My last post was about creating your BIG Life List.

Perhaps a little voice inside your head might be whispering (or shouting) about all the reasons you can’t do this kind of fun stuff your life. Fact is, it’s these excuses that will sap the spirit and energy out of your life. It’s too easy for all of us to simply believe we’ll ‘get around to it’ or ‘someday’ we’ll have more fun but one excuse or another comes up. Try these on for size…

• I don’t have time to do this stuff

When I hear people say I don’t have time for something really means that item is not a priority for them. Quite simply, the excuse of “I don’t have time” is commonly accepted but if you stop and think about it we all have the same 24 hours in a day. It’s up to you to decide what is a priority. And if a priority is living a full, rich life with incredible experiences and adventures – then you’ll create the time and schedule items from you BIG Life List.

Think about where you might be spending time now and make the conscious decision if that’s what you want to do or would you rather be doing something from your big list. Or what are you doing now that you could pay someone else to do? I don’t cut my own lawn, clean my house, wash my car, drop-off my dry cleaning, buy stamps or a dozen other simple activities. Why? Because I know I can easily pay someone to do this and it frees me up to either create additional revenue streams or enjoy my life.

• I can’t leave my business long enough to do this

A close cousin to ‘not having enough time’ is believing you can’t get away from your business long enough to knock off any of the fun items on your list. You can get a lot done in just a few days and your company will not fall apart with you. If you cannot leave your office for a few days without things getting off-track you have some serious system issues that need to be worked on. (Leaving will actually expose them to you.) Most times if people are left to fend for themselves without the “big boss” approving everything – most things will still get done correctly. Maybe not quite the way you would do it but the end result would be close enough and you’d have the freedom to enjoy your life.

In fact, I think freedom is the operative keyword for entrepreneurs and unless we exercise that freedom by stepping away from the office it slowly collapses. And we become nothing more than highly-paid servants to our businesses.

You might believe you’re indispensable but nearly everyone (including you) is replaceable. It’s important to step back and see if you are truly operating on activities in your business that are core competencies and unique abilities where you excel.

You’ve probably heard of the Pareto principle or 80/20 rule. It states that approximately 20% of your activities produce 80% of the results. Conversely 80% of your activities create 20% of the results. So if you focus on the critical few activities that produce 80% of the results – this will free up your time to do even more outside of work.

• My <friends/family/dog> will think I’m crazy

So what? Maybe they will – but who cares? My wife and her family think I’m pretty nuts – but I don’t mind. I realized I’m wired differently and that’s ok. Typically, my wife, Missy, won’t come with on my adventures and that’s fine because she has a different idea of vacations than I do. We do things apart and we do things together.

Now on the other hand my step-mother is a huge worrier and doesn’t want to know when I go jump out of airplanes or when I go Baja racing. She’s ok if I tell her after the fact – when I’m home safe and sound. And that’s fine too.

The only thing that’s not fine are the people who attempt to reel you in because they know better or think they’re helping. They might say, “Don’t you care about your family?” or “Aren’t you getting too old for this kind of thing?” or my favorite, “You can’t always get what you want.”

These negative people are simply replaying the tapes spinning in their heads. They can keep their boring and dull existence – I’d rather create the kind of memories that last forever and give me something more interesting to talk about then the local football team or the weather.

I’ve always been a fan of lists and I know many other successful people share this notion. What better list can you create than a list for your most memorable and exciting life? I call this my “BIG Life List”. This is pretty easy and encompasses everything I want to do, have or become before I die.

Now the hard part is sitting down and just jotting down the list but before you get there let me start with my own list.

Right here on this blog, I have a running list of the experiences I want to achieve (as you can see on the right) but my personal BIG list extends beyond what I’ve posted. Here are a few examples from my list (aside from what you see on the right):

Do:

• Host Saturday Night Live
• Fly my own plane
• Stand up comedy at a club
• Dance the Haka with the All Blacks in New Zealand
• Taste a 100+ year old Bordeaux
• Dance all night in Ibiza
• Leave $10,000,000+ to meaningful charities in my lifetime

Have:

• Own a fully restored MGA
• Name engraved on Stanley Cup as an owner of the Washington Capitals (Ted, I’m in. Ugh what a heartbreaking loss this year in the playoffs)
• Create my own liquor brand
• Create a charitable foundation to educate young entrepreneurs
• My own vineyard and produce award-winning wines

Be:

• A semi-professional beach volleyball player
• Financially independent
• Part of an IPO as an insider
• In the Olympics
• NY-Times Best-selling Author
• Live to be a vibrant and healthy 127-year old

Most of my own BIG List is centered around “DO” but that’s just me personally. Yours is unique to you. Right now my list spans 97 items and it keeps growing. I believe in one afternoon you could get at least 25-50 items on your own list. The first few are easy but then you really have to dig into what would make you happy? What excited you as a kid?

What have you always wanted to do?

What have you always wanted to be?

What have you always wanted to see?

What have you always wanted to have?

Just don’t get bogged down in what other people will think. Don’t put something on your list that doesn’t excite you or put it there because you think you’re supposed to. Hey - if you don’t want to save the whales – screw ‘em. Don’t put it on your list.

Keep thinking without putting conditions & restrictions on your list. It doesn’t matter if you think it’s dumb or couldn’t really happen or think others will laugh at you. So what? Go with your heart and just get it down. There’s no harm in writing it down even if it doesn’t happen - that’s how some of my improbably ones have been accomplished that I’ll tell you about in a moment as we move on to how you start having fun and checking off items…

How do you get your big list completed?

1. Write it down. Yes, writing it down is the first step and I absolutely guarantee you if you did nothing else but write 50-100 items in your BIG List you’d be surprised at how many actually got done after 1 year without you ever looking at them again. I don’t look at my Big list everyday – it’s not that necessary but I do certain things to make sure I can check them off.

