Sometimes you just have to take a leap and build
your wings on the way down. –Kobi Yamada

Important Note: This post is by my business partner, Tracy, who runs pretty much everything around here and shields you all from my weirdness and complete inability to get more than one thing done per day. (If our business were publicly traded, Tracy would be the CEO and I would be the crazy guy blowing shit up in the research labs). Anyway, before the rumors start you should know that Tracy is happily married and I have an amazing girlfriend.

Many people talk about their love of personal development and spiritual growth, but they often try to practice it in a vacuum.  They’ll read books, meditate, go to seminars, write about it and dialogue with other like-minded people.  I’d like to suggest a radical paradigm shift. Let’s take personal development out of a vacuum and place it squarely in the midst of business.

I’m going to tell a piece of my own story here, though it feels uncomfortable for me to do so because this post isn’t about Clay or me.  However, I felt that sharing a bit more about our work relationship might embolden others to take the same risk.

I had never heard of Clay before the day I joined one of his courses in April 2009.  I wasn’t into Internet Marketing and I didn’t know anyone connected with Clay. I stumbled across something he had written, saw that he was opening up one of his courses for the first time and I jumped on board. Part of the lifetime membership included a half-hour private call with Clay.  Those 30 minutes changed both of our lives because as we talked business my intuition was telling me there was a greater connection to be made there. My inner compass was pointing true north.

Every person has this same inner compass, though most are unaware of it.

After that first call, I made sure I was on every mentorship call, listening to Clay and trying to understand what the connection was that I knew needed to be made. I finally saw an opening: There were a couple of things in the first edition of his website that I thought could be better organized so I volunteered to help Clay with that.

After several months Clay offered me a position, which I accepted after he and I had fully explored the pros and cons of bringing me on board. Many have wondered why I originally volunteered my time. Here’s the reason:

I believe that every person’s purpose in life is to give love to everyone we meet, though the expression of that love will look very different for each one of us.

I’ve heard so many people say, “I want to keep my personal life separate from my business life.” I find that attitude deeply disturbing because I think that is precisely what is wrong with most businesses today. Everyone loves to talk about authenticity and accountability, but few are willing to enter into the risk it takes to see these things worked out in their own lives.

I’m not saying that we need to be best friends with every person we work with. Nor am I advocating that we indiscriminately share all parts of our lives with everybody we work for. What I am suggesting, though, is that we bring the very best of who we are (not just what we do) to our workplace. Wouldn’t you love to deeply impact at least one person where you work? I want to impact others with love and compassion, with challenging them where needed, and with speaking words of life if they’re open to it. And I welcome the same from others, both in and outside of work.

Imagine how amazing our world would be if people were as focused on loving everyone they work with as they are on actually doing a great job.

Customers, clients, employers, independent contractors and affiliates would be impacted. Clay often says that work is sacred. That’s true on so many levels. Picture the transformation that would take place if we each committed to fiercely loving at least one person we work with. What if we looked at all of our relationships as the primary place where personal development took place?

I’m not saying this is easy. It isn’t. It is so hard on some days—brutally hard—that it brings me to tears. Literally. It often requires great sacrifice—either of time, ego, self-will, or sleep! But that’s okay. Who said love was easy? Some days I’ll have a huge pile of work to get done, and that will invariably be the day Clay wants to talk about personal stuff. Other days Clay is working hard to meet some tight deadline but I need to process how I’m feeling about a mistake I made that’s going to cost us in some way. Sometimes we’re both at full throttle but one of us needs to be called on our BS right in the midst of it.

We always make time for each other because the other person takes precedence over “work.” They are the greater work that the business is nested within.

Personal growth and development rarely happen on a timetable when it’s convenient. Here’s the amazing thing we’ve found: When we put each other before the business and before work, we find we actually get more done because we have an increase in emotional energy to do dynamic work. It enables each of us to do what we do with greater love for all. Not only that, but even though I have never worked this hard in my life, my husband often comments on the amazing joy and energy that I have.

Personal development isn’t just about supporting each other in some woo-woo way. It’s also about challenging each other. When business is moving at the speed of light and a problem arises, it can be easy to stop moving from our true selves and move into closure and a defensive position. When Clay and I encounter a difficult business situation, if one of us closes down and starts to get negative about it the other one points it out immediately. We’ll say to each other, “Let’s open up and make this decision fearlessly, not from a shut down, defended stance.” The other day Clay said this to me: “Truth is like a cleansing fire. Truth is like un-distilled life. Truth is life-giving.” Sometimes that truth is wonderful to hear but other times it’s really hard to hear. Really. Hard. But when that truth is given in love, it truly does bring forth more life.

Imagine what the world would be like if every business decision were made from a place of truth and love, rather than from a place of deception, closure and fear.

I was hesitant to use the “L” word in this post because many people have a pretty funky view of what love really is, what love really looks like. Listen, we still have to make some hard decisions. We still need to say “no” to some requests. Love doesn’t mean being a sap and letting people walk all over us and the business. But it does mean that when we need to say no or make a tough business decision that we do it from open, undefended hearts and not from a place of fear and self-protection.

