Muselife - Muse creation, personal outsourcing, ultramobility and the new rich lifestyle.

I like the thinking guys, here is my 10 cents:

Expanding LanguageCheat horizontally makes a lot of sense and so does business planning, I suspect many muses stagnate after a certain amount of time. In my mind probably the hardest/riskiest bits have been done: you are basically looking at creating another 9 muses with a guaranteed market and a proven business model.
I am however uncertain as to why you are looking for investors? Surely LanguageCheat is already profitable and providing you with an automated income? Wouldn't it be better to grow the business organically? I agree it is important to think big but there are 34 languages with more native speakers than thai; 34 muses, at least 34 times the original profitability surely? If you started the first one cheaply and it works why not follow the same method and leverage the returns from you muse. The original muse then becomes a muse mother! The business could grow exponentially organically and there is no need to give up equity.

Of course the sort of intense business planning needed for investment would be very beneficial but mainly because it would apply to all of the potential muses. If I was in your (very enviable) position I would re-invest my passive income and not waste my time pitching to people who would just detract from your possible future earnings. Thinking big is good but remember big is not the goal, automated income and lifestyle is. Make sure you don't get trapped in your own creation....

Sorry, got a bit preachy at the end! I'm enjoying the content guys. I've just started writing a cookery related eBook so I'll keep you informed of how that works out! Keep doing what you are doing!!!

Ben O'Mahony

I just wanted to say that your vlog is a breath of fresh air. The whole concept of lifestyle design has interested me ever since I found out about Tim Ferriss and others like yourself who have inspired me to start my own muse. I've always been in the stage of thinking up great muses my entire life, but have never had the courage/knowledge/inspiration/whatever to actually get out and do it.

Like yourself, I became increasingly interested in escaping the 9 - 5 after I caught the travel bug. I went to China last year and have been in love with Asian culture ever since. Coming back home to Illinois didn't really seem like an option, even though that is exactly what I did. Creating a muse, realizing the idea, and then marketing it to create (eventually) passive income seems to be one of the few ways to actually be free in life to enjoy it.

Just wanted to say thanks again for all of these great, inspiring vlogs that (only time will tell...) planted the seed that made me free.

On my first night in Bangkok I got stopped by a "ladyboy" in front of my new backpacker buddies. She/He asked me if I wanted to go home with him/her I said no and she/he kept insisting. After hearing why for the 5th time ...I blurted out ... cause you're a dude. His/her face changed completely and she/he pulled her pants down in the middle of the street (Koh Sahn Road for the familiars)....

Your Thai Language Cheat would of prevented 1 week's worth of puns and nightmares.

Spotting kathoey is like Bangkok's version of birdwatching. If a girl looks too good to be true, s/he absolutely is.

I like the emphasis on muses as a business. That's what a muse really is: a business. It's just a business that can be highly automated or outsourced once it's up and running. On the 4HWW forums sometimes there seems to be too much focus on the automation and cost-saving aspects and not enough on the business aspects. The key here is to be able to start successful businesses. The only difference with the muse concept is to begin with the end in mind that once your business is running it won't consume you time-wise.

Regarding the business you guys have described in this video, I can think of another business Seth would be perfectly positioned to start, based on his experience in Thailand. I am thinking of a product I came across when I was visiting Rio de Janeiro and which I think visitors to Bangkok or other parts of Thailand would appreciate as much as I did.

This brings me to a question I'd like to bounce off of you guys: what if you come up with a business idea you think is great, but it's not one that you have the skill sets/experience/time to pursue yourself? There ought to be some way that entrepreneurs can hand these ideas off to each other in exchange for some sort of consideration (e.g., a small percentage of any profits the idea generates in someone else's hands). Maybe there's a muse idea in figuring out how to facilitate that process in a trusted environment?

@daveinhackensack
Re "Totally agree. I wouldn't expect getting a large equity stake just for giving an initial idea, and it's best if you can offer further input in addition to the original idea. I think a good model here would probably be patent licensing. If you license a patent to a big manufacturer, you'll get (if memory serves) a high single-digit percentage of the revenue the product based on your idea generates."

