I let my personal trainer, Jeff, borrow a copy of “Rich Dad Poor Dad” by Robert Kiyosaki. A few weeks later during our workout session he blurts out, “You know what — I’m carrying buckets!”

“Huh?” I replied.

Jeff reminded me in the “Rich Dad” book Kiyosaki gives the example of someone carrying buckets to supply a town with a water and another person building a water pipe line to carry the water. It took longer for the pipeline to be built but once it was done – the money would continue to come in with or without him.

What are you doing?

Sadly most people are carrying buckets. They are getting paid based on the hours they work. Everybody has been taught to think the harder you work the more money you make.

Guess what? “Working harder” is totally and entirely subjective. What constitutes working hard to one person might be lounging on your butt to another.

So what if that’s completely wrong? What if it’s really the smarter the work, the more money you make? You’ve heard that expression before – but stick with me and I’ll explain what I think it really means…

As I was sitting here writing out this – we had a chimney repairman and a landscaper come out to the house. Out of my window I could see both of them doing their jobs. Let me tell you these guys work DAMN hard.  

Both of them get up very early in the morning and put in a full day’s work. The chimney repairman is dangerously perched at least 50 feet above the ground for most of the day. And our neighborhood landscaper is breaking his back carrying heavy bags of mulch all day in the blazing sun.

The point is these guys put in an honest day’s labor for honest day’s wage every day. They aren’t sleeping on the job or goofing off. They’re working their butts off – but that’s not enough!

Do you know the big secret neither one of these fellows (or most other people) ever figure out?

It’s so simple once you understand and it can have a profound effect on your wealth. Here it is…

Your income cannot be limited by the amount of hours you can put in. That’s it.

Each one of us are given 24 hours and it doesn’t matter if you are a chimney repairman, landscaper, CEO, homeless bum, or Internet mogul. We all have the same 24 hours to work with. Most people simply work -get paid, work – get paid, work – get paid. You put in 8 hours on the job – you get paid for 8 hours. You put in 40 hours a week – you get 40 hours in salary. That’s the way we’ve been taught to do it – and the sad truth is you’ll never get ahead doing what everyone else does. (Re-read that because that’s really a lesson in itself).

Personally – I believe in using leverage…

I prefer to work once and get paid over and over and over again. And there are lots of ways you can create recurring revenue for yourself. It could be via royalties from an invention, a song, or a book. It could be from network marketing. It could be from real estate. It could be dividends from investments. Or it could be from a multitude of other ways aside from the typical 9-to-5 grind.

The majority of my income day-in and day-out is a direct result of work I did 1, 2, 3…even 7+ years ago or more. I like that!

For instance, if you create an information product to sell (like a report, ebook, software, video, etc) you only have to do the work once of creating it and once to write the sales letter.

Then if you set up some automatic promotion avenues like an affiliate program or autoresponder messages – you can continue to get paid for that product indefinitely. One of biggest income streams is a product I created 7 years ago and still makes me a nice six-figure income each year.

Frankly, I couldn’t turn off my recurring revenue streams right now if I tried. That’s because much of what I’ve created has fed on itself. One product refers people to another. Our affiliate network (over 45,000) refer people to our sites. Some of our sites cross-promote our other sites, etc. etc.

When you keep working on activities that have recurring value you’ll create a momentum that’s tough to stop. But the truth is — it IS hard work in the beginning. Or at least what most people perceive as ‘hard work’. But it’s like a rocket taking off in which it burns most of its fuel on lift off.

You need to put in the hours and effort upfront and then you can ease off the throttle. But if you don’t put in the extra effort upfront you’ll never achieve lift off and get that momentum you need.

The more you think about doing the work once and being paid multiple times the more creative your mind will become. Ask yourself the right questions and you’ll get the right answers.

My thinking is squarely on how can I get the most leverage nd ongoing income from any activity? For instance, if I do a teleconference series (like web copy secrets) then I will sell the LIVE calls for “x” amount and then have the calls recorded to turn it into a product I can keep selling for “y” amount. Then going even further, I could take
excerpts from that product and use them as articles or free ebooks to be passed along to get additional business. Do you see how it works? Try to get paid over and over again for activities done once. Make that your mantra.

