NevBlog

Neville's Digital Surrogate Brain

Archives for 2012

Magazine images

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Ha……this was a cool surprise.

I did a Skype interview for a magazine called Make App Mag which is releasing on the iPad soon…..and they made these images for some of the magazine pages based off the interview:

This was when my blue hair faded out into blonde, and I got a haircut, so I had frosted-douche-bag-tips:

 

I told the example of 520or90.com and how they validated their idea, and they made this graphic:

 

Here’s another they made….this time with my Facebook profile picture:

 

I’m an info-graphic now….I’ve finally made it! :-P

How to validate a taco stand

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What if you wanted to open a Taco stand? 

Like a taco-truck on the side of the road.  
 
How would you do it?
 
A typical “wantrepreneur” would do the following:
  • Start researching licenses and city permits.  
  • Scout out possible lease locations and speak with all the property owners. 
  • Start Googling taco recipes.
  • Take out a loan (or borrow money) to buy a truck or cart.
  • Spend money and time to get the truck food-certified by the city.  
  • Start looking for employees to help with making the tacos.
  • And…… 
  • A……
  • Bunch……..
  • Of……. 
  • Other……
  • Boring……
  • Stuff……. 
 
Soooo after all that work, thousands of dollars, and months of time…. where are we?NO WHERE!
 
NOT ONE FUCKING TACO HAS BEEN SOLD!!
 
So let’s say $10,000 later, and 6 months down the line….we’ve got this magical taco truck ready.  
 
We excitedly go out to our pre-researched location and turn on the “Open for Business” sign!  
 
::CRICKETS CHIRPING::
::CRICKETS CHIRPING::
::CRICKETS CHIRPING::
::CRICKETS CHIRPING::
::CRICKETS CHIRPING::
 
Well shit.  That didn’t work out so well.  We were open all day & night, we spent hundreds of dollars on fresh meat, avocados, tortillas…..and we only sold 10 tacos the whole night.  
 
“But oh well, it was just the first night…..we’ll get more business soon!” 
 
The next night….
And the next night….
Aaaand the next night……
And our taco truck is still bleeding money.  
 
And since we spent all our money and all our time on this…..we still desperately cling onto this shitty business.  
 
All because WE DIDN’T FIRST VALIDATE THE IDEA.  
 
Bad. Bad. Bad. Bad. Bad. Bad. 
 
 
————————————————————————
————————————————————————
Ok, now let’s take a break and re-do this whole taco-truck idea as if we knew how to validate ideas before jumping in:  
————————————————————————
————————————————————————
 
The absolute FIRST THING TO DO is see if people even WANT your tacos.  
 
Now there’s hundreds of things that could make a successful food business……so instead let’s focus on something the late & great Gary Halbert said:
 
Gary Halbert said (I’m paraphrasing here):
 
“If you opened a hot dog stand…..and I opened a hot dog stand……I can beat the PANTS off you.
It doesn’t matter if you have better hot dog buns, or fresher meat, or more condiments….. 
My secret would be setting up my hot dog stand around a STARVING CROWD.”  
 
 

Using this theory, let’s do a taco-stand validation in one day:

 
FIRST STEP.) Let’s make a bunch of tacos at home (maybe 25-50 tacos) and wrap them in foil.  
 
SECOND STEP.) Let’s take those tacos to some location we think there is a starving crowd, and stack them in little pyramid on a cheap plastic table.
THIRD STEP.) Let’s use some markers and poster-board to make a big-ass sign that says:
 
“HOT BEEF TACOS – $2 each”
FOURTH STEP.) See if people actually buy all your tacos. 
That’s it.  Kind of like this:
DO YOU REALIZE WHAT WE’VE DONE HERE ALEADY??
In one day, we’ve understood:
  • How easy or hard it was to make all those tacos.
  • How much time it took to make the tacos.
  • How much money it took.
  • If we even LIKED doing this work.
  • If our tacos were delicious, or shitty.  
  • A rough estimate of how much to charge for each taco.
  • If the location was good or bad.
  • …..and most importantly:
  • If people even WANTED our tacos from that location.
The next day, we can repeat the experiment, but try a different time, or location, or even an entirely different product…..and see if it works.  
 
And don’t give me shit about, “But Nevillleee…..what about city permits and stuff!!”
 
There’s many ways to get around this (such as setting up your stand on private property like a bar stoop or house lawn)……or even doing it WITHOUT permission.  If a cop actually tried to stop you (highly unlikely), you can just shut down the experiment and repeat elsewhere.  
 
(I asked cops in my bottled water experiment what they would do if they saw me selling water without a permit…..they said, “We don’t really care”) 
 
BE SCRAPPY.  
BE CREATIVE.  
USE LOOPHOLES.  
 
