A few people have asked me how Kim and I started. The shortest answer I can give you is we defined exactly what it is we wanted. Hopefully this post will help you do the same.

Let’s begin with the end in mind and define YOUR Jet Set Life. If you don’t define it exactly the way YOU want it – you’ll NEVER get it.

Here’s mine: “To Make $1,000 per day so I can travel
the world and party with my girl”.

Here’s a few videos to show you what I mean.

[New Years in Rio]

[Summer at Nikki Beach in St Tropez]

[Partying At Super Paradise Beach in Mykonos]

… Or Really Any Of These Trips We Took

OK, let’s go create YOUR Jet Set Life…

Grab a glass of wine, turn on some cool music and write a paragraph detailing out “Your Perfect Day”. A day that you would LOVE to live over and over again. A day that you would NEVER get bored of.

Hint: Dig beyond the surface. For example, you may never get bored of sleeping with the entire Swedish Volley Ball Team- but try and go beyond that:)

Let your imagination run wild. Detail it out from the moment you wake up. Perhaps, looking out your bedrooms floor to ceiling glass windows that overlook the crashing ocean waves. Go crazy. Have fun!

Here’s a tip. On a scale from zero (just shoot me) to 100 (I WANT THIS LIFE!). You should be able to say “it’s a 100″. If you rate it 99 or lower, you’re probably holding back and suffering from what I call “premature practicality”. Keep going until your sure it’s a 100.

Want to cut to the chase and not read this entire post? Here’s the short answer to how we pay for our flights. We created a bunch of small websites that throw of cash, using what I learned from Adam Short. Here’s my affiliate link (just enter your name and email and he’ll send you the same training I used).

O.k. , for those that have asked me “how do I know if my website idea is any good?” (i.e. will it make any money), short answer is, you never really know, but here’s MY litmus test.

Note- I will be the first one to admit that there are a million ways to do this. Here’s what works for us.

Here are the 5 thoughts that I run through my cerebellum before I create another website to generate cash for us to travel (we’ve created 30 sites using this method).

1- Does this niche fall into the category of an irrational passion, fear or frustration? If the answer is no, then I don’t enter the market.

2- Using “Google’s Key Word Tool” I type in the “root word” of the potential niche I’m considering. For example, “growing tomatoes”. The keyword must have over 1,000 “Global Monthly Searches”.  If it does, I go to the next step. If I doesn’t, I don’t enter the market.

3- I then take the same keyword (in quotations) and enter into a regular Google search to see if it has less than 10,000 competing websites. If it does I go to the next step, which is determining the competition a little deeper. If it doesn’t, I don’t enter the market. Note – if you look under the Google search bar you’ll see the number of competing websites.

4- For this step you’ll need to download “SEO Quake” and install it on your Firefox browser. After you have installed the plug in, type your keyword into a regular Google search (using Firefox). The “SEO Quake” plug in will tell you the page rank of the top 10 websites. Google ranks pages on a 1-10 scale with 10 being the best (and the most competition). To give your new website a competitive chance against the more established sites, you’ll want the average page rank to be a 3 or lower. If it’s not, then I won’t enter the market.

5- Finally, I see if any forums exist around my potential niche and what kind of chatter is on them. I go to bigboard.com to do that. If there are any people discussing the niche you’re considering, it’s probably a good sign.

If all of that was way over your head. Then get Adams training here. He can do a way better job of explaining everything. He seriously has an amazing training!

—————
Next, we’re off to Vegas for our next fitness competition. Then, it’s off to Cali for surfing (San Diego). If you’re in either place and want to connect, reach out to us on Twitter.

I received a question last week (by video which I thought was very cool) and decided to answer it here in the blog.  Bobby is struggling with a lot of the same issues that many people are such as how do I find that thing that’s going to make me money to live the life I want?  I don’t have a bunch of time to go into great detail in this blog, because I’m literally on the way out the door to leave for Italy for Xmas and New Year (here’s where we’re going).  But, I did want to answer a few points.

