Monday, May 20

Subj: Control, options, ownership

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ABC. The most important rule for being a winner.

Always.

Be.

in

Control.

ABC. A- Always, B-Be, in C-Control.

Be in control of everything in your life, leave nothing in the hands of others, and always keep options.

Control your money, control your earning, control your woman. Leave nothing to chance when it can be controlled.

You have to have money and money making ability to control your life. You cannot be in control if you’re broke, you cannot be in control if you beg your boss for you bi-weekly paycheck that has been thoughtfully taxed in advance for you.

Control your earning

When you have a job as a wage slave you don’t pay taxes. You aren’t a taxpayer. They take taxes. They say “oh, that’s mine. Here, you can have the leftovers“. And, as a wage slave, what do you always say? “Damn taxes! Barely leave me any room to breathe!” and then you dutifully go back into work day after day, again and again, complaining the whole time, and waiting with your handout for your de-taxed paycheck.

When you are in control of your money, as in you do not have a boss, you pay appropriate taxes. Taxes are not taken from you they are given.

As a self-employed man of destiny, an entrepreneur, you control how much or how little your earn. You don’t call anyone boss, you don’t run in fear of disappointing your boss. The world is on your shoulders, and that’s the way it should be.

Control your money

Never leave all of your money in the hands of others. Never fall into the trap. “Oh, I have a company 401k, I’ll be fine“. With your money and your future you’ve got to take action and keep a watchful eye on your money and not let a team of complete strangers control your investments.

What is it they say? Don’t put all your eggs in one basket. For your money you can multiply that rule by 1000. Never, ever, ever, ever keep all of your money in one spot. It cost me $7,000 to learn this lesson and it was worth every penny because I didn’t lose $70,000 or $700,000.

Always keep multiple bank accounts with a balance and always keep cash around the house. Cash is king and you never, ever know when your bank accounts are going to be inaccessible. Put your cash in a safe or hide it in plane sight with a diversion safe.

It pays to be a little paranoid because you never know what will happen. When I was in China my bank just decided to close my account. Huh? Yeah, it’s just closed now. I called them to get it fixed and they said sure, no problem, just come in to the nearest branch and we’ll get it fixed. Oh sure, I’m only 7,000 miles away. I lost a dollar for every mile through late payments because it was a business account and obviously business payments stopped until I could get it fixed. Thankfully I was ok because I had another bank account and I had cash, but I was still out 7 G’s.

Because of that little lesson I now have 7 bank accounts spread across 3 countries, an additional two nominee bank accounts, credit cards and prepaid debit cards. I keep balances spread out, I am not playing around and you shouldn’t either. Never let one bank control your finances.

Pay in advance

Whenever you can, don’t pay anything on credit, do the opposite and pay everything in advance. Don’t put anything on credit. When you have bills you are a slave. Pay everything in advance and you have peace of mind and no one is going to give you the old “you owe me money” bit. Paying in advance is power, paying on credit is slavery.

Think of a credit card only as a delayed payment debit card. I have my gym membership, my web hosting and one other bill directly billed to my credit card every month and I pay it each month before any interest is due. You can also use your credit card to take advantage of frequent flier miles and other nice programs, but never, ever, ever use your credit card just to buy stuff you can’t afford to pay cash with. IF! you are to use credit cards it should only as a strategy to build your credit or to get a bunch of free stuff with your credit card points.

Live below your means

You don’t have to live like an animal but you should not be stressed or anxious about paying your monthly bills. If you pay everything in advance you don’t even have to worry about the big bills. But if you aren’t in a position to pay everything in advance you need to choose your home and your automobile wisely.  A house and a nice car is not worth the anxiety if you are living beyond your means. Always pay cash for your car. I had a 5 year note on my pickup truck, that’s 5 years of payments to drive from A to B. Never again will I have a car payment, and since then I have bought 3 or 4 cars always paid in cash in full. A car is a car is a car, paying monthly when you can pay once is stupid. If your car costs 2k or 30k doesn’t matter, only buy what you can afford. If all you can afford is a 2k car then buy the car and work your ass off until you can buy that 30k, 40k, 50k car. Let that motivate you to achieve but don’t go beyond your means.

Back in the States I had a $1600 mortgage for a 3 bedroom house. It’s stupid to pay so much for one person so I rented a room out to a local college kid and got a little money back. Now I have a central condo in a large city and my rent is paid up through the end of the lease and I have less stress.

You need to live below your means so you have some padding in case of hard times, especially if you are an entrepreneur. As an added bonus when you live below your means you have money to buy anything you want. When I had a job and a set income I was always poor and had to save up to buy anything. Now I don’t “save up” for anything, if I want something I just buy it. That’s because I live below my means and don’t spend haphazardly. In a regular month I buy food at the grocery store and pay monthly bills like electric and internet. I’m not throwing money away on a car payment, house payment, the newest electronics, restaurants, or all that stuff that todays modern enlightened man can’t live without. That means when I want to buy something I just go and buy it and don’t fret. When I want to go on vacation I just go and don’t worry about saving pennies. Of course it should go without saying when I buy something or go on vacation I always search for the best deal.

Control your intimate relationships

Getting married is an act of surrender, of defeat. When you get married you give 100% of your power to a woman. Women only respect you when you have power over them. That is as true today as it was in 1950 or 20,000 bc. That’s why married men walk around like broke-dick dogs, because 99% of them are broken dogs. That’s what happens when you give your power away. A married man has no power whatsoever, his wife and the courtroom have 100% control over his children, his income and his assets. In return for what? There isn’t a single benefit for a man to get married. When you get married you sign away control.

What is it the feminist pigs always say? It’s not the 1950′s anymore! And they’re right. You don’t have to have a job, you are free to do as you wish, to go where you wish, to make as much or as little as you wish. Today anything is possible. The irony is that living like a modern man, in debt up to his eyeballs, married to a good for nothing slob, working a job he hates, fat as can be on his way to diabetes, is probably a lot worse than a life in the 50′s.

Personally, I live a sort of alternate reality version of the 50′s. I keep a woman around and pay all the bills and she does 100% of my housework and everything else I tell her. I rely on her to cook, clean and suck. She relies on me for safety and security. That is complete control and I could find a new girl in a nano-second but I am happy and she is happy so there is no need.

Now I know there are a great many websites telling you to never, ever provide for a woman, never be a beta provider, never give money yadda yadda. These websites are written by guys who have a very hard time attracting women but they are 50% right. I would NEVER give money to or financially support a modern western woman. If I were a western man I would be a cad until I found a non western, non feminized, non empowered, non undignified woman. If you find the correct woman it is not only acceptable to provide it’s also the only way to have complete control of your relationship. The reality is that money is power, women are attracted to both money and power and when you are the sole source of $$ for a woman you have complete control over her and, if you are appropriately selfish, she will dote on you all day and night, just like in days of old. It’s completely true that modern women make money and have options, and that’s a huge reason why they are terrible as wives and girlfriends.

You need to have options for other women, at all times. That doesn’t mean you always need to have 10 girls in your phone or your instant messenger ready and waiting, it just means you need to keep yourself in a state where it’s easy to attract and keep women. The reality is that I am blessed to be tall and handsome BUT! if you are not so handsome there is hope and I mean that sincerely. Money and a dominant disposition is your salvation. Women are attracted to men with money and always will be. That doesn’t make them gold-diggers, it makes them women. Men love titties and ass, women love money and that’s life, baby, no need to cry about it.

OPTIONS!

Always keep options open. Options, options, options. Options are how you stay free. Keep many bank accounts with balances spread over each. Be an entrepreneur and make your own income. Stay out of debt always. Don’t leave your investment strategy in the hands of strangers. Keep options with other women. Have options and ideas for making a real income, not a “dream job” but a real way to make green dollars and red pennies. Your other options don’t need to be acted upon, they just need to be there, in your mind, ready to go if a change is needed.

I have two options for making money if for some reason Bold and Determined doesn’t work out for me. I can build another online venture that I’m positive will provide for me. Alternately, I can move to any mid to large size American city and make money in real estate within one month. Even though I am putting all my effort into Bold and Determined, and it is providing me a nice life, I have the other options in my head at all time, ready to go if need be. And both options are completely under my control, I’m not relying on interviewing with some little girl in HR, going for a second interview with the gay Mexican HR manager, and then going through sensitivity training all so I can receive a tiny little bi-weekly paycheck already de-taxed. Not for me anymore, no thanks.

Until next time, friends.

Your man,

-Victor Pride

Big arms. We all want them. Every day in the gym you’ll see fellas pounding out curls for the girls, trying to build up their arms.

