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retail arbitrage

Escaping the 9 to 5 Through Online and Retail Arbitrage: How Selling on Amazon Can Buy Your Freedom with Tyler Philbrook (AoL 099)

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In this session, I wanted to take it back to where my idea of starting a podcast originated from. I’ve been a big fan of the SPI podcast ever since Pat Flynn started it. From that show, I’ve been turned onto several of other business and lifestyle podcasts and influencers.

Pat motivated and inspired me to do more and he continues to do so.

Today’s guest was also motivated by Pat but at a much deeper level.

Unlike me, Tyler Philbrook has experimented with multiple ways of making passive income that Pat has talked about on his show. If Pat is the crash dummy of online business, then Tyler is kinda like the dummy that didn’t turn out so hot after the wreck.

Nothing seemed to work for him. But he kept listening to Pat and eventually stumbled on session 99 with Jessica and Cliff Larrew.

For two years, Tyler has been slowly building his Amazon based business to a point where he could step away from his day job of being a pharmacist.

And now, he’s in a place where he can start helping others do the same. I’m glad to hear I have another TA friend!

In our chat today, we discuss what he learned along the way of working on Amazon, what beginners should know, and what he’s looking forward to working on now that he has more freedom with his time.

Thanks for listening, and enjoy the show!

SPECIFICALLY, YOU’LL FIND OUT MORE ABOUT:

  • What was life like growing up in Maine for Tyler? 15:56
  • When did he figure it was time to do his own business? 18:09
  • How’d he start with the SPI Podcast and applying what he learned? 21:05
  • Did growing up working with his parents’ restaurant impact his ability to start his own business? 23:31
  • What were Tyler’s first items that he tried to do retail arbitrage with on Amazon? 25:15
  • Is he only doing Amazon sales? 28:13
  • How does he determine which products to source? 30:05
  • If someone is starting from scratch, what are some definite things need to know about retail arbitrage? 34:25
  • What’s it like to be out of his 9 to 5 job? 38:02
  • What is Tyler looking forward to do with his extra time? 40:46
  • Top 3 favorite books he tells others about? 47:04
  • What’s a tool that he uses all the time that a beginner should know about? 49:04
  • Hardest thing he’s ever had to say no to. 50:52
  • What’s a few things that all high school students must know? 52:15
  • What’s the secret to achieving personal freedom? 56:47
  • … and MUCH more!

Right click here and save-as to download this episode to your computer.

ITEMS and PEOPLE MENTIONED IN THIS EPISODE:

SHOW NOTE EXTRAS:

March 3rd, 2017 of Ask Pat LIVE:

Jessica and Cliff Larrew Interview via Rob Anderson over at Dollar Moves: 

Chase on “How to Be a Newbie and Succeed”:

What the GaryVee School Would Look Like:

retail arbitrage retail arbitrage retail arbitrage

Thanks for Listening!

Thanks so much for joining us again this week. Have some feedback you’d like to share? Leave a note in the comment section below!

If you enjoyed this episode, please share it using the social media buttons you see at the top of the post.

Also, please leave an honest review for The AoL Podcast on iTunes! Ratings and reviews are extremely helpful and greatly appreciated! They do matter in the rankings of the show, and we read each and every one of them.

If you have any questions feel free to email them over via the email mentioned in the show or by our contact form.

And finally, don’t forget to subscribe to the show on iTunes, Stitcher, Soundcloud, and/or Google Play Music. It’s absolutely free to do so.

A huge thank-you to you guys for joining us!

Cheers!

how to get bitcoins

How to Get Bitcoins: A Beginner’s Guide to Cryptocurrency

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Naturally, I’m an investor. Going through my 20’s and now my in my 30’s, I’ve always tried to find things to pour money into that over time would yield me a larger income.

I think I started this way back in my teen years when I played video games that allowed me to buy ingame property that would continue to give me money over time after buying it.

Thinking about that, I believe what pulled me into reading Rich Dad, Poor Dad was that I could understand what Robert Kiyosaki was talking about. However, I made a dead stop when he said that you need money to be an investor. And that the smart way to build up that money is through building a business system.

At the time I was a college student, and I didn’t really have spending money as what I earned was going to pay my tuition and rent.

So, I put the idea on hold and continued my formal education – eventually wanting to come back to investing – someday – when I had that spare money!