If we need to have a firm or difficult discussion with someone, the goal is to always uphold the other person’s dignity and to speak from a place of deep love and respect.

There’s no tolerance at all for showing disrespect. It’s not that we always handle things perfectly. Not even close! But Clay and I are right there to call each other back up to higher ground—to our true, loving selves. We don’t step into inner flogging and beat ourselves up. Instead, we pick ourselves up and get right back onto the path of love.

It’s my hope that the commitment we have to continually uncover and discover the love we have within spills over and somehow touches each person that is in any way connected with our business.

I understand many entrepreneurs’ fear of moving onto this path. It’s definitely very messy. The lines are blurred. Clay’s my boss. Yet I hold him accountable when it’s needed. We’ve also become friends, the kind that insist on deep levels of gritty integrity, no games. On top of all that we challenge each other nearly daily to live from our deepest selves. We often fail the other. In short, we are human.

If you don’t like messy, this isn’t for you. It takes a deep level of commitment to stick it out and not walk away. Yes, it will cost you. But it’s so worth it.

I remember the day I heard my inner voice say that I needed to always work as though Clay’s business were my business. It’s why I talk about “our” business. I give it the same dedication, attention, and love I would as if it were mine. I know it’s scary to think about entering a relationship like this—whether you’re the entrepreneur or the employee. The unspoken question is, “What if it fails? What if this person stabs me in the back?”

Sure, there’s risk, but the alternative is to have a business like any other: Run on fear, control and self-protection, focused solely on acquisition. And a business run like that will cost you—and the world—even more in the long run.

I believe that love is never a waste, no matter the outcome. There have been times when I’ve poured love into others and have been metaphorically slapped in the face for it. I don’t care.

Love is never wasted. Never.

What we stand to gain in the world as we begin to take a risk and love when it seems scary, ridiculous and even foolish to do so seems completely worth it to me. Clay once said to me, “We have the opportunity to change the face of Internet Marketing.” On hard days I remind myself that creating massive change often requires sacrifice and that it’s completely worth it.

I want to invite you to step into this beautiful risk. Let’s move our businesses into the realm of personal development by taking the first step and choosing to love all we come into contact with each day as we work. You may think it needs to be a two-way street with both parties agreeing to this, but it doesn’t. You can still love, you can still give freely and you can still insist on personal development for yourself in the workplace whether or not the other person ever chooses to join in. Start today by being ridiculously generous when it comes to issues of the heart.

I’d really like to know what do you think: Would you welcome a work relationship like this? Do you think the risk is worth it? Are you willing to be a business owner who would welcome your independent contractors and employees to speak the truth to you, even when it’s hard to hear? Where do you think love’s place is in the business world? Let me know your thoughts.

So last week I asked you if Dave and I should kill the beer and money show. The answer was a very clear “no.”

I’ll blame you for my slow decline into alcoholism.

Anyway, here’s the show. We kept it under 10 minutes for those of you with ADD. And Tracy’s working on making this into iTunes podcast. Because you asked for that.

Action Items

• Action item #1: After listening to the show, tells us (in the comments) how you’re going to preposition yourself and publicly commit to a deadline (and tweet out a link to your comment so that you’re publicly committed).
• Action item #2: Click this link to tell Audi that they really should be sponsoring our show.
• Action item #3: Go check out Dave’s awesome blog.

Technorati Tags: Beer and Money Show

The other day my friend “Dangerous Dave” Navarro (no, not the guitarist from Jane’s Addiction or The Red Hot Chili Peppers) were screwing around and recorded an internet marketing talk show.

Anyway, when a television network is considering creating a new series, they run a “pilot” to test the waters and see what people think. If the ratings are good, then they run the show. If the ratings stink, then they don’t invest in it.

So Dave and I created a pilot edition of “The Beer and Money Show” and we need your input. So if you have a second, listen to the show, and leave us a comment if you think we should make more of these

We’d LOVE your input.

P.S. I need another web project like I need a hole in the head. So no hard feelings if you think our “network” should kill this show

Enjoy! We sure did. And don’t forget to visit Dave Navarro’s blog to get to know more about him. He’s teaching me much good stuff.

OK. So first of all, I have to admit that the idea of “making it” is total bunk. Though it’s a worthy goal if you happen to be a character in Grease, people in my reality understand that nobody ever truly “arrives” anywhere. Despite our small victories, life is generally made up of banal, unsexy life-stuff. And that’s cool.

With that caveat, I’m still happy to consider myself a success and be counted among that elusive ~1% of people who somehow manage to make the transition from learning about online business to actually making a pretty good living online.

Let’s Define Our Terms

Of course, ye olde Internet is a great place to anonymously claim just about anything you want. Just visit any popular forum, and you’ll meet plenty of poseurs who will jump at the chance to give you unsolicited advice, yet have very little to show for their hot air. You probably want to see something more tangible before you’ll trust me.

