Last July at the World Domination Summit conference in Portland I met Nathan Barry, who at the time was an iOS app developer. Little did I know that over the next 9 months he would go on to release three books and a web app that would earn him over $150,000.

In this session I chat with Nathan about how he was successful at building an audience from scratch, landed high-level guest posts on launch day, how pricing his book into multiple packages earned him $50,000 more, and why he has no interest in working with a traditional publisher any time soon (and neither should you).

You can listen or subscribe to the podcast on iTunes here.

You can also listen to it on Stitcher or using the player right here.

Items mentioned in this episode:

• NathanBarry.com
• ConvertKit
• Authority
• The App Design Handbook
• Designing Web Applications
• Gumroad

If you have enjoyed this or other episodes of The Cubicle Renegade Podcast I’d love for you to leave a review of the show on iTunes:

• Please Click Here to Subscribe or Leave a Review on iTunes
  

Cheers!

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This post is by my good friend and previous guest on my podcast, Barrett Brooks, the founder of Living For Monday and creator of Career Kickstarter.

I’ll always remember the phone call. I was in the office in downtown Atlanta working on an awesome proposal team to try to win a new consulting contract at a huge Atlanta corporation. I was the only staffer on the team and I was getting incredible exposure to executive level professionals within the firm. Essentially, this project team had put me on a first name basis with multiple movers and shakers within the organization and set me up for an awesome start to my young career.

But then the call came in. I picked up the phone and heard one of the partners on the other end of the line ask me if I could be at “the client’s” office that afternoon. As soon as I told the proposal team I was working with where I was going, I knew things were not going to be good. They told me that it was good because I would be billing my hours, but that they would try and come rescue me in a couple of months… Rescue me?

What did that even mean?

Fast-forward three months… I opened up our progress tracker spreadsheet to check in on how far we had to go. Great. Just 10,000 more documents to find and they were all from countries in very different time zones. We had no real process or knowledge of how to get in touch with the right people and how make sure they found the files. I banged my head on my desk and got up to grab another cup of the terrible office coffee.

The problem was that I was in a job that I was well equipped to do, but I didn’t even remotely believe in the work I was doing. I had used my relationship building skills in college to land a job with one of the largest professional services providers in the world in their management consulting practice. It was the holy grail of jobs for business majors graduating from my university.

Despite all of the prestige and the great paycheck, I simply felt no purpose in my work. The real problem didn’t lie in the company – it was a great company. It really wasn’t the work either – I had the opportunity to learn, grow, and even manage a team within 6 months of starting my career. No, it was the way I went about finding the job to begin with and the criteria I used to do that. I had gone about my career search all wrong and I was feeling the repercussions.

So many young professionals find themselves in the exact same position I did. Excited about their jobs on day one, and then quickly coming to the realization that they’ve made a terrible mistake.

Most people drift into a state of quiet desperation and eventually they do one of two things:

1. They become complacent and accept the fact that works sucks and life isn’t fair.
2. They wake up one day and decide to do something about their circumstances.

If you’re at the point where you know you’ve reached a dead end in your career, or you’re even starting to slip into a monotonous sense of complacency, I’m here to save you. I hope that my story will help you avoid a life and career of sadness and “what if.”

I’m on a mission to change the way the world thinks about work because I believe every person should have the chance to make an impact through his or her career.

Let’s talk about how to avoid those lives of quiet desperation, shall we?

The Catalyst for Leaving

I knew I was in the wrong job and that I would have to make some changes within the first six months of joining the firm, but I hadn’t decided what to do about it. As I considered my options, I went in search of new ways of thinking and challenging experiences that would push me out of my comfort zone.

First, I started reading blogs and putting more time into my own blog. I read Think Traffic, The Art of Non Conformity, and Smart Passive Income. I used my lunch breaks to begin hashing out my own thoughts on a personal blog. Essentially, I started thinking for myself and getting away from the dogma of conventional thought processes.

Then, I had a serendipitous encounter where I was invited to serve as a counselor at a summer camp for abused and neglected children. The camper:counselor ratio was 1:1 and the experience challenged me in ways I never thought possible.

I grew to love my camper in just 6 short days, even as he struggled to learn to swim, threw fits, struggled with having to return home. Midway through the week, the camp’s new director was fired because she was a bad cultural fit for the organization. The president of the board stood up in our staff meeting that day, told us what had happened, and asked for counselors to apply for the director’s role after camp ended.

That was the end of the line for me in my job. Seeing the impact that one short week had on so many kids and being presented with the opportunity to make that change happen through the director’s role really put the lack of impact of my work in perspective. Where at camp the impact was personal and transformative, the impact at work was corporate and focused solely on financial returns.

I didn’t appy to be director, but I did decide that I would quit my job. I had more potential than what I was being allowed to use. I wanted to make a real impact through my work rather than drowning in a sea of spreadsheets and cubicles.

Lesson learned: When you hit a dead end, seek out experiences, people, and learning that push you as far out of your comfort zone as you can go. Get out of the weeds long enough to see the big picture again. Do some soul searching and ask yourself what it is that you feel called to do. When you find an answer that provides some direction, start planning to make it happen.

The Final Decision

I didn’t go back to work right after camp and immediately quit my job. Instead, I began considering all of the possible options for what I could do with my life and work. I thought about going to work for another company, applying for nonprofit work, going back to school, and starting my own business.

At the end of the day, I revisited a powerful document I had created as a part of a leadership development program in college. In that paper, I outlined my ideal vision for the future, which included starting a business with a nonprofit subsidiary and investing money to find solutions to some of the most pressing problems of our time.

I knew that if I waded any further into the waters of big business, I would likely get too far up the chain to start my own thing in the future. “Now is the time to take a risk,” I told myself. I made my mind up to start my own business.

Lesson Learned: When you’ve decided you need a change in your work and life, don’t just move on for the sake of moving on. Instead, take an intentional approach to determe what your ideal life looks like and what legacy you want to leave behind when you’re gone. Let that vision for the future guide your decision making, and trust that it will be a guiding light as you make mistakes along the way.

How I Left

Once I made my mind up to leave and I had some basic direction, I knew I had to rally the people I cared about most around my decision. That was the most intimidating part of the entire process, because I didn’t know how my family, girlfriend, and close friends would react.

At first my mom just said that I was having a bad day and to sleep on it before doing anything stupid. By the time we had the same conversation 4 or 5 times, she knew I was serious and that I had given the decision serious thought. She began brainstorming business ideas, at which point I knew I had won her over. She went to work convincing my dad that I was making the right decision.

In the mean time, my girlfriend and I hashed out all of the possible alternatives. She had seen just how miserable I was. It was having a big impact on our relationship, and she simply wanted me to be happy so that we could enjoy life together. Like many of my friends, she didn’t exactly know WHAT I should do, but she knew I had to make a change.

One weekend I was riding in the car with my Dad, and he said, “You know, if you had to live with us for a few months while you get started, it wouldn’t be the end of the world if we had to buy your groceries for a little while.”

I got home, wrote my letter of resignation, and quit my job the next day.

Lesson Learned: Deciding to quit is not hard, but winning support of the people you care about most is. Winning their support and rallying them around your idea for what comes next is crucial for your sense of well-being as you leave. That support becomes even more support while making the transition.

What I Decided to Do Instead

Ever since college when I had to bounce back from ridiculously stupid, self-inflicted mistakes, I have been obsessed with leadership, personal, and professional development. Those may sound corny, but I love the study of what makes humans fulfill their greatest potential.

• What makes high performers different than others?
• How do people use failure to catapult them to great success?
• What processes do people use to overcome challenges, learn from their experience, and refuse to make the same mistake twice?
• How do some individuals and/or employers create teams and environments that inspire top performance from their people?

What I saw in my short-lived big business career were a ton of young professionals with ridiculous amounts of potential wasting away in jobs they despised. Their talents weren’t being put to proper use, their interests weren’t aligned with their work, and they felt absolutely no purpose or mission behind their daily activities. The more I looked around, the more I saw people experiencing exactly what I was, across industries, companies, and job titles.

I saw a gap in the way most career centers, career counselors, coaches, bloggers, and companies were talking about careers. Companies were portraying their best selves as they recruited new people, which meant the truth was being hidden and candidates were hugely disappointed when they showed up to find something completely different at work. Candidates were presenting themselves in the way they thought employers wanted to hear. They were landing the jobs, but then they showed up to work in a job they didn’t want with low levels of engagement, productivity, and fulfillment. To make matters worse, all of the “career experts” simply try to get their piece of the pie by facilitating poor connections and boring, superficial advice that draws in advertising dollars.

So I decided to fill the gap. I’m passionate about how people and organizations develop to fulfill their potential, and I’m passionate about helping people find works that helps them make an impact on their life.

My mission is to change the way the world thinks about work and I do that through Living for Monday.

Lesson Learned: Find the intersection between what motivates and interests you; what other people value; and what your natural strengths, talents, and skills will allow you to be the best in the world at. Jim Collins and Chris Guillebeau are two guys who expand on this concept in Good to Great and The $100 Startup, respectively.

What I’ve Done in the 18 Months Since I Quit

It’s been a long journey since I quit my job 18 months ago. I went through a period of intense anxiety and depression while I was making the shift to self employment. I’ve had to deal with the frustrating issues of minutiae, like naming the company and products, setting up the right technology, and figuring out what to do first. I’ve lived off of no paycheck for months on end with the support of the people that love me. I’ve tried ideas, failed, tried again, failed again.

But more importantly, over the past 18 months I’ve felt an intense sense of direction and purpose. I know exactly why I’m doing what I’m doing. I’ve continued to hone my messaging and focus on my ideal target market. The Living for Monday community is growing rapidly and we’re adding more aspiring world changers to our ranks everyday. I’ve built enough expertise on the topics of career search, personal branding, networking, sales, entrepreneurship, and more to start teaching what I’ve learned. I’ve already helped 100’s of people change the way they look for work (and land jobs by doing so).

We’re positioned to help literally 1000’s of students find jobs that matter in the next year. As we grow our community, we continue to hear great feedback on how we can help solve problems. We know the essential elements of building a fulfilling career and life, which has its foundations in a ton of academic research. I’m setting myself up to not only make a huge impact, but also to make damn good living doing what I love.

The past 18 months have been trying, no doubt. But more importantly, over the past 18 months I’ve reached to the depths of my soul to find my own potential. I’ve interacted with hundreds of readers who shared their stories after I shared mine. I’m living on purpose, building my own sense of fulfillment, and making a direct impact on the lives of the people in the Living for Monday community and beyond.

Lesson Learned: Every journey has its ups and downs. Nothing worth pursuing will be easy. Making an impact and trying to build a legacy is hard work, and it doesn’t really get easier. To build expertise, you have to be willing to invest thousands of hours in learning, taking action, and learning from the results. Being fulfilled and making a difference in the world are hard work. Period.

Wrapping Up

So, what does all this mean for you? Well, it means that if you’re about to go in search of a career, you shouldn’t settle for any old job.

If you feel you’ve reached a dead end or you’re feeling complacency creep it’s way into your life, it’s time to stand up and get out of your comfort zone. You are in absolute control of the life you live and the decisions you make. Will you settle for a life of quiet desperation and ”what-ifs?” Or will you put in the work to find your purpose and pursue it with relentless dedication?

It will take hard work. It won’t be easy. To do it right, don’t make a blind, irresponsible decision to leave your job with no plan and no idea of what you want. But instead, take the time to conduct a deep self-evaluation. Find out what motivates you and why you do what you do. Push yourself to experience new things and find ways that you can apply your purpose and passion to make an impact through your work.

Sometimes, your journey will lead you to starting your own business. Sometimes you’ll simply find a better place to work that gives you an environment that encourages you to do your best work and surrounds you with people who help you fulfill your potential. Sometimes you already have what you need right under your nose and you just need to look at your job from a different perspective.

Regardless of what you decide to do, at the end of the day, it’s all about seeing the impact of your work. Your work should be a reason you’re excited to wake up on Monday mornings and it should be a chance for you to make your mark on the world. If you can see the impact, then you can be fulfilled in your work. If you can’t see the impact, then please, find work that matters.

We need your contributions to matter, because you have too much potential to let it go to waste.

What’s the first thing you can do to find more purpose in your work right now? Tell me about it in the comments – I’ll read every comment.

***

Barrett Brooks is the founder of Living for Monday and he is on a mission to change the way the world thinks about work. You can sign up to join the Living for Monday community and receive a free resource toolkit to help you establish a vision for your life and make it happen, starting today.

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Thomas Frank is the founder of CollegeInfoGeek.com, a recent graduate from Iowa State University, and paid off over $15,000 of student loans before he graduated through earning money on his blog. In this session we talk about how he built a presence online while still in college, how he landed an internship through Twitter, tips and tricks for how to “do college right”, and how a single page on his website helped him graduate debt-free.

(Note: Thomas also had me on his podcast today as well. You can check it out here.)

You can listen or subscribe to the podcast on iTunes here.

You can also listen to it on Stitcher or using the player right here.

Items mentioned in this episode:

• College Info Geek
• College Info Geek Podcast
• The Ultimate Guide to Building a Personal Website
• WP Tuts+

If you have enjoyed this or other episodes of The Cubicle Renegade Podcast I’d love for you to leave a review of the show on iTunes:

• Please Click Here to Subscribe or Leave a Review on iTunes
  

Cheers!

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Steve Kamb is the founder of Nerd Fitness, a website and community that helps people “level up” their lives through fitness, health, diet, and endless geeky references. Steve creates some of the most epic content on the web, not just in his niche. He has self-published fitness, strength, and running guides, has a highly successful iPhone and Android app that helps people eat Paleo, and has travel hacked his way all over the world.

He also has a great story for why and how he started Nerd Fitness, left a job he straight up loved to dedicate himself to it full-time when he wasn’t earning any income from it, and how he has built it into a thriving community of over 55,000 nerds (including me).

You can listen or subscribe to the podcast on iTunes here.

You can also listen to it on Stitcher or using the player right here.

Items mentioned in this episode:

• NerdFitness.com
• NF Rebel Guides
• Paleo Central App
• NF Forums
• 4 Hour Workweek
• Chris Guillebeau’s 279 Days to Overnight Success
• Steve’s April Fools Post & Reactions
• Staci’s Success story

If you have enjoyed this or other episodes of The Cubicle Renegade Podcast I’d love for you to leave a review of the show on iTunes:

• Please Click Here to Subscribe or Leave a Review on iTunes
  

Cheers!

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If you follow Gary Vaynerchuk (author of Crush It, The Thank You Economy, and the upcoming book: Jab, Jab, Jab, Right Hook: How to Tell Your Story in a Noisy, Social World) you’ve probably heard that he is doing an interview a day this year and I had the pleasure of chatting with him this morning.

In this podcast session we dive into the difference between hustling and just working a lot of hours, work life balance, scaling authenticity and engagement as your audience grows online, why it is never too late to get started, whether or not you should being doing videos online, and even who he wants the New York Jets to draft this weekend.

He also gives a rebuttal to the response he received from his post earlier this week on LinkedIn called “My Best Mistake: Too Much Success“.

My favorite quote from this episode is:

“If you’ve got the content and you find the medium that works for you… the tools don’t matter.” – Gary Vaynerchuk

Tweet this →

You can listen or subscribe to the podcast on iTunes here.

You can also listen to it on Stitcher or using the player right here.

Items mentioned in this episode:

• LinkedIn Post: My Best Mistake: Too Much Success
• The video of Gary ranting on an airplane
• Crush It
• The Thank You Economy
• Jab, Jab, Jab, Right Hook
• @GaryVee on Twitter

If you have enjoyed this or other episodes of The Cubicle Renegade Podcast I’d love for you to leave a review of the show on iTunes:

• Please Click Here to Subscribe or Leave a Review on iTunes
  

Cheers!

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Jacob Sokol is the founder of Sensophy.com and creator of the online conference at entheos (that is taking place this week) called WTF Should I Do With My Life?! In this session we chat about how Jacob went from graffiti being his sole focus for a decade to coaching people on following their passion and earning a living off it.

You can listen or subscribe to the podcast on iTunes here.

You can also listen to it on Stitcher or using the player right here.

Items mentioned in this episode:

• Sensophy.com
• Jacob’s Series on Going to the Jets Game with Gary V.
• WTF Should I Do With My Life? conference on entheos
• Brian Johnson
• Entheos.com
• Philosopher’s Notes
• Niche Site Duel on Smart Passive Income
• 4-Hour Work Week by Tim Ferriss
• Crush It! by Gary Vaynerchuk
• Succeed: How We Can Reach Our Goals by Dr. Halvorson

If you have enjoyed this or other episodes of The Cubicle Renegade Podcast I’d love for you to leave a review of the show on iTunes:

• Please Click Here to Subscribe or Leave a Review on iTunes
  

Cheers!

