Turn Up the BASE - My Entrepreneurial Journal

[heavysm]

I have just purchased BASE after a nice 2 month run on LTU. I know I could and possibly ‘should’ have gone longer on LTU, but I wasn’t feeling the proper motivation and purpose that running my businesses requires. LTU is amazing and I recommend it 100x over to anyone interested in healing past issues and going through deep self examination (sometimes we need to resurrect the skeletal remains in our closest and deal with them properly).

But anyway, on with BASE now.

My life: I am an entrepreneur running 3 businesses, all of which are online. I am looking to turn around a pretty slow year. I’ve just started a kindle publishing business in which I write fiction, non-fiction and whatever else I feel like. It is in high hopes that I can get back on track with the proper motivation fuel to kick out some high impact stories.

Just so you guys/gals can see a bit more into my business (you’ll see I’m generally pretty open about my business stuff) I’ll share whenever I have a relevant project, like a published book, so you all can see tangible progress throughout the coming months.

My other businesses are sort of on the back burner; I do email marketing and consulting and SEO, the SEO business being my very first business from back in 2009, and the email business from around 2013.

I don’t really care if either of those latter 2 businesses gets revived, really. I like writing fiction. I read about a book per day (I give myself 2 hours to read every day as habit – obviously longer books take a little longer) so I’m always looking for new ideas and plots to create.

My expectations from BASE: I expect it to increase my productivity such that I become far less distracted. I want to nail in the mindset of finishing smaller projects (like short stories and actually publishing them) so that I have far greater consistency in my work.

So, really, I am not going into this as the average Joe looking to become a businessman but as a businessman who wants to reignite the fire. I am no stranger to hard and often tedious work, but I’m hoping that once I get some traction outsourcing work will make more sense.

So let’s turn up the BASE, people. We’ll see where I am and what I’m doing in 6 months time.

*This is not intended to be a short term journal. I plan on rerunning BASE over and over until I feel the desired results. The only other subs that *might* potentially interest me is the All-In-One Writers sub, but I don’t think that’s coming around soon =/

**Holy hell one track is 80 minutes long?! Sheesh lol

[koshas]

Nice to see a base journal.hope you keep it updated.

Base is going to be my next sub purchase in 3 months.

[heavysm]

Nice to see a base journal.hope you keep it updated.

Base is going to be my next sub purchase in 3 months.

I'm planning for a long term journal that goes through all the resistance i face, and hopefully (ideally), the promise land of being a fired up businessman who balances ethics and profits.

That was me when i first started. I thought and planned may more than i implemented though, which was from fear of not knowing what would happen (fear of success?).

Updates should be every two weeks so i have plenty to report and/or whenever i have something significant to say, which could be quite often lol

[heavysm]

Stage 1 day 4

Starting to feel this sub already...

The motivation and productivity are what hit first within the first two days. At first my head felt a little hot, like I had taken a nasty pharmaceutical with odd side effects. Then within the first day it dissipated and I felt a passive need to get things done.

When I read I remember the details far easier and I am now able to read several books at once and still understand them (meaning that I can read part of one book, put it down, pick up another and remember all the details from each). That is crazy but I’m guessing it’s the MLS kicking in. Definitely surprised with that.

A brilliant business idea occurred to me which expands upon my email business. It will take about 2 months of solid work to get things rolling but I should have some passive free traffic hitting my sites soon. I’m not sure why I didn’t think of this before since the idea is just to combine two different models into one, like offering a car wash at a gas station; it’s a complementary service that a lot of people opt for.

My twist is that I will be able to use the unprofitable portion of my business, the people who leave my sites, and make some $$ from them without any ethical breaches or annoyances. It’s almost perfect if I’m thinking this idea through well enough. The beauty here is that the traffic comes to my site free, and I make that backend $$ for essentially infinite return on investment (there is no investment, except for time).

Looking over the instructions for BASE and I’m a tiny bit disappointed that Ultra Motivation isn’t in every stage. I’m feeling the motivational pull and that’s actually incredibly crucial for action based execution. I don’t want the motivation to dip on the non-UM stages and suddenly I’m dead in the water because I don’t feel like working That’s not a feeling I want to have, and I hope dearly that it doesn’t strike me.

If all goes well I should have a solid publishing business and side income from this new email stuff as I get my sites sorted with traffic pretty soon.