 

Someday Happened

Soon after I got out of grad school, some of you might know that I got involved with a series of startups. One thing that you probably don’t know is that I when my mom passed suddenly in 2010, I got a significant inheritance. With that inheritance, I was able to 1.) help get those startups going a bit more and 2.) learn more about and improve myself as a person. One of those startups is America Multisport where Maria and I still contribute to in several forms – including this past weekend where we’re always found at the events taking pics.

I full heartedly believe that it’s been because of this inheritance that I’ve had the luxury of time where I’ve been able to learn about topics that most people don’t get the chance to learn about. I understand what it’s like to live paycheck to paycheck because that’s how I lived all throughout my college years – you just don’t have time to really explore.

And, that’s kinda the point of this site; it’s to give you all insights into what I’ve learned along this journey! (Thanks to David Anderson for helping me realize I needed to tell you guys about this part of my past. I haven’t really known what to do with that information.)

 

Be Prepared…

Anyway, knowing that someday that I would get an inheritance – albeit I didn’t know it would be so soon and as big as it was – I had to be prepared. I knew what I wasn’t going to do with it – blow it all away like some who just won the lottery might. However, I also knew that I wasn’t going to be a miser and just sit on it either.

I was going to invest it into long term, mid term, and short term options.

So, looking back, I ended up with these choices:

  • Long term investments were annuities, index and mutual funds.
  • Midterm investments included the startups and individual publicly traded stocks.
  • And short term investments included CDs and… cryptocurrency.

 

Yes, I know – I need to get involved in real estate. I’m simply not at that point yet!

Here’s a tip – if you ever find yourself with a large sum of money, the worst thing you can do is let it just stick around as a liquid asset or spend it. Make sure you get it invested correctly so it can continue to grow for you. This is the biggest difference between those that earn a lot and live well for the rest of their lives versus those that earn a lot and end up broke.

So about cryptocurrency…

 

What the heck is Cryptocurrency?

Cryptocurrency is simply a form of currency that is purely “internet money”. Wikipedia defines it as a digital currency in which encryption techniques are used to regulate the generation of units of currency and verify the transfer of funds, operating independently of a central bank.

Ever since I heard about Bitcoin in 2009, I knew I wanted to get started – but I had no idea how. At that time, the best way to get started was to be a miner – but I didn’t know where to look to even begin with that.

That’s where I stood for quite awhile – until I started hearing how much of the world is really starting to pay attention to Bitcoin as a low barrier way to invest – similar to investing in gold or silver.

Remember what Robert said about investing? He said that investing was for people who already had lots of money to invest, right?

Well, while this might be true for most investment situations, it isn’t necessarily the case for cryptocurrency – Bitcoin included. In fact, you can start investing with as little as a few dollars here and there and start a pretty good ball rolling. (In fact, that’s about as much as you’d want to use in one sitting because really – this market is highly volatile – it goes up and down quite regularly. So only spend “Las Vegas” money when you’re getting more.)

Unlike stocks, you can buy fractions of a Bitcoin. So instead of sinking a certain amount on one share of TSLA stock, you can use that same money to invest in different forms of cryptocurrency – and as low of dominations as you like.

 

Forms of Cryptocurrency

how to get bitcoins

You’ll see in the above image, I’m participating in 3 cryptocurrencies in this portfolio: Bitcoin, Ethereum, and Litecoin. There are of tons of them out there. (Just to note – I started this account back in May and only bought $25 per currency. So not bad performance thus far!)

Here are 6 you should know about. But there are many more.

Here’s Wikipedia’s collection where you can find out more about them including Dogecoin.

Here’s the thing. There are some that are regulated. And there are some that aren’t as much. Stick with the ones that are regulated such as the three above – and you’ll be good to go.

Wallets

The above image is from a wallet called Coinbase.

I’m currently checking it out as an alternative to where I’m currently keeping mine: bitpay.

Before you buy your first “crypto-coinage”, you’ll need a wallet to keep your stash. Again, just like cryptocurrencies themselves, there’s plenty of options to choose from. And just like anything else, there’s yearly writeups in which is “best”.

So far I like Coinbase and while bitpay is open source, I like Coinbase’s ease of use.

 

Using Your Funds

So sure, you can save your crypto-coins indefinitely just like you can with traditional stocks. The difference is you’re allowed to use them for payment as well.

