bwagy, the blog of Ben Young

Redefining the norm

You don’t have to accept the standard, you CAN just as easily pick it up, REDEFINE it and make it your own.

November 2nd, 2009

Taxi drivers as security guards?

This local article caught my eye over the weekend, a security veteran and local taxi cab company are joining forces to utilise the taxi driver network to respond to burglaries (via NZHerald).

Neat little idea.

This is a basic network acquisition model, a security companies value is in its ability to respond to alarms (ie security guard distribution), taxi drivers have distribution but require higher revenue. By pairing those both parties win.

Not original but that’s what innovation is about, taking an existing model and applying it in a new context…

I also discussed this on the radio this morning:

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MtGejOaN2qo

November 1st, 2009

Bit of housekeeping

Just a few updates;

I will be MC and a guest speaker at W2W (Wellington to the World) 09 coming up November 17th. You can register here. Other speakers include New Zealands own Richard MacManus founder of ReadWriteWeb and John Watt New Zealand Young Scientist of the year. We will give a couple of copies of my book away on the day – also videos will be up on YouTube post event.
bwagy blogging club gets started Monday. Last chance to sign up here.
I have changed blog email delivery from Feedburner to Feedblitz. If you’d like to change or get the blog in your email simply visit this post and sign up on the top right (in the blue box). It’s the easiest way to get the blog.

And that’s all folks, have a great weekend 🙂

October 29th, 2009

A database of the world problems: ready for you to solve

Wouldn’t it be neat if there were such a thing?

A database where you could browse the problems, pick one and try to tackle solving it.

Clearly you need to define when something becomes a ‘problem’ – I suggest based on the average detrimental effect it has per person world wide.

On that basis some of the top issues would still be:

Poverty
Sustainability & environmental concerns
Education
Peak oil?

You see when posed with a challenge humanity fights to overcome it (hey we’ve come this far right?) so why not expose these problems in a direct light. Arm people with the constraints, barriers and requirements of a solution and let them figure out how to fix it.

October 28th, 2009

Cutting through

Given the amount of noise in our lives the aim of any marketing is simply cutting through. Cutting through the clutter, the noise, to land your message in the right place at the right time.

That’s why attraction based marketing is so valuable, you attract people that are interested directly to you.

Google Adwords is one such tool, capture people whose intent is to look for your solution, a small investment here can pay huge dividends.

Twitter to build relationships and engage, this live ongoing engagement creates invaluable relationships (and word of mouth).

Blogging is another (and my personal favourite) by sharing, creating and collaborating ideas you create an attractive place for people to hang out. This could just as easily be your customers.

You could keep trying to cut through, or simply attract people to you….

October 27th, 2009

The reality gap between an idea and implementation

The reality gap is huge.

In writing my previous post, From living a nightmare to living the dream, when you look at the steps. They read quite easily, simple basic steps to implement. And they are.

Often [with an idea] you find the problems and solutions to overcome the barriers to implementation – however the timing between each step can be vast.

They all involve steps from A to B. The problem can be the this huge gap – the void in between these steps.

What you have to realise is that whilst it has taken someone else 3 months to conquer it, it may take you much longer, or even shorter.

In reviewing often I find I struggle majorly with a few crucial steps, then blitz through others. Talking to others you find that they struggle with different steps.

This isn’t really groundbreaking but is more a tap on the shoulder to say, hey, don’t stress, these things take time…

October 26th, 2009

From living a nightmare to living the dream

The title of this post is simply, from living a nightmare to living the dream, you see I now live the lifestyle that I dreamed of for many years. At the start of this year I was pondering what’s next? What’s next that is so crazy I can’t comprehend?

It was in answering this question, I wrote down everything I wish I could have told myself at 14, starting on this journey.

These universal lessons provide greater insight that you first realise, have a read, print out, reread. They are just as applicable in business as your personal life.

So what makes these so powerful? These are the learnings that took me from a very rough childhood, whereby I sought to escape and break the cycle I saw around me, to the person I am today. Those that can appreciate it will realise what a change (and transformation) it is to make that jump. That’s why I want to share it, so others may learn.

Straight from my mind to yours (unedited) notes & errings on how to live the dream.