Pretty darned excited so far. And only 4 days in lol

[apollolux]

I like reading about success stories of internet businesses. It gives me confidence that it is indeed possible to be successful in this field if one is willing to put in the work.

I look forward to promoting my upcoming project+task management subscription SAAS to you soon, heavysm!

[heavysm]

I like reading about success stories of internet businesses. It gives me confidence that it is indeed possible to be successful in this field if one is willing to put in the work.

I look forward to promoting my upcoming project+task management subscription SAAS to you soon, heavysm!

I'll have to ask then, how is your product/service different from programs like Simpleology and Basecamp?

I've tried both of those for personal management and neither really did anything for me.

It seems creating my own systems for organization are best, so I'd likely not need your service. How is your service better/different?

This is your USP, by the way (your Unique Selling Proposition). From one business owner to another I need to really feel that your software is invaluable to my business. For me, that's what closes the sale and strengthens your sales pitch overall.

apollolux, if you have further to say regarding your service please PM me rather than posting here so we can have a more detailed/intimate discussion

[apollolux]

I sent you a PM, heavysm. I appreciate you considering my promotion line as I intended, me being inspired by internet success such as yours, and your choosing to offer advice and recommendations instead of dismissing me offhand.

[heavysm]

Stage 1 day 8

Feeling a bit of a shift now…

Daily upon waking I reflect over my goals so my actions are better directed and realigned to what I really want.

One of my routines is to look over my written goals, and it just happens that on around day 5 I crossed out my old income targets and added a few zeros. It might take a tiny bit longer to get there but somehow I feel like that isn’t a problem at all. It’s a challenge, definitely, but one that I’m completely willing to take on.

My mind is now buzzing with different ideas for expanding my business. Even when I’m doing something banal like waiting for my meal at a restaurant I’ll think of the pros and cons of different ideas in depth. I’m now using a stylus with my cell phone to mind map and jot down different ideas.

I’ve changed my original idea to redirect my site’s exit traffic, and I’m aiming those efforts now to building a new type of email list.

I randomly came across a really strong MRR product (master resell rights) which I can rebrand as my own. I’m going to use that as my sales funnel trip wire, gather subs and sales from that, then sell ad space on my email list thereafter.

The idea is really strong because the product is a monthly membership and it looks great (which is why I bought it) and the subscribers come from traffic that I push for free through my funnel. It will just take a little work to build up momentum for that free traffic, but not a big deal.

Then the sales from selling ad space in my emails will be additional profit (to be fair every penny I make from this project will be profit since my traffic all free). I already have a handful of businesses lined up that I know will gladly fork over $$ for this because they can always use cheap advertising.

Days 4 and 5 were heavy resistance days for me. I felt crabby, mentally unclear, and generally moody. I couldn’t think very well and nothing really happened during those days which really pissed me off.

Generally speaking, however, motivation is smooth and ambition is high. This is quite a shift from me, especially compared to the February/ March period where I felt everything was going wrong. I expect the motivation and drive to get things done to expand and deepen as I continue onward.

[heavysm]

Stage 1 Day 12

Feeling things go more my way lately.

During one string of driving trips I was able to park right in front of super busy major malls, stores and highly trafficked parking lots. This has never happened to me in all my life. In the past it’s been so bad that that I now make it a point to park at the far end of any parking lot I’m in so I don’t feel like a roaming shark trying to find that one miracle parking space. I’m attributing this to luck magnifier.

Money is coming to be is small spurts randomly now, which is a very nice thing.

But the biggest change is that I feel rock solid, confident, motivated, and willing to kick some serious ass. Some days have resistance, yes. But that overall driven feeling has been pretty consistent since I’ve started stage 1 and I’m lovin’ it. This is what I want to feel like at all times; my business vision passively in the back of my mind as I go about my day.

I’ve also found that my general ability to learn and adapt has improved. I play chess with friends and clients, but most of the people I play with are a lot better than me. It just took a couple matches over the last couple of days for some of my clients to compliment me on magically becoming better almost overnight lol

I don’t fall for the same strategic mistakes that I used to, and even though these people are rated higher than I am I now easily recall their strategies from past games and act accordingly. That’s an improvement I was dying to develop because it sucks losing game after game when I know I can do so much better.

