LIVE from Odessa Ukraine it’s Rick Butts!

Notice the American Christmas music playing in the background of the video. Why is this particularly interesting? Because it’s January 5th. Ukrainians celebrate Christmas on January 7th (their big holiday is New Years – a lot more like our Christmas traditions with family, gifts, and warm seasons wishes. Then at midnight they go out and get crazy drunk and burn the GDP of the entire country in gunpowder in excessive fireworks EVERYWHERE until dawn.

In this video I give you a bit of an update on what I’ve been up to Ukraine as the last two weeks before I have to either get on the return flight to Denver or stay in the country illegally.

American’s can stay in the country 3 months on a passport here, no visa needed. But, if you don’t leave they are very unlikely to hunt you down and deport you, but they pretty much will notice when you go go to LEAVE the country and you get a hefty $200 fine. (Hefty is humorous)

Making the film has been an amazing experience, and we’ve decided to deploy it in a very unusual way to leverage multiple streams of income from the content. I’ll be talking about that more in The Stardust Factor for members.

I’ve avoided doing live video stuff using the Youtube Webcam recording function, mostly because I think it is a bit intimidating for most of you to actually see a real male model up close like that, but I overcame my congenital shyness and gave it a go. Do you like the live off the cuff thing. (As if I ever prepare anything ON the cuff!)

Please leave your comments and/or questions about Ukraine or the film below and I’ll try to get back to you pretty quickly.

I don't always drink beer - but when I do - I like to drink it in a dining car in a Soviet era train with mystery chicken and french fries.

So, I’m running along side a dark green train, in the rain. I’m pulling two gigantasaurus safari-pack type roller bags, one in each hand, with my Macbook in a backpack on my back and if we don’t find the right car in about 2 minutes the train will simply roll down the tracks for it’s 12 hour trek and leave us in Poltava Ukraine.

Us is my friend Sean Mathes, co-conspirator on the film we’ve come to Ukraine to shoot, who is loaded down like a sherpa with the same two roller bags (we bought 4 with different color trim at Costco before we left Denver – God, I miss Costco…) plus a fat and bulky camera bag with lights and a big yellow tripod, and his own laptop briefcase. He is sweating profusely and has been for the 3 hours of rapid packing, saying goodbyes to our new friends in Poltava and dealing with the odd reality that the taxi we called was such a tiny car it would barely fit 2 people in it, and the tiny truck was full of soccer gear and balls – incorrectly referred to here as football.

There’s something very unsettling about saying goodbye to people you’ve grown very close to very quickly when you are nearly dead certain you’ll never see them again the rest of your life. This is a cold fact as I look across my life at all the bands I’ve been in, towns I’ve played in for a month and gotten to know everyone then jumped in the van and disappeared, right on through towns I’ve lived in for a couple of years, and even sadder still, marriages with all the collateral in-laws, which always include that one relative of your spouse with whom you get along famously while the rest of the tribe hates you to your DNA.

The rain began about noon, the sun had not been around for nearly a week, and when we did finally say goodbye to the friends who showed up for a hug, it seemed like the temperature dropped several degrees, and the night got a little colder.

So this train is like forever long, and army green in the great tradition of the old Soviet Union who surely built this sturdy machine, and it smells. Not one smell, but smells plural. We drag our gear up on the steps and down the hallway through the tiniest hallway imaginable, squeezing past the local people who were smart enough not to be late, and stood now smoking cigarettes and drinking beer in the hall we had to drag out bags down to get to our compartment.

The thing about Ukrainians is that they do not give up their ground easily. The country has been conquered approximately 900 times since the dawn of history – a history that goes back centuries past good old America, with mongol hoardes like Genghis Kahn to the Communist Russian global expansion that started with it’s neighbors taking the place over and bossing people around, or killing them as Joseph Stalin did in 1932 by starving more then 2.5 – 7 million Ukrainians to death in an attempt to crush Ukrainian nationalism. (The numbers vary because of the lack of records kept by people starving to death.)

So, Ukrainians on the street, in bars, discos and train hallways often act like NBA centers. They get their first and they are not moving, so deal with it. This has been a bizarre shift on the polite, excuse me, I need some space Americanism I’ve grown up with, but, now it’s just a pure pisser as my bag won’t fit past the surly guy ahead.