The thing about arms is that for some guys they are easy to build, for other guys they are hard to build. Next time you are in the gym you can take a look around and you may notice a few things.

1. Guys that have big arms will typically have a small chest and will typically have narrow clavicles
2. Guys that have big chests will typically have small arms and will typically have wide clavicles
3. Guys that have both big arms and big chests look phenomenal, but they are few and far between

Personally, I fall into the big chest, weak arms category. My biceps just don’t like to grow. Not to mention my arms are long as hell, like the wings of an Eagle. I don’t have any sort of biceps “peak” whatsoever and my wrists are so small that my 85lb girlfriend can almost wrap her thumb and middle finger around them.

I was not blessed in the arms department. Even with this lack of “arm genetics” I have built my arms to a decent size and routinely receive compliments about them.

I believe I have found the solution for building big arms even if your “arm genetics” are subpar. That solution is building thickness. Since my arms do not have any sort of nice shape or impressive peak, and never will, the only thing I can really do is make them as thick as I can.

The way you build arm thickness is…..

HAMMER CURLS

Hammer curls will build thickness in your brachialis and brachioradialis muscles, making your arms bigger and thicker, even if they don’t have a good “shape” to them.

Step 1 – Hammer Curls

They are called hammer curls because you hold the dumbbells like you would hold a hammer. Perform hammer curls one arm at a time, left arm, right arm, left arm, right arm repeat. Like you’re hitting a nail with a hammer, but slower. Be sure to squeeze your upper arms at the top of the movement for maximum pump effect.

I like to finish my arm workout with 2-4 burnout sets of hammer curls. The best rep range is 8-12 reps. You want to pick a weight that is challenging but one that will allow you to get all your reps in. It is perfectly acceptable to cheat on the last 3-4 reps of your set. I can now do this exercise with 75 lb dumbbells for 10-12 reps, but I will usually stick with 45 lb dumbbells for my sets. Pick whatever weight is challenging for you, doesn’t matter if it’s 25 lbs or 45 lbs or if you use pink dumbbells. This exercise is more about the pump, it’s not a strength exercise, and you should feel a tight pump at the end of your sets.

Step 2 – Take the Right Supplements

There is only so much size and thickness you will build naturally, and if you have been training hard n’ heavy for 3+ years you have likely reached your genetic limit. To put on size over your natural limit you will have to use not-so-natural methods.

There is an over the counter product called Epistane that will put slabs of thickness on you, but it’s not a joke product like creatine or protein powder. It’s a real deal hormone manipulator and should not be trifled with. Before you use Epistane you should have been lifting for 3+ years and be minimum 22 years old and you should be serious about getting bigger. In no uncertain terms, Epistane is an anabolic steroid that happens to be legal and if you don’t have a real interest in getting mucho bigger you can skip this step.

Epistane can shut down your natural testosterone production so in an ideal world you would want to use a “Testosterone base” with your Epistane. A “Testosterone base” is the exact same thing as using Testosterone Replacement Therapy. A lot of people will use Epistane without a Testosterone base and be fine, but I’m going to give you fair warning and say it’s a better idea to use a test base.

For Americans to acquire Testosterone legally I suggest you visit your kindly local doctor or anti-aging clinic and get a prescription for Testosterone. For Brits you don’t need a scrip because it’s legal for you to use Testosterone. For Aussies you’re out of luck unless you visit Thailand.

If you cannot use a “Testosterone base” you may need to use “Post Cycle Therapy” (PCT) products to restore your natural Testosterone levels after you stop taking Epistane. The need for PCT will vary from person to person, unfortunately there is no one size fits all program.

30-45 mg’s per day (2-3 pills) is enough to see substantial gains from Epistane.

Victor’s personal experience with Epistane: Fellas, Epistane works unbeliavably well. Pumps beyond belief that last all day and size you’ll never possibly get naturally. It also works as a bit of an anti-estrogen and dries you out, making your muscles hard as hell. It’s an excellent product for both gaining weight and losing weight. I used Epistane for two weeks and I was the biggest I have ever been and my abs were the hardest and driest they have ever been. I even got more smiles from the girlies when I used Epistane. It works as advertised, no two ways about it.

Step 3 – Shave the Hair

One tip to make your arms look bigger and badder:

SHAVE THE HAIR!

I know it sounds homo but I don’t care. Hairy arms hide the veins and make your arms look dirty. I have hairy arms, I had hairy arms for damn 30 years, I shaved them finally and they started to look good. My arms never looked good until I shaved the hair and then they instantly looked good.

Rather than shaving all the time you can use a hair removal cream called Veet to remove the hair. You simply rub on the cream, wait 10 minutes, and then scrape off the hair with the scraping tool that comes in the box. I suggest you have your girly friend do this for you because it’s boring but she probably enjoys doing things like that. You can purchase Veet online or at any local drug store or supermarket.

An example workout routine

I will typically work biceps and triceps together, I don’t like hitting “bi’s” one day and “tri’s” another day. Arms is arms and I work them as a whole.

For biceps and triceps I will typically start out with one exercise I can go heavy on, pyramiding weight up with each set for one final heavy set. Then I will drop the weight down for my next 2-3 exercises and concentrate on the pump.

Biceps:

Barbell curls, 5 sets – 1 set by 20 reps, 1 set by 15 reps, 1 set by 12 reps, 1 set by 10 reps, 1 set by 8 reps (going UP in weight with each set)

Dumbbell curls – 3-4 sets by 12 reps

Hammer curls  - 3-4 sets by 12 reps

Triceps:

Close grip barbell bench press 1 set by 20 reps, 1 set by 15 reps, 1 set by 12 reps, 1 set by 10 reps, 1 set by 8 reps (going UP in weight with each set)

Skullcrushers 3-4 sets by 12 reps

Rope pulldowns 3-4 sets by 12 reps

…and that’s all she wrote, bub. Arm day is finished and now you can go enjoy your coconut smoothie with added egg whites. If you’ve got an arm workout you are already happy with just toss in a few sets of hammers curls at the end and thicken those guns up.

With a little down and dirty American work ethic and proper supplementation you can transform those spaghetti arms into something you can be proud of.

Until next time,

-Victor Pride

I used to be a real down to earth, go with the flow, “yeah, hey man it’s whatever” kind of guy. I was also poor.

When I started making money I started demanding things and I started getting things done my way. I started saying “no” as easily as most people say “yeah, uh, I guess that’s ok”.

I went from an average of a few hundred dollars in my bank account to having an average of 10, 20, 30 or 40 grand with more always on the way. And guess what happened? I stopped taking bullshit.

I make a lot less money now but A) I make enough so that I am completely free to go anywhere B) I have zero debt and my monthly expenses are less than a grand and C) I can afford to purchase anything I want and I don’t worry about putting food on the table.

Do something I don’t want to do? Not even an option. Someone telling me what to do? No. Relying on other people to pay me? Nope. Following the schedule or plans of others? Negative. My word goes? Yes.

You want to increase your testosterone but you are scared of the needle? Make more money. Money will make a man of you.

When you’ve got money in the bank and a pocket full of cash you don’t accept baloney. When your waiter brings you the wrong meal, instead of saying “oh, it’s ok I guess. I’ll just eat this” you’ll say “this isn’t what I ordered. Take this back and bring me my steak and baked potato” and you’ll say it without apology and without pleading. You’ll stop asking permission and you’ll start demanding. You won’t ask, you will tell.

When you have money you have balls. You are in control.

A lot of males are scared of money and scared of success. They’ll say things like “I would NEVER do that just for money! I would NEVER try and make money from that!“.

They say this baloney, and act this way, to feel morally superior. Morally superior in their poorness. Good for them. That makes it easier for the rest of us who aren’t afraid of money. That makes it easier for you to become a big dog.

Acting moral is the act of being the best at following orders. The most “moral” people are the best order takers. When a person brags about being too moral they are bragging that they do what they are told better than you. And you should be happy for them, the world needs customer service representatives and IT professionals to help fix your computer.

“I do everything I’m told and I never get ahead! I just don’t understand!” they always end up saying.

Tough one to figure out, isn’t it boys?

I’ll have to ponder that riddle over the weekend and see if I can possibly find an answer.

See you Monday,

-Victor Pride

Monday, April 22, 2013

Subj: $$$$$$$$$$$$$

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Friends of Bold and Determined, you may have noticed a dearth of posts in the last 6 months. I took a detour into bodybuilding, with all that entails, and as I have said many times multi-tasking is for girls. You do one thing until you have it complete and then you move on. My build is now how I wish it to be, more or less, and during that time my business grew and supported me with no hiccups. All is well. Now…….

