.Time for your own Portable Empire?
According to the news, the world is coming to an end. Old paradigms and income models are dying a painful and irritatingly loud death. Out-moded economic models are hanging on by their bloody fingernails to the past. Wailing, lamenting, and gnashing of teeth is the soundtrack to the daily news.
Meanwhile, I’m sitting in my recording studio, surrounded by piles of keyboards, guitars, and 3 computers, working on the new clearing audio.
This one is about clearing for money.
Apparently, a LOT of people need to clear around money issues…
The MacBook pro is uploading some files to the server. The Toshiba laptop is recording a MIDI piano part to .wav… I played into the machine so I could edit it, and then the machine plays it into the recording software… it’s cheating, but it saves an alarming amount of time.
On the Mac Tower, I’ve got the MilagroWorld forum in one screen, email open in another, and the New York Times. I just read this:
According to the Labor Department, the number of unemployed workers rose by 251,000 in November. But the number of people who were outside of the labor force — that is, neither working nor looking for work — rose by much more: 637,000. These people aren’t counted as unemployed in the government’s statistics, because they are not looking for work. Many of them, presumably, have stopped looking for work because they didn’t think they could find a good job.
If you take a broader measure — one that tries to account for them — you see a darker picture of the labor market. The share of all men ages 16 and over who are working is now at its lowest level since the government began keeping statistics in the 1940s. The share of women with jobs has fallen almost two percentage points from the peak it reached in 2000; at no other point in the past 50 years has the share of employed women has fallen so much from its peak.
to read the rest, click here
Jobs. The J.O.B. Just over broke.
I’ve had a few. I’ve cooked pizza. Mowed yards. Back in the 70’s and 80’s, there was a period of time when I was playing music full time and working labor jobs through ManPower- I’d get offstage at 1 in the morning, and be at the ManPower labor pool by 7. The labor gig paid minimum wage- the music gig paid much less.
Later, I managed a liquor store, got a real-estate license and sold commercial real-estate, worked for a developer, audited banks, and was assistant County Auditor of a large, crooked county just north of Houston.
Later, I owned and operated a recording studio, gave guitar lessons, and taught high-school.
So- I’ve had some jobs. I hated each and every one of them. And none of them paid me anywhere near what I can make with my Portable Empire. As a matter of fact, I paid more than twice as much IN TAXES last year as I made IN INCOME in 2003.
So, when I read articles like the one above, my response is “good!”
In my opinion, the whole employee/employer thing is just a form of slavery. I say it’s time to “free the slaves.” It is now officially time for the bullshit capitalist lie to die. Capitalism is only fun if you own the means of production- and you can waltz down to Best Buy and buy the means of production for about $299 right now- that’s what a laptop computer is going for. With a laptop computer, some knowledge, and some intestinal fortitude we can pull the whole facade down and build something worth living for.
By definition, an employee has to create more value for a company than he/she gets paid. Why would you sell your expertise and labor for less than it’s worth?
Here’s an example: Let’s say you’ve got a job making $10/hour. Around here, that’s good pay for a generic job. You work 8 hours a day, so before taxes you’ve made $80 bucks.
But, you have to take a world of shit to get that $80 bucks. You have to be someplace at a designated time, do what you’re told, kiss up to the boss, and if you voice your opinion you’re liable to be fired for “insubordination.” Whatever that means.
I recommend insubordination as a lifestyle. Seriously. You don’t have to take crap from anybody.
And, even if you do all of that, and smile while you’re doing it, you may be one of the 637,000 people who lost their jobs. IN THE MONTH OF NOVEMBER. That’s 2/3 of a million people who got fired- or gave up trying to find a job- in one frickin’ month.
I say “screw that.”
If you want $80 a day, sell two $39.99 eBooks online. You can do it while you’re making breakfast, and then have the whole day to do something else.
And that “something else” is whatever YOU want to do.
You might want to make more than $80/day. I do.
So, you might spend some time writing in your blog, building your list, doing an interview with somebody, writing an eBook, or otherwise building up your asset/product base.
I’ve got friends in Terlingua who can live just fine on $80 a week.