Finally in our compartment we smash our bags into the 4th bunk (we’ve rented the entire compartment in self defense) and collapse in a sweaty super humidified box on a train that will bang and rattle along for 14 hours on a scheduled 12 hour ride. It’s nearly snowing outside but the the temperature inside will go up to what I figure is crock-pot hot and stay there until we burst into the freezing cold on the other end in Odessa.

I swear to God, I don’t think I’ve ever had a more annoying travel experience, really all for the sake of the stifling heat in a dirty train car with a solid glass window that could not be lowered. I feel like the prisoner in the “hot box” in the movie Bridge over the River Kwai which I saw as a kid and surely began the phobia that ran through my childhood terrors about being locked out of the air conditioned house in the summer to swelter in the heat of the Ozarks in Southern Missouri – and now makes me nearly psychotic when I experience heat and trappedness.

Go South Young Man – and See The City of Odessa

It was a dark and stormy train station in Odessa Ukraine

We’d gone to Poltava to attend a social event related to the film and catch a confluence of people who would not be together again ever, and had planned to be there for about 8 days and then take this train to Odessa, a much larger port city on the Black Sea, and complete shooting interviews, edit the film and produce the beta. It is nearly impossible to describe the rapid series of events that pulled us into the little town of Poltava and kept us there for weeks, but the nature of the super-gravitation pull that bound us can be described in one word – people. Amazing awesome people who truly changed my life.

At the mid point of the 12 weeks Americans are allowed to stay in Ukraine with just a passport, an expat (expatriate – an American living fairly permanently in a foreign country) friend named Max Creel arrived in Poltava apparently to give us a huge ration of crap for attempting to make any movie about Ukraine, the largest country in Europe after Russia after only seeing about 4 square miles of a small town in the North East.

He was right.

The city of Odessa is amazing and has opened our eyes to an entire new level of the Ukrainian experience. It’s a by-gosh real city with malls and a lot more of the options and conveniences you’d expect in a larger city – or about any city in the USA, but don’t get carried away, everything in Ukraine is shaded differently than  my myopic American experience.

In my next post I’ll share some of the paradoxical to the purely odd realities here. Hope you are enjoying this unusual information. Please let me know in the comments section below. If you encourage me I’ll likely get totally carried away!

Been in Ukraine for 2 weeks, which seems outrageous, the time has flown by.

I made this update in an impromptu fashion (shocker!) but thought I’d publish it for the sake of my relatives who thought I’d disappeared.

We are planning on taking the train to Odessa on December 6, 2011.

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We are running a live webcam for LivingInUkraine.com and I thought you may want to see what we are up to.

I can’t predict what you’ll see at any given time as we are both running live cam footedge from the street outside the window, to meetings we have in cafes in Ukraine.

Today we’ll run a cam behind the scenes as we do some interviews for the film. If the audio is sketchy well, oops. The primary purpose is to give a look at some of these amazing scenes that you have probably never seen from a country that is much understood and profoundly fascinating.

Remember that Ukraine is 7 hours later than EST NY time zone, and 10 hours later than PST California time, so if you get up in the middle of the night and take a look we could be having lunch, and if you are taking a look in the middle of the work day we may be in a rockin’ nightclub!

Of course, I look forward to your comments here and will reply. I’m really interested to see what goes up here (who knows?) and what you think about this international maneuver! Post to Facebook if you like or find this interesting – or weird!

For more video clips and recordings of past cams go to Living in Ukraine Ustream Channel.

You go to Munich and hang a right

Tomorrow morning I’m on a flight from Denver, Colorado to Kiev, Ukraine. While Ukrainians cannot enter American without first obtaining a visa, Americans can enter Ukraine and stay for up to 3 months with our passport. That’s how long I’m planning on staying.

My daughter thinks I’m crazy. My friends say they think I’m eccentric, bold, and adventurous, which is probably a nice way of saying crazy. But, beyond the unusualness of the surface story, there is a much bigger plan.

