Amazon Seller Central accounts outside of US
Amazon is the place to be if you’re in e-commerce, or you’re looking to get started with an online business.
It’s been some since I’ve done an update, so here is what’s up.
To start, I moved from Mexico to Europe, the Swiss/Italian Alps. Woah - big change is right. Learning Italian like mad now, but having the challenges of finding myself in the emergency room at 11pm with zero way to communicate, creates a stronger sense of focus.
A few great things professionally about my move is that 1) it’s over - the planning to move here was almost like a full time job, and 2) it has allowed me to begin a project that I used to talk about wanting to do, somewhere in the fuzzy, distant future. As in ten years, this is what I’d like to be doing.
I want to build a tribe of social entrepreneurs, that help each other create and pursue work/projects/lives that matter, to them personally.
The problem is, I’d always make excuses. I can’t do that now, I have to do this. The timing isn’t right. You can’t make money doing this.
Or, I’m scared it won’t work out, and I’ll look like a fool.
Then I read a book - The One Thing. The premise is to ask yourself one question - “What’s the one thing you could be working that will make all other tasks easier, or unnecessary.”
As a fun exercise, go ahead and ask yourself that right now.
As a multi-business owner, that one hit me hard, because I like to change projects as it fits my mood. As Seth Godin told me in my podcast interview with him - I’m ADHD and I see that as a gift. That’s exactly how I am, all over the place.
So I kept on thinking about it. A night, turned into a weekend, which turned into a week. Then it struck me - I’m all about eCommerce, selling products. I love to create things, and selecting a good product that sells automatically online, even when I’m on vacation or helping other people start their own businesses, is what I love doing. But it can’t be just any product, it has to be a product that is about me - what I love doing, what I want to stand for. And the purpose of the business has to be about something other than just money - it should be serving a greater cause, contributing, rather than just taking away or not making a difference.
So my new Passion Project Business is all about these things. Teaching people how to create a business that 1) provides for them financially 2) gives them freedom 3) and most importantly, provides purpose in their lives. To me, it’s all about the last item. It’s why I started working on that fuzzy 10 year vision I had of myself, and what I wanted to be doing more than anything else.
But the feeling that I get now when I start my work day is all about excitement. I know that the phone isn’t going to ring with some detail or problem about something I’m not interested in solving. I’m now working on things that I’m actively interested in. And everything I do is fully aligned with this vision. It’s my One Thing.
So what does this mean for you?
Well, if you want to come along for the ride, I’m opening doors now to my community. To get in, you should know that the community is not about money and lifestyle. Yes, you will have those, but it’s not what I’m about. I have these things, and I knew that they weren’t enough. They help, and they are the only way you can really work on things that matter, but they are nothing more than side benefits.
This community is about building companies that provide fulfillment for the owner. It’s about giving back - and yes, I will encourage every entrepreneur in my community to give a portion of their profits back to a cause that gives them additional purpose in their lives.
And no, it’s not going to be a charity. Charities have a place, but I’m a for profit guy because more money coming in can do more good towards the causes I believe in. It can allow me to hire more people to create more content and products that further fulfill my passion and purpose.
I’m also reading the book Bold, by Peter Diamandis. He talks about how exponential technologies and how billion dollar companies can come about in the fastest time in history (I could care less about becoming a billionaire), and how to ride these technologies, and how they disrupt and eventually crush linear old fashioned technologies. Producing products is one of the most linear businesses on the planet, and I’m looking to poke holes in that model and shake some things up. Cause a ruckus…
If you want to find out more about how to come along for the ride, you can check it out here.
Geordie
PS: I hope to see you on the inside, because the community we build is going to be for life, and we’re going to find out just how to help you to do work that matters, to you.
Helping others find purpose & reinventing higher education w/ Jules Schroeder
A life long entrepreneur Jules has decided to follow her passion and help people find their purpose and find a better way to get educated that traditional higher education.
I recently read two fantastic books. If you’re an entrepreneur or business owner you may have heard of them, or maybe even read them. But have you yet taken action on them?
I’m here to help you take action, and part of that action is going to be helping you set up your daily routine.
The two books are the Slight Edge, by Jeff Olson, and The Compound Effect by Darren Hardy. In reality, these two books are equally as good and practically the same content, however, I found the latter to be slightly more useful because it’s accompanied with supplemental work sheets that help you map out your goals called - Living Your Best Year Ever. You could read one of the three, I read them all because frankly, they’re that good.