Fine. Sell 2 eBooks, and then you’ve got the rest of the week to hang out in the mountains.
Doesn’t that beat fighting traffic, dealing with an a-hole boss, and worrying about being outsourced, downsized, or some other silly catastrophe?
Of course, I can hear you… you’re in my head and screaming… HOW?
Well, it’s easy. And it’s free to learn. All you have to do is do it.
First of all, go to www.absolutebeginnersguide.com and get my FREE eBook. Or you can go to Amazon.com and buy it for $19 bucks. I detest the publisher, so I’d prefer that you steal it.
Second, read the book and DO what it says.
For the full story, and a fun read, click HERE to grab your copy of my book, Your Portable Empire, How to Make Money Anywhere Doing What You Love.
If you need help with the “techie” stuff, go grab the Freedom Power Workbook, which will teach all the tricks and strategies you need to get your world online immediately. Click HERE.
Here’s the short course:
To build a Portable Empire, you need to find a group of people who have a problem, or- better yet- a series of problems- and are willing to pay for the solution to those problems.
Golfers is an example I use a lot. Those guys (and gals) will pay big bucks to carve one stroke off their score.
Even if you don’t know how to play golf, you can log onto a golf forum and find an expert. Interview them and put that interview into a consumable form- video, audio, eBook.
Then, go back to as many golf forums as you can find, and let the readers know you can help them lower their golf score for only $39.99.
Rinse and repeat.
Make sure that you keep a list of people who are interested in golf, so that you can contact them. Go to www.patobryan.com/tools.htm for some suggestions on how to do that.
If you can’t sell 2 eBooks a day doing that, you’re not trying.
There are lots of other easy niches. Dieters. Nobody who buys 1 diet book buys just 1 diet book. They have shelves of the things.
Body builders.
Car nuts.
Scrapbookers. Did you know there was a huge market of people who make scrap-books? Neither did I until Craig Perrine and I were playing around with niches one day- found a forum with over a million posts- all about making scrap-books. Who knew?
The point is- the universe is not going to run out of problems, or people who will pay for solutions.
So- go get that FREE eBook, and build your own Portable Empire. And in a couple of years, when there is a labor shortage, you can kick back in your big ole leather chair- like I’m doing right now- and blog about it. While your inbox fills up with sales receipts and your bank account grows.
It’s a revolution. Be part of it.
25 Responsesto “.Time for your own Portable Empire?”
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Great Blog, but it is a real pain in the butt to try to comment. You have to register and even then you have to click on a posted comment in order to end up here.
Something is skewed compared to the normal way of commenting. Please look into it
Hi Mooie!
Well, that was words of wisdom!!
You’re so right! I’ll build it MY way!!
Thank you!
Hey CDJensen–
Don’t build Your Portable Empire The American Way–Build It The
CDJensen Way!!!
You can’t fail!!
phoenixdawn-
i think you’ve answered your own question.
i don’t think you need them to do workshops. What’s stopping you from doing it on your own?
btw, Joe Vitale tells the story of one of our first conversations- he asked me what I wanted.
i replied, “I just want to pay my f*cking rent.”
he laughed. he still laughs.
the rent is paid.
you might want to check out http://www.milagroworld.com/forums – there’s a thread about being satisfied, but wanting more.
Hi!
Great post!
I’m going for building my Portable Empire… The American way
Don’t know anybody in my country who has a portable business. Will I be the first? Guess so!!!
Have a great day! :
Claus…….
Your comments relate fantastically to other conversations I’ve been having recently.
There are two guys who work in a section of my chosen field, who constantly state they want to do work together with me. However, I keep backing off from them with a kinda strong recoil effect.
Each one of them wants to do workshops with me. However, everytime they keep commenting that they only want to make enough money to pay the rent/mortgage and have food in their belly! Now, these guys are wanting to run workshops on improved lifestyle – go figure!
Then further down the same conversation they will bemoan the fact that they don’t have the car they want/need – or have no transport at all, and that their girlfriend supports them by providing food etc. Yet when quizzed, they say they are happy with their life and don’t want any more.
Am I being hyper-critical here, or would anyone else be headed in the opposite direction like I am?
