Wednesday, September 30, 2009

Finally – How you can start your own Muse: The New Jet Set Internet Business Academy

Finally – How you can start your own Muse: The New Jet Set Internet Business Academy
Rob: The one question I get asked dozens of times per week is “How can I live a Jet Set Life like you guys do?”.  Well, today we just may have some answers for you.  I’m really excited to interview Jason Van Orden of the hugely successful Internet Business Mastery Academy.  Jason will deconstruct the questions that many of [...]
Jason on a mini retirement to Buenos Aires at La Boca Jr Stadium

Jason on a mini retirement in Buenos Aires at La Boca Jr Stadium

Rob: The one question I get asked dozens of times per week is “How can I live a Jet Set Life like you guys do?”.  Well, today we just may have some answers for you.  I’m really excited to interview Jason Van Orden of the hugely successful Internet Business Mastery Academy.  Jason will deconstruct the questions that many of you have been asking about how to develop your own highly successful muse.

If you’re serious about having a Jet Set Life and are willing to educate yourself about how to do it by leveraging technology and creating a scalable, systematic online business (as discussed in the Four Hour Work Week), then let’s begin the process of joining the New Jet Set and take the first step in micro testing, together, the new Jet Set Internet Business Academy.

1.  Let’s start at the beginning.  Would you describe the concept of Lifestyle Design and explain what a muse is from the Internet Business Mastery Academy’s (IBMA) prospective?

Lifestyle Design is the idea of first knowing what you want your life to look like, then choosing the business and circumstances that provide for it.

Too many people let their lives be dictated by circumstances outside of their choosing.  For most people, what dictates the circumstances of their life (e.g. how they spend each day, where they live, how much money they make, etc.) is their job or clinging to some definition of “security”.

This is completely backwards.  I know a lot of people feel helpless to control the circumstances of their lives, but that’s just not true.  There are so many opportunities out there that allow you to choose the lifestyle you want and make that happen.

The first step is choosing now what you want most in your life.  What do you want it to look like ideally?

This includes deciding things like the following:

  • Where do you want to live?
  • What kind of place will you live in?
  • Do you want to travel?
  • How much time do you want to spend with family?
  • Do you want to live in the city, suburbs or in a rural setting?
  • What daily pursuits do you want to spend your time on?
  • What kinds of people will you spend your time with?

You should go into as much detail as you can with descriptions, what it will feel like, when different milestones will happen.  Every decision I make in life or in my business is run through the filter of my Lifestyle Design.

Once you have this designed, you need a viable vehicle (a muse) that will provide for this.  For me this is internet business.

Internet business can be automated, outsourced and systemized lending itself to all the factors I want in my life.  It allows me to very effectively achieve my Lifestyle Design.

For our students, we recommend internet business because it’s inexpensive to get started and relatively easy to launch.  The profit margins are high, the costs are low and the risks are minimal.  In my mind, it’s an ideal arena for building a muse.

2. You do more than just teach the concept of lifestyle design – you really live it.  How has putting the principals taught in the academy into action affected your own life personally and what has it allowed you to do that you weren’t able to do before?

First of all I find it extremely fulfilling.  I have connected with very interesting and passionate people all over the world through my online business pursuits.  I love that.

Second, it has allowed to be to increase my income to far more than it ever was as an employee.  I get “pay raises” every month because I am in control of my business and my finances.

Third, it has allowed me to spend time all over the world in places like Paris, Buenos Aires, Hawaii, London and New York City.  I can run my business from anywhere, or even take time off on a whim.  That kind of freedom is priceless.

It has also been an interesting contrast to what’s going on in the economy.  Currently, I’m spending time in Portland, OR.  The unemployment here is really high.  Peolpe are worried.  Having my own business I’ve not been affected at all.  In fact, my income has gone up every month since people started using the “recession” word on a daily basis.

That kind of security and control over my finances and the circumstances of my life is one of the things I cherish most, second only to the relationships I have with friends and family.

3. You teach about defining your “Definite Major Purpose” first.  Would you explain what this means and why it is so important in creating your lifestyle design plan?

Your Definite Major Purpose (DMP) is an important element of Lifestyle Design.  It’s at the center of what drives you.  For the next week, I challenge anyone reading this article to ask people around them what they think the purpose of their life is.  Some people will have a solid answer.  Many of them will be vague (or make something up on the spot).  A lot will have no idea or give an answer that equates to nothing more than “I just survive”.

Having a solid DMP is critical in your Lifestyle Design.  It is at the core of who you are and what you want to do in this world, not only for yourself, but for society.  We break the DMP creation process into three areas:  freedom, fulfillment and recognition.

Freedom

  • How do you want to spend your time?
  • How many hours a weeks do you want to work?
  • Do you want to be location independent?
  • Do you want a business that has an office and employees?
  • What are things you never want to have to do?

Fulfillment

  • What things have to be present in your life in order for you to be fulfilled?
  • What makes you most happy?
  • What are your strengths?

Recognition

  • What do you want to be known for?

For example, here is a sample of my DMP.

Freedom

I want to be able to move around when I want to (last year I lived in Argentina for a few months).

I want to live in big cities.

I don’t want an office or on-site employees.

I don’t want to work 40 hours a week.

I want to have time to spend with my family.

Fulfillment

To be fulfilled I need to be teaching others.

I need to be constantly learning.

I need variety in my schedule.

Recognition

I want to have an impact on people’s lives.

I want to be seen as a business leader.

I want to be known as someone who uses their time and talents to help others find freedom in their own lives.

Then summarize that into one sentence.  For me it would be that last bullet point:  to use my time and talents to help others find freedom in their own lives.  This is the compass that drives me in everything that I do.

