with the free themes.

Google:

“free wordpress theme”

and you will get thousands of hits.

The problem with this is that you can spend days looking through all of this. If you want to filter this a bit, you can also look at someone like Smashing Magazine who creates long lists of free quality wordpress themes, I’ve found a theme or two in the past this way:

• 100 Amazing WordPress Themes 2009
• 100 Amazing WordPress Themes 2010
• 100 Amazing WordPress Themes 2011

I usually go with a paid theme, basically because there is more quality than quantity (the opposite is true with free themes).

My primary source of quality commercial themes is ThemeForest.

The weakness of using a theme is that you do not get something uniquely designed for you, but this very overrated, it’s rare that I find someone using the same theme as me and most of the time I’ve had a logo developed or perhaps changed the colors a little (most paid themes makes it easy to customize it a little usually through the administration interface).

So if you’re Nike you probably don’t want to buy a theme (I’ve seen how much money then spend on branding!) but if your a small business this will give you a way better result in the end.

Customize the theme

One thing you most often will lack when you use a theme is a logo. On this blog I’ve chosen a theme where I did not have to have a logo. It’s just the title of the blog in some smart font (but I might have a logo designed at some point)

There are several ways to get logos designed. I’ve heard several people use 99designs.com but I usually just head over to fiverr.com.

Click this link to see how to get a logo for only $5.

I usually make sure that I have the theme in place first, this way I can show whoever I hire on Fiverr what the logo should fit into.

Conclusion

By following this recipe you can basically have a website up in a couple of days (where you spend most time writing the content) instead of using months. You’ll also be able to do this on a budget And most of the time,
you will actually get a better result in the end.

Big companies often spend a lot of money, get multiple design drafts and many numbers of iterations over the design

DISCLAIMER
I’m not a designer, but have been in the online industri a long time, and know quite a lot about the mechanisms that happen online, including user behavior.

Photo Credits

No related posts.

(Well if you’re a beginner like me and want to start running!)
So you’ve decided that you want to start running, but can’t quite get started? Well a lot of us is fighting with the motivation in this area. So let me fill you in how I cracked the running code.

“So Rasmus” you might ask… ” is this blog going to turn into some feel good exercise blog?”

Well no… But since Timothy Ferriss also wrote The 4-Hour Body, and The 4-Hour Workweek is really about hacking your life – I found it ok to discuss this as well.

But don’t worry, the next post will be back to normal, I promise

The Story Of My Body

Well to keep it short… My body was not built to lift heavy things. Basically I’m tall and quite thin. I’m 189cm tall and weighing approximately 75kg. Most of the jobs I’ve had, have included me sitting down most of the day infront of a computer. And when I got home, I could also sit infront of the computer.

Now when I work as a consultant some of the year, I pretty much sit down infront of the computer the whole day, and when I don’t have to work but is playing around with my own projects, guess what…. This also includes me working on my computer.

I haven’t really been doing any sports for the last 15 years.

While this might sound like an old man speaking, after I turned 30 I could really begin feeling my body taking a downhill turn. I could feel my back after a long day, my energy level was really low when I got home in the afternoon, and other such sympthoms.

Sidetrack: If you want to see my body in action, you can get a glimpse here where I show it of while we’re in our second home in Thailand.

Before we got our little princess, my girlfriend liked spending time at the gym, so it was an easy fit to just tag along with her. But I’m however not quite “gym material”. Besides the time it takes getting there, I’m really not into the whole sweating on machines (with ridicoulous low weight on) while looking at (searching for?) my muscles in a big mirror.

So I was self aware enough to know that if I bought a gym membership, I would probably only go once and curse myself for paying for something I didn’t use. But the problems were still there and I knew that I needed to find some kind of exercise form that I would stick with.

In the end however, I also knew that the most important thing was not starting exercising. It would be to start a habit.

Creating a new habit

Here’s the secret! If you want to start exercise for whatever reason (loose weight, get more energy, enjoy nature) and assume that you have a hard time motivating yourself? Forget about the exercise to start with. Focus on getting a habit first….