A good way to tackle the question of ownership/equity when multiple parties are involved is in your business plan - if no $$ capital is involved, all partners start with 1% share of the company then write into the business plan all the goals/achievements that each party much achieve in a specified timeframe. From there, each party earns their equity based on their achievements. This gives everyone a fair share of the business and doesn't discredit the value of an idea nor does it give credit to future "possible" sweat equity other partners may commit to.

Legalities around this method will vary from country to country but to me its a very transparent straight up way of building a new business, particularly with people you haven't worked with before. The only problem with this is assigning value in terms of shares to $$ capital people invest

"That said, I'd argue that simply having an idea isn't usually enough to warrant a large equity stake. Ideas are in the ether and their only value is in their execution."

Totally agree. I wouldn't expect getting a large equity stake just for giving an initial idea, and it's best if you can offer further input in addition to the original idea. I think a good model here would probably be patent licensing. If you license a patent to a big manufacturer, you'll get (if memory serves) a high single-digit percentage of the revenue the product based on your idea generates.

"Definitely open to discuss if you want to."

Will e-mail you about it.

Dave, you couldn't be more on-point: these are simply businesses, albeit scalable, low-input businesses. They still require the fundamental understanding of business and all that goes along with it. Anyone that can't grasp that and simply thinks they can release a little e-book or hire a VA has a long way to go. Creating the product is only the beginning.

About your business/muse idea and how you could develop it when you're short on time... that's exactly the problem we're solving with our venture firm. We talk to a lot of guys with great ideas, but lack either the time or resources to make them real. We take on projects and incubate them, and find a way to make it worthwhile for everyone. That said, I'd argue that simply having an idea isn't usually enough to warrant a large equity stake. Ideas are in the ether and their only value is in their execution. That's where the blood sweat and tears lives. Anyone that comes to us with an idea is expected to contribute more than just the idea, in whatever way they can add the most value. Usually this is just in their expertise.

Getting ripped off is inevitable and it really validates your idea. I've seen 3-4 100% copies of one of my audio products. Nothing added, nothing improved. Simply ripped off and re-labeled. I'm going to do a video on this soon. Ideally you want to have this happen after you've executed and released a product, rather than before you've had a chance to become the first mover.

Anyway, good ideas are worth sharing with people you trust and who will respect you as the originator. Definitely open to discuss if you want to.

I have two hurdles in muse-ifying my ad agency. It's already decentralized to a point that once a client is on board, all I have to do personally is come up with concepts, ideas, and strategies for clients. The execution is easily delegated after establishing relationships with creatives. Coming up with concepts, ideas, and strategies keeps my juices flowing, so I'm more than happy to eliminate everything else first. The remaining things I definitely don't want to continue to do are the two hurdles.

1) Keeping the new business pipeline full. This is probably a super common problem.

2) At the opposite end of the spectrum.. I'm having a hard time getting accounts receivable... well... received. I'm regularly forced to play bill collector and it sucks the life out of me. Not only that, but it makes working with the offending clients three days later on the important stuff weird because of the shift in dynamic. Basically, I'm playing good cop and bad cop. This stuff is easier to ignore once in a while if the product has a double digit price tag, but I'm doing fewer transactions with four or five digits in the bill. Firing the client(s) is one option. However, if there's a way to offload that task in a way that's cost effective (and somewhat softer than an actual collection agency) and would allow client retention, I'd consider it. A VA would seem to be the obvious choice. Any ideas/experience on filtering candidates for that skill?

These inefficiencies have a ripple effect... Unrealized revenue that's on the books is preventing me from investing in assets required to devote proper attention to a related business (essentially a group of agents for web developers and designers). This idea of mine has already been released into the wild by Corbett Barr.

Andrew you're struggles with keeping a full pipeline and bulldogging your accounts receivable are totally valid. It's a ridiculously poor use of time for someone whose time is best spent being creative and otherwise enjoying life. I didn't reply to this sooner because I knew my next video would be hitting on it (posting it tonight). We don't hit on the bill collecting piece, but the concept Robert (Life Design Project) introduces is every bit as applicable. Systems are the solution. Check out the new vid for a discussion on it all.