Pat O’Bryan’s Blog

The original concept for doing an “UnSeminar” was hatched at a mastermind meeting in Dr. Joe Vitale’s library. It scared the shit outta me, which meant I had to do it.

Last weekend, I hosted UnSeminar5. It was a sold-out, standing room only, smiles-all-around success.

My response is to (once again) quote the Texas poet Willie Nelson, “Fortunately, we’re not in charge.” What Willie means by that is that it would be impossible for his geriatric band of gypsies to do what they do if they tried to follow some kinda plan. They just let it happen. They’re not in charge.

It is not revealed whether they reference a higher power or the massive cloud of smoke that follows ‘em everywhere they go.

This picture is for Marlon Sanders, who thought I should do a product on “how to do a seminar” from a tech point of view. Until I do, here’s the gear I used to do this one: 1) Behringer mixer 2) 3 Shure wireless mics - one “lav,” two hand-held. 3) Macbook for streaming video. 4) MXL stereo USB mic for audio for the webstream. 5) HDD video tape. expensive, but worth it. 6) Canon XL1S video cam for webstream. 7) Sony HDD video cam for DVD’s 8- 2 MXL condensor mics for audio for the DVD’s, and (not shown) Tascam US144 analog/digital audio converter to get sound out of the laptop and 2 behringer PA speakers for room sound.

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In the case of UnSeminar5, there were a few higher powers involved. First of all, Dr. Joe Vitale and the rest of the Siglo4 group: Bill Hibbler and Craig Perrine. These guys have stuck with me since the first UnSeminar, and I wouldn’t try to operate without their support.

But, UnSeminar5 decided it wanted to be legendary, and… well, here’s how it went, as best as I recollect it.

I had already booked several speakers, including Donna Fox. (Click HERE to see the speaker line-up)

A week or so before showtime, she contacted me on Twitter to tell me what a great job Eric Farewell had done speaking, and asking if I wanted him to speak.

I’ve known Eric for a while, and we’ve done some stuff together… so, I said “sure.”

Later, Eric and Donna let me know that Simon Leung was available and interested. I jumped on that immediately- Simon is a rapidly rising star in Internet Marketing land, and a guru (and ex-google employee) on the subject of adwords. I needed to hear him. So did my attendees.

So, I got 3 for 1 by booking Donna. Luckily, I’m not in charge, eh?

I then continued my preparations for UnSeminar5. Wednesday, I loaded my truck with all the gear that would fit in the truck (no room for the lights), and got it into the seminar room. Thursday, I set up the gear, with the help of Tony Laidig, who (it turns out) used to be a sound guy. Thanks, Tony!.

After the work was done, Tony and I were hanging with Donna, Eric and I forget who else on the porch of the hotel, smoking cigars, drinking adult beverages and twittering. Eric and Donna were twittering with Ben Mack, tantalizing him with tales of how much fun we were gonna have at UnSeminar5.

Somehow, it was decided that he would join us. Brave of him. Brave of me. All I knew about him was that he had physically ejected somebody from another seminar, he was crazy, and everybody loved him. I figured he’d fit in fine, so I gave up my speaking slot so he could speak.

The whole weekend went like that. We had a schedule, but like I told ‘em, “it’s what we’re gonna deviate from, not what we’re gonna follow.”

From the very first day, when I was setting up the gear and it all worked the first time, I knew this UnSeminar was gonna be different. And it was. Painless. Seamless. Totally improvised, and yet perfectly co-ordinated.

This UnSeminar was the first one, and I think the first one ever, to stream the whole show FREE online. This went much better than expected. Ustream died a quick and painful death in the middle of Eric Farewell’s presentation, but I was able to switch over to justin.tv during lunch, and soon all the viewers were back.

We had as many viewers online as we had attendees in the room, and conversation in the chat room was lively. And mostly off-topic, LOL.

All of the speakers were absolutely, stunningly perfect. Erica Douglas and Dr. Scott Lewis had never spoken at an Internet Marketing seminar before, and they did great!

I’ll do a post later about the speakers, but I want to go on record saying that each one of them was interesting, educational and effective. If you’re putting on a seminar and can get any of these speakers, DO IT!

One of the most popular traditions at UnSeminars is the morning mastermind groups. Bill Hibbler came up with this at the first unseminar (?) so that I could sleep later. At least, that’s MY reason. Those masterminds have spilled over into post-UnSeminar life, and continue to this day.