Allow me to explain…

When I had to start running, my first success criteria was to get on my running clothes, my running shoes, starting the music and then run a quick trip around the neighborhood. Basically I only ran something like 800 meters the first many times.

The problem is that if I focused on running, I would probably have done it a few times while I had the motivation, but as the initial motivation for starting running is replaced with procrastination, rainy and cold days etc. And soon you run less and less until you would just stop it all together.

So most references I’ve found basically says that it will take you 21 days to start a habit, so therefore I focused on the habit before actually focusing on the running.

So did I feel pathetic running less than 1 kilometer? Sure I did. Did I proudly tell everyone that I’ve started running? Absolutely not. I wanted to have a success with the habit first, then I could start running “for real” and then I could go and tell everybody who again would keep me accountable!

So how do you start a habit? Here’s another well kept secret. You stick it next to another existing habit!

For me my mornings are almost on autopilot, I get up, go to the toilet (“argh Rasmus… too much information….”), brush my teeth, shower, put on contactlenses, put on deodorant, put on clothes, return to the bathroom to use wast amounts of wax on my hair and put on some facial cream. And I’m ready (I really should move on to breakfast, but I currently don’t have a steady breakfast routine).

All of this happens almost with my brain need to step in and do anything other than controlling my feet and arms (some people might say that’s all my brain do all day ).

So I decided to start the morning with running before my morning ritual, and it worked like a charm. I started out running three times a week. In the perfect world I should really do it everyday in order to get into the habit, but I didn’t want to stress my body (as mentioned earlier I really hadn’t done anything for years) and I wanted a habit that I could follow also when I started adding distance.

After a year, I steadily ran approximately three kilometers three times a week. Not much, but it was steady (I wasn’t proud of the distance, but I also wanted to have a success just getting out running, so I was not so concerned with the distance).

Then two things happened that made me break from running 1) I had a little baby princess and 2) we had a really cold and snow filled winter here in Denmark.

So I stopped running again. Good news is that I’ve started again, and this time I surprisingly started out running six kilometers with each trip. 100% improvement even though I’d had a years break and I was only used to running three kilometers.

How I increased my distance with 100%

Notice I have absolutely no proof that what I’m saying is true. This is just what happened for me and what I think happened. If you want to start running, you could try the following method to increase your distance/stamina.

Thank you Tim

After reading Timothy Ferriss’ second book, The 4-Hour Body, I basically fell into the whole “Occam’s Protocol” and basically thinking more 80/20 about your exercise (the minimal things to do to get the maximum benefit).

So while I don’t want to eat like a horse (like Tim suggests) and I did start doing push-ups three times each week. As a tall thin guy I could certainly use a little form in the upper body area, so I thought “why not try it”. And I had basically been doing this for a month or two when I took up running again.

And guess what. The first time I was out running I felt great. Normally it was my lungs quitting on me and I always felt terrible wuite quickly, so I just extended the course as I was running. And this one day – hadn’t run for a year and back then only three kilometers – I ran just about six kilometers.

So… If you want to get more stamina (that you can use with your running plans), try doing pushups a couple of times each week. I cannot be sure that this was what did it, but it was the only thing I’ve changed since then.

When I do the pushups, I’m basically doing as many as I can three times (three times a week). I won’t bore you with the low number of pushups I can do

One Last Super Tip

You’re probably listening to music when running, but if you don’t you really should try it. Specially something with lot’s of energy. There are several research papers out that says it’s a really good idea

Just Do It

So that’s it, just do it. Don’t wait for better weather, better timing… Timing is never right, just put on your running shoes and go outside for a couple of minutes. Get the habit first, then extend the distance. And try as many pushups you can master a couple of times per week to gain stamina that can be used running.

Happy running…

Photo by ccarlstead

No related posts.

Last week I attended Brendon Burchard’s Experts Academy in Santa Clara, CA. As I went into this pretty much without expectations because I hadn’t any prior knowledge of the guy beforehand.

If you want to know more and get some free training, you can go to Experts Academy Here.

A lot of the stuff I found about him online prior to the event, was just affiliates pushing his products, so it wasn’t quite unbiased reviews.

