Keep reading for…

• Shifting how you think about credibility, barriers and accessibility
• A free, unbeatable resource for directly connecting with the media
• Link to Entrepreneur article (and raw interview responses for anyone interested in the outsourcing/system side of things)
• Next on Muselife

Credibility, Accessibility, Barriers & HARO

The big brands can still make and break you

No matter what industry you’re in, there are always a select few publications that shape the message and conversation within it. Whether on the web or magazine stand, there are those two or three major titles that you look at and lust to be on the inside. In big business, think of Fortune and Forbes. In tech, Wired is king. In small business/startup, think Inc., FastCompany, Entrepreneur and FSB. The list goes on for every vertical you can imagine.

Though it’s clearly a psychological remnant of old-guard media, there’s this undeniable credibility and cachet to getting your name or brand inside a proper publication. As powerful as independent/personal blogs can be, credibility still goes to the most well-known “brands”. If I take the same story and put it on multiple sites – CNN, Huffington Post, Drudge Report, and on some obscure, nameless Wordpress.com blog, following his final season predictions for LOST – your opinion is absolutely skewed based on context. It’s human.

The point? If you want credibility, start by breaking into media outlets that have the power to give it. One major media hit can give you what two dozen guest blog posts may never deliver. Want proof? Go check out the media tsunami that hit Gary Vaynerchuk starting with a producer’s email, inviting him on The Conan O’Brien Show. Sure, they found him, but you better believe you can flip it around and go after it yourself.

Crippling misconception: Inaccessibility

You are always 1-2 connections away from absolutely anyone you could hope to know. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve Twitter’d someone I may once have considered “inaccessible” and gotten a response with their private mobile number and invitation to call. Unless you’re a screaming lunatic trying to get Bono to sign an exposed body part or asking Obama to go shoot hoops, there are no barriers anymore – everyone is accessible and it’s spineless and naive to think otherwise.

The point? This is as true for media outlets & publications as it is for individuals.

Remember: Reporters and journalists have a hell of a job to do.

Tight, inflexible deadlines; editorial review, fact checking, research, and sourcing subject-matter experts. It all takes time. Blogging is simple when it’s your voice and you’re accountable to no one, held to no dates. Journalists deserve respect. They can also use your help…

There’s no magic rolodex on their desk or social network they can tap to get immediate access to relevant insights from credible voices – until now. HARO (Help A Reporter Out) connects journalists & producers to sources. Sign up. You’ll get 2-3 digest-style emails per day, broken down by category. Every one is full of opportunities to share your expertise. The more niche you are, the more you may have to hunt – but remember, it may only take one opportunity to blow up. You’ll see bloggers, primetime TV network producers, print publications, and more. If you want to watch a short, somewhat funny documentary about the founder and how it works, watch this…

To sum it all up: Go after your own press and media breaks. The only real barrier left is your beliefs about how it all works and whether or not you can make it real.

Entrepreneur Interview

Read the published article via the link below. It’s well-written and pulls together a few different perspectives.

Build a Better Business with Outsourcing by Nancy Mann Jackson
A comprehensive guide on the what, when and how to outsource

Raw interview responses

The below is my heavy responses that I thought I’d share in case you want to go deeper.

1. Are more small businesses outsourcing tasks these days? If so, why?

Absolutely, but we’re only scratching the surface. Outsourcing feels intimidating and has long been considered reserved for big business, which has kept many small business owners from leveraging its power. As a small business, you need to focus on your unique strengths and offering, minimizing the time and cost of everything falling outside of that. If you only have a few employees (or none at all), it’s critical to direct your energy and money toward innovation and growth. Progressive entrepreneurs realize the unstoppable power of outsourcing as a force-multiplier to handle aspects of their business that are essential but simply don’t make sense for them to deal with personally. Small business, augmented by a global pool of human capital, can compete directly with the biggest players in their space – and win.

