Unconventional Life – Podcast, Blog, Live Events

Category: Money

How to Work More Productively and Have More Free Time
Liam Martin is the co-founder of Time Doctor, a productivity software with the largest second-by-second work database in the world. Time Doctor has been proven to increase worker productivity by an average 22% and is a fast-growing tool that’s being increasingly used by major companies.

In this episode, Liam shares his key research findings on worker productivity. If you’re somebody who could benefit from effective time management strategies, or you’re simply curious about the science and psychology behind distraction, this is an episode you won’t want to miss.

In Liam’s episode, you’ll learn:
- The productivity cost of having notifications like Facebook turned on (it’s much higher than you think!)
- Strategies to optimize productivity… a.k.a. work fewer hours.
- The “distraction economy” – why billions have been invested into distracting you and how to defend yourself from potential threats to your productivity.
Key lessons from Liam’s episode:

1. Optimal Productivity Requires a Distraction-Free Work Zone. For a moment, I want you to visualize your typical work zone in your mind’s eye. Where do you work? Do you work in the presence of others—perhaps at a library, or at your local trendy coffee shop? Do you listen to music while you work? Is your phone easily accessible? Are notifications turned on? Do you often hop between multiple tabs?

Chances are, you said yes to a few of the questions above. And it’s no wonder. The average millennial work environment is distraction-laden, with a typical worker getting only 3 hours worth of work done of the 8 they work. The other 5 hours are filled with Facebook memes, chatty rendezvous at the water cooler, and mindless web surfing.

Time Doctor’s research shows that the most productive work occurs inside a distraction-free work zone. This means making yourself 100% unavailable to outside distractions and notifications while you work.

“Get yourself into a flow state and create a sacred space,” Liam says.

For optimal productivity, consider adopting these principles:
- Work in a secluded, private room.
- Disable notifications on your computer and mobile device(s).
- Only have open tabs that are relevant to your current task.
- Declutter your computer desktop.
- Dedicate yourself to only one task at a time, and suppress the impulse to do anything unrelated to that task for an allotted time period.
- Install useful browser plug-ins, like:
  - Tab Limiter (limits the amount of tabs you can have open at a single time).
  - News Feed Eradicator (makes your Facebook newsfeed invisible).
  - Intently (replaces ads with content you choose).
2. Distractions Come at a High Cost. According to Time Doctor’s research, the cost of opening a single notification—for example, clicking on an incoming message from your friend via Facebook Messenger—is a whopping 16 minutes.

Yes, 16 minutes! (Not one minute, like we tell ourselves it will take 😉 ).

How many times do you click on incoming notifications in a single hour (emails, texts, reminders, etc.)? How about in a typical day? The point is, it all really starts to add up.

3. You Can Beat Distractions With Mindfulness. Time Doctor’s software is designed to minimize the amount of times you get baited by incoming distractions. It’s based on the simple philosophy of mindfulness—when you bring awareness to an unconscious process, you gain the power to make a conscious choice about it.

Here’s how it works… Time Doctor assigns you one task at one time. That way, you can execute with laser-sharp focus. As soon as a distraction (like a notification) comes along, if you attempt to pursue the distraction (by opening a new tab or a new app), Time Doctor will flash an alert on your screen.

“You’re now leaving productivity town and are headed to distractionville,” Liam jokes.

What might have been an unconscious habit, you’re now forced to consciously evaluate.

Imagine a friend who gently holds a mirror up to your behavior, reminding you of your goals and asking you to consider if the choice you’re considering making is in alignment with those goals.

Of course, you’re in the driver’s seat. You can always choose to pursue the distraction anyways, but the difference is, you’re now making an informed choice, fully aware.

Bringing mindfulness around your work zone has been proven to powerfully increase productivity. Time Doctor’s research shows the average worker gets 22% more done in a day using its software.

What does 22% of your work day translate into? For the average 9 to 5er, that’s nearly two hours of your workday freed up.
April 12, 2018
How To Supercharge Your Coaching Company, From A Millennial Pulling In $150K Per Client

If you’re like most millennials, one of your primary needs is to know your work has purpose.