There’s a lot more to tell- how we got evicted from the balcony twice. The most amazing card trick you’ve ever seen. The standing ovations. The tears and hugs. The smiles on faces when I opened my leather bag and pulled out a liter of Tito’s vodka, a fifth of Milagro tequila, a fifth of Macallen single-malt scotch, and five bottles of wine.

It will take more than one blog post to tell the whole story of “The Legend of UnSeminar5.”

The other story of UnSeminar5 is how important Twitter and Facebook were- especially Twitter- for making it successful.

Pay attention.

I booked five of the speakers with Twitter. One of them, Erica Douglas- well, I’d never met her, or heard of her. She twittered me, explained why I needed to book her, and got the gig. All on twitter.

As a matter of fact, I first met Erica, Simon and Ben at the UnSeminar. Web 2.0 in action, folks.

Over a third of the tickets were sold as a result of Twittering. I twittered. The other speakers twittered. We talked about what we were going to do, and how much fun we were going to have. And, we all included links to the sales page for the UnSeminar.

It works.

Not only that- twitter is still twittering about the UnSeminar. Each of the attendees is talking about it. All of the speakers are discussing it. People watch, and follow… that’s branding.

I’m going to get some sleep and catch up on some chores- then I’ll tell you the rest of the story.

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There are still some tickets left to UnSeminar5, but you’d better hurry. Click HERE.

You really can “Listen and Grow Rich.” Click HERE.

Criag Perrine’s course on “Inspired Product Creation” is pretty amazing. Go see HERE.

Stop.

I want you to just stop- at least until you’ve read this blog post.

I don’t care who is offering to sell you what. Put your credit card back in your billfold or purse, and take said billfold or purse to the other room. Then, come back and sit down.

Listen up. I’m going to tell you how Internet Marketing works. For free.

After you understand the basics- how the money flows, for example- then we can get back to what you need to buy next. If anything.

I’m going to focus on the “Portable Empire” method, because it works. However, if you look under the hood of most successful online information marketing businesses, you’ll find they’re using something that looks a lot like the Portable Empire method.

To create your own “Portable Empire” you need to do four things:

1. make products

2. sell products

3. build your list

4. drive traffic (not from your list) to your sales pages

I’ve recently added number 4 to the mix. Because I used JVs to build a pretty substantial list very early in my career, I’ve not had to deal with traffic until now. Now that my business is heading toward 7-figure/yr territory, I’ve decided to learn this stuff.

More importantly, I’m learning it to teach it to you- because you might not stumble into big JV partners the way I did. And, you’ve got to get traffic from somewhere.

Let’s start at the very beginning.

1. make products. This is the broad sub-heading. The “big chunk.” Let’s chunk down and see what’s in there.

First of all, you need to pick a niche. I like to pick niches that I know something about. It makes things go faster. You also need to make sure that there is a market already operating in this niche.

A simpel Google search on relevant keywords is instructional. Who’s buying adwords for those keywords? What’s the PR of the top few sites?

There is no limit to how many niches you can operate in. I recommend starting with one.

Check out your competitors in your niche. It helps to find the top two or three marketers in that niche and dissect their business model- if you can find it. Some of these guys are sneaky. But, what you’re looking for is

where is their traffic coming from?

how are they delivering the solutions?

Look at these successful models and see if there is anything you can add, or more interestingly, take away from their model. Here’s an example. Back in the day, we had cassette players with speakers built into them. Sony came along, looked at that and said, “what if we drop out the speakers?”

That’s how the walkman was born. (Thanks, Douglas Adams.)

Later on, Apple joined a hard-drive with a headphone jack and launched the iPod. People were already using their computers to listen to MP3’s. Apple just dropped the big box and screen from the mix, and in doing so, changed the world.

Napoleon Hill wrote a great book. I read it and decided that it had way too many dull stories and out of date crap- so I created the “Think and Grow Rich Workbook,” which became (with many add-ons) “Listen and Grow Rich.” I just left out the stuff you don’t need- and made a product that a LOT of people want.

Anyway, once you decide on a niche and research it, you need to find interesting problems. Interesting problems are more valuable than… well, in online marketing, anything.