Fact is, as I was writing this post I went back over my own list again and was amazed to see that 2 things on my list were in the process of getting accomplished in the next 3 weeks (as of this writing). One was kiteboarding at Necker Island and at the same time lunch with Sir Richard Branson. I’m heading to Necker Island in a few weeks and I’ll definitely try kiteboarding on the island - plus I’ll be there with Richard for several days so lunch is inevitable. Pretty cool!

Just the mere fact of writing it down and releasing it into the Universe gives you an advantage that circumstances might be set into motion to start conspiring to work for you. (Hey, that’s my belief anyway!)

Quick example, I’ve previously written down I wanted to be a semi-pro beach volleyball player. I really didn’t think it would happen but I figured it wouldn’t hurt to write it down. Well, now I’d technically be considered Pro. You can check out the details back on this post.

In that same vein - here’s another one…Do I really think I’ll be in the Olympics? I dunno. Probably not – but there’s a tiny shot. Who knows? My publicist mentioned to me the other day he was friends with the former publicist for the U.S. Bobsled & Skeleton Federation. I don’t know how many people are waiting in line to go 80mph headfirst down an icy track so who knows if I’d get a tryout. Maybe – maybe not. But if I didn’t throw it out there to the Universe and right it down I know I wouldn’t hear the faint knocking on the door of opportunity.

2. Schedule it. This is where a lot of people fall down. It sounds a bit too rigid but for busy entrepreneurs unless you schedule your fun (most of the time) it won’t happen. It sounds a bit counter intuitive doesn’t it? Fun should be spontaneous and free? Well guess what? If you stick to your typical schedule – it’ll never happen because your work will keep expanding to the allotted time you give it. You can always do one more work item and your inbox is never going to be empty.

Think about your vacation for a moment. That’s scheduled and it happens precisely because it is scheduled. The more fun you schedule into your life – the more you’ll get. Or what about when you were a kid - most of us had mandatory fun built into our days with recess, right?

Why isn’t there recess for entrepreneurs?

Now you probably won’t go and play dodge ball this afternoon but you can have your own recess if do something about it yourself. Some of my favorite memories have been things I’ve gone out and not waited for them to fall into my lap.

This might sound a little ‘type A’ (which I’m definitely not) but you have to put fun activities on your calendar or else your fun & entertainment by default becomes vegging in front of the TV or working more. Of course, it’s great to be spontaneous but unless you are completely free of responsibilities you’ll need to make plans. And making plans could be as simple as inviting friends over for a night of games or as wild as running with the bulls in Spain.

Side note: This is one of the many reasons I started Maverick Business Adventures to create that ‘forced’ and scheduled ‘recess’ for entrepreneurs.

3. Recruit Others. It’s tough to get everything on your BIG list done yourself (especially if you’ve really stretched). That’s why it’s important to share with others, who can help you, what’s on your ultimate life list.

But there’s a caveat here. I’d be selective of who I share with. You don’t want a negative, dream-stealing vampire to suck their fangs into your life list. But when you find positive, excited individuals ask them what’s on their “to do” list for life and see if you don’t have a resource or a step in the right direction you can give them. And those same successful people have their own connections and people they know that might get you where you want to be.

Okay so here’s your homework assignment this weekend. Sit down and start your own Ultimate Big Life List and schedule at least 2 items on there. Will you do it?

A previous post I mentioned using ’scarcity’ - this post I’m going to talk about my single, favorite psychological hot button I use in nearly every promotion. (Yes, it’s that powerful!)

I have found the subject of persuasion endlessly fascinated. It never ceases to amaze me that I can write words on paper (or the computer screen) and then have people send me money.

Side Note: In the current Underground Secret Society® issue I cover part I of 11 little-known secrets and triggers I’ve discovered for getting people to say “Yes” and open their wallets. You can grab a free 1-month copy with my compliments here. In order to protect the uniqueness of these ideas and resources the membership is strictly limited to just 925 (or less). And we won’t be releasing any back issues. There will be NO archives set up. So if you decide to come in at a later date (if there are any spots available) you’ll miss out on previous issues and interviews - including this BIG, 32-page issue with part I of the Psychological Hot Buttons.

I know not everyone who reads this blog is right for a subscription so I’m going to share with you an excerpt of the most important psychological hot buttons you can profit from immediately:

Hot Button #2: Reason-Why

If there’s just one thing I could use in my marketing – this would probably be it. I typically try to use ‘reason-why’ in nearly any promotion and you’ll see the inside scoop in just a moment.

Telling people the reason why you are doing something is one of the most powerful influencers of human behavior. Robert Cialdini, Ph.D. in his book “Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion” talks about an experiment by Harvard social psychologist, Ellen Langer, that concluded people like to have a reason for what they do.

Her experiment consisted of people waiting in line to use a library copy machine and then having experimenters ask to get ahead in line.

The first excuse used was “Excuse me, I have five pages. May I use the Xerox machine because I’m in a rush?” This request coupled with a reason was successful 94% of the time. However when the experimenter made a request only: “Excuse me, I have five pages. May I use the Xerox machine?” this request was only granted 60% of the time. A significant drop.

Okay now for the shocker…

It may seem like the difference between those two requests was the additional information of “because I’m in a rush”, but that’s just not the case.

Because in a third experimenter, the experimenter asks “Excuse me, I have five pages. May I use the Xerox machine because I have to make some copies?” There’s no reason mentioned or new information presented, just the words “because“.

This time a full 93% of the people said yes simply due to the word ‘BECAUSE’! And it didn’t even matter that there was no reason given. Just the word because triggered a magic response.

Using this psychological ‘trigger’ can massively increase your Marketing success. Maxwell Sackheim, famous for the long-running ad “Do You Make These Mistakes In English” and originator of the book-of-the-month concept, says this: “Whenever you make a claim or special offer in your advertising, come up with an honest reason why, and then state it sincerely. You’ll sell many more products this way.”