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Therese Schwenkler is the founder of TheUnlost.com and in this session of the Cubicle Renegade podcast I chat with her about the kinds of fears you have to deal with as an entrepreneur, what it really means to be “passionate” about your work, and how to deal with what other people think of you as an entrepreneur.

You can listen or subscribe to the podcast on iTunes here.

You can also listen to it on Stitcher or using the player right here.

Items mentioned in this episode:

• Therese’s Blog: TheUnlost.com
• The Unlost E-Course (Basic or Move-lah)
• Good to Great by Jim Collins
• Built to Last by Jim Collins

If you have enjoyed this or other episodes of The Cubicle Renegade Podcast I’d love for you to leave a review of the show on iTunes:

• Please Click Here to Subscribe or Leave a Review on iTunes
  

Cheers!

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Richard Boehmcke is a writer, independent film maker in New York City, and recent winner of the mentorship contest over at Think Traffic. In this episode of the Cubicle Renegade podcast we talk about what it was like for him quit his comfy career to be self-employed, why he originally struggled with calling himself an entrepreneur, and what forms of content are best for different mediums (written, audio, video).

You can listen or subscribe to the podcast on iTunes here.

You can also listen to it on Stitcher or using the player right here.

Items mentioned in this episode:

• Boehmcke’s Creations (Richard’s online home)
• Vibrant Motion
• 90 Second Love
• Richard on Twitter

If you have enjoyed this or other episodes of The Cubicle Renegade Podcast I’d love for you to leave a review of the show on iTunes:

• Please Click Here to Subscribe or Leave a Review on iTunes
  

Cheers!

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Antonio Centeno is the founder of the website Real Men Real Style and the men’s clothing company A Tailored Suit. In this episode of the Cubicle Renegade podcast I chat with Antonio about his journey from being in the marines to becoming a fashion entrepreneur. We also discuss the importance of dressing well as an entrepreneur and the specific strategies he has used on YouTube to grow his presence online (with nearly 50,000 subscribers and almost 4 million views).

You can listen or subscribe to the podcast on iTunes here.

You can also listen to it on Stitcher or using the player right here.

Items mentioned in this episode:

• Real Men Real Style
• RMRS on YouTube
• A Tailored Suit
• 7 Deadly Style Sins (free eBook)
• Man’s Guide to Style (eBook)
• The Style System

If you have enjoyed this or other episodes of The Cubicle Renegade Podcast I’d love for you to leave a review of the show on iTunes:

• Please Click Here to Subscribe or Leave a Review on iTunes
  

Cheers!

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Just a quick Friday post.

My wife and I had the honor of being interviewed and featured on a new web docuseries called The American Dream Revised, which tells of the stories of Millennial entrepreneurs from all over the country.

Check out our episode below.

(If you can’t see the video above, click here to view it.)

Thank you to Lisa Nicole Bell for originally reaching out to me and wanting to feature our story!

You can check out other episodes of ADR here.

Your turn: How are you revising the American Dream? What is your big dream?

Let me know in the comments below this post.

James Clear is the founder of Passive Panda and more recently The Art of Becoming Better. In this episode of the Cubicle Renegade podcast I chat with James about his journey transitioning from collegiate athlete to entrepreneur, the power of habits, how to form great ones or break bad ones, and how important nutrition and exercise are to entrepreneurs.

This is probably my favorite episode of the podcast so far, so you definitely don’t want to skip this one.

Things we talk about in this episode:

• Why he immediately got his MBA after undergrad and what that was like.
• Why he decided to start Passive Panda and grow his presence on online.
• How he has gotten featured in US News and World Report and Yahoo Finance.

• Why habits are so important.

• Why you should focus on lifestyle, not life-changing habits.

• The “Reminder, Routine, Reward” cycle of habits.
• The Visibility Method.
• Why getting started is the most important step.
• The difference between identity-based habits and performance/appearance based goals.
• How James “hacks” his food through fasting and eating patterns.
• As an entrepreneur, what the most important habits you can form are.

You can listen or subscribe to the podcast on iTunes here.

You can also listen to it on Stitcher or using the player right here.

Items mentioned in this episode:

• JamesClear.com/CR
• Passive Panda
• Lifestyle vs. Life-Changing Habits
• Identity Based Habits
• The Reminder, Routine, Reward cycle
• The Visibility Method

If you have enjoyed this or other episodes of The Cubicle Renegade Podcast I’d love for you to leave a review of the show on iTunes:

• Please Click Here to Subscribe or Leave a Review on iTunes
  

Cheers!

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In this episode of the Cubicle Renegade Podcast I sit down with Brittney Castro, founder of Financially Wise Women and recently ranked one of the top 5 Certified Financial Planners in Los Angeles. We discuss her journey from working at a big financial firm to breaking off on her own and how she has used her blog to build up her client base over the past two years.

Things we talk about in this episode:

• Why she took a job after college that was basically straight commissions.
• How she always knew she wanted to be a “business owner”.
• How 50% of her clients come from her blog.
• What she did to get featured in the New York Times and Wall Street Journal.
• How she has been able to work with her clients virtually in the same way as in person.
• Why the more information you give away for free the more likely you are to get paying customers and clients.
• How to get comfortable being on video and what your videos should be about.
• How to make the leap financially from employee to entrepreneur.

You can listen or subscribe to the podcast on iTunes.

You can also listen to it on Stitcher or using the player right here.

Items mentioned in this episode:

• Financially Wise Women
• Brittney’s YouTube Channel
• 9 Steps to Becoming a Financially Wise Woman (Free eBook)
• Millionaire Next Door (Book)

If you have enjoyed this or other episodes of The Cubicle Renegade Podcast I’d love for you to leave a review of the show on iTunes:

• Please Click Here to Subscribe or Leave a Review on iTunes
  

Cheers!

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In this episode of the Cubicle Renegade Podcast I sit down with Barrett Brooks, founder of Living for Monday to talk all about how to properly land a job or consulting gig you actually want. We cover the twelve steps you should follow to launch your career, directly from his course: Career Kickstarter.

Things we talk about in this episode:

• How Barrett landed a well paying management consulting job directly out of college.
• Why he left that job behind to help others find careers that better suit them.
• The proper mindset for putting in the hard work and saying no more often.
• Determining your purpose/passion and how that relates to a potential job.
• How to define your values and strengths.
• Figuring out your ideal job description (without looking at job postings).
• How to get your resumé on top of the pile of hundreds.
• Ways to find the 60% of jobs that aren’t advertised.
• Why you have to negotiate your job offers.

You can either watch the video or listen to the audio of the whole interview.

If you’d prefer the audio version, you can listen to, subscribe to, or download the podcast on iTunes. You can also listen to the audio version on Stitcher.

Or just listen to it here:

(If you are reading this via email or RSS and can’t see the video above, click here.)

Items mentioned in this episode:

• Living for Monday
• Career Kickstarter
• Strengths Finder 2.0 by Tom Rath [Book]
• Start with Why by Simon Sinek [Book]
• Good to Great by Jim Collins [Book]
• Danielle Laporte’s “Do Any Work for a Year” (bullet #3)
• Ramit Sethi’s Briefcase Technique

If you have enjoyed this or other episodes of The Cubicle Renegade Podcast I’d love for you to leave a review of the show on iTunes:

• Please Click Here to Subscribe or Leave a Review on iTunes
  

Cheers!

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When I used to have a commute to work I filled my 30-minute drive with podcasts. First they were purely for entertaining me and I listened to podcasts about film, comedy, or video games.

But then I realized I could be using that hour to learn. I could hear success stories of how other entrepreneurs had gotten started, what strategies have worked for them, and what mistakes I should avoid.

Podcasts were a huge encouragement to me and I actually started to look forward to my commute!

Since I just re-launched the Cubicle Renegade Podcast I wanted to share what audio podcasts I currently listen to so you have some great people to learn from in between my episodes.

Here are my ten favorite audio podcasts (in no particular order) that are always on my iPhone. (Note: click on the title or artwork to be taken to their iTunes feed.)

1. Smart Passive Income Podcast with Pat Flynn

Pat’s podcast was one of the very first “business” podcasts that I listened to back in 2010 and where I first heard of Corbett Barr (who I now work full-time with). I mean, who knows what I’d be doing these days without ever meeting Corbett.

There are over 50 great episodes in his archives, about half of which are success story interviews and the other half are solo sessions. Pat also just switched his publishing schedule to weekly too so you’ll be getting a ton of great advice each week. Many of the podcasts below also got started either directly or indirectly because of the success Pat has had with his.

I now consider Pat a close friend and am actually doing some video work for his new book as well. Funny how things have changed since listening to that first episode…

Favorite Episode: SPI 47: Maintaining a Balanced Life

2. The Accidental Creative with Todd Henry

Todd has over 225 episodes of his podcast, but I’ve just started listening to it.

The Accidental Creative is one of the few podcasts I’ve actually re-listened to episodes of. Todd’s podcast is a shorter show, but it always leave me thinking.

Even his interviews with people that I’ve heard from many times before are always some of the best. And the topics of recent episodes (distractions, creative inversion, and value creep) have come at just the right time for me.

Favorite Episode: The Nature of Contribution

3. The New Business Podcast with Chris Ducker

Chris isn’t new to podcasting, but this specific show is relatively new. Focused directly at entrepreneurs and small business owners, this podcast revolves all around using the different platforms and tools available to grow your business online (like YouTube, Facebook, LinkedIn, etc.).

One of the coolest parts of this podcast is that each episode Chris brings on a guest that is an expert at whatever topic they’re discussing. 

After recently spending time in person with Chris at NMX I can vouch that he is one of the most genuine people I know online and nothing he produces is “fluff”. Check out his new podcast if you want to learn how to take your business to the next level.

Favorite Episode: NBP 7: Understanding & Dominating the ‘You Economy’

4. Online Marketing Made Easy with Amy Porterfield

This podcast is literally brand new (just two episodes live at the time of writing this), but Amy is already delivering great content. The show focuses mainly on how to use content marketing (a fancy term for blogging) and social media to grow your business online.

Because of how jam-packed each episode is with actionable tips you can tell how much preparation goes into them. 

Amy also adds in fun real-life examples to keep it from being just strictly advice on what to do online.

Favorite Episode: OMME 1: List Building with Social Media

5. Human Business Way with Chris Brogan

Chris has been around the blogging/internet business scene for a long time. In fact, his book Trust Agents was one of my early influences.

He just recently launched the Human Business Way podcast and there are already a ton of interesting conversations with big name people in the archives.

Most of the topics they talk about are next level focused too since he’s been “around the game” so long. If you want to hear more discussions about the future of business on the web, this is the podcast to listen to.

Favorite Episode: HBW 17: World Domination and More with Chris Guillebeau

6. Seth Godin’s Start-up School

This one isn’t a typical produced podcast with a host and guests. It is just a recording of a special “startup bootcamp” that Seth hosted for a small group of entrepreneurs in NYC.

But really, any time I can hear Seth speak about business I jump at the chance and this group of podcasts doesn’t disappoint.

They just released the 15th and “final” episode, but it is definitely still worth checking out all the sessions in the archives.

Favorite Episode: SGSS 12: The Dip

7. Social Media Marketing Podcast with Michael Stelzner

Just like with his site Social Media Examiner, Michael has put together an incredible podcast.

He brings on guests that are some of the biggest names in their industries and then deep dives into some of the best strategies and tactics for many of the platforms online.

And they don’t just cover what’s working now. They also talk about what used to work, but doesn’t anymore.

Favorite Episode: Podcasting Renaissance – Is Podcasting Making a Comeback?

8. Social Triggers Insider with Derek Halpern

Derek’s no b.s. personality is in full force on his insanely popular internet marketing blog Social Triggers and his podcast is no different.

Derek brings on academic experts (many of which you’ve probably never heard of) that specialize in topics such as habits, psychology, and decision making and then brings their theories into online business.

Really interesting stuff. And definitely check out the episode below with Ramit. I listened to it three times and picked up something new each time.

Favorite Episode: How to Charge 100X More Than Your Competition (with Ramit Sethi)

9. This Is Your Life with Michael Hyatt

This podcast is a little different from the others on the list, but is one of my go-to’s.

Instead of focusing only on the tactics and strategies of being an entrepreneur, Michael talks much more about the introspective pieces of doing great and meaningful work. Topics include being a leader, waking early, creating a life plan, finding your strengths, and keeping a journal.

One really cool thing he does each episode is answer questions from listeners via voice mails that they leave. It adds a lot of personality to the show.

Favorite Episode: TIYL 27: How to Say No Without Feeling Guilty

10. Six Pixels of Separation with Mitch Joel

And last but definitely not least is Mitch’s podcast, Six Pixels of Separation, which is about to hit episode 350!

Mitch is my favorite interviewer on this list and has such amazing conversations with his guests. 

You could spend months just listening through all of the old episodes of SPOS. I can guarantee you’ll be a better artist, entrepreneur, and thinker by doing so.

Favorite Episode: SPOS #319: What Does the Future of Blogging Hold

***

Phew. That’s all 10.

Note: I’ll be recommending my ten favorite web shows soon too, so if a podcast you like isn’t listed (*cough* Eventual Millionaire or The Rise To The Top *cough*) it might be because they do video too and I’ll feature them in that upcoming post.

Next week on the Cubicle Renegade Podcast we have an awesome interview that I’m super stoked to share. I sat down with Barrett Brooks of Living for Monday to discuss exactly how to land the job you want.

Your turn: What are your favorite audio podcasts? Let me know in the comments below this post.

Cheers!
Caleb

P.S. Did you notice we just passed 200 posts here on Pocket Changed? Thank you to everyone for all the support over the past 2+ years.

Jaime Tardy is the founder of the Eventual Millionaire. She has paid off over $70,000 worth of debt, left her high-paying project management job, started her own coaching business, and has interviewed over 90 millionaires for her weekly web-show.

Things we talk about in this episode:

• What odd jobs like street sweeper and door-to-door vacuum sales taught her.
• Why she made the decision in college to transition from Art to IT.
• Why her entrepreneurial influences growing up didn’t actually keep her from getting a regular job after college.
• How she paid off $70,000 in debt (including convincing her husband to sell back their two-month old car.)
• Why she gave up a well paying, traveling project management job to spend more time with her kids.
• What three habits most of the 90+ millionaires she has interviewed have in common.

And for the first time for the Cubicle Renegade podcast we did video of the whole interview too. (Be sure to watch in HD.)

(If you are reading this in an email just click here to see the video.)

If you’d prefer the audio version, you can listen to, subscribe to, or download the podcast on iTunes. You can also listen to the audio version on Stitcher.

Or just listen to it here:

Items mentioned in this episode:

• Eventual Millionaire Home Page
• Eventual Millionaire Interviews
• Jaime’s “homepage of Yahoo” article
• Jaime on CNN Newsroom
• Jaime’s post discussing what happened when she was on Yahoo’s homepage

If you have enjoyed this or other episodes of The Cubicle Renegade Podcast I’d love for you to leave a review of the show on iTunes:

• Please Click Here to Subscribe or Leave a Review on iTunes 

Cheers!

Intro & Outro Music by Ratatat.

Quick story: I thought I was being all clever with the idea for this blog post and was going with the words Produce, Consume, and Interact, but a quick Google search brought up a post from 2009 by Charlie Gilkey with the catchier title of Create, Connect, and Consume (which is a great read).

I’d still like to share some of my thoughts on what I think is one of the harder things to juggle as an entrepreneur though.

Also, what’s this I hear about a new homepage for Pocket Changed?

***

Whether you work alone, as part of a team, or at a large corporation there are three main areas that you should focus your energy on if you want to grow and achieve. They are the three sides of the Entrepreneur’s Triangle (and yes I made that up).

1. Connect: this includes networking (a word I hate), meeting new people, and building relationships that can have a major impact on your work.
2. Creating: doing the work, making ideas happen, and delivering the finished product(s).
3. Consuming: learning, staying up to date on the latest news in your industry, and seeing what other people are creating.

The problem is not in finding tasks or ideas to put in these areas.

The problem is in balancing them.

My Recent Imbalance

Here’s a look back at how out of balance I’ve been with the entrepreneur’s triangle through January.

• Connect: I started January out attending the New Media Expo in Vegas and interacted with a lot of online entrepreneurs. Many of whom I’d only known online so far (one of the major ways to make your conferences awesome). A lot of connecting happened, but not much work got done.
• Create: Once I got back from NMX I was in full-on launch mode for a couple weeks with Fizzle.co. I spent 90% of my working time on courses for Fizzle or content for our various blogs. My head was down for pretty much two full weeks.
• Consume: This past week I’ve realized that I haven’t been reading, listening, or watching what other people have created as much as usual and I felt out of touch.