I’ve got an opportunity to make my first documentary film with my friend Sean Mathes (and you thought I was eccentric?) We’ve already gotten the green light from our media broker in Hollywood, who believes that we’ve got a great shot at selling the film to HBO or Showtime, and to leverage the footedge we are shooting in Ukraine for multiple videos from The Travel Channel to a possible reality show!  The details of this project will be profiled in multiple case studies on The Stardust Factor.

Opportunity, Timing, and Fear

Of course this window opened up just over 3 months after a surgery that threatened my life and scared the living daylights out of me. I was all set to start radiation and chemotherapy to sterilize my neck in an attempt to destroy the “unknown source squamous cell carcinoma” they couldn’t find, but when none of the biopsies showed any traces of cancer, they put that on hold.

So I’m on hold?

The physical effects of the surgery have left me unable to raise my right arm above my waist from the side. So I can no longer flap my arms like wings and do my Gertrude and Heathcliff imitation. The nerve in my neck and shoulder is returning to feeling again and physical therapy has been really helpful in regaining my strength, but am I really ready for International travel and suitcase humping?

No, I’m not really ready, but as the great Zig Ziglar once said, “if you want for all the lights to turn green before leaving for town – you’ll never go.”

So this window opened up with the timing of author Mark Edward Davis taking a group of guys to Ukraine and the opportunity to get everyone together from around the world to capture the moments on film. So with Sean’s help I’m just going to pull up my tent pegs and go.

Little Dog Dilemma

Should I take my dog? Little Dog Too has been my constant companion for 10 years. I made her a promise during the tumult of my divorce that I would never leave her. While that promise was made in the midst of a big emotional crisis, I’m pretty sure she’s going to hold me to it. If you’ve never cried tears on a dog this may seem silly, but, we have a bond.

She’s got the arthritis and big travel is not her bailiwick. Walks are getting shorter and naps longer. As the vet said, at this age they basically want to eat, sleep, and be near their owner. And at my age, I kinda want the same things – only change the last part to being near my dog! Oh, yeah, and I want to write a bunch of books, make films, and have the adventure of a lifetime.

If I end up moving to Ukraine permanently I’ll want her there, but this trip is just too much chaos and movement for her. I’ve found some amazingly cool people to take care of my kid while I’m gone. They have 2 Jack Russell terriers who have that terrific optimism and 2 super cool teenagers. Natasha is 13 and loves to pamper Little Dog, so my guilt is assuaged. I’m left with only my own deep psychosis about abandonment – and this may be a good time to deal with that!

Living in Ukraine – Are You Nuts?

Part of the secret back story of my journey is that I am very interested in possibly relocating permanently to Eastern Europe. This idea was solidified after reading The Four Hour Work Week – by Timothy Ferris – where he extolled the virtues and radical cash flow benefits of as he says it, “earning US dollars, living on Pesos, and paying Rupees.” Leveraging the currency exchange rate is the fastest way to watch your money grow.

“Is this some half-baked idea, son?”

“No Dad, it’s fully baked.”

Dustin Hoffman to his father when telling him of his plan to drive up to the college and intervene in the marriage ceremony of his ex-girlfriend in the movie “The Graduate.”

The current exchange rate between the US Dollar and the Ukrainian Hryvnia is currently 8 to 1. Want to get an 800% return on your money? This means that many things are very affordable in Ukraine, so there’s the practical side, the rest is pure adventure and fun. Wanna go to Greece for the weekend and lay out on one of those porcelain white verandas overlooking the azure Aegean sea? Let’s go.

SOLD OUT 10/18/11

The physical book offer is sold out. TO get your ebook copy now CLICK HERE

The last 10 copies of The Safari Chronicles!

Get an autographed, personalized copy of my hardcover inspirational adventure novel for just $20 – including Priority Mail postage in the US.

You’ll also get the digital download of the ebook version instantly!

The last 50 copies of “The Big Butts of Life – Get Off Your Excuses and Do Big Things!”

Finally, a book that really kicks butt! The Big Butts of Life is a fun, motivational read, that really packs a punch about overcoming the obstacles, and illusions, that keep us from fulfilling your incredible potential. When they are gone, they are gone!

Get your autographed, personalized copy – includes Priority Mail in the US

The Stardust Factor is for writers, speakers, consultants, and other creative types who want to create a profitable and sustainable business from their own ideas.

