Rock Star Lifestyle Design

What’s crackin rock stars? It’s been a long week here and it’s only friggin Wednesday. Was this the life that I wanted to get into doing the Internet Lifestyle stuff?

The video I threw up last week sure didn’t make it seem like I was growing grey hair and stressing like Martin when Gina gets mad (did you pick up on that?)

Listen, as much as I love the Internet Lifestyle and the luxuries in time and freedom, product launches are a pain in the ass, especially when you get into what we just did, software. Anyway, next week I’ll have a pretty good run down of the launch and the things you can do better and the things we could do better (along with what went great - like the pre-launch, which many are calling overrated or dead or lame).

Anyway, so last night was part of the craziness. Social Media Club Orlando asked me to present on Social Media Metrics to a crowd that included local Orlando Sentinel reporters, ESPN Radio hosts, the Sea World social media team and ton of other cool people in the space. I had a great time talking about crowdsourcing contests.

I had run 2 contests recently and both went really well for the branding and bottom line numbers of both instances.

An Epic Change Of Sorts

Anyway, after the event I was approached by Stacey Monk and Sanjay Patel from Epic Change. I had been meaning to get to know them for almost 2 years now and we always seemed to miss each other. We are only about an hour and a half away from each other - both helping to change the world from our little home offices.

I first ran into Stacey while working on a project for Lee Cockerell called Creating Gen-Y Magic - a site where we spoke with Gen-Y’s and saw how they were creating magic in the lives of others through their work.

From there I have seen them literally take over the social media world with their fundraising campaigns for Tweetsgiving and To Mama With Love. Talking with them last night really got me thinking about my life and some of the changes I have gone through and some of the goals I still want to accomplish.

Goals to help more young people become rock stars in their own life. Goals to help more musicians quit their day jobs and perform music that inspires others and get paid very well to do so and well, personal and selfish goals of making a ton of money by helping people and rocking my own ass off through products, live events and coaching.

Personal Motivation

I always believed that learning from others that are doing what you want to do, or living where you want to live, is one of the best personal development tactics you can spend your hours, minutes and seconds on. Tony Robbins was on to something with the NLP strategy of modeling. This basically means that if you want to do something…

find someone that is currently doing it and copy their state, copy their movements, their attitude, their posture, their accents, their stress levels and anything else you can about the person that is achieving those results. If you can copy them and put everything together in the same order, it is like baking a cake and following a recipe. Our minds and bodies behave in the same manner of a recipe - the only problem is that in life we often need to hunt for the success recipe.

That is my interpretation of it at least. ON my own quest over the last 2 weeks I have been reading and diving into a new training series by Karol Gajda called How To Live Anywhere: The Official Guide To Ridiculously Extraordinary Freedom.

Now there have been a ton of product launches in the “do what you want and live wherever and add value and start a business crowd” over the past few weeks and months. Some have been good, most have not. It’s unfortunate because I am sure these people put a lot of time into their products, but many are not living the life they portray. Many are still working towards their goals and have gone on a trip or 2, but are not location independent and rocking an online business doing great.

And then others have this minimalist attitude. Like make your passion your business, throw away all your shit and live of 2g’s a month on some island or 3rd world country.

Sorry that’s not me. I want the Ferrari, the beach house, the girl (check) and some parties that rival P. Diddy in the shiny suit era. I also want to help people, give to some awesome nonprofits and take some trips that you can only imagine but never dream you are there.

You can’t do that kind of shit for 2g’s a month. Even if its on auto-pilot.

Back to Karol. So what I liked about this is that it is multi-engaging through the NLP tactics I stated earlier - modeling. You get to see how he runs his own business, plus look into the businesses of others. If you only look at one dude, you become a clone. I like to be considered a really, really expensive sponge (like the Scrooge McDuck of spunges).

The first thing I did dip into was the guide. In fact, I stopped my pre-launch insanity to take a glance at it and didn’t put it down for like 2 hours. It was that friggin good.