In fact, more and more businesses are starting to accept Bitcoin online and offline. SpendBitcoins  & Spendabit has list of places that accept Bitcoin around the world.

Here’s a long list just in case you wanted to see more examples at once. Or if you want a short list of 8 major retailers – here you go.

And for us creative folk, there’s a specific reason we should take interest in cryptocurrencies. We can use them to pay your VA’s around the world. Just make sure that they can get a wallet tied to an account where they can retrieve their payment! 😉

 

Action Steps: Getting Started Yourself

So now that you know theoretically how these cryptocurrencies work – how do you get started again? Here’s how:

  1. Find a wallet. Perhaps go with Coinbase if you’re in the US. Seems to be pretty straight forward. It reminds me a lot of Paypal.
  2. Setup payment methods. Just like Paypal, you’ll need to connect and verify payment methods. Paypal is an option itself.
  3. Buy any or all of the three options there. (If you want to get more options – you’ll need to find another wallet! Just make sure they’re “on blockchain”.)
  4. Buy low/sell high if you’re in it for prospecting.
  5. Spend as you see fit – knowing that the banks aren’t following your buying habits!

After you’ve gotten started, keep learning about the future of this technology called blockchain. If you’re really into tech, here’s an article I picked up via Wired that dives deeper into that side of things.

If you want to go at a more conceptual level, here’s two great TEDx videos I saw last year:

How the blockchain is changing money and business

How the blockchain will radically transform the economy.

And be sure to keep me posted as you discover more about cryptocurrency and blockchaining. It’s really interesting how it’s developing and changing!

musician dane maxwell

Dane Maxwell Unplugged – The Journey From Entrepreneur to Musician (AoL 056)

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One huge risk in modern small business is to spend months or years working on a project only to release it… and find nobody wants it.

That’s one of the issues that The Foundation tackles head on.

When I first heard it’s founder (and today’s guest) Dane Maxwell discuss the matter with Pat Flynn on the SPI Podcast, it blew me away.

Not only did he promote not having the initial idea, but he also said you can build this product with no money of your own. (Meaning, if you do it right, you don’t need money to make money!)

Ever since then, I haven’t looked at business the same way.

However, one thing that I realized about the way that Dane approached business was that he was using it as a method to make an income, sure.

But was it his calling?

Today, we find him entering into another point in his life – becoming a musician.

Daniel and I were really interested to find out more about what he was up to when given the opportunity.

In this conversation with Dane, we talk about way more things than the transition. We also discuss what he’s learned about people during his time running The Foundation, why many people struggle to find worth, and more about his style of music and the message he wants to convey with it.

This is a great listen if you’re a fan of Dane’s or genuinely want some good soul food.

Enjoy!

SPECIFICALLY, YOU’LL FIND OUT MORE ABOUT:

  • What has been Dane’s perspective on being one of the most influential online entrepreneurs in recent years? 7:08
  • Was music something Dane always wanted to pursue? 9:56
  • What does “born to sing” mean to him? 12:54
  • Why he loves singing in nursing homes. 16:49
  • What was Dane’s childhood like? 19:16
  • Why he believes many people struggle to find out their meaning, purpose, and worth. 21:04
  • Are there any ways for someone to find their worth? 25:24
  • What’s the process of articulating stress in your life to get over it? 27:38
  • What are some musicians that have inspired him? 28:16
  • When did he know it was time to pursue music? 30:16
  • What was the 8 months of vocal lessons like? 34:19
  • How would Dane describe his style of music? 39:12
  • Why he feels people don’t have the discipline to get things done they want to in their life. 41:30
  • What is the cause of all the amazing things that happen in his life? 47:08
  • Does he believe in luck? 47:30
  • Why Dane repeatedly says there is 100 million people in his heart. 57:18
  • What are some of the patterns that Dane sees in music that he did in business? 57:00
  • What’s the message with his music? 1:29
  • Why he really started The Foundation for. 1:14:58
  • One gift Dane likes giving others. 1:20:07
  • One thing he believed when he was 25 but now realizes is wrong. 1:20:16
  • Three truths he’d like to share with others. 1:21:09
  • Who does he think of when he thinks of the word success? 1:22:46
  • … and MUCH more!

Right click here and save-as to download this episode to your computer.