The Millionaire Messenger

The only thing that I had before I went, was his book “The Millionaire Messenger” that was given to me by the same guy who invited me to the event (he’s a member of Brendon’s “Empire Group”).

So I read the book and found it “ok”. It’s not on my absolete must read (link) list, but it was not not bad either. Basically his message was that you can live of your expert knowledge. One of the points I resonated most with was the different types of experts.

• The Result Expert
• The Research Expert
• The Role Model

I know many people who wants to know “everything” within an domain before they want to go out and start sharing that knowledge, or perhaps feelt that they have to have generated millions before they can help others have financial success.

In this quest they tend to forget (and I’m certainly prone to this as well) that they already know more than 99% of other people, and the 99% could most certainly benefit from their knowledge. It also was a wake up call to me. I do not have to work only “4 hour workweeks” before I can start teaching people what I know. I already have a life where I work less than 99% of people with a job, so why not go out there in the world and inpsire and grow people? Something that I’m really passionate about.

During the semimar it actually came out that Brendon wrote the book in 13 days, which I guess shows at bit. It’s a short read and probably compiled of knowledge that he had readily on hand because of his many seminars.

It is also clear that the books serve as the low tier product that he uses to pull people into his “product funnel” (or “integrated product suite” as he calls it). Before people hands over the $2000 for a seminar or one of his online products, Brendon needs to establish trust, and he does this by low tier products such as books (his next book is already scheduled to be written).

The Seminar

So I went basically not knowing what this was all about. As I wrote I got the ticket for free because I was invited by an Empire Group member, so I *only* had to pay for plane ticket and hotel.

Because of this it was also difficult to be disappointed in any way as I had absolutely no expectations whatsoever.

All that I’ve concluded from reading the book and talking with my friend who invited me, was that the seminar was about how to establish yourself as an expert and create information products in that expert domain. Something that I resonate well with as I’m currently trying to do with ebooks and membership sites.

At the seminar there was a handout that was pretty much the powerpoint presentation that Brendon used. Although every other line included something that should be filled in. Except for the fact that I really don’t like presentation (powerpoint/keynote) that uses a lot of bullet points, it kind of worked well with the whole “fill in the blanks” of the handout. This kept the audience waiting for the next bullet to be revealed so they could fill it into their handout. It also prevented people from reading ahead in the handout and thereby not listening to what was being presented.

I can see myself using this same handout format in the workshops I give myself.

Brendon of course went into the mindset you should have in order to position yourself as an expert and to create products. He also went into how to create your brand, how to design and structure your content, what kinds of products you can create (online and offline but with a focus on online products).

There was also information on how to actually create the content and this was something I found really interesting, as I guess most of us know all this stuff about a given area, but not quite sure on how to structure it so other people can learn from it.

There was also a strong focus on how to market the products. He also went into details on doing launches and how he has used JV partners (or promotional partners as he calls them). The model he proposes is almost identical to Jeff Walker’s “Product Launch Formular” model. I really liked how he actually went into the actual content of each of free videos leading up to the launch (the model suggests having free content that is released up to the launch).

Another thing he went into was list building. Most people in the IM industry agrees that “the money is in the list”. He shared some interesting statistics about the use of images in the mails he sent out. As many marketers he spends a lot of time split testing different combinations – and he has done a lot with email. It’s also nice seeing one that isn’t just using plain text 50 character wide pure marketing spam email like it seems most people in the IM industry is doing.

On the email subject, they also talked about open rates, and that actually made me consider moving to iContact, as it seems that have rather high open rates compared to the competition (the idea is here that you get more opens because they are better at avoiding the spam folder).

But who knows right? If you’ve tried multiple autoresponder systems and have input on open rates I would love to hear from you.

He also covered a little bit on how to spend your time. The interesting thing here is that basically said that 70% of your time should go with marketing related tasks and only 20% should go with creating the actual product!

Overall I think it was a great seminar. One thing that I didn’t expect was all the awesome people there. I met many inspiring people and Brendod did a great job at facilitating the conversation and networking through group exercises and requesting that we found new people to talk with for each exercise.

You also got time for networking in all the breaks, and I had lunch with different people everyday.

