46 Ways to Live and Work Like a RockStar and Carpe the Crap Out of That Diem.

Written by Nicholas McGill

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Self-Advice

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Do more meaningful stuff. Step 1- Have an legen(wait for it)dary life by leading it. Lead your market with an edgy/ but affordable/reversible risk.
For regular inspiration, make lists of things to do while bored/ without electricity/ in jail/ in a thunderstorm etc. Put these in a labelled folder. Visit them when you find yourself doing nothing but watching the news or daytime TV. Do those things.
Have a real website on your own domain, with a real framework like WordPress. Hint: Wix and Weebly are the Vista Print of web platforms. Be a pro and graduate to adulthood. It’s like having your own private island. You get to make the rules; ride giraffes, and train the local chimp population serve you mojitos from 5 gallon buckets with crazy straws. Bluehost+WordPress 1year under $100.
Get a real email address @ your domain. If you can’t afford one, use your first and last name @ gmail.com. Gmail arose after other web mail brands and positions itself neutrally for business and personal use. Thus, it looks more professional than powpowkitty34@aol.com. Do not use an email address tied to your Internet Service Provider. Not only does this look unprofessional, it creates problems when it’s time to switch providers. This is why they offer it. They know how much of a hassle it is to tell everyone you know that you have a new address.
Use a real email signature: blog/website, facebook, twitter, google+ (use gplus.to to shorten URL)
Take AWESOME photos of you doing cool stuff- at work at home and on adventure. People buy from other people. Our brains get off on visual eye candy and a good story. We love seeing people doing things in real life and live vicariously through them. Most people rarely leave their desk or couch save to visit the bathroom/kitchen/meeting. Photos are shared,liked, plus’d, retweeted more than videos and pithy phrases. Photos of awesome living and doing are shared and appreciated more than even the cutest of kitten photos.
For the love of cookies! Get a t-shirt with your biz and brand on it. Then do awesome things while wearing that shirt. Take pictures and spread them on the web as part of your ad campaign. Selling lifestyle is part of business. Ask Red Bull, Monster, and Rock Star how much they pay others to enjoy life and capture it in media.You too can produce ads and write off costs while enjoying life.
If you’re pictures aren’t awesome enough use an app like Instagram or snapseed, to make them epic. Photoshop is for pros and takes hours. For a few bucks and with a few apps, you can have 80% of the desired result for 1/1200 of the price.
Write your own opinions and share them on your domain/blog. Even if it’s only a few sentences. People will pay more for the Clif Notes. Seth Godin is pretty good at this.
Bring your pictures, ideas and angles together in a presentation. Want to say something significant, create and save something significant. Stop leaking out small clever thoughts on nickel and dime social posts. Stand for something. Make a scrapbook. Establish a theme. Tell me an interesting story that says something about you.
Put some text on the images. Use the Over App.
Add 2 more slides to market yourself– 1 at the beginning and 1 at the end with a picture of you, your business and contact information. Bam! Instant marketing.
Iterate. Load the presentation on slideshare. Send it to people as a PDF. Make the presentation into a video and upload it on Youtube.
Add good music that inspires and uplifts. Find some really cool new/classic/rare/indy music so that no matter what the audience got to hear a cool new track. I’ve watched the dumbest videos because they feature some of my favorite songs.
Draw even if it’s stick figures on a Napkin. You don’t have to be an artist to be an artist.
SWIPE from others and be a good curator. Steal With Integrity and Pride Everyday. Use Google Reader. Load it up with your favorite stuff sites. Star the things you like. Review the things you star. Create your own spin on things and present them from the angle/association that you see them. Don’t just pass it on. Make it yours and steal credit.
If you’re a Pinterest Crack Addict- take a look at your boards and ask yourself “why do I have this collection?” “What is the theme that’s specific to me?” Write about it. Publish it. Post all of the photos on your blog and edit all of the Pinterest links to point to your blog post. Now you’re beginning to own your curating brand and recognizing your filter power. Rinse and repeat.
Read/Watch less real time “news”. The cost of following news stories “as details become available” is astronomical, considering the time and attention that could be spent doing other things. Unless it actually affects your present life/work in a significant way -98% doesn’t save for meteors crashing to the earth. Wait for the summary. Let the news people worry about filling the airtime and focus on filling your lifetime with experiences that really matter to you.
Write on paper. Get a moleskine notebook and a cross 3 tech pen that works as a pen/red pen/pencil and a stylus. Now you can also draw on your tablet/touch device.
