Archives for October 2009

I love adding sophistication and complexity to my home network.  I suspect that’s typical of technophiles such as myself. But a few months back, I realized that I was adding complexity that didn’t have any value to me whatsoever other than scoring geek points around the water cooler.

I still have some simplification to complete, but I’m gaining on it. I got rid of my Windows Server Active Directory domain and stopped hosting my websites from home over FIOS. I also consolidated my file share and backup servers down to a virtual server running Windows Home Server.

I still have a custom Linux router with SSL VPN in front of the Verizon router and a LinkSys 802.11n wireless router, and the virtual host server box that’s currently running Windows Server 2008 R2 with Hyper-V and some virtuals. And I have three network printers, two desktops and two laptops for family members, and a Mac Mini and a Thinkpad for myself.

In future posts I plan to discuss the specific value I get from each component of the network along with some things I have discovered that others may find useful. Although it may seem like a nice-to-have, I actually find my VPN very useful. And I really like having two ethernet jacks in every room that are already connected to the network and ready to go.

I’m finally learning to ask myself whether I REALLY need a new toy before I go out and buy something new and shiny. If it doesn’t deliver a capability that the family or I will actually use, or if it’s going to require a lot of maintenance, I just don’t need it.

If there’s anything you would like to hear more about, please let me know in the comments.

As I have read through the Bigger Game series, I have come to realize that there is an underlying assumption that the reader is engaged in an online service and/or information product business.  There’s no mention of physical product or manufacturing.  I understand those are different problems, and that’s not where Dave focuses his efforts.  I just want to make it clear that Dave is taking his own advice and focusing on a specific target market.

Given that assumption, in 7 Simple Income Streams That You Can Actually Create, Dave lays out an excellent progression for converting your expertise, services, and knowledge into income.  If you are already doing business as an online knowledge worker, you are quite likely using one or more of these techniques to generate your income.  The income streams that Dave discusses are:

• Tighten your niche – get your stand-out skills out front where potential customers have a reason to choose you.
• Build small products from consulting – This works especially well if you find yourself solving similar problems over and over again for different customers.  Charlie Gilkey’s Email Triage product is a great example.
• Use a membership site to fund content development – This works well after you have a following and reputation.  It rewards your true fans and enables you to work ahead, not behind
• Targeted co-consulting, intra-disciplinary co-op team building, cross-disciplinary team building, and positioning yourself as a resource for other team builders – all variations on a theme.  After you have established your niche around your expertise and knowledge, tie it into other people’s niches, either across levels of skill or across related skills needed to pull together larger projects.

Dave has pulled together a set of approaches that can strengthen your offering to bring new business and increased income to your online service/knowledge business.  If you are engaged in this type of business, I strongly encourage you to read 7 Simple Income Streams That You Can Actually Create.

If you’ve been hearing about people who had a great idea, started with little or nothing, and built a business to support themselves and their families, but thought you couldn’t do it, think again.  A year or so ago, I started exploring different blogs on productivity and business building.  As I explored, I ran across a guy named Clay Collins.  He stood out over many of the other blogs that I read by being plain spoken, down to earth, and completely results oriented. One of Clay’s core principles was freedom to live life according to his own standards.  Clay was able to develop what he calls Freedom Businesses that enabled him to control when and how much he worked.  This so inspired him that he wanted to share what he learned with others.  He founded Project Mojave to share that knowledge with others.

Project Mojave was a success from the very beginning.  A number of members have already built businesses that bring in several thousand dollars per month.  I have been a member for a while myself, and find it both useful and inspiring. Unfortunately I have not been able to carve out the time to work on my business due to winding down the damage from the real estate market collapse.  But that’s finally over, so as Clay relaunches Project Mojave, I’ll be getting in and building my business along with the next group of Project Mojave members.

But it gets even better.  Clay had a great idea for the next iteration of Project Mojave.  He selected two business proposals to develop as part of the program.  He and the selected business founders will video the actual development of their freedom business, so that other members can learn from both their successes and failures.  I am definitely looking forward to this new way of learning more about building a freedom business.  I invite you to join me at Project Mojave if you have any interest in building an online freedom business.

A funny thing happened the other day.  Just as I was posting my review of Dave Navarro’s Bigger Game Part 1, he posted Part 2.  And wouldn’t you know, step #4 in Part 2 was posting reviews.  So for a brief shining moment, I was ahead of the game.  Look out Dave, I’m stalking you!

Part 2 of the bigger game covers networking.  7 Steps For Networking With A-Listers Fast presents effective techniques for building relationships with potential mentors and partners that are farther along in their development than you are.  Dave lists several actions that you can take that will often get you in contact with people that seem so far above you that they would never give you the time of day. 

I can tell you from my own experience that these techniques definitely work. As long as you approach the contact from the perspective of an exchange of value, you will be find that many if not most well known people are quite approachable and helpful.  But don’t expect something for nothing.  There are always people out there who are looking for a handout or a freebie.  A-Listers and celebrities quickly learn how to defend themselves against freeloaders and leeches.  You definitely want to avoid that perception.

I encourage you to read 7 Steps For Networking With A-Listers Fast and implement Dave’s suggestions.  If this helps you make a connection, let me know in the comments.  Let’s network!

I’ve been following Dave Navarro for a while, and received some solid insights from a number of his blog posts and his product launch ebook. Recently, Dave decided to play a bigger game.  Even better, he decided to invite others to play as well.

Dave started out in the online biz world with a personal growth and development blog at http://www.rockyourday.com/ and later shifted into product launch coaching and support at http://thelaunchcoach.com.  But he obviously didn’t stopped thinking about growth and development.  Recently he kicked off a hard-hitting series of blog posts with support materials titled 7 Steps To Playing A Much Bigger Game.  I found this very timely, as I have been thinking about how to get moving faster on my transition to the next level of business development.

Dave leads off with one of his favorite themes – nothing significant gets done without hard work.  He then segues into taking actions that match up with your goals.  Small actions will not enable you to accomplish big goals. The problem is that you are accustomed to your small action comfort zone.  There’s pain, difficulty, and fear in stretching to bigger actions. But truly, it’s worth the effort.  I like to think of Charlie Gilkey’s Dread-To-Work Ratio – don’t let apprehension get out of proportion to the actual difficulty involved.

Dave then points out that it’s easy to lose sight of your potential value. Just because it seems easy or insignificant to you doesn’t mean it’s of no value. It’s far better to get on with what you can do rather than worrying about it not being good enough.  You improve by doing.  Sometimes you’ll fail, but that’s part of the game. It’s better to learn and grow from your failures than sit around wishing you were good enough to automatically succeed.

The next step is to look for ways to reduce or eliminate steps needed to reach your goals, and figure out how to take bigger steps toward them to accomplish them more quickly. Don’t be intimidated to approach others that can help you reach your goal – they are people too.  Wherever possible surround yourself with those who are already playing a bigger game. It’s human nature to strive toward parity with those around you.  Much better to align with those who will pull you up rather than pulling you down.

And don’t be afraid to invest in yourself and your ventures as long as the risk is within reason and there is a quantifiable return.  Any significant achievement will require investments of time, money, or both.

None of these things are completely new advice. But Dave has put together a compelling call to action with specific actionable steps to up your game.  And he also put together a workbook to help you associate specific actions to each of the seven steps.  I know that I intend to play along, and I invite you to play as well. In case you missed it at the top, here’s the link again – 7 Steps To Playing A Much Bigger Game.