Whenever I don’t have a balance of these three areas I feel like I am missing out.

I feel like I don’t know what other people have been up to, that I haven’t been making enough awesome stuff, or that I’ve quit learning.

Lately the piece I’ve been missing out on is probably the one that is completely okay to do less of: consuming. If one had to go, that’d be it.

There is never a lack of things for me to consume. “Professionally” there are podcasts, web shows, video tutorials, Kindle books, PDF eBooks, blog posts, and hard copy versions of books. That doesn’t even include things I consume to relax like novels, music, television shows, sporting events, etc.

As you mature and grow as a student, employee, or entrepreneur you begin to shift from consuming (e.g. learning or researching) and you begin to do more creating (e.g. building, launching, acting).

But you should never stop consuming (with a purpose).

***

Which of the three areas have you been neglecting lately?

Let me know in the comments below this post.

In the sixth session of the Cubicle Renegade Podcast I give the proper introduction of who I am. (Something that I failed to do when I kicked off the podcast!)

You can listen to, subscribe to, or download the podcast on iTunes.

I realized that I never really introduced myself, talked about my background, or how I came to be an entrepreneur (even though I was dead set against it my whole life).

In this episode I’ll discuss my small town upbringing, four years of building the perfect resumé in college, why I stayed in my cubicle for nearly four years, what I do now for a living, and what 2013 has in store for this podcast. 

You can also listen on iTunes or below. If you are reading this in an email just click here.

Things I talk about in this episode:

(0:30) – Why there has been a gap in podcast episodes
(2:02) – Where I grew up and what I did as a kid for work
(3:06) – Why college was all about the perfect resumé for me
(4:32) – My first “real job” after college and how I avoided lay-offs
(8:17) – My failed attempts at being an entrepreneur
(9:11) – Why I started blogging
(10:07) – What I do for a living now
(12:30) – What’s next for the podcast

Items mentioned in this episode:

• Fizzle: Honest Video Training for Online Business Builders
• Think Traffic
• Expert Enough
• Traffic School

If you have enjoyed this or other episodes of The Cubicle Renegade Podcast I’d love for you to leave a review of the show on iTunes:

• Please Click Here to Subscribe or Leave a Review on iTunes 

Cheers!

Intro & Outro Music by Ratatat. There’s also a little Jay-Z thrown in the middle.

Over the past year I have been working with Corbett Barr and Chase Reeves on largest, most awesome project of my entire life and it launches today.

With it, we’re changing the way entrepreneurs are learning how to build honest online businesses and connecting with other driven, like-minded world changers. If this sounds like something you’d be interested in, I’d love to see you inside Fizzle.

But before I talk more about what Fizzle is and isn’t, I’d like to take a step back and tell a bigger story.

Everyone Used To “Work From Home”

You see, as cliché as it might sound…

We live in one of the most amazing times in the history of the world.

For thousands of years, people had to be self-sustaining. They hunted, gathered, and farmed just so they could eat. They had to protect their land from invaders and fight in wars for kings and tyrants. There was very little stability or safety from day to day.

Until recently, people didn’t have “jobs” either. There weren’t corporations, commutes, cubicles, credit cards, or layoffs. If you didn’t get your ass out of bed to work the field your family didn’t eat.

Then along came the Industrial Revolution. You could get a steady paycheck and benefits, move to the suburbs, work a manufacturing job for 30 or 40 years, retire with a pension, and live a satisfying middle class life.

But now we have the exact opposite. We’re overeducated, underemployed, in debt, and unhappy. The stable jobs are disappearing and the ones that are left are unfulfilling. Perhaps some of them are being sent to other parts of the world, but the reality is it takes less people to do the same amount of work these days.

Taking Our Livelihood Back

After generations of putting trust into big corporations, learning a specific skill, and just going through the motions for forty hours a week it is time to take back our dignity.

It is time to once again be self-sustaining.

And unless you are going to start “living off the land” (which if you want to do, more power to you) that means thinking and acting more like an entrepreneur.

Which means learning skills, becoming an expert at them, building a platform (such as a blog), teaching people everything you know, and growing a thriving, profitable audience.

As hard or intimidating as it might seem, it really comes down to those five steps. Let me lay them out again for you.

1. Learn skills.
2. Build a platform.
3. Teach everything you know.
4. Become known as an expert.
5. Grow a profitable audience.

Notice I didn’t say anything about how you make money. Most people worry too much about that when they should be worried about doing the five things above (in order). If you do 1-5, the money will come.

Okay, I Have Blog. Now What?

What if you’re stuck? You’re blogging, but just on the side and you aren’t making much money from it. What comes next?

The exact three things we set out to help people with in Fizzle.

1. Learn how to build a non sleazy, honest business, not just a blog.
2. Make more influential friends online.
3. Have accountability for getting shit done.

There is A LOT of bad advice online about how to earn a living “on the internet”. It also costs hundreds, if not thousands of dollars to take most of these courses.

With Fizzle we are changing that. We’re bringing the experts and courses directly to you, all in one place for a ridiculously lower-than-your-cell-phone-bill price.

Beyond the training, the Fizzle community is quickly becoming the most driven, dedicated, and diverse group of online business builders I’ve ever seen.

The biggest turning point in my “online career” was when I started becoming close friends with other people doing interesting things online and the Fizzle forums are exactly what I wish I had when I was first starting out.

People in Fizzle (or Fizzlers as we like to call them) are making REAL moves in the businesses and lives. They’re taking risks, growing their reach, and making major financial breakthroughs. And how are they able to do so?

Accountability.

If you don’t have a group of people rooting for you, holding you to what you commit to, or caring about your success it is really easy to slack off or quit.

Fizzlers create mastermind groups, compete in monthly challenges, celebrate their successes, and get incredible feedback on their ideas. There is no limit to how far these people will go.

A Simple Question

I’ll leave you with a simple question.

If you don’t have a personal brand or platform online, do you think you’ll be able to find a well-paying job or make a comfortable living in next five or ten years?

The revolution of honest, online business builders is already underway. You can either join it, or get left behind.

The choice is yours.

***

If you choose to join us in Fizzle, I’d be incredibly honored. Corbett, Chase, and I have poured our heart, soul, tears, and laughs into this thing and can’t wait to share it with the world. 

If you want to spread the love of Fizzle, we also have a page set up for you to do that here.

Thank you all for the support over the past couple years as well. You guys rock.

Cheers,
Caleb Wojcik

Note from Caleb: This cubicle renegade escape story is a bit different. Sometimes you aren’t in control of when you leave your job and end up unemployed. It’s a struggle, to be sure, and a reality for a lot of people, but if your overall state of mind is a feeling of hope you’ll make it through. In this essay, Lindsey Thieken shares her open and honest story of how unemployment has changed her life.

There is a manifesto that has been going around for a while. Brave, daring words proclaiming the road less traveled, telling the reader to change their lives if they are unhappy. And right in the middle, in big bold letters, “If you don’t like your job, quit.”

What a beautiful idea. I could quit my job to spend my time doing what I really loved: writing, traveling, baking. No longer a cog in the 9-5 machine, I could wake up every morning, fulfilled and happy.

I dreamed of leaving the job behind. Packing up my office, and walking out with nothing but a smile on my face and a swift slam of the door. And pack up and leave I did, only not because I quit, but because I got laid off. And you know what that is like?

You know the guy that you’re dating, and he’s not the one, in fact he’s REALLY not the one? But you stick with it for a little while longer, because you don’t want to break up with him right before Christmas or right after you get back from vacation. And then he breaks up with you. He breaks up with you!!

The end result is the same (you aren’t together anymore) but you didn’t get to own it. He got to own it, and that is the worst.

Unemployment messes with your mind, your self-esteem, and your credit score. Instead of waking up every morning fulfilled and happy, you sleep late because stress-induced insomnia kept you up the night before. You try to keep a brave face, but just like that time you didn’t get asked to the prom, rejection is hard.

Recently, unemployment fell to under 7.7 percent in the U.S., the lowest it’s been in almost four years, but that doesn’t mean millions aren’t still unemployed. This is their (my) story.

On The Ropes

I graduated from college in three years with two majors, one minor, and an internship in Washington, DC. I received my Masters of Public Administration at the age of 24 from a school 6th in the country for my program of study. I’ve worked on a statewide political campaign, for the State of Ohio, in higher education, for a DC consulting firm representing multiple members of Congress, and for an Ohio non-profit.

All of this isn’t to brag or boast, but to suggest that I have the background that might make me suitable for a variety of different jobs. I have experience. I am qualified.

In the almost eight months since I was laid off, I have applied for multiple jobs a day, scouring the internet for any opening I can find. Jobs that I want. Jobs that I don’t. Jobs that I’m not qualified for. Jobs for which I certainly am. My search isn’t constricted by pride.

After a while, it’s become propelled simply by my need to pay the rent and fill the ever-growing gap on my resume. If someone called today to offer me a position watching paint dry in the middle of the night in a freezing cold warehouse, I’d put on my parka to make the next graveyard shift.

I might feel even worse about the process if I could blame myself for bad interviews, but of all the jobs for which I have applied, only three have selected me for anything resembling the next step. Instead, my resumes and carefully constructed cover letters, are usually met with a thanks, but no thanks.

Even more often, absolute radio silence. No feedback. No “we’ll keep your records on file.” And why would they? They have enough to worry about with the numerous applicants they did select. Standing out in the crowd is hard work.

Maybe Elle Woods had it right. A pink, scented resume might just be the way to go. At least then they’d get a whiff of my qualifications before tossing them into the (trash) pile.

On top of the stressful, time-consuming, no end in sight search is the stigma that comes with being unemployed. A lot of this is perceived reality on the part of the non-worker, but a lot is also plain true. Well-intentioned friends and family members ask how the search is going, their voices steeped with sympathy, their head cocked to the side to show they care. In the beginning, their response was always something like “You’ll find something,” or “It just takes a little time.”

After a while, though, the sympathy has faded and judgment (although veiled) has set in. Surely you aren’t doing enough to find something, they think.

The Job Gap

A recent AP article I read suggested that of all those who were laid off between 2009 and 2011, only 56 percent have found new jobs. Of those, more than half had taken new positions with a pay cut. And of that group, over a third was now making 20 percent less.

The article went on to tell the story of a woman who applied for a local administrative job that saw almost 200 applicants. She didn’t get it. Another man was finally just settling in to his new position, for which he was making under $10 an hour, a huge shift from his former $80,000 a year. He was 53 and living back at home with his father.

So many people, so few jobs. Hard to keep the faith when the pool for an entry-level job is flooded with applicants with experience ranging from a high school diploma to an MBA. And companies are hesitant to higher the over-qualified. God forbid a job for which they are actually trained comes along — they might jump ship.

To say the least, unemployment isn’t easy. It took a big gulp of pride-swallowing to apply for unemployment checks. Surely there are people out there that need the help more than me, and yet, I still struggle to get by every week.

There is also the paradox of having all the time in the world, but no money to fill it.

An unemployed mind wanders with thoughts of escaping, taking a road trip cross-country, visiting friends you haven’t seen in a while. But…

• How would you pay for the gas?
• Could you even eat when you got there?
• What if you were out of town on the one day a potential employer calls to schedule an interview?
• And worst of all, how many job postings would you miss while away from the computer?

On the off chance you can scrape together a few dollars to attend a social or networking happy hour, there’s also the answer to the inevitable question that takes the conversation to a screeching, awkward halt from the very start. “What do you do?” “I’m actually unemployed right now, looking for a new job.”

What was it that Jane Austen said about first impressions? Because this one surely takes the cake.

Days turn into weeks, which turn into months. When you were working full-time, weekdays and weekends had a special distinction. Fridays were this magical day of waiting for the final bell to sound, signaling two whole days of freedom. There was something so special about waking up whenever you wanted to on Saturday. Sundays brought leisurely brunches, time to catch up on chores, and that evening dread triggered by the impending work week.

Now, my sleep schedule is completely off. The lack of structure to my days gives me anxiety. There is no “working for the weekend.” In fact, I look forward to Mondays, as a new week of job listings come.

Moving Forward

I now long for the day when I have to wake up early, bags under my eyes from working late on a project the night before. I’m dreaming of office politics and drama. I can think of nothing I would rather talk about than what my weekend plans are, what I thought of last night’s American Idol, or please, oh please, someone small talk the weather with me.

Even more than this, I want the thousands of dollars in student loans to be put to use. I want to use my experience, my drive, my brain. I want to be a true, bonafide 9-5 contributing member of this society. I want to make my parents proud, and, more importantly, I want them to stop worrying about me.

I want this for me, but I also want this for all the others in the same boat. I am not alone in my struggle, and I at least (and very thankfully so) have the support of those that love me and a roof over my head. Not all can say the same.

A struggle indeed, but one that I am determined to endure with my head held high and a smile on my face. It’s always darkest before the dawn, right? Until the time comes, you’ll find me punching up my elevator pitch, thinking of new and creative answers to my “strengths and weaknesses,” and making sure my suit stays wrinkle-free.

You never know when that new job might call.

Lindsey Thieken is a non-profit professional and community service enthusiast, dedicated to wanderlust and words, and on the constant search for a life less ordinary. You can follow here on twitter @lathieken.

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Welcome to another year and another ask the readers segment!

This year I figured we’d all start off on the right foot and publicly declare what our one big goal for this year is.

Yes, you should probably have more than one goal, but heck, some people I know are living life with no goals and love it.

And I’ll keep this post short and sweet so you have no excuses not to leave a comment and let us know.

So, what is your one big goal for this year?

Annual Planning Resources

In case you are new to annual planning or haven’t done yours yet for this year, here are some great places to start.

If you’re looking back at last year and want to see how you did, use Benny Hsu’s annual planning pdf.

If you need an overall framework of how to do annual planning, look no further than Chris Guillebeau’s annual review process.

And if you have trouble achieving the goals you set out to reach each year, check out my post on Think Traffic about why your annual plan will fail.

Cheers!
Caleb

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Here at Pocket Changed we believe in doing work you are passionate about.

Not just because you’ll wake up excited to work (which is a nice bonus). Or because you’ll be more driven and more likely to succeed (which I also think is true).

You should do work you are passionate about because life is short and you shouldn’t hate what you are doing the majority of your life.

“Don’t ask yourself what the world needs. Ask yourself what makes you come alive and then go do that. Because what the world needs is people who have come alive.” Howard Thurman

Enter Scott Dinsmore

One of the people I know that is most passionate about getting people to follow their heart and do work that matters to them is Scott Dinsmore, founder of Live Your Legend. 

Recently Scott had the honor of speaking at a TEDx event in San Francisco about how to find and do work you love.

After working for many months to land a speaking spot at TEDx, his talk has already been seen by over 123,000 people in just the first month.

When you have 18 free minutes between now and New Year’s, I highly recommend that you sit down and watch his talk below.

In it you’ll learn:

• Why 80% of people hate their jobs and what the other 20% do differently
• The Passionate Work Framework – three surprisingly simple practices for finding and doing work you love
• Why people need to find what excites them and build a career around the work only they are capable of doing

(If you are reading this via email or RSS and don’t see the video above, go here.)

Live Off Your Passion

If you resonate with Scott’s talk and are struggling to find what your passions are or how to make a living off them, his Live Off Your Passion career course is where you should start. 

2013 could be the BIG year for making positive changes in your life and Live Off Your Passion can help you get there.

(Note: The price of LOYP is going up by $70 in just a few days on January 1st, so check it out now if you are interested. Also, the above links are affiliate links that earn me a commission, so if you do purchase through them, I really appreciate it.)

***
Here’s to a happy new year and productive 2013 for us all.

Cheers!

- Caleb

Pocket Changed turns two years old in just a couple weeks. Time certainly does fly. It seems like just yesterday I was trying to figure out what to name this site.

(Yes, I almost went with LogicWithWojcik.com. And yes, my wife pushed me toward Pocket Changed.)

When big milestones like the start of a new year, a birthday, or an anniversary come around it is human nature to be retrospective. We look back at what has come to pass and then look forward to plan the next chapter of our lives.

I’ll save the “next chapter” part of the story for another time, but in this post I’ll discuss the goals I had when I started Pocket Changed, how you have both inspired and helped me acheive these goals, and give you an opportunity to share what Pocket Changed has meant to you.

(And if you’re newer to Pocket Changed, this is a perfect way to learn a little bit more about what this site is all about and the entrepreneurial journey I’ve been on over the past two years to get to today.)

The 4 Reasons Why I Started Pocket Changed

When I originally started Pocket Changed in December 2010 I had just four main goals.

