Ivaylo's BASE 2.0 Journal

[Ivaylo]

The weather here... is hot as f... 40°C/105°F for about a week now. The temperature itself makes me easily distracted, Combined with the waves of half-naked cute girls roaming the streets, it's a productivity nightmare. A bit ironic, considering that I'm working on a self-help product focused on productivity. Not sure how that's going to turn out, lol. As a temporary solution to the heat and lack of focus, I've started taking cold showers every 8 hours and it pays off.

I'm not going into details about any of the products I'm working on since most of them have at least some brainwave entrainment component, which makes me somewhat of a competitor to Shannon. Every step of progress, which I share has some marketing value, so this part of the journey shall remain untold.

Still, early in the morning and late at night (when it's still relatively cool), I'm easily the most productive. It's absurd how I can focus for hours and only stop when I begrudgingly admit to myself that I have to go to sleep at some point. Maybe that's because I'm literally getting a taste of my own medicine (the product), and BASE may have something to do with this as well.

[Ivaylo]

Tomorrow is game time - I'm starting to bring paid traffic to my self-help products. My beta-testers report decent results, which makes me excited, considering how ineffectively they use what I give them. I've rewritten parts of the user manual several times so people can understand what's expected of them... but in the end it's outside of my control. And these are smart, smart people we're talking about here. Well, by their standards, they are satisfied with the product so I'll just take what I can get.

So, at this point I have one mid-range product at $89 one-time fee, as well as 3-4 (and counting) at the $19-$27 range. Tomorrow I'm starting to drive paid traffic to niche Facebook pages, which correspond to the cheaper products I have. I expect to sell a fair chunk of those and continue to pour money into paid traffic.

It's a small miracle I've managed to get this done in the weather we're having here. It's so hot here, that despite my best efforts, most of my days I spend in some sort of daze. I keep myself hydrated, I take cold showers... but I'm still moving through space as if I'm in a dream. I have naturally low blood pressure, so that might be part of the reason why.

That's only what happens during the days, though. At night it's a whole different story - killer productivity, focus, energy. Hopefully in a month the temperatures will have fallen and I'll start putting in 12-hour work days as before.

As my productivity rises, if everything goes well, I'll continue to churn out niche self-help products even faster. There seem to be a lot of niches that need attention and are not getting any. The biggest asset, of course, are going to be the paid customers and the audiences I can reach via the Facebook pages. Earning the most money I can in the process will also help.

[Ivaylo]

Since I haven't been sharing many successes here for a while now, I think I'm going to remedy this right now. So, I'm in my last days of Stage 3, second run-through, and here's a little recap of my progress in the last few months:

Health:
I'm probably in the best physical shape of my life. That's not saying a lot, but still - my body fat is around 12%, and I'm stronger and with greater stamina than ever. I'm also a lot more aware of my body, almost as if I can pinpoint the actual role of every muscle and joint even as I'm casually walking down the street.

Romance:
I seem to be intimidating cute girls left and right when I go out, just by making eye contact with them on the street. At this point I'm surprised if the girl doesn't look down at the ground before again looking up to me. Even then, when they see my surprise, they seem to perceive that positively, and why wouldn't they. The only correlation I can muster to explain this is with my haircut experiments I started doing a few months ago... and another explanation would be BASE itself.

I haven't gone in a committed relationship though, as I was considering doing a few months ago. I was considering this while I was resting after my first round of BASE and then it took 1-2 weeks of round 2 to make me give up the idea almost completely. The quality of the girls with whom I choose to spend time is definitely on the rise, though. I won't be entirely surprised if I do decide I want a monogamous relationship at some point.

Social:
The one area where not a lot of movement is taking place. I'm beginning to think I'm just too critical, but I truly can't find people, who are dedicated to success (and not money in particular). Maybe that's because most of them don't go to networking events because they have work to do. Part of the issue is that I really don't need any new acquaintances in order to do my work, and I don't imagine needing any in the near future. And besides, finding a mastermind group isn't a feature of BASE, which probably explains why this area isn't changing as fast.

I have made a little bit of progress, though, with 2-3 new people with whom I share a commitment to growth, although they have an entirely different non-entrepreneurial direction. Still, it's nice change of pace and they are a pleasant company. Much more to come in that regard, I'm sure.

Business:
My self-help product lineup is shaping up nicely. My beta testers are very satisfied with their results, so even my intro products seem to be easily worth the $27 I'm charging. I might need to make some $9 stuff, though. I'm battling with technical difficulties though, so I still haven't gotten around to driving traffic to my sales pages.

Each new product I make takes me less and less time, which makes me able to target a lot of niches with my cheap products and build relationships off them.
------
All in all - progress is definitely there. I might need to think of ways to speed it up, especially the business part.

[Ivaylo]

I never would have guessed that the primary audience for a productivity product is "women over 35", by a stupidly large margin. My overall click-through male:female ratio is 1:14, while my target group had almost 1:1 ratio.