Choosing Your Muse

4. The most common question I receive is “how do I find my muse”.  What steps can someone take to finding the ideal muse for them?

Here is the basic process.

First, define your Lifestyle Design and your Definite Major Purpose.

Second, find a business model that fits and provides for those things.  For me this was internet business.

Third, find a starving market, determine what they want most and give it to them.

When choosing a market, there are a number of factors you should consider.

1. Are you passionate about it?

2. How quickly can you act in the niche market and see what the market tells you?

3. Can you create an automated product or service for the market?

4. Is there potential for selling them a continuous line of new products?

These are just a few of the fifteen important factors we teach about in the Academy.  Another reason we are so big on internet marketing is that it is easy to find something you are passionate about, hone in on a hungry market and test an idea with little risk.

5. Your course is mostly based around marketing information products, as opposed to physical products, would you explain why that is and what have your experiences been with selling physical products?

Information marketing is essentially taking valuable information that a niche market wants and selling it to them in a convenient form.  There are information product-based businesses in every imaginable niche.

Information marketing has several advantages.

1. It has huge profit margins.  You can sell it for many times more than it costs you to make it (often 10-30 times more).

2. You can produce it very quickly and easily.  You can outline and create a product in a matter of days.  Compare that to the creation cycle of a physical product that needs to be designed and manufactured.

3. It requires very little capital to get started.  You can create products digitally and distribute them over the Internet, so there is no manufacturing or inventory costs.

4. You can create something once and get paid for it time and time again.  My first product was a seminar that I did once.  I recorded it and turned it into a set of audio CD’s and a manual.  Then, I sold it through a web site.  This product continued to pay me for years after I did that one seminar.


5. By selling digital information products you forego the logistics of inventory, order fulfillment and shipping.

I’ve never really worked at all with selling a physical product on ebay, although my business partner has.  There are a myriad of headaches that can come up.  Now, all of our businesses are purely information-based.

This is the information age.  More and more people are going online to find content.  They are willing to pay for that content when it is presented in the right way.

6. Would you give us a couple of specific examples of some of the best online muses you’ve seen, perhaps even some great examples from your own students at the academy, like Dale from Pigtones, whom I have previously interviewed?

Here are some of my favorite muses that have been created by Internet Business Mastery Academy students.

Patrick Flynn | www.intheleed.com

Last year Patrick was laid off from his job.  A few months later he joined our Academy to see how he could create his own business.  Two months later he was making five figures a month.

He took his expertise in LEED architecture and made a site to help people pass the exam.  He took knowledge and interests he already had and turned it into an online business.

Shaun Noonan | www.learningindonesian.com

After taking our coaching course, Shaun and his girlfriend took their interest and knowledge in the Indonesian language and started a podcast.  They now have a loyal community of followers and listeners that buy premium language materials from them.

Curt | www.UndercoverLawyer.com

Curt is a lawyer that took his legal knowledge and launched an online site to help pay medical bills for his family.  In his first month he made $3000.  Now, he is up to $8000 a month.  He recently called and left us a very fulfilling message explaining how grateful he is to have this income stream in a time when many people are feeling like financially things are out of their control.  In his own words “I’ve got more business than I know what to do with.”

One thing I want to point out is that each of these is in a variety of topics.  Some people think that internet/information marketing only works when you sell information to other peolpe about making money on the Internet.  This is just simply not true.

We’ve seen people make money with niches that range from project management to genealogy to medicine.

Monetizing Your Muse

7. For the readers who currently have an online muse and want to monetize it, what are your best general tips for doing that?

First, make sure you are building an email list.  If not, start right now.

Second, survey your list/market and ask them three things.

1. What are the two top questions that you have about _____insert your niche topic_______?

2. How hard has it been for you to find the answer to these questions?

3. What would it mean to you to find the answer to these questions?

If you ask these questions, you will find a hole in your market that you can fill.  Create an information product that solves these problems for your market.

Third, don’t be afraid to charge what you are worth.  Far too many entrepreneurs charge way to little for what they offer.

8. What are the biggest mistakes that people make when trying to monetize their site?

They don’t build an email list.  This is going to be one of the most important communication and monetization tools that you have for your business.

Also, they make assumptions about what their market needs and never ask them.  You have to survey and do your research.  It is much easier to sell what your market wants than what you think they need.  Find the market.  Ask them what they want.  Give it to them. That’s how you make money online.

Finally, they don’t take fast, bold action.  This is the quickest way to success.

9. What is the average someone can earn monthly after going through your course?

We’ve had people make five-figures a month after going through the course.

That said, this figure varies widely.  Everyone has different goals.  It’s going to depend on the market as well.

We’ve also had a lot of people tell us they were able to quit their job.  We love hearing about our students’ “independence days”.

Our students are creating businesses that grow every month despite the “economic climate”.

We teach how to create a solid business model that will grow over time, making you more money while you work less and less.

If you follow the system, work on it consistently, pick up and move forward even when things don’t go as planned…you will make money.

Final Thoughts

10. How can someone get in touch with you and learn more about the Internet Business Academy?

I recommend taking two actions right now. First, head over to our site and subscribe to the podcast.

Here

Second, subscribe to our email list to get the lastest tips from us and to get our Lifestyle Design mini-course.  This audio and email series goes in depth into how to create your own Lifestyle Design.  It also comes with a worksheet to guide you through the process.

Here

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Rob: On a personal note these guys at Internet Business Mastery have blown me away at how they have taken the principals taught in the Four Hour Work Week and put them in to a step-by-step real tangible plan for success with your own online business.


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