For example, John Reese occasionally decides to launch a product to solve the problem of getting traffic to your sales site. He had the first “million dollar day” with his first product in that niche.

Apparently, traffic generation is a recognized problem that people will pay for solutions to. Today, he’s launching another product in that same niche. I’d give you my affiliate link, but I don’t have one. I just bought it, though, and I’ll let you know how it works out.

The point is- traffic generation is an interesting problem. It’s interesting to me because people will pay for the solution. And then, they’ll pay again for new solutions.

Your sales are a function of 1) how compelling your sales letter (or video, or audio) is, 2) how badly people want this problem solved, and 3) how many people with that problem you can drive to your sales page.

So- you’re looking for a problem like that. One that people will motivate people to pay, and pay again, for the solution.

Where do you find these problems?

I recommend: Twitter, forums, facebook, and any other place online where people gather and then segregate into interests. For example, if you follow a few Internet Marketers on Twitter, and then see who they’re following, and follow those people, too, you’ll eventually end up (quickly) with a wonderful source of information. You can find out what’s bugging these people, what their challenges are, what they hate, and what they want. That’s really useful information.

Then, you need to solve the problem and deliver the solution.

How do you deliver it?

eBooks are still the cheapest way to get into the game. Open Office, which is free, has a PDF generator built right into it. Write your solution down, save it as a PDF, and you’ve got an eBook. Put it online at Clickbank, and you’ve got a business.

Audio products are useful, and have a higher perceived value. I use a Tascam DR1 for recording audio interviews. Audacity is a good free audio editing program. Save as MP3, put it online, and you’ve got a product that you can deliver.

Video is my favorite method for developing products. I started out with one little handy-cam I bought at Best Buy for a couple of hundred bucks. Now, I’ve got 5 cameras, an editing suite, and more servers than I ever thought I’d need.

A $150 Flip video camera and YouTube will accomplish the same thing, and save you tens of thousands of dollars. Once again- record the solution (an interview?) with your video camera, post it online, and you’ve got a solution you can deliver to your customer.

Sell Your Product

My recommendation, when it comes to web pages, is to have a portal site like www.patobryan.com - and then a mini-site for each of your products. My latest mini-site is at www.listenandgrowrich.com- but I’ve got hundreds.

The magic formula is “multiple streams of passive income.”

Each product you sell will have its own web page. Each buyer will be automatically added to an autoresponder series (I use 1shopping cart for this), which will automatically tell them about other products they may be interested in. As they buy each product, they’re enrolled in a new autoresponder series that tells them about new products (or old products) that they can also purchase that have something to do with the original product they bought.

It’s unlikely that you will meet your income goals with one product. I can testify that hundreds of products, each bringing in a steady income, can add up to a LOT of money. Since you can automate most aspects of an online business, over time you create a perpetual motion money machine and you can spend your time smoking cigars on the beach. At least, that’s my plan.

On your mini-site, there should be a sales page. You’re gonna have to learn some basic copywriting skills, because- especially if you’re just starting out- you can’t afford a professional copywriter. There’s a great chapter on this in my book, Your Portable Empire, How to Make Money Anywhere Doing What You Love. I can say it’s great modestly because 1) It features an in-depth copywriting course with Dr. Joe Vitale, and 2) the book was the number 1 best-selling Business Book in the U.S. I get emails daily from people thanking me for writing it. If you don’t already have a copy, click on the title and go get it.

You need to discuss the problem you’re solving, talk about the benefits of your solution, include some testimonials from some people who have used your solution, and then ask for the sale. I use 1shoppingcart for creating the “buy now” button, moving the money to my bank account, and adding the buyer to the appropriate autoresponder.

3. Build your list.

The story goes like this: An internet marketer is sitting at home with his wife, kids, favorite guitar, stock portfolio, computers, a pile of cash, and his list when the fire alarm goes off. Flames engulf the room, and he only has a split-second to escape.

He/she grabs his list and runs out the door.

I don’t know about the wife and kids… depends on my mood, I guess, but with a good list, you can get more of any material possession. Your list is your gold. It’s your retirement fund. It’s as close as you can get to security in this insane world.

The best way to build a list is to give stuff away in exchange for email addresses.

Here’s an example. One of my niches is “mind-changing audios,” like The Clearing Audio. To find people who are interested in those, I give away a sample audio in exchange for email address.

