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Mikael Heroux November 22, 2011, 5:00 am

Sometimes, it’s okay to stand up and yell: I WANT TO BE A RAT!

by: The Financial Blogger    Category: Alternative Income,Business,Career,Rat Race

Rat RaceIf you read this today, I hope that you have been reading this blog for some time. And if that’s the case, you’ll know that I am fairly controversial in my opinions.

 

Today, I’ll reach the summit of controversy.

 

I’m going to climb to the top of the highest mountain and yell to the world:

 

I’M STAYING IN THE RAT RACE!!!”

 

Oh boy. By writing this line I almost feel ashamed. It’s like saying: “I’m stupid, I’m well aware of it and even darn proud to be a rat!”. That’s it! After so much effort to tell you that it sucks to be stuck in the Rat Race, I’m taking a big jump into the race…dumb!

 

Did I change my mind? Not really.

 

Did I lose my mind? Don’t think so.

 

I still want to quit my job eventually and become a dot com mogul. However, this won’t happen next year… as my previous plan was designed for… Let me tell you a story:

Back in April of this year, I saw an opening at work to get one of the highest jobs for a financial planner: working in wealth management. This department is like playing for the NHL: you only deal with multimillionaire clients. I got the interview and everything went pretty well. In fact, I know I’m made for this job and it looks that the guy interviewing me was thinking the same… until he asked me the fatal question: What would you do if a similar position opens up in a year closer to home? Mind you, I live 85km (that’s 52.8 miles) from work. That causes some serious lack of sleep.

 

I thought I was able to deal with it but it’s all BS… it’s been almost 2 years and I’m dead tired now (and maybe that’s because I’m running my online company at the same time ;-) ). I was able to do it for a while but waking up at 4:30 every morning has become too much for my brain to support. So this is why I had answered that I would jump on the job and quit this one. Ugh… yeah I knew that I had just shot myself in the foot but I believe in honesty (so naïve! But that’s me!).

 

So instead of getting the job, the guy arranged for a meeting with the manager in my area. It looked like they were planning on opening a similar position… 5 minutes away from where I live. Can this be? Really? It was like a dream coming true. But the budget hasn’t been approved yet. In fact, the business case was supposed to be presented back in August.

 

So a few weeks passed and fast forward to October. I just got back from the FINCON11 and I’m more motivated than ever to crush it and make a killing with my online company. At the same time, I speak with the guy who tells me that he didn’t get the okay yet to add the position.

 

I’m not the kind of dude who waits in line.

 

I don’t wait until someone calls my ticket number.

 

I just go directly to the counter and ask to be served.

 

This is exactly what I did: I told everybody that if nothing happens before my wife is due (we are expecting our 3rd child in February 2012), I would take a 7 month paternity leave (I told you that sometimes paying taxes is a good thing). I will work on my online business during that time. It wasn’t a threat by all means. It was just the blunt truth. I decided to create 2 “A” plans instead of having a plan B!

 

Plan A: I score a dream job 5 minutes away from where I live while I continue to grow my company on the side.

 

Plan A (2nd version): I get paid 75% of my base income for 7 months while I work my ass off on my blog to make a killing.

 

After a few weeks, I was starting to make some serious plans about my decision. I started to think about some projects I would start if I could work full time for my online company. I was tired of waiting and was looking at a golden opportunity to jump out of the rat race while being paid to do it. A risk free ticket to financial freedom. How cool is that???

 

And then, last week, I got a call from “the guy”. He now has his budget to make my 1st plan A happen. I’ll be meeting with him in a few days for my official interview. I don’t know if I’ll get the job but I know one thing: if I get an offer, I’ll jump on it. I’ll be jumping in with both feet.  Directly into the rat race hole as if I didn’t know that there was a trap beside the piece of cheese!

 

So did I change my mind? Wasn’t the rat race the worst thing anyone could get stuck in? I still believe it. But let’s face it; I’m a small, little coward and I can’t live with the idea that I am putting my family on the line with my online business.

 

I would rather make more sacrifices and stay on the path inside the rat race for a few more years… so my kids can go to private school, so my wife can continue to stay at home and take care of them, so I can pay off my debts… so I can live my cowardly life quietly…

 

The real problem is that I currently make too much to stop (see all the details about my income here). Another problem is that I’m used to this lifestyle inflation. I just can’t quit in a heartbeat. I need to devise a more evil plan to make it happen. At least, I have a plan. But I won’t tell you yet… I’ll wait until I know that I have the job or not ;-) .