2. What types of tasks are best outsourced?

On principle, you should consider outsourcing any work that does not represent the core value of your business and what differentiates you in the market. Wherever there’s repetition or monotony, there’s potential to reclaim time or streamline. Nearly any task reliant on the left brain is prime for outsourcing: programming, research, accounting and all technical or data work. Creative work, from design to copywriting, can absolutely be considered, but simply requires more attention be paid to the individual you’re hiring.

3. How can business owners find the right contractors for various tasks?

Sites like Elance and oDesk allow you to freely post projects, and sit back while thousands of people compete for the business. Finding a good resource is as simple as selecting the most competitive offer. The risk is low and once you find good providers, you’ll have them available for future work. You can also look where locals gather, on sites like Craigslist or regional job boards.

For creative or design work, crowdsourcing sites like Crowdspring and 99designs provide massive value for your budget. Rather than pay a single designer, you’re presented dozens of approaches to choose from.

4. How can a business owner prepare himself or herself to delegate and work with contractors effectively?

It’s less about logistics and entirely about mindset. Many owners take pride in having the world on their shoulders and their entire organization buried in their mind. Knowing your business is critical, but keeping yourself indispensible is reckless and unscalable. Realize that removing yourself from low-level operations is the smartest investment you can make in the long-term success of your business. Let go of control and check your entrepreneurial ego against the reality of your industry and your value within it. Acknowledge and optimize the underlying systems driving your business, rather than focusing solely on your people. In all but the most creative and unique businesses, you do not need brilliant people – you need refined systems executed by competent people. Don’t let outsourcing intimidate you – people are people, and it’s simply a less expensive, lower risk means of hiring and managing them.

Outsourcing is simply a widening of your talent pool with a willingness to bridge communication and timezone gaps. It isn’t always just about maximizing output or efficiency – it’s about eliminating poor use of time and replacing it with your highest level of contribution.

5. How do you know what is an appropriate fee for a contractor? Are there any resources you can recommend for making sure you’re paying the right price?

“You get what you pay for” is true, wherever you go in the world. Always pay someone what they’re worth, regardless of location but accounting for and leveraging currency differences that often work in your favor. As a principle, value outcomes over hours. If you don’t get the outcome you need, it doesn’t matter how much time your contractor spent along the way. Consider distinct task-based agreements while you’re evaluating new providers, and transition to a fixed-cost retainer once your confident in their ability to consistently deliver.

6. What are the best things (pros) about outsourcing?

Outsourcing gives you on-demand expertise and resources without the cost of supporting full-time, on-site employees – such as overhead, benefits and the need to keep them engaged full-time. It’s shockingly cost effective due to currency and economic differences, which gives you the freedom to experiment and multiple specialized individuals. Handing off work forces you to objectively, ruthlessly and systematically consider your activities and the steps taken to perform them. Defining a process flushes out inefficiency. Timezone differences enable work to get done while you sleep, which can drastically impact your operations.

7. What are the worst things (cons) about outsourcing?

Language barriers and timezones can present a challenge, simply because it challenges how we think of communication and time. Language issues are wildly exaggerated by those trying to justify laziness in clearly articulating requirements and expectations. Clarity in your own communication overcomes any confusion for the person working for you. Timezones create more opportunity than inconvenience, as you can extend your productive hours by handing tasks over to someone during their workday. Assign a task at night, and awake to find it complete and waiting for you.

More than anything, outsourcing forces you to clearly articulate that which you normally just do from instinct and experience. This can be a real ego check when you realize that nearly everything you and your employees do can be done by absolutely anyone.

Next on Muselife

It’s been a quiet month, we know. Lots of travel and interesting projects brewing. The content machine is revving up again.

• 3-part interview series with Work The System author Sam Carpenter, discussing systematic business design and identifying untapped passive income sources. We may even give some things away…
• More videos and interviews around lifestyle design, successful product development/launch, automation and systematic marketing

Stay tuned. Things are about to light up again.