Then I learned he is boys with John Reese. You may know him as an Internet Marketing legend, but I know him as the guy who dropped $1,000 to donate to Rock For Hunger because I was having a bad day on Twitter. (don’t get me wrong I am a member of some of his programs and also an affiliate for his products, but that is now)

Karol has a nice audio interview with the guy that blew my mind. I listened to it on the way to work instead of the leaded Drake record (even though I bootlegged it, I’m still going to buy it). It is the album of the year (unless Em comes all the way with Recovery).

The entire course (more redonkulous stuff than I have time to mention here) is all about this lifestyle that I think we all want to obtain. More time. More adventures. More money. And more life.

This thing we call life is real short. We get caught up in things like work, product launches, clients, weekends, family and all we have left is what we did with our time. I’m glad I spent a few hours going through this course. I’m also glad I got to hang with Stacey and Sanjay. And I’m glad this product launch is making me go friggin nuts (its why this blog post is taking hours instead of minutes).

I get to look back at it all and say I am kicking some ass and rocking out.

I hope that you are too.

-Greg

P.S. Yup, those are affiliate links to Karol’s course: How To Live Anywhere. If you scoop it up, you are helping to fund my rock star life. Which is cool because if we do ever get to hang out, it’ll be like I owe you a beer or something.

P.P.S. Yup, this is Internet Marketing 101. If you buy Karol’s course I am going to hook you up with my new unreleased course called No Limit Networking. No hype today, you will get plenty of that whenever we decide to get it off the shelf. Just email me your receipt to rollettmarketing@gmail.com.

Holler back youngin - woo woo.

top photo by Giampaolo Macorig

It’s been a long time
I shouldn’t a left you
Without a dope rhyme to step 2

I have a killer video I shot for you on online entrepreneurship, affiliate marketing and product creation that I am using to live the Rock Star Life. You will get an inside look at my business and how you can start igniting your own dreams of a rock star lifestyle much sooner than you thought was possible.

The video is a bit long, but it’s one of the dopest free videos I have shot (you know I like to charge for this stuff). Go grab you some pop corn, a Monster Energy Drink and a big ass sheet of notebook paper if you have dreams and goals of making some chedda online this year.

So, that’s what I have popping. Here are some takeaways:

• Create diverse products
• Give the user multiple experiences
• Get paid to test ideas
• Just do it
• Have fun!

Oh, and here’s a cheap plug that No Limit Networking is coming soon. It’s the sexiest launch that I have ever done. You’ve been warned.

Shoot any questions, ideas, comments and stuff below. Let’s start a party to kick off the summer months.

-G

Shout out to AGL Brand. I am rocking the Grassroots Tee in this video. You can scoop one up yourself here.

Sometimes you just find cool people that come into your life and you are like wow, they get it, or they are doing the things you wish everyone you were working with would just shut up and do. Jared Kessler is that kind of guy. We were intro’d to each other by Adam Baker (aka Man vs. Debt), and had a quick phone call about business + music.

A few hours later he had 2 guest posts in my inbox and I was able to check out some of his products and music. I don’t usually mix the music with this site, but Jared is the exception. His music is the gateway to something bigger, yet undefined at the moment. He has studied behind Jonathan Mead, Eben Pagan, “the Billionaire” and others, people whom he has worked with in a 1-on-1 relationship, and others that he has looked into their work as inspiration and used as modeling for his projects.

Jared sells music as well as info products, a physical book and maintains the essential lifestyle design tool, a blog. One that has been retooled to fit his persona, or as he said in the post I just put up at Gen-Y Rock Stars,

Until recently, I was going a certain direction with my book, eBook, music, etc. What happened was, people I think looked at my site a few months back and thought, “Oh this is cool.” But recently I thought, “I don’t want people to think… oh this is cool.” That’s fucking lame! Since recently having these visions I thought, “you know… I’m going to take down that nice little veil I put up where I make myself look and sound a lot better than who I really am. I’m tired of people that are just blasé about the things that I’m passionate about!”