That’s cool. Let’s talk metrics for a minute or two.

Online Activity / Posting Frequency

With regard to the my dig on keyboard cowboys above, I’ll first mention that my forum usage, blog posting, and YouTube commenting over the past three months or so have been scant at best. These are activities in which most online type people engage regularly, and they can all be used for business development in one form or another.

I like connecting with people on YouTube (I’ve gotten to help several people fulfill their dreams of living and working in Japan there) and on forums. If I spent more time updating this site and posting about web development and small business instead of beer, I could probably have a thriving WordPress tweaking enterprise going. I love building websites, but I love beer more. Besides that, I get more referrals for WordPress work than I can handle anyway.

No, social networking isn’t a strategy for me. It’s just something I do to kill time, and I kill much less of it now than I used to.

So that’s metric number one: I haven’t been visibly active in many of the places I normally would have been. Not convincing? Let’s look at metric number two.

Prasara Primer

My first major project release, the Prasara Yoga Primer, grossed $25k in sales in its first week on the market. Did I get to keep all of that? Hell no. I have two partners, and we had a lot of help from some awesome affiliates. But I did deposit a very large (by my standards) check into my account last week, and we’re still selling more every day.

Of course, of course, of course, that week of awesome sales required about six weeks of hard work to set up and pull off effectively. Still, it was probably the most profitable six weeks of work I’ve ever done, and the lessons it taught me are going to be priceless as I correct many of the simple mistakes I made next time.

I can’t prove to you that I made this money, but if you’re so inclined, you can check the Primer’s stats out on ClickBank, where we became the best-selling yoga product in our debut month. While you’re at it, tell your fitness-obsessed friends about it and make a nice commission in the process.

A Small Empire

Metric number three is that I took my friend’s business from a solitary yoga studio that was barely breaking even to a successful online venture with products and courses at a variety of price points in just a little over six months. Our list grew by over 1000%, and our income has exceeded all expectation.

We have a “staff” of people with varying levels of involvement making varying levels of income from our combined efforts. It’s like a cottage industry we’ve build together, and I really love being part of a creative family working as a team.

“Overnight Success”

We’ve all heard before that it takes years of planning and practice to become an overnight success. In my case, it was just a little over a year.

It was April of 2009 when I found out the hard way that I was no longer employed. No notice. No job. No anything really.

I did some random part time gigs to pay the bills, but I also found this great course by Clay Collins called Project Mojave that promised to teach me how to create a “freedom business” in a few months. I lucked out and snagged a lifetime membership to Mojave for about $100 before most people really found out about it. What can I say? It felt right. And it was. It was one of the best investments I’ve ever made, and I wouldn’t be here without it.

Project Mojave might not open again, but Clay’s just about to release his new course, called the Interactive Offer, and I’m going to be taking advantage of all he has to teach. If you click that link, you’ll get to see Clay explain how he structures his launches to make a respectable profit before he even creates his product.

My First Business Venture

Back to Project Mojave (which was, by the way, an example of the Interactive Offer in action)… I watched the videos, took notes, did the homework, and even talked to Clay on the phone a couple of times. I chose a niche and got to work.

Then a few little things came up. I got married. I had to help plan the Taido World Championships. I got sidetracked and took forever to finish my first product.

That product, an ebook on finding work and moving to Japan, was not successful. Not because Clay’s advice was bad, but because I was way too scattered about my implementation. More recently, I seriously considered reviving the How to Get a Job in Japan project. I know it could bring me at least a few hundred dollars a month in totally passive income if I put in a few days of solid work up front. But instead, I decided to let it die because I’m having too much fun with my other projects right now and don’t need the distraction.

So I let the website expire and made the information available in hard copy at Amazon. If you’re interested, you can check it out here.

My Second Business Venture

Did I leave the ebook world and jump immediately into my current jet-setting lifestyle? Nope. Even that took some time and work.

CST101 began as an experiment. I was working out at my friend’s studio, and we were talking about wanting more out of our lives. Typical conversation for married guys in their 30s to have. His second child had just been born not long before, and he wanted to try reaching a broader audience online. It just so happened that he’s an incredibly gifted teacher and trainer.

So we created a distance fitness course together and promoted it pretty quietly through our existing networks. We had a not-bad turnout – enough to make it worth the effort for us. I taught myself how to make membership sites. He practiced making videos. We screwed up. We got better. We connected with our people and started building a posse.

When it came time to do it all again, we rebuilt the thing from the ground up with a sturdier system and a more efficient program. We got referrals. We added a Level Two course. We kicked ass as sold out our second course with 25 members.

We continue offering these courses and love interacting with our students. Sometimes, the enrollment is higher than others, but honestly there’s no way we can lose with this set-up. The courses are made. The lessons are set. The videos are shot. The forums are active, and we have a team of people that helps us manage them. People pay us, work hard, and come away feeling stronger and freer in their bodies. Wins all around.