What If I Don’t Have Anything I’m Super Passionate About?

Great question!  I speak a lot about doing what you love and monetizing it.  But, what if you just don’t have anything that you are ‘over the top nuts’ about?  Here’s what I would do.  There is a great guy named Adam Short who runs a site called Niche Profit Classroom.  The reason why I’m recommending this for you is because his system is entirely neutral as far as whether or not you love a particular niche.  It’s entirely based on math.  The math is very clear and very easy.  I interviewed him for Jet Set Money and was super impressed.  His program has over 150 videos (they’re short and amazing).  If you didn’t want to sign up for his program you could start by getting on his email list and he’ll send you a bunch of free videos that are of very high quality and content.  After I did my interview with him I created a niche site based on his system- My Positano Wedding.

Full Disclosure:  This is my affiliate link, if you sign up I get paid- Niche Profit Classroom

Here’s Another Option:

John Jonas has a site called Replace Myself.  John is a HUGE Four Hour Work Week guy.  He uses many of the same principals that Adam uses in the Niche Profit Classroom, but has one major twist.  His program is solely designed for your outsourcers to run everything.  John is the real deal and a totally cool, honest and ethical guy.  I currently have my two outsourcers taking his training and have had great results and a bunch of free time.

Full Disclosure:  This is my affiliate link, if you sign up I get paid- Replace Myself

One More Option:

There’s this great guy named Robert Murgatroyd who owns a website called Jet Set Life.…that was fun!  Last year I got really frustrated listening to all these people bragging about how much money they were making online and decided to do something about.  I decided to interview the leaders in online business (interviewing is how I personally learn best) and ask them how they did it.  I created a program that has 12 modules and goes right to the core to make this work (with or without having a passion for your niche).

Full Disclosure:  This is my own link, if you sign up  I will DEFINITELY get paid: Jet Set Money

Hope that helps.

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If anyone is in Florence, Italy over the holidays shoot me an email to connect at:  heyjetset@gmail.com

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.

By far the most common question I receive is on Muse Creation and Development.  I’m a big believer in modeling successful people and reproducing their strategies.  If they can do it, I can do it, too.  It looks like I’ve found just the guy to model and he’s willing to share his secrets.  I recently sent out a Tweet asking “if anyone has a muse that truly requires less than four hours a week and makes six figures a year”.  Out of all the responses I received – I like Dale, of Pigtones.com, the best.  Dale’s muse hits all of the muse criteria so perfectly (i.e. online, automated and scalable, etc.).  So, without further ado (does anyone actually know what ado is?) let’s get right into it.

 Muses are such a pressing topic with our Jet Set Life audience that I decided to create a series on Muse Creation and Development.  I want to feature people who are really doing it.  People that get to live the life of their dreams by leveraging the two most powerful currencies, time and money.  The Four Hour Work Week is very clear that with these two currencies all other things are possible and without them, nothing is possible.  So, let’s get right into it.  I would like to start from the beginning (muse creation) and go right up to where you are currently (muse development).

Before we jump into the questions, tell us a little about yourself, including what you were doing before you created your muse. 

I have always been a serial entrepreneur.  I have started and ran 13 different businesses.  Some successfully, some not so successfully.  But my most successful one (before the muse) was my last one. It was a real estate company that I built up and took public in 2003; it focused soley on buying non-performing mortages from banks.  I was the CEO for 5 yrs before leaving in December of 2007. 

I left because my wife and I were getting ready to have our first daughter, she was only a few months away.  The 80-100 hour work-week for the CEO of a public company was grueling and no place I wanted to be when I had a new daughter.