The opening of this membership website is the fulfillment of a goal I’ve had for quite some time, and I’m really excited to share it with you!

For a very low membership fee, crazy low in fact, you’ll get access to resources to help you in all phases of the pursuit of an “idea business” from creating high quality, in demand products from books to video training programs, to marketing and selling your creations online and offline.

I’m putting a big emphasis on one area that speakers and writers are often so “blind-spotted” by – repurposing your content creations into multiple streams of passive income.

Click here to go to The Stardust Factor

Why Would You Want To Learn This Stuff From Me?

After decades of building idea businesses, reinventing myself and making major transitions, I’ve figured out how to put them all together into a hybrid perspective that combines my experience as a professional speaker and self-published author with my extensive real-world experience in internet marketing.

I really don’t think there’s anyone else with the depth of experience of the unusual blend of a live performance business (10 years as a professional touring musician/entertainer and 11 years as a working professional speaker) and the extensive experience in the first 10 years of real world Internet marketing.

The Best of Times

With the emergence of Amazon Kindle as the first true juggernaut for wide distribution of ebooks, and the stellar performance of iTunes for distributing music, ebooks, video, and podcast content there has never been a better time to be a writer, speaker, musician, consultant, film maker or original creator who puts out your own stuff.

Fiction writers are making great money now by self publishing their work on Amazon Kindle, breaking their work into smaller bites, and repurposing their creations into audio, video, that push up the value and bookings for live performances, like never before without a big advertising or marketing budget.

With more than 1,000,000 books and ebooks published each year - how will you stand out to new readers?

The Worst of Sucky Sucky Times

Of course this boom is happening right smack dab in the middle of a catastrophic economy as the federal government grows like a behemoth, sucking trillions of dollars out of the private sector (read small businesses – read YOU) and funneling it into questionable programs and funding startups that would never get off the napkin sketch in the real world.

This means that for you to be successful in this “best of times” economy you’ll need to watch your pocketbook very carefully, and focus on conquering identifiable niches that you can serve very well and mine again and again without advertising dollars for sustainable profits.

RR Bowker reported in 2009 that more than 1,000,000 different titles were published and self published that year for the first time. With exponential growth in direct access book, music, and film creation dramatically increasing choices for customers, and with the collapse of big mainstream marketing venues being seen by everyone – how will you emerge as next years hit?

The Stardust Factor is a Cheap and Valuable Resource

So enter the Stardust Factor membership site to serve the needs of the writer, speaker, creative type who doesn’t have, or maybe doesn’t even want, much in the way of technical knowledge, but does want to do the creative inspired work and to be read, watched, or listened to, and fulfill their gifts, and make a fair but good living doing it!

If you are a member of The Stardust Factor or if you’ve purchased some of my training programs for creative entrepreneurs, I’d love for you to leave a comment below about this idea, and if you think I’m a good guy for the job?

Click here to go to The Stardust Factor

In an instant world filled with “quick tips” and formulas for rapid deployment far too many writers and idea entrepreneurs discard the hard work of developing a big idea, opting instead to seek the quick hitter that will make money fast.

Pity.

Just beyond the obstacle presented by the first layer of complexity, that eliminates less intelligent or insightful players, there is an open door, a fast track if you will, to the wildly profitable and fame propelling unique solution.

“The single best asset you can have in business is a unique and creative solution to a problem faced by an identifiable group of people – with money”

Rick Butts

The statement above is kind of the core message – and goal – of The Stardust Factor.

In fact, this video came from my friend Diane Corriette, a member of Stardust Factor from the UK, who posted it in the forum and sparked a conversation there about idea creation. Diane is a super talented and experienced social media and blogging consultant. She joined Stardust Factor to connect with people who are monetizing their ideas vs selling our time.

If you are a writer, speaker, consultant, coach, or want to be, you should join The Stardust Factor for the dual focus on creating really great original content and turning your ideas into a profitable and sustainable business that empowers the lifestyle you really want to live.

And, it’s crazy cheap!

There’s even an affiliate program so if you “refer 3 you get yours free!”

Click here to check out The Stardust Factor now.

Here's the new cover I designed for Amazon. Hope they update and start showing it soon!