ITEMS and PEOPLE MENTIONED IN THIS EPISODE:

SHOW NOTE EXTRAS:

Dane’s First Music Video


Dane’s Talk on Alignment


Niall Doherty interviews Dane about Mindset


Andrew Ferebee interviews Dane About Integrity and Being a Great Man

Thanks for Listening!

Thanks so much for joining us again this week. Have some feedback you’d like to share? Leave a note in the comment section below!

If you enjoyed this episode, please share it using the social media buttons you see at the top of the post.

Also, please leave an honest review for The AoL Podcast on iTunes! Ratings and reviews are extremely helpful and greatly appreciated! They do matter in the rankings of the show, and we read each and every one of them.

If you have any questions feel free to email them over via the email mentioned in the show or by our contact form.

And finally, don’t forget to subscribe to the show on iTunes, Stitcher, Soundcloud, and/or Google Play Music. It’s absolutely free to do so.

A huge thank-you to you guys for joining us!

Cheers!

social innovation

Summer Edwards: Sustainable Fashion, Social Innovation, and Building a Portfolio Career (AoL 055)

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Real talk: are you working your butt off trying to figure out what your niche is? So many business advisors on the web today are about finding one avatar that you can serve. For me, that never really worked. Nor has it worked for today’s guest – Summer Edwards.

Summer is another member of Fizzle (why haven’t you joined yet?) that I had the opportunity to meet. In a blog post a month or so back, she really hit the nail on the head when she brought up that women and especially women entrepreneurs, don’t “brag” about their success.

Summer’s success is multi-faceted. She’s a blogger, consultant, and leader who works with people in several niches. Those include sustainable fashion and social innovation.

In today’s talk, we discuss her success with these aspects of her, what she calls, portfolio career and what she’s learned along the way. We also dive into what made her made the transition in the first place.

Note: I didn’t know much about sustainable fashion going into this chat, so I’m kinda like a kid asking random questions in this one. But Laila was definitely on it.

Enjoy!

SPECIFICALLY, YOU’LL FIND OUT MORE ABOUT:

  • What her post was about in Fizzle that inspired so many people. 5:43
  • Highlight of her successes she’s had and what kind of things she’s up to as a creative entrepreneur 7:06
  • Difference between working mom culture in the US and Australia 11:43
  • Did Summer always have the gene to start her own thing? 15:57
  • What is sustainable fashion? 20:51
  • Where the name for her blog came from and what are resources folks can use to educate themselves further? 31:44
  • How has leading with the mission in mind lead to her success as a social entrepreneur? 35:57
  • What are some examples of making a non-profit a social enterprise? 38:31
  • What a portfolio career is and how she’s been able to be successful with hers. 42:19
  • What are some of the things that’s she excited about coming down the line? 48:38
  • Name three influencers that have helped her launch her career. 53:13
  • Name favorite books she recommends to others. 54:32
  • One gift she likes giving others 58:02
  • Something believed as a 25 year old and doesn’t anymore. 55:48
  • When she’s thinks of success, who comes to mind? 59:53
  • … and MUCH more!

Right click here and save-as to download this episode to your computer.

ITEMS and PEOPLE MENTIONED IN THIS EPISODE:

SHOW NOTE EXTRAS:

A solution of a sustainable fashion industry – Fredrik Wikholm

The power of social innovation – Jeff Snell

Multipotentialite – Emily Wapnick

Triangle Shirtwaist Factory Fire in 1911

Thanks for Listening!

Thanks so much for joining us again this week. Have some feedback you’d like to share? Leave a note in the comment section below!

If you enjoyed this episode, please share it using the social media buttons you see at the top of the post.

Also, please leave an honest review for The AoL Podcast on iTunes! Ratings and reviews are extremely helpful and greatly appreciated! They do matter in the rankings of the show, and we read each and every one of them.

If you have any questions feel free to email them over via the email mentioned in the show or by our contact form.

And finally, don’t forget to subscribe to the show on iTunes, Stitcher, Soundcloud, and/or Google Play Music. It’s absolutely free to do so.

A huge thank-you to you guys for joining us!

Cheers!

escaping the rat race

Escaping the Rat Race by Achieving Financial Security

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Our General Education on Money

Growing up, many of us were never taught about money and really where it comes from or really how to generate more of it. The only thing we were taught about it was that if we had enough we could buy something with it.