Define the dream, where do you want to go? what do you want to do?
Extend the dream, what is so radical you CANT comprehend it? you cannot even comprehend that happening. This is you BHAG, big hairy audacious goal. Do not settle for something that is achievable. If you miss it, you’ll be average. And that’s boring.
Your #1 criteria has to be fun. If you are always doing something fun (and thats relative) you will push through the dips to succeed.
Read The Dip by Seth Godin. A swift kick when you need it. Reread every 3 months.
Tip from Tom Peters, meet crazy people, stop wasting time people who nod at everything you say, meet randoms who challenge you. You will learn much more that way.
Throw yourself in the deep end, what is the absolute worst that could happen? Once for me that was I would be homeless. More often than not it can’t be that bad for you. Jump in, you’ll learn to swim.
Work yourself dead tired, then push through that barrier, it’s when your tired, you gain clarity and push aside your normal barriers.
Apply #7 in exercise, pick an exercise, running, swimming, skipping, and push yourself everytime. Kill that voice that says to quit. You will have huge breakthroughs by doing this.
Exercise, excercise, exercise. You gain clarity, de-stress, keep fit. Helps you focus on what’s important.
Sleep on the big things. Forget the pressure for ‘instant’ decision making. Chill out. Sometimes you need to remove yourself to find your gut feeling.
Trust your gut. Your gut sums up the best that you know at this point in time. It is actually linked to your subconscious. Trust it, listen, you will get more adept at this.
Set yearly, quarterly and monthly goals. Always be looking forwards, am on I track? what needs to get done, do these distractions help with that.
Chill out. Spend time with those that you love, your family, your friends. Remind yourself of who is most important to you, are you giving them the attention they (and you) deserve?
Review & Reflect. Take some time out each week where the sole purpose is to review & reflect on the week and plan the next one.
Reward yourself for the small wins. Take some time out as well to reward yourself for the small wins, they are just as important as the big ones. Hint: a number of small wins equates to a big one.
Fail lots. If your not failing, your not risking, and if your not risking your not moving ahead. If you already know all the answers today why aren’t you at your dream? Chances are you still have some learning to do.
Stand on the shoulders of giants, get some advisors, mentors, research, read. Someone else has already had your problems before, seek the answers out.
Spend YOU time. Too often we get lost in txting, phone, facebook, work. Have some you time no cell phone, nothing, enjoy a good book, indulge in a treat, take a walk. Time alone is vitally important.
If you are not comfortable with yourself as a person, fix it, enough said, you cannot be successful till you are comfortable with yourself and what you do. Hint: this journey will help with this.
Passion. What are you passionate about? What really drives you? What gets you excited and out of the bed in the morning? Follow your passions. You will likely fall into your dreams.
Be You. Stop trying to be someone else, that is NO FUN! and it’s boring. Warning: you may lose some friends! But the friends you garner who respect you for you are much more valuable.
Hang out with successful people. Success rubs off.
Challenge yourself, keep learning, keep yourself grounded. Honestly you never want to get up yourself, once your at that place it’s hard to come back.
Give stuff away! Learn to appreciate what you do by just giving it away free every now and again.
Give something back, help out by volunteering, help that struggling company your friend started, ring up an fellow entrepreneur remind them how well they are doing.
START A BLOG! Your objective is to help people in <insert industry passion here>, the art of writing something intelligent each and every day will make you smarter.
Expose yourself. Be bold about your goals. For as much flak as you will get, people will admire and respect you for that.
Take things slowly. Stop rushing. Enjoy the coffee in the morning, the paper, time with the kids. You only live once so stop rushing about.
Inspire yourself, indulge in the arts, learn a new hobby.
Read biographies! Learn how others have succeeded. You will find yourself finding infinite learnings in reading others.
You are always wrong! always. But you may be less wrong than your competitor.
Write your autobiography, how would you like it to read? write your obituary. This will remind you of the journey you are walking.
Take the baby steps. Big goals don’t happen overnight, they are the culmination of taking little steps each and every day.
Scare yourself! Is what you doing making you nervous, butterflies in the stomach? If not, seek out the butterflies.
Share your success! When you achieve a goal, let your friends know, celebrate with them. Others love to hear of your successes.
Commit yourself. Tell everyone all your goals and how you want to achieve them, how they can help (maybe?), or what you expect them to do.
Setup red flags. Ask someone who you respect (and know will) to tell you straight when you fuck up. We all do it.
Listen. Listen to the red flags, your peers, your enemies, they are all relevant.
Expose yourself to polar opposite industries, are you a dentist? check out road workers? You will find you learn more about your industry than staying with the same old.
Destroy something. Know something is holding you back, destroy it, dominate it.
Talk. Talk at events, to your peers, talk online. Talk in venues where your held accountable. (Hint: you will not find the benefit till you do so).