The premise of these books is that your life is made up of a series of small, but important decisions that lead you down one of two paths. One going upwardly, exponentially growing to achieving your every dreams, or a downward spiral manifesting itself into poor health, poor finances and broken relationships. If it sounds grim, it’s not, I found the books to be positive, optimistic, and keep in mind, changing your path from the one to the other, can happen at any point in your life. Much as I discussed in a previous post called the best time to start something is now, living your best year ever doesn’t need to start on January 1. For me I was introduced to the Living Your Best Year ever in December. It took me about 10 hours (completed over a week) to do the goal mapping for the year, but it was well worth the effort. Another premise of the book I found memorable - People often over estimate what they can do in a day, and under estimate what they can do in a year.
But, I fell off the wagon about two months ago after a long and arduous travel schedule, and I lost momentum. So, I’m starting again, not really from scratch, but in earnest. I’m going to map out my daily routine, because without a doubt both authors equivocally state that without a daily routine, and goals that you both map and work towards, you’re drifting aimlessly more than likely on the downward path.
Here is an example of my daily routine, yours doesn’t need to be the same, but I strongly encourage you to come up with some type of daily routine so that you can move closer towards your goals. And, I’d love to hear about your own version below in the comments. Please do share.
A Day In The Life > Routine version 1
5am - Alarm goes off (Yes, I’m a morning guy, and I used to not even use alarms, but I sleep better with one knowing I don’t have to worry about checking the time in the morning).
5:10 - 5:30. Meditation on daily goals, focus, creativity, whatever you want to mediate on. Andrew Warner got me started on meditation, which I basically started 1 day after this interview with him on meditation and reaching your goals. I use the app Headspace.com because the guy has a soothing voice, and they auto time you, so I don’t have to be distracted by thinking about when my session will end. I do 15 minutes because they recommend 5 minutes longer than you think you can. I’ve done 20 minutes, but that is a lot of time for me.
5:30 - 6am - I do 15 minutes of language learning (using duolingo.com - I finished Spanish and am moving on to Italian), I do this while I’m making strong espresso for my wife and me.
6am - 6:30am - This time for me is the core part of my setup for success routine. I start with a Gratitude Journal, where I spend 3-5 minutes writing down something (google docs, or evernote) I’m grateful for. I love the quote - Happiness stems from gratefulness. There will always be guys/gals doing “better” than me (seemingly) but if I’m grateful for what I have, and I have LOADS to be grateful for, I’m on that upward path to staying happy. I also write out my top 3 most important tasks for the day (I call them Daily Big 3). I use evernote to map these out because it has an easy check box option to put next to each of them. The key is that you split each task out to something that will move you or your business, personal life or work towards a weekly goal, which in turn works toward a monthly goal, and ties back in to the ultimate goal of where you hope to be in 365 days.
6:30am - 7am - Green smoothie time. Yep, I’m kind of a health nut too, so I start off every day with a green smoothie, it actually agrees with me and gives me the most energy for the day. I usually use spinach and some type of citrus as my base (orange, grapefruit or sometimes carrot juice but water is good too), and mix in at least one type of sweet fruit so it at least tastes good. I also squeeze in lime and put in a healthy dose of Aztec Sea Salt ( a tip I learned from a NYT best selling author - if you want to learn how to create the perfect “All Day Energy” drink, check it out). At ten minutes to 7, I take my eldest son down to his bus for school. I enjoy this as part of my routine, I also help out with him getting ready for school during this time.
7am - 8:30am - Complete at least 1 of my Daily Big 3 tasks for the day. Sometimes, I’ve been able to complete two of these tasks. Notice, so far I’ve not said anything about email, checking the news, or checking facebook. I sometimes do this, but I’ve found that doing this gets me distracted, so I’m now going to try and not even check email but once quickly around 7am to make sure there are no emergencies, and then I’m telling my team not to expect to see emails until at least noon, my time.
8:30am - 10am - Exercise. This isn’t about me telling you the benefits of exercise, but I need it and without it I’m a wreck so I indulge. Usually, it’s a mix of high intensity workouts, and lower more enjoyable things like surfing, running, etc. Mix it up, and I do it 7 days a week. Really, this hour could be inter-mixed with some type you time, easy yoga stuff, or even delayed until the afternoon when you could go for a walk, meet a friend for coffee, or spend time with your children. I do believe in at least 90 minutes of you time unplugging in some way during the day.