 

It hurts, but this sounds like the right choice at the moment. I don’t have blind faith in everything (far from it!) but I believe in destiny. I actually believe that you are the sole designer of your life and the only person responsible for what is happening to you (death is just an overrated myth in my opinion). However, I also believe that we are all given choices or opportunities at different points in time. And sometimes you can push on Destiny’s back to make some opportunities happen. And this is what I did by making up 2 A plans. If you push in all directions, set the rules and then you just have to wait for Destiny’s sign to make your final move. I believe you better listen to it when it happens! So this is why I’m taking a shot at this golden job. My resume has been sent, I’m just waiting…

 

What do you think? I’m just a coward or am I taking the right path?

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Mikael Heroux November 16, 2011, 5:00 am

Increase Your Income By 30% Without Working More

by: The Financial Blogger    Category: Alternative Income

 

When I wrote this post, I was sitting quietly at the municipal pool while my daughter was playing Ratatouille on her Leapster and my son was swimming back and forth in the pool. I was taking notes to eventually write how much I will make in 2011. Now that our financial year is over, I know approximately how much I’ll be making in bonus. So, I thought of calculating the magic number for 2011. I wanted to know if I was going to hit my financial goal.

 

I’ve taken the habit of being wide open about my personal finances on this blog. I sometimes tell you how I suck at not paying my debts but most of the time, I’m pretty proud of what I do. But this time is different… I’m kind of shy.

 

I somewhat feel bad about how much I made.

 

I don’t know why.

 

I guess it’s my judeo-christian roots…

 

Oh well… here we go….

 

I’ll make slightly over $176,400 in 2011.

 

I can’t believe it myself! And this is not counting my online income. Only the part that is being redistributed to me. Whatever is made in the company is not counted in this income.

 

Here’s my income distribution for this year :

 income distribution

 

As you can see, I’ll be getting a fat bonus this year. The bonus will be paid in January 2012… so technically, I’m just shy of roughly 60K right now ;-) . This is why my income is not reflected in my net worth. But It will have a nice jump early in 2012 as I will pay off my debts!

 

This bonus is the result of 4 years of hard labor. I’ve built my portfolio of clients one by one (I started with a shitty book, took off most of the existing clients and prospects for 4 years). I guess that doing your job right and treating clients for what they really are (human beings!) pays off in the end!

 

The other important thing to consider is my online company benefits. My company pays for a few things that I use such as my laptop, desktop, Blackberry and internet connection. In addition to that, I’m getting paid for the day I spend working on the company. So while I don’t derive a direct salary from my online company, it is still providing me with financial support.

 

I’ve increased my income by 30% and I didn’t work a single hour more

 

The thing I’m most proud about my income is not the income itself, but the number of hours required to achieve it. I’m currently working 30 hours a week at my day job and 10 hours a week on my online company. Therefore, I never worked more than 40 hours a week. Add 5 weeks of vacation and leaving at 3pm on Fridays to that and you have an awesome lifestyle. I can share a lot of quality time with my friends and family. Most importantly, I have all the time in the world to watch my kids grow and share the little joys of the moment with them.

 

What’s my secret?

 

A regional director once asked me how I was bringing in so much money in so little time. I replied that I work hard. He smiled back and told me that everybody says that they are working hard. So what was I doing differently? What is my secret?

 

« 80-20 rule ».

 

That’s it.

 

It’s not more complicated than that. That’s my secret : focus on the 20% generating 80% of your results and you will achieve awesome things in minimal time.

 

So today, take a moment and write down everything you do that takes more than 5 minutes in your day. You’ll notice plenty of « holes » that don’t generate anything. They are either a pure waste of time or repetitive routine that doesn’t lead anywhere.

 

The first thing to do is to cut the crap. Once that’s done, you must replace it by activities that create value. Being efficient is not as much being fast than it is creating value when you work.

 

So stop being your own « cost center » and transform yourself into a « value creation center ». Life is much easier when you can afford it ;-) .

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 November 10, 2011, 6:00 am

Do You Want to Blog Full-Time? Reality Check Part 2

by: MD    Category: Alternative Income

I’m back.

Last week I shared the disastrous results from my eBook launch and I gave you guys a reality check on full-time blogging. I ended off the post by talking about how much I love to help people. The post then went on to receive an insane amount of helpful comments. I even found out how to get my eBook published on Amazon for Kindle. I’m excited about that.