I’m not quite yet where I wanna be – though I’m recognising that if I go ahead with these guys, I’ll never get there!
it’s interesting to me- I’m watching as Obama brings back the WPA and the CCC.
I think it’s a good thing.
But, it’s definitely Socialism.
Which, in this case, is a good thing.
There will be a safety net for those who want jobs, or need jobs. You can always go to work for the government.
As long as they leave room in the game-plan for people like us- who want to take chances, go for it, and take the consequences- good and bad- I think it’s great.
I’ve never liked the “freedom to starve” aspect of capitalism.
You’re e-mail came at just the right time for me. I recently had to leave my job because I spoke up about some things in the work-place I didn’t agree with and caught hell of my boss. Nuts to being just another corporate ass-kisser trying in futility to climb the ladder. I can assure you that I’m going to be giving your book my full attention.
Thank-you Pat.
Anyone considering employees might do well to read Jack Stack’s The Great Game of Business, or his more recent “A Stake in the Outcome”. At Springfield Remanufacturing in Springfield, MO, they have created an employee owned company out of the ashes of the International Harvester collapse. When International folded, Stack who was the plant manager, and a handful of employees mortgaged their homes, borrowed from family, and did everything short of having bake sales and carwashes to buy the facility and set it up to rebuild diesel engine cores and sell them back into the parts market. In the process, Stack developed The Great Game to teach factory workers how to be owners. A big part of their success story hinges on what they call “Open Book Management” where every employee not only has access to a full p&l statement, but also knows how to read it! They also know what the numbers and goals AND SALARIES are for each part of the business and how what they are doing directly impacts what they make both on the line and in their pay envelope. The system created something like 16 millionaires out of the original group of employee owners. Additionally they have an unusual research and development strategy that spins off other individually run, employee owned companies rather than keeping them under the corporate wing and siphoning off profits. One of the more interesting divisions/companies is the Great Game of Business itself, which teaches other companies how to do what they did in Springfield. Very inspiring stuff and worth the read.
Pat, I am in total agreement. We need change, we need a revolution, and guess what? It’s coming fast and furious.
I am excited to see what happens in the next few years, and being a part of it. It’s time to end the slavery and set everyone free. I learned a long time ago, the hard way, that depending on someone to pay you, whether it’s every week or every two weeks, (like me), is no way to live a life.
And my lifestyle includes insubordination! I have been in “trouble” for not putting up with anyone’s crap, INCLUDING the ones who sign my paycheck. I don’t regret a second of it.
I get that from my mother.
Keep doing what you’re doing, and I would gladly work for you any day. I only ask I that I can still live in Minnesota.
Laura C
Whoo Hooo! Love to see a positive spin on it all.
Yes I’m ready! Game On!
Thanks Pat~
KK
Me again.
Hey Pat and anyone else thinking about a business with employees. I might suggest looking at some of the writings of a friend of mine, Dr. Mark Albion. He is involved with socially minded value-based business.
Check out – http://www.makingalife.com I think you will find it interesting.
Rob
hmm…. good luck with that. Let me know how it works out for you.
Wow, niche marketing is really hot ! The thing is, you don’t really need to know anything about the niche to really kick in. Just use modified PLR articles, reports, e-books related to that niche. Recently I put up a full blown site related to Koi fish, although I know nothing about fish except how to eat them. But… to get your site / blog noticed you do have to know how to deal with the SEO issue…. Once you figure out the key word schemes and SEO, you are on a roll in whatever niche you choose. Actually, today I was reading about a software that creates for you instant 15 SEO optimized blogs per minute !!!! Can you imagine ? Using the power of technology and some common sense, you can truly build a nice web empire.
I am looking forward to your money clearing audio. I loved the clearing audio (I was actually in tears the first time I listened to it and I never cry).
Also, I wish you quick and painless recovery from your operation.
Meirav
Thanks for continually reminding us about the simple nuts and bolts of this business.
JB- It will be next year- after I recover from my surgery- before I start hiring. When I do, I’ll send an email to my list and post it to my blog.
Talk to ya then.