But just how much of an impact are millennials really making? One of the primary vehicles for impact, the $107 billion online education industry, may be falling short.

In an age where you can learn just about anything online, many young people are eager to share their wisdom through web-based courses. However, the averagecompletion rate for online courses is just 7%.

In other words, 93% of people who pursue online education don’t actually reap the benefits that were intended for them.

That’s why one founder has devised a new model for learning–and it’s a lot more lucrative than creating traditional online courses, too.

Meet Shannon Graham, an internationally renown success mentor who works with high-profile entrepreneurs . He charges $150k per client to work with him for a single year, with a minimum 3-year commitment. His clients have gone on to successfully complete massive projects, including a $220 million initiative to modernize India’s transportation system.

I spoke with Graham about his no-nonsense approach to coaching on this week’s episode of Unconventional Life, “How To Charge $150k Per Client Per Year.”

Graham got started in personal development at the early age of 16. He was known as the “unofficial life coach” for his high school peers. Back then, personal development resources weren’t as widely available–you couldn’t access a library of free podcasts or listen to motivational speeches on demand like you can today.

However, Graham made due with what he had–he recalls purchasing one of Tony Robbins’ CDs and immediately listening to it in his car until 2 a.m. This no-excuses attitude would serve as a solid foundation for both his own growth and his service to others.

So how did Graham create a coaching practice that charges 150k per client, per year?

He says he noticed a “gap” in the coaching industry between the results clients hoped to achieve and the effectiveness of the services most coaches were offering. “The majority of people in the industry create products around leverage and automation. The challenge is if you have an online course 90% of people won’t do anything with it, and of those who do, less than 2% take action and get results,” he says.

Graham’s solution was to provide a different kind of coaching service unlike any on the market. “The destination must have an adequate vehicle,” he says. “I don’t know of any Olympic athletes who get there via online programs. They each had one coach or a team of coaches who worked with them for a prolonged period of time very intensely.”

Graham’s coaching practice provides intensive mentorship to entrepreneurs over the span of 3 to 5 years. He recognizes that real results require commitment, consistency, and accountability–which is why he doesn’t settle for mass-producing online programs that don’t actually make a difference in his clients’ lives.

Millennial coaches, charging this same kind of price point is possible for you, too. Below, Graham shares how you can create a high-impact coaching practice and enroll clients who will happily pay top-dollar to work with you.

1. Invest in yourself. “As a coach, you can only bring as much value as you have,” Graham says. Instead of focusing on your website or sales funnels, your constant focus should be on your own growth. Confront your weaknesses and address what you struggle the most with, so you can confidently guide your clients out of these same pitfalls from personal experience. You are your own product, so make your product the best it can be.

2. Seek out your clients. Cut the marketing strategies that are designed to appeal to just about everyone who sees your ad or lands on your page. The truth is, the average person isn’t your ideal client. Your ideal client is deeply committed to personal growth and is willing to invest in the highest caliber coaching to get there. They aren’t interested in playing around with products or services that don’t work. “Go out and find your ideal clients and start conversations with them,” Graham advises.

3. Be firm on your price. Don’t settle for a mediocre price point in order to appeal to more clients. You aren’t looking for a lot of clients, you are looking for the right client. “At the end of the day you don’t need a lot of clients if you charge high end prices,” Graham says. Name your price and stick to it. While most people will turn you down, when you do find the right client, it will be worth it.

4. Engage deeply and personally. “Making a big impact has a lot more to do with depth than it does with width,” Graham says. Effective coaching should be specially tailored to the individual you are working with. There is no one-size-fits all. You must be willing to consistently meet your clients exactly where they are and give them advice that applies to their direct circumstances. Don’t be generic; be specific and personal. One man is doing this exceptionally well by engaging Millennials one-on-one on a show that shares their voices with the world.