1. Inspire and guide people to improve their personal finances.
2. Earn enough money through work online to quit my desk job.
3. Share my financial and entrepreneurial journey.
4. Showcase people doing interesting and meaningful things with their life’s passions.

Let’s dive into what we’ve done here over the past two years in each of those four areas.

1. Improving People’s Personal Finances

Before I even had a blog, one of my big pasttimes was learning about personal finance and living frugally to enable me to pay off all the debt I had after college. (Man, everything about that sentence is just so sexy, right?)

That is why I initially wanted to start a blog in the “personal finance” niche (instead of one about video games, sports, or movies). Despite having to fight my way out of the pigeon hole that I put myself in, we’ve done a lot here at Pocket Changed in the realm of money.

First off, when you download the Get Paid Manifesto it also includes the free 10 part Financial Freedom email series that over 1,000 people have been through.

Next, Make It Rain, our very own 10-week personal finance course launched this September.

And lastly, out of the nearly 200 posts currently live on Pocket Changed, 98 of them have at least something to do with money or personal finance. (Of which, this post about financial advice from Jack Sparrow was probably the most fun to write.)

Goal #1 Status: Accomplished.

2. Quit My Desk Job

Measuring this goal was either all or nothing. I would either leave my job at Boeing or I wouldn’t.

Thankfully, in September 2011 I quit my job and started working with Corbett Barr at Think Traffic.

This leap into entrepreneurship was the biggest risk I’ve ever taken. I am typically one of the biggest “play-it-safers” there is.

And while I may not be making as much money or have as cushy of benefits as I did at my day job, this new career and lifestyle has allowed me the freedom to do so much over the past 15 months.

• My wife and I have been traveling on and off for 7 of those 15 months.
• We road-tripped for 3 months and 10,000 miles all over the U.S.A.
• We moved from rainy Seattle to sunny San Diego (closer to her family).
• My wife is now self-employed as a San Diego wedding photographer.

All of which would not have been possible without saving up enough money to take the leap and embracing some big risks.

Goal #2 Status: Accomplished.

3. Share My Financial & Entreprenuerial Journey

When I was working to pay off my debt I found it incredibly helpful and inspirational to read stories from Trent Hamm and J.D. Roth about what their financial journeys were like.

When I was looking to quit my cushy day job and become a cubicle renegade I felt encouraged and capable when I read the open and honest stories that Jenny Blake and the writers on Revolution.is have shared about leaving their jobs behind and taking the entrepreneur’s path.

Because the people above shared their journey I felt more confident and less alone in my own journey. That’s why I:

• Used to share my personal finances down to the penny.
• Shared my biggest lessons from the first year of blogging.
• Debunked the most common “location independent” myths.

This may sound cheesy, but I share because I care. I want you to see what is possible and know that you are not alone.

Goal #3 Status: Accomplished, but will never be finished.

4. Showcase Real Entrepreneurs

There is a lot of garbage on the Internet and the make money online/quit your job niche is full of awful advice and people just trying to scam you to make a quick buck.

I started Pocket Changed to help you tune out all of that noise, find authentic people to follow online, and hear real stories from fellow entreprenuers.

That’s why we:

• Feature successful cubicle renegades like Chris Guillebeau on our podcast.
• Posted cubicle escape stories from readers all over the world.
• Gave you 35 cubicle renegades to watch in 2012.
• Asked the tough questions like whether or not you should “follow your passion“.

I hope Pocket Changed has shown you that being an entrepreneur is not all rainbows and unicorns. You have to take some risks, get your hands dirty, and roll with the punches.

Goal #4 Status: Accomplished, but will never be finished.

So, Now What?

All that to say that I set out to accomplish four things when I started Pocket Changed and I feel confident in the fact that we could now “check all the boxes”.

But that doesn’t mean that this is the end of Pocket Changed or that I am quite ready to declare victory and move on.

Going into 2013 I’ll still be spending the majority of my time on my next big project with Corbett Barr and Chase Reeves: Fizzle: Honest Video Training for Online Business Builders (which launches publicly in January). BUT, there is still a lot in store for what Pocket Changed is and will become.

This is all about getting more focused, which as entrepreneurs is something I think we could all use a little bit more of.

I’ll leave what I have in store for Pocket Changed to a future post though.

***

If you’ve made it this far through the post I’d love to hear from you in the comments about why you’ve followed Pocket Changed or what one of your favorite posts from the archives is.

(If you’ve never commented or reached out to me before, now is the best time!)

Photo via Bryan Rupp Photography

I’m as big an advocate as any that you should continue to educate yourself through thought provoking books, online business education, and deliberate practice, but often these things are done for a different, negative reason.

Procrastination.

Instead of focusing your energy towards creating something that matters do you ever go off to “research and plan” for a few hours instead?

You pick up a book you’ve already read, look on social media for links to inspirational posts to get you motivated, or email a few close friends to justify that what you are planning on doing matches what you already KNOW you should be doing.

Just Do It

The Nike slogan definitely applies here. Just do what you know you need to do.

YOU are the one that does the work day in and day out. YOU are the one that knows best what should be done. YOU are the one that the final decision rests on. YOU are the one that will have to deal with the praise or criticism.

So why are you spending so much time looking elsewhere for the justification of what your gut is telling you to do?

It partially stems from the fact that we’re afraid of doing the wrong thing. We want people to be vested in our decisions so that if we fail it isn’t entirely our fault.

Also, it is oftentimes “sexier” to talk about what we do than it actually is do it.

The Right Reason

When you talk about what your plans are with other people you do get a sense of accountability and can get great feedback, so I’m not saying that you should never do it.

What I’m saying is that you need to make sure you are doing it for the right reason.

When you seek outside opinions, look for resources to help you out, or spend time learning make sure you aren’t doing it just because you are procrastinating.

If you know what you should be doing, go and do it.

Because people that DO are the people that CHANGE their lives and the lives of others for the better.

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When was the last time you took a full month off from something?

And I don’t mean a month of laying around and doing nothing.

What I mean is taking a month away from a project, hobby, or passion and seeing what happens.

If you look at the Pocket Changed archives, I haven’t posted a new blog post here in a month. (The longest this site has ever gone without a new post.)

What this past month has done is help me take stock of what Pocket Changed has become over the past two years, the direction for it in the future, and to break me of any unnecessary habits (i.e. “I have to publish a blog post this week because that is one of the 10 blogging commandments!”).

Breaks Don’t Have to Be Lazy

Often times when you see blogs that haven’t been updated for a while you assume the person just quit. They either couldn’t make it through a dip or just got burned out.

This is actually the exact opposite of what has been happening on my end.

• I have put a ton of hours into the upcoming beta launch of Fizzle: Honest Video Training for Online Business Builders.
• I’ve been working with the first batch of students going through my new personal finance course, Make It Rain.
• I have been writing elsewhere online on topics such as why Successful Entrepreneurs Quit More Often.

So you see, just because a website or blog isn’t updated for a while doesn’t necessarily mean something bad.

I like to think that every time someone quits a project/blog/job/whatever, an angel gets its wings. (Err… or something like that.)

Procrastination can still be productive after all.

***

All that to say: maybe you should give yourself a month off from one of your life’s major commitments.

You may come back to it with a completely different perspective and appreciation for it.

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Note from Caleb: Here’s a cubicle renegade escape story from Eric Lunsford of Coffee & Warm Showers.

This is a story of a guy.

This guy played by the rules his entire life and everything he ever expected to happen – well, happened.

He went to high school, went to college, graduated, and got a career. He moved from his small town where he was raised to the big city and focused solely on his career with the thought that through money and success comes happiness.

By the time he was 26 he was working for the largest action sports retailer in the world (his dream job), had been promoted two times, and was being groomed by the CEO of the company to be the next Director of his dept in the next two years.

He was on a roll.

And then suddenly, he quit.

Maybe this story sounds familiar to some of you? Maybe you’re currently in a similar situation or got out of a situation like this.

The guy above was me. This is my story.

In fact, I quit my job on the fast track to a six figure salary, left tens of thousands of dollars in bonuses, and gave up close to $100k in stock. All so I could move to a town of 7,000 in North Idaho with no real plan.

Your Job is Not Who You Are

If you’ve read anything from Eckart Tolle, there’s one saying you’ve become very accustomed to hearing:

“You are not your mind.”

In fact, your mind is there for you to rationalize about things such as fear, threat, and danger but your thoughts are not who you are as a person. Your thoughts are almost completely devoid of emotion and most of the time listening to your gut and emotion is the right decision.

And your job is no different. You may start to head down a career path that doesn’t speak to you, but you keep going because what are you going to do? Quit?

You start to believe that what you do is who you are. If you analyze risk for a department or company then I feel bad for you. As time goes on you will become more and more risk averse in your own personal life too. Possibly to the point that your life becomes boring, even to you.

Your Job May Be Smothering Your True Self

There’s a question I get a lot about why I quit my fast tracked career in the big city and then moved my family to a small resort town in Idaho. And honestly, there is no one reason. But if I had to sum it into one thought it’d be this.

The person I wanted to be, my ideal self, was being smothered by this person I “should” be. Making the conscious decision to do what feels right is how I wanted to live my life and the decision to quit my job was the most important step.

The minute I decided I was going to quit my job my true self, my true reason for existence, made itself present. Need proof?

• The month I decided completely that I would quit my job, I went skydiving for the first time.
• The day after my last day of work, I hiked up Mt. Rainier and snowboarded down.
• I love helping people so I finally decided to offer mentoring to others.
• I have lent my home to couchsurfers with a cause.
• I have given away the majority of what I own (and still going) because it didn’t add any additional value to my life.
• I just bought a motorcycle to rebuild (keep in mind I am not mechanically inclined nor do I even know how to ride a motorcycle).
• In a week from writing this I am taking my first (of many) flying courses.
• I just received Spanish DVDs to learn Spanish as quickly as possible.
• I’m building a website that I hope will radically transform the retail industry and leverage consumerism to give back to those in need.
• And in fact, while I am writing this post I am sitting in a treehouse in Nicaragua listening to the howler monkeys and ocean waves crashing below me.

You could be asking yourself, couldn’t you have done most of that while still working in your job? And my answer to that for myself and many of us is: no.

Many of us may think that working in a job you don’t enjoy is a waste of time and you’re right. But the underlying issue with being a slave to a career you don’t want is that it smothers your true existence.

In fact, it was possible to do many of those things without quitting my job, but not probable.

I couldn’t have gone skydiving because I was too stressed at work for the added stress of hurling myself out of a plane.

I couldn’t have hiked up Mt. Rainier because I usually worked weekends too. (Not to mention that Sundays were reserved for me being depressed about the upcoming week of hell.)

And I wouldn’t have made a trip to Nicaragua because it’s the second poorest country in Latin America and I don’t know anyone else who has been there before.

You see, when you’re in a career you don’t enjoy it’s easy to put off the stuff you do enjoy or want to try.

I gave up the money, career, prestige, and more because I wanted the one thing that truly mattered in this short time I’m here. My life.

My advice for you?

I’m not saying quit your job tomorrow, but what I am saying is to take a good hard look at the life you lead.

Do you have frequent yearnings to do your own thing? Do you long to live the life of friends or family? Do you wake up in the morning dreading heading into the office?

If so, maybe it’s time for a change. You can start by taking baby steps.

Start something on the side. Start really researching that business idea you have today. Start networking with others who are in the same place you wish to be in one day.

Or hell, be like me and just quit your job, cut the cord, and head into the world of unknown. Believe me, it’s a tough road, but there is nothing more fulfilling then taking your life back and mixing your passions to truly build a career you love.

My mantra: I may be poor in money (for now ), but I’m rich in life. And I wouldn’t change that for anything.

Today’s announcement has been a long time coming and I couldn’t be more excited to share it with you. So, without further ado…

I’m proud to announce the launch of my brand new course: Make It Rain.

(If you are reading this via email or RSS and can’t see the video above, watch it here.)

What is Make It Rain?

When I graduated college in 2008 I barely knew anything about money. All I knew was that I had a lot of debt from school and that I wanted to get rid of it as quickly as possible.

Fast forward four years and I’ve paid off all $28,000 of my debt, saved $50,000 for retirement, quit my unfulfilling job, vagabonded the U.S. with my wife, and live a life filled with freedom.

Make It Rain is the exact financial action plan I followed to get where I am at today. 

The 10-week course covers different areas of personal finance, everything from earning and saving to retirement and spending, and gives you a 100-step checklist to get on the right track. Whether your finances are an absolute mess or you’re on the right track, but just need to fill some knowledge gaps, Make It Rain will help you out.

The course is also filled with exclusive video interviews with some of the most popular personal finance authors on the web (J.D. Roth & Adam Baker) and personal case studies showing the exact tools I used to pay off my debt and save enough money to quit my day job.

Why Call It Make It Rain?

As I’ve hinted at a few times before, this course isn’t just about you and me. It is about something much, much bigger.

25% of every single purchase of Make It Rain will go directly to charity: water to help fund clean drinking water wells in Africa.

By the end of 2012 my goal is for us to fully fund a well project that costs $5,000. I’ll be publicly posting our fundraising progress along the way at mycharitywater.org/make-it-rain-2012.

Special Bonuses

1. The course will be on sale for 20% off until Friday, 9/21 at Midnight PST.
2. The first 10 people that pick up the course get a free book of their choice from the Cubicle Renegade’s Essential Library.
3. If you pick up the gold level package you’ll be able to attend the Q&A webinar live when it takes place in early October.

That is all I have to share today, but I encourage you to check out Make It Rain.

It could change your life forever. 

If Pocket Changed has inspired, encouraged, or helped you over the past two years I would really appreciate any shares of this post. Thank you so much for all the comments, tweets, likes, and emails since I started Pocket Changed in 2010. You’re the reason why I run this site.

Cheers,
Caleb Wojcik

Note from Caleb: I’ve been hard at work for the upcoming launch of Make It Rain (just a week away!), so I’ve asked a few really interesting people to share their journeys into the world of entrepreneurship and self-reliance. I hope you’ve been enjoying them. I have some other great ones coming up as well.

Today’s cubicle renegade escape story is from Melissa Anzman.

I joke that I am a failed quitter. The first time I went from cubicle dweller to business owner, it didn’t stick. So, I have had to leave the corporate world twice before I had enough knowledge and experience to sustain an actual business. For me, giving up was never an option, it was just a matter of figuring it out.

I knew early on in my career that Corporate America was not for me. I started climbing the ladder with the intent of getting out as soon as possible, but along the way I got wrapped up in the money, my title and the stability of a steady paycheck. So I kept on climbing until I just about snapped.

Instead of losing my marbles officially, I planned my first exit strategy… which varied greatly from my second time around.

My First Attempt at Quitting

I had been known to take career risks along the way, but I was finally ready to throw the corporate world firmly behind me following a near-meltdown in July. I was on a bonus-contract through the end of the year, which provided me with a solid deadline – I could not leave the company before then without owing them a lot of money, so instead, I used that date as my “get free” deadline. With six months to plan in advance, I went about creating my exit strategy, focusing on all of the wrong things.

My main goal was to save as much money as possible – putting my high-salary to good use and cutting down on my miscellaneous spending. I had an arbitrary number in mind of having $40,000 saved in liquid savings to cover my costs and any unforeseen emergencies for the transition I planned.

That was literally my ONLY plan – I did not have anything else figured out: where I would live, what I would do, what my own business would actually be, how I would earn income, what my freedom would actually be like.

My mindset was that I wanted to be my own boss and if it didn’t work out, I could always land another corporate job.

And that is where it all went wrong. Every morning I would sit at my computer and spent hours pondering what my business was going to be and different ways to earn income. I even launched a website, the first that I fully designed, but never went all in and didn’t make a single sale. I was so busy being stuck in analysis paralysis that I ended up having to get another job to pay my bills (note: I did not spend all of my savings, but I started to get nervous and bored).

So I transitioned back into Corporate America.

Second Time, Make it Count

The first day back in the office, was soul-crushing.

It was worse than anything I ever felt before – I knew I wasted an amazing opportunity to follow my dream… because I never figured out what my dream was. So back to work I went, but I did it strategically. I accepted a “bridge job” position so I could earn a steady income, but also have the time and mental capacity to build my own business. And I put myself on notice – I had a new deadline, but I made sure I applied the lessons I learned the first time around.

My new plan to quit was structured. I had a quit date; a money saved amount ($10,000 this time around); and business milestones.

I was not allowed to leave my corporate job until I had a fully functioning business that was earning income (I had a specific income target, number of clients, and number of website visitors). And with it, I removed the final safety net – when I quit this time, it would be for good.

There would be no “going back to a corporate job” should my own business not work. It had to work.