That's with a gender-neutral ad. I think I'll save some money and target women only next time. I guess I should also rewrite the 2000 word sales copy to appeal to women. From now on, I'm dropping 5-10 bucks on ads even before I have the actual product. I've heard other people do this, but now it really clicked for me.

[Ivaylo]

Stage 4, day ~19, 2nd run

Long time, no write!

I've been making (at least subjectively) great leaps of growth in the last few weeks. This has been done not without massive conscious effort, as well as intense spiritual work. I've still got a lot more work to do before I consider myself successful, but it seems I'm getting a more detailed map of how to get there. I'm not sure how significant the sub's role in this is. In any case, I'm far from blaming the subliminal for anything, and here's why.

Yesterday I took a Myers-Briggs test, almost as a joke. I didn't use to believe in that sort of stuff, which is why it hit me even harder. Turns out I'm an ESTP-A, and it's freaky how much they got right about me. Inability to keep a long-term relationship or follow a long-term goal, great salesman/persuasion skills but inability for true intimacy, etc. While reading my ''profile', I kept thinking "Isn't everybody that way?", only to find out the answer is "No!" after short introspection. Anyway...

What's related to the subs is this - the ESTP type is the most resistant to outside influence out of all 16 possible types. I already suspected that Shannon's subs had found a worthwhile challenge in me even before I ran BASE, but I didn't expect it to be so pronounced.

All in all, the results confirmed what I already knew deep down- I have the full potential (and a lot of the necessary skills) to be a top entrepreneur and I have stubbornness to overcome before I get there. It's a huge relief for me to have things put into perspective so clearly. I am really, truly enjoying the ride.

[Shannon]

Stubbornness was something I had to overcome in myself too. Stubbornness is the immature expression of strong will; the mature version is not stubborn, but strong willed. To change one to the other, I first had to define my stubbornness response so that I could recognize it. Then I had to recognize it, which also took some doing, and whenever I caught myself being stubborn, I had to consciously and rationally consider the situation. I found that I was being ridiculous most of the time, and there was nothing lost and no threat to considering the situation before choosing a path of action, so I started doing that. And whenever I started having a stubbornness response, I would consider it and ask, "Why am I responding this way?" Later I came to find out that stubbornness is the use of strong will to keep you safe in a fear response for this personality. I don't have the same type you do, but I definitely have a very strong will.

Over time with using these subs, and especially AM, and consciously working at it, I became much less afraid and my stubbornness was transformed (with both conscious and subconscious effort) into a calm, rational and reasonable strength of will.

[Ivaylo]

Stubbornness was something I had to overcome in myself too. Stubbornness is the immature expression of strong will; the mature version is not stubborn, but strong willed. To change one to the other, I first had to define my stubbornness response so that I could recognize it. Then I had to recognize it, which also took some doing, and whenever I caught myself being stubborn, I had to consciously and rationally consider the situation. I found that I was being ridiculous most of the time, and there was nothing lost and no threat to considering the situation before choosing a path of action, so I started doing that. And whenever I started having a stubbornness response, I would consider it and ask, "Why am I responding this way?" Later I came to find out that stubbornness is the use of strong will to keep you safe in a fear response for this personality. I don't have the same type you do, but I definitely have a very strong will.

I guess I "dreamt my best solution" last night based on this. The definition for stubbornness I came up with this morning was "strong will, not exercised in my best self-interest". Consequently, since then I'm noticing myself behaving like a whiny kid, so I guess it's working, lol. I appreciate the input, Shannon, as always! Thanks!

[Shannon]

That is a perfect definition of stubbornness.

[Ivaylo]

Thank you, Shannon. It continues to be a really useful definition for me.


Anyway, it has been... wow, more than a month since I last wrote. This is probably part of why it feels so different to write here again. It's not the bigger part, though.

A lot more inner work took place during this month. The cornerstone of which was me, experimenting with... introversion. Turns out, for all the bad press that introversion gets in our society, it holds a lot of value to master that end of the spectrum as well. As cliche as it may sound, introversion allows you to know yourself. And it turned out I didn't know squat about myself.

As I shared to a friend last week, "I usually know more about a person in the first 60 seconds of meeting him than I know about myself right now after 27 years." This probably sounds bizarre, but it was the cold, hard truth for me.

The reason it feels different when I write this is that I don't need the words (or I need them much less) to be laid out in front of me in order to make sense of them, as I did before. This time, the only reason I can think of is to share my thoughts for anyone, who might benefit from reading them.

Still a lot of work to be done, but I get the feeling that this is how stubbornness and general resistance gets overcome - by paying attention to it, by reaching within and doing what you do from there - instead of my previous mode of operation which consisted almost exclusively of moment-to-moment decisions with a very weak, almost non-existent, overarching theme in general.

That doesn't seem like a very good way to be an entrepreneur and build a business that grows and/or scales. To make a quick buck - yes, But a different lifestyle, focused on the long term, requires change in personality, or better yet - simply maturing.

Realizing this is the good news. Now back to work.

[Ivaylo]

Stage 6, day 5(?)

Another long time without posting, but I guess that's how it's going to be. I really don't seem to have much of value to talk about, although this is not entirely true...