Go Paper Light not paperless. Paperless is a productivity myth. I feel sorry for the people who attempt to abandon pen/pencil and paper. It’s like never walking in grass barefoot. You’re missing out on a life/business altering experience. Years from now they’ll do a study (or I’ll find it) revealing the areas of the brain that light up during the process of writing. The tactile feedback from pencil/pen and the feel of paper do something for our conscious, subconscious, and unconscious brains. It is the spiritual/psychological exchange where thoughts manifest into reality. PaperLight involves keeping a note system, printed interactive activities to track your progress, modify your work, make notes, connect seemingly abstract things, and of course scribble. All of these are important.
Use Dropbox with a clear organization system. Create an organized system for your own files throughout your digital space first before sharing with others. Share copies of files and folders not the originals. Trust me, learning that the hard way sucks. Share files via the web and avoid email attachment migraines.
Take a hybrid approach to computing. Have multiple means of remote access, synchronizing files on the go, and backing them up. Backup locally to an external drive, backup remotely using crashplan/dropbox. Mozy and Carbonite suck. Use logmein for remote access, and get their ignition app for mobile access. Remote access from a kayak in Lake Tahoe = Priceless.
Track your leads for the various stages, and levels of contact. Stages should include: lead, qualified, quote, negotiate, and close. This will help you cultivate a good mix and pipeline of clients and projects at various stages. Think of it like farming. Some things you want to be ripe soon with more on the way. The levels of contact should track the last time you emailed, called, met, and discussed things with your clients.
Start using Google Apps for your domain. Outlook is dead. Use boomerang to hit you back with emails that receive no reply. Use rapportive with gmail/google apps to have a sidebar to connect with, learn about and have context for discussion right there in email. It brings in Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter. So you can have a warm conversation with a cold lead easily.
Have more face time and less Facebook. Radical idea. Make time to meet people in real life. Manscape your social network and weed out the people you’ve never met, only met once and never think about during major storms/holidays. Don’t collect “friends” of pictures of pretty faces. Get them out of your feed. Also exclude gurus/Internet Celebrities and the rest of the hydrogenated oils of the Internet. Use Facebook for friends and Google+ for all the other things. Switching from circle to circle is like channel surfing from signal to noise. Great life changing feature.
Use noise cancelling networks and headphones. Noise cancelling networks- like Path and Google+ use different means to deliver quality content you care about. You should be able to hit the mute button on the marketing noise and focus on connection, context and community. Headphones – I recommend/use affordable but quality Klipsch earbuds $75. To get into the flow of work I use sites like calm.com and Pandora (“Tibetan Monks of Gaden Shaste & Corciolli” channel mainly). Use music that enhances your focus but doesn’t distract you with disruptive/destructive emotions. Hint: Most pop music is riddled with codependent garbage that gets you to spin your wheels about what/who you lack. Pay attention to the quality of your work while you listen and make corrections as needed.
Read more significant things. I think they’re called books. Many books are garbage these days with more filler than ever before. Don’t be afraid to speed read, use summaries, or audiobook versions. Use the Kindle app- because it’s on every platform (desktop/android/ios/etc.). Highlight the important stuff. Uber tip: There is a special page where you can view/copy/print all your highlights from the books you’ve read. I use this to quickly revisit books I love. Saves me so much time and I remember more of what I read.
Get an accountant and a financial planner. Listen to them. Dig yourself out of debt with discipline, oatmeal and protein powder if need be. If you don’t have debt, help someone who is. You’ll make a friend for life.
Get a virtual assistant. Work in trade in real time.. On an ongoing basis; refer to them as part of your team, play reluctant to recommend them out of fear of them getting stolen away, help them with their profiles and updates so when you do refer them, they have their best foot forward.
Be an outstanding referral partner. Take the time to write referral letters and testimonials for others. This tends to have the same effect in your favor.
Do more favors. Don’t deliver too much up front. Break up big favors into smaller steps and trade tit for tat in real time. Ever try to cash in a favor 3 months- 2 years later? It doesn’t tend to work well unless you have leverage. So instead create reciprocal relationships where you get something now and at various milestones along the way, aim for leverage and adjust based on the integrity of relationship. “I give no charity. When I give, I give myself.” -Walt Whitman
Cultivate that which serves you. Eject that which does not. victimization, codependent music, toxic people and high fructose corn syrup are easy targets for the eject button. Personal development, Kale chips and regular visits to the gym, while at first as intimidating as summiting Mount Everest, are far far easier and actually bring you more of the good things you want.
