The only three things you need to start a business

October 30, 2012 By deacon 4 Comments

One of the biggest mistakes I made when starting my first business was being too slow. I spent a huge amount of time trying to find just the right idea, exactly the right approach, and a business model I’d be happy with for the next 20 years.

That is major overkill in the beginning!

In the beginning, the most important thing that you need is to get started. That’s it. There’s plenty of time for figuring out the details later.

My advice to you: have your business up and running (accepting it’s first clients) in the next seven days. Seriously!

There’s only three things you need to pull it off, and I talk about them in this video.

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The 4 Simple Principles of a Lifestyle Business

August 22, 2012 By deacon 3 Comments

We’ve been conditioned since a very young age to believe we have to work our lives around the obligations of a career. We take scheduled vacations, we play with our kids in the evenings after work, and we save a trip to the movies for Friday night.

It’s the way things have always been.

Because let’s face it, no matter how badly you want to be at home with your little ones or how much you want to travel you’ve got to make some money, and that means having a steady job.

Steady, reliable income means working steady, reliable hours. You can’t just come in when it suits you, or take off on a whim. Your work doesn’t care if there’s a great deal on a flight to California, and it doesn’t matter if your family needs you in Dallas.

Your work needs you here. And you need your work.

But innovations in business and technology are helping some people change the all of that. A new breed of entrepreneur is emerging that builds their business around their life, instead of their life around a job.

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The Life Stoked Family Is Growing!

May 30, 2012 By deacon 15 Comments

I’m excited to share some big news with you today: The Life Stoked family is growing! That’s right, Cameron and I are expecting our first child this summer (it’s a boy) and we couldn’t be more stoked!

Although he’s still about a month away from joining us officially, it’s been a big adjustment already preparing for his arrival.

I’ve had a lot of time over the past few months to reflect on how my this momentous milestone will effect my life.

Somewhere along the way I think we’ve all been conditioned somewhat to believe that having kids basically ends your own pursuits. People say things like, “Enjoy it while you can,” or “Better do that now while you can.”

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4 Productivity Tools to I Could Not Live Without

May 22, 2012 By deacon 9 Comments

You know what they say, time is money! But that doesn’t mean it’s all the same denomination of money. Most of us trade minutes for pennies and nickels. But a few who have really worked to build something special can trade minutes for Benjamins!

While I’m certainly not in that class (yet), I work hard at increasing the worth of the minutes I do spend working towards a Life Stoked. Here are my absolute top, could not live without tools that help me continue to move forward every day.

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Live it Up this Holiday Weekend

June 30, 2011 By deacon Leave a Comment

Want to know what you could do this holiday weekend to really drive your success? Before you quit reading I’m not suggesting you spend the weekend buried in a book or constructing a life plan. In fact I’d suggest quite the opposite.

The most important thing you can do this holiday weekend to fuel your pursuit of freedom is to live it up! Soak up some sun. Play with your friends. Do whatever it is you enjoy most.

This is what I do quarterly to sample the lifestyle I’m ultimately working towards.

Stoked Lifestyle

I’m not saying we should be working less. I love working to add value to the world, and my current job is awesome. But I AM saying we could be living more.

One of my big motivations behind becoming a solo-preneur (business owner with no employees) is that I can work from anywhere, anytime.

I could spend a couple weeks in Colorado mountain biking in my downtime. I could go hang out with my college buddies in San Antonio. I could visit my family in east Texas for longer than 2 days. I could work from the lake (my most favorite place!).

I could take my work on the road and spend my off hours experiencing things that are currently confined to three day weekends. Wouldn’t that be awesome?

The freedom of being able to design a career around your life instead of the other way around is what I’m after.

Fuel Commitment

There’s one problem though – it’s a TON of work to get to that point. I don’t have much trouble imagining how great life will be when I reach this stage, but I do have trouble staying motivated to get there. It’s the difference between being interested and committed.

Everyone is interested in a free lifestyle, but not everyone is committed to do what it takes to create it.

So as I head down to San Antonio for a long weekend with my oldest friends I’ll be soaking in what my life could be like as a solo-preneur. These weekends are always refreshing for me. Not just because of the relaxation and good times, but also because of the taste of what life could be like.

Your Job – Soak It Up

Many of us live our lives trading five days for two. If you’re interested in building a different lifestyle use this weekend to fuel the commitment it will take to get there.