Because it’s a fresh new year, and free is a beautiful word…

To celebrate the close of a year and welcoming of a new, let’s all toast to designing lifestyles worth living. As a thank you for the tremendous support of what we’re doing on Muselife, and to share some of what I’ve learned along the way, go grab a free copy of my book, Source Control. You can read up on it at the book website, but this is the only way to get a copy free. This ends on or around midnight Saturday Jan 2, 2010 so check the end of this post and grab yours while it’s free.

Need inspiration? Check out Tim Ferriss’ Cold Remedy Contest

Check out the 15 video entries over at the 4-Hour Workweek blog’s Cold Remedy contest. They’ll all help light a blazing fire under your ass going into 2010. I’m one of the finalists, and though I’d be lying if I said I wouldn’t love to win this thing and have more fuel to jet around filming for Muselife – go with your gut and enjoy the killer stories from each person.

Give me a free copy of Source Control…

You’ll notice a new face with me in some of these videos. Seth Hosko (@shosko) has been working with me for years and we’re currently running a venture firm called Dangerous Ambition. More on that later.

Some links and shout-outs…

• MindMeister , a killer tool for breaking down your processes and figuring out exactly what you’re doing with your time.
• Source Control, my book on outsourcing and process design.
• RELENTLESS shirt inspired by Relentless Fitness (@liverelentless). Roger is going to be huge in his space – keep an eye on him.

Everything ahead is based on personal experience. Though it’s bursting at the seams with judgement and condescending criticism, it’s also my own massive ego-check after rugged experimentation. It’s my realization that location independence is simply not enough and move back to the drawing board with unshakeable resolve for more.

First off, I want to tell you I’m doing this because I care about you and don’t want to see you destroy your life. This is a safe space, free of judgement. I’ve organized this intervention because I’m seeing a pattern. I’m seeing you fall short of your potential and lose sight of what you set out to accomplish.

Now, onto the unsafe space full judgement, where I’m going to say what no one else will…

Location independence is a weak compromise & it’s absolutely not awesome.

When was it decided that mobility was a good place to throw our hands up in victory? We all set out to climb Everest, and you’ve planted your flag at base camp, perfectly geared up to suffer the cold.

Look around. We’re claiming achievement and expertise in a space we haven’t actually figured out. Labeling a compromise doesn’t change the fact that it’s a compromise.

The Unsolicited New Rules of Lifestyle Design

What follows here is not for everyone. If you are content working constantly or do not have genuine passions which demand total time ownership – this is not for you. This is only for the dangerously ambitious who demand absolute independence, of both mobility and time.

1) Mobility is not Independence: Stop blurring the lines.

Mobility is as admirable a start as it is pathetic a finish. It is not wrong – it’s simply incomplete. Wireless isn’t freedom – it’s an extended leash. Call it whatever you want – it’s glorified telecommuting giving you an ever-greater sense of how big a world it is that you’re missing.

Mobility is nothing more than logistics. Connectivity, communication, visas, timezones, itineraries – it is all just infrastructure supporting your portable job.

You need to have an unquenchable thirst for life and absolutely refuse to just take little sips between client work.

Mere mobility leaves no room for full immersion in passion-pursuits. It’s an admission that you will always have to work to deserve your lifestyle. The beast must forever be fed.

2) Perpetuation is not Elimination: Stop whoring your time for mobility. You deserve both.

Designing new lifestyles around old work is ass-backwards and entirely broken.

When did we stop demanding time and mobility? Nearly half of all location independents work 40-50 hours a week. That’s a ridiculous number of people working absurd hours. When I was doing the same, none of those hours were focused on eliminating that problem. Are yours?

3) Mobility is not Fulfilling

If you ever want an unforgettable case of nomadic blue-balls, try travelling the world working from your laptop.

Photo credit: Flickr User Cybjorg

When I’m in a wild new place, doing passionless work, I feel extreme resentment. I feel like a failure that only solved half a problem – which is precisely the case. We need to stop telling people to become a freelancer, travel the world and suddenly life will be amazing. Why? Because it’s fucking cruel. Leaving an office and taking your work somewhere exotic does not eliminate frustration - it inflames it.