As one curious thing… I actually met another guy there who is named Rasmus and who lives in Denmark. It actually started when a guy talked to me like we’ve just spend a couple of hours chatting and I didn’t knwo what the h… he was talking about (we all had nametags on). So I slowly realized that there were another “Rasmus” at the event, so in a break I scouted through the crowd for another good looking tall guy (I mean, he must look like me right?! ). Cool to find another Dane at the event.

Fantastic Surprise Guest Speakers

Apparently Brendon got a lot of cool friends, and he pursuaded a few to pop by and talk to the crowd. So the following list of people stopped by.

• Debbie Ford (author to more books than I can count )
• Frank Kern (the most laid back guy in IM – he gave some solid content while saying “fuck” every 30 seconds… he was in short… awesome)
• Scott Hoffman (Brendon’s agent – on book deals)
• Rick Frishman (publicist – also on book deals)
• David Hancock (also in the publishing biz like the other two)
• Bo Eason (former NFL player – now actor, writer etc. Did his entire Broadway show on stage!)
• David Bach (author of 9 NY Times bestsellers)

I might have forgotten one as there was a lot of guest speakers, so if you was at the seminar and remember anyone I’ve forgotten please let me know.

The seminar lasted for four days (the two first of them was very long and not many breaks) and I think it was awesome. If nothing else – I came home super inspired really wanting to take action, and you cannot put a price on that

Brendon is a fantastic speaker and I took a lot of notes only on how he worked the stage.

The “Expert’s Academy” seminars seem to evolve, as some had also attended previous “Expert’s Academy” seminars and could confirm that there was a lot of new stuff, so it seems like Brendon is putting effort into making each event better than the last.

Were You At The Event?

If you were at Expert’s Academy I would love to hear what you thought of it and if you found it as fantastic as I did

Related posts:

1. Brendon Burchard’s Experts Academy – and beer…

Timothy Ferriss calls this Filling The Void. When you have your passive income (muses) setup, left your old 9-5 job and you basically no longer have to work, what do you do?

I get the “But I love my job…” thing a lot – most of the time people find it difficult to actually think outside of what the society “expects of you”.

My own journey towards a 4 hour workweek has certainly also added some learning points and let me start out by saying that the goal is not a four hour workweek in itself! My goal is more to be able to do and work with whatever I’m passionate about. This means that I can spend time with my family, work on projects I find interesting and basically have the opportunity to “select my own battles”.

As it looks right now, I really only have to work (as an IT consultant working for hours) 3-4 months next year which is even better than this year where I probably end up working 6 months.

So what did I learn about myself in the progress? This post as you might already have noticed, is pretty much about me and my journey, you might be able to find some stuff in there that you can use in your own journey, or you might just find it a little too much of an ego post. Either way, I would love to get you input on how you would live you life if/when you wouldn’t have to work!

So back on track… What I’ve learned from not having to work for six months this year!

1 – I need to know what to do before I do it

Sounds basic right? Well… when I’m out working as a consultant I seldom take time out to think about what I’ll do when I don’t have to work, so once I don’t have to work I spent the first week trying to figure out what I should do the next couple of months. A trip to our house in Thailand is of course planned months in advance, but I’m really bad at planning what to do there before we arrive (I’m generally really bad at planning). So I’m basically going there without a plan for when to spend time with the family and what to of my own projects I want to work on (and when). My usually plan is “I figure it out when I get there”.

The problem for me with this approach is that I didn’t have an overall strategy for what I wanted to get done, so while I might have worked on a few projects, I stretched my self over too many projects that for the most part is not really aligned with my overall strategy. Guess that I fell for the “shiny objects syndrom”. People said that this and that was working for them, so I thought I would give it a try. The problem was that this was basically stuff that I wasn’t very passionate about, so it quickly lost focus (such as my niche site on baby sleep). I did it because it didn’t really take much time for me and I figured that I had the time (to do it… there is also the whole “how the hell do I get traffic” thing).

So I’ve realized that

• I need to focus on my overall strategy and make sure that my projects are all aligned with this.
• I need to be passionate about the projects I’m doing in order to make sure that I will actually keep a focus on them.