In fact, even this post, if I’m lucky, will become a recurring income producing activity. I wrote this material once and the publicity from it will hopefully get a few more people to my websites and into my marketing funnel.

Now of course, I’m not saying that every activity I do each day is highly leveraged because I still do some “dumb stuff” but I’m working on outsourcing as much as I can and focusing just on income producing activities (just like you should).

Before tackling a project or putting in your hours – ask yourself how you can create a recurring revenue stream for yourself with this activity. 

Here’s something that has really intrigued me…

I’ve named it a Lifestyle business because it takes into account your passion and lifestyle first and money second.
 
Everybody’s has heard the advice “Do what you love and the money will follow”. Well I’m not 100% sure that’s the case. I’ve yet to find someone who will pay me to eat sushi or pizza and play video games. That wouldn’t work because there is no value derived from watching me eat and play video games. Now with that said, you can do what you love AND provide value to others who love the same thing to profit from it. Otherwise there is no exchange of money.

Let me start with an example from one of my previous vacations and then you’ll get a better idea…

For two years now I’ve gone away to Turks & Caicos in the Caribbean to go play beach volleyball for an entire week. In fact, 50 other people from all over the world came to join me. Actually one of my highlights from my trip  was to play doubles with an AVP Pro, Adam Jewel, against Olympic gold medal winner, Eric Fonoimoana. We won!

It’s something called “Volleyball Vacations” put on by an AVP pro Albert Hannemann. AL-B’s been doing this for the last 8 years. He gets a couple buddies to come down for the week, play volleyball and party (sometimes not necessarily in that order).   While the rest of us pay for the privilege.

AL-B partnered up with a travel agency to handle all the nitty gritty details and he just gets paid a certain percentage on every package sold. I don’t know the exact economics but I do know its some nice extra money for doing something you love and getting paid to vacation. A lifestyle business usually centers around something you love and would do regardless.

Here’s another ‘experience’ one…

Have you heard of the Baja 1000?

It’s an all-out endurance race of a thousand-mile (mostly) off-road race through Mexico, from one end of the Baja Peninsula to the other. A guy named Todd Clement started an adventure outfit called Wide Open Baja after winning the grueling Baja 1000 in 1997. He recruited some other winners and seasoned guides to open a Baja racing adventure experience. My late friend, Corey Rudl first told me about them and convinced me to go. I’m glad he did. It was pretty crazy. You get to drive these incredible Baja race cars on some of the same trails as the famous Baja 500 and Baja 1000 races.

This is trip is not for meek of heart or wallet. I believe it cost about $7000 (not including airfare) for 2 people for our 4-day trip. I’ve spoken to the guys at Wide Open because I’m always curious about business models and they run 2-3 trips a week from each location (they have 2 main ones of Ensenada and Cabo San Lucas for 4-day trips.)  And each trip is usually sold-out months and months in advance. We had 10 cars in our group – sometimes there are more. But 10 cars x $7000 = $70,000/trip. Now of course, that’s not all profit and the cars are very expensive, there’s maintenance, food, employees, etc. But it can add up to some good money – once again for doing something you love.

Racing is good one because lots of guys (and some gals) are very passionate about the sport. Of course, there are tons of racing schools around the country that cater to this and once again it isn’t cheap. There’s even a racing school that lets you drive F-1 race cars (basically jets on wheels) in Europe.

Here’s another racing example that is pretty obscure: www.vintagerallies.com/levelTwo.html This guy organizes road rallies for people into vintage-sports cars. Limited to 50 cars per event and many of these rallies are sold out at $4995.00/pop. Do the math! Now when I went back to the site I noticed they’ve donated all the proceeds to charity. They state it’s over $750,000 – but there’s no reason you couldn’t keep all the money if you did something similar or in a different niche.

If you notice there’s something else that really drives these lifestyle businesses is passion. The more passionate the niche the great likelihood they’ll spend money for an experience. Plus, there’s also a social aspect around it. i.e. beach volleyball nuts get to hang out and party with other beach volleyball nuts.

Now that I’ve shown some “experience” lifestyle businesses let me give you another point of view and highlight some information product examples that I’ve discovered. Many of you should be familiar with information products ranging from ebooks to newslettes to DVDs, etc. It’s one of my favorite businesses and if you want some help there see our Instant Internet Profits course.