The Tipping Point, or “Authenticity”

These online training courses are something I’m very proud of. If we hadn’t taken that leap and tried to put the first incarnation together from scratch, we would never have learned what we did, and we would never have had the success we currently enjoy. The mistakes turned out to be priceless, but even more valuable, as it turned out, was our total willingness to screw up in front of others and be genuine and real about that.

“Authenticity” is a huge buzzword in internet marketing circles. The premise is that, if you can make people believe that you are genuinely interested in them, they are more likely to give you money.

I don’t really like discussing authenticity as a marketing tactic because it can quickly cross over into con territory: creating the appearance of reality in order to sell an empty promise. That’s just plain dirty. Yet, I can’t ignore the topic because I’ve always been pretty much who I am (my mother always told me I needed to filter myself for public consumption) – to hell with anyone who doesn’t like it. In fact, I used to be a bit of an asshole about my personal right to do and think whatever the fucking hell I happened to please at any given moment.

Don’t like it? Fuck off.

Though I’m a little nicer now (is it my age showing?), I’m still just me, which means that I’m authentic. And if that makes people want to buy from me, I’m not complaining.

Back to the point though, Ryan and I made a lot of mistakes on our first course. The second one too. But for every mistake we made, we admitted it and fixed it. We told our clients things like “Yeah, sorry about that. We don’t know how that happened either – it’s the first time for everyone here, so let’s talk about how to make it better now.”

In 99% of cases that we approached our mistakes that way, our clients were totally cool and actually helped us find viable solutions. How can you beat that?

Doing What You Love

It sounds so trite to tell people to follow their passions. It’s cheesy. The thing is: cheese is delicious.

After we started making headway with our courses, we started thinking about other products. Ryan had co-produced an ebook on Prasara Yoga a few years prior with another coach named Jarlo. It was called the Prasara Primer, and I actually bought it for about $25 when it first came out.

It was fantastic, and it totally changed the way I thought about yoga and training.

Unfortunately, it wasn’t marketed with nearly the passion that went into it’s creation. So I tossed the idea out to Ryan about re-releasing it. He thought it couldn’t hurt and we began hammering out a marketing plan.

Along the way, we decided to change the layout a bit and modernize the ebook. While we were at it, we made some changes to the way the information was presented. Then we decided to include videos of the yoga flows to make it easier for people for follow along. We made sixty videos. Next came the training guide that showed people how to integrate yoga into their existing routines.

By the time we were done, we realized that we had created a whole new product using the same basic information. The Prasara Primer 2.0 was born.

Then what? Well, we did the things you usually do to sell a digital product. None of it was original or new. We created a sales page. Built a list using a sample from the actual product. We got the word out to our lists and got some help from friends with lists. We answered questions and made a launch offer.

• The cool part: we still made mistakes.
• The really cool part: we still made money.

Now That I’m a Successful Online Entrepreneur…

…I sit on the beach and drink margaritas while my third world VA haggles on my behalf for extra frequent flier miles.

Yeah, so that’s total bullshit.

As much as I love beaches and margaritas, I love getting my hands dirty building new things even more. I’ve discovered that the real reason my ebook on working in Japan wasn’t a big hit had nothing to do with the market or the information (which is still golden). It was all about my level of enthusiasm for various tasks associated with selling a product. I can’t stand doing a lot of the stuff you have to do to have an ebook consistently bring in more than a trickle. I hate article marketing and PPC campaigning. Even worse, I can’t stand outsourcing those things to people I have to manage.

That’s OK though, because I’ve discovered that I absolutely love the process of creating a product, figuring out how to get it in people’s hands, and building the systems around making it sustain itself.

So I’m doing that. Ryan and Jarlo and I are working on a new strength training product using gymnastic rings that we hope to release in early July. We’re also continuing to run courses on CST101, and I’ve got some ideas for new classes in the near future. The Prasara Primer has created a demand for us to give seminars in various countries. We’ll probably shoot a seminar DVD.

I’m also branching out in other directions. I’m talking with a few other people now about helping them create digital products and courses in their own niches. I’m collaborating with Carl Nelson, Jonathan Mead, and a few others on a new magazine site called MovementGeeks, which we’ll be launching this summer.

I’m also getting ready to move to Hawaii, where I plan to drink a few margaritas. There’s so much excitement, I can hardly stand it.

How You Can Join the Cool Winners’ Club

Not that you’re asking, but if I were to give advice on the whole online business thing, I would say it’s really just a four-step process:

1. Find a mentor and study what they do – modeling success is a terrific shortcut
2. Adapt those principles to what you’re personally great at – because, if you hate what you’re doing, you’ll stop
3. Make something and get it in people’s hands – free or paid doesn’t really even matter at first
4. When you make mistakes, be cool about it – they’re awesome opportunities to learn

And that’s it. It’s what I did, and what others I know have done.