The point of this is to SEE IF PEOPLE WANT YOUR DAMN TACOS.  And if you do an experiment like this, you’ll learn SO MUCH.  
 
So if night-after-night your tacos sell out within 20 minutes…..You’ve proved that people love your tacos, love your location, and love your prices.  
 
…..you might actually have a damn good business on your hands!
 
However if no one buys, or the logistics of taco-making are just entirely too difficult (or boring) for you…..it might make sense to just SHOOT THIS IDEA IN THE HEAD AND KILL IT BEFORE IT SUCKS UP ALL YOUR TIME AND MONEY.  
 
………………and there you have it. We validated a taco stand! 
 
 
Sincerely, 
Mexican Neville

August 2012 Goals

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SO I made some simple monthly goals for August…..Buuuuttt….

Well, first, here they are:

August Goals 2012

So I’m excited about this Ryan Deiss thing because it’ll actually help a lot of people.

But here’s the problem…..actually it’s not really a PROBLEM but more of a long-term thing I’ve been pondering.

I used to have this over-arching goal of making a lot of money and being able to do my work from wherever…..and if I DON’T WANNA DO WORK, I don’t have to.

Well this recent 2-week New York trip I took very much reminded me that I HAVE ALREADY ACHIEVED THAT!

For example (and excuse me because this sounds like bragging, but it’s not):

  • I didn’t do ANY work for 2 weeks….yet still made money everyday.
  • I didn’t have to worry about what I spent on anything.
  • I uprooted from Austin and stayed in NYC for 2 weeks with virtually no impact on business.

Seems like I clearly accomplished the dream!  HOOOOOOOORAY!!!!   …right?

 

The queer thing about life is that once you HIT a goal….it no longer seems so great.  I guess since I was present for every single day that I slogged it out doing work…..this goal was almost “expected” to happen.

I’ve been back to Austin the last few days, and I’ve felt a bit apathetic about a lot of things.

I’ll set my alarm for 7am, but I won’t get out of bed, not because I’m lazy…..but because I’m thinking “I don’t NEED to wake up this early to do my work.”

It’s the weirdest damn thing that when you actually achieve something you’ve been working for…..you kind of don’t care anymore.

And I believe the reason is you must ALWAYS be working towards a goal.

“BUT NEVILLE….RIGHT ABOVE THIS YOU HAAAVE A GOAL!!”

Actually let’s modify that:

As Earl Nightingale says, “You must always be working towards a WORTHY goal.” 

Anyhow, it’s interesting to think if you have a goal set out….that YOU think is a WORTHY goal.

Here’s a FANTASTIC Earl Nightingale podcast recorded decades ago….but the advice is priceless.  This is from a rare collection of Earl Nightingale talks called “Lead The Field”. Enjoy & learn!

[audio:https://www.nevblog.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/08/Lead-The-Field-03-A-Worthy-Destination.mp3]

The entrepreneurial ramp-up period

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I’ve done a bunch of these “survey” and “contest” thingies where we offer to help people with their small business ideas or current businesses.

It’s almost a shame only I get to see these results instead of other people…because:

MOST OF THEM ARE STUPID!

That’s right….a bulk of the ideas and running businesses that get submitted …DON’T MAKE MONEY, and doubtfully ever will.

 

BUT….THESE STUPID BUSINESSES ARE VERY VERY IMPORTANT!

Starting any small business or side-gig is kind of like riding a bike (or any skill):

STAGE 1.) You don’t know what the hell you’re doing and you’ll probably fail a couple of times.
STAGE 2.) You start to get the hang of it.
STAGE 3.) After trying many times, you kind of know what to do by now.

Look at any successful business person and there’s a VERY high chance they’ve tried A LOOTTT of things before whatever made them rich.

Here’s just a SAMLL LIST of dumb things I’ve done:

  • Resumite
  • Tried to buy and sell penny stocks
  • Facebook fan website
  • Rave website
  • Rave forum
  • Rave video hosting service
  • Powerwashing houses
  • Painting address numbers on curbs
  • Burning cd’s
  • Fixing computers
  • Selling bottled water
  • WordPress design
  • Website building
  • Adsense websites
  • Blogging
  • 3D printer websites
  • FancyBlog
  • SEO consulting
  • Buying/Selling on ebay and from Surplus stores
  • more….
  • ….and more….
  • ….and more….

That was just junk I could list off my head in a minute!

In fact, I’m always disappointed at my progress.  I feel like after ALLL THHHEE THHINGGSS I’VE TTRRRIIEED I should be a freakin billionaire by now! But like a lot of things, it takes longer than expected and it probably harder than expected.