And this powerful strategy works just as well today.

Using this secret weapon for my Dad’s medical equipment company, I helped them produce a massive 1,073% return on investment simply using “reason-why” copy. (This was a huge breakthrough because typically you’d have to do one-on-one sales to doctors for items like this.)

The premise was how can we sell a product for the incredibly low price of only $447? (Regularly this product sells for about $695 - $895.) Then the ad went on to explain that the reason why the price was so low was because the manufacturer wanted to gain market share and get nurses and doctors accustomed to using their product. It was a huge winner and a big moneymaker for the client.

Here’s some of the copy if you can’t read the ad:

* * *
“The manufacturer, Huntleigh Healthcare, wants to gain significant market share by introducing their new Flexi Dopplex 3 MHz fetal Doppler and they are offering our company special discount pricing to push their sales.

But instead of buying these units for this special pricing and selling them later at regular prices and keeping the higher profits — we want to pass on the extra savings to you, right now! And we figured the best way to sell Dopplers is simply getting doctors and nurses into the habit of using a particular brand. Then we’re hoping you’ll continue buying more from us. Seems fair, right?

That’s why for a limited time, now through June 30, 1999, you can get the new Flexi Dopplex for only $447. That’s a savings of $ 103.00 off the regular price (and hundreds more off any competitor’s models).

* * *
Here’s another ad I wrote using the ‘reason-why’ concept that’s ultra simple to apply to your business. Simply jotting down “X” number of reasons why a customer should purchase from you is usually more than what most competitors do. It provides a logical crutch to an emotional buying decision.

You can come up with lots of reasons-why to have a promotion. Look at your calendar, if retailers and car dealers can use “made-up” holidays like Columbus day – you can do even better. There are lots of ways to use this idea. Keep brainstorming a reason why you are doing something. Let people in “behind the scenes” at your company…

Whatever the reason.

Here’s one I used a few years back – it was the “Save Yanik’s Marriage Sale”. The whole premise being Missy, my wife, was really annoyed at me for the basement being so overloaded with boxes. Truthfully, she WAS really mad and made a big stink about it – but I embellished the story a little bit. We totally cleared out all our inventory and made a tidy profit (pun intended).

Another sale I’ve had a lot of success with is a milestone type sale. When our first child, Zak, was born – I did a promotion for him. That promotion nearly tripled my expectations for what it would bring in (it made $4.60+ for every visitor who came). And more importantly people connected with me as a real person – you should have seen the dozens and dozens of congratulations notes. It was really cool.

Now in this case I didn’t just do email only. I thought it would be great to send out a “birth announcement” to our customers. I’m a big believer in using multiple types of media to hit customers/prospects. For this I really wanted it to look like a real birth announcement - here’s how it turned out:

When Zoe was born a few years later – I did the same thing and it worked even better so now she’ll have bragging rights forever on Zak.

For some reason everyone wants to be mysterious about their business. If you’re lowering the price nobody thinks you’re doing it just because you’re “such a nice guy (or gal)”. So let people in on the reason why.

I know this probably goes against every grain of business sense, but I promise if you give people a good, believable reason why they’ll respond with open wallets.

Side Note: In the current Underground Secret Society® issue I cover part I of 11 little-known secrets and triggers I’ve discovered for getting people to say “Yes” and open their wallets. You can grab a free 1-month copy with my compliments here.

* * *
Okay quick change of subject - with the Underground® 4 Seminar in LA over it’s been quite a whirlwind.

Each year the Underground® seminar gets bigger and better! It’s going to be pretty hard to top this year’s event since the speakers businesses totaled nearly $1B in annual online sales. Speakers ranged from Eben Pagen (a $20M virtual publishing empire) to Dr. Joe Mercola ($15M online and the most visited natural health site). Or how about Cameron Johnson, an Internet millionaire in his teens and now on Oprah’s primetime “Big Give” TV program? Mr. X#1 and Mr. X#2 (who won Underground Marketer of the Year) with their secrets to accidently building a $4M+ membership site.

Plus, a totally different take on online marketing from one of the leading wine eCommerce sites and insights on future trend of podcasting from Jody Colvard. And we had Dean Hunt & Barry Dunlop giving everyone the secrets they need to take advantage of the power of Social marketing. Or under-the-radar marketers like Jim Lillig and Mike Hill (who hasn’t appeared on stage since 1999).

We even had Tony Hsieh, the CEO from Zappos.com as one of the keynote speakers the first day. The cool thing is Tony was totally low-key and laid back. I don’t know why I continue to be surprised but most of the super successful people I’ve had the pleasure of meeting are incredibly genuine people. I think that’s part of the reason they got to where they are.

This year’s theme was “24” and it was interesting to see who was a fan of the show because they were super excited about the fact we had Carlos Bernard AKA Agent Tony Almeida there. But then a whole lot of the audience didn’t get it. It’s okay – I’m a fan of the show so sometimes I’ll just do fun things for myself. Actually, the real back-story on the theme is something some of you may remember. I originally wanted to have a 24-hour seminar based on the ‘24’ theme. Yep, we’d start at 10pm and end at 10pm the next day. We had like 7 people sign-up and I canceled it. Whoops. Not all ideas are good ideas.

Here’s me and Carlos Bernard AKA Tony Almeida from “24″ (btw - he wasn’t acting - Carlos actually was choking me pretty hard)

Each Underground® we do a fun VIP networking dinner and activity for the Early-Bird sign-ups and all the speakers. This year we did something totally different and sent everyone out onto the streets of LA for a SPY mission. We didn’t know who was in on the game and who was just a regular person on the street. Here are a few pics of my squad. “Team Bullocks” in honor of our overwhelming majority being from the UK including speakers and MasterMind members Dean Hunt and Barry Dunlop. Only myself, Michael Holland and Ryan Lee (Mr. X from Underground® II were the token Americans.)