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March 2, 2018
Millennials, Don’t Reinvent The Wheel: Why You Don’t Need A Novel Business Idea To Be Successful

A common misbelief among entrepreneurs is that they’ve got to stumble across the “next big thing” in order to make it. Yet, what many fail to recognize is that generating a groundbreaking, never-before-seen idea isn’t always the best strategy.

When you introduce a new idea to the world, you face several barriers. You must convince people it’s relevant, address their concerns, overcome criticism, get it to take off, and most importantly, get it to stay relevant.

Doing this successfully can be incredibly challenging. Instead, why not select an idea that’s already working? When people already love something, the work has been done for you.

Aspiring entrepreneurs, you don’t need to reinvent the wheel. According to one successful founder, the only innovation you need to do may be putting your own spin on a classic idea.

Meet Nick Gray, the creator of Museum Hack, a company that leads museum tours in metropolitan cities. Here’s the catch: these tours are nothing like you’ve experienced before. They feature quirky guides, games, and gossip–which have earned the affection of clients like Google, Facebook, Spotify and Etsy.

I caught up with Gray about how he brought museum tours back in style on this week’s episode of Unconventional Life, “The Quickest Way To Get Started: Repackage What’s Working & Make It Your Own.”

Gray says he launched Museum Hack as a “rebellious idea that there had to be a better way” to do things. Since he was young, Gray has always been breaking the rules in the name of good business.

In college, his first business contracted high-end speakers from China and set up shop outside Wake Forest University under the name “Wake Speakers,” selling freshmen speakers that were supposedly sold with the University laptop. Wake Forest lawyers reached out to Gray complaining he couldn’t use the “Wake” name for an independent business–but not until Gray had already sold out of all his inventory for the year.

When Gray got started with museums, it was completely in character for him to do the unexpected. “From day one it was not a sophisticated tour,” he jokes. He began exposing the little-known secrets of museum artifacts, including how much they costed, whether they had been stolen or not, and what their juicy backstories were.

One day, a blogger wrote about what Gray was up to, and the next day, 1,300 people emailed him asking to join one of the tours. “I think that’s the singular moment where I was like, this is a really big deal,” Gray says.

Since then, Gray has moved on from being a one-man-show and expanded his museum tours to feature dozens of specially trained guides in New York City, San Francisco, Washington DC, and Chicago. Hundreds of raving reviews and lengthy wait lists allowed him to attract high-end clients and bring back museums to a tech-obsessed millennial generation.

What stands out about Gray’s success was that he didn’t need a million-dollar new idea. Instead, he started with what was already working–the $135 billionmuseum industry–and introduced a modern twist. Below, Gray shares how you can seriously profit from making a classic business idea your own.

1. Use aggressive marketing. In order to show people how you’re different from what they’ve seen before, you need to reset their expectations. A great way to do this is to use taglines that catch them off-guard and remain in their mind. Gray says he isn’t afraid to use what could be considered offensive language to appeal to his target market of millennials. His site reads, “This isn’t your grandmother’s museum tour.”

2. It’s all about how you package it. While Gray’s service of a museum tour wasn’t unique, the way he packaged it certainly was. People had never heard of a museum tour claiming to be sassy and subversive, sharing “details that the museum staff would never share with you because they might lose their jobs.” With creative repackaging, you can capture interest and give the impression of a brand new product or service your customers will be dying to experience.

3. Don’t be afraid of the spotlight. You’ll want to create as much noise from as many outlets as you can about your product or service. Getting attention shouldn’t be difficult if you decide to market with stand-out taglines and punchy, thought-provoking copy. To reach your target audience, you’ll need to know who they are from the inside out. Identify where their attention is directed–the kind of podcasts they listen to, the social media platforms they frequent, and the sites they visit–and make sure they see you there. One way to create buzz and potentially earn more testimonials is to give away samples of your product for free. This week, Gray is giving away two tickets to any Museum Hack tour in NYC, San Fran, and DC to listeners and readers of Unconventional Life. Learn more about it here.