Doing something you don’t love in an office feels oddly acceptable – it feels right. Yet somehow when there’s an elephant sanctuary 5 minutes away or a raging cultural parade marching down the street, sitting in a cafe designing some logo isn’t as glamorous. It stops feeling like an enabler and starts feeling like an obligation.

A raw sampling of the work-supported location independent lifestyle…

• Ireland: You lose your debit card and have $8 cash. You pawn your possessions to cover a hostel for the 6 nights it takes to get money wired. On the flight out, you realize the pawn shop sold you back the wrong external hard drive. Goodbye 2 weeks of client work, hello 8 hours of explicit amateur Russian porn.
• Stockholm: After a flirtatious exchange with two of the most stunning blonde girls you’ve ever laid eyes upon, you’re unable to accept their invitation to their normally all-girls fondue pajama party, due to your extended client work review session that evening. For the first time ever, you actually feel a dream die.
• Melbourne: You stand on a 6th-floor balcony stealing wi-fi, uploading critical revisions for a presentation halfway around the world. The girl you flew all the way there to visit enjoys a crazy night with other guys at a pub. You communicate via text message. Emoticons are used.
• Mexico: You cross the border for tequila, tacos and tanning. Two weeks later, you’re welcomed back across that same border with a $950 mobile roaming bill from all those leisurely conference calls you were so smugly taking from the beach, cocktail in hand.
• Santa Monica: You’re finishing a massive demo for the CIA/NSA/FBI in 4 days. Your keyboard & trackpad dies. You do not sleep for 72 hours without progress. You have had a date with this yoga instructor you met. Clock ticking, you spend $2,000 on replacement gear. You are the guy in Coffee Bean with 2 computers, wires everywhere, surrounded by boxes. You leave without surfing once.
• Prague: One minute, you’re the guy in a pink boa entertaining a German bachelorette party – the next, you’re learning harshly that absinthe before conference calls is a very poor decision.
• Bangkok: You don’t turn on your laptop for 2 weeks. It is the single greatest 2 weeks of your life.

Lesson? Mobility without time ownership simply creates extraoardinary opportunity for unexepected experiences – which is right when obligation walks in, punches you directly in the face, drops you to the ground and steps on your back while you watch potential walk away, unrealized and forever lost. I demand more.

4) Logistics is not Ingenuity: Stop saying anyone can do it.

Even very smart people work constantly from one place. Slightly smarter people can travel the world working constantly from any place. The ingenious ones eliminate non-passionate work entirely to make room for experience.

Absolute independence is significantly more difficult than mobility. It requires you rethink how you fuel your lifestyle and demands ingenuity and tremendous risk tolerance. Few people talk about this because so few people have figured it out. It was easier to just slap a label on settling.

5) Enabling Passion is not Passion: Stop lying to yourself about loving what you do

There’s one thing I became extraordinarily good at after leaving the corporate world: lying to myself. The huge mistake we make is confusing what we’re doing with what it enables. I’d always tell myself that it’s acceptable to not love every minute of my work, because it was enabling me to have wild experiences and travel. That’s a compromise we should no longer we willing to make.

Listen. Before you argue that you “actually love” what you do, think very, very hard – harder than you’ve ever allowed yourself before. Would you do it if there was no prospect of it ever making you money? It should feel uncomfortable, because you’re asking yourself to question a part of your identity. Do you remember the feeling when you realized your old job wasn’t as signficant as you pretended it was? We need another round of introspection. The freedoms of mobility and self-employment gives us an entirely fresh set of things to justify doing passionless work to sustain.

If you say you love something as inhuman as search engine optimization, and don’t have a Google logo tattooed on your ass: I don’t believe you. You’re either repressing your true passion, or haven’t discovered it yet.