By doing this, I’ve built a list of people who are interested in that kind of audio product. I have other audio products they might be interested in, and I tell them about those.

Using 1shoppingcart, you can add each person who purchases a product from you to a list.

Once someone joins your list, you need to build a relationship with them. Give them more free stuff. Tell them stories. Make interesting videos and give those to them, too. A blog like this one is a good place to put that stuff…

Over time, your list will get to know you, and you’ll stand out from the mass of people competing for their attention. People buy from people they know, like and trust. They can’t trust you until they get to know you.

4. Drive traffic (not from your list) to your sales pages.

There was a time, a few months ago, when that meant Google adwords. Adwords can still be a valuable part of your traffic mix, and I recommend you go to www.adwords.google.com and get an account. They’ve got lots of info there, which will keep you entertained for days.

In the last few months, I’ve been experimenting with using Facebook, twitter, Digg, Stumbleupon, and a few other social networking tools to drive traffic to my sites. It’s tricky, but it works. You need to invest time building relationships before you start pimping your products.

My advice is to get accounts with the top social networking sites and jump in. Start talking. Sometimes, you’ll think you’re talking to yourself. Join conversations. Over time, you’ll have a network and a community at each site. Then, you can start talking about your projects. I’ve made a lot of sales this way, but I’ve also invested hundreds of hours in building relationships. I think it’s worth it.

That’s a brief course in Internet Marketing.

If you’d like to add to it, please leave a comment.

You can learn a lot more by attending UnSeminar5.

A lot of my clients, having read this blog post, would ask, “what should I do first?” “What should I do next?”

My answer is- whatever you actually will do.

Start now. I’ve noticed that my clients who actually take action end up making money. Sometimes they do stuff that doesn’t work. Great!

There’s no such thing as failure. It’s just data. If something doesn’t work, stop doing it. If something works, do more of it.

You won’t know which is which until you actually DO something.

Once you start doing stuff, you’ll quickly learn what you need to know. Then, you can either buy that information or get it some other way.

If that’s all you get out of this blog post, that should (at least) save you some money. It could make you rich.

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My campaign is kicking into high gear. Check out the video-

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Now, let’s talk about opportunity costs and revenue models, and why I’m closing the Second Life office and stopping the weekly TV show. This is a game you can play at home- and you might find out some pretty interesting things about yourself and your business.

Main Entry:
opportunity cost
Function:
noun
Date:
1911

: the added cost of using resources (as for production or speculative investment) that is the difference between the actual value resulting from such use and that of an alternative (as another use of the same resources or an investment of equal risk but greater return)

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You’ve dealt with “opportunity costs” every day of your life, but you might not have been familiar with the phrase. I find it very useful, because it puts a name to the problem.

The problem is that your time and resources are limited. Especially your time and your money. I’m not talking about impoverished thinking, here- this concept is based on a “snapshot” of your life at a given moment.

At any given moment, you’ve got EXACTLY so much money to work with. You only get 24 hours a day.

If you spend an hour playing on Second Life, for example, you chose not to use that hour to write a blog post. If you spend two hours watching a movie- the opportunity cost was that you didn’t spend that two hours doing something else- like writing a sales page or building a product.

In an infinite universe like this one, you could theoretically do anything- but you can’t do it all at once. The things you choose not to do are the “opportunity cost” of the things you choose to do.

Another example- imagine you’re me thirty years ago and you’ve got three dollars. Three dollars will buy a cheeseburger. Three dollars will also buy a six-pack of beer. You’re hungry, but you also want the beer. You’ve just got the three dollars, and there’s no legal or reasonable way to scare up more money today.

If you buy the cheeseburger, the hunger is solved- but you still want a beer.

If you buy the beer, you’ll get drunk faster, but you’ll be hungry and wake up with a headache.

The cheeseburger is the cost of buying the beer. The beer is the cost of buying the cheeseburger.

Fascinating, eh?

Let’s play again, but this time with a little twist.

Let’s say you’ve got an Internet Marketing business, and you’re doing pretty good. You have a few bucks set aside, and have paid off some bills.

Here’s the problem. You want a new, $6,000 Paul Reed Smith guitar. You’ve always dreamed of one, you know your friends will be impressed with it, and it will make you play guitar like Terry Kath, Duane Allman, and Pat Metheny combined. You WANT that guitar.