[heavysm]

Stage 1 day 16

Feeling the laser-like focus kicking in now. My attention to detail has strengthened and I am no longer afraid or fearful of taking on bigger projects that might mean a huge payday but tons and tons of work to get off the ground. I suppose that’s the seek the challenge kicking in as well? I’m not sure, but I like it.

I have roughly 45 days of work ahead of me for my current project of setting up free properties to funnel free traffic to my site. It is one property per day and the goal is to get a least a few clicks each day through each property after those 45 days. So 45 – 90 free clicks per day who become my subscribers, customers, then click inventory as I sell advertising. There’s a lot to expect, but also much to work on here.

The Naturalizer Technology Shannon uses appears to be exceptionally nifty.

Even with the learning speed gains, the increased motivation, and heightened drive to get stuff done it’s been a very steady and gradual shift. I can only liken it to when I have taken nootropics and chemicals to alter my mind in order to crank up productivity. In those cases, though, I was noticeably shaken and uneasy. It felt unnatural to be that alert, attentive and mentally strong sort of like pushing the nitro button on a car to make it speed up; though the short gains are felt using it too much might fry the engine.

My point is that BASE feels like how I wanted to feel all along, but without the uneasiness and anxiety the nootropics gave me. Just the other day I realized it had been roughly a month since I had coffee.

http://www.nutrition53.com/pages/neuro1

I’ve also been using that stuff everyday for the past 3 years. I feel that soon I will be able to stop using it. That in itself would be a massive life change since it means I’m no longer reliant on any chemical stimulation whatsoever to remain mentally strong and agile.

As I’m more into BASE there are few points that I’m now thinking should have been in BASE, however:

1. Balance work and personal life – this would be in the cruiser stage of the sub (stage 7) and would help the entrepreneur enjoy running his business while effectively balancing a personal life (wife, kids, having fun outside of work etc).

2. Creative genius/ Innovate Like a Genius – this would allow the user to open up intuitive and possibly psychic pathways so as to unveil genus level innovation and creative works. This would greatly help kick start new projects, ideas, concepts, so the
entrepreneur can keep progressing with never ending new ideas so as long as the sub is continually used.

I’m a work horse as it is doing whatever it takes to get where I want to be, but once I’ve hit my targets I’d like to be able to balance life a bit more by knowing how to separate myself from work when needed. Being a work horse even after you’ve hit your targets can potentially be counterproductive IF you don’t know how to take your foot off the gas in your business.

One aspect that I’m highly anticipating is the improved communication part of BASE. My run with LTU got to me to enjoy socializing and I felt my mouth form a smile a lot more often. I’d like that to happen again, but I’d primarily like my verbal communication to be stronger.

A lot of the time when I try to explain my book plots or themes to others I get muddled with summarizing the ideas effectively, which really shouldn’t be the case. That means at this moment I’m only proficient at getting the ideas on paper, but not with communicating them verbally, and I really don’t like that.

A businessman should be well rounded; a hand written letter should be as eloquently written as I might say the words aloud. Some say I am being too hard on myself, but I don’t think that’s the case at all. I’m both a writer and an entrepreneur and that communication needs to be spot on or else what the hell is the point of reaching out to others if I can’t express my thoughts effectively? It’s a frustrating point but I’m thinking stage 2 and beyond should help greatly with verbal flow. I hope so, anyway.

[heavysm]

Stage 1 day 20

It’s very odd…I thought I would be guided toward writing and making an income through that, but it appears that BASE is guiding me to revive my email business.

I haven’t been writing nearly as much lately, and I’ve had a couple of deeply insightful moments connected to my email business that are really making me think. I have few doubts that writing is my long term aim, because I can’t see myself doing the email consulting and product development long term, but there’s got to be a reason for this.

Without intending to my focus has shifted almost entirely toward making my email business more profitable, yet I have been focusing almost entirely on my publishing business for the past few months.

A laughable but incredibly interesting thought occurred to me yesterday. Maybe I’m supposed to wait for Shannon to release his 5G or whatever writing sub so my publishing business can be properly successful. Writing worth reading is what sells best after all.

It’s a long shot, and it’s more a like a shrugable “hah, maybe…but probably not” type of idea, but I’ve always followed my gut and intuition more than my logical mind, so I’m both taking it with a few laughs but also considering it in the back of my mind.

Nothing else makes sense though. I’ve had a handful of deeply insightful ideas for my email business (a handful is a lot by the way – each insightful hit might be worth several thousand extra income per year) and very few if any for my publishing business. It just doesn’t make sense.