So I reinvented myself.

Took the bullshit curtain down and started to get real with people because… that’s who I am to my core. And when I did that, people were fired up! More importantly, I was fired up – and people could see that.

This is really important to understand and I get caught up in it too. The image that we present to the world needs to be a reflection of self and not a representation of what we think people are going to want to see.

Site note story: Over the past 6 months I began looking at clothing companies to sponsor all the crazy shit I am doing. I went through a ton of companies that offered “cool” stuff. Companies that had a lot going for them and some money in the bank to try some big promotions.

Ultimately I chose AGL Brand (big launch stuff coming soon, right now it’s still a quiet partnership) because of both the style and the message in the brand. Charlie and the crew over there are young entrepreneurs that are more interested in doing, than talking about doing. Charlie also has a brownie brand/company and is looking to expand into other dimensions as well.

That is something that I wanted to be a part of and showcase to the public. I’m proud to rep the Latter (the L in AGL) and am really excited for what we are about to show people.

As part of this outreach with Jared, he wrote some words for RSLD about music + life and I wanted to share them below:

The Real Value In Music

Turn off your radio. Hold your ears the next time you’re in an elevator. When you’re phone rings, silence it. What do you hear?

Nothing.

Although, it’s golden sometimes to hear silence in the wall of noise out there we’re in, you’ll sometimes have to lose something in order to appreciate it again. I feel that is where music is today.

The thing is music is probably more responsible for more successes than anyone talking about “success” really wants to admit. But why don’t they talk about it? Because their not fucking musicians! They have no clue what it takes to bare your soul to an audience of strangers who knows nothing about you, but the songs you sing. What it takes to have to write down a song you have in your head before you take a bite to eat. Stay up late and bang your head against the wall to say that one thing you’ve been dying to say in a song to someone you’re deeply in love with but you just couldn’t find the words to say… so you write it, sing it, or share it in a song.

Whether people are willing to admit it or not, music helps us achieve more things than our society is willing to admit. Music helps us get through:

• Breakups
• Fuckups
• Jobs that suck
• People who suck
• Hard times
• Good times
• Crazy times
• Sad times

As I said before and I’ll say again, music saves more lives than churches do yet we undervalue it today, more than ever.

Putting Value Back Into Music.

Seriously, that sounds like such a fucking daunting task… that just about every label, record executive or online music source is trying to figure out – putting value back into music. Why? Because we fight change, instead of accept it.

Sure there is great music out there, but what does it do for people? Where does it take them? Do you know? Do you care… or are you just so adding to the abundance of noise that is already out there?

For this reason I released my fifth album, “Flight.” It cost me a total of $200 to do (only for the mastering). It’s my fifth album since 1997, and I’m proud to say that I’m selling it as a download only on my web site. No CdBaby. No printing 1,000 cd’s. No hiring graphic designers… a producer or buying thousands of dollars of studio time… just me.

And here is the beautiful thing… nothing gained, nothing lost. If it flops, cool. If it’s a huge “success.” That’s cool too. What I’m saying is, it’s only a piece of me. I’m a brand. A label. A distributor. A marketer. A copywriter. A musician. A composer. A business-owner.
This is the face of music. Ever changing. Ever evolving. Ever flowing.

Are you?

_______________________________________

I wanted to go back and focus really on the last paragraph. Jared is a musician at the core of his business, but he considers himself a label, a distributor, a brand, a marketer, a copywriter, a composer, a business owner, etc.

This is one guy running an operation. A rock star in today’s economy. The virtual CEO. The lifestyle designer who is doing the things they love and working their ass off (not 4 hours a week) to make the things they want to see in their life happen.