I had read a book that previous summer called The 4 Hour Work Week, by Tim Ferriss, and it fundamentally changed the way I looked at business.  Before, it was all about trying to get the biggest company or make the most money, because somehow that was to translate into freedom at some unspecified future point.  I knew I was no where near there yet.  I had to totally reevaluate my life.  In December of that year I decided to leave the company that I had built (and took public) and put it in the hands of  a new CEO and the largest hedge fund investors.  I really didn’t know what I was going to do, but I thought I had about 3-4 months until my daughter was born to figure it out.

[Rob: I did an interview with Tim Ferriss of the Four Hour Work Week here which maybe useful in understanding Dale's thought process and some of the terms used in this post.]

 1) That’s a great story and one that we can all learn from – waiting for that big pile of cash at the end of our lives isn’t all it’s cracked up to be.  I understand that P.I.G.TONES is an online business that allows you to change the voice of your GPS system in your car.  Is this something that you came up with or has this been in existence for a while?

On December 31, 2007, a friend of mine and I were driving from Idaho back to Dallas, Texas.  It was snowing like crazy in the mountains of Colorado and it was about four o’clock in the morning.

We couldn’t see the road ahead and the mountain pass was closed behind us, but we had a brand new GPS from under the Xmas tree.  We had zoomed in so much that we could see the twisting turns in the road ahead and it helped us drive through the total white out.  In the exhaustion and the unreality of the situation, we imagined different voices coming out of the GPS, including the voice of GOD, as a humorous voice, asking us what we were doing up on the mountain in those conditions.  We managed to survive the trip and the next day when we were relating our trip to our friends, we told them about the funny voices we imagined hearing from the GPS.  We thought it would be cool if we could change the voices on the GPS to something funny.

 I began research on Jan 2^nd and after about 3 days of research I determined there was a viable market with no one doing it for Garmin and only a few sites for Tom Tom.  I launched into a week long research project to see how we could do it and whether or not it was really a viable market.  At the end of the week I determined it was open territory, the market was ripe, nothing existed yet, and there was a demand.  I wrote out a 32 page business plan so I would have a reference to look back on and see if I was on track.  And away we went.

2) Why did you choose this particular model as your muse – in other words, were there certain criteria that were musts for you in selecting your muse?

Having previous experience running several businesses (and being a CEO for a publicly traded company), I have a pretty good idea what needs to be in place for me to take a run at it.  I determined that the market fit several of my core criteria:

1. The market was huge.  Over a 10 year period GPS sales were significantly increasing and in December of 2007 several important bench marks had been attained:

        a.     The market reached a market size similar to cell phones (back when ring tones started to become popular).

        b.     The GPS was the number one requested electronic device for the Xmas season in 2007.

        c.     There was very little competition.

        d.     It could be created, hosted and delivered online with no physical product (one of my top criteria).

        e.     I determined that the voices could be created  by other people (this was important since I didn’t know anything about audio production). I also determined that all the editing could be outsourced as well.

2.     It had an existing model already out there.  Ringtones were a huge money maker for many people and are still downloaded by the millions.  So, I saw that the customization of electronics were a hot product.

 3) Having a truly automated (and scalable) business is critical in setting up a great muse.  Could you describe for us the automation process in finding all those great voices we see on your site as well as the process in having them ready for download and sale?

One of the most important things we wanted was to have an automated business.  After creating the first eight voices we realized that we had established a system.  We mapped it out, assigned the process points to people, figured out where we had to interject ourselves and under what circumstances.  Our process is not simple, but it is well mapped out now.  Since the end goal is to create a new voice at least once per month, we send a survey for voice suggestions (including a space to write in your favorite) to our customers.  We get the survey back and pick the top 2 and send those to our audio guy.  He submits the character voices to an audition process, picks the top voices and sends a script to the voice talent.  The script is written by him (and his wife) and is submitted to us for additional lines or funny things we might want to add.  If he doesn’t hear anything from us in 48 hours he goes ahead with it.  From there the audio is sent to the sound engineer who has a very complex process to cut and modify it to fit the software requirements.  We actually had to have a piece of custom software written for us to be able to even create the voice.  At that point he runs it through the software program and we have a finished voice.  It is then posted to the site and an email that fits the “character” that we created  goes out to our list as well as creating new blog posts, etc.  The site handles the delivery of the product via electronic delivery through our shopping cart (1shoppingcart.com).  Support is assigned to a single person who we pay less than $250 a month.   We also have outsourced someone to do the blogs and the videos for the products.