I’ll let you make your own conclusions with these photos from some of our VIP guests, speakers and MasterMind members part of the infamous KONA boys team. Most definitely the loudest team we had that night.

I think it’s safe to say everyone had a great time and that was still the first day. The 2nd day we had more incredible speakers plus a Rock N’ Roll party for all the attendees with Mini KISS, an all little person KISS tribute band. (The party was sponsored by Icontact.com, Maverick Business Adventures™, Selby Marketing and InfusionCRM.)

Here are a few pics:

Here’s a little video footage:

Whoa!

The last few weeks have been absolutely crazy in preparation for my totally SOLD-OUT Underground Online Seminar® 4 that kicks off tomorrow morning.

This event really breaks all of the rules because we don’t bring in polished platform “salespeople” that you hear over and over again on the Internet speaking circuit. It’s not the same usual suspects – but real people making real money selling real stuff. (Definitely no Internet “get rich” folks allowed here.)

I’ve got a strong hunch this will be the biggest, baddest, most explosive event yet.

I can tell just by the few attendees I have passed in the hotel lobby already that the anticipation for tomorrow is like static electricity in the air.

Everyone is totally pumped up!

And rightfully so, with a speaker lineup that brings in over $906,000,000.0 (nearly a BILLION dollars of combined revenue)…this may be the most profitable weekend of their lives. And that’s why I figured – I’d like to try a little experiment…

I am going to do something I have never done before with any of my Underground® Seminars…I am going to let you get sneak a peek at the LIVE while it is actually going on just as if you were there yourself.

http://www.undergroundonlineseminar.com/live/

You heard right!

Twice a day during the event, I’ll allow my underground moles to tap into the video feed and broadcast their “bootleg” signal live and in real time for 12 minutes at a clip.

Remember, it’s totally LIVE and unrehearsed so just about anything can happen. I’m not going to edit or censor the footage. You’ll see and hear everything that’s going for those two, 12-minute clips just as if you were a covert agent who had infiltrated the event.

Synchronize your watches now because the very first broadcast happens tomorrow, Friday March 28, 2008 at 9am Pacific time (12 noon, ET) for the over-the-top, kick-off opening! And then the second broadcast will take place at 4:02 pm Pacific (7:02 PM, ET) with Agent “Get Smart” Eben Pagan. Plus, other broadcast times will be listed on this page along with all kinds of other uncensored Underground® surveillance videos appearing in real-time transmitted back from actual agents in the field.

That’s it for now – I got to get back to preparing. Let me know what you think once you check it out.

If you have not read Robert Cialdini’s monumental work, “Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion” – grab it now! Inside on of the major psychological triggers he explains is scarcity. Human beings have been hard-wired to want what is going away. Many more people are motivated by the thought of potential loss than potential gain.

Gary Bencivenga, one of the world’s best copywriters, summed this up perfectly at his “Bencivenga 100″ seminar in New York. I’m paraphrasing but he said something along the lines of, “If I called my neighbor at 3 AM and told him about a 2-for-1 sale going on at the local tire store – my neighbor would think I was crazy and probably be pretty annoyed! But if I called him at 3 in the morning and told him his garage was open and 2 kids were rolling 4 of his snow tires down the street. He’d jump out of bed and go chase them!”

That’s the power of scarcity. If you get this principle right you’ll be astonished at the sales results. A lot of people think they understand scarcity but that’s not the case. Simply saying “x” number of units will be sold. Or “limited time opportunity” or “Buy before midnight tonight” does not always translate to better sales. There’s more to it than just a thinly veiled attempt at influencing.

I know scarcity is one of those triggers that works on me. (Side note: It’s good to step back when you make buying decisions and see what caused it. You can rationalize it all you want – but many buying decisions on based on emotional, psychological triggers.)

For instance, my first sports car was a Honda S2000 when it came out in 2000. The car was impossible to get. My local dealer had an allotment of 2 or 3 cars for the year. Only 5000 were made and about 2000 came to the U.S. I was searching all over the country calling every dealership for this rare combination of Silver with a red interior. I found my S2000 about 800 miles away in upstate NY and drove it all the down to our place in Maryland in the pouring rain. Even today, I sold my Mercedes SL55 for something even more exclusive - an Aston Martin.

I like examples from diverse industries aside from info marketing since this is how breakthroughs happen. This is from Porthos.com, a company I buy a fair amount of wine from and I’ve got to know their owner, Hal Oates. They do an excellent job of using scarcity and making it believable. [Side note: Hal will be speaking at my sold-out Underground® 4 Seminar ]

The mention of how many cases (300) telegraphs exclusivity, rarity and scarcity without being over the top. Also, if you trust Hal and his recommendation (I do) he tells you this wine is most likely to hit $100+ cult status. Then notice at the bottom “NO SALES TO RETAILERS”. Yet another trigger to the scarcity here.

I think Porthos.com does an excellent job of using scarcity along with very solid reason-why in the sales copy for wine. He’s not selling to a starry-eyed crowd of biz-oppers, most wine collectors are considered affluent and sophisticated consumers. You can use this psychological trigger in an ethical way that’s not demeaning to your list’s intelligence.

Let me give you a few more examples…

Ferrari Enzo - Ferrari is a perfect example of scarcity and fueling a passionate marketplace. The Enzo is their $600,000+ supercar made in honor of Enzo Ferrari, the founder. They made exactly 399 cars and that’s it. Ferrari collectors know when Ferrari tells them its limited edition – it really is and they will not make any more.