Keep a diary, a notepad, log your days, you will get so busy you forget what happened 3 weeks ago, date it, take it everywhere with you.
Stop watching tv. Tv is an indulgence, you can waste 3 hours in front of it, you could be 3 hours closer to your goal, or spent that time taking your wife out for an evening walk.
Network. Network. Network. Meet people in your industry who share the same passion, there is nothing more rewarding that being reminded you are on the right path. Plus a great way to get free coffees!
Never ask for a meeting, ask to buy someone lunch or coffee, more engaging and much more relaxed.
Remind yourself of the dream constantly, what is the end goal? how far are you? do you keep a poster of that sports car on your bathroom door (or somewhere you will see it a number of times throughout the day).
Inspire yourself with quotes, I have the ‘inspiration’ wall in my bedroom, on the closet are post it notes with quotes that inspire me, so i read them or at least realise their existence everyday. Post its are great as they fall down every few months, so i need to replace them with new quotes.
Keep healthy, the most important part of success is you, so look after yourself. Garbage in, garbage out, give yourself the right inputs.
De clutter, like destroy something, are physical items cluttering your life? get rid of them, gives you mental clarity.
Be a kid! Go play with your kids, go play on the beach, bounce on the trampoline… it’s just fun.
Turn negativity around to motivate you, if your out there enough for someone to criticise you must be on the right track.
Be patient, impatience is killing success, be patient, take small steps every day you will get there, my biggest goals take years to come about, but they do come about, versus others who have given up on five other goals.
Persevere. “perseverance is genius”. who do you remember that gave up when things got tough? no one. enough said.
Be made of rubber. When things go bad (and they will) remind yourself that your made of rubber no matter how hard you get dropped you bounce back and bounce back fast.
Be loved. Chase a girl, a guy, cherish those you love.
Learn to value your time, stop wasting it on senseless or time wasting activities, each and every day is a day closer to living the dream, only if you want it to be.
Remember it all starts with you. It always has. No matter your belief, if you do not take action it will not happen.
TAKE ACTION!!!!! You always regret what you didn’t do vs what you did do.
Listen to music, especially whilst in deep focus, (unless your dyslexic) music helps occupy half your brain so the other can focus on what needs to be done.
Use whiteboards! Write up grand strategic plans, wipe them out, start again. When you have the freedom to reinvent you will.
Do less, it is easy to keep yourself busy, it is much harder to spend less time and achieve more.
Focus. Focus on what is important, what adds value, what leverages your time.
Write! Write down what you want to do, how your doing it, your learnings, your thoughts, detail them, the act of doing this (like blogging) is going to accelerate your learning and progress than you ever thought possible.
Be lucky! Luck comes to those that turn up. If you don’t turn up and keep turning up how can you get lucky?
Learn to be objective, on everything, religion, political views, relationships, when you can fundamentally understand and relate to both sides of the argument you are immediately more astute than both parties.
Question all assumptions. Always.
Any doubts you have on yourself, get rid of them, more often than not others only see these doubts because you realise and accept they exist. You are awesome. You will dominate.
Change your language, become more enthusiastic, use words like awesome, dominate, success, perseverance, wow
Smile. The act of smiling makes you happier. Smile at strangers. You’ll be surprised who might say hi back.
At a conference? Talk to the person who is standing alone, they will appreciate the effort and you never know who you are going to talk to. If they are boring, escape by saying you’d better catch up with your friends.
Maximise value of your time, if you can help for 3 hours with a conference and then attend vs 20 hours work to pay for the conference, do the former. Remember value isn’t always about direct dollars. I helped with registrations once to get into a $800 conference. Best investment of my time.
Be honest. Do I really need to explain this one?
Respect the young guys, you never know who your brushing off, it may just be the next Steve Jobs, believe me he will remember you but not in a good way.
Be a mentor. Mentor someone else who is where you were 3 years ago, this process helps you identify what you are good at, what you did, and is surprisingly helpful.
Stay up all night till the morning, do crazy stuff you used to do but somehow stopped. This will inspire you.
Stay on track, if your not working towards your goals, jump tracks.
Adjust your context, move to a nicer part of town (rent if necessary), have lunch where successful people eat, attend the same events, being in the right places gives you leverage you can never have expected.
Ask for help when you need it. Stop being arrogant, you can not do it all yourself, ask for help, chances are there are many people more than happy to help.
Break any addiction you have! Cigarettes, booze, they’re not helping anyone, especially you.
Share the love, when you get recognised for your success, share the love amongst those that helped you get there.
It’s the journey just as much as the destination which will shape you. Remember this above all.