2 – I should charge for my time

This probably sounds a bit odd. I am most certainly charging for my time when I’m working as an IT consultant, but because I’ve been really passionate about helping other people work less and follow their own passions, I haven’t charged anything for the coaching session I’ve done.

I just love trying to help people, so I covered the coaching in under my “free time”. Heck I thought, I don’t need to make any money on this. And while that is true that I do not *need* to make money, I still feel that I provide value. Also people are more likely to be are bit more serious about the whole thing if they need to pay for the advice.

Don’t get me wrong, you can still send me an email through my contact form and I will answer personally (no virtual assistants there) – but I probably won’t do the indepth analysis of your business or do Skype sessions for free.

I’ve also thought about how I can get my message out and help an even bigger crowd, and since I don’t feel that 1 on 1 sessions scale that well (remember I’m trying to cut down on working for hours), I’m currently trying to empty my head into a structured online coaching program – but I will probably write more about this in future posts. If you would be interested in a structured coaching program that helped you live a “four hour workweek” be sure to sign up for my newsletter as my regular readers will be the first to know of this when it launches.

3 – Spending Time With The Family Is Awesome

It is a priveledge to be able to spend months at a time together with my family. Normally you just get to spend one or perhaps two weeks of vacation together and then you normally don’t even get to “stress down”. The months we spend this winter in Thailand gave us an opportunity as a family that I wouldn’t have traded for anything in the world.

When that’s said, I sometimes move out of the house (when we’re in Denmark that is) in the daytime in order to be able to focus on specific projects. When you need to get something done on a project you (well I do at least) really need several hours of undisturbed hours which can be difficult if I’m just sitting in the “home office”.

You also get a little weird when you just sit in front of a computer wearing only tights, haven’t shaved for a week and can’t remember when you showered the last time .

Current focus

Lately I’ve been working with getting more focus and integrating long term strategy into my work. This means abandoning a few projects that are really just time wasters. They could perhaps generate money over time, but there are other projects I’d rather work on and I’m more passionate about and need the focus. After the Experts Academy I’ve been really inspired to do something about the online coaching program and this will take a lot of my time, energy and focus, so other projects will need to be left behind.

So when my current consultancy gig ends here in October, I feel I have a strategy for what I want to do. Also I’m going to be a father (for the second time – yeah) in January to a little baby boy, so the family is also high on the priority list.

Photo credit: Karen Brazier

No related posts.

In the beginning of September (2011 that is if you’re reading this later) I’m going to Brendon Burchard’s Expert Academy in San Fransisco – well Santa Clara more precisely.

It all started with that I got the book The Millionaire Messenger by Brendon Burchard by a friend six months ago. It turns out that he was actually (and still is) in Brendon’s coaching group and really only had good things to say about it.

So I quickly read the book (it is a quick read) to see what it was he was raving about.

His method or model is basically to establish yourself as an expert in a given field and create information products. No big surprises here. I however find him a little more interesting than the usual internet marketing crowd, because he seems to be a little more professional about his business. A business that he apparently grew from $0 to $4 million in just two years.

Also his seminar runs for four days so I expect a little more than “become an expert and write an ebook”

It seems like he came out of nowhere and I certainly hadn’t heard of him until I was given the book. But in very little time, he has made a name for him self.

And he certainly seem to run with the “in-crowd”…

From his website:

Brendon has shared the stage with gurus like Tony Robbins, Deepak Chopra, Marianne Williamson, John Gray, Brian Tracy, Mark Victor Hansen, Andy Andrews, Keith Ferrazzi, Harv Eker, Les Brown, and Jack Canfield. He’s also shared the stage with the Dalai Lama, Tony Hsieh (Zappos CEO), and Sir Richard Branson in inspiring others to be more giving and compassionate while building their businesses

But I will most likely write a longer review of the seminar once I get home again. I’ve found it difficult to find any unbiased reviews of his products online because most sites that ranks in the search engines are affiliates who earn a commision on any sale they refer. So stay tuned.

And.. if you’re in San Fransisco in the 7th to 12th September feel free to contact me if you feel like chatting over a beer.

Related posts:

1. Brendon Burchard’s Experts Academy Review