On the other hand, with that same $6,000 you could buy a tool for your business that will make you more money- say, A MacPro, video editing software, and a good video camera. You know that this equipment would solve a lot of problems for you- video is easy to deliver to your clients, it’s quick to make, and has a high perceived value. It will pay for itself in the next six months, easily.

If you buy the guitar, you can’t have the video stuff.

If you buy the video stuff, you can’t have the guitar.

Right?

WRONG! This is where it gets fun, and you might want to re-read “Rich Dad, Poor Dad” for background.

If you buy the video stuff, use it for six months to generate income, you’ll have the six grand back and you can get your fancy guitar- you can have them both.

Fun, huh?

Now- let’s look at the phrase “Revenue Model.”

You’re probably familiar with “business model.” If you’re in business, hopefully, you sat down and designed a business plan. This should take you about ten minutes, and could be as short as a paragraph or two. Your business plan would contain a business model.

A model is a representation of something in the real world. The closer the model represents actual reality, the more valuable it is. As time goes on, you should adjust your model based on the results you’re getting.

You need a broad “business model” to help you think about what your business is, what its goals are, what success would look like, and how to keep score.

Your revenue model is a smaller chunk of your business model. It’s a representation of how your business will generate income. I like to look at “net” income, because that’s what I can spend on cigars and guitars. Gross income is kinda bullshit if you don’t also include expenses. Gross income minus expenses equals “net” income.

Your revenue model is just a written representation of how your business will generate net income. You can use your revenue model as a filter to help make decisions. How does each action fit into your revenue model? All that will tell you his what the value of that action is in terms of revenue- but that can be some very valuable information.

When you combine your revenue model with opportunity cost analysis, you’ve got a powerful tool for deciding what to do next with your life and your business.

caveat: I am NOT saying that revenue, money, or income should be your primary motivating factor.

I AM saying that you have to show a profit with your business, or you have to stop calling it a business. If it don’t make money, it’s a hobby.

I am also saying that it’s much harder to work on LOA, spiritual quests, and self-actualization if you are constantly worrying about money. This is an exercise to help you focus on making money.

That’s why I’m closing the Portable Empire Second-Life office.

Second Life was a gamble, but it was one that I thought would pay off. There was a lot of “Social Proof”- lots of businesses like IBM and Apple, several politicians, Universities, Museums and art galleries were already there. I thought I could get in early, establish “first to market” authenticity and credibility, and just generally kick ass.

Opportunity cost: my time and a few hundred bucks
Revenue model: beats me. I can’t find one.

I thought I could use it to sell products, but that turns out to not be the case. I considered using it for coaching, but right about the time I got my new office set up, technology presented us with live video streaming.

Which led to Portable Empire TV.

Five years ago, when I first started my Internet Marketing research, delivering live video was expensive, and most of my customers had “dial-up” internet connections. Remember that?

Now, the technology is FREE, and most of my customers have broad-band internet. My customers in Japan and most of Europe have much faster internet than I do.

So, I spent a couple of weeks learning how to broadcast. I’ve got great video cameras. I bought some good professional lights. I found, through trial and error, the most dependable free service.

I think it’s got the potential of being the single most powerful tool in my arsenal, and I recommend that you use it, too.

Opportunity cost: video camera, time.
Revenue model: affiliate sales, product sales, rapport building with my customers.

Live video is great for interviews. Like teleseminars or webinars, except much more powerful

There is a down-side. For me to successfully interview somebody, we’ve got to be in the same room. I’ve exhausted my potential interview subjects- literally.

So, I’ve re-thunk where Live Video fits in my business model.

Broadcasting every Tuesday pretty much takes all day. I have to haul the gear to the coffee shop, carry it in, set it up, wire it up, test it, and then run the cameras, monitor the chat, and keep the conversation going.

The opportunity cost for doing a weekly show is whack.

From now on, I’ll do live broadcasts when I’ve got a reason to: someone interesting to interview, a new product or service to talk about, or an interesting location to share.

As you know (or can read in the blog posts below), I just got back from a 10-day trip to West Texas on a “rethread the head” quest. I do this occasionally, and, except when I shoot myself, it’s very useful.