Just because you’re doing something from a bungalow in Thailand doesn’t make it something you love. You just love that it lets you chill in a bungalow in Thailand. You would never rationalize like that if you were doing it from a dank Scranton office park.

So enough of that. It’s time to talk about changing this and turning a demand for more time into something real.

Announcing Sourcecontrol & the MuseModel Challenge

We are concerned with one thing only: creating more time. Can you totally re-think the way you currently support your lifestyle in a way that gives you more free hours in the day? Can you outsource, productize, or otherwise streamline what you do? There’s a flight (and more) in it for whoever has the sharpest idea…

Click here for the full details on the MuseModel Challenge

Muselife is born of equal parts inspiration and frustration: inspiration to share experiences with outsourcing and niche product creation, and frustration with the torrent of conflicting advice and common questions I see absolutely everywhere. It’s time to centralize the conversation and share both the experiences and resources needed to make a killing turning your ideas into income and aggressively reclaming your time.

It’s important we start by defining our end-game: ultramobility & total personal autonomy enabled by highly automated sources of passive income. Tim Ferriss’ book The 4-Hour Work Week succinctly and powerfully codified a lifestyle and methodology many of us were already pursuing, and a thriving community has emerged to further the effort. Within these circles, we call one such source a muse to distinguish it from a traditional business – as the focus is an essentially hands-off, automated way of generating revenue that lets us focus on far more important facets of your life: time with family, friends, exploring passions, travel, philanthropy, and so on.

Consider Muselife your no-bullshit resource for all facets of achieving such a lifestyle, focused on rapid product development, niche market testing, fanatical outsourcing and complete process automation to give you more of what you can never get back once it’s gone – your time.

Click below to keep reading…

Simplify & Clarify

Let’s strip down the topic of creating passive income online to its absolute simplest form:

• Identify a need within a niche audience/market segment
• Create a product that satisfies this need
• Enable them pay you in exchange for your product’s value

Given the simplicity, why do so many think of passive income as a sort of unattainable end? The answer is just as simple: failure to clarify the unknown. As a whole, it all seems rather complex and overwhelming – creating your product, building your sales page, marketing to your niche, processing payments and delivering your product. Where do you start and how do you ever know if you’re going about things in the so-called ‘right way’? The short answer is: you don’t. When it comes to selling information products, there is no right or wrong, but rather effective or ineffective approaches.

• Someone reads your sales letter and buys or they leave as if your product never existed
• Someone clicks your Google ad or they read it and move on with their life uninterrupted
• Your new customer keeps your product or they request a refund

At every single step of the way, you simply need to be as effective as possible and convert desire, need, or curiosity into hard-dollar sales.

What’s ahead?

Derived from my personal muse creation/outsourcing experiments, as well as ongoing participation within the community, you can expect Muselife to detail explorations, experiments and resource. As a quick overview…

Outsourcing & Automation

Finding the right teams around the world, what to watch out for, success studies and process outlines to ensure you get high performance and optimum output

Ultramobility

Through extensive global travel – be it Bangkok, Budapest, Melbourne or Mexico – I’ve experimented with all facets of conducting business without a solid real base of operations. I’ll share the priceless lessons learned – on islands, in airports, across timezones.

Muse Case Studies

From concept to launch, we’ll explore case studies and profiles of successful (and not-so-unsuccessful) muses. Through it all, we’ll extract the critical lessons you can only learn by doing.

Resources & Reviews

Whether you’re looking for the simplest digital content delivery, software you can’t live without, or unbeatable muse-focused books, you’ll find it here.

“I will automate my income.”

From this point forward, make this your mantra. Scrawl it on your bathroom mirror and stick it to your computer. Automate your income and you recapture your time.

I’m launching Muselife to share as much as possible, to ensure you can absolutely kill it creating and selling your own products. Make 2009 your most ambitious year yet, a year you’ll reflect on with no regret – make 2009 the year you reclaimed ownership of your time, managed outsourcers around the world and did something few people you know ever will – create flowing income sources from nothing more than an idea and plan.