That’s it! If you could share by emailing on, retweeting, stumbling or digging that would be insanely awesome and I’d appreciate it.

October 21st, 2009

Update: bwagy blogging club

Right, I just want to start off, I have made a bit of a blunder, after a few phone calls and talking to some colleagues I need to make some changes to the bwagy blogging club.

The approach I took (along with some assistance from others) was to focus on the knowledge driven community side. However this encompassed a larger cost (as we had to factor in the time cost of managing it).

In fact when we crunched the numbers this was going to be the biggest cost.

Soaking up all the feedback Friday and Monday – this was the least priority on your list. #1 priority is access to the information.

Thus we are going to drop it and dramatically re-engineer how we anticipated running the course.

(Oh the beauty of responding to the market huh?)

Instead we are going to focus on:

Delivery of content directly through email.
Online version will be available, as well as pdfs of information

And less focus on the community side of it.

For now the aim is to get the information in your hands in an actionable format.

This means by cutting that component we can deliver it in a much more cost effective fashion AND also deliver to a greater volume of people. Finally we can also initiate the course on demand.

The revised pricing is as follows:

$133 nzd/month for 3 months.
$399 nzd for the 12 week email based course. (17% discount).
$599 nzd for the course + The Best Ideas are Free + one on one phone consultation.

The course starts November 2nd.

At those prices I think anyone can get value out of it, at the least if you can use blogging to increase your rate by $10/hour, you are paid back in a matter of days.

Thanks for your patience guys, as you know my aim is to help you and in doing that I sometimes miss the boat, but rest assured I’m smart enough to learn when to act. -Ben

(Update: Just to be clear the content has not changed in anyway just the delivery).

October 20th, 2009

Three True Fans that's where it all starts

I’ve been quoting 1000 True Fans by Kevin Kelly for some time now, so thought well overdue for the bwagy evolution.

To sum up the post:

“A creator, such as an artist, musician, photographer, craftsperson, performer, animator, designer, videomaker, or author – in other words, anyone producing works of art – needs to acquire only 1,000 True Fans to make a living.

A True Fan is defined as someone who will purchase anything and everything you produce. They will drive 200 miles to see you sing. They will buy the super deluxe re-issued hi-res box set of your stuff even though they have the low-res version. They have a Google Alert set for your name. They bookmark the eBay page where your out-of-print editions show up. They come to your openings. They have you sign their copies. They buy the t-shirt, and the mug, and the hat. They can’t wait till you issue your next work. They are true fans.” Full post over at kk.org. (Make sure you read it).

Any creator probably starts with at least three true fans (aka mum, dad, grandma, grandad, husband/wife, siblings).

How do you take it from that to 1000? Well through hard work; listening, obsessing and growing with your fans. It’s going to take some time but it is an entirely achievable target – once you have it you can then fully do what you want.

October 18th, 2009

Blogging Club: My first step towards leverage

This isn’t my typical post, but it is relevant and follows up on What do I do? And what I’m working on.

Due to demand (and the inability to clone myself) I am opening up the opportunity for people to join a private blog whereby I can use my experience blogging to help you leverage your own efforts. Read on for more….

—

bwagy blogging club

I am offering a fixed price 12 week course to help you truly leverage blogging.

Please read on for what you get, who this is good for, how it will add value and what you need to do next.

You will get:

Weekly tips and action points on improving your blogging
How to strategically (and solidly) grow your blog & subscriber base
How to monetise and improve sales from blogging
How to measure what matters and what to do with that information
Learn the 20% that creates 80% of the results, blogging shouldn’t take up your whole day
Direct feedback loop with Ben, converse in private and with other members
Learn what software to use and why to use it
Find out the ways to leverage your efforts to benefit business for the next decade
Find out WHY readers will spread and share your content for you
Build a leverage system that will automatically build your traffic base for you.
How to find and source content ideas
Fine tuning your blog to build your brand
How blogging can decrease your online marketing expenditure

The list goes on and on. We will start at the basics and extrapolate from there.

Who is this good for?

Small businesses who wish to leverage the #1 marketing tool: blogging
Bloggers who have been frustrated at dismal results
People who like to learn from (and thus avoid) others mistakes
Freelancers, Soloentrepreneurs, home businesses whom can benefit from a strong local presence
Networkers or People who wish to make things happen in their career, blogging can help get your name out there
Online businesses who need to qualify leads
Startups (or companies in pre-startup phase) build buzz before you even launch
Professionals who rely (and want to grow) their personal brand
Corporates who need to be doing this but don’t know where to (or how to) start

Further you also:

Get direct access to me
Can ask questions which you can’t in a public format
Get access to private (and internal) documents, videos and podcasts
All members receive a copy of the bwagy blogging strategy, an action list to put your blogging on steroids today. (Valued at $199). This is the outline of how I have grown my blog from nothing and how you can do the same.
Access to my networks to help you with the areas you struggle in. We will feature a few specialists to show you additional ways to grow your blog.
I will also make available technical help should you need it.