Yes, it’s easier said than done, and no, there are no guarantees. There again, what was the last easy, guaranteed thing you did that you actually thought was worth a shit when it was over?

That’s what I thought.

P.S. – It’s a rule that, when you’re trying to show internet marketing people how cool you are, you have to include an ironic PS. This let’s the audience know that you know that they’re in on the joke, while still getting one last chance to slide in that all-important call to action.

P.P.S. – Another ironic device is the anti-call-to-action, and it looks something like this: “Whatever you do, don’t click on my services link to see how I can help you quickly find efficient, high-leverage solutions to your online business issues for as little as $20.”

Marc Quinn is a self-proclaimed “pain in the ass”. After passing through an addiction to pornography, he made some big decisions to get his life going the way he wanted it to. As well as helping people deal with porn addiction, he offers a new take on personal development on his coaching program The Clearing by helping other self-proclaimed lunatics clear space in life for their own flavor of awesomeness.

A few weeks ago, I was walking down the street when the most stunning woman was walking by me. She wore lots of things that jingled, her hair was done in some funky way, and she walked in a way that told me that she knew who she was. Men turned to look at her as she passed. Each of us along this 50 foot stretch of road were completely mesmerized. As I walked up to her, I just let myself enjoy how attracted I was to her. The smile I gave her as we passed said “You look stunning.” One of the mesmerized men on my side of the street was a young Brazilian guy in his 20s. I felt compelled to share the moment and so I walked right up to him and said “Man, she is fucking gorgeous, eh?” He was startled and blinked repeatedly as he came out of his trance to meekly acknowledge me. “Yes, yes,” he muttered with an embarrassed smile, and I carried on walking.

I realized in that moment that I had learned to become an author to incredible moments that all my old insecurities would not have allowed.

You know, things like “I must hide my natural attraction to beautiful women enough to appear cool but not enough so that people think I’m gay,” and my personal favorite “I must show her how much of a nice guy I am.”

Up to about 18 months ago, this would not have even been possible. I would simply have been too embarrassed.

When I was 15, my Dad won a competition on Virgin Radio here in the UK. His prize? £120 of electronics vouchers. He bought a modem. The conversation went: “No Dad, I PROMISE I won’t download porn when we get the internet. No, really, I think it’s lame. I won’t do it”. I never did ask my parents how much of a model child they thought I was, but the very idea that my parents would think that I had any sort of sexual impulse would have been horrifying to me. I did everything in my power to convince them I had none. No, I was a nice boy.

Within three years, I was visiting hardcore porn sites about 3 times a week and got far too skilled with the collection and disposal of paper tissues. Concepts like “will power” and “self-determination” were useless in the face of this addiction. I was completely dominated by porn, and for years I told nobody. I was convinced that I was tainted in some way – psychologically imbalanced or completely perverted. I wanted to be free, but I simply did not have a clue where to start. And so, this thing that some people say is “completely normal,” and others say is “completely wrong” sparked this journey to figure out how to handle my emotions around porn. I did not like the idea of rubbing off every time I had so much as an ITCH in my crotch. And honestly, I was pretty sure that women I was interacting with KNEW that I was chest-watching whenever they’d turn away.

One day last year, on one of the darkest and most depressing nights I had had in years, I decided to do something about it.

I sat down and wrote out every single thing that had EVER turned me on, and detailed my reaction to every hardcore image I had ever seen. By the end, I felt like I had exhausted my entire week’s supply of tears. I was balling for about two hours. Funnily enough, at the end of that experience, I felt completely clear. A strange thing happened after that night, I got the sense of having the most incredibly clear headspace I had had in YEARS. It took only a couple more weeks to finally get to a place where porn was the last thing I wanted to be doing.

The next day, I went out feeling a little tender, but I felt as though the emotions of every single person around me were coursing through my own body. Every smile had me giggle, every unhappy person broke my heart, and every tree I walked by I wanted to touch. I communicated with every person that day as though they were the most precious person alive. I had, what I now call A Clearing: an incredible opportunity to re-write my response to every situation and interaction I regularly had out in the world.

Funnily enough, as if by some strange coincidence, I had been on a communications course at that time to help me complete my inauthentic ways of being that had caused tension in every relationship I had. Funny, because I had the same experience of a Clearing after I had dealt with these relationships, too. Several months later, I joined Project Mojave. I went through my several weeks of aimless keyword research looking for my “market” (haven’t we all done it?). Then one day Clay asked: “What is the silver bullet for the problem that only you know how to fix?”

My head immediately dropped into my hands. My mouth dropped open, my eyes became wide in a “Oh, look, a train!” kind of way. Oh no, me? Really? But, can’t someone else do that job? I pleaded with God to give me ANOTHER silver bullet. Puh-LEAZE! Porn Addiction? No no no, but I’m a nice guy. Immediate thoughts came into my mind of going on video to tell people about my experiences and positioning myself as a leader who would face this problem head on with them.

VIDEO?! You have to be frickin’ KIDDING ME! Stop thinking, la la la laaaa!