Every person I’ve met that’s successful has GREAT stories about all the things they’ve tried in the past.  Try asking someone successful this question:

“What other business ideas did you try before you made it big?”

….and I bet you’ll get a lot of cool answers.

 

So if you’ve been trying to get something off the ground once and for all but feel it isn’t that great of an idea……. don’t be afraid to start quick & fail fast with some crappy business idea.

There are methods to help increase your odds of success (like the SumoBusinessBlueprint we did)….

….but JUST STARTING SOMETHING is always a damn-great place to start!

NEVINNEWYORK

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–or you can LISTEN to this post-

[audio:https://www.nevblog.com/audio/newyork.mp3]

———————————————————— 
Written from Union Square in New York where Noah and I have rented a condo for a week
———————————————————— 

I was speaking with a younger friend who’s taken a liking to New York recently.

….and we were discussing why New York churns out so many hustlers, deal-makers and driven people.

And it came down to:
Competition for resources.

You smash 10 million people into a tiny spit of land, and the competition for EVERYTHING naturally builds.

Here’s a real example:
A woman in Georgia sold her company for $7million.

“WOW!” said all her friends in Georgia…..“YOU”RE RICH!”

She moved to New York City and bought a condo which a person with $7,000,000 can afford (in the $1.5 – $2mil range)….and suddenly she felt poor.

She could look across the river, and see condos which only people with $100million in the bank could buy.

Then she could look a little to the left and see homes and penthouses that only billionaires could afford.

Whereas back in her neck of Georgia, she was the queen-of-the-world…..in NYC she was just a poor little fish.

That $7,000,000 payday seemed like a windfall in one place, and like a small paycheck in another.

All because of increased competition for resources.  

——————————————————–

This concept very much reminds me of THIS post:
https://www.nevblog.com/your-top-5-influences/
….and how you are most often a product of your environment.

 

 

 

Ryan Deiss ripping apart biz ideas

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I got Ryan Deiss in a room and ask him the question (which people here voted for):

“If Ryan Deiss lost his $30,000,000/year business, what would he do to build his next $1,000,000 business?

  • Where would he start?
  • How would he find good business ideas?
  • How would he make money from what he knows?

Ryan had a pretty damn-good system in place where he can tell within about 3 minutes if a business idea (or skill) has a chance to succeed.

He THEN further drills-down (within another 3 minutes) into WHAT the person should sell in their industry:

  • Physical products?
  • Information products?
  • Services?
  • Consulting?

I originally thought he was going to re-hash what is taught in the SumoBusinessBlueprint, but to my surprise it was pretty different (yet equally as easy).

It was really damn cool to watch him tear apart business ideas as I named them …and we thought it’d be really damn cool if he ripped apart YOUR BUSINESS IDEAS!

So if you want Ryan to do his whole process on your business idea or skill, enter your info below.  We’re taking 4 full case studies….and maybe a few extra ones:

Click this link:
https://www.appsumo.com/what-do-i-sell/

 

-OR-

Just enter your info here:

Noah giving away free mini biz consult

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Noah Kagan needs 4 case studies of existing businesses.

So if you fill out the form below you might get a free consult of your business (Noah will be determining where your customers ACTUALLY hang out, and how to reach them):

Too lazy to write more detail….other than we’re closing this form at around 8:30am on Thursday (6-12-2012) so you have a pretty decent chance of getting picked (since it will be up for no more than 12 hours)!

https://www.appsumo.com/where-are-my-customers/

PRODUCING products

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Hey all,

I’ve now made over 10 products on AppSumo:

SumoBusinessBlueprint
SumoBusinessBlueprint LIVE: CASE STUDY EDITION
Kopywriting Kourse
Kopywriting Kourse Kase Studies
Autoresponder Kourse
Social Krash Kourse
Sumo Diet Kourse
Course About Building A Course
Behind The Scenes of a Muse

Those are the courses 100% made by me.

I’ve also helped sell (or create) a bunch of AppSumo email template products and even a last-minute-but-well-selling course about hiring with Noah Kagan. And I even did 3 products before all the AppSumo stuff that were sold to someone else.

I’ve also done a bunch of these Sumo Dojo things too.

Now I can easily keep making products, and intend to continue….but there’s a major problem:

I ONLY KNOW SO MUCH SHIT.

It’s one thing to teach about things I know….and am good at, and have a proven track record at doing successfully (like kopywriting), but it’s NOT cool to hastily research a subject then teach about it.

It’s not fun for me.
And it’s a disservice to anyone buying that information.

I think most people would agree they’d rather be taught by someone EXPERIENCED in something.

Now on another note…..I’ve had the opportunity to occasionally “take over” the production of some of our products at AppSumo that were botched in some way or other (poor planning is usually the main reason).