David- if you can create phone-apps. especially iPhone apps- you’re gonna be a busy dude. That’s where the whole game is heading.
I work as a software engineer for a company that was just bought out and all of us in the local office are being let go soon. The new company has been kind enough to provide classes to help people learn to interview and write resumes but when I question them about providing guidance for someone who may want to be a consultant or start a business I just get blank stares.
As someone who has invested tens of thousands in courses to learn about business and marketing and product development (iPhone) I’ve offered my co-workers the opportunity to use any of the resources I have and haven’t had a single taker. I constantly try to get them interested in partnering on ideas and still no interest. These are all people with at least four year degrees and they just can’t get out of the J.O.B mindset.
Oh well, I’ll just push on and build my own Portable Empire.
David
Pat,
YES!!! Traditional employment is enslavement! I’ve been claiming this for years, much to the chagrin of my family and peers. They’ve chosen to believe it means I don’t want to “work” as in, I want to be “lazy” and have the government support me. Au contraire! Nor do I want to be a “boss”. I’ve tried to explain it to them; what I want is self-employment, high profits, a very short work week, and the ability to make money while I sleep or ride horses—basically, a PE. (They say it can’t be done. I beg to differ.)
Pat, if you are seriously seeking employees, may I offer my services as a graphic designer and musical go-fer? I can forward a résumé. I’m in Ohio, but Texas has been looking mighty good lately and there’s nothing stopping me from moving. It would be an honor to work with you, and I know I won’t be enslaved.
Great post.
JB
Great plan!
My suggestion would be – don’t manage, lead!
Hire people who are self directed, give clear job descriptions and necessary training, and get out of the way. Be clear on results you want, not the process. If you’re offloading the stuff you don’t like to do, they’re probably smarter about it than you are anyway. People want to be appreciated and feel valuable.
My $0.02 anyway.
Hi Wes,
timely post. Next year, I’m setting up a real office and hiring some employees. I’ve been wondering how to handle this fairly- and I think my solution is about what you’re suggesting-
anybody who works with me, and has an IQ higher than wallpaper, is going to learn how to make money.
i’ll probably figure it out… small salary + commission is my favorite model.
my problem is that I’m a pretty terrible manager.
As a corporate refugee I agree with much of what you said. I left a high paid job at Honeywell in 1993 with only a slight shred of my sanity left, and I’ve been one of these 600,000 since then. Having a portable empire rocks!
However, not everyone is prepared for the PE lifestyle, and as we grow our PE we need to outsource. There will always be people who want jobs, and we will often end up as “da boss” even if we outsource to independent contractors, so it’s important to know how that relationship can be morally, economically and spiritually healthy.
My guru on this is Wallace Wattles, and in “Science of Getting Rich” he described the process. We know we can’t pay more in cash than the employee creates in value or we go broke. He suggests this:
“However, you can organize your business so that it will be filled with the possibility of advancement, so that any employee who wishes to do so may advance a little every day.
You can make your business do for your employees what this book is doing for you. You can conduct your business so that it will be a sort of ladder by which every employee who will take the trouble may climb to riches for themselves. Having given them the opportunity, if they will not do so it’s not your fault.”
So by paying fairly, encouraging growth, and cheering them even when they leave us for their next big opportunity, we create what I call ’spiritual employment.’ I never had a job like that, but I can create one!
Whaddya think?
Wes
Yes the economy and the J.O.B crisis is an end to life as we know it.
And what we don’t know is waiting to surprise us!!
We meet again.
You new blog looks really nice.
This post is very good. The internet is going to be flooded with new folks. I’m glad I have has much knowledge under my belt
as I do… especially at this time.
New problems are arising everyday… we just need to provide the answers.
See you on the forum.
Kathy Griffiths
Insightful Nana
Arrrr.
Pat, my friend, you are on a roll! Watch the blood pressure.
I have a saying about Corporate America that goes along with what you are saying.
If you work for someone else, by definition you are underpaid. It’s called “PROFIT.”
This country is changing no doubt. We had the industrial revolution where we changed from an agricultural nation to an industrial nation. We are in the middle of another revolution.
What a frickin’ GREAT time to be alive!
Rob