The first example is Robert Parker at www.eRobertParker.com

If you’re familiar with wine you’d immediately know who Robert Parker is. His 100 point rating scale for wines can either make or break a wine. I’m going back a bit – but this example is powerful. According to his bio, Robert fell in love with wine during a trip to France in 1967. Then in 1975 he thought about creating an “independent consumers” guide to wine. And finally in 1978 he plan became his wine newsletter called “The Wine Advocate”. He started off with 600 charter subscribers in August of that year. Now today – his subscription base has exploded to over 40,000 subscribers at $60/year. (hmmm…adds up to $2.4M to me.)

But that’s not all – his wine empire has spawned some spin-offs. i.e. his membership website at $99 (renewing annually), “Parker in your Palm” which is a listing of certain wine ratings that can be downloaded into your Palm Pilot, books, back-issues, wine events, etc. The wine niche is great – I’ve found all sorts of speciality newsletter publishers here. Some who focus on only on type of grape like Pinot Noir. Or even just one region like Burgundy (also Pinot Noir) from France.

Another interesting niche that I’ve witnessed lifestyle businesses work in a big and small way is travel. I have a customer in the UK who told me about his Caribbean Travel newsletter in which he reviewed accommodations, resorts, islands, etc in the Caribbean for his subscribers. It was a nice publication that also financed all his vacations.
Now, incidentally, is another big bonus with a lifestyle business is a tax write off. Of course, I’m not a CPA so check with your Accountant. But if these expenses of staying at luxury Caribbean resorts are within the scope of your “normal and ordinary” business – I cannot imagine how it wouldn’t be a write off. Plus, this gentleman told me he later sold his newsletter to another company for six-figures. Now a much bigger example in the travel newsletter business is “Andrew Harper’s Hideaway Report”.

I love the USP on this publication. Andrew Harper is a pseudonym and here’s what it says on the site:

To assure you wholly independent observations, noted travel authority Andrew Harper travels incognito – booking into hotels and paying his own way as would any typical guest. Hotels don’t know his real name, nor what he looks like because he refuses to introduce himself during inspections. It’s also important to remember that Hideaway Report accepts no advertising and is therefore totally free of pressure from advertisers! In short, Andrew Harper’s monthly recommendations are unbiased, objective and totally reliable.

Plus, on top of that there is a believable scarcity to it because they say they limit circulation worldwide (I believe it’s 20,000 subscribers) to keep these private hideaways truly private. Hey, I believed it so I signed up – plus I wanted to study their business model. For one thing – it’s been published for over 25 years so that gives you a small idea of how successful this has been. And if you ever get a copy of the newsletter (I believe there is a free sample on the site) it looks like something a guy would print in his basement. There are no real pictures – just drawings. And the whole thing only has one color. It’s very, very smart!

My bet is there are lots of little niches out there where people would pay you for experiences. Sometimes there are even combinations like a wine tour with a bicycle tour. Or for instance golf with travel www.adventures-in-golf.com, etc. 

I’ve been tossing around the idea of doing something in the adventure travel business and maybe combining it with my passion for Entrepreneurship and business. The tentative name is “Maverick Business Adventures” – the NEW MBA .

I’d love to hear your thoughts if you’d like to go on a trip like that or post about other lifestyle businesses you’ve seen.

There’s been a lot of changes going on in my life lately…new house, new baby….and I guess a new site right here…

About 6 months ago, I purchased this domain (InternetLifestyle.com) because I thought it really captured everything I’m about. So I’m looking forward to seeing how this site evolves (and hopefully you’ll have a say in it). I really want to be beyond any type of “box” product.

It seems like just yesterday (really it was 2000) I started working out of my 1-bedroom apartment with a glimmer of an idea for my first website. (Yeah, I know this sounds like an informercial already – but I promise I will not show you how to place tiny classified ads.)

And now today, I have dozens of successful websites bringing in automatic cash flow for me regardless if I work or not. Of course, some months are better than others depending on if I’m actively running a promotion or not – but my original site InstantSalesLetters.com is still going strong after 7 ½ years making 6-figures per year.