And when I take over, it usually becomes a better product. I say that in a NON-humble way….and am OPENLY bragging.

My obsessions with being on schedule and conveying information in the LEAST painless way (usually by making it FUN) kick in when being in charge of the product.

The interesting thing is, I actually LIKE doing this! I thought the term for this was “directing” …but my video guy told me my role is a “producer”.

Whatever.

I guess I enjoy “producing” ….as much as I enjoy being in front of a camera, being behind it seems almost MORE important (think Steven Spielberg).

I enjoy when someone takes a course of mine and says, “Holy crap….after watching your course in two hours I now…” ….and then they gush about the benefits and actions they got out of it.

I LOVE the feeling of changing a persons life in a small way (plus I even get PAID for it).

So I might move more into producing some of these products, rather than starring in them.

Producing has a few drawbacks and some advantages.

DRAWBACKS OF PRODUCING PRODUCTS:

  • I have to find talented and knowledgable people to use as the star of the product.
  • I have to share percentages of the product with those people.
  • If the product is a flop, I get more blame (before…I was the only one disappointed.  Now other people have chips on the table too).

ADVANTAGES OF PRODUCING PRODUCTS:

  • I can crank out products MUCH faster (it normally takes me a full month to do my products….and usually by the end I’m killing myself working too much).
  • I can produce products in areas where I’m NOT an expert…..but I know people who are.
  • I can bring in people to produce awesome products that help the world….and me, and AppSumo.
  • The star of the product makes monthly income for the lifetime of that product and has to do little or no support work to keep it live.
  • I can comfortably make 2 products a month…maybe even 4 if I’m feeling ballsy.

So as with anything in it’s infancy, I’m not absolutely CERTAIN this will work out well, but it seems to have a shot.

With this course of action in mind, I’ve started going on the hunt for internet-famous people to star in these products. And since I live in Austin, and since I have cool friends who know other cool people……I think my first product might be made with Ryan Deiss as the star of the product.

Ryan’s got a $30,000,000/year company selling digital products (actually….the VERY FIRST QUESTION I asked him when he said he was interested was, “Why the fuck would you wanna make a product with AppSumo and not yourself??)

….his answer was, “To be exposed to a new market.”

I figured in this economy, and with a lot of people hating the sh*t out of their jobs….a lot of people would want to know how Ryan would start from scratch.

Even I’m kinda curious how he’d do it.

 

….anywhoozle, I’m still wondering what the topic of this new product should be.

Would you mind selecting which topics you’d be MOST curious to have a guy who built a $30,000,000/year digital products company teach you about?

Thank you!

July 2012 Goals

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It’s July 9th and I still haven’t posted my goals publicly??

BAD NEVILLE.

Anyhow, here they are (well, it’s just one):

July 2012 Goals

 

Normally I have a maximum of three goals for the month….but this time I really have just one main goal for July 2012.

I’ll write more about what I mean by “produce” a product….as it’s a bit different this time.

Anyhow, do YOU have your monthly goals set out yet?

 

Hangout with me (virtually) at 2pm CST today!

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———————U-P-D-A-T-E————————
Since Google Hangouts is cool as hell and lets you live-Youtube-stream your videos AND save them, here’s a copy of the quick 30 minute live broadcast I did.

I forgot to hit “record” until about 2 minutes in, but you’ll live.

I go over:

1.) How I hired an assistant the automated way(who helped me put together this entire thing totally last minute).

-and-

2.) How I’m building out a new product.  Backstage access.

I’m not pitching anything in this video.  Just wanted to give cool info out for fun.  I really liked this Google Hangout thing!

Lemme know if you have questions for future mini-broadcasts like this!

 

———-ORIGINAL POST BELOW————–

Hey heeyyy, I’m doing a free & quick “webinar” thing (I hate that word) on Google Hangouts in a few hours…..

….today (Tuesday 6-12-2012) at 2:00pm Central time.  
I’m gonna discuss:
1.) How I hired an assistant (in fact, he helped me put all this together).  I also hired in a very different way than most people….it’s VERY useful info.
2.) A lot of people ask how I ACTUALLY MAKE courses to sell online, and we’re about 10% done with a new course, so I’m gonna show you behind-the-scenes how that process is going.
This course will likely make me tens of thousands of dollars…..and you’ll get an inside peek at how it’s researched, filmed, and bundled up!
I’ll keep this quick……30 minutes max….maybe even less.
ANYONE WITH YOUTUBE CAN WATCH THIS!
I’ll be sending the link via Twitter around 2pm.  (my twitter is @nevmed)
A few people can even join the actual Google Hangout (up to 9 people only) when I post it:
So keep a look out on my Twitter around 2pm CST today for the link to watch this hangout!
Seeya today at 2pm CST!
Neville