How does this put money directly in your own pocket?

Stop researching. Find out from my experience what you should be doing.
Avoid costly mistakes, you can spend months or years making basic mistakes.
Save time.
We will cover how to use blogging to build your business.
Increase sales & conversions from your blog.
Open the door to new opportunities, networks and business development (how can you put a price on that?).
Increase your charge out rate, by being known as a leader in your market you can charge more.

What are the outcomes?

Armed with a strategy to march forward with.
A permission asset for you to grow that attracts and qualifies leads.
A strategic approach to establish market dominance online.
An asset which helps build word of mouth AND brand equity.

All you have to do is step back and look at what I have created with this blog to see whether you can or can’t benefit from my experience. Time is everything and instead of repeating the same mistakes that every blogger makes you can jump the queue (and your competition) by taking the course.

Guarantee
If you complete the course; follow the steps laid out and still don’t feel you have profited from the course email me [email protected] and I will give you a full refund.

What do you get if you sign up today?

Immediate access to my Blogging Strategy Document.
A secured spot. The course kicks off November 2nd but we will make pre-training materials available beforehand.

There are three options (update: we revised pricing more info here):

bwagy blogging club membership (plus blogging strategy) $399 nzd.
Legends upgrade. Bundle the course with a signed copy of my book The Best Ideas are Free and a half hour one to one phone session completed at an agreed time during the course. $599 nzd[Limit 10]. Update:
Spread the payment out $133 nzd/month for 3 months.

What to do next?

Sign up here for immediate access to your blogging strategy and prepare for kick off November 2nd.

[Registrations close October 30th]

In summary:

We are offering an exclusive blog training course starting November 2nd.
You get weekly content helping you grow your blog (and your business).
It costs $599 nzd.

Sign up here.

I truly look forward to working with you and helping you leverage your blog.

Thanks

– Ben

ps
Did I mention you get to take away full pdfs of the course so you can carry on in your own time?

pps

Ok time to stop, if you are serious about blogging, reread again and sign up.

October 15th, 2009

Asking the right questions; lessons learnt from reading a book

Reading a book is an interesting experience, why do you start? Why do you continue? Why do you finish? Why do you tell others about it?

The answers to these surprisingly basic questions will probably yield more than you first realise.

Why do you start?

The back cover sold you on it
You heard great things about it
You had spare time of which you decided to read

Why do you continue, once you read one page why do you keep turning? Page after page?

Incomplete story, want to know the end
There is a lead in to the next page (how often do you stop reading at the end of a chapter vs the middle?)
It is little effort to do so

Why do you finish?

You wanted to get the full story
It was easy once you’d started
Satisfaction gained from finishing

Why do you tell others about it?

Story aka experience was so good want to share
They saw you with physical object, easy to share ie can loan my book
Talking point of which you are confident enough to talk on
If your friends like it they will think favourably of you (status)

Amazing what you can learn just by second guessing something you already do or most importantly by asking the right questions.

October 14th, 2009

Pushing through pain

Naturally we shy away from pain. However there are times when we should push through it and others where we should just quit.

You probably have heard someone say if it’s not coming easy, maybe you shouldn’t be doing it and to back off let it happen naturally. (ie if you ought to be doing it it should be easy).

You are doing something completely new and it’s painful because you haven’t experienced it before – you should push through.

So which is it?

There is no strict answer, you learn through experience.

However in the meantime pick up The Dip and have a read, helps you learn when to stick and when to quit.

October 13th, 2009

Back in action

Apologies there was no post yesterday – due to no internet access!

Shock, horror, how could that happen? Simple our home wifi router power cut out. I was also car less yesterday, then to top things off there is a local bus strike so mission to get into office. Thus I spent the day offline getting stuff done.

October 13th, 2009

Sharing the story is crucial in the 21st century

Talking with other entrepreneurs looking at starting businesses (anything from a cafe to a saas provider) and how they tell their story there is one thing I have noticed…

That I cannot fathom the idea of a new business that isn’t story telling and engaging.

That is sharing their story and engaging the community to help grow their business.

What is your story? What can you share? How can you build a community?

Even a cafe with a blog or a Petrol Station with live tweets? A doctors blog sharing advice or heads up on common ailments.

No this wouldn’t be relevant to everyone but it would be relevant to those that matter – your community.

If you are looking at starting a business (or launching a new product), look at how you can strategically build a community, engage and build real relationships… even 6 months before you want to start it…

October 11th, 2009

Making stuff that people care about

Are you?