Later, when we got older, we’d find out that we could actually get paid to do jobs here and there, say like yard mowing. We learned that if we saved that money we earned, we’d be able to put it all together and get something we really wanted.

The older we got, though, the more expensive the things we wanted became. In high school for me, it was cars, gifts, and, apparel. The list continued to get longer and longer.

As we got older, we learned that if we could manage to get a college degree, we would be qualified to get higher paying jobs.

Oh, and if we wanted or needed something right now that we could use a credit card and then pay back the credit company back all at once or over time. The sooner we paid the companies back (monthly is best), the sooner that our credit went up. The higher our credit the more a company would risk on us to buy larger purchases – including houses. This is where mortgages come from.

Retail Therapy is an Addiction.

Obviously, the more expensive our tastes, the more money we need to support it. Even more so, the more that we want or feel we need something new – the sooner that we’re going to pay for it.

Doing this over and over just for the hell of buying things is definitely a thing. Why? Because there is a rush in buying something. And just like any other rush, it can get addictive.

There’s tons of people who don’t know when they’re getting out of control in their spending. Part of this can be put on the shoulders of not having a real education about money growing up. However, there’s another part. A part that is a little deeper and a little darker.

That part that is so common with other addictions. We’re using that addiction to fill a void in our life. The thing about voids is that we usually try to fill them with things that are detrimental to other aspects of our lives. “Retail Therapy” is really no different than gambling. Just throwing money out there on things that have no relevance in where we actually exist in life.

Righting the Ship

Hopefully you’re the type of person who can see where things are going wrong in your life. If you feel that you don’t have money to do what you really want to do with your life or you simply have a ton of stuff, but you still feel empty – then I want you to keep reading.

In a nutshell, what I’ve already talked about here is the extent of what I learned about money before I started educating myself on the matter. It came from what was taught to me at school and from what I learned from people in my life.

What I found is that life is actually NOT about going to work and getting paid the market value of what I’m worth. It’s not just about buying things that you need and what hoping that this new thing might make you happy.

What it is about is giving yourself as many options as possible to do things that fulfill you. And, as I’ve mentioned before, Financial Freedom is a big part of opening up those options.

Achieving Financial Security

So, the first step to reaching Financial Freedom is by first obtaining Financial Security. In this video, Tony Robbins discusses what that means.

 

So let’s say that finding Financial Security sounds like a good place to start? How would you get there?

Sure, you could seek out more of Tony’s info (and I recommend it), but I think the biggest name that’s out there in today’s world is Dave Ramsey. He’s on national radio and his main focus is to help people learn how to get achieve financial security.

Laila swears by Dave and his methods and I have to say that I appreciate the advice that he gives when I get the opportunity to hear him.

So here’s a really good video I found where Dave explains his steps his famous framework called The 7 Baby Steps.

For Maria and myself, this has been a good place to be at. Many people in our lives believe that we’re poor because we don’t spend our money on anything and everything. However, we know that eventually we’ll be able to do rather well on what we’ve invested in during the past 5 years.

Reaching for Financial Independence

After you’ve bought your home and have everything covered by Dave Ramsey’s method, you need to start thinking about the next level. Let’s bring in Tony again here so that we can see the next step.


Maria and I are working to be fully in this zone with our next house. We have a few more debts to knock out before we get there, but we believe we’ll be able to get there within the next year or two.

But really our secret has been to keep re-investing money into other baskets and not spending money from building our financial security phase.

Another step for us to start reaching financial independence was taken by me when I started focusing on New Inceptions. One of the things I heard in LTD back when was that you shouldn’t do something that you believe will never get you to your destination. Whether that’s more financially focused or purpose driven, you have to do something that will yield you the results that you really want. Not doing so will either drive you insane or send you into a constant depression.

Don’t do that to yourself!

Escaping the Rat Race – What Financial Freedom Looks Like

I know a few people who are already at this level. What’s interesting to me is that they’re as busy as the rest of us, but they live their lives in a world where they’re choosing what they want to do.

Mark Nathan is one of those people. And if you listen to his chat in session 22 of the AoL Podcast, you find out that just because you’re free – that you don’t actually want to sit on a beach somewhere. Check out that interview here.

My thinking is that once you’re used to working at peak level, you can’t stop. At this point, you’ve more than likely found meaning in your life and you know how to leverage your skill set. Stopping would probably yield insanity.
Chances are you’ve definitely built a business around this so it can’t ever be taken from you.