Have a contingency plan. Plan 1 move past possible failure on a regular basis. Try this one time. Have a post-failure plan. Ask yourself, what is my next move if they say no. The result- if and when you hear no’s, they won’t feel like failures, just part of the plan.The shift in perception will in turn boost your overall performance.
Balance the time spent whining about circumstances with more time trying new things/doing something about it. Ease into it. Measure it. try and get your ratio even for two weeks. Record the change.
Host events. Use meetup and eventbrite. Make them free or cheap. Take Pictures and brag about them. Here are some of my favorite events: Wine night, game night, camping trips, discussions/round tables, book clubs, bowling night, laser tag night. Since you’re the host, pitch 1 thing that you’re working on or would like to sell, and ask around the room for what other people need.
Arab Proverb (that I will now butcher)- It’s better to have friendships based in mutual generosity than on strict accounting. Be the guy who helps others, builds bridges and makes connections. Stop trying to “look” like that guy. Just be the guy.
There is no “no”. There is the cost of “yes”. Sometimes the cost of yes is beyond what people are willing to give/spend. Assess what you’re worth- add margin for doubt/insecurity and hold your ground. Learn how to get others to say “no” first, so that it’s their idea to course correct in another direction. Offer alternatives. This is politics. Study it well.
Rock stars don’t have time for the crap that most people wallow in. Be a rock star. Don’t waste time. Time is precious. There is no guarantee on the amount we get. If you must spend time, be more of a snob. Save more time for the good and cut off the bad. Fast forward through commercials. Walk-out on bad movies, bad dates, boring conversations (especially any that involve a pause longer than 15 seconds waiting for someone to text/update their status). Tune out- ignore the things that don’t serve you. Be sure to assess them accurately. Stop watching the news. The important stuff will persist on tomorrow’s headlines.
Spend your time with people you care about as if you had an infinite supply. Slow down for these people and pay attention. You are one of those people. Slow down for yourself. Spend idle time in a hot tub, getting a massage, star-gazing, napping in a hammock, writing your twitter bio, or otherwise tending to your inner child and stroking your own ego. Spend time holding hands, losing your place in the space/time continuum looking into the eyes of your spouse. They and you will notice the extra time spent in a look, a grasp, a hug, a laugh. Spend extra/attentive time with the clients/partners/people you enjoy working with.
If you must sell your time, make it uncomfortably expensive to ensure it’s not wasted by others. If you had 6 months to live and still had to pay your bills, what would your hourly rate be? This is your price of “yes” to hourly rates. Build yourself around the answer and offer alternatives. Play smart. Find ways to deliver results/value that’s not based on your time. Adjust for relationships of integrity and trust, but avoid indentured servitude.
Some wasted time is necessary. Video games, cartoons, laser-tag, paintball, crafts and whatever tickles you should fit in your budget. Just be sure you’re not wasting time doing something simply because the rest of society does it (news, whining, marketing the way everyone does it, suffering, etc.).
After 2 months of using/starring things in Google Reader, review the things you’ve starred. Look at trends and ratios. If you spend more time scanning headlines than reading/starring interesting articles, remove that source from your reading list. If you’ve starred several things by a particular author, see if you can follow the author’s work instead of the entire publication. Trim the fat.
Use the starred items in Google Reader as guidelines for headlines and subject lines for your own work.
Ask more questions, pause and listen for a response. Get people to tell you more. They’ll buy more into you if you get them talking about them/their needs. Tell me all about it/you. This works on women and men personally and professionally. Let them talk; not because it’s interesting per se but because they’re investing in you and will therefore be interested in their investment. Allow them to invest in you, and you’ll be more likely to have an enriching relationship. I’m still learning this. I’m a verbose, crazy, mad scientist, idea executor and refiner. And, I’m often less patient than the conversation merits.
Be authentic-happy to be who you are, where you are, with what you’ve got. As kids, we found ways to have fun with cardboard boxes, rocks and dirt. As adults we should be able to thrive with what we have available (scissors, post-it’s and a highlighter). This will help you operate with integrity- consistency in word and deed- which people respect and admire. I prefer to do business with those who are genuine. This saves me the effort of filtering my gaze and sifting through excess amounts of bullshit.
Lead.Build.Learn.Grow. Don’t wait for leads to call you. Give them something to talk about. Show them something. Mock it up. Make a little bet. Take a small risk and present it. This outperforms staring at the phone and whining about why it’s not ringing 10/10 times. This works for life and work. You want something or to be with someone? Show the world you’re willing to risk something pursuing it.