5 Lessons I Learned from Being a Failed Quitter

1. Leaving the safety and security of a corporate job is not easy and cannot be learned. I was constantly searching online for ways that other people made it work. The steps that they followed to lead me straight to success. I tried to find a secret hidden formula. I finally realized that it was different for everyone. I never thought I valued the security that a corporate job had, but that was one of the hardest things for me to part with when I ventured out on my own. The work schedule, responsibility of covering everything, the lack of constant interaction – all things I enjoy now, but they were difficult to adjust to during the transition.
2. Having a viable plan in place is key. I was asked by a fellow entrepreneur who promised some advice (it never did come by the way), to review my business plan. Uh, I didn’t have one. And while it has only been referred to a few times since launching my business, the process of creating a plan and thinking through the plan, was critical to my success. “If you fail to plan, you plan to fail” – great advice… I wish it didn’t take me so long to apply it!
3. Money saved does not equal success. There isn’t an exact number that will ensure you can pay your bills. I had a magic number in my mind of what would help me be successful, and it didn’t matter. It is not about the money saved or the cushion you have – it is about the viability of your business and ideas. And if you are like me, the less money you have, the more creative you get – so the pressure has helped my business become successful more quickly.
4. Take the comfort of stability to tweak your business and idea, without the income pressure. Being able to test your ideas out before you are counting on them to sustain you, is ideal. It allows you to figure out what you like and dislike, and work on your funnel and strategy without taking huge income hits. Having a side hustle is a pain, but the outcome is worth all of the juggling.
5. Clearly knowing what makes you tick, will drive your success. When you know what motivates you, particularly when it comes to work, it is much easier to build your business to support your motivating factors. For me, being on my own was more about freedom than income – so not making as much money (yet) as my corporate job, is easy for me to live with. Getting to the root of your motivation will help sustain you when you do finally make the leap – you will have a constant reminder of WHY you are on the path you are on.

Am I glad I had to quit twice? Absolutely.

It was a hard road, and it is embarrassing at times, but I learned more about myself during my first “sabbatical”. Through those lessons I have since created a sustainable business (or two), and truly understand what it takes to be my own boss.

Melissa Anzman is a career coach, blogger and author of Stop Hating Your Job. A former human resources insider who helps people fall in love with their jobs again, Melissa blogs at Loosen Your White Collar. (img)

Note from Caleb: This is a cubicle renegade escape story by Nathan Barry, a friend and an accomplished iOS designer who builds beautiful apps that matter.

My son Oliver was born September 20th, 2011.

Two weeks later I quit my software design job I’d been working at for almost three years.

Many people told me I was crazy for leaving a salaried position, especially now that I had so much more responsibility at home. But friends who knew me better just smiled, knowing that me working for myself was inevitable.

A desire to be in control is the main reason I wanted to work for myself. Control of my time and control of the projects I worked on.

Requesting time off has always irritated me. Having to fill out a form to ask permission to be away from the office for a few days doesn’t seem right. There were also plenty times I had to implement someone else’s poor design ideas for software that I didn’t have any connection with.

The only way I saw that I could truly own my time was to become self employed.

You see, I like to design and build software. More importantly, I like to design software that improves the life of the person using it. Sounds like a lofty goal, right? Well, let me introduce two of my apps. My first iPad application is called OneVoice and it helps anyone with a speech disability communicate. For example a child with non-verbal autism, who normally doesn’t speak at all, would use OneVoice to communicate with his family.

Discovering a Sense of Humor

OneVoice has a series of categories on the left, which display a grid of words and phrases (each with an icon or image) on the right. When a phrase is tapped the device uses synthesized speech to verbalize the phrase. To give you an idea how powerful this simple concept is I’d like you to hear a story from Shellie.

Shellie’s daughter Leah has Autism and does not speak at all, at least not in the traditional sense. Here’s an email I recently received from Shelly:

“I never knew Leah had any sense of humor at all and the first time I asked her what she wanted for dinner and she ‘said’ crayons and laughed at herself I could have cried!”

Over the years I’ve designed software to make all kinds of tasks easier and more efficient. Often making considerable amounts of money for the companies I worked for. But that seems insignificant when compared with helping a parent to discover their child’s sense of humor.

Staying Committed

The next app I’d like to introduce you to is called Commit and I made it for myself. When I was in school as a kid I remember telling my mom I didn’t need to practice writing any more since I was never going to be a writer. I’m not sure if I could be more wrong.

In the last 3 months I have written a book, a chapter for someone else’s book, many posts for my blog, and at least a dozen guest posts for other sites. Commit is the app that kept me motivated and on track.

The idea behind Commit comes from a philosophy called “don’t break the chain.” The idea is that you get a big wall calendar and make a commitment to do something every day. It could be anything from writing to exercise.

Mine is “I will write 1,000 words every day.”

Each day that you complete your commitment you cross off a day with a big red x. After 5 or 6 days in a row you’ve built a chain of Xs, now the motivation is to not break the chain by missing a day. As you continue to be successful your chain gets longer. If you’ve written 1,000 words a day for 39 days in a row, then you will be more likely to continue writing in order to not break the chain.

Commit is that concept, but with an iPhone app instead of a wall calendar. You can set reminders (“Were you going to write 1,000 words today?”) to show up at a certain time if you haven’t completed the task already for the day. Tons of people use it every day.

Many people tell me they have a love/hate relationship with it. On one hand they love that it keeps them on track, but on the other it forces them to keep their commitments when they feel lazy.

Using Commit everyday has changed my approach to writing, helped me to stay focused, and significantly improved my work life. Writing was something I never thought I would do, but now I sit down and write 1,000 words every morning.

Why I Left

I went from designing software for large companies, where I never really got to see results, to being able to hear personal stories and feedback every day from people who’s lives were improved by what I created.

These pursuits haven’t lead to me becoming fabulously wealthy. In fact, I’ve made less money since quitting my job and working on my own. But it allows me to work quickly and build exactly what I want to build.

The other day, after starting to get burnt out on a project, I told my wife I didn’t want to work anymore today (it was 2:00 in the afternoon). She simply replied, “then don’t.”

In the last year I’ve spent at least 10 weeks traveling, including a 5 week trip through Europe. All without having to fill out a time off request. That makes me really happy. I love being in control of my time.

The freedom to work on what I want, when and where I want is a wonderful thing. Work still has to get done and money still needs to be made, but the flexibility to do it on my own terms is a wonderful thing.

Oh, and most importantly I work from home, so I’ve spend so much more time with little Oliver.

***

Nathan Barry is the author of The App Design Handbook, a complete guide to creating beautiful iOS applications. He also writes about design and business at NathanBarry.com.

Ever since I heard of the “four burners” theory from Chris Guillebeau, I’ve thought that I should only have four major “things” going on in my life at once. The theory states:

“’One burner represents your family, one is your friends, the third is your health, and the fourth is your work.’ The gist is that in order to be successful you have to cut off one of your burners. And in order to be really successful you have to cut off two.”

Since I left my corporate gig last year this “four focus areas” theory has kind of led my train of thought for how many things I let into my life. I always make family and friends a priority, so I think of it as four places for everything else in my life.

The items have changed a few times (specifically with one being filled in by “travel” or “moving” for six of the last eleven months).

Finishing Out The Year Strong

As I look back at my annual plan for “growth” in 2012 I am happy with the progress I’ve made this year, but want to finish out the year strong. 

Here are my “four burners” for the end of this year in order of importance. (Feel free to share what your “four burners” are in the comments below this post.)

1. Super Secret Think Traffic Project: announcement coming in late September
2. Make It Rain: launching on September 18th, 2012
3. Health: both continuing to eat healthier and be more physically active
4. Jen Wojcik Photography & Caleb Wojcik Films: my wife’s full-time gig and my “creative” outlet

More of This

There are four months left in 2012 and with what I want to accomplish professionally and personally I am going to need increased amounts of:

• Focus: I need to decrease what I waste time on and have less total number of tasks everyday so I can put more quality into the most important tasks.
• Time Spent Working: this is a sacrifice I am willing to make to put my family in a better financial position in the future. I’d rather work many more hours a week now and be “set up” for the future then to keep scrapping by. This is obviously a decision that is jointly made with my wife about the expectations for how much I need to work, what that means for nights and weekends, and how I will still make time for relaxing.
• Creation Time: I do my best creative work (writing, planning, etc.) right after I wake up. Ways I can optimize this are to:
  1) plan for what I am going to start the work day off with the day before
  2) avoid doing mindless things to start the day (email, tw, FB, etc. can wait!)
  3) exercise either first thing in the morning or when I hit a wall mentally
  4) take a 20 or 30 minute nap in the afternoon
  5) go for a walk or stretch to end the work day while planning the next day

Less of This

I will also need decreased amounts of time spent:

• Consuming: I need to read less business non-fiction books. I don’t really have a problem of reading too many blog posts that I find through Twitter or anything, I just like to read business books and I’ll need to cut back on that a bit the next four months.
• Watching: Less Netflix, less Lynda.com tutorials, and less video podcasts like Foundation. These things mostly take place in the evenings, post-dinner, but I think I’ll need to be working more in the evenings than usual to end the year.
• Multitasking: Write the one thing down and only do that. I have been using TeuxDeux.com as my “getting s*** done” system since April and I am loving it. I still have problems focusing on only one thing at a time though.
• Distracted: Turn off the Internet more. Go other places to work more. Turn off my phone more. Single-Task philosophy.

Your Turn

What are on your four burners for the rest of this year? What things will you have to sacrifice spending time and energy on until next year?

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This is a guest post by Andrew Youderian of eCommerceFuel.com.

It was almost 10:00 p.m. by the time I wearily stumbled into my apartment, finally finished with my frantic 14-hour day.

After my first year of investment banking, I knew this wasn’t the life I wanted. I was rarely able to see friends and family, and spent many weekends gazing longingly at a beautiful day through an office window. My work-life balance was all work.

So just a year into my first career out of college, I decided to quit. Though I planned to honor my commitment to a two-year stint, I immediately started stock-piling cash reserves like the Chinese Central Bank. I didn’t have a definitive plan yet, but I knew I wanted to give myself as many options as possible.

Striking Out on My Own

When those two years ended, I vowed to never again be a corporate slave. I hunkered down to work on building a business of my own, flirting with a few different ideas before settling on the eCommerce model. Not long after, I opened my first online store selling radio equipment.

Within six months, I was making enough to cover all my expenses, and within a year, I was able to support myself and my new wife, Annie. (Apparently she was a sucker for guys who quit prestigious finance jobs to sell radio equipment out of their bedrooms.) In year two, I launched a second business, TrollingMotors.net.

With two websites providing a healthy income, I decided it was time to do something I’d always dreamed about: travel the world. I hired a full-time employee to handle the day-to-day operations of the businesses and began preparing for a grand adventure.

Last February, Annie and I set out on a seven-month journey to more than 20 countries. We taught slum children in India, sailed the Grecian Islands, and hiked Patagonia. It was an absolutely incredible year. And as we traversed the globe, my businesses continued to operate smoothly and profitably in the background.

That’s the story of how I went from “an unfulfilled desk jockey to a fearless entrepreneur,” as Caleb puts it. All it took was a little vision, a basic website, and the desire for a better life. Anyone could do it, and I’m surprised it was so easy… except that it wasn’t. 

The Real Story

You’ve undoubtedly heard stories like mine before. Guy gets job. Guy hates job. Guy starts business. Guy makes money. Guy travels the world. These stories are often accompanied by an offer to duplicate “Guy’s” success in just seven days with his $99 eBook!

But I’m not here to sell you anything. Instead, I want to share the parts of my journey that others leave out. The difficult, unglamorous parts you seldom hear with internet success stories.

So why am I sharing the nitty-gritty details? To give you a realistic idea of what’s really required to build your own life-changing internet business. And to inform you that many of the problems, setbacks and doubts you’ll face were once shared by those “successful” entrepreneurs you’ve read about.

So, in the interest of transparency, here are some of the things I struggled with when building my own business.

Sacrifice Isn’t Sexy

Saving money was instrumental in allowing me to quit my job and ramp up my business. But it was also difficult and even embarrassing.

To help save, I kept my 1990 Toyota Camry after starting my job in investment banking. This college beater had survived a collision with a kamikaze deer and was cobbled together with two-toned parts. I parked my Frankenstein car blocks away from the office, partially to save on parking fees and partially to save face at the office.

Now, I’m not saying that you need to drive a beater for five years in order to be successful online. But you DO need to be willing to sacrifice in order to make your business dreams a reality. That could mean giving up your weekends for a year to work on your business. Or downgrading your lifestyle to save a chunk of money so you’re not a slave to your job. Regardless, you have to give up something substantial, and it will probably be painful.

(Note from Caleb: Speaking of saving up money to make the leap to being an entrepreneur, we’re just over a month away from the launch of Make It Rain, the course I’m creating specifically for aspiring cubicle renegades that need to get their finances in order first. Sign up for the early access list for more info.)

The Work Gets Harder

As Caleb has written about before, to succeed you have to be willing to put in the work – A LOT of work.

In the early days of my business, I’d work 60-plus-hour weeks in my cramped bedroom, often late into the night, because there was so much to do. I had to incorporate a business and research a niche. I needed to learn about shopping cart software and get it running properly. Then I had to build a website. This was all before I opened for my first day of business.

Building something from scratch – and getting it noticed by the world – takes significant effort. Much of that work is often boring, time-consuming and draining. I can remember feeling totally wiped out after hours of writing SEO emails, wanting nothing more than to take a break and play video games with my roommates.

I sometimes gave in to the temptation, but just as frequently I put my head down and sent out another dozen marketing pitches. Passion is an important part of success, but so is the willingness to “suck it up” and overcome the obstacles between you and your goals.

Kiss Your Confidence Goodbye

I consider myself a fairly confident guy, but starting my first business really tested this perception. Staying motivated despite a lack of short-term progress can be incredibly difficult. When I finally launched my new site, it took nearly two weeks to get my first sale. During that time, I was constantly second-guessing myself and my decision to strike out on my own.

When sales finally started to trickle in, the daily ups and downs of the order volume would often determine my mood. Good days would bring a surge of confidence and reassurance. Bad days would lead to endless self-doubt. It was an emotional roller coaster.

In times like these, it’s crucial to have someone who believes in and will support you as you work through the rough spots. My wife was an incredible source of confidence and support, and had faith in me when I doubted myself.

So How Can You Do This?

As a Pocket Changed reader, you’re likely interested in creating your own business. Though it’s not an easy process, it is definitely possible!

Unfortunately, an eBook or business course isn’t going to be your golden ticket to success (although a quality course can provide valuable guidance). Instead, make sure to focus on and recognize the traits that will help you achieve success, including:

1. An Overwhelming Desire to Succeed – Having an unbreakable resolve to see your business through to success will serve you amazingly well. It’s often not the brilliant people who succeed in life but those who are most persistent and take action daily toward their goals.
2. Long-Term Commitment – If you can accept early on that you might not see the fruits of your labor for several months, you’ll be more likely to persevere. Building anything of substance takes time, and it’s not something you can rush.
3. A Willingness to Sacrifice Now – To achieve your dreams, you need to be willing to make drastic changes in your life that aren’t always pleasant in the short-term. Be honest with yourself when it comes to how much you’re willing to give up.
4. Self-Instruction & Problem Solving – Being able to teach yourself new skills is critically important for entrepreneurs. If you can’t solve problems as they arise, your business grinds to a screeching halt. Troubleshooting and learning new skills are imperative for long-term success.
5. A Support Network. It’s crucial to have someone who believes in you and can offer encouragement amid setbacks. Make sure you have a cheerleader who can help sustain you when times are tough.  

Nearly all successful people have struggled at some point in their careers. Knowing that others faced similar challenges will help you feel less isolated as you work through difficult stretches. Even Instagram, which is often hailed as an “overnight success,” has a long backstory filled with hard work and commitment.

Thankfully, It’s Worth It

I hope my honesty hasn’t scared you from your entrepreneurial aspirations. Striking out on your own is hard, but the results are well worth the price.

My sacrifice and dedication eventually paid off. I now own successful eCommerce businesses managed by a fantastic team, freeing me up to pursue other ventures. I’m able to set my own schedule and work when and where I choose. I’ve had the chance to travel the world. And, of course, I’ve been able to create a healthy income to support my family.

Was it easy? No. But was it worth it? Absolutely.

***

Willing to sacrifice for your own life-changing business? Grab your free copy of Andrew’s eBook on how to start an online store.  You can also follow him at eCommerceFuel.com where he blogs about running his own businesses.

Everyone that hates their job wants to “make work go faster”. I know, because I was there.

In today’s short video I talk about the absolute best way to make your work day go by faster.

No spoilers from me on this one; you’ll have to watch the video below in all of its HD glory to find out the trick.