On that day, My Porn Addiction Story was born. My next biggest challenge: how on earth was I going to explain this to my mother? Turns out, mum was unsurprised that I had looked at porn. Being “the Porn guy for every porn addict out there”…I think that’ll take her a little longer to get used to.

So many people look at their flaws, and the shameful things they did in their past and they see them as things to keep buried in the closet. In dealing with my addiction, I learned a lot about how to clear my headspace, and actually give myself enough space to find what I cared about – as well as being able to create incredibly fun moments of light-heartedness on-the-street/on-the-fly with complete strangers. If it wasn’t for my porn addiction, I never would have worked out how to actually deal with life with more fun than I could imagine. And so, this week I am launching my own coaching program The Clearing because I realized that you don’t need to have to beat off to porn every night for years, like I did, to have a fun kickass life (wait, that came out wrong!).

Later this week Clay is interviewing me on this blog, and has promised to ask me enough embarrassing questions about porn to make me blush right there.

If you are easily embarrassed, you may want to avoid that interview, but you will probably miss out a shedload of cool advice on how to grow yourself your very own personal set of cajones and give up screwing around on Market Samurai like it was the “Fountain of All Sacred Knowledge.”

I am not running this program to help porn addicts (although if you have that addiction, we would definitely work on it), I am running it because I truly believe that if you actually want to make it in whatever niche you have chosen, you’ve gotta be prepared to be a leader – not just a marketer – and for that you will need a big enough Clearing to really stand for the people you are wanting to help. The kind of leader who will create moments with people on the street as successfully and boldly as he will put their ass on the line for their “market.”

I am looking for people who are willing to start a load of fires in every area of their life and see how much trouble we can cause in the 9 weeks of the program. Come back on Thursday and I promise to make you blush, and maybe even have your own “head in your hands” moment, where you stop at nothing to make it as a leader in your niche. Seriously, why would you bother otherwise?

Marc Quinn is a complete pain in the ass. Getting far too good at job interviews, he decided to refuse all full-time work and help porn addicts instead using what he learned in Project Mojave. He loves to make people who work at Starbucks laugh, and actually coached a girl who worked at the unemployment office to leave her job and follow her passion whilst he was unemployed himself. He is launching The Clearing Coaching Program this week, which is better than any other personal development program out there in that it doesn’t suck, and he will not use too many sketchy personal development words – unless initially forewarned.

If you’ve ever bought anything from me, or if you ready my blog with ANY regularity, then you probably know Tracy.

Anyway, Tracy and I have an unlikely friendship . . . she lives with her husband and dog in a log cabin in Vermont. And I live in Minneapolis.

What people KNOW about Tracy is that she’s the reason why we have the best customer support, hands down, in the internet marketing industry.

And that she makes everything in our business tick so that I can focus on my stuff.

What they don’t know about her is that she’s one of my very best friends, that I’ve NEVER worked with anyone better, that she’s one of the most brilliant spirits you’ll ever meet, that she has a
heart of pure gold, and that she’s smarter than you and I put together.

What they don’t know is that even though it’s my face you see on the blog and videos . . . that Tracy is working just as hard as me during this launch.

I often go on and ON (to my friends) about how amazing it is to work with Tracy, and I’ll sometimes get comments like “wow I need to get my own Tracy.”

What they don’t know is that, as a business owner, you really can’t really choose to work with someone like Tracy. Someone like Tracy chooses you (because they have so many options it’s
ridiculous).

Anyway, today is Tracy’s birthday . . .

. . . so if you’ve ever received customer support from us (or worked with her on any level) and you’d like wish her a good day, then just leave a comment below (she approves the comments, so she’ll be sure to see them).

Anyway, HAPPY BIRTHDAY Tracy.

–Clay

Period.

In fact, I’ve said a lot of things about internet marketing in recent years . . .

. . . and this has more significance than them all.

Combined.

So if you only watch one of my videos this year. Watch this one.

It might revolutionize the way you think about selling online.

–Clay

[Note: This is a guest post by Tracy. God help me.]

I’m here to once again dish up a little more dirt on Clay. While I want to tell you about:

• How a working relationship can cause massive personal growth and spiritual development if both people are committed to it
• What it’s like building “yellow boxes” for Clay–you can’t even imagine it
• What I learned about Clay’s innermost being by watching him eat
• Clay’s relationship to his hair (yes, you read that correctly)…

…all of that will have to wait. While I want to tell you all of those things, I simply have to tell you one thing.

A few months ago I wrote a post about Clay. One of the comments I heard repeatedly after that was:

“You haven’t even met him in person, so how can you really know him?”

I knew there was only one way to silence that objection. I’ve travelled so much that I now try to travel as little as possible, but I decided to head out to Minneapolis.