I encourage you to check out his music, especially his new album “Flight.” He calls it music for work. I agree. I am working right now and listening. It’s dope, it’s fly and its everything you would expect it to be after getting to know this dude. The music also comes with some cool bonuses.

He also has a really cool guide on mentors. I love the mentor philosophy and have been looking for about 2 years for the right one to pop into my life and make shit happen for me. One of the best quotes in the book is something like the teacher will appear when the student is ready. So true, but damn, I’m ready.

Anyway, what I loved about the PDF is the actionable stuff. I love when I can write out thoughts, or go over checklists. Don’t underestimate the paper and the pen, it is one of the most important tools I’ve used for business success. If you want to learn about mentors and how to apply them into your life, check out the “Uncommon Guide To Finding the Ultimate Mentor.” Yup, that’s an affiliate link.

So, let’s end this post with some questions for the Rock Star community:

• What role do you play in your business? Are you wearing multiple hats because you want to, or because you have to?
• Do you have a mentor? Why or why not?
• What do you think about music in your life? What role does it play?

Let’s chat below.

-Greg

So I know the last few posts have been affiliate promotions, and even though I did my best to make them valuable to you (and I firmly believe in the products) I wanted to spit some straight value today. It’s a quick 5 minute video on doing stuff and adding value to your market.

Over the last few weeks our team has been doing just this and I can honestly say there is a 360 degree of difference in our business and really in our own lives and the lives of others. It all stems from stopping the “talk the talk” mentality and actually “walking the walk.”

Peep the video and holler back in the comments:

So, let’s start a nice “cypher” in the comments.

What are you doing this week that would constitute as “doing stuff” to enhance your business or your lifestyle or what “value stuff” are you providing to others that enhance their business or lives?

My answer: I have written 3 guest posts and shot 3 more videos for other people’s sites, to give value for their readers. I have a nice covert operation to have an amazing St. Patty’s Day with the misses (also happens to be our anniversary) and we’ll close off by picking up the scary phone and learning about more music startups than I knew existed just to hear their models and give some advice.

Your Turn!

-Greg

I like stuff. I work hard so I can buy said stuff. My wife also likes stuff. The boutique with the designer dress type stuff.

I don’t necessarily think this is a problem. We know our limits and when to pull the trigger and when not to. I think that stems from the basis of my entire financial education up till about a year or two ago.

“Money is just money. You either have it or you don’t. You can’t take it with you when you’re dead.”

Thanks dad. That’s been my mantra since I got my first job, working in the backroom at Target and has followed me till this day.

I bought my current car on a Tuesday when I took Jen to the Scion dealership just to look at some cars and get some ideas. When I was surprised that they were willing to give me the payment I wanted, we left with a car.

When we were in Tahoe last winter we wanted to sneak our way into a free snowmobile trip. All we needed to do was sit through a timeshare presentation, firmly say no and off we would go to start backflippin our snowmobiles. Out we walked with a nice, new timeshare (that is much sweeter than we thought and has a super awesome summer retreat planned - half work - half wakeboardin on Lake Tahoe).

Had a good week selling some products, out at the bar with friends, buy drinks.

Had a slower week online, out at the bar with friends, look for happy hour specials.

Then I started reading. A lot.

First was Ramit, right around the time of his book launch for iWill TeachYouToBeRich. Then came the shocker that I was about to lose over $100,000 that I had invested in real estate over the past few years. Our taxes had eclipsed what the land was worth and giving up was the best option. Then came the bankruptcy to the builders of our townhouse community.

Only 5 buildings in out of a proposed 20, Lennar and their builder had decided to abandon the community (I still hate Lennar for how they handled everything and lied to our faces for a hot minute - now they just ignore). So we just lost all of our investments, our home was belly up and this Internet Marketing thing was not cutting it like I wanted (it was about the same time that I left the agency I started to go back on my own).

During this time I kept myself busy writing for this site, pumping out products for the music business and taking on some awesome clients.