(If you can’t see the video above, click here to watch it.)

What do you think?

Is this the best way to make work go by faster? What has been your experience with doing work that you love?

Let me know in the comments below this post.

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I’m going to assume that you’ve had a Monday – Friday job that you hated. If not, you’ve at least been in school before and “longed for the weekend”.

When Friday afternoon rolls around you can’t wait to escape. Everyone is asking each other “what are you doing this weekend?” and you have been thinking about your answer since Wednesday.

(Believe me, I’ve been there.)

If this currently describes you, then you have probably put your life on hold. You are sacrificing the precious time you have on this planet to do something all week that you dread every Sunday evening.

If you always have “a case of the Mondays”, how are you supposed to feel most alive?

Since when is trading five days of pain and agony to get two days of freedom a good trade? A preschooler wouldn’t accept that offer.

Sure, I know that having a job or career is practically a necessity in this day and age (and believe me, I’m not advocating that you drop off the face of the Earth and go “find yourself”), but at least find work that you makes you feel alive.

“Don’t ask yourself what the world needs. Ask yourself what makes you come alive and then go do that. Because what the world needs is people who have come alive.” – Howard Thurman

This doesn’t mean that you just lock yourself in a room, make a list of all the things you are “passionate about”, and choose the one that sounds most fun. (I’m pretty sure that playing Call of Duty, watching the Olympics, or sitting on a beach reading novels isn’t going to pay the bills.)

What it means is that you don’t settle.

What it means is that you spend your downtime moving closer and closer to your ideal life. We’re talking baby steps.

Excuses

One of the biggest struggles that I hear from people is that they don’t have the time to make the changes in their life that they know they need to make.

If this describes you, I’m calling you out. (You’ve been warned.)

Show me someone that says they can’t find one extra hour every day to put towards changing your life for the better and I’ll show you a liar.

Simplify your life. Start saying no. Minimize your commitments.

Then use that extra time for action! Not “unwinding” in front of the television. Not reading more books or blog posts for ideas. Not listening to podcasts or watching TED talks for inspiration. A-C-T-I-O-N.

If you want to be a writer, then write. If you want to be a photographer, take photos. If you want be a _______er, then go take an hour and _______ your heart out. It really isn’t much harder than that.

You might find out that you actually hate doing this thing that you’ve dreamt about being while you were stuck in yet another boring meeting at work or staring at red brake lights during your commute. But, you’ll never know until you try.

Your Homework

Here’s my challenge for you this weekend.

Whatever it is that you want to be (actor, pianist, surfer, etc.), spend as much time as you physically can doing it this weekend.

I don’t want to hear excuses. (You can catch up on watching the Olympics on Monday.)

There are always 1,000 reasons not to do something. Successful people choose to act anyway.

Have a great (and life changing) weekend.

//

CW

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“Your time is limited, so don’t waste it living someone else’s life. Don’t be trapped by dogma — which is living with the results of other people’s thinking. Don’t let the noise of others’ opinions drown out your own inner voice. And most important, have the courage to follow your heart and intuition. They somehow already know what you truly want to become. Everything else is secondary.” - Steve Jobs

Welcome to another Ask the Readers segment.

Today I’d love to hear from you in the comments whether you think “follow your passion” is good advice for either starting a business or choosing a career path.

Over the past few months I have been hearing a lot of discussion about whether or not this advice is flawed. Here are some of the stances I’ve seen people take.

• Chris Guillebeau talks about the importance of your passion having convergence with what people are willing to pay for in The $100 Startup.
• At WDS a couple weeks ago, Cal Newport gave a keynote talk on why “following your passion” is flawed advice from Steve Jobs’ commencement speech.
• My friend Scott Dinsmore runs a course teaching people how to “Live Off Their Passion” that I have heard grand praise for.
• Pat Flynn recently discussed the difference between passion and interest and whether or not you need passion to profit online.

Share your thoughts in the comments below this post.

Last Time on “Ask the Readers”

In our most recent ask the readers discussion I asked, “when is the right time to spend thousands on your business?” My favorite answer came from Sunny:

“I think it’s smart to invest in yourself and your business/passion … as long as you’re committed to it and are willing to put in the effort to make it pay off…

There are a lot of people that will throw money at anything that they think will help motivate them, but don’t realize how much work you actually have to put into building a business. It doesn’t matter how much money you’ll throw at a problem if you’re not willing to back it up with work.”

If you’re wondering, my wife and I did go ahead and make a large investment on camera gear.

—

Alright, back to today’s question:

I’d love to hear: is “follow your passion” good career/business advice?

If not, what should you be doing instead?

P.S. If you are reading this in an email or RSS, you can comment here.

Over the past weekend I had the pleasure of attending the second annual World Domination Summit in Portland, Oregon that Chris Guillebeau puts on for 1,000 passionate renegades living intentional lives that make the world better.

Jonathan Fields summarized it best when he called it “Woodstock for world changers“.

The conference had a huge impact on me last year and I’ve already writen about why you need to go to the World Domination Summit and what if real life was more like #WDS, so I won’t focus too much on the kind of people that are there or how inspring it is.

Instead, I’m going to focus on the most noteworthy part of the conference: the $100 Investment.

The Parable of the Talents

After J.D. Roth gave the last keynote speech on Sunday night and all the volunteers were thanked, Chris Guillebeau was on stage to end the event. But first, he had a story to tell.

Chris told a tale similar to the parable of the talents, where-in a man gives money to multiple people and returns later to see what they have done with it.

• Had they spent it needlessly?
• Saved it frugally?
• Or invested it wisely?

Chris then went on to share that while last year’s WDS didn’t make any profit, this year’s did. Plus, an anoynous donor gave a large sum of money to the conference’s cause as well.

Ironically, the surplus amount was close to $100 per attendee and with the launch of his recent book The $100 Startup, he came up with the idea of giving all 1,000 attendees $100 in cash to do with it as they wished.

I can’t imagine you’ve ever been to a conference where someone is giving $100,000 away for people to make an impact.

As Chris and I talked about when I had him on the Cubicle Renegade Podcast, with a small amount of money you can make a huge step towards making a difference when you harness the power of convergence between your passions and what people need (whether for profit or charity).

What Happens When You Give 1,000 People $100?

As I talked with people over the next day about “what they were going to do with the $100″ I felt people’s tone change to serious as they contemplated what they were going to do with it.

It was as if they were all harnessing both Voltaire and Spiderman’s Uncle Ben:

“With great power comes great responsibility.”

I saw people like Devon Mills donating her $100 towards Chantelle Baxter’s charity One Girl, that gives access to education to girls in Sierra Leone.

I gave my #wds2012 $100 bill to @chantellebaxter‘s wonderful @onegirlorg, but will come up with something cool to do with $100 of my own!

— Devon A. Mills (@devonamills) July 9, 2012

People were also tweeting that they were donating the $100 to charity: water. (More on that in a moment.)

And many others, including my wife, aren’t yet sure what they are planning to do with it.

One thing is certain though. Everyone I talked to is taking this $100 they were given seriously and are not wasting it like any other $100 they might have earned.

What I’m Going to Do With My $100 Investment from WDS

You might be asking, “Caleb, what are you going to do with the $100 Investment?” Well, here it is.

I’ll be using the $100 to create the first product for Pocket Changed: “Make It Rain: The No B.S. Guide to Your Money“.

Here is direcly what I’ll spend it on:

1. Domain (JoinMakeItRain.com) = $9.95
2. Bamboo Tablet = $86.56 (For “chalkboard” lessons like Pat Flynn does in this video.)
3. That leaves $3.49 for a late night dose of caffeine the night before launch.

The “big picture” piece of this and how I’ll adhere to the “great responsibility” part of the investment is this:

25% of all revenue from Make It Rain will go directly to charity: water. A non-profit organization bringing clean, safe drinking water to people in developing countries.

I will be launching version 1.0 of the course (which is currently 0% complete) in two months in conjunction with my 26th birthday (September 9th, 2012). The fundraising campaign will then be open for an additional month till October 10th, 2012. The goal is to reach $5,000; enough to fully fund a well for a community village.

If you don’t want to wait two months to contribute you can head over to see the campaign at mycharitywater.org/pocketchanged if you want to get the ball rolling with another $26 donation. We only need 193 total $26 pledges to get a well built for 250 people.

If you haven’t heard of charity: water or the founder Scott Harrison’s story, check out this video. They give 100% of all donations directly to water projects for the nearly one billion people in the world that don’t have clean water.

So there you go. I hope you’ll join me in “making it rain”. Both in the tongue-in-cheek, learning to be financially successful way and in the helping to bring water infrastructure to those that need it most.

There will be more details coming in the next few weeks, but until then, be sure to sign up here to get notified of early access to Make It Rain.

Your Turn

To end, I have a simple question for you that I’d like to hear your answer to in the comments below.

• If you went to WDS, I’d love to hear what you are going to do with your $100 Investment. (Feel free to link to a blog post that describes it if you have written one.)
• If you didn’t go, how would you use $100 towards your own startup or world changing act?

- Caleb Wojcik

Photos by Armosa Studios.

In the fifth session of the Cubicle Renegade Podcast I chat with Pat Flynn of Smart Passive Income.

You can listen, subscribe to, or download the podcast on iTunes. 

I met Pat in person last year at the Financial Bloggers Conference, but I had been listening to his podcast and reading his blog since before I started Pocket Changed in 2010. While Pat gets labeled into the “make money online” niche, his transparency and willingness to help people with learning to do things online should be a model for anyone building a personal brand.

In this episode we discuss Pat’s less known failures online, how to “be everywhere”, what to do when you feel stuck, and how to persevere in the face of failure. 

You can also listen below. If you are reading this in an email just click here.

Things we talk about in this episode:

(1:57) – How Pat got started online before SPI
(9:12) – The importance of authenticity online
(15:24) – How to “be everywhere” online
(20:00) – Personal or non-personal brand?
(24:55) – Niche sites, affiliate marketing, and authority sites
(28:00) – What to do when you feel “stuck”
(35:45) – The importance of experimentation & failure

Items mentioned in this episode:

• Pat’s Blog: Smart Passive Income
• Pat’s Podcast on iTunes
• Pat’s YouTube Channel

If you have enjoyed this or other episodes of The Cubicle Renegade Podcast I’d love for you to leave a review of the show on iTunes:

• Please Click Here to Subscribe or Leave a Review on iTunes 

Cheers!

Intro & Outro Music by Ratatat

Note from Caleb: I recently received the below story from a reader and wanted to share it with you today. Here is what she said about her inspiration for writing it.

“I wrote it at work before I knew anything about blogging, twitter, Pocket Changed, Smart Passive Income, Think Traffic, etc. It was my breaking point. It just sort of hit me all at once and I just wrote.. .I don’t regret leaving (my job) and I will never, ever do anything that makes me unhappy ever again. Then I wondered why I ever decided to do something that made me unhappy.”

If you are drifting through life this might just be the wake-up call you need. It is a raw and eye-opening account of what people’s lives have become.

This is a guest post by Elizabeth Seda of A Life on Your Terms.

***

The human being has been gaining more and more independence in body and mind since we figured that being bipedal would give us an advantage in the evolutionary hierarchy.

As a group of people we still have the same basic dependencies. As an individual we now have more choices about who, what, where, and how we want to be. These choices are only recently becoming clear to us, although they became available to us long ago.

Before the arrival of the big JC we functioned as a pack. In the same way that a pack of dogs would subconsciously set values and needs, our values and needs were set in relation to the pack. It’s important to realize that functioning in a pack does not necessarily mean that you mean goodwill to all of your species. Your actions are tied to your pack and only your pack. The survival of yourself and your family depended on your pack. Period.

When the big JC came and told us that all human packs were equal, we began to depend on each other, or ‘brother love’ for the maintenance of our life. Speaking in broadly general terms, we ceased being single nomadic packs and began forming the embryo of a civilization.

Empires were formed out of thousands of packs and pack leaders were weaned out based on the strength of their iron fist. In this way, civilizations began to depend on their emperor, directly or indirectly for the maintenance of their life.

We began working as a team, trading skill for skill, product for product (generally speaking). A boy born into a trade would not suddenly exclaim to his father “I don’t know dad. I don’t think being a blacksmith is for me.” If this were so, we would be living in a much different universe. In this stage, we began to depend directly on our neighbors for the maintenance of our life.

In More Recent Times

Fast forward a few dozen centuries of ideas, progress, and evolution, until we stumble upon the 1900’s. Opportunity and entrepreneurship became feats that anyone with the mind and will could reach.

Now fast forward to today, where anyone with an internet connection and a few hundred dollars in savings can create an empire using, as resources, the other empires that other penniless entrepreneurs developed. We have come close to full independence. We don’t have to depend directly on anyone to sustain our life. Nearly anyone, from almost anywhere, can do just about anything they can think of with the right training and ½ the brain power of our predecessors.

Unfortunately, we have not made full use of our new opportunities. We’ve lived as pack and pack leader for so long that it has become instinctive to want to join an already well established pack.

We grow up surrounded by well-intentioned adults shepherding us into the path of the safe and certain. We aren’t forbidden to take the roads less traveled, but we are strongly advised against it. So, for fear of bankruptcy, homelessness, failure, and being disowned by our parents and society, we continue on the path of mediocrity.

We then spend the 8 years wasting our time studying and trying to find a ‘good job’, only to discover that, usually, working for someone is only marginally better than being homeless in Russia during the Red Revolution. In other words, we spend years fine tuning our skills so that we can offer them to the biggest and baddest pack that will take us. Rarely are we encouraged to form a pack of our own based on our own beliefs and live on our own terms.

In no time we find ourselves stripped of independence, questioning our basic principles, and denying ourselves any thoughts that stray from what seems to be reality and any actions that may be viewed upon as irresponsible, immature, or impractical.

Graduate to What?

Although we never allow ourselves to fully feel it, most of us know by the time we graduate college that we will eventually end up blissfully miserable. Our lives will consist of working mostly apathetically for a cause that we don’t believe in, for a boss we learn to hate, and expanding extraordinary amounts of energy trying to ‘beat the system.’ Yet for all the moaning we do about serving a corporate master, we let it happen. We gladly sold our soul for a place under the wing of a company guaranteeing safety, comfort, and an unlimited lifetime supply to worms (slimy yet satisfying!).

There are some of you fortunate enough to have gone through the vicious cycle and come out with a job you love. Good for you. You are the exception.

There are those of you who were able to escape the cycle. Again, good for you. This is me giving you a pat on the back. I admire your courage to take control and assume personal responsibility for your life.

Then there are those who will cry out in indignation ‘I am not a corporate Zombie! I am a realist. I have to put food on the table and I can’t afford to take risks! Everyone has to work for someone and no one likes it!’

I have a question for you: Do you really think it isn’t risky depending on the loyalty of your company for the livelihood of your family? What makes you think that you, as a human resource, are worth more than your salary, benefits, and perks when costs need cutting?

When it comes to comparing the risks between working for yourself, or working for someone else, they average out to be about equal. The risks in each situation are different, but the result is the same. Getting fired and failing at a business venture result in the same thing: unemployment. Why would you take such a risk by working at a job you hate?

The Truth

Might as well take the same risk doing something you love.

There are those of you who recognize the feeling of living in the situation that seems like you are being pulled down into quicksand, and you find that escape only leads to a circle of fire. Paralyzed by the fear of being burned to death and the increasing force of the sand when you struggle, you stay still and complacent. You watch every inch of yourself disappear into the sand. Only when the sand reaches your chin do you question whether you’ve made the right choice.

By that time, it’s too late.

What are you waiting for?

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When you feel stuck in a job you hate it is easy to just throw in the towel and start living a life filled with complacency.

You start to settle in all aspects of your work, finances, and life.

You start living someone else’s “Dream Life” instead of your own.

When people ask you “how you are doing?” you respond on autopilot with a boring:

“I’m fine, thanks.”

Wake Up!

If this is you, it is time to wake up.

Not that long ago I was in the same situation. I had spent all of my adult years pursuing what “the authorities” in my life told me I should want.

A complete resumé. Comfortable job. Prestigious degrees. Good health insurance. 401k match. A mortgage. 2.5 kids.

It wasn’t until I really sat down and realized that none of those things were as important to me as happiness that I started to take more risks like quitting my job and going on a three month road trip.

Luckily I was able to distill this on my own, but the awareness of this phenomenon of “settling” needs to be explored further and shared with people that are “stuck” to inspire them to change their lives for the better.

Enter “I’m Fine, Thanks”

My friend Adam Baker of Man Vs. Debt, alongside Crank Tank Studios, has been hard at work on a documentary that is almost complete called “I’m Fine, Thanks“. The 5 person film crew drove all over the U.S. to interview over 60 people about the “complacency problem” in our society.