Now that I’ve met Clay in person, eaten meals with him, and met his girlfriend—plus the fact that I’ve known him for several more months, speaking nearly daily with him on the phone—I can give you even more of an inside scoop. And, as before, I’ve told Clay he can publish all of this or none of it, but he’s not allowed to edit out the parts that embarrass him.*

First we’ll start with the fun stuff (I will show NO mercy!) and then move on to the intense stuff I’ve uncovered that has surprised me.

I’ve mentioned before how Clay greatly prefers to not follow the dictates of time. It’s not that he can’t—because he can and does very well when he needs to—it’s just that it doesn’t come naturally to him. His VA and I recently had a Skype conversation when we were trying to figure out how to get Clay to do something at the same time every week:

Knowing about Clay’s issues with time, it was no surprise to me that he was a few minutes late in picking me up at the airport. As we were chatting on our cells trying to find each other in the airport I asked Clay where he was and what he was wearing so that I could easily spot him and he said: “I’m wearing sort of a Western shirt.”

We eventually found each other. He gave me a great tour of some of the gorgeous lakes of Minneapolis, we grabbed a bite to eat and headed back to his place.

Walking in revealed two things to me:

He clearly is a man because he failed to tell me something that any woman would have told another woman within the first week of meeting her:

The architectural detail of his place is beautiful. For example: There are no square corners where the ceilings meet the walls in the living room. There are round “corners” where you normally only see 90-degree angles. Gorgeous art deco style. Hallways with such rich, deep detail—made of stone, I think. But did Clay ever once mention this to me? No, of course not, being a typical dude when it comes to stuff like this. I doubt he ever even noticed these things.

But that is nothing compared to what was sitting there just inside his front door. Let me set the story up for you.

Several weeks prior to my visit Clay had mentioned that he owned a pair of cowboy boots. Not a big deal, right? But then he went on to be sure to tell me that he didn’t wear all the Western clothes or anything like that, he just liked that one pair of boots. I didn’t give it a second thought, though I should have.

Back to his place: Right inside his front door is not just one pair of cowboy boots, but TWO pairs. Oh, he had soooo neglected to tell me he owned more than one pair—and to discover this while he was wearing a Western shirt was simply too much for me.

I’m thinking, “I’m sitting here drinking wine with an urban cowboy wannabe. (Though I think he’d be more like a young Clint Eastwood than John Travolta due to his maverick renegade approach, but I digress.) I am soooo gonna’ rag on him for this.”

His girlfriend was coming over that evening so I didn’t get to spend enough time picking on him (which is why I’m doing it here).

Anyway, you know those exceptionally rare women who are fiercely intelligent, highly educated, absolutely gorgeous, and are compassionate? She’s one of them—really amazing. Oh, and when she smiles, the whole room lights up.

The conversation with her was engrossing enough that I forgot all about the whole Western thing…

…until the next morning when I first see Clay and he’s wearing…(really, I wouldn’t make this stuff up)…a Western belt. No western shirt, no cowboy boots, but definitely a big-ass silver belt buckle. Something like this one:

And then it all clicked into place in my brain and I understood. So, for all of you who said that I couldn’t really know Clay until I’d met him in person I humbly bow to your wisdom: You were right. Because only now do I know the real scoop:

Clay Collins is a Wannabe Cowboy!

Without your feedback I might never have discovered this and would have missed out on dozens of opportunities to torment him. I am forever grateful to everyone who said, “You don’t know Clay . . . you haven’t even met him yet.”

Anyway, I’ll know he’s gone full-blown cowboy the day he adds spurs to his boots. I wonder if he already has a cowboy hat or two hidden away? If I’d had more time I definitely would have snooped around the place to take a look.  He probably takes the hat out when no one else is around and wears it just for fun:

I could even handle the hat, but the day he shows up in chaps like these I’ll have to hold an intervention and I trust you’ll all help me:

Okay, enough of my profound insights into Clay’s psychology.

Because so many of you always ask me what Clay is really like, I’m going to put all teasing aside for just a few minutes and tell you just a few more tidbits. Here are three other things I’ve come to know about Clay since I wrote my previous post:

• He is an incredibly kind and compassionate person. He is so moved by peoples’ stories and plights. When I first knew him I experienced his kindness toward me, but I have since seen it repeatedly demonstrated toward others. This is a guy who feels deeply and wants to help people change the trajectory of their paths if they decide they want to change the world or amp up their businesses to new levels.

• He has a deep humility that you don’t often see among highly successful business people. While he has a vast amount of knowledge and is willing to share it, he’s never puffed up and arrogant about it. He also knows where his weaknesses are and he’s smart enough to acknowledge them and surround himself with people who complement his skills. His humility manifests in another beautiful way: He is so quick to apologize if he thinks he’s screwed up or hurt your feelings in any way. I’ve worked with some amazing people in my life, but it’s rare I’ve seen this degree of humility. He’s always willing to own his mistakes immediately and say he’s sorry.