Not bad, right?

Considering the fact I’ve basically not changed the site in years – I’d say pretty darn good. (Now, of course that’s another post when I show you how stupid and lazy I’ve been by not testing enough on this site and how I’m changing it.) And I still have no clue how to put up my own website.

Personally, the Internet Lifestyle means being able to do pretty much whatever you want, almost anytime you want and let the Internet pay for it!

Actually, most of my friends still wonder how I’m driving around in a brand new Aston Martin and how my wife, Missy, and I can take off for so many trips. A few years ago, we spent 2 months living on the beach in Manhattan Beach, California where we rented a house and just brought our laptops. I picked Manhattan Beach because I’m big into beach volleyball (even though I’m 5’8” – but I can jump!)

And that’s just another aspect of the Internet Lifestyle to me – do your work from anywhere you can get an Internet connection and follow your passions. I loved being able to look out at the Pacific Ocean each day and play volleyball almost every other day there. Last year we headed back again for a few weeks but this time with our son, Zak.

Personally, my own Internet Lifestyle means experiencing life to the fullest and living adventures! I get my thrills from any kind of extreme activity like Running with the Bulls, bungee jumping, sky diving, Baja racing, exotic car road rallies, falling out of attics, Zero G flights, an upcoming trip into space and more. I’ve posted a lot of these on my InternetRoadTrip.com blog.

I know for some people these kind of outlandish adventures aren’t for them – but if there is something you’re passionate about and excited for you can do it thanks to the income generated online. Or some people don’t need to make a fortune online – they’re happy with a little website on the side making a few extra bucks and maybe paying for a car payment or 2.

Truth is, never before have we lived in such a time filled with immense opportunity to do your own thing…quickly and easily. The Internet has truly been a revolution for anyone that wants to either “Moonlight Online” or got at it full-time and make a solid 6 or 7-figure+ income.

I love it when I hear from others living the “Internet Lifestyle” and would love to hear your comments.

If you’re already succeeding online what’s the best aspect of the Internet Lifestyle for you? Or what would the ultimate Internet Lifestyle look like for you?

Here are a couple things off the top of my head what the Internet Lifestyle means to me:

• Being able to take my son to his “My Gym” class on a Thursday and be the only Dad there.
• Having people from all over the world respect and appreciate your contributions.
• Meeting exciting and switched-on Entrepreneurs who enjoy having fun and good times to “mastermind” in whatever city we decide on. (Hmm…Amsterdam and Vegas were interesting!)
• Never having to set my alarm clock. (Or more recently being naturally awoken to the soothing sounds of a newborn crying.
• Drinking a beer (or 2) for lunch.
• Having money come in on autopilot while I was sleeping.
• Doing the work once and getting paid over and over again.
• Being able to fund nearly any kind of adventure by putting out another quality product or offering.
• Wearing shorts and t-shirts all day.
• Never having to worry about shaving.
• Forgetting what “Rush Hour” is and being surprised when you hit a standstill on the beltway in the afternoon.
• Never answering to a boss.
• Being able to turn off the laptop and take Zak to the Splash park
• Having your Accountant perplexed and surprised when you see him each year at what you do and how much it brings in.
• Being able to watch every little milestone in your son’s (and now daughter’s) life. Everything from his first real smile, first step and first word.
• Working with who I want…when I want.
• Deciding to splurge on a bottle of Colgin IX Syrah at a steakhouse with your buddies.
• Never waiting in lines because your concierge has put you on the VIP list.
• Not living for the weekends.
• Not having to look at the right-hand side of a menu when deciding what to order.
• Contributing to the causes and charities that are important to me.

Now to be honest, it’s not all good leading the Internet Lifestyle and working out of the house.

Missy will forget I have a “real” job and interrupt me to ask about what kind of rug we should get for the kitchen. Or Zak will knock on my office door during a conference call asking for “DaDa”. Or having the fridge be a few feet away to grab the last slice of pizza anytime I want.

But I wouldn’t want it any other way. Let’s hear your thoughts – post a comment.

What is your Internet Lifestyle?

What do you love about your own Internet Lifestyle? Or if you haven’t got there yet – how would you like it look like? See if you can list 10 things…