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March 1, 2018
Could You Be An Influencer? This 22-Year-Old Shows There’s Money In Your Social Media Following

If you’ve got a following on a major platform like Instagram, Facebook, Youtube, Snapchat, or Twitter, chances are it’s worth something.

Companies recognize the value of a loyal following, and are increasingly turning to social media influencers to promote their products. In 2015, social media ad spending exceeded $23 billion worldwide, and is expected to increase, meaning there’s a huge opportunity for social influencers to cash in.

Social media influencers serve as a bridge connecting brands to consumers. They leverage the relationship and trust they have with their followers to recommend products on behalf of brands. Typically, this kind of advertising generates twice the salesof paid advertising, making it the go-to route for brands.

With a following of 15,000 on Facebook, Twitter, or Instagram, you could make $700 for a single sponsored post.

Many influencers have the following brands are after, but they don’t know how to get noticed. Sure enough, digital marketing expert Koby Conrad has a solution.

CEO of the Idaho-based digital marketing agency Boise Digital, Conrad scouts social media influencers to represent a host of different brands — including GrassCity, the world’s largest online headshop. His eye is trained to look for qualities in a social influencer that make them marketable.

I caught up with Conrad about his social media strategy on this week’s episode of Unconventional Life, “Expand Your Income: Your Social Media Following Is Worth More Than You Think.”

Conrad’s marketing genius stems from a combination of luck, wit, and opportunity. The 22-year-old says he has no formal business training besides that of Reddit mentors in the community “r/Entrepreneur.” It was there he learned vital skills like building a Shopify account, met his first business partner, and even attracted an angel investor.

“It was a mixture between hands on experience and doing things, combined with talking to people who are out there in real life doing it themselves, combined with online resources going through threads and reading people’s stories,” Conrad says.

With the Internet as his guide, Conrad launched his first company, Hippies Hope, an online retail store donating a meal to a person in need with every purchase. One day, sales skyrocketed after a popular country singer recommended Hippies Hope to his Facebook audience of 2 million, alerting Conrad to the potential of social media marketing.

Soon, Conrad sold Hippies Hope to create the marketing agency Boise Digital. Today, Boise Digital connects various brands with social media influencers who promote their products. Conrad is constantly on the search for new influencers who will give his brands an edge.

Below, Conrad shares the five things you should do in order to turn your following into a profitable business and make money as an influencer.

1. Quantify your following. The bigger your audience, the easier it is for a brand to say yes — after all, they’re looking for exposure to as many people they can get. A following of 10,000 is typically a sufficient base level to start being profitable. Assess your reach, number of followers, fans, etc. From there, you’ll want to show brands you are a viable business that has potential to scale. Knowing how brands think and assess social media ROI will be an invaluable tool.

2. Experiment with your audience. Brands want to see your content being viewed and interacted with. Are your photos getting likes and comments? Are your videos being watched? Aim to create engaging content that your audience will pay attention to. See what type of content gets the most reaction and keep experimenting to get maximum engagement. This will help when brands ask you about how to align with your most popular content.

3. Target a niche. Keep your content focused around a particular theme or niche. Maybe you post about cycling, or graphic design, or raw foods. Whatever it is you choose, stay committed to the broader topic so your community consists of like-minded individuals. This can easily help brands determine if your audience is right for their product. On the flip side, having a mixed audience can be a turn-off as the response to a particular product is hard to predict.

4. Own your influence. Identify as a social influencer in your branding of yourself. Make it known to followers that you are open for business and available for sponsorships. You might display this on your Instagram bio, your Youtube channel art, or your Facebook cover banner so it becomes a focal point of your profile.

5. Reach out to brands. Contact brands whose products align with your content. Be sure to include important details like how big your following is, where your niche is, and why it will benefit them to work with you. Oftentimes taking the first step is the only thing standing between you and your dream sponsorship. You’ve got to let sponsors know you exist — what better way than to tell them?