The only things that I do now are:

 ·      Check the script going to the talent for additional lines that I think should be included.

·       Check the accounting monthly.  

·       Send out the survey asking for new voice ideas.

·       Enjoy the cash flow!

  4) Was it difficult to get cooperation from the big companies in the GPS world like Tom Tom and Garmin?

Actually, Tom Tom allows users to create voices, but it’s not easy.  There is no need to get their permission.

Garmin, however, made it almost impossible.  They didn’t want anyone mucking around with their software/hardware.  We actually had to take apart several Garmins, reverse engineer them to be able to figure out how they made the voices.  Then we had a custom piece of software written for us to make the voice.  Since I didn’t know any of the tech stuff, I had to find people who were capable of overcoming the technical hurdles.  The funniest part is Garmin recently contacted us and said they loved the site and were actually impressed that we broke through their protections and created something fun and funny.  It actually earned their respect and they recently even decided to let us use their software as a test to see what we could do with it.  Our site caused them to start developing voices for the Garmins as an experiment.  Our early attempts to contact them made it clear that they really didn’t have anyone for us to talk to when we initially began this process. So, we did it any way.

  5) What would you say was the biggest obstacle in getting your muse up and running?

I would have to say, without a doubt, knowing absolutely nothing about:

1.     The tech of the GPS.

2.     Anything internet marketing related.

3.     Websites, Adwords, etc.

I had been a Commercial Diver in Alaska, a Commercial Fisherman, a Landlord, a Repo-Man/Bill Collector, a Real Estate Investor and CEO of a public company.  I didn’t have any tech background other than my constant use of computers.

Knowing nothing forced me to think in terms of systems and delegation.

The one thing I did have to do was- totally- commit myself to the idea.

I locked myself in an office for 45 days and just read everything that I could get my hands on about internet marketing.  There were not many exact models out there that I could copy.  In fact, much of what I read was about creating an information product and being a guru.  This is not guru stuff. I focused on what did work and let go of anything that was in the “supposed to work”  sections.  I also have a principal that I operate from that helps me with the obstacles:  failure is part of the process.

Anything that I engage in, I go into it  KNOWING that I will fail at various aspects of it.  I just like to get those aspects out of the way as fast as I can so that I can get to the fun and successful parts.  Obstacles are there to trim off all the things that don’t work.  

 6) Knowing what you know now, what would you differently?

If I had to start over I would do 2 things differently:

1.     Hire some really good talent in traffic generation on the internet (adwords, paid search, content networks).

2.     I would have showed up on Garmin’s door and bugged them until they gave me a sit down meeting.  It would have saved me having to reinvent the wheel with all the costs and time that were associated with that.

Those 2 things would have saved me about 75% of what I did spend and it would have sped up our launch and ramped us up considerably.

7) Let’s talk about testing the muse.  Would you describe for us what that process was like?  In other words, did you use Adwords and if so, what was your click through rate like and what have you learned from that process?

When we were in the testing phase we didn’t know anything about adwords.  Our first month we spent $5K in adwords and had $800 in sales.  Pretty dismal.  We were bidding way too high on keywords we thought would bring the traffic.  We got traffic, but no one was buying, which really meant we were getting the wrong kind of traffic.  We threw a lot at the wall and wanted to see what would stick.

Our next month we did $3K in adwords and had $2500 in sales.

What we learned was a couple key things:

1.     Optimize your page for the words you are bidding on.  It brought our bids down from $1 a click, to .22 cents a click.  A huge step in the right direction.