All the while things looked sweet from the inside, but on the inside our finances sucked. Our savings had all but disappeared. Our reserve funds, gone.

Things really did suck. The stuff I was used to buying started to disappear - well the tags didn’t get popped like they used to.

Then I Started Reading Adam Baker (aka Man vs. Debt)

This dude had it tough and was telling everyone about it and more importantly how he was going about fixing it. I first met Adam when he dialed into a live chat Jun Loayza and I were having about SEO and StartUps on a Saturday afternoon over uStream. Adam was a fresh faced blogger with a ton of passion.

Over the next few months I watched Adam write some of the most innovative financial blog posts to blow up his SEO and brand and then combat that with really solid and transparent financial advice.

Seeing Adam lay it all on the line, made me rethink my own finances. I started using Mint.com on a regular basis. I started looking into things like online savings accounts and took inventory of all my subscriptions, marketing products, spending habits, lunches and other things that I liked, but were unnecessary.

What Has Happened This Year

Were only 2+ months into the New Year and I can already say things are leaps and bounds better than ever financially. I have launched 2 new products that have produced almost as much revenue for me in 2 months than all of last year (and last year wasn’t bad).

I am on pace to eliminate all non mortgage debt by the middle of this year and have plans to make this actually happen.

I am using Internet Marketing and my business plan to create creative strategies to get rid of debt and get over the fear of looking at my bank accounts everyday.

Here are some things on my calendar that are directly related to my finances:

• New Music Economy - this one product has eliminated one entire credit card and portions of another. All from a product that has literally no overhead and was created over 4 weeks at about 2 hours per week.
• New Music Mastermind - this is a mastermind coaching product that I am launching in May, that will be very exclusive and limited and will eliminate about 80% of the rest of our debt in one day (as long as things go as planned).
• Super Secret Software - we have some super secret software in the works for the Lifestyle Design community that has a goal of producing a big blockbuster launch and then a recurring backend to support 3 people full time with minimal maintenance and it doesn’t need a ton of customers (the true 4-hour workweek product, right?)

Back To Baker

I am a big fan of Baker and it was a lot of what he is talking about that has me thinking about finances. What I really like is that he isn’t Donald Trump or Motley Fool talking about finances. He is someone like me. Someone from Gen-Y that is making a difference with their finances. He has the “I can do it too” teaching mentality and today he is ready to share that with the world.

His new book “UnAutomate Your Finances” is 80 something pages of young money mentality. Don’t let “unautomate” fool you. Baker is not completely taking you away from automating your finances, but actually looking at what you are doing and seeing where the real money is being made and saved. These are the same techniques that he used to knock out $18,000 of their debt and put away $17,000 into savings in a little over a year. Oh, and he’s married and has a little one to take care of.

Did I mention that he still writes killer blog posts, is a founder at UnTemplatr and got Leo from Zen Habits to write the forward?

The eBook is only $17. I told Baker he was crazy. He said he wanted the message into more people’s hands. I’m cool with that.

So I Am Hooking You Up

If you go and grab Baker’s “UnAutomate Your Finances” through my affiliate link (they are everywhere on this post), shoot me your receipt to rollettmarketing@gmail.com and I will send you the Core Influence video from the Rock Star Business Series. The people that have gone through the course say this is the one video that really opened their eyes to what is possible with their lives.

It’s a pretty cool 1-2 combo. Get your mind right and then get your money right (I think a smart guy by the name of Jay-Z said that).

I read the whole think over the weekend and it has me working with Jen to really step our game up. That way we never feel guilty for buying stuff while still keeping our finances tight.

What Is Your Financial Story

Even if you don’t grab Baker’s book, or you got it somewhere else, I’d love to know your financial story! Where are you at and where do you want to be? How are you going to get there? If it’s through Internet Marketing or an online company - what roadblocks or questions are in your way?

Let’s chat in the comments below.

-Greg

Top photo by TrevinC