There’s something about the wide open spaces, majestic views, powerful and dangerous weather, and panoramic skyline that helps me put my world in perspective.

I never know what will come up on these trips. This time, what came up for me was that it was time to take a long, hard look at my alleged business. I’ve been resistant to treating it like a business.

That’s odd. An online business that generates a healthy six-figure (maybe seven-figure) income from wherever I happen to be is exactly what I wanted. It’s what I’ve got.

How ’bout that? Nobody is more surprised than I am, I assure you.

So, as I was dodging lightning in Terlingua, I started looking at the different aspects of my business: what I chose to do with my time, who I chose to work with, what products i chose to concentrate on- and ran each piece of my business through the “opportunity cost/revenue model” machine.

I was surprised.

One of the things I learned at my first Internet Marketing seminar, and teach to all of my students, is to brutally apply the “what’s working, what’s not working” principle.

If something is working, do more of it.

If something is not working, stop doing it.

I was talking about Second Life with my friend Rodney a couple of weeks ago, and he reminded me of that.

The “opportunity cost/revenue model” machine is a great way to determine if something is working or not.

Over the next few weeks, I’ll be re-writing my business plan to include my current information. Those of you who have been asking for a coaching/mentoring relationship with me are gonna get it. Some products we’re marketing are obviously “working.” Some are not. You’ll see a lot more of the ones that work, and none of the ones that don’t.

And- I’ve got a pretty amazing thing to announce at UnSeminar5. You’ll have to be there to find out what it is. Click HERE.

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Greetings from Lajitas, TX.

Lajitas is just down the road from Terlingua, home of the world-famous chili-cookoff(s) and the nearest sorta-town to my cabin.

I’m having breakfast in the very posh and tony restaurant looking out over the golf course, across the Rio Grande River, and the mountains of Mexico- which look just like the mountains here in Texas.

sunrise over Terlingua

National borders are so last century. The people in this valley had a very successful symbiosis going on- little restaurants and craft shops in little towns just across the river supported families and villages.

Now that homeland paranoia has struck the valley, the villages are drying up. Let me make one thing clear- the people who live here want the Feds outta here. They’re screwing up the social balance, the ecology, and just generally accomplishing every negative unintended consequence that any reasonable person could predict, without accomplishing any of their stated goals.

The locals have filed lawsuits. They’re armed and they’re pissed. Some locals have set up a system so that the neighbors on the “wrong” side of the river can make blankets and they appear on the “right” side of the river where they can be sold to tourists. Money and supplies then flow south. It’s a good short-term remedy, but it’s not a solution.

Terlingua Store Porch- Sunrise

Last night, I finished Bob Dylan’s “Chronicles 1.” The book I read right before that one was “Spiritual Laws of Success,” by Randy Gage.

As I eat breakfast, bad “country” music is blasting outta the stereo.

Bob Dylan would hate it because the songs don’t say nothin. They’re written by committees for women who watch soap operas, and the kinda guys who drink lite beer and dance with such girls.

They’re dreck.

Randy Gage would hate it because he is so firm and careful about what he puts in his head.

I came to the same conclusion independent of Randy, but he put it in print first- what you put in your head determines what you’ve got to work with as you’re architecting your life. If you put a bunch of loser cheating songs, anthems to co-dependency, and “I’m poor but I’m proud” bullshit in your head, that’s what you’re gonna have to work with.

That ain’t prosperity.

excellent food from the “food shark,” Marfa, TX

I’m definitely ranting… let’s see… how about a short pause for a commercial announcement? UnSeminar5′s sales page is gradually getting pretty and full of videos.

We’ve got some amazing speakers lined up, and a few more speakers have requested a place on the roster. I’m excited. This is without a doubt the best value ever offered in the seminar world.

Click HERE.

storm moving towards mexico- lajitas

It’s been an interesting experiment for me, doing the “head rethread” here in West Texas.

There are some things I know I’m going to continue doing- making products, selling products, and building my list. That’s what a Portable Empire is.

I’m also getting real clear about what I’m not going to be doing anymore, or doing a lot less of.

Blame it on Bill’s sister, Misty.

She asks great questions, and one of them (not directed to me, but I heard it loud and clear) was “What’s Your Revenue Model for that?”

Duh.