Is BASE guiding me toward something positive that I can’t see? Let’s hope so.

[heavysm]

Stage 1 day 21

Another of those lightning bolt moments of insight…

My current project using free traffic in my email business is fine for these next 30 days or so, but I need to think bigger. How much bigger? I need to switch to paid traffic and a far more aggressive sales/ product funnel.

Sales come in through the front end, via my funnel, then that ideally pays off my traffic spend.

Let’s say $100 spent on traffic and $110 gained in revenue up front from my funnel. So that’s $10 profit immediately.

But that isn’t all. As I gain more subscribers I sell ad space in my newsletter. Each click would be worth roughly 40 – 65 cents, depending on the geo-location of the subscriber and whether or not they are a customer rather than just merely a subscriber.

As I brand myself more that 40 – 65 cents per click jumps to 65 – 90+ cents. If I have 10,000 subs with a tiny click through rate of about 1 – 1.5%, that means roughly 100 – 150 clicks to my advertisers.

If you do the math, that revenue and thereby profit, adds up VERY quickly and as long as I keep my front end revenue high in the profit zone, it won’t matter if I sell my advert clicks for 40 cents or $1.50. It’s all profit in that case.

I must admit that paid traffic used to scare me. I’ve only used it sparingly for my businesses. To be fair, though, my first business was in SEO which is all free traffic. So I sort of programmed myself to love free traffic.

This is a huuuuge step forward for me. I’ve only ever been the small guy in a big pool, but now I’m transitioning to be one of the big guys in the ocean. I’ll have to keep tabs over time (meaning a year and beyond) to see how this really pans out.

[apollolux]

Let’s say $100 spent on traffic and $110 gained in revenue up front from my funnel. So that’s $10 profit immediately.

For paid traffic, is 10% profit low, high, or expected? I've only ever done site development rather than web sales and marketing and haven't yet done the research on this, so I'm excited to read how your journey is progressing and look forward to seeing your results, heavysm!

[heavysm]

For paid traffic, is 10% profit low, high, or expected? I've only ever done site development rather than web sales and marketing and haven't yet done the research on this, so I'm excited to read how your journey is progressing and look forward to seeing your results, heavysm!

That $10/ 10% profit is only at the very first stage of my funnel.

(10% profit, which is really 110%, from paid traffic is alright, but not great. Most IM'ers that i know like to hit 150 - 200+% where possible. But the strength of my system is all that i have typed below which pulls even more $$ out of that same traffic. )

Once the subscribers are collected and I have advertisers, that's back end profit, where the advertises pay me per click from my newsletter.

My sales funnel provides the front end profit - which is that 10% or whatever it happens to be - plus the back end profit which could be anywhere from $100 a day up onward to whatever (50 cents a click at 200 clicks).

That's why i considered this 'insight' cause it's so damned powerful. I'm paid at two points, when my subscribers first get onto my email list and again when my advertisers pay me for ad space.

In an ideal situation, this is what I'd be dealing with:

Pay $5000 for traffic, get 15,000 subscribers.

Make back $5000 in immediate revenue, so those subscribers were free (or if immediate revenue is more than traffic cost, I profit).

I then send out ads in my newsletter and pull about 200 - 300 clicks per day at 50 cents each.

That's now 300 clicks x 50 cents = $150 daily ALL PROFIT

I do this over and over and my daily clicks delivered just go up.

From 300 daily clicks, to 500, to whatever I can manage. There's no upper limit here.

So this system is scale-able into the heavens and beyond.

I have one friend who does similar to this. He's about 3 years younger than me at roughly 23 but he makes about $60k a month from this stuff. It's that flippin dippity crazy. No smoke and mirrors here.

The only thing that really kept me from jumping on this before was deeply rooted FEAR that i wouldn't make bad my $$$ from traffic purchases. But I didn't know about funnels back then, or product creation, or sales copy, or copywriting etc. So I can 100% do this.

I'm 'thinking' - very much a back of the mind thought - that once I hit a few grand a month with this I'll setup some coaching to help others out. It just takes the knowledge of setting up all the pieces, like putting a car together; you just have to understand how the individual concepts fit into the bigger picture and put them all together so the whole thing works like a well oiled machine.

Definitely exciting stuff