2.     We no longer target the word Garmin.  Although there is a HUGE amount of traffic for that one keyword, we found most people were looking to buy Garmin GPS units.  They were not searching for what we had to sell.  We had to get more specific in our keywords.

3.     We tried a bunch of voices we thought people would like.  The first time we asked our customers what they would like, they told us. We created that voice and in 1 month that 1 voice outsold everything we ever did prior.  It was amazing.  We stopped thinking we were funny, or knew what people would want.  In fact, we never actually used a voice that we came up with.  We simply ask our customers now and give them exactly what they are asking for.  So simple it slipped our minds for months.  Huge lesson there.

8) Do you own any other muses?  If so, would you describe them?

I have been creating one recently and just made it live last week.  This one is a 52 week course in a specific niche.  Something that I discovered a few years ago, there is very little good or reliable information out there.  It’s what I wished I had when I started business.

It’s a 12 month membership course that’s all about how to raise money, where to find it, how to get it, how to get the funding for start-ups, or growing a business.  I have raised a little over $90 million in the last 15 yrs for my projects and companies.  And it’s a huge secret how to do it correctly, or seems that way.  It’s kind of like an insiders only club of people who know how to do it.  If you want to grow a company to a huge size, or start one, you need capital.  So few people really know how to do it.  I got some of my friends to get together with me and develop this course.  Everyone, from a guy who buys and sells public companies, to professional money raisers, to SEC attorneys and professional investors.  It’s a good group and we are developing some great stuff.  This is more a passion of mine and I mostly do it simply, because it’s fun.  We are only allowing a limited number of people on the site at a time, because I don’t want it to eat up too much of my time.  The ideas we have put together on how to raise money I haven’t seen anywhere else.  It’s just fantastic insider stuff.  I know I personally have paid over $100K  a year to professionals to come and help me raise money, so I know the value of the information we are giving.  Since it is insider type info, I called the site www.raisingcapitalsecrets.com, an excellent  place to start.

 9) What was your work life like before setting up P.I.G.TONES and what is like now?

Just prior to starting P.I.G.TONES, as I mentioned, I was easily doing an 80-100hr work-week as a CEO of a public company.  It was just too much time.  After reading Tim’s book, I had to reassess my life.  When I was younger I spent almost 7 years traveling and playing – I loved it!  But I was broke most of that time.  The reason I got into real estate was so I could have passive income.  What a joke.  Real estate is NOT passive if you really want to be successful.  As I’m sure a lot of people are discovering in these hard times.  But the lure of the carrot was out there and I continued to build up my real estate holdings and even took a company public doing it.

I waited until I was 38 to have a baby .  I was ecstatic and just couldn’t wait to be a father.  There was just no way I could spend time with my daughter working as many hours as I did.  After reading The 4 Hour Work Week, I reevaluated my whole life and decided that I didn’t want to be like so many older people that I know.  The ones who say, “kids grow up so fast and I missed so much of it”, that was the single driving force in developing my muse.  I also realized that:

1.     It was possible, therefore, I could do it.

2.     It was critical for me to be able spend time with my daughter.

I reevaluated and re-engineered my life to make way for a new baby.

I now work from the house, but mostly I get to hang out with my wife and my daughter.  Perfect.

10) What was your first month of income like and what is it like now?

Well, since I had left my job as CEO and my wife was no longer working as a Pharmacist, our income went to zero.  So, it was critical to make this work.  There was no “going back”.