This month I have had to make the decision many times to either renew some domains I purchased one year ago or to drop them. I ended dropping a ton of domains, because they were quite stupid, but it reminded of how motivated I was one year ago. One year ago I was beyond determined to make my money 100% online and to make Bold and Determined my lifeblood money maker. And I succeeded. I have been able to do minimal work for 6 months and not only make a livable income but my business actually grew during that time. I can quite literally do nothing for a month and have money coming in.

Not working is fine and dandy if you have other endeavors you are working on, say taking your bodybuilding to the next level, but one has to realize that having a great build is not the most important thing in life. The most important thing in life is having an ever-increasing stream of money, security and freedom and having a reason to require money, security and freedom. The future is coming for all of us and each of us should be prepared. And as far as I am concerned men should be constantly building, and for the future an empire should be built. To me, building an empire is the only worthwhile life goal. Follow the lead of the great Arnold Schwarzenegger. He built the world’s best body, but he was not satisfied with merely being a body, he went on to create an empire and no matter how much of a liar he is, no matter how much of a sociopath he is, no matter how out of his mind on steroids he is, no matter how many maids he fucked he is still an admirable man worthy of study and emulation.

It has recently come to the forefront of my mind that my mood is directly influenced by money. How much I have right now, how much I have coming to me, how much I plan to make, how much I need to spend, how I will acquire it etc. After having this revelation it has occurred to me that the only thing I care about is this: Seeing dollar signs in my email when I wake up in the morning.

More important that how great my abs look, more important than how full my upper arms are, more important that how good my girlfriend sucked my dick, more important than good news from friends and family, more important than anything, for my mood, is how much money is coming to me and the process and building up that money. If I don’t make as much money as I want then I am in a dark mood and the remedy for that dark mood is $$$$$, just as the remedy for hunger is a plate full of chicken and rice.

Many will say silly things like “Well, you should just be a man and get your emotions in order and never show anger“. My emotions are in order, when I don’t have the money I require I get angry and volatile, I don’t fix that by shrugging my shoulders and saying “Que sera, sera“, I fix it by making some money. If you do not have what you require you should be mad as hell until you fix it.

If I don’t wake up in the morning to an email full of orders I am not going to be in the best mood possible and just as when my belly is hungry I can be volatile. When I am well fed then I am calm, cool, pleasant and happy. The obvious solution to always be in a great mood is to constantly be improving the money situation.

Money buys freedom. Freedom from calling another man boss, freedom of location, freedom of time, freedom to say “no”, and freedom of anxiety from not having any money.

“You have just received a payment” is music to my ears. And if that email says something else, well, I just don’t care.

There is a lot of this “Stay hungry. Always be hungry” type of mindset which I do not necessarily agree with. It is impossible to be well fed and hungry. If you’re hungry, you eat until you are full. Being hungry sucks. I say Always Be Building. You don’t have to be hungry to be a builder, you just need a goal, a commitment, time and a reason. Take as many detours as you like, but keep that end goal firmly in your mind. Right now I make 3.5 grand per month doing nothing because of what I built  2 years ago, 1 year ago, 6 months ago, and even the work I did these past 6 months. Now I expect to make 8+ grand per month doing a lot more work. For the fellas interested in how I do it I basically spelled out my entire game plan in the So You Want to Be a Professional Blogger series. What I did was not hard, I don’t like hard work. I like simple and I kept it simple and maybe more importantly I enjoyed what I was doing so much that I would even forget to eat. The most simple thing in the world is to do your duty day in and day out, time after time, day after day until it is where you want it to be. That’s all I did, I kept at it for 2 years until I had it where I wanted it, and right at the end of those two years I kicked it into overdrive. Routine, overdrive, routine, overdrive, relax, overdrive, routine. This is how you build something special.

-Victor Pride

PS – Make one dollar this week doing something new. Make two dollars next week. If you can make one, you can make two, if you can make two you can make four. If you can make four, well, you can make anything. I’d say good luck but it would be a lie, luck is made by you and you only. All that luck shit is in your head, consider yourself lucky and you will be. I’m the luckiest man in the world and I mean it.

Monday, April 15, 2013

Location: Bangkok

Subj: 3 ways to make money from your blog

Previous entries: So You Want to Be a Professional Blogger Part 1 and Part 2

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Money.

Money is freedom and power. I used to be a bit of an “easy-going, go with the flow” kind of guy. Do you know what happened when I started making money? I started getting things my way and I started saying no a lot more. I became much more demanding. Money is power. What I do now, write words on a computer screen and receive money back, is FREEDOM. In my last gig I was tied to a metropolitan area. I made better money than I do now, and would have become wealthy had I stuck with it, but I was tied to a certain city and I wanted freedom more than I wanted a million bucks.

Now when I look around I am truly amazed at what I have and where it came from. A religious man would say I am blessed. A lazy man would say I am lucky.

I would say I am creative. Not in the sense that I am a great artist or that I’m super talented at computering or that I’m too cool for school. I am creative only because I created what I wanted. If I can do it then certainly a percentage of other men can do it as well. What is that quote?

“What one man can do, another can do” – The Edge

Ok, friends. Let’s not beat around the bush anymore, let’s talk about money and how to acquire some of it from your blog. There are 3 basic ways to make money from your blog.

1. Selling advertising
2. Affiliate marketing
3. Creating and selling your own product

Before we review each step, let me ask you two questions:

1) What is the most important day of the week? Monday, of course.

2) How do you wake up on Monday feeling refreshed and energized? You check your email accounts and see how much money you made while you were farting around over the weekend. The greatest feeling in the world is seeing a bunch of dollar signs waiting for you. And if you don’t have any dollar signs waiting for you when you wake up, it’s time to create some.

ADVERTISING

You get traffic, you place ads on your websites, people click those ads, you make a percentage.

I don’t rely on this model, I hate advertising for other people’s products and you will not see many ads on Bold and Determined except for products available exclusively through Bold and Determined. There are 3 types of advertising you can place on your website.

1. You can sell adspace for a set monthly price
2. You can place ads where you get an amount of money each time someone clicks on the ad
3. You can place ads where you receive a commission from any sale that came from the advertisement

Many people choose to run google adsense, which I believe is a truly stupid waste of time and resources. With google adsense you can only make pennies and you need HUGE traffic to make a living AND you are sending your readers AWAY FROM YOUR BLOG TO A POSSIBLE COMPETITOR. You want your readers to stay on your website, not to be so damn bored they click on an obvious ad to try and find something better. Google adsense also looks extremely ugly and your blog needs to look good. Google adsense is pointless for bloggers.

There’s a blog called Expat-Chronicles which is a perfect example of what not to do. The guy is a VERY entertaining writer but he isn’t doing many things right to make a nice living. For example he had this to say about google ads:

I have Google Ads on this site, and they pay about $100 every three months. That’s $400 / year, MAX. And that’s five years after starting.

He makes a piddly $400 per year on google adwords but, get this, he has google adwords in 3 (THREE!) prominent locations on his blog, cluttering up the layout and making it look like poop. All for a dirty, tiny $33 per month. I make much more than $33 per day and I don’t have any google ads, or even any ads at all. Google ads can and should be REPLACED. Everyone on planet earth knows what a google ad looks like and they aren’t being clicked anymore. If I were the writer of Expat-Chronicles I would yank all the google ads and replace them with ads for my own product. $33 per month is pointless and to have 3 spots for pointless ads is, well, also pointless.

Advertising Tips to Remember

It is best to LIMIT your number of ads, rather than plaster ads everywhere. If you have a choice between chocolate ice cream or vanilla ice cream that’s a very easy choice to make, and I will have vanilla 10 times out of 10. If you have a choice between 37 flavors of ice cream your brain is overloaded with choices and options. If you see 500 different ads flashing in your face you don’t want to click any, but if you only see one or two it’s an easy choice to click and see what the fuss is about. Simplicity. There isn’t a need for complication. Make things easy, don’t give too many options. When you go to McDonalds you know you’re getting a cheeseburger and fries, when you go to a Chinese restaurant you have no idea what you’re getting, they all have 100 options on the menu. Too many choices = no choice made. Make the choice for your readers, they are relying on you.

If you want to get jacked like ol’ Big Bear then pick up Body of a Spartan. If you are feeling like poop and not accomplishing anything then pick up 30 Days of Discipline and start kicking ass. Those are your two options. It’s not worth those few pennies that google will pay me to take you away from my site.