On to part two the reality check for those that want to be full-time bloggers…

I love to help people.

Why can’t I just help people? I want to give real advice. I have a real education. I don’t want to write about blindly following your passions.

It kind of frustrates me that these same people that I respond to all of their emails and help them for free couldn’t fork over a few dollars. I’m not trying to get rich off my premium guide. I just wanted to see if my readers understood the idea of paying for value. I guess not.

[Here's a tip cheapass, if you want to save money and are to cheap to pay $17 for it: stop buying girls drinks at bars. It's not going to help you get laid. She's going to use you for your free drinks and go home with someone that has more game.]

A few more lessons learned through blogging…

I learned so much from this experience and from blogging. I feel that it’s my obligation to share it with you.

I love blogging and helping others.

I guess I already mentioned it above. For any of you that have ever emailed me you know that I will respond within minutes. If you ever asked me a question you know that I did my best to answer it. If not I helped you get the answer. Why isn’t there any compensation model on the internet that pays you for all the people that you help make real progress instead of promoted credit cards to?

Success in the blogging world should NOT be a slow process.

I officially started blogging about 3 years ago. The exact date is November 7th, 2008.

To put things into perspective. Pat Flynn was just getting started. Adam Baker still didn’t have a blog. Crystal of BITFS was over a year away from starting a blog. That’s when I started. Now Pat earns more in a month than I do in a year from blogging.

Where am I going with this? If you’re going to fail, you better fail fast. Don’t wait around thinking that success is a slow progress. It’s not.

Did I mention that I hate to lose?

Are these people smarter than me? Possibly. Do they work harder than me? I’m not sure. Pat once mentioned in a podcast that he works four hours a day. I work four hours everyday before lunch. If I counted how much time I work online vs income generated I would have J. Money and the Love Drop team showing up at my door steps.

I hate bothering people.

I don’t like to ask people for links or for help constantly. I don’t like to bother people at all. I feel bad for bothering my affiliates. They signed up and they get their payout of ZERO from me.

I’m sorry to Frugal Dad, Bible Money Matters, Daily Money Shot, PT Money, Good Financial Cents, Lazy Man and Money, Budgeting In The Fun Stuff for wasting your time.

I do my best to help others. I just hate to ask for help. Do you know what I mean?

I spend all of my time online.

I seriously love this work. I spent all of my available time online. I’m glued to my Blackberry/MacBook. My friends usually figure I’m texting girls to come by to the party so they don’t mind. Others know that I’m responding to reader emails or chatting on Twitter.

What can You take away from this?

At the end of the day you can follow your passions to the unemployment line or you can get a life. There are many more ways to make money and help people. Stop signing up for programs.

What can you as a reader of this article take away from my experience?

You readers don’t care about you.

This is really tough to accept. Personal finance blog readers will come by, check out your free content, and move on.

You can’t always write epic content.

Uh-oh I’m going against blogging gospel now. Writing epic content is cool, but you need to throw in some SEO-heavy posts and promote some credit cards if you want to make real money. I’ve spent over 10 hours and went to bed at 7am many times while writing “epic content.” What will getting epic content get you? How do these articles make any money?

You can start a consulting business. The best way to make money online is to tell other people how to do it.

I’ll help you out by giving you the framework for your new consulting business.

1. Tell them to be more epic.

2. Tell them to follow their passions.

3. When they fail tell them that they weren’t epic or passionate enough.

4. Promote your eBook on the topic.

There you have it. The winning formula. I might have missed a step, but you get the point.

You need to get a life and do something real.

I just want you to open your eyes. Close this window and go do something real.

What are some examples of bloggers doing something real and making real money?

Crystal of BITFS makes a killing from her advertising business.

Mike of this site works a full-time job where he makes amazing money, outsources his online work, and collects money.

Pete of Bible Money Matters creates amazing logos.

Khaleef of KNS Financial helps others figure out their finances and he does taxes.

What if you want to make a difference?

If you want to make a difference you need to do something real. Get a full-time job that helps people.

If you hate your job then you have nobody to blame but yourself. Nobody told you to drop out of college to “find yourself” or to get a History degree.

If you want to do good in this world, why not volunteer your time? Go volunteer at a soup kitchen or become a Big Brother. Don’t start a blog. You won’t make a difference. People will come to your blog, consume your free content, send you emails, and then get offended when you want to make a dollar.