As I mentioned before, we had a negative cash flow for the first couple months.  However, on month 3 we had about $6500 in income and about $2k in expenses.  From there it went to about $8K a month, same expenses (mostly adwords expenses) till it reached $10K, in month 5 it jumped to $15K then to over $20K.  We had to keep our expenses low.  The cost of voices, the cost of accounting, the cost of support and Ad Words, our expenses were coming to just over $3K a month.  The time spent on it has dropped as well from an all out 40+hour week to just a few hours per week.  There are weeks when I won’t even look at the site.  Our support is simple.  If any one has a problem that support can’t fix or they are unhappy for any reason, we simply refund them.  Period.  If we can make them happy by giving them an extra voice or 2, great.  We love testimonials and even have one from a Vice President of Google.   After receiving a testimonial, we usually send a couple voices as a thank you gift.

The site consistently does over $20K a month now and we are just getting ready to revamp the site, as well as come out with a new product.  A “recording of your own voice” product where we will let the customers make their own voice and if it’s good we will sell it and share in the revenue with them.  This should be out in about 2 weeks.

11) What advise would you give someone who says “I don’t even know where to begin to select my product”?

Someone once told me, “look for a hungry crowd”.  I didn’t really understand that until P.I.G.TONES.  I had always dealt in necessity (real estate:  people need a place to live) rather than a group that wanted something.  When I mentioned the idea to people, I kept getting almost the same response, “Wow, I love that idea” or “Can you do X actor”.  Everyone thought it was a no brainer.  

I say if you are starting out, develop the skills to sell something online.  Try selling some other person’s stuff.  See if you can master that. Then creating your own product simply becomes:  find the hungry crowd and feed them.  It’s easy to feed a hungry crowd.

The next step is to put yourself in the place of a consumer.  What do you LOVE to consume (and sell that).

Or, as I am doing with the new site, sell your expertise.  I know how to raise money.  It’s easy for me.  There are people out there who would love to know how I do it and would happily pay to know.  I know I did.

 12) Are there any resources you would recommend?  Things that helped you out?

Yes there are:

1.     If you don’t understand business, go read anything by Peter Drucker.

2.     I would recommend The 4 Hour Work Week by Tim Ferris, excellent book for change of mindset.  It’s only ok on the “how to”, but great on the “why to” parts.  Life is far more important than work.  Design your life around what you would like to do and it can happen.

3.     For internet learning I would recommend 2 things:

        a.     The Internet Business Mastery Podcast by Sterling and Jay.  Absolutely right on excellent stuff, both in the “how to” category and the “why to” category.  They have a number of podcasts stretching back a few years.  Made my driving to work an excellent place to start thinking about this stuff.

       b.     NitroMarketing’s the Nitro Blueprint.  Just an excellent 10 step course on getting a muse up from the scratch.  Good stuff.  I used most of it for P.I.G.TONES (everything, but the specific product development).

12) What’s next for Dale?

Well, my daughter takes center stage, so obviously that.  Since I never could sit still, I am going to be taking up flying and ultra light flying.  I’m looking into that now. 

P.I.G.TONES is in negotiations with some top Hollywood talent to start producing voices.   Secret stuff I can’t tell you about until we complete the negotiations.

www.raisingcapitalsecrets.com is coming along nicely and should be up for some big advertisement we plan on starting in the next month or so.

One of the biggest things I have realized is that I can spot trends and I can act on them.  I am thinking of going into publishing people and their muse.  I have been toying with the idea of a back office support network to muse development for other people, sort of like a muse incubator if you will.  Let them come up with the content and product idea and I can help take it to market.  I’m exploring that now.

Another project that I had put on hold when my daughter was born, was the development of several private islands in Belize.  Some time next year when my daughter is a bit older, my wife and I will pick that project up since we love it.  We will see where it leads.  Well, I hope that helps.  Anything you imagine you could do.  Why not?  Could be fun!

Rob: Dale, thank you so much for your candor and willingness to share everything you did in this interview.  What’s the best way for someone to get in touch with you?  ”They can reach me at Dale@pigtones.com.”  Great.  Thanks again for this interview.

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We’re off to South Beach tomorrow for some sunshine and parties!  If you want to follow our updates in Miami (or around the globe) follow Rob and Kim on Twitter  here.