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March 1, 2018
Crush It With Crowdfunding: 7 Steps To Get Your Startup Fully Funded

If you’ve heard of crowdfunding, you’ve no doubt seen the heroic campaigns that manage to raise millions in just 30 days, exceed their goal by five thousand percent, and ascend to celebrity stardom on social media.

If you ask me, saying “yes” to humble, transparent companies with homestyle videos has some serious appeal. No doubt that’s why over $16.2 billion was raised through crowdfunding in 2014.

Despite all the bells and whistles, what’s not as well-known is the fact that 6 out of 10 crowdfunding campaigns fail to reach their funding goals. On all-or-nothing platforms like Kickstarter, this means companies lose all of the funds they raised.

But don’t be discouraged, aspiring startups. This is actually a great opportunity to shine bright among a sea of dull contenders — with the right tools, of course.

Meet Connor Young, a crowdfunding ninja who’s currently reached 391% of his campaign goal, a whopping $195k after being fully funded in the first 30 hours. I caught up with Young about his impressive feat on this week’s episode of Unconventional Life, “Hacking The Crowdfunding Algorithm: Get Fully Funded In 3 Days.”

Young beat the crowdfunding odds with his product Ample, a complete meal-in-a-bottle made from superior, real-food ingredients. The formula sprung from years of research Young did himself, equipped with a biology degree and the rare kind of patience required to read through 800+ clinical nutrition journals.

Young created Ample out of a desire to bring health to the “hacker house” he occupied in San Francisco, along with 50 other tech-type roommates.

As a former CrossFit trainer, Young was surprised to encounter so many people who simply didn’t have time to prioritize nutrition. His housemates were working busy schedules and filling up on unhealthy convenience snacks.

Troubled, Young sought to design a product that would both fulfill their nutrition needs and flow with their schedule. Over the course of the next year, he experimented with different combinations of real-food powders, amending the recipes daily.

“The absolutely critical part was the fact I was in this huge house where constant iteration was required,” Young says. “There would be 20 people, everyday, who were like, ‘what’s the newest version of Ample? What’s going on?’ Because there were so many iterations of this and because people really did want it, it took off almost immediately.”

In May 2016, Young launched Ample online via Indiegogo crowdfunding. Young now approaches the end of his campaign, with just over one week left.

Below, Young shares the magic formula behind his crowdfunding success, so you too can crush your campaign in just 7 steps.

1. Start 2-3 months in advance. Give yourself plenty of time to plan the campaign, create top-notch content, and coordinate the launch date. The growth leading up to the campaign is just as important as the growth during the campaign.

2. Understand your customer. Narrow your market down to as small as you possibly can — build your campaign for a single “avatar” customer. Young defined his avatar’s idols and sent them them samples of Ample to get testimonials from people his avatar trusted and admired.

3. Focus on the content. Write the entire campaign page before you begin anything else. Make sure it is organized and includes all of the relevant information. Then use the campaign page as a blueprint for your video, in which you’ll really bring your product to life.

4. Decide on a price that makes sense. Ideally, you’ll want your price point to allow you to reach your goal with just a few hundred backers or less. Keep in mind the average contribution tends to be about $75, so you won’t actually need to aim for as many backers as you think.

5. Create a “lifetime” perk. Give your backers the option to enjoy your product for life. Young priced a lifetime supply of Ample at $5,000, which enabled him to reach his goal quickly — viewers saw plenty of money funneling in early, which increased Ample’s credibility and perceived value.

6. Invest money into your campaign. It’s worth it to invest some money into your campaign upfront so that it appears professional, polished, and valuable. Consider hiring a film crew, a graphic designer, and an editor. The better your campaign looks, the more backers you’ll attract, so consider it an investment that will pay for itself.

7. Ride the wave of momentum. “People want to bet on a winner,” Young says. “If you really want to make this thing successful, you actually need to hit your campaign goal not within 30 days but within 3 days.” Capitalize on the excitement at the beginning of your campaign to maximize backers early on, get on your platform’s featured page, and appear on podcasts to spread the word.

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March 1, 2018