Part of maintaining Ferrari’s prestigious heritage is making sure that not everyone can have one. Only a privileged few can buy a Ferrari hence the truly created scarcity. But just having a big bankroll still won’t let you drive an Enzo - Ferrari has traditionally made potential buyers apply to buy one of their limited-edition cars, placing various restrictions on what may and may not be done with the car. They enforce these restrictions by threatening to withdraw perks like factory tours and the chance to buy future Ferraris. I was talking to an owner of an Enzo at a car show in NY and he told me you had to have been a registered owner of 3 other Ferraris to have the privilege of applying for one of the Enzos.

You’ll see a lot of special editions created for collectible and high-end merchandise like pens, cigars and spirits. This pen site keep all the sold-out editions as proof they really are sold-out and scarce:

Okay guys, here’s your big SAT word of the day – verisimilitude:
verisimilitude \ver-uh-suh-MIL-uh-tood; -tyood\, noun:
1. The appearance of truth; the quality of seeming to be true.
2. Something that has the appearance of being true or real.

I think this is the key to making scarcity work for your business. eBooks don’t really have it. You can say you’ll only sell 500 copies of an eBook but there’s no “appearance of truth”. It’s just bits and bytes – why would it be truly limited? I’ve seen others use scarcity ploys that really had me wondering if they were true or not. If your customers question it – you’re done for.

The best advice I can give is combine scarcity with ‘reason-why’ for an extra comma in your bank account.

There are just 3 seats left for Underground® 4 so it’s a pretty safe bet it’s going to be sold-out tomorrow or the next day! I hope to see a lot of InternetLifestyle.com blog readers there because we’ve a lot of fun, surprises and perks lined up for you. Not only have we added even more content and speakers (including some I haven’t even put up on the site) but I’m out to make sure it’s the best event yet…

I just confirmed our celebrity guest from the hit TV show “24″. It’ll be Carlos Bernard AKA “Agent Tony Almeida”. If you watch the show at all - Carlos is a pretty big character and has a major role when season 7 finally starts shooting again. Attendees will get to meet Carlos and get a one-on-one pic with him.

And even more fun - we’re having a LIVE concert with Mini KISS. They are a band of little people KISS impersonators. Go get ready to rock n roll all day and party every night! Check them out:

It’s going to bad-ass…and I’ll fill you in on all the details after the event. Speaking of KISS – I’m going to meet the behind their incredible success the week after Underground®. At the Glazer-Kennedy Super Summit in Nashville I’ll be sharing the platform with none other than Gene Simmons. If you haven’t read Gene’s book “Sex, Money, Kiss” go get it. It’s a great example of someone who has constructed his life to fit his own rules.

If you want in before we close the doors - check out the site immediately!

As a successful entrepreneur, sometimes it’s too easy to get tied up on your computer doing stupid, mundane tasks that could be handled better (sometimes a lot better!). I love shortcuts and ultra useful resources. That’s why, I’m going to share my favorite 9 productivity tools with you that I guarantee will add several extra hours to your life each week and help you feel more in control…

#1: Mailwasher – It’s no secret email and spam is out of control. This is one of my favorite tools because I can peek at the email headers and check what I want to keep and what I want to delete before I download it and hits my computer. You can also select to ‘bounce’ spam so that spammers think they got a non-working email. It lets you check pretty much any type of email account you have (POP3, AOL, Hotmail, etc). I love it! It’s one of my favorite tools and it’s one of the easiest pieces of software. It takes about 3 minutes to go through hundreds of emails and check which ones I want and which ones I want to delete. Also, if I just want to pick out one or two emails to respond to real fast – I can just do a ‘quick reply’ straight from mail washer which launches my default email client. (Note: this does not replace your email client.)

Here’s a screenshot of it on my computer (click to enlarge):

#2: Roboform – I just started using this about 6 months ago and have no idea why it took so long. It’s frickin awesome! You never realize how much time you waste filling out forms, looking for credit cards, passwords, etc. Roboform stores all of this for you like a secure little passport that travels with you on the Web. Plus, you can stop using the exact same password like your doggie’s name because Roboform will create super strength passwords like “Xjx81×87Hq” and then store them for you. It keeps multiple identities separate so for my multiple companies it takes one click to decide which credit card to use, address to ship to, etc. Sweet.

#3: Box.net – It seems like files are getting bigger and bigger and email seems to be unreliable for bigger files. I always get concerned when I send anything over about 2mb to a contact. With Box.net you can upload your bigger files to share or store. Plus, there is an option to share/collaborate with your team. I got the premium version (I think you get 15mb of storage for free).

#4: Jing/Camtasia – Beyond all the uses of Camtasia as one of my favorite (and super quick) product development ways or promotional videos – there are tons of productivity uses. First off, Camtasia/Jing are both ‘Macro’ recorders so whatever is on my screen gets recorded and I can also record my voice and create mark-ups on the screen, etc. It’s super powerful. Camtasia is the full version from TechSmith and is obviously more feature rich – but I’ve been impressed with the Jing project as a real simple tool for training or getting your point across. Many times if I’m working with a web designer – I can load up Jing and in 5 minutes explain exactly what I want changed without the meaning getting lost in a written email. When training your team on any computer-related tasks you can record what you do in Camtasia and then there is no miscommunication. Or better still, if someone new comes on board they are trained the exact same way. Here’s a sample so you can see how powerful this software is.

#5: Simulscribe – I first found out about this from one of my MasterMind members and it’s made my life a lot easier. Simulscribe will transcribe your voicemails for you and either email or text them to you. I use it for our company’s voicemail and then that transcription gets sent to our help desk so our customer support team can respond faster. Good stuff.

#6: NoteTab Light – this one might not be for everyone and I pretty much only use one tiny feature but it’s well worth it (especially since it’s free!). I compose a lot of emails to my subscribers and since I communicate via text I want to create hard returns on the emails so the formatting doesn’t get all screwy when the email goes out. NoteTab Light will let you set up how many character spaces you want all your text and then you hit “Ctrl” + “J” to make it all line-up. Plus, there are a few other shortcuts in there. I think this is an HTML editor tool but like I said I only use one tiny function.