• Finally, if I had to pick the #1 thing I’ve discovered (that REALLY surprised me), it’s this: His business acumen. It continually blows me away. Don’t let my cowboy nonsense fool you. Underneath that imaginary 10-gallon hat is a brain filled with business smarts. Anyone can read a ton of books and know “facts” about the best way to start, build, expand and run businesses, but to also have keen insight, discernment, and wisdom about those businesses is rare. And the few times I’ve seen that deep level of insight in others it has always taken them decades to acquire it. I’ve worked closely with seasoned business owners and entrepreneurs that were twice Clay’s age (and they ran multi-million dollar companies that they had founded decades earlier) and they have nothing on him at all. When I first started to work with Clay I knew that he’d be great at Internet marketing, evaluating the numbers, analyzing markets, and driving up sales. I fully expected that.

  What I didn’t expect was to find out that he helps people grow and develop all sorts of businesses, even those with physical products and those not looking strictly for Internet marketing advice and instruction. I am astounded week after week not only at how much he knows, but at the wisdom he displays in his understanding of how to use that information. (I suspect he learned much of this from his grandfather who is quite the businessman.) Clay’s ability to know, in advance, if a business will be profitable is almost scary—crazy voodoo-magic-like scary. His foresight is so accurate I swear he must use a crystal ball, though he denies it. The same can be said about his ability to help businesses double and triple their sales.

So, while it’s true…

…that Clint Clay is a wannabe cowboy

…and it’s true that time has no meaning for him (until he’s short of it and I need to talk him down off of the edge of a cliff)

…and it’s true he has a dozen other quirks and flaws (we’re out of space or I’d spill my guts!—so much more to tell—maybe in person one day?) that make work “interesting” many a day…

…ultimately I still have to stand by my original assessment of Clay: He’s one of the most remarkable people I’ve ever had the opportunity to get to know. If you get the chance to hang out with Clay or to work with him in any capacity, take it: He’ll shift your worldview and you’ll walk away a better person for having known him, not to mention what he will do for your business.

Between Clay’s odd quirks and his huge heart, this is one ride that’s way too much fun to miss—even if it means I do have to haul myself up onto a horse to get in on the ride. I can only hope he’ll never make me wear the whole cowgirl outfit, ‘cause I’m thinking that’s probably a dealbreaker (though I do like the red boots).

Well, that’s the end of another post giving you the inside scoop on Clay. I’d love your feedback on this: Do you think Clay could pull off the full-blown cowboy look? Or has he taken it as far as he should? Leave me a comment with your thoughts, please! He might just listen to us…

P.S. Clay’s has a “milestone” birthday coming this year (in September). Maybe we should have a giant bash at my log cabin in Vermont during beautiful fall foliage season. We could all pitch in and buy him a cowboy hat. Then we’d ply him with enough tequila until he’d actually wear it.

*Correction: Clay insisted on taking out one picture. He wouldn’t let me publish this with it in here. (If you ever get to see the picture you will totally understand why.) The compromise I reached is that I will email this picture to the person whose comment amuses me the most. Trust me, you will laugh you a** off— you gotta’ love Photoshop–but you’ll have to give me your word you won’t share it with anyone!

~Tracy

I kind of screwed up with Tracy (if you don’t know, Tracy basically runs sh*t around here).

Here’s the story . . .

The other day, in the midst of pre-launch insanity, I called Tracy up and said something like:

“I HATE graphics, because I obsess about them to no end. So would you mind handling the header for our new product? Because if *I* handle this, I’ll go back and forth with the designer like a billion times and nothing else will get done.”

But this is where I dug a hole for myself.  I said something like “I trust your sense of design more than my own . . . and I’ll be 100% fine with whatever you decide.”

So last night — at like midnight — I start going through the final designs and generally screwing around with this nonsense.  I found a header I really liked and sent her this email:

Tracy, BannerX.jpg . . . this one is so sweet.  Are you OK if we go with that? I still want to try fading to blue on either side, but I REALLY like it.
–Clay

Well, turns out she had already gone back and forth with out designer to finalize ANOTHER banner.

So we’re going to put this to a vote.

And I promised her I’d go with whatever you decide. (And NO, I’m not going to tell you which one my favorite is).

“Fighting Words”

Tracy wrote this morning to say . . .

“I think ‘mine’ knocks ‘yours’ right out of the park! And I really do think you should send out an email and have a vote, because I will then have the entire community backing me up when you’re trying to give your lame-ass opinion on graphics in the future .  Anyway, if mine wins, I expect you to address me as ‘Oh most brilliant one who is always so wise.‘”
–Tracy

Nice.

Ok, so here’s the deal.

I have the aesthetic sensibilities of a bat (and that’s being generous) . . .

. . . so I’ll probably end up losing the bet and having to call her ‘Oh most brilliant one who is always so wise.’

Dammit.

So, I’d be super grateful for your help us sort out this nonsense by telling us (in the comments) which of these two graphics you like better.

So . . . which one most EXCITES you? Header A or header B (let us know in the comments)?

Header A (click on image to see it at full size)

Header B (click on image to see it at full size)

Thanks a ton,

Clay and Tracy