Oh, if you’re interested in finding some more of that Tony Robbins course, check out more of it here.

Your Turn:

I’d love to hear how your guys’ plans are going. Do you follow Dave Ramsey? If not, who do you follow for your financial advice? I’d love to hear one or two tips that you’ve learned on your quest in getting out of the rat race and reaching financial freedom.

AoL 025: Exploring the Hidden Truth of Vibrant Health with David Sandstrom

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When it comes to our health, Americans are a fickle bunch. Some of us are very into it, and others, like I was, simply don’t even know where to start.

For me personally, health was never a big focus of mine growing up. I only went to a doctor when I was on death’s door. However, my mom, would go all the time. The more she went, however, the more they’d give her meds to deal with whatever issue she was dealing with at the time. I swear, by the time she passed suddenly in 2010, she probably was downing 8 pills daily? I’m sure you know someone like that.

Today, I still don’t go to the doctor regularly. Opting instead to treat myself for any ailments and hoping that I’m eating correctly. For one, I simply don’t want the possibility of them just covering up symptoms of underlying issue. For my mom, they could have simply said, “stop eating sugar” and/or “here are some alternate ideas”. Instead they decided that giving her (and many other Baby Boomers) a pill concoction will be much more welcome.

Secondly, most of the nutrition advice that I see others taking today still says that carbs are ok to eat, sugar is ok in moderation, and that fat is bad. Personally, I don’t subscribe to that info.

Today’s guest is someone that can shine a ton of light on this issue. During the day, David is flying for a major airlines. However, when it’s time to put on his other hat as a Functional Diagnostic Nutrition Practitioner, you can see him making a major push to get out the knowledge he has in preventing ailments. In this session’s interview with David, we talk about his passion in holistic health,  how he got into it, what his thought are some of the more popular diets out there, and how someone can embrace holistic health into their lifestyle.

If you’re serious about improving your health and not going through the same treatment that many of our parents and grandparents have gone through, then this chat with David should really benefit you. If you get a lot out of it, be sure to share it with others you care about!

SPECIFICALLY, YOU’LL FIND OUT MORE ABOUT:

  • How a pilot with an MBA got into Holistic Health.
  • Why he has a huge passion for holistic health and teaching others about it.
  • How holistic health differs and compliments traditional western medicine.
  • How cholesterol actually helps in the healing process.
  • What actually causes heart disease.
  • Why people get addicted to carbs.
  • His thoughts on the paleo diet, ketosis, and the book The China Study.
  • How someone can embrace holistic health into their lifestyle.
  • What 3 questions you should ask yourself when seeking to improve your health.
  • What your choice of words on social media says about your future health.
  • …and MUCH more.

Right click here and save-as to download this episode to your computer.

ITEMS and PEOPLE MENTIONED IN THIS EPISODE:

SHOW NOTE EXTRAS:

Dr. Robert H. Lustig called Sugar: The Bitter Truth. Totally opened up my eyes. He talks about how bad sugar really is for you and how it’s basically in everything. Find it here:

Dr. Mark Hyman on Sugar and the Only Rules you Need to Eat Healthy:

Most of what David and Dr. Hayman say are similar. However they differ on Milk. David said that it’s good, Mark said it’s bad. Here are two videos talking about milk processing and why you might consider Raw Milk:

A farmer’s perspective on Raw Milk:

Thanks for Listening!

Thanks so much for joining us again this week. Have some feedback you’d like to share? Leave a note in the comment section below!

If you enjoyed this episode, please share it using the social media buttons you see at the top of the post.

Also, please leave an honest review for The AoL Podcast on iTunes! Ratings and reviews are extremely helpful and greatly appreciated! They do matter in the rankings of the show, and we read each and every one of them.

If you have any questions feel free to email them over via the email mentioned in the show or by our contact form.

And finally, don’t forget to subscribe to the show on iTunes, Stitcher, and/or Podbean. It’s absolutely free to do so.

A huge thank-you to you guys for joining us!

Cheers!

Understanding Passive Income as Organic Earnings

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In my last podcast session with Matt Bernstein, one of the nuggets of information he dropped (among MANY) was that he first heard of passive income from the same book I did, Robert Kiyosaki’s “Rich Dad, Poor Dad”. The main difference was that he read it when he was young and I read it when I was starting college.