AFFILIATE MARKETING

Affiliate marketing is terrific. You refer a product to someone and you get a percentage when they purchase. This model has worked since the dawn of money. You bring someone to me, they buy what I have, I give you a cut. If you like a product, surely a percentage of your readers will like the same product, so if you promote it and some of your readers purchase then you make a percentage of the sale. This is win-win for everybody.

The world’s biggest and best affiliate marketing product website is clickbank.com. I have been using clickbank for a long time and they have never done me dirty and have always paid me on time. This is BIG in the internet affiliate marketing world, making sure you get paid. With many fly by night operations and horror stories of shady operations that never pay you you have got to make sure you deal with reputable companies. If you want a product to promote, you can be sure you will be paid your earnings with clickbank. Some other reputable operations include Commission Junction and  ShareASale.

How do you find a product to promote?

Simple. Only promote what you use yourself. Go to the website of the product that you endorse and search near the bottom for an “affiliate” link. If there is no option so sign up as an affiliate put your game face on and send them an email asking if they have an affiliate program.

In the past I promoted a product called Superdrol. It’s a product that I believe in for one reason: It’s the most potent muscle building hormone on the face of the earth. It is now illegal and if I could go back in time I would buy 50 bottles of it. I feel comfortable promoting it because I used it myself and it worked unbelievably well.

Promote products you use and believe in and you can sleep well at night. I believe in killing with a conscience. When you do anything and everything for a buck you are always going to be struggling, but when you are genuine and believe what you say it will be obvious to everyone else. I’m even swayed by this. When someone who’s opinion I respect speaks favorably about a product I run out and buy it.

CREATING YOUR OWN PRODUCT

This is the best choice for bloggers and the method that I believe in the most. You can create as many products as you want, of course, but it seems to me the few options the better. One or two flagship products works well for me. Your own product is the representative and embodiment of  your website and your philosophy and you should go above and beyond what is available for free.

Creating E-Books

The cool thing amongst the cool bloggers is to say “Don’t sell e-books! That’s so gauche!“. I have seen many of those too cool for school bloggers up close and personal and they are all skinny hippies with dirty hair and their too cool for school nonsense is irrelevant. E-books are books, simple as that, and books are great. Reading and learning is for winners, being too cool for school is for nerds.

The only rule for creating an E-book is that you should know what you are talking about. Walk the walk before you talk the talk.

For some tips about how to create an e-book check out How to Write an E-Book for Fun and Profit (10 Easy Steps to Creating Automated Income). For some tips about how to sell your product be sure to read Ca$hvertising by Drew Eric Whitman and The Ultimate Sales Letter by Dan Kennedy.

Creating Technical Products

You can create other things like “apps” or themes, but I can’t tell you how to do that. I’m not up to date and hip on all the new technology. Just last week I purchased a smart phone for the first time in over two years, after my dumb phone stopped working. I used my new piece of technology today to take a picture of myself at the gym and was a little startled to realize the feminist harpies were right, I do look like a caveman, and cavemen don’t give advice about technology. Check out Brian Gardner for an example of a blogger who also creates and sells technical products. The guy creates the best WordPress themes I have seen, see StudioPress, and has a great blog as well.

There are unlimited products you can create and monetize, you are limited only by your creativity. All you’ve got to do is get to creating.

Make your blog exciting. Make the titles exciting. Make people want to read. Give away valuable information. Do your creating, and you will have your own little ATM machine.

-Victor Pride, over and out

PS – I receive daily emails asking me when my Spartan Entrepreneur book will be re-released. Because of the huge amount of interest I will open it up briefly. Keep your eyes and ears open, boys. Coming soon.

From the desk of Victor Pride

Tuesday, March 26, 2013

Location: Nha Trang, Vietnam

Sub: Technical tools needed for an exciting pro blogging career

So You Want to Be a Professional Blogger Part 1 and Part 3.

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In the first installment of this series we looked at the mindset necessary to unlock the corporate shackles loosely placed around your hands and feet. Just like the Elephants who believe they aren’t strong enough to break through some rinkity third world shackles, most people believe there’s no way they can break free of the 9-5 jive and make money doing something out of the ordinary. Sour news friends: That’s absolutely true for most people. The majority won’t ever accomplish anything. BUT! since the readership of B&D is filled with risk takers there is a good chance a certain percentage of readers, the ones with an interest in blogging, will be able to accomplish something.

But why the heck would you want to become a pro blogger? The obvious reason anyone would want to become a pro blogger is the amount of freedom it gives you. Say goodbye to sitting in traffic at 8am, yelling at all the morons who can’t drive while sipping your McDonalds orange juice and munching on a sausage biscuit with cheese, cursing God. I can’t even remember the last time I was stuck in traffic at 8am or 5pm. At 8am every morning I’m at my desk sipping coffee, at 5pm, well, no matter what I’m doing it isn’t sitting in traffic waiting to get home after a hard day of office gossiping.

Now, let’s look at the technical tools and rules you will need to start blogging.

Rule #1 – NO FREE DOMAINS AND NO FREE HOSTING!!!!

There are websites like wordpress.com (not to be confused with wordpress.org) and blogspot.com that will give you a free domain and free hosting. For example, if I did that my domain would be boldanddetermined.wordpress.com. This is what amateurs use. If you want to be a pro you need your own domain name and your own, NON-FREE hosting. When you use free hosting services this is what you are saying to the world: “I do not believe in my vision enough to invest $7 in a domain name and $7 a month to host it. Therefore, you should not believe in me either“. Anyone who cannot afford a $7 per month hosting plan does not have anything valuable to offer, and that’s the truth. Those free hosting sites will limit the advertising you can place or in some cases they do not allow you to place any advertising at all, and they go ahead and place their own advertising and make money off of your stupidity for using their “free” service.

Free sites are LIMITED in what you can do and you are at the mercy of their terms of service. Just say no to free hosting and take control of your website. Limits are for people who want them. When you have your own domain and your own private hosting you control everything and your options are limited only by your imagination. A dot com domain can be purchased from GoDaddy for $10 or less and a standard hosting plan with Hostgator costs $7 per month and you can host unlimited sites. I have used that very same hosting plan for over 5 years with many, many websites. To want to be in the online world but not have your own hosting is sheer stupidity. Stay in the bush leagues if you want to write about nonsense but if you’re a serious man you just need to get a hosting plan, put it on auto pay and forget about it.

• Hostgator
• GoDaddy

Make the right domain choice

Picking the right domain name is highly important. Your domain name is numero uno about your website. It has to be memorable if someone is going to remember to type it into their address bar and visit you again. A poor domain choice is the most easily fixed and the most widely made mistake new bloggers make. Your readers need to find you easily by typing your domain name into their address bar. If you pick the wrong domain they won’t find you. If you pick some silly name that is hard to spell or remember they will not find you. They’ll type the address in a few times, if they can’t find it they’ll google it a few times. If they can’t find it that way they’ll never find you AND they’ll be mad at you for picking such a stupid domain name. Make it EASY for your readers to find you! Bold and determined dot com is an easy domain to remember, easy to read and easy to type. Even the dimwits who failed english class and google “bold and determine” are still able to find the website.

The 5 rules of picking a proper domain name:

1. It must be a dot com – a dot com is the default, everyone knows dot com and when you say website the first thing people wil think is “.com”. No one defaults to dot org, dot net, or something cutesy like a dot me.
2. It must be easy to read and easy to remember – if they can’t read it or remember it they won’t be able to come back.
3. It must not be a free site like boldanddetermined.wordpress.com or boldanddetermined.blogspot.com – picking a free site says you do not value your own website enough to spend 7 dollars on a domain and 3 dollars per month on hosting.
4. It must be easily spoken and it MUST make grammatical sense – for example no one would say determinedlybold.com, that would be a stupid domain name.
5. It must not have any numbers (1,2,3, one, two, three) or dashes (-) – no one can remember that nonsense. No one can remember if the number is spelled or typed as a number, no one can remember where the damn dash is and no one is going to type that nonsense into their address bar. bold-and-determined.com would be one of the worst domains in history. Make is EASY! Several weeks back a snake oil salesman came to leave me a spam comment to try and get some traffic to his site. I followed his link and what I saw shocked me. He had the worst domain name I have ever seen and for a month I have remembered how stupid it was. It was called el3mentsofwellness.com. He stupidly replaced an “E” with a 3 and now it looks like gibberish unless you concentrate. If one were going to try and return to his site they would be lost trying to type in that nonsense.

• Godaddy

Use wordpress

WordPress is the greatest and best blogging platform in existence and it’s free.

WordPress is so easy to install you don’t need to do much of anything, just follow the instructions outlined in the links below.