From their Kickstarter page: “It’s a collection of stories about life, the choices we all make, and the paths we ultimately decide to follow.

We examine the factors that motivate and drive our major life choices. And, most importantly, whether or not the path we follow through life – and the habits we form based on that path – are truly connected with who we really are as individuals.

This is a movie about the moment people realize the life they’re living is not the life that’s true to their heart… and, as a result, what they decide to do about it!”

Here’s the trailer for the “I’m Fine, Thanks” documentery on Kickstarter.

(Click here to see the video if you are viewing this via email or RSS.)

If you think that complacency is a bigger problem than most people and mainstream media will admit, then I encourage you to back this project on Kickstarter.

They have already reached their $100,000 goal with a few days to spare, but every $5 helps brings their message to a bigger audience.

Note: There is also a great interview with Adam Baker today over on Think Traffic.

***

I’ll leave you with one of my favorite quotes that this project directly resonates with.

“Don’t ask yourself what the world needs. Ask yourself what makes you come alive and then go do that. Because what the world needs is people who have come alive.” – Howard Thurman

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In the fourth session of the Cubicle Renegade Podcast I chat with Devon Mills of Answering Oliver.

You can listen, subscribe to, or download the podcast on iTunes. 

I met Devon last year the day before The World Domination Summit and she just got done traveling by herself full-time for three months after leaving her day job. She vagabonded through Southeast Asia, including Australia and New Zealand.

In this episode we discuss how she saved up to fund this trip, why she learned that a cubicle is actually what she prefers, and how she wouldn’t trade taking this “professional risk” for anything.

You can also listen below. If you are reading this in an email just click here.

Things we talk about in this episode:

(1:55) – 2008 Job Market left her “desperate” for work
(3:00) – How Chris Guillebeau changed the way she viewed travel
(4:54) – The hardest part about leaving a “comfortable job”
(6:37) – Did the fear of leaving stick with her after the leap?
(7:14) – How long it took her to save for the trip
(8:53) – Who inspired her to travel?
(9:54) – Why did she want to travel alone?
(14:15) – The importance of “slowing down” while traveling
(16:54) – How her definition of work changed on the road
(21:50) – Her advice for people daydreaming of quitting a job to travel full-time

Items mentioned in this episode:

• Devon’s Blog: Answering Oliver
• Devon’s Round The World Travel Video
• PC Guest Post by Devon: The Value of Financial Struggle
• My Post Featuring Devon’s Escape Day: “Today is my last day of work…”
• Legal Nomads
• A Little Adrift

Thanks for listening to this episode and stay tuned for next week’s episode with Pat Flynn of Smart Passive Income.

Cheers!

If you have enjoyed this or other episodes of The Cubicle Renegade Podcast I’d love for you to leave a review of the show on iTunes:

• Please Click Here to Subscribe or Leave a Review on iTunes 

Intro & Outro Music by Ratatat

This cubicle renegade escape story is by Vivek Mayasandra, founder of the Take Flight Project.

// Seattle, Washington – May, 2011 //

As was usual at 4:30pm, I made my way out of my fluorescent-lit labyrinthine cubicle-filled office floor. I walked out onto a sprawling parking lot, got into my 2008 Honda Civic LX Coupe, and slammed the door in frustration.

The weather featured an unspectacular gray drizzle, Interstate 5 served up its usual snarling traffic jam, and my job had just handed me my roughest day yet.

I was working in a group which counted mindless data entry among its ‘strategic objectives,’ I was closing in on 3 years of neglecting my passions and skills; I was absolutely miserable. But as my mind spun with all the frustration, regret, pain, and disillusionment of my life at the time, a definitive decision churned out: I had to get out quick and start living the life I dreamed of.

But three daunting hurdles stood in my way: I had very little money saved up, was deep in debt, and I had no idea how I’d make a living when I left.

I had read plenty of pieces on following your passions, trusting your gut, and how things fall into place when you’re true to yourself, but I wanted a practical solution. I read sites like Man vs Debt, Pocket Changed and countless others for help, and took a look at the all the resources I had around me – my friends, frequent flier miles, any and all assets, and skills I held.

I quickly created a 3-step plan for myself: 1) Get out of debt, 2) Save $10,000, and 3) get a first paying client for any work at all.

Debt

One thing I struggled with was whether to cut debt and save money simultaneously, or to cut debt first and then save money. In the interest of not half-assing anything and be done-once-and-for-all with debt, I opted for the latter and I’m glad I did.

The day I left my office in frustration, I was over $6,000 in debt. Most of it was the result of compounded irresponsible spending (think bars and restaurants), with a healthy splash of a 9% credit card interest rate. I had to eliminate it. Luckily in my case, I was employed and was making decent paycheck which allowed for about $500 to be put away every month with ample comfort.

But in my case, speed took priority over comfort; I wanted to be debt-free as soon as possible, so I could start building a cash reserve.

I decided to start living paycheck-to-paycheck. I made a list of my defined monthly expenses at the time: rent, car payment, insurance, gas, cell phone bill, gym membership, utilities and food. All of that together added up to approximately $1,800 per month.

Every single cent that fell outside these designated buckets went straight to paying off my debt. Divide those expenses down to the (on average) 2 paychecks I received per month, and voilà – paycheck-to-paycheck living.

I started this plan in July, and was debt-free in December. And the only exception to my rule was the expense incurred on a trip to New York in August (the ticket for which was bought using Delta SkyMiles).

Savings

My goal was to save up $10,000 – a number I arbitrarily chose after speaking to people who’d done what I was aiming to do. I started aggressively saving in December 2011, right after I sent my last credit card payment. I used essentially the same strategy to save as I did for debt-payment: living paycheck-to-paycheck and dumping every last non-defined expense into my savings account. A trip to visit family in India was the only major exception to my rule in this case.

As 2012 rolled around, a few advantages I realized I had was my federal income tax refund (which amounted to about $2,000) and a bonus from my company ($3,000). As soon as I got both of these, I promptly dumped them into my savings account.

Another major resource I had was my ability to leave my apartment (where I was on a month-to-month lease), and move in rent-free into the house of a very close friend of mine for my last two months (February and March) in Seattle. That saved me close to $1700, which went into savings.

In March, I also sold my car to make a profit of $3,000.

All in all, these steps all resulted in me exceeding my savings goal. I can honestly say that it was the result of some basic planning, and an honest assessment of usable resources and relationships around me.

Work

My corporate job was the only real job experience I had after college. And it was in a field I didn’t care much for. This posed the challenge of how I’d create income when I left.

I should say here that literally everyone is good at something. In my case, my assets turned out to be in airline industry knowledge, writing, editing, and strategizing. So I looked to these passions and skills to see where I could add value.

At the height of my debt-cutting in the summer of 2011, I approached the founder of a startup I deeply admired and pointed out some areas where I could help him for free. He agreed to bring me on board to write a few articles for his website (for free). I put forth good effort, honed my writing skills and industry knowledge publicly, and got noticed across the industry. A few months in, I was approached to collaborate on a paid gig doing writing and research in an field I love.

Taking the Leap

On March 22 of this year, I left my corporate job with zero debt, $13,000 in my savings account, a new source of income and big, bright plans for the future. I finally feel totally free and in control of what I’m doing with my life.

I’m working on projects I love, building a new brand (Take Flight Project), figuring out the launch of an online magazine of sorts, and bracing myself for the extended travel I’ve been aching to do my whole life.

Looking back, all of this was made possible with a few simple steps:

• Honestly assessing my current situation, including finances, resources, skills, passions and relationships.
• Creating a basic, flexible plan that looks the results in the eyes.
• Relentless action and execution on that plan.
• Fearlessly reaching out to people I admire, building relationships and constantly being on the lookout for where I can help them.

Life is a lot like science – a grandiose experiment – one which involves highs and lows, constant testing of hypotheses, and a relentless pursuit of truth. There’s absolutely no better time than RIGHT NOW to start that experiment and be bold in your approach. Start now and watch the whole thing unfold before your eyes. It’ll be magical.

- Vivek Mayasandra

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If you came upon an windfall of $5,000 or $10,000 through a tax return, bonus from your day job, or another unexpected place, what would you do with the money? Would you use it for your personal or business dreams?

One of the hardest decisions soon-to-be and current entrepreneurs have to make is prioritize the “extra cash” they have on hand.

• Since you employ yourself, do you give yourself a raise?
• Do hire some part-time help or a consultant to do work you can’t do?
• You’ve been eyeing new equipment, so do you drop a few thousand on that?
• Do you save it for retirement, a house, or another future big expense?

Dropping Thousands of Dollars on Your Dream

This is the exact question that my wife and I had to answer.

Since we moved to San Diego she has been focusing 100% of her effort on growing her wedding & portrait photography business in Southern California. There were the initial start-up costs of getting the proper business licenses and sample products for our customers to see, but how much do you invest past the initial “$100 Startup” phase?

The more skilled of a photographer you are, the better your work is. But another key component is the better your photography gear, the better your images. At the same time we still have her student loans to pay off and have plans to own a home, travel to Italy, and have children in the next decade as well.

What Do You Think?

I’d love to hear in the comments below when you think the best time to invest in your business is.

Should you use your personal savings or gains from other parts of your life to invest in yourself or should you only use money earned through your entrepreneurial endeavors?

(If you are reading this in an email or via RSS, click here to leave a comment.)

What We Decided

As for what my wife and I decided to do, we agreed to invest in more gear for her business (specifically a professional camera body and two lenses) instead of paying off student loan debt, saving for a house, or putting more into retirement. There really wasn’t a “clear right answer” and we deliberated about it for a long time, but that is what we decided to do.

What do you do with a windfall? Do you invest it in your business or use it for personal goals?

***

You can check out other “Ask the Readers” posts here.

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In the third session of the Cubicle Renegade Podcast I chat with Chris Guillebeau, author of the new book, The $100 Startup, and the blog The Art of Non-Conformity.

We discuss why becoming an entrepreneur doesn’t need to cost a ton or have you looking for outside investors. Startups can be created by anyone at anytime.

You can listen, subscribe to, or download the podcast on iTunes. Caleb Wojcik

You can also listen below. If you are reading this in an email just click here.

Things we talk about in this episode:

(0:57) – How he came up with the idea for The $100 Startup
(2:10) – How he decided which “success stories” to include in the book
(4:15) – Unplanned vs. Planned entrepreneurship
(6:15) – Can you “learn” how to be an entrepreneur?
(7:19) – The $100 Startup Blueprint
(9:45) – How to get started as an entrepreneur / Building from free customers to paid
(11:13) – The different kinds of business models described in the book
(13:09) – Did Chris plan for the success of The Art of Non-Conformity from the beginning?
(14:47) – Does Chris survey his audience for the next project he does or does he follow the “build it and they will come” model
(16:33) – The reason Chris started The World Domination Summit

Items mentioned in this episode:

• The $100 Startup Book (aff)
• The Art of Non-Conformity Book (aff)
• Unconventional Guides Store (aff)
• World Domination Summit

Thanks for listening to this episode and if you are interested in reading more about how Chris Guillebeau has changed my life and his new book, read this post from last week.

Cheers!

Please subscribe below to the podcast to get automatic updates or leave a review:

• Click Here to Subscribe or Leave a Review on iTunes 

Intro & Outro Music by Ratatat

[Note from Caleb: Next week's episode of The Cubicle Renegade Podcast is with Chris Guillebeau. You can subscribe to the podcast on iTunes if you haven't already.]

Throughout life you have moments that shape your future more than any others. Bumping into your wife-to-be for the first time at a party, risking your hard-earned money to start your own business, or coming up with the perfect idea for a children’s book about a boy wizard with a lightningbolt scar on his forehead.

In the same fashion, there are people in your life that change your world more than they could ever know. I’m not talking about spouses, family members, or politicians though. I’m talking about people that are major influencers of the world-at-large.

They have hundreds of thousands, if not millions of people that read what they write and share online. They create content that resonates with you all week, products that completely change the way you work, and their followers are some of the coolest people you’ve ever met.

Chris Guillebeau is that person for me. He influenced the biggest change in my life so far: leaving my comfortable desk job to be an entrepreneur.

Before we jump into that though, let’s go back to the beginning (and by this I mean before the existance of Pocket Changed).

In the beginning…

You see, when I started diving into this whole “blogging” thing towards the end of 2010 it was because I had been reading a bunch of books and blogs about how you could “make money on the Internet” and quit your job. I was as skeptical as the next person, but as I started studying what Chris was doing at the Art of Non-Conformity with his Unconventional Guides store I saw how he was helping people create businesses around things that actually matter.

I quickly realized that blogging wasn’t about making a quick buck or scamming people into buying your overpriced eBook. It was about building a relationship of trust with thousands of people, one person at a time. (More on that in a bit.)

I found out that Chris was releasing his first book that fall and I rush ordered it so I could read it while I traveled for Thanksgiving. I practically finished it in a few hours of airport and airplane reading.

After devouring his book, I couldn’t wait to attend his book tour when he came to Seattle a couple weeks later. But, there was one catch: I didn’t even have a blog.

Over the next two weeks I spent most of my freetime trying to think of the perfect name and topic for a blog with my wife. (Fact: I almost went with LogicWithWojcik.com.) On 12/10/2010 I purchased PocketChanged.com and 4 days later I headed to Chris’s stop in Seattle with a URL to share with him and others in attendance.

At the event I not only met Chris, but other incredibly interesting people that I stay in touch with to date too. No, there was nothing on my blog at that point (okay, there was the cheesy “coming soon” post), but it was a huge first step.

That single event was the catalyst for the launch of this site, which eventually led to me connect with Corbett Barr, who I first met in person at Chris’s World Domination Summit, and who gave me the opportunity to leave my desk job behind to go work with him at Think Traffic and now Expert Enough. Because of this new position my wife and I then had the freedom to leave Seattle, road trip all over the United States for three months, and move to San Diego to start her southern California wedding & portrait photography studio.

That is impact.

Care More

But back to how important it is to care about every single person you come into contact with, online or off. Here is how much Chris cares about every single one of the people he comes in contact with.

During my lunch break at work the day after his book tour stop in Seattle I emailed Chris through the contact form on his website to thank him for the event and to say I enjoyed the book.

28 minutes later I got a response.

I have gotten similarly quick responses when I thanked him for quoting my “Why You Need to Go to The World Domination Summit” recap in both an email to all the conference attendees and a blog essay shortly thereafter plus when I reached out to him for an interview for the podcast I just started. (Despite the fact there there was only one episode live at the time.)

How many people do you think email or message Chris everyday? Hundreds?

Yet, here he is responding to every single one of them. The single most important aspect for building a strong following online is to care about every one of your readers. Pat Flynn does this really well too.

I guess the point of this is simply to say, “Thank you Chris Guillebeau. Without your initial and continued inspiration I would probably still be working a job that I dread.”

The $100 Startup Review

As I see it, there are two main ways to start a business. Get funding or bootstrap it. Chris Guillebeau’s latest book, The $100 Startup, focuses on the latter.

The book just came out yesterday, but I was able to receive an advance copy of it and spent the last week digesting it.

If you looking to or are in the process of starting your own business, this book is perfect read for you. In it, Chris describes the most important things you should be focusing on when you are working to get your business off the ground.

He profiles over 50 different microbusiness (small in employees, not revenue) that are growing profitable unconventional businesses and what you can learn from them.

Businesses do cost money to get going, but they don’t really have to be that expensive to start. $100 or $1,000 may be all you need to get started. This book will walk you through your first profitable idea and help you determine whether or not it has the potential for success.

This book is perfect for anyone trying to build a lifestyle business.

Consider this book #21 of the “20 Must-Read Books: The Cubicle Renegade’s Essential Library“. Pick it up here.

Interview with Chris Guillebeau Next Week

On Tuesday I’ll be publishing the next episode of The Cubicle Renegade podcast and it will feature a special interview with Chris Guillebeau. In it we talk about his new book, The $100 Startup, and what it takes to be an entrepreneur in today’s economy. You can subscribe to the podcast on iTunes to automatically download the podcast when it goes live.

If you are interested in checking out his new book, The $100 Startup, I highly recommend it. I just finished reading it last weekend and am now going through it a second time with a notebook at the ready.

***

If you’ve been following Chris Guillebeau for a while, how has he influenced what you are doing with your life? I’d love to hear in the comments below this post.

(Top Photo of Chris is from Chookooloonks)

In the second session of the Cubicle Renegade Podcast I chat with Jenny Blake, author of the Life After College blog and book.

We discuss what kind of person it takes to become an entrepreneur and what the key steps before you leave your job are.

You can listen, subscribe to, or download the podcast on iTunes. Caleb Wojcik

You can also listen below. If you are reading this in an email just click here.