7. Mind Jet – My absolute favorite way of getting things done is Mindmapping. I’ve used the MindJet software for quite some time to be able to get my ideas out in one spot quickly, easily and in a more organized fashion.

Here’s a quick example:

You want to start with a central theme or idea in the middle of your page. (I’ve put my example in a piece of software I use – but many times my mind maps are drawn by hand and with just pen & paper.) Then you want to create branches radiated out from the center which encompass different points related to your main topic. Then under the main points radiating out you can even further sub-branches, etc.

I love mind mapping for all kinds of uses because it really fits the way we think on a subject. You’ve most likely been taught to make a linear outline when taking notes or trying to organize your ideas. It can be really frustrating because our brains don’t always output information in a perfectly ordered and structured way. Many times one thing will trigger an idea for something else and then something else again. That’s why Mind Maps are the perfect way to dump everything out of your head and put onto paper or a the computer screen.

Two other pieces of software you might try. The first is from the “father of Mindmapping” Tony Buzan, himself. It’s called I Mind Map. Has some good features and I like the organic looks of the mindmaps plus it defaults to different colors per branch. Imind-map.com. Another one is mindmeister.com – I have not played with this that much but it seems very cool because you can collaborate online with others on a single mindmap.

#8: Mozy – I don’t know if this quite fits productivity but it does become one if the inevitable happens. Just recently I spilled half a bottle of water on my laptop. That’s when I yelled something that in a cartoon would look like this – “@#!%@!”

I quickly removed the battery but it was too late. I thought I had fried my computer. The good thing is I had this little piece of software installed that automatically backed up all the important stuff without me thinking about it and put in a remote location. I logged into my Mozy account from Missy’s computer and got a set of DVDs overnighted that had all my data on them. Boom! Back in business. Luckily, my computer did eventually dry out after my buddy dissembled the whole thing –but having Mozy really would have been a life saver. We all have good intentions of backing up our stuff – but unless you’re pretty disciplined it won’t happen.

#9: Log me in – this is another cool resource I found about from one of MasterMind members. As long as you have an active online connection on your home computer you can access it from anywhere. It’s pretty slick. It’s just like sitting at your own desk and you can see your desktop like normal. You can access files, updates files (and they are updated on your home computer), remote print, etc. There’s a free version and a paid version with more features. Cool software and works really well.

There you go – give a few of these a try and reclaim some of your time. And even better, let’s make this even more useful - I’d like to hear from you. What tools/resources do you use that make your life more productive as an entrepreneur? Leave a comment. Plus, if you found this helpful – give it a DIGG (by clicking below) so even more entrpreneurs can benefit from this list.

Last night was the lunar eclipse – so it made great sense to launch the “Moonlighting on the Internet” book. (I wish I could take credit for timing it that perfectly but it was pretty much a happy accident.)

Some of you might have made it to last night’s 2+ hour call on the 5 proven ways to make an extra paycheck on the internet! We covered the proven ways to pull in a few extra bucks (or a whole lot more) to pay for a mortgage, car payment, the kids college fund or even a great vacation…all on autopilot.

I know…I know…I know…you’ve heard it before – but here’s a quick email I got this morning:

“…I was on that call with you and your co-authors last night, and I have to tell you that it was the most useful, informative and inspiring 2 hours that I have spent in quite a while. The call was loaded with quality information and was organized exceptionally well. I enjoyed the way all the info was presented in a way that blueprinted how to actually employ the strategies that everyone talked about. Everybody presented in a down to earth manner that was easy to follow for someone like me who is looking to get started in the internet world. Kudos man.”

If you missed any part of the 2+ hour call (which was ALL content with absolutely zero pitch) or would just like to hear it again – it’s right here:

http://www.moonlightingontheinternet.com/tele/call/

On the call I mentioned the very special “lunar eclipse” bonus deal for people who bought 5 copies of the “Moonlighting on the Internet” book.

1) Special Report – “How to Get Unlimited Testimonials and Massive Proof”

2) Special Report – “How to Sell at Prices Double or Triple Your Competitors (and still provide an incredible value)”

3) Special Report – “Instant Idea Generator & Organizer”

These reports are taken from my Secret Society newsletter ($87.63/issue) and I don’t make any past issues available so this not only represents a rare opportunity but also a true value of $262.89

AND I’ll also throw in an extra bonus – “My Ultimate Internet Lifestyle Webinar”

How I plan my year, balance my life, have more fun and enjoy the freedom of the Internet Lifestyle. After all, what’s the point of doing really well online with your online business if you don’t enjoy it? I’m talking about one word….freedom!

Personally, my own Internet Lifestyle means experiencing life to the fullest and living adventures! Plus, it means having the time available to hang out with your family. This is the only webinar where I “show and tell” you exactly how I get the massive results I do without any staff (aside from 2 virtual assistants and one ‘tech’ guy on retainer but no real employees except my wife, Missy.)

I am not even sure how to put a value on something like this but I’ll be embarrassed if you don’t agree it is one kick-butt bonus!

Okay, here’s the deal – you get all three special reports and the extra bonus “Ultimate Internet Lifestyle” webinar as my gift (call it an ethical bribe) when you buy 5 copies of my Moonlighting on the Internet book from Amazon.com or BN.com

Simply email your receipt to
bonus@Moonlightingontheinternet.com

And you’ll get an email back with instructions to download your bonuses right away.

It’s been a bit of a whirlwind since I got back home since I was away for most of January between Vegas, NYC and then Baja, Mexico for my premiere Baja Experience for Maverick Business Adventures™. I feel like I’ve been waiting for the trip forever and it went even better than I could have imagined. Members were blown away by the adventure part, the business and giving back all rolled into one. I’m even more excited about this idea now that we got our first trip under our belt.