10am - 12pm. Finish off Daily Big 3 tasks. This is a newer directive for me, I used to have this hour blocked off for at least one type of sales calls, or a call that moves my business forward, but I’m going to try and not do that any more unless necessary. For this time, I plan to work exclusively on a task(s) that will help me complete my weekly task/monthly task, or move my goals forward.
12pm - 12:30pm - Check email/lunch. Drats, I’m not in the position where I can’t get away from doing this. Hopefully, I can just batch answer as many emails as I can, and move on from this, but part of good communication and customer service involves email. That’s life, deal with it, but be as effective as you can by batching and limiting yourself to short bursts periodically throughout the day. That means closing out email programs, GMail or whatever app you use.
12:30 - 4 or 5pm. All Hell Breaks Loose. This is the reactive part of your day. If you’re lucky, you can work on more goals, or complete goals that you weren’t able to finish in the morning, or simply just work on parts of your business that come up. This is also where you can put in sales calls, idea extraction calls, customer service calls, meetings with your team, do your prospecting, etc. If I have some quiet time, I usually try and squeak in an hour of some type of training too. For me, a big part of my year is learning how to run traffic, so I’m usually studying up on some aspect of this.
5-6pm. Sometimes it’s earlier, depending on how productive I may have been with my day, sometimes it’s later if I had a particularly busy day but you need a way to close down your day. In this hour, I actually keep a journal of what I did, my DIT Journal (Did It Today). This actually journals what I accomplished, and it’s a big recommendation that Darren and Jeff talk about in their books. If you actually journal what you did, as opposed to what you will do, you’ll be amazed at how much more you actually accomplish. This makes sense, so I’m doing it too, and it doesn’t take long. I will also answer any lingering emails, and I can relax with some brain candy Facebook, checking news, etc. I no longer really post, or check facebook feeds because I feel a bit icky after I do this - of course I scan a bit quickly but not much. I do check my Instant Messages because some times it’s the only way some people know how to get in touch with me.
6pm - 10pm I shut down. I even put my phone away, and I focus on whatever is going on with my family or what’s happening during that precise time. I’ve put in a good day by now, it’s time to turn off work, and focus on what is going on in your house and being offline is an important part of that. This could be relaxing, reading, meeting with friends, going out and enjoying the summer daylight, you name it, but I’m a big fan of unplugging at 6pm. We always have a family dinner where we sit together, and I’m lucky enough to catch a glass of wine with my wife down on the beach too during this hour, (many grateful journal entries on this). I usually try and read at least 10 pages per day on some type of informative, business related, or inspirational type of material.
Whew, and that’s it.
So, here’s the part where we can help each other out. I’ve also picked up an accountability partner. This is someone that I meet with once a week for 30 minutes, and we talk about our daily, weekly wins, losses, or Aha moments. This is hugely helpful, and I want to help people out that may also be interested in this. If you write to me (simply respond in the comments below) or ask me to connect you with someone (provided enough of you show interest), I’ll do that. If enough people write in, I want to also hold a free and impromptu google hangout talking more in depth about this system of goals and mapping out successful routines. The schedule for this could be put into the comments as well.
If you’re interested in finding an accountability buddy, let me know and I’ll try and match you up with anyone else that wants or needs a buddy. Also, let me know if you’d like for me to do a Google Hangout on routines, or these three books. Or, check them out yourself. You’ll be one step closer to reaching your dreams.
Have fun, and here’s to being productive. Don’t forget to post a comment below about your daily routine. I’d love to hear about it, I’m sure others would as well.
How to Self Publish a Best Selling Book with Chandler Bolt
[powerpress]
Chandler’s entrepreneurial journey started at an extremely young age and led him to drop out of college to pursue his passion, writing and publishing books.He’s seen the best success with self publishing books and has written several best selling books. (linked up down in the resources) From that success he’s built an online school to help folks write, market, and self publish their…
Enlist Moms | Over 100K Moms Strong!
Do you have an Amazon business, or product related business that appeals to women? I do. This service throws great twitter parties, is great for driving reviews, and traffic in general. Check it out if you think it might work for you.
SaaS Metrics 2.0 – A Guide to Measuring and Improving what Matters
“If you cannot measure it, you cannot improve it” – Lord Kelvin This article is a comprehensive and detailed look at the key metric
This is a great article on how to keep track of the metrics you need to know about.