I was already heading towards getting my first degree when I read the book in 2002. My workload as an engineering student was pretty massive, but I’ve been in the search of ways for it to work ever since then. Why wouldn’t I be? To me, it’s the answer of old adage ‘What? Do you think that money grows on trees?’.

Actually…

Passive income should really be called “organic earnings”. Not because they’re earnings picked from a tree, mind you, but because they are earnings that are based on how well we set ourselves up to sell something automatically. We simply have to let either word of mouth and/or online business nature take it’s course. It doesn’t matter if we personally do an additional hour of work, we’re not going to be paid any more for that one hour directly. Indirectly, however, we might get paid over and over again.

What I’ve found through 13 years of investigation and research, are a few things I really want to share with you guys today.

Passive Income Creates Options

Working on developing passive income opens up the potential for a whole new lifestyle that most would only dream of living. As they say in LTD, eventually you can have 6 Saturdays and a Sunday every week if you work on your business like a business and not a hobby.

If you want to travel somewhere – you could, with no reservations (no pun intended). Get up, buy a ticket, and go without packing. Get some clothes when you get there!

If you have some work to do, you can simply do it from the internet. All you would need is your laptop (or just an internet cafe), and your online business could still be up and running. This is exactly what Cam (from session 8) and Ginger (from session 20) do on their travels.

If travel to travel isn’t your thing, then you have other options. Perhaps you simply want to be at the gym or out on the golf range at any time you want. Or maybe, you just want the opportunity to go to any sports games you’d want. If you’re big into entertainment, you can potentially create a man cave for a king!

Or, if you’re like my wife, Maria, you could work somewhere you love that maybe doesn’t pay you a supporting wage (or you could even volunteer), and your passive income could pick up the slack.

It really depends on you and your ambitions!

If you can Share it Online, it can be a Source of Passive Income.

Any business that you do online can help you create passive income. At AMS, one of the things I struggled to do was figure out how to create passive income for the company. While we were mainly online, our events were TOTALLY not. All registrations were online, true, but our registrants had to actually come to our events. So, just like a brick and mortar store, our ability to provide value to people was based on our geographical location.

In 2016, however, we have started implementing Virtual Races. In the first race we had being virtual as an option, we had 93 registrants from all over the US. While many might wonder, “What’s the point of doing a race if you’re not at the actual location of the event?” in 2016, we should realize that many people run for the gear they get from the event. It’s their proof that they did the event. Virtual Races are considered passive income sources because all you have to do is make the event and you can theoretically sell as many entries as possible.

Likewise, one of our upcoming guests, David Picciuto, is what many of us would consider a Maker. When we think of a Maker, we typically think physical products that are limited and typically sold in a geographical region. Typically, you’d be right. However, this doesn’t necessarily have to be the case either. In fact, in our upcoming chat, we’ll explore how his site, makesomething.tv, where he shares with others how they can build things he’s built… and other topics related to doing what he’s done.

Another example of something that isn’t typically thought of being a passive income business, is being an artist. However, if you’re an artist and want to generate passive income, then one idea might be to do teach while they’re creating their work similar to how Bob Ross taught on his show for so many years. (And, in fact, whoever owns his brand now, has made a passive income site based on his teaching.)

Passive Income Doesn’t Come Cheap

However, let’s be clear that true passive income isn’t for free. In fact, earning a passive income simply isn’t a “get rich quick” idea. It takes some time, a bit of research and probably a little bit of luck too (although I like to say you can create your own luck), in order to get to a point where you’re comfortable saying you have a successful passive income creating business.

It’s about putting in the hard work now, so you can reap the benefits later. – Pat Flynn

Action Steps

Are you really serious about getting started on your path to developing passive income for yourself? If so, then you ought to think about what type of business you want and get on starting to make it. Not only that, but why?

Do you want it to…

  • Be side income on the side of your day job?
  • Be able to quit a job that you dislike?
  • Work On a project that you’re passionate about?
  • Be financially free?

This is part of what you should consider.

There are multiple resources around the web that I spoke of in this post. However, stay tuned for our very own resource that will combine the best thoughts of all these resources (and others) coming soon!

Comments are welcome below and check out Bob Ross’ site if you haven’t yet or not sure who he was. He was a great inspiration to my creativity as a kid!