What I've become aware of recently is that I'm no longer dividing my time into work and play. It's just one uninterrupted flow of events. This is a paradigm shift, that solves a lot of personal problems for me. For one, although my income has not increased significantly yet (although it very well can in the upcoming months), I'm definitely happier with what I'm doing than before.

Another "side effect" of this is that I can see myself growing as a professional, as well as a person... I can see it spilling over to other parts of my life in all kinds of deep ways... which, as I've realized, is EXACTLY what has to happen for me to be focused and happy with my work and life in general.

In other news, since I've started stage 6, I went from sleeping 6/7 hours per day to sleeping 8+. Not sure what's happening, but I've never had such well-defined difference in my sleep needs from transitioning from one stage to another, even in my first run of BASE.

... And also, I seem to be scoring within ENTP as Myers-Briggs type indicator, instead of ESTP like I used to. There are also several different aspects of my life, in which I find myself much more ready to go with the flow, instead of being apprehensive about it. There are still a few areas, where that's not yet the case, though, but I'll get the hang of them too.

P.S. Third run (BASE 2.1) is simply inevitable. I can't imagine running anything else yet.

[Ivaylo]

Last few days - I'm getting into a lot of confrontation without even knowing it (or caring about it)... not sure if being alpha or just insensitive, although the former seems more likely. I definitely cleared some shit up in the last week or so, not sure if that's what's causing this.

The cherry on top of everything was just minutes ago, when a Facebook friend whom I barely know wants me to like his page, where he posts "funny" videos, where I find the humor pretty distasteful. I wish him good luck with his endeavor, I'm happy for him that he's trying to build something, but I'm not going to like his page because I don't enjoy that particular type of humor. (without going into details)

Well... next thing I know, he cusses at me and adds me to his block list. I am almost considering moving to another country, just to see if I will be pissing them off too.

Yes, this guy obviously has issues, but when such things start happening left and right... I can't help but wonder if I'm doing something wrong. Hopefully, things will level out eventually.

[Ivaylo]

The MBTI framework is turning out to be much more powerful tool for personal growth than I thought at first. Sadly, a quick glance over the Internet tells me that literally no one is using it in that particular way.

Most people online seem to have their type figured out like it's set in stone, and then they try to use that knowledge to choose better friends, partners, jobs, etc. It's still a mature way of dealing with the world, but it's just not as fun as simply breaking through all limitations of your particular type. Even though MBTI speaks of the "balanced individual" who is supposed to score in the middle of all four continuums, that is still a fairly crude way of putting it.

I'm not sure if the topic warrants a paid info-product, but a controversial blog post or two... plus a free report giveaway in exchange for an e-mail address -- that's definitely doable.

[Adri]

You're right! A lot of people let their type define themselves, because now they know who they are... You can see them at those MBTI seminars wearing tags with their type and just showing it to everybody proudly.
Sadly most growth come from integrating those other parts of yourself which you have not integrated yet. When you look at powerful people, most of them are quite balanced around the quadrants !
So definitely if you could show people what they're "doing wrong" with the Myers Briggs and then showing them the way out, maybe that's a good idea... Let's just see how many of them are up for the challenge hehe !

[Ivaylo]

Thank you, Adri, you unwittingly (or maybe fully intentionally) gave me a new angle on how to approach this.


Anyway... last few days were close to a complete disaster. Almost zero productivity, total lack of motivation... and to top it off, I am constantly tired. I was at a networking event just now and at 9pm I was already tired, unfocused and without any desire to socialize. I've only had one small (330ml) beer, so it's definitely not the alcohol to blame. It is simply ridiculous, I have no other way of putting it. Now it's 11pm and I'm half-asleep in front of my computer, writing this.

I have 1-2 more days of stage 6 of BASE... and then for some much, MUCH needed rest. The wrap up for this second run is this:
- Income wise I'm on the same level, although I expect one project to start giving fruit in the coming weeks. That's the least impressive aspect of these last six months.
- I am doing things, that I enjoy much more.
- I am helping people first, earning money second.
- Emotionally and mentally I feel much more mature. (although in this particular moment I feel like a whiny idiot )
- For the first time, I have a long term plan on how I want my life to play out, at least professionally. This is coupled with a very conservative vision of how I can contribute to society and mankind, which I hope is only going to become more ambitious as time goes on.
- Intimate relationships, on the other hand, continue to baffle me immensely and I seem to be stuck in a cycle of emotional extremes. Feelings of intimacy, followed by disappointment or rejection... followed by even deeper appreciation for the feminine... followed by a conclusion that maybe celibacy doesn't sound too bad. BASE is not the tool for this job, I know.
- Socially, I'm somewhat better off. Meeting lots of new people, who are ambitious and positive. That's not creating any opportunities for me though, since my work is completely based online and in the vast majority of cases - theirs isn't.

So, this is it. Given my current state, I'm very surprised I managed to write so much words, and a lot of it sounds positive. I may have something to add tomorrow. Hopefully it will be a better day.