Here’s a quick 4-minute highlights video, Perry Lawrence, put together:

Ultimate Baja Experience from Yanik Silver on Vimeo.

A couple fun stories…The Legend of Phil “Cliff” Chapman:

The tale begins with an all-day and evening drive from La Paz to San Juanico (the longest drive ever made by any Wide Open Baja customer group). We arrived at Juan y Juan’s in Scorpion Bay after dark (important fact as you’ll see in a moment). The town (if you want to call it that) is pretty isolated and extremely hard to get to but they are famous for the 2nd longest surf break. The entire town was excited by our arrival and the local taco stand was closed all day to prep for our dinner and party.

After our fill of tacos and margaritas – we went back to our accommodations at Juan Y Juan’s. Jesse James had built a pretty raging fire and about a half dozen of us just hung out to talk and drink a little.

Phil Chapman, the Ad-words expert, was down there and the fire crackled and shot flames towards him. Our hero jumped out of the way and ended up rolling. He missed his footing and ended up falling all the way down. (Remember it was dark out when we drove in and nobody knew there was a steep ledge beyond our beach.) Everyone started laughing because we had no idea how far it was. Good thing Phil was ok and he even managed to save his margarita glass. The first words out of my mouth were, “You signed the waiver!”

I believe an illustration would be helpful here:

We started calling incidents like this “Maverick Moments”…

Now part of the Maverick Business Adventures is learning and being around business icons and celebrities. Our first guest was Jesse James, from Monster Garage and West Coast Choppers. He hung out with us for 2 days and was just super cool guy…plus very sharp. During our confidential business sessions he gave us a lot of candid insight into his $200M business. He also sat in on one of the sessions I ran about “Instant Leverage Points in Your Business” and he told us on tape that he probably learned more than any of the members who attended. Pretty neat.

Here’s a quick pic of me and Jesse getting ready to tear it up in the monster Baja racer belonging to the owner of Wide Open Baja.

Here are a few more Maverick Moments…

If you watch the video closely you’ll see a car stuck in the red mud, spinning wheels, with about 5 of us pushing. That was one of my MasterMind members, Mike Dillard and his girlfriend, Stephanie, managed to get axle-deep in some sort of super deep mud/clay mixture. Another car couldn’t pull them out because they’d get stuck too. We pushed them out and in the process got caked (head to toe) in mud. One of the members, a former college football player, reverted back to the grid iron and rubbed mud under his eyes so he’d be ready to go into battle against the dune buggy!

Also, on the highlights video you saw some cool whale footage. Our final stop before flying back to Cabo was San Ignacio. This is one of the best places for getting up close and personal with the Gray Whales when they come into the shallow lagoons to breed. In the brochure they show a family basically hugging the whale and I wanted to touch the whale. I asked our guide how often people touch whales and he replied, “Not so much.” I was determined. Everyone on my boat was cold and wet (the ride out was about 45 minutes). Mike Filsaime, somehow picked the wrong seat because he was just soaking wet by the time we arrived around the whales.

They were magnificent and they were almost within arm’s reach – but not quite. I was adamant. I told our guide that he would get a $100 tip if I touched a whale. No dice. We stayed out another 25 minutes longer than our 2 other boats but no whale touching. That became the running joke – and if you paused the picture of me sitting with 3-time Super Bowl champ, Darren Woodson, you’d see the flip chart. On the left was an arrow pointing to me “Did not touch the whale” and to the right was “3-time Super Bowl Champ” with an arrow to Darren. I forgot it was there for the entire session we held with Darren.

Here’s another one…

I had 2 reporters who tagged along on the trip to write about it. Brad, the reporter from Outside Go magazine, decided he wanted to ride with me the final day. Our cars travel about 1 mile apart so the dust from the road doesn’t interfere with the driving. And each car is supposed to call to the one behind it any obstacles or turns, etc using the GPS mile marker.

Well I guess car #3 missed one because I was flying down the road about 65 or 70mph when a hard right turn came out of nowhere. I slammed on the brakes and dropped the car into 2nd but it was too late. We jumped an embankment and went into a field with massive boulders. I thought we might possibly flip. I got us back to the road and checked out the damage. I need to get a photo from someone but the rim had been bent in about 8” and completely broke off. I was pretty proud of my handiwork and gave Brad something else to mention in his article. [Side note: Should hopefully be appearing in the April issue of Outside Go.]

I’m extremely excited and encouraged by this first trip because members walked away with tons of memories, business breakthroughs and even helped the next generation of Maverick entrepreneurs with our ‘Young Entrepreneurs’ learning session that took place the final morning. I can’t wait to get some of that video posted because it was a group of college students in Mexico and the very first words out of my mouth were - “Everything I learned in college was Bullshit.” The translator looked at me like I was crazy and told her to please translate…and the kids got a kick out of it.

Then to cap off the trip we had a “Big Game” party hosted by 3-time Super Bowl champion, Darren Woodson. It was pretty cool to watch this huge upset with someone who had been there done that. You might have seen Darren lately on ESPN doing the NFL Live show and he literally flew in straight from Arizona to be with us in Cabo. Here’s quick pic of me doing my worst ever Heisman impression trying to block out Maverick Member, Mike Lally.

I’ll probably post up some more stuff here as I get more pics and video finished.

If you want in on the business building and shenanigans- the 2nd trip is now locked in. May 15-18, 2008 in Las Vegas for a Zero G flight, Aerial combat in a jet fighter , Helicopter inside the Grand Canyon, dinner with Peter Diamandis (founder of the X prize) and much more still shaping up. Get a sneak peak at www.BusinessAdventures.com

One more interesting incident from Baja…As we were sitting around having a few beers at Scorpion Bay (one of the most remote locations in the world) the conversation turned to my friend Mike Hill. The guys sitting around with me were some of the Internet’s top marketers…names you know and many others you don’t know who are bringing in 6-figures/month & more.