I am so excited I can’t stand it! The Safari Chronicles Volume 1: The Safari Adventure Company is finally available again. After a 5 year “out of print” exile you can now get it on Amazon.com – and for the totally insane price of just 99 cents! (The hardcover was priced at $24.95.)

This is the first book I wrote. More than 20,000 copies of the book were sold until 2005 when I quit traveling and speaking.

What a Dumbass!

I actually hauled the last 300 copies of the hardcover book, as well as 650 copies of the paperback Big Butts of Life to Goodwill and donated them to charity – because at the time I just thought I was all done with that part of my life.

After c0-creating the Speaker Machine with Felicia Slattery last summer, I found out that people in the course went to Amazon and found it was out of print, and ended up buying used copies of the book. When Felicia and others read the pdf of the book she scolded me for not putting it back out.

While editing the book to put it back up on Amazon I fell in love with the story, and was actually inspired by the way the main character dealt with the obstacles life threw at him. After the cancer surgery scared the pants off me, I have to admit, I was pretty overwhelmed, and feeling sorry for myself.

What Do You Do When You Don’t Know What To Do?

Just like Jim, the main character in the book, until he meets a man named Benjamin in an odd little shop called The Safari Adventure Company. He gives him a little book written in 1895 called The Three Treasures and invites him to join them on an adventure in Malawi Africa.

This book is filled with wild characters, adventure, and humor I just couldn’t help inserting. But, the Safari Chronicles is more than fun and games, before you know it you realize you’ve been pulled into solving some problems for Jim – and getting answers to your own challenges.

Safari Chronicles original cover

People who bought my book at a conference emailed me and cussed me out for keeping them up all night after they’d started The Safari Chronicles on the plane on the way home. I’ll admit I wrote it as a page turner, cliff hanger, and it seems it worked.

Why So Cheap On Amazon?

I recently discovered that fiction books are selling like hotcakes on Amazon for Kindle, and unknown authors are popping some impressive numbers at .099 – $2.99. Because the price point is so low readers may think, “well at 99 cents it probably sucks, but what the heck, I like this kind of book.” So they buy it and get started.

The Safari Chronicles fits this market very well, and it way doesn’t suck!

I’ve got lots more to share with you about writing, self-publishing, and making a full time serious income from doing what you love. (Did you notice the new header graphic on my site?)

But, for now I want to ask you to buy The Safari Chronicles Vol 1; The Safari Adventure Company for just 99 cents – and please please please leave your testimonial on the site and rate my little adventure 5 stars?

Got a question or comment for me? Leave it in the comments section below and I promise to answer you pdq!

Kinda young, kinda wow! The author poses with his new ride with a lift of the foot, showing how fresh he feels.

Like you, I’m always looking for ways to cut costs, and if I can save money and increase my fun quotient while doing it, then let the games begin!

So, when I got an offer from Hello Kitty to drive a car painted up to promote the Feline of Salutations, I was eager to participate. Hello Kitty provides me with a free car, and a tidy little stipend for fuel and maintenance, so my ground transportation costs have gone to zero!

And He Shall Have Music Wherever He Goes

Driving an infinitesimally tiny car has many advantages. It’s super easy to park and the truly obese don’t ask you for a ride to Dunkin Doughnuts.

But, perhaps the best part about my Hello Kitty-mobile is that it’s just a great attention getter, and sure-fire conversation starter. When I haul my 6′ 1″ fully grown man, way past 21, frame out of a car the size of one of Shaquille O’Neal’s sneakers, I’m instantly Mr. Popularity!

So, guys, if you want to increase your street-cred with junior high and teenage girls, their mothers and grandmas, and male flight attendants, get in on this now. It’s just easier to meet folks with a cool car.

Other Markets for Men

Of course, depending on your niche, you may want to look into a sponsorship from a company that reflects their interests. Cars decorated with beer ads and Yeager shots almost guarantee you’ll meet women with faded tattoos, Boniva grabs a more mature woman, and if you want to catch the liberal gals, (like Janine Garafolo) then check out the Obama car.

But, be forewarned, the doors are huge and when both are open at the same time to get the 3D effect, it’s hard to fit it in a compact car parking space.

As usual, I look forward to your comments and questions below.