• 10 Complete Steps to Starting a WordPress Blog
• The Top 5 Must Use WordPress Plugins

Capture emails from day 1

Anyone who has ever worked in sales knows you need one very important thing to make money – leads. The blogging for profit model is similar to a sales job. If you don’t capture leads and if you don’t turn those leads into sales you don’t eat. In the online world email address’s are your leads and they are very important to your business. You need to capture the email’s of your readers right from the start so you can inform them of any news, products available, etc. You can also send them new posts via email so they don’t have to keep checking your site for updates or, even worse, forgetting about your site altogether. RSS is dead and email is the way you need to communicate with your readers. I use Mailchimp, which is free for up to 500 subscribers and will allow you time to build your email list and not spend any dough. They will database all of your subscribers and you can easily set up an automatic new post to email feature.

• Mailchimp

Make it look good

Got to look good. Looking good makes everything better and easier. Good looking people have an easier life than ugly people. Good looking blogs have better traffic than ugly blogs, even if the “insides” aren’t great. I’m white, tall, handsome and muscular and I can say without hesitation that on the inside I simply don’t care about most people. It doesn’t matter how great my “insides” are. Everyone can see me and they treat me well. Walking around Vietnam they treat me like I’m the second coming of Superman, like I’m on holiday away from the hustle and bustle of Krypton. If I were a fat, black midget with a heart of gold they would probably spit on me. Appearance makes all the difference in the world.

For my blogs I have been using the Genesis framework and I buy “child themes” from Studiopress and I have been extremely pleased with my purchases. They look phenomenal and there is not a of extra backend coding required. Currently I am using metro theme and it’s the first time I have never had to do any additional backend coding work on a theme I didn’t design, usually I spend hours tinkering with the code trying to get everything perfect.

• StudioPress/Genesis Themes

Keep an eye on the numbers

You will want to know how many visitors are coming to your site and how they are getting to you. The easiest, simplest and free way to find out is to use google analytics. One look at analytics and I can see how many visitors have stopped by in any given day, week, month or year. I can see that I get over 5,000 unique visitors every day and on my busiest day I received over 36,000 unique visitors.

• Google analytics

The cost of pro blogging

The cost of pro blogging, when you are just starting out, is minimal. It can be done for under $10 per month. Currently I pay over $300 per month but it took a couple of years before that cost was necessary. The real cost is time. If you are going to blog anyway, and spend all your time doing it, you may as well make some dough.

Cliff’s notes for the impatient

1. Buy a good domain name at Godaddy
2. Buy hosting from Hostgator
3. Install wordpress and the proper plugins
4. Install a good looking theme
5. Open a free Mailchimp account to snag email’s
6. Open a google analytics account
7. Write the world’s greatest content.

Part 2 is over boys, part 3 to be released within 7 days.

-Victor Pride

Make money even while you’re playing on the beach, but not until after you put in the work.

Wednesday, March 20, 2013

Location: Saigon

Alternate title: Creative steps to becoming a pro blogger

Professional Blogger: One who makes a monetary living from a blog or blogs

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“Wow, can you show me how to do that?”

That is the question I always get when I try and explain to people what it is I do for a living. I always tell them the same thing, no, but today I am going to share with you how you can become a professional blogger. In part one of this three part series I am going to show you the mindset and the creativity it takes to become a professional blogger .

Note: When I say professional blogger I mean that you make money from your blog. I don’t mean you have a loyal following, I don’t mean you write controversial pieces, I don’t mean you have a real witty sense of humor, I mean you make green dollars and red cents.

Let’s party…….

Mindset of a Winner

#1 needed piece of equipment for starting a pro blog is having the mindset of a winner, right from the start. You’ve got to know why you are writing a blog. Don’t bullshit around and say “oh, I’m just going to blog and see what happens“. If you want to be a professional blogger you need a reason, a plan, a strategy and a blueprint.

You have to have the proper mindset. You don’t have the mindset, you don’t have the fire, you won’t learn it, it won’t work and it will be a a waste of your time. You had better make the decision to become a pro and then follow up your decision with action. It’s decision time, make yours. Do it or don’t do it, none of this “see what happens” bullshit.

Have a Voice

If you want to be a professional blogger you must have a voice. You must have something to say, you must have a position and you must be even slightly unique. You must have experience in a certain area or niche (the area you are writing about). And make no mistake about what I just said, you will be writing so you must be functionally literate. You don’t need to be the world’s greatest author but your writing needs to have style if people are going to read your words.

Have a Reason

I first started dreaming up this blog many years ago. It was on my mind for a long time, and it went through a few incarnations before I got it right. The reason I started dreaming up the blog is because A) I knew I had something to say. I had a voice, I had experience, and I knew beyond a shadow of any doubt that that were men out there who were dying to read something like this. B) I knew I wanted to transfer my income source from real world wheeling and dealing to online playing. I planned to completely transfer my income and make all my money online.

Be an Authority

If you want to make money from your blog you must be an authority. No one wants to pay some schmuck to read about their journey to riches. No one gives a damn about unsure, unconfident, poor people. I’m not getting out my credit card to pay for something created by someone who is on a journey to self discovery. When I pay for something I want expert advice from a pro. I go to authority for information and I go to amateur’s for a laugh. Make the decision to be PRO. Bush league blogs don’t make the author any money.

Mentoring, Masterminding, Apprenticing

I always read about how great having a mentor is, or how being part of a mastermind group is so great and helpful. I couldn’t say, I’m a lone-wolf and I did everything on my own. That’s not braggadocio, that’s a helpful tip for all the lone-wolves out there who don’t have or don’t want any outside involvement. All this stuff can be learned on your own but it probably takes longer and you will have many instances where you go from screaming at your computer screen to laughing maniacally when you finally figure out some little technical task. You don’t have to attend any blogging for profit workshops, you don’t have to join a bloggers mastermind group and you don’t have to be overly technical. Everything can be learned – SURPRISE! – right from your laptop computer.

Model of Inspiration

You can model your blog on another blog and you can steal ideas from other creative areas. BUT BUT BUT the trick is to do it in such a way that no one notices you have creatively stolen. I have seen countless dirty and shameless ripoffs of Bold and Determined. They won’t go anywhere because they add nothing of value and they add nothing different. The idea is to copy and expand, copy but make it better or add a different flavor. Just plain copying is for the lazy and stupid. If you’re morally opposed to words like “copy” and “steal” you can bless your heart and say “take inspiration from” instead. Take inspiration from great work and add your own flavor. The art of creativity is “taking inspiration” from a piece of art and adding your own flavor. The trick is to make it your own.

Keep an Eye on Design

There are a bunch of good authors who write good blogs but they let the blog look like poop. This is a gigantic mistake, your blog has to look good. Just like your person has to look good, your online representation has to look good too. Looking good instantly makes everything you do better. Your blog has to look like a million bucks if you want to go pro. I’ll give you an example, a fella called Danger and Play writes a good blog but his design looks like generic slop. If he underwent a design overhaul he would instantly have a great blog. You can use some sloppy, point and click layout (or “theme” as they are called) or you can spend a few bucks and make your site look good. I will go so far as to say a good looking but poorly written blog is worth more than a superbly written but sloppy looking blog.

Develop a Routine

Routine is the most important part of your work. Everyone wants to be a world travelling blogger and write from the beach and coffee shops in far-away cities. The blunt truth is that it sucks working from anywhere you are unfamiliar with.  On the beach the bugs will eat up your feet and coffee shops are too distracting. You need privacy and routine to create quality work. I am writing this piece from my macbook pro (no hipster in the world can do as many pullups as me) in a coffee shop in Saigon, I would 100% prefer to be at my home writing this. It has taken me over a week to write this, it should have taken me only a morning and an afternoon. Concentration is impossible when out of the normal routine. The other day I was at the airport with a couple hours to kill so I tried to get some writing done and a fella just came and sat right next to me, crossed his legs, and started reading my words. I was flabbergasted at the nerve.

Buckle Down and Get Obsessed 

Early last year I spent 6 months in the States holed up working on Bold and Determined. I didn’t have sex for 6 months, I didn’t party, I didn’t go to the movies, I didn’t go to lunch with friends. I did nothing but eat, lift and work on making internet money. There were days where I looked at the clock, it would be 9:30 pm and I hadn’t even had a bite of food that day. It was the best thing I ever did. After those 6 months I had a steady, livable income. Now if I don’t work for 30 days I still make money, each day I don’t work I still have an income. I am now able to live completely off of the income from Bold and Determined because of that 6 month time frame. At that point the blog had been live for a little over a year and I had one very important thing: a dedicated readership. If it takes a year to build a steady readership then it takes a year, you will make nothing without readers. Getting readers is the most important thing you can do, and for that you have to write something that people want to read OR you have to get yourself linked to by prominent bloggers.