In confidence, Mike started talking about a hidden backdoor method for getting your site seen in front of the most eager, excited and motivated prospects you could want. It’s called “CPV” or Cost Per View.

Here’s how it works…

Imagine, being able to walk up to somebody at Wal-Mart who has a t-shirt in his hands and say, “Do you know what? That t-shirt in your hands that you’re about to pay $12.00 for? I’ll sell you one for $9.00.” That’s how powerful CPV Marketing is. You literally can grab the customer at any point in any process and make them your own customer.

Maybe you advertise on Google for an extremely competitive, very high-priced keyword. You’re going to pay anywhere between $5.00 to $10 per click

If you were advertising in a CPV platform, you could pay probably anywhere from $0.03 to $0.05 per click, instead of $5.00 to $10. You can literally specify inside that CPV platform which keywords or which competitor’s site triggers your URL to be pulled up OVER your competitor.

This is huge and only a tiny group of people have capitalized on this so far!

Want to know more?

I got Mike to come out of hiding and get on stage for the first time since 1999 for my upcoming Underground® 4 seminar next month. It’s already nearing a sell-out! If you want to attend – I strongly suggest registering immediately.

Nearly everyone I talk to wants to know the big “secret” to success online. They want the next Internet marketing tactic, strategy or quick fix. But that’s usually not the critical factor…

I’ve found tremendous success by putting a ’spin’ on successful models. In fact, I find it better to work with 2 or 3 successful models and pull them together. If your product/service is simply a “me-too” there is no point in being in the marketplace. You have to bring some point of differentiation to the table. (And it definitely cannot be just price.)

When I created Instant Sales Letters in 2000 - there were all kinds of other sales letter templates books (real ones) out there and there were copywriting courses but there was nothing that really let you ‘cut and paste’ to create the letter easily. I’m a firm believer in giving people the “fish” anytime I can. What I mean is people would rather be handed the fish than taught how to fish. The closer you can get to the ‘magic pill’ the better your sales will be if the offer is believable.

Another example is my own Apprentice program (Yes, well before Trump!). There were a whole lot of mentor or protégé programs floating around but once again I decided if I was going to do something - I’d do it differently. I wanted to keep the numbers small and personal (instead of just making a mass telecoaching program like some other people who promise individual attention). I really wanted to have a big impact on the Apprentices I accepted and get people to take action or to new levels if they were already successful. (In fact, I won a $100 gentleman’s bet with Dan Kennedy because I got the majority of my group to make a profit.)

The big twist was I’d give Apprentices one of my ideas out of my idea journal, they’d be allowed to promote (if appropriate) to my list and my affiliate list. And we’d jointly share in the profits with them keeping 78% and me getting 12% of the gross sales. This program was so good it was overbooked almost right away.

And the final example from my own business is my “Underground Online Seminar”. Don’t you think there are more than enough Internet seminars going on all over the place? Some good. Some not so good. It’s real tough to create a stir in the Internet space unless you have something different. Which is exactly why I didn’t want to do another ’same-ole’ Internet seminar.

My big hook (which was true) is I bring in “Underground” and unknown speakers who were really making it in the real world online. It wasn’t the same usual suspects you’d see at other events. I took it all the way with making the promotions ‘spy’ themed to stand out. Sure, some people emailed us and said it was silly. But a lot more people got into it because it was different. It really worked! The first three Underground Online Seminar was extremely successful and completely sold-out weeks before the event took place. (We’re coming up to another sell-out for #4 in case you have not booked your spot yet!)

So your job is to stand out and give people a reason (hopefully) a big one to buy from you. One logical way of doing this is something I taught my Apprentices. It’s to make a spreadsheet of what every competitor is offering and how they are positioned in the marketplace. Look for their offers, their headline, their pricing, their guarantee, their USP, etc and then decide where you can leverage a differentiation point.

This gives you a more precise way of looking for “gaps” in your competitors marketing. And the bigger the gap or the more you really show people how your offer is different than the better you’ll do.

It’s too easy to be another ‘me-too’. Why would a customer buy from you? Frankly, there aren’t too many niches where nobody is selling anything in there and you can be the only one. In most cases you’re going to find competitors (and that’s a good thing because it proves the marketplace spends money).

Here is a quick summary thoughts on how to be different and unique:

1. Be first in the marketplace. Easier said than done today but still very possible if you niche. Obviously you can’t be the first site to sell flowers online but if you are BestTropicals.com, you were the first to sell Hawaiian flowers exclusively. You can cut up the marketplace and become the first at something.

2. Take existing success models/products and combine together. This is one of my favorites because you’re profiting from multiple successful and proven sources.

3. Take an existing successful product/service and add a twist to it. My apprentice program is a good example of that.

4. Give it a new name. I’ve done this many times with products I’ve licensed that have seen better days.

5. Change the location. If you see a successful business model in one place it can typically be transferred to another location, format, etc. Good example of this is Steve Pankhurst who developed www.friendsreunited.co.uk. He saw a site in the US doing very well able to track down friends, etc. (probably Classmates.com) and he couldn’t believe they hadn’t expanded it to the UK or beyond. Since it’s launch in 1999, Friends Reunited has become one of the most popular websites on the net, attracting over 10 million members.

And finally the big idea is not think every great idea or website has already been created or done. That’s the attitude of losers! Today, you’ve got even more opportunity because the Internet is an established commerce model and more and more people are getting comfortable making purchases online. It truly is the best time in the world to start or grow your online business!

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Side note: I know lots of people were hoping for some updates from the Baja trip. I got a lot of stories and things to share…I just haven’t caught up yet so give me a few more days. You’ll hear about everything from Jesse James, the whales, Super Bowl party, me wrecking my baja racer and more!