Things we talk about in this episode:

(0:45) – Why she started Life After College
(4:00) – How to successfully blog about diverse topics
(5:00) – How long it took her before she started “earning money online”
(6:36) – Why she left behind a job she loved at Google to take the leap into entrepreneurship
(8:50) – How to transition from employee to entrepreneur
(13:00) – How to balance work + lifestyle when you work for yourself
(16:40) – The hardest part about working for yourself
(18:30) – Why you need a mastermind group

Items mentioned in this episode:

• Life After College Blog
• Life After College Book (affiliate link)
• Design Your Life course
• Make Sh*t Happen course

Intro & Outro Music by Ratatat

As I’ve been hinting at for a few weeks, I’m happy to announce the launch of the new podcast for Pocket Changed.

The Cubicle Renegade Podcast: Where Unfulfilled Desk Jockeys Become Fearless Entrepreneurs

On the show I’ll be featuring current entrepreneurs, corporate escapees, and world changers who are successfully building businesses that matter.

In this inaugural session of the Cubicle Renegade Podcast I sit down to talk with Joel Runyon, author of The Blog of Impossible Things and the founder of ImpossibleHQ.

We discuss everything from whether or not you should do work based on your passion, why you should wait to release the first product on your blog, and how choosing a niche might actually be the worst way to stand out online.

You can listen or download the podcast on iTunes.

Or you can listen below (or if you are reading this in an email just click here).

Things we talk about in this episode:

(1:30) – How to get a job after college when even Starbucks ignores you
(6:55) – When it makes sense to pay for ads online
(10:30) – Why you need to focus on more than just revenue when you start blogging
(12:34) – Should you “monetize your passion”?
(16:57) – Finding a niche vs. Creating a theme
(22:06) – Why you need to create a platform for your brand online
(27:45) – How to “find the time to work on a side hustle”
(31:10) – The hardest part about working while you travel

Items mentioned in this episode:

• The Blog of Impossible Things
• Impossible HQ
• The Impossible Manifesto
• Impossible Tri
• Impossible Shirts
• Lifestyle Business Podcast with Dan Andrews

Intro & Outro Music by Ratatat

Do you ever read something online and secretly think to yourself “I wish I wrote that”?

It happens to me all the time.

So today, I’d like to reach back into the blog archives of some of the best writers on the web discussing online business, entrepreneurship, and living the life of a cubicle renegade.

[Note: Episode 1 of the Cubicle Renegade Podcast is dropping soon, so sign up for free updates to get notified when it does.]

Instead of reading a summary of what each essay is about and trying to determine which of them is a “must read”, do me a favor and read them all. Then, reach out to the authors of the pieces that really hit home with you.

Some are long and some are short, but I recommend you take the time to read each of these posts this week. (Yes, I’m giving you homework.)

***

Here they are in no particular order…

1. How to Make Decisions by Amber Rae

2. The One-Page Career “Cheat Sheet” by Sarah Kathleen Peck

3. How to Suck at Launching a Product by Adam Baker

4. 20 Lessons from 2 Months of Solopreneurship by Jenny Blake

5. 27 Things I’ve Learned About Business in 27 Years by Sean Ogle

6. Qualifications by Chris Guillebeau

7. Entrepreneurship as a Lifestyle by Colin Wright

8. How to Get Rich by Mark Cuban

9. The Only 100 Words You Should Read Today by Pat Flynn

10. 14 Business Tips Nobody Told Me About by Dan Andrews

11. The 17 Habits of People Who Change The World by Scott Dinsmore

12. 5867 Words on Becoming a Conversion Machine: A Guide for Bloggers by Glen Allsop

13. How to Be Interesting by Jon Morrow

14. 8 Steps to Getting What You Want… Without Formal Credentials by Michael Ellsberg (on Tim Ferriss’s blog)

15. Entrepreneurship: Year One by Matt Cheuvront

16. The Truth: Why Trading Time For Money is the Best Way to Make More Money by Danny Iny

17. 3 Reasons to Never Take Another Job by Corbett Barr

18. Earning More Money: How to turn your skills into services that people will pay for by Ramit Sethi

19. Why Scale? Entreporn, Exits and End Games by Jonathan Fields

20. In Honor of the Fact that Life is Too Short by Danielle Laporte

***

Your Turn: What is the one blog post about entrepreneurship or business that you wish you had written? Let me know in the comments below this post.

And if you enjoyed any of the above articles, please share this post with your friends.

[Note: Thanks to everyone that has already filled out the Pocket Changed reader survey. If you haven't had a chance to do so yet, it only takes 60 seconds.]

Welcome to another edition of ask the readers! Your chance to speak up, get specific help on what you are struggling with, and add value to what we’re building here at Pocket Changed.

Here’s today’s question (please answer it in the comments below this post):

Why do you want to be a cubicle renegade?

(Note: You can skip down to the comments right now to answer if you’d like.)

If you don’t typically leave a comment, I’d love to hear from you. If you only leave one comment ever, make it be this one.

***

I know what my reasons were for quitting my day job last year to be an entrepreneur, but the underlying reasons are different for everyone. Pocket Changed exists to help people change their lives by connecting what they are passionate about with the work that they do. The rationale behind why you want to spend your life doing work you enjoy can be completely different than why someone else wants to. 

That’s the beauty in it all.

Everything I write here on Pocket Changed is for the betterment of the PC community. The more I can understand about what you are struggling with and working towards the better job I can do to help you on your journey.

This is your chance to tell me why you want to change your life and what you need help with so I can focus my time and effort getting you there.

To get things started, here is my answer:

I have too many interests and aspirations to be contained in a single job description. The freedom and lifestyle I desire doesn’t fit into a 6′x6′ gray square, no matter how great the pay and benefits are. I can’t “fake it till I make it” when I am not passionate about the work I do. What I spend the majority of my life working on must be about more than the company’s bottom line; it must change the world for the better.

Now it’s your turn.

Please tell us in the comments below (if you are reading this via RSS or Email, click here to comment). Just leave a sentence or two and use anonymous if you so desire.

So… why do you want to be a cubicle renegade?

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What is it that successful entrepreneurs, world changers, and cubicle renegades all have in common?

They are all a little bit crazy.

Traditional advice usually states that you need to figure out what has worked for other people in the past, learn from them, and follow in their footsteps.

What would your world be like if people like Abraham Lincoln, Mahatma Gandhi, Amelia Earhart, Martin Luther King, Jr., Thomas Edison, Henry Ford, Jeff Bezos, Mark Zuckerberg, or Steve Jobs didn’t forge their own path and change the world in their own ways?

Life is filled with countless reasons to conform to pressure from peers and just do what everyone is doing.

To live a life filled with freedom, to change the world, and to build a profitable lifestyle business, you need to “think different”.

(Side note: If you haven’t read the biography of Steve Jobs yet, I highly recommend you do. It is one of the most interesting books I’ve ever read.)

Here’s to the Crazy Ones

(Click here to watch the video if you can’t see the video above.)

Transcript of the above Apple Commercial:

“Here’s to the crazy ones, the misfits, the rebels, the troublemakers, the round pegs in the square holes… the ones who see things differently — they’re not fond of rules… You can quote them, disagree with them, glorify or vilify them, but the only thing you can’t do is ignore them because they change things… they push the human race forward, and while some may see them as the crazy ones, we see genius, because the ones who are crazy enough to think that they can change the world, are the ones who do.”

Apple used this commercial to resonate with their current customers about why using an Apple product means you’re different, but it also wowed the world into thinking, “Maybe I should see what makes these Macintosh computers different.”

When you are different, people take notice.

Fear & Uncertainty

People that can stare into the eyes of fear and charge right into uncertainty are few and far between.

Until I was about 24 years old every decision I made was based on what was the safe, responsible, and “right” thing to do. Everything from choosing a major in college that would land me a job to religiously driving the speed limit.

Once I started to take more risks, my life instantly became more fulfilling and is now filled with less regrets.

Steve Jobs sums up the realization that needs to take place in everyone’s lives in this beautiful quote:

“When you grow up you tend to get told the world is the way it is and your life is just to live your life inside the world. Try not to bash into the walls too much. Try to have a nice family life, have fun, save a little money.

That’s a very limited life. Life can be much broader once you discover one simple fact, and that is – everything around you that you call life, was made up by people that were no smarter than you. And you can change it, you can influence it, you can build your own things that other people can use.

The minute that you understand that you can poke life and actually something will, you know if you push in, something will pop out the other side, that you can change it, you can mold it. That’s maybe the most important thing. It’s to shake off this erroneous notion that life is there and you’re just gonna live in it, versus embrace it, change it, improve it, make your mark upon it.

I think that’s very important and however you learn that, once you learn it, you’ll want to change life and make it better, cause it’s kind of messed up, in a lot of ways. Once you learn that, you’ll never be the same again.“

I couldn’t have said it better myself.

***

What makes you different? What makes you a little bit crazy?

Knowing this can be the difference between success and failure in both life and business.

Like I ranted about last week, working hard seems to be a lost art. For some reason, there is an expectation that a shortcut to everything must exist and that discovering the quickest way to achieve something should be where most of your effort is focused.

I call B.S.

Anyone that is trying to sell you the secret to getting the results you desire in business, fitness, knowledge, or a specific skill is usually just trying to rip you off.

You want the real secret to success? Put in the damn work.

The 4-Hour Pipe Dream

Think about how little time four hours a week really is. Do you think you could really build a successful business in a year only working four hours a week? That is barely over a half hour a day.

On the flip side, I believe that to truly succeed in business or your personal life you need to put in the time and effort.

And I don’t mean spending just a few hours on the weekend or only listening to podcasts during your commute to work. I mean nose to the grindstone, highly focused attention spent on getting things done that will get you closer to your end goal, whatever that may be.

The 100 Hour Workweek

The 40 hour workweek was made popular by Henry Ford in the early 1900′s, but it has now become the mainstay for many countries around the world.

It includes just enough time each day to work, enough time to relax, and enough time for sleep before repeating it all over again.

If you want to radically change your position in life though, you’ll most likely need to be “working” more than forty hours a week. Especially if you still have your dayjob and are building up a side hustle.

Sure, you can eventually make your way back down to a reasonable amount of time spent working each week, but why is everyone so afraid to put in the time?

While working a hundred hours a week isn’t really a sustainable level for most people, if you are actually passionate about what you are doing, a 100HWW can be one of the best weeks in your life for a few reasons.

1. When you enjoy what you are working on the time will fly by.
2. You can make progress faster when your time spent working is lumped together.
3. Putting in 100 hours in a single week is something you’ll want to avoid having to do in the long-run, so doing it once towards the beginning will show you why you need to work efficiently.
4. If you’re learning something new you should be able to get over the learning curve in a single week instead of wasting a few months struggling.

If you are really serious about turning your life or business around you have to be willing to put in the time.

And sometimes that means putting the rest of your life on hold for a week so that you can really make a dent in what you are trying to do.

***

Have you ever put in a 100-hour workweek? 

If so, was it worth it? If not, why haven’t you?

Let me know in the comments below this post.

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As I’ve hinted at, today I present you with a copy of my first manifesto: The Get Paid Manifesto. But first, let me tell you why I’ve created it.

There is a huge misconception that has continually grown since the release of 4-Hour Workweek about how easy it is to start a website, grow a following, sell affiliate products, earn passive income, and start living a location independent lifestyle. This has caused a huge knowledge gap. People don’t know that the best way to actually start helping people and earn money online (or offline for that matter) is to get clients.

This manifesto fills that gap.

And don’t worry, I intentionally kept this eBook short enough to read in one sitting.

Get the manifesto by entering your email address below:

What You’ll Learn

This first manifesto is all about taking action to get you more customers and clients. In this guide you’ll learn:

• How to guarantee that you’ll get multiple referrals from each and every customer.
• How to ask for a 100% raise from your current clients and get them to say yes.
• Why saying yes to every potential client is the worst thing you can do to stand out.
• How to charge up to 20x more than you do now by offering an experience.
• Why word of mouth is the only kind of marketing you need.
• Why you must stop competing on price before it runs you out of business.

Who It’s For

Solopreneurs, aspiring cubicle renegades, small business owners, bloggers, and anyone looking to make a living doing what they are passionate about.

This guide is also perfect for you if you are a freelancer looking to get more clients or are just trying to earn some extra cash through a side hustle.

How to Get a Copy

You can get a free copy by joining my newsletter.

This will automatically subscribe you to free updates. We’ll never send you spam and you can opt out at any time. Once you confirm your email address, you’ll receive a private link to the PDF that you can download. It looks best on an iPad or using Adobe Reader.

Get the manifesto by entering your email address below:

Once You’ve Read It

Action #1: If you find this guide valuable, can you please share it? 

Feel free to pass this on your family, friends, or even enemies. You can either send the guide directly to them or share this page using the buttons below.

Action #2: Let me know what you think.

You can leave a comment below this post, send me a tweet using the hashtag #getpaidmanifesto, leave a comment on the Pocket Changed Facebook page, or email me directly.

- Caleb

Let me get something off my chest.

Pocket Changed is NOT your typical personal finance blog.

Could it be considered both personal and financial in nature? Sure. I purposely write directly to certain kinds of people and I do talk about money. But, to label it strictly as a personal finance website brings assumptions that I need like a hole in my head.

This goes for the PR companies emailing me press releases, credit card companies looking to place text link ads on my about page, and websites looking to get their national debt infographics published.

While I can certainly take a lot of blame for placing Pocket Changed in that niche initially (through both the naming of the site and content in the early days), this site is anything but your typical run-of-the-mill, coupon clipping, latte limiting, lifestyle crushing, theory repeating personal finance ho-hum.

Pocket Changed is for solopreneurs, bloggers, aspiring cubicle renegades and anyone looking to make a living doing what they are passionate about. It is for people who like to get shit done, not for people that make excuses.

Let’s go over the five commandments of Pocket Changed.

(Note: keep reading till the end of the post for a special announcement about the first Pocket Changed manifesto coming out next week.)

1. Thou shalt not teach you how to set a budget.

You want the world’s easiest budget? Here it is: Spend less than you earn and save for retirement. That is all you need to do.

Any more complications beyond this will just make you less likely to follow a plan. Spend a weekend figuring out your long-term goals, automate your finances, and they will take care of themselves.

2. Thou shalt not tell you cut back on things you enjoy.

I’ll be the first person to tell you that it is impossible not to spend money on things you care about. For example, my wife loves giving presents. She will search for the perfect gift, wrapping paper, tissue paper, and card until she finds the exact present to give. Does it cost more to do this? Of course. But the joy both she and the person receiving the gift get out of it are well worth the money spent.

If you love that morning cup of coffee and it is one of the few things that gets you through your monotonous workday then by all means, get it everyday. I’m not going to tell you no. Heck, I spend thousands of dollars every year on electronics because they are a huge part of what I enjoy doing. I would be a huge phony if I expected you to limit spending money on what you enjoy.

3. Thou shalt not publish articles written by credit card companies or banks.

Every single essay on Pocket Changed is (and forever will be) written by a real human being for other real human beings. I’m not sourcing articles from mega corporations looking to subliminally get you to click over to their new free credit report software that actually ends up costing $10/month.

When you see a guest post written by someone on Pocket Changed it is always from someone that I know and trust personally. Their stories are real and are shared to help you realize that your wildest dreams truly are achievable when you put in the work to get there.

4. Thou shalt not advertise anything that doesn’t fully represent what we are all about.

I recommend very few things. The reason is twofold. First, there is a lot of garbage out there. If I come across something that is a waste of time I won’t even mention it on this site. 

Second, instead of overwhelming you with options I am giving you the absolute best resources that I’ve either used myself or know the creator personally. I’m not going to recommend you things that don’t work.

5. Thou shalt not preach the theories of frugality.

Everyone already knows what being frugal means. Yes, there is a difference being frugal and being cheap, but once you understand that, there is nothing further to learn.

The ability to continually practice frugality and instead use that extra money for things you care about comes from self-control, not from a blog post that list 101 ways to save money at the grocery store.

*** Special Announcement ***

Next week I’ll be releasing the first manifesto for Pocket Changed. The guide will feature 5 easy ways to get more clients and immediately earn more money from your business, side hustle, or freelancing gig. It will feature tactics that I have personally used to get 100% raises from my clients and get more referrals that you can handle.

This free eBook will be available to newsletter members and is filled to the brim with actionable advice that you can take right away to start getting more customers to hire you or buy what you create.

***

If you agree with our five commandments and don’t want to miss out on our upcoming manifesto, I’d love for you to be a regular reader here at Pocket Changed. Just enter your email in the sign-up form below this post. If you’re already signed up you’ll be receiving a link to the manifesto next week.

Cheers!