If you’re in business- and you are- one of the things you have to do is make money, or it’s “do you want fries with that?” time. I don’t buy into the theory that money, profit and income are the ONLY reasons to go into business. They’re not even the most important ones, really, but if you don’t show a profit, you have to go home.

So, although everything you do doesn’t have to make you money, it does have to be accounted for in your Revenue Model. How does it fit in to the big picture of your business?

For example, I’m paying resort prices for my rooms right now- about 3 times what you’d pay at a nice hotel. Gas is almost $5 a gallon here on the border. Where does this trip fit into my revenue model?

New Old Western Town- Lajitas, TX

Well, I’m gathering pictures for my catalog. I’m gathering stories for my blog. I’m writing things that can only be written right here and right now. More importantly, I’m surrounding myself with beauty and natural grandeur during the day and luxury and comfort at night. I’m reinforcing and feeding the parts of my subconscious that I want to grow.

To attract new ideas, new directions, and inspiration, I find it’s useful to clear out space to make room for the new.

In this case, old ideas, preconceptions, and boredom need to be cut out, deleted, and disposed of to make room. That’s what I’m doing. I’m watching lightning over the mountains and not thinking about anything but that. That was last night.

Today, I’m going to hop in my truck and drive to Alpine- passing Cathedral Mountain, Elephant Mountain, Kokernot Mesa, 9-points Mesa, and all points in between. My conscious mind will be dazzled and mystified by the huge mountains and almost infinite views. My subconscious is on an underground mission to discover “what’s working, what’s not working, and where does it fit in the revenue model?”

A change is gonna come.

In the mean time, stay tuned, and go ahead and get your ticket to UnSeminar5 before they’re all gone.

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UnSeminar5 - be there! Click HERE.

Welcome to my office at the coffee shop in Marfa, TX. I’ve introduced them to the concept of the “black eye.” To me, and now to the staff at the coffee shop, that means “2 shots of expresso and your darkest coffee, served hot.”

I gradually approached consciousness in that very cool room. Checked email, promoted UnSeminar5 to my list, checked the headlines, and twittered… pretty much what I’d do at home, except my office at home isn’t as “hip.”

After sufficient caffeine (for the moment), I got in my truck, lit a cigar, and moseyed about Marfa. Real estate prices here are still bizarre. You can drop $200,000 on a small adobe shack- easy. There are a LOT more places for sale now then on previous visits. I suspect prices may come down, but then again- the people who buy houses here probably aren’t all that concerned. Their other houses are in L.A. or New York.

This castle belongs to the Chinati foundation. Started by the late Donald Judd, the foundation has a huge permanent compound here, and has gobbled up a lot of the commercial real estate. It does make the town more interesting.

There is an odd mix of architecture. Lots of old and new adobe, of course, but also some pretty modern approaches to building.

The trailers below are actually part of a “concept” bed n breakfast. You can rent them by the night, apparently. The “el cosmico” wagon is their sign, I guess.

Downtown Marfa is clean, and a lot of the buildings have been updated and restored. You never know who you’re going to run into- as I walked to my truck, there was what I thought was a homeless guy with a dog sitting in the stoop of one of the buildings. Then he answered his blackberry- LOL.

Today, I’m going to do nothing for a while, then slip down to the coffee shop and do nothing while I drink some more (locally roasted) coffee. It’s delicious, and the coffee shop is a great place to watch people and eavesdrop.

Later on tonight, I may do nothing, or I may work on some web projects. This trip- at least this leg of it- is about “rethreading my head.”

Last night, I read the second Randy Gage book that I brought this trip. Reading him is complete validation of what I kinda figured out on my own. It just feels great to have it reinforced by somebody who has lived it at a higher level than I’ve achieved so far.

So, I’m using what I’m reading to “rethread my head.” When I think a negative thought, I’m immediately recognizing it and deleting it. Kinda like meditating, but more focused than the way I usually meditate.

I’m eating fruit and nuts, napping, and very much enjoying being out in the middle of nowhere, surrounded by great art, huge landscape, and no distractions. I don’t know how long it will take for me to recalibrate- but, that’s the wonderful thing about having a Portable Empire.

If my business needs attention, I’ve got a couple of laptop computers and good internet access. The better I design and construct my Portable Empire, the less attention it needs. That’s good.

Now, maybe some more coffee. Maybe another nap. A drive through the Davis Mountains?

Stay tuned…

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