Note: I have to thank Modafinil for that period of obsessive work.

Dealing with Loneliness

Something tells me that if one has the ability to create something out of nothing, then that person has the ability to deal with loneliness. And if you don’t have a job you rush to everyday, if you work from your home like I do then you can expect to experience loneliness. When you do things out of the ordinary you don’t exactly relate to most people and vice versa.

Play to Your Strengths

You’ll never see daily posts on Bold and Determined because I’m not a talker. The same type of people that can open their mouths and talk a mile a minute are the same type of people that can write post after post, article after article, day after day. That’s a strength that they have, and maybe you have it too, but if you don’t have it there is no need to fret. Daily posts simply aren’t necessary and if you aren’t the right type, a talker, they are detrimental. My writing schedule has evolved  (or devolved) into a very simple process: If I have something to say, I say it. If I don’t have anything to say, I don’t say anything. I won’t write about my lunch just to have something to write about it, and you shouldn’t either.

Be Prepared to Expose Yourself

It doesn’t matter what you write about, your words will expose you. The world will know you. They will have access to the depths of your heart and soul. If you want to connect with your readers you will have to give a piece of yourself.

Two Types of Professional Bloggers

There are two types of pro bloggers: talented artists and talented networkers. A talented artists creates good written content and a good networker gets themselves linked to by many other prominent bloggers. I’m not pooping on talented networkers, they are go-getters and they get after what they want. They aren’t creators so I don’t read the poop they come up with BUT they have strengths and they play to their strengths and a lesson can be learned from them. You’ve got to play to your strengths, if you strength doesn’t lie in creating quality art then you’ve got to use whatever is at your disposal.

If YOU have a voice, a fire, a reason, a stance AND you have the go-getter ability of the networkers you will have something nice to play with.

It Takes Time

Time plus effort equals results. You’ve got to put in that time before you get yourself a paycheck. Cliches are cliches for a reason, they are often true. It takes time, so keep at it and do not give up. You won’t make any money your first week, month and probably you won’t make any money for over a year. Big deal, you’re building something and that takes time. If you don’t want to wait go and play the lottery and talk about how lucky people with money are.

Walk the Walk

If you’re writing about fitness you should be fit, if you’re writing about money you should have money, if you’re writing about feminism you should be 200 lbs overweight and single. You’ve got to believable and you’ve got to walk that walk. A little bit of authenticity goes a long way.

Victor’s Personal Advice

Nearly every article on the face of the earth written by a pro blogger about “how to become a pro blogger” is written by the talented networker type. Their advice is always the same – network, network, network. That method works but it’s all a bunch of worthless articles linked to other worthless articles. My advice here, more important than anything else, is to create the best articles you possibly can. The blogging world is mostly a bunch of talentless people jerking each other off and sending each other scraps and leftovers. Most male bloggers are limpwrists and for some reason they all idolize this blog Zen Habits and the author Leo Blablablah. I hate that blog, the writer is a fatso and always talks about health and he talks with a lisp. Nearly every blog on the planet that is successful is written by a limpwrist and they blog about limpwrist interests, like running marathons in India and stopping at every monastery along the way to have an authentic vegan brunch. This is my own personal recommendation for starting a blog: add some testosterone. I’m sick of reading girly poop written by males.

Now howl at the damn moon and get to writing. OWWWWWWWWWWW!!!!!!

-Victor Pride

So You Want to Be a Professional Blogger Part 2 and Part 3.

Monday, February 18, 2013

Alternate Title: How to Find Your Place in Life

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Someone recently asked me what I think about the Law of Attraction. Is it the real deal or is it new age hocus pocus?

The Law of Attraction is the theory that you can create what you want. It is the theory that by truly believing in the object of your desire and focusing onto it will lead to that object or goal being realized on the material plane and that negative thinking will manifest negative results. This can also be called visualization.

The Law of Attraction was made famous by Napoleon Hill in his masterpiece, and my favorite book, Think and Grow Rich. I was completely and utterly lost before I read that book. The book changed my life forever, precisely because I started “practicing” visualization and the law of attraction. But I like to call it something a little different….

But first, let’s talk about how to find your place in life.

You see, people will often ask how to find their place in life. They’ll say “I’m lost! How do I find myself?“.

And the answer is simple.

You don’t find your place in life.

You make your place in life. You make it and take it. You visualize it, attract it, make it and take it.

“That’s mine and I’ll have that now“.

Make it and take it, baby. Make concrete plans now, and execute them at the appropriate time. Unbreakable confidence. And if you don’t have it, get it. Act as if. Nothing worthwhile is going to be given to you. If it’s worthwhile then someone else is holding on to it tightly, to make it yours you must take it.

If you rely on finding your place in life you’ll find yourself interviewing with 22 year old female studies major Becky in Human Resources for your exciting career as an IT professional, you won’t find yourself in a postion as a professional writer, blogger and killer like ol’ Big Bear. I didn’t find this job, I took it. I started planning three years ago. I visualized it and “law of attracted” it three years ago. For two years I didn’t make a dime. One year ago I started making money and replaced my previous income. Now I live fully on my internet income. I visualized it for years, I knew it would happen, there wasn’t a question in my mind, it was just a waiting game.

When I first escaped my 9-5 jive I had been planning and visualizing my new position for a number of years as well. All I was doing was waiting for that one opportunity, like a Lion waits for a little Gazelle. When I had the Gazelle in my sights I took a bite out of it’s neck and didn’t let go.

That’s the difference between the Lion and the Gazelle. The Lion will wait for the perfect striking time, the Gazelle wants it now, now, now and won’t plan ahead. When I left my 9-5 jive (about 10 seconds before the boss man could fire me) I was fully prepared to be broke as a joke for as long as it took. It turns out, it only took about 2 weeks, but I was prepared to eat beans out of a damn can for as long as it took.

Listen, friends. I am not a patient man. I am as impatient as they come, but I will wait for what I want. I won’t settle for less. A lot of you guys settle, and take less than want you want. If that’s what you take and accept then that is what you deserve. There are no two ways about it, what you have is what you have attracted. If you want more then you plan for it, visualize and then go grab it.

Saying “I deserve better!” is for losers. Saying “I demand beter and I will have better” is for winners. Change the mindset, change the thought process, change your life.

Make it and take it.

TIPS:

#1 Learn the word “NO“. Say it often. No is a power word. You know who doesn’t say no? People pleasers. You know who says no all the time? Real dealers and ass kickers. “No” comes from a position of power.

#2 Stop caring what other people think. Their opinion is useless to you, their advice is useless and their thought process is non-existent. If they didn’t see it on television then it isn’t real to them. That goes for your mommy and daddy and your best friend from childhood. Unless someone’s life is enviable to you their advice is utterly pointless and useless garbage. Unless they are doing something you want to do, don’t ask for or accept advice. For example: I take bodybuilding advice from bodybuilders, I take business advice from successful entrepreneurs, and I take advice about how to properly make smoothies from my maid. I don’t take any advice from fellas who wasted their lives working for some company and raising a family. I know 8 million people like that, and their advice is always the same garbage. “Get a good job, get married and save for retirement so you can live as well as me!“.

Make it and take it, friends. If you want it get your feet on the pavement and get out there and get it. It’s not going to be out in the open waiting for you to find it. Whatever IT is that you want, it likes to play hide and seek with you. You’ll have to get out there and kick those rocks over looking for it, but it’s there. The rest of the lazy bums will only look in plain sight, if you take just one extra step you will have a leg up on almost everybody on planet earth. And then they’ll call you lucky. And they’ll be right. There isn’t a soul on planet earth who has good luck and a bad attitude. Good luck men have positive mental attitudes, they will extend their arm to Lady Luck and she’ll take it with a little smile and a blush, like the good girl she is.

-Victor Pride

Today, I will share with you the secret to eating junkfood and staying lean and mean.

But first, let me show you a picture of me after having eaten junkfood almost daily for the past several months…..

In the weeks leading up to this picture I drank many coca-colas, drank many fruit smoothies, ate many snickers bars, ate many strawberry pop-tarts, and ate many cans of pringles sour cream n’ onion chips. Let me first make a couple of things clear, I do not binge eat, I do not eat junk daily, I typically do not eat junk food more than one time in a day, and I have a calculated method for eating junk and not adding extra junk to my trunk. Also, I only eat the same few snacks, all mentioned above.

So you can eat junkfood and stay jacked but but but but but you cannot just stuff your face with anything and everything. There has to be a rhyme and a reason to your junkfood eating madness. Without a rhyme or reason you will look like you belong in wal-mart and not at the local beach party.

Here are a few guidelines you need to follow if you want enjoy junkfood and not get fat.

#1) Do not be fat already

Obviously fatso’s have emotional over-eating problems. They don’t eat until satiated, they eat to glutonnous excess. They binge eat to quiet the demons, or something. I don’t care why they eat so much, the point is that if you want to eat junkfood and be lean YOU MUST NOT BINGE EAT ALL THE TIME. Fat people should take drastic measures to lose their lard, and that is the subject of another article. In this article we will share normal men can enjoy some tasty treats and not develop a spare tire around the midsection.

#2) Don’t binge eat, and eat your junkfood at night

Again, this must be stated. DON’T BINGE EAT! Eat your snack, enjoy it, and then quit. They way to not binge eat is to only buy what you want to eat that evening. Do not buy a weeks worth of snacks and keep them in the cupboard, that weeks worth of snacks you were clever enough to buy ahead of time can easily turn into two days worth of snacks. If you want junkfood, buy it one day at a time and eat it at night. If you eat it during the day you will often think to yourself “well, that sure was good. I should go get some more” and then you will have all day to think about eating some more snacks. When you eat at night, before bed, you are tired and won’t want to leave to go pickup more junkfood. Don’t buy a ton of junk to eat at night, buy enough to satiate your junk hunger and call it quits.

#3) Eat sugary junkfood pre-workout

Typically the only time I will eat sugary chocolate bars is when I am heading to the gym and I am hungry. I will often grab two snickers bars and eat them on the way to the gym IF, and only IF, I am very hungry and need energy. I don’t do this everyday, only when I am hungry and need some calories to lift. Then I go to the gym and lift like a maniac and burn through all those sugar calories.

#4) Eat less fat and fewer carbohydrates

If you know you are going to snack then you need to eat less fat calories and less carbohydrate calories on that day, and replace those calories with junkfood calories. A calorie is not just a calorie, HOWEVER I am not convinced that there is any difference between 200 calories of pop-tarts and 200 calories of brown rice. If you want to eat junkfood snacks that evening then skip the portion of carbohydrates with your dinner. It’s as simple as replacing your dinner carbs with your snack carbs. I know all the paleo diet gurus will tell you otherwise but they are full of shit and the big-time paleo gurus are ripped because they use human growth hormone, not because they eat steel cut oatmeal.

#5) Do not eat snacks in addition to your regular meals, eat snacks in place of meals

Yes, you can replace your meals with junkfood but with a twist. Be sure to eat your protein. You can skip the carbs and fat but you need to get your protein in. It is often said on bodybuilding websites that you need to eat 1 gram of protein per each pound of bodyweight. No normal person can eat that much protein so those same bodybuilding websites conveniently sell protein powders for you. I do not pretend you will need that much protein, you can simply eat protein with each meal and if you feel the need for extra you can drink some liquid egg whites. If you’re still a sucker and buying those nonsense protein shakes let me make it perfectly clear for you: Protein shakes do absolutely nothing for your physique and they only help you to shit 14 times per day and bloat you. They are useless and you are wasting your money if you’re still buying that nonsense. The world’s greatest protein drink is liquid pasteurized egg whites that you buy in a carton at your local grocery mart. The are pure protein, they are clean and pasteurized, they are cheap enough and, more importantly, THEY WORK! There is no other protein drink I will ever recommend and if you see me recommend something else it will be because I have sold my soul. I am 100% convinced that liquid egg whites are the only protein worth drinking, I won’t even drink whole raw eggs anymore.

Note – The world’s greatest snack is hardboiled eggs. Sometimes I replace meals with snacks because I am on the run and can’t wait for my maid to cook my chicken and rice. I will just grab 2-4 hardboiled eggs and 2 snickers bars and go on my way. Something about hardboiled eggs really makes you full. You can drink egg whites all day and night with no problem but after you eat 4 hardboiled eggs you are just plain full. You can cook up a bunch of hardboiled eggs and toss them in the fridge and grab a few whenever you need something to eat. And they just happen to be a little healthier than junkfood. Next time you want to snack, eat some hardboiled eggs first (don’t eat the yolks if you plan to also eat junkfood) and you will not eat as much junk as you would normally. This method is tried, true, tested and perfected by yours truly.

Example meals - If you typically eat chicken, broccoli and rice for dinner but you want to eat junkfood what you would do is simply eat chicken and broccoli and then eat your snack, skipping the rice.

If you typically eat a 5 egg omelette for dinner and you want to eat junkfood as well what you can do is make a 7 egg omelette, but only use one or two egg yolks and 5 egg whites and then eat your junkfood snack.

Cliff’s Notes version - Replace fat or carbohydrates with junkfood. You may also skip carb or fat meals at different times throughout the day. Just remember that when you want to eat junkfood you need to remove a carb or fat meal from somewhere else. Replace the calories, don’t add additional calories.

#6) Lift weights like a man

Obviously you should be in the gym most days per week, liftin’ weights and burnin’ cals. Cardio can be utilized if extra fat burning is required, and it is best done first thing in the morning on an empty stomach. Personally, I don’t do any cardio and I rely on my lifting sessions to keep me fit. Unless you’re really, really super trying to get lean (or you are fat) then cardio isn’t necessary. Weights will be enough for the average fella to stay lean and mean and be able to enjoy some tasty treats every now and again. Obviously Body of a Spartan is the best program on the planet to help you get lean and mean, and in fact I was much leaner when I was following that program than I am right now, but as long as you hit the weights with fire and energy then you should be good.

#7) BONUS: Coconut Smoothie Recipe

Coconut smoothies are the most delicious drink on the face of the earth, and now you will be able to make your very own.

Ingredients needed: coconut, blender, ice, sugar, condensed milk

1. Buy a coconut
2. Open the coconut with a machete or chainsaw
3. Pour the coconut water into a blender
4. Use a spoon to scoop out all the coconut meat from inside the coconut into the blender
5. Pour ice into the blender (1-2 cups)
6. Pour condensed milk into the blender (1-2 spoons worth)
7. Pour sugar water into the blender -
   *heat a mug half-filled with water in the microwave for 2.5 minutes, put about 5-6 spoonfulls of table sugar into the hot water and stir it well – add this sugar water concoction to your coconut smoothie, the amount you will add is taste dependent. You can put a lid on your sugar water, put it in the fridge and use it again next time.
8. Blend, pour, drink and enjoy your fresh coconut smoothie

I aways drink my coconut smoothie’s post workout. Far an extra protein kick you can add liquid egg whites to your coconut smoothie. Egg whites do not degrade the flavor and they give you your post workout protein. It’s a win-win situation and everybody’s happy.

Enjoy.

I recently ran across this article entitled 21 Ways Rich People Think Differently Than Average People based on a book called How Rich People Think. I was immediately struck by the similarities between the writing on Bold and Determined and the thoughts of the rich elite. The 21 rules of the rich are in bold and my thoughts are underneath.

1) Average people think MONEY is the root of all evil. Rich people believe POVERTY is the root of all evil.

Average fellas are SCARED of money. You read that correctly. FEAR of money. You’ll hear average fellas say things like “I would never try and make money from this. I would never do this just for money” etc. Like money is AIDS and they would never try and get it. Everyone needs money because money is freedom. This fear of money is a one-way ticket to average town. Everyone needs money, there is no damn reason to make excuses or justify it or be afraid of it. I want money. This is how I make my money. Deal with it. Don’t be ashamed of your need or want for money. Get out there and take it and leave the excuses for average Joe.

2) Average people think selfishness is a vice. Rich people think selfishness is a virtue.

Everyone is selfish, but there are two types of selfishness: overt selfishness and covert selfishness. You want to be OVERTLY selfish. Covert selfishness is for chicken shits. When you come right out and say “I want it my way and I’ll have it my way” you will get what you want. When you play the covertly selfish guy, also known as nice guy syndrome, you are only going to get shit on. Nice guys aren’t nice guys, they’re chicken shits. They want the same thing overtly selfish guys want, money and women, but they’re too scared to come right out and demand it so they play nice and hope they’ll be able to manipulate that outcome. But it won’t happen, it’ll never happen. You want it? Take it. You want to eat shit? Play the nice guy game.

3) Average people have a lottery mentality. Rich people have an action mentality.

I hear these losers all the time, “if I could just win the lottery. If I could just get a chance. If my big break would come in” and blah blah blah. I don’t expect anything to be given to me. If I want it you can be damn sure I’ll go and get it. Play your stupid lottery, sit on your stupid couch in front of your stupid tv, and make your stupid excuses. Someone else is out there kicking ass and taking what is rightfully his.

4) Average people think the road to riches is paved with formal education. Rich people believe in acquiring specific knowledge.

Universities are leftist indoctrination facilities. And they are full of deluded morons. You must educate yourself. Any damn thing you want to learn about you can learn about. You don’t need to spend time in women’s studies to learn it. Every damn thing is on the internet, for free. If you want to learn about it the only thing stopping you is you. I will say it again and again: Everything you learn in college is useless if you want to be an entrepreneur and it’s up to YOU to learn your craft.

5) Average people long for the good old days. Rich people dream of the future.

Some people call it planning for the future, I like to call it visualization. Visualize the future and how you will be. Actually see yourself as you wish to be. The things we think tend to become reality (assuming you aren’t a delusional narcissist).

“Things used to be so great, but nowadays….” Forget that nonsense and mold your future the way you want it.

6) Average people see money through the eyes of emotion. Rich people think about money logically.

Money is like an extra emotion to poor people. They always have “money problems” and they’re always whining about it. For some damn reason they can’t ever have enough to pay rent and the car payment and the damn electric bill. I have been poor many times but I’ve never been so poor I couldn’t pay my bills and I’ve never been so poor I cried about it. Forget about money as emotion, it’s just a damn game making money. Think about it like you think about your next 15 chess moves. Don’t be like these idiots living paycheck to paycheck and never having enough. Here’s a simple solution: If you’re poor…..DOWNSIZE!

…and then get to work, plan ahead, and quit spending your money on nonsense.

7) Average people earn money doing things they don’t love. Rich people follow their passion.

I don’t like the word passion, that’s a word for women’s romance novels, the correct word is obsession. Rich people follow their obsessions to the edge of the earth and beyond. Average people can’t understand this because their obsession stops at their favorite sports team or tv show or smoking pot or some other nonsense. 4 Hour Work Week is a cool little motivational book but you can’t take the title literally. If you’re going to find success in your field you are going to spend every waking minute thinking about it, you will have to be obsessed. Forget relaxing, forget taking a break, just give in to the obsession. 

8) Average people set low expectations so they’re never disappointed. Rich people are up for the challenge.

“Hey man, don’t worry about it. It’s no big deal. You expect too much. Let’s just watch the game!“

I have no time for this type of person. How any man could live his life so pathetically free of any and all challenge is beyond me. You get the same types in the gym. Type A is afraid to exert any real energy and Type B will go all the way. Type B will have the physique to show for it.

9) Average people believe you have to DO something to get rich. Rich people believe you have to BE something to get rich.

“What do I have to do to get rich?“

“Be the type of motherfucker that gets rich“.

Be a damn killer and go get it.

10) Average people believe you need money to make money. Rich people use other people’s money.

I’ll tell you boys, I made my first money using NONE of my own money. Not a penny. Where there’s a will, there’s a way. If you want it bad enough, as in you are obsessed with it, you will get it. Even if you only have $12 to your name, makes no difference. 

“I can’t make money because I don’t have any money“. Sounds pretty stupid doesn’t it?

“I have to make money because I don’t have any money” sounds much better.

11) Average people believe the markets are driven by logic and strategy. Rich people know they’re driven by emotion and greed.

I have no time for these people who constantly talk about logic and strategy. “I like logic. I deal with things logically.” Logic is only one part of the picture. If you look at everything logically you aren’t looking at the big picture and I’ll tell you why. Most people in the world do not think logically, they think emotionally. When you speak to them logically you are not getting through to them.

Most people in the world are dummies and they don’t think logically, they can’t think logically. But these “I’m so logical” types always assume that everyone else also thinks “logically”. If you think they think logically you are thinking like a dummy.  Not everyone thinks like you, in fact most people don’t even think. They just react. They’re idiots and shouldn’t be treated like they are masterful logicians, and they shouldn’t even be assumed to understand logic. Logical thinking is only half the the puzzle.

12) Average people live beyond their means. Rich people live below theirs.

Again, these people can’t pay their phone bills at the end of the month. Live like a Spartan. Have money leftover. Hell, I live like a king and I barely spend any money. I’m able to live very well because of a little word called Geo-Arbitrage. Make money in dollars, spend in baht and I want for nothing. My monthly expense are bare minimum. Few bucks in rent for my high rise condo with pool view, few bucks for water and electric, few bucks for internet, few bucks for gym membership, few bucks for my maid, and a few bucks to run my websites. Easy, spartan, simple and clean. If need be, all those expenses can be reduced even further. I spend less money to live on now than I use to spend on just my mortgage.

13) Average people teach their children how to survive. Rich people teach their kids to get rich.

I had average parents who taught me how to be average. They didn’t know anything about making money but they sure were adamant that college and a full time job and saving for retirement was the answer. I wasted years following that stupidity. For most of my life I’ve been a fool, and a lot of you probably have too. But it’s not too late to wake up and start kicking ass instead of licking ass.

14) Average people let money stress them out. Rich people find peace of mind in wealth.

Money is freedom, baby. I can’t say this enough. Money buys you freedom. If you have money you don’t have to take orders. When you have money you have the pleasure of saying my favorite word, “no”. I do anything I want any time I want. I don’t ask permission.

15) Average people would rather be entertained than educated. Rich people would rather be educated than entertained.

Television, magazines, celebrity websites, sports – the mark of the average. If you can’t learn or earn from it, burn it. 

16) Average people think rich people are snobs. Rich people just want to surround themselves with like-minded people.

Rich people are different. After you’ve made it why would you ever want to go and hang out with losers who are jealous of you? Average people cannot hide their envy and jealousy. I have seen this look in their eyes, up close and personal, it is the most pathetic look I have ever seen and the most hateful look I have ever seen. They made the poor decision to go and waste their life at a job and now you’re demon because you are free and have money. You took the time to educate yourself, you took the time to make your own money, you took the chance, you did all the work and they look at you like you got lucky and they have the gall to get enviously angry at you. It has often been noted that you end up exactly like the people you hang out with, so say goodbye to the losers, be elitist and hang out with the winners.

17) Average people focus on saving. Rich people focus on earning.

How many people have told you of the wonderful benefits of saving for retirement and how you can finally live like a king when you’re 65? None of those people seemed to be living large, though. Weird, huh? Can it be that they have no clue what they’re yammering about? I choose to live like a king right now, I’m too selfish and impatient to wait. To afford my lifestyle I had to quit my damn job and focus on earning. And it was the best decision I ever made.

18) Average people play it safe with money. Rich people know when to take risks.

What I have found is that when I take big risks, the kind of risks that give me nausea, diarrhea and anxiety for days, they tend to payoff for me. For some damn reason I have been able to risk my money many times and have always made it back plus some extra. It has always been when I didn’t take a risk, when I chose to hang on to the money I had, that I burned through it and was left broke. You can never, ever make it without risking something. 

19)  People love to be comfortable. Rich people find comfort in uncertainty.

Average people don’t want to do any damn thing except eat snacks and watch tv. Wasting your days at a 9-5 and wasting your nights in front of the tv on a La-z-boy recliner with a bag of chips is comfortable for some, I guess, but it always made me miserable. Personally, I hate relaxing. It’s such a damn waste of time. 

20) Average people never make the connection between money and health. Rich people know money can save your life.

“Well, at least I have my health“.

This saying always makes me laugh a little. What they are really saying is “my life is terrible….but at least I’m alive“. I’d rather be dead than be 65 years old and living on social security and medicare. I’d rather be dead than be old and living on a fixed income and relying on the government to give me my “pills”.

Not only does money give you piece of mind, which can save your damn life from high blood pressure and stress, but it also buys the best medical care and the best drugs.

21) Average people believe they must choose between a great family and being rich. Rich people know you can have it all.

Average people are excuse-makers. “I chose to have a family instead of going into business“. Bullshit, you chose mediocrity because you’re mediocre. Lie to yourself all you want, but I can see through those lies a mile away. If you were driven and not a liar you would let your family motivate you to give them a better life. A family isn’t a burden or an obstacle in making money, it’s an excuse to be lazy and coast at a job. Rich people demand more out of life, and they get it. Demand more, especially form yourself, and your quality of life will go up. Demand more from your personal relationships and you will get more. Demand more from your business partners and you will get more. If they don’t want to play ball then fuck ‘em, find others who want to play. It’s a big world out there and there is plenty for your taking. Be a man and take it.

The end.