What’s next for me?

I hope you don’t think I’m going anywhere. I’m in too deep. I’m addicted to all of this. I love my art. I just wish it loved me back.

I really do need to get a life. It’s impossible to justify spending every single moment thinking about my blog. I probably need to polish up my resume. I’m pretty sure I have a resume somewhere on my blog.

The good news is that when I finished college in December 0f 2010 I gave myself a year to work on my own projects. I still have about two months left to make shit happen.

I need to thank Mike for letting me be on his team. M-35 has done amazing things and the company is only going to expand further. I do my best to provide quality work on a constant basis.

Blogging is a good part-time income. It allows you to travel while not going broke. I love to travel. I have many more trips lined up. Through blogging, I’m able to party all night and write all day while I travel (sight seeing is for old people).

Don’t expect to be “making money while you sleep.” Get a job and blog in your spare time. Stop being delusional.

That’s it for today. Bookmark this article. Read it over a few times. Stop lying to yourself. Don’t attack me. I’m just telling you what nobody else wants to tell you.

Good luck!

P.S I plan on joining in on the action. I now offer coaching and plan on releasing an eBook that touches on following your passions. Hey, I might as well.

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 November 3, 2011, 6:00 am

Do You Want to Blog Full-Time? Here’s a Reality Check That Nobody Else Will Give You

by: MD    Category: Alternative Income

“IF YOU’RE PUTTING IN 200% EFFORT AND SEEING A 10% RETURN, IT ISN’T A BUSINESS YOU’RE RUNNING. YOU’RE RUNNING THE TITANIC.” - Everett Bogue

Mike (TFB) Editorial not on this post:

“Before Martin wrote this 2 part articles, we had a great discussion. I didn’t change anything from his 2 articles but I don’t necessarily agree with him on everything he wrote. This is why I have decided to publish his 2 articles and reply later on this month with my own perception of the perspective of making money online. I’m looking forward to read your thoughts!”

 

Do you want to become a full-time Blogger? If you do then you NEED to read this article from top to bottom. It’s time to give everyone a reality check.I’ve never written a post upset before because I’m always in a good mood. I love to blog and to help others. Today I’m in an unusual mood. Let’s see how this goes.

Alright so if you’re a blogger you likely want to blog full-time. I know how it works. Pro Bloggers sell the dream. You can work from home and do whatever you want. You can work any hours that you want. [Correction: Working from home means you can work any 18 hours of the day that you choose.]

Did you go to FINCON11 this year? If you did, how motivated were you? How excited were you to be more EPIC? How much more PASSIONATE did you feel? Likely very. What have you done since then? It has been a month. You probably did a roundup of the event and bragged about how many people you met. Good for you. Do you think your readers care? Nope. Are you any closer to becoming a full-time blogger? I can tell you what you want to hear or I can be honest with you. The answer is NO.

Let’s get started with my story…

“I hate losing even more than I like winning.” – Moneyball, a great movie.

My first hardcore product launch.

I finally launched my first premium product over at Studenomics. I had a soft launch over at Passive Income Now with my real estate guide in the summer. I sold a few copies and it was a cool learning experience. From there I decided to consume every piece of literature on the internet on how to launch an eBook. I paid $97 for the, “How to Launch The **** Out of Your eBook” guide.

I worked on this product all summer. I spent all of my free time on research (because real guides need real research), and learning to improve my writing style.

How much did I invest in creating my own product? Let’s look at the costs.

  • $97 in eBook.
  • $400 in the design.
  • Time to write the book (many months).
  • Time to write the sales page (3,000 words took many hours).
  • Time to write 8 guest posts.
  • Ridiculous amount of time to promote the eBook via email, forums, and Twitter.

What did I earn? How much money did I generate from this super helpful guide?

I was conservative with my estimates. I couldn’t sleep the week before the launch. The night before I went to bed an hour before the launch. As I was settling in for the night I wrote on my planner a conservative figure of 20 book sales. I figured that between 8 guest posts on popular blogs, Twitter followers, and my 1,400 RSS subscribers, I would EASILY sell 20. I woke up and realized that I had like 15 emails in my inbox. I was excited because I thought this was e-junkie notifying me of all of my sales. Whooooo! Nope just the usual crap from guest posters offering me a 300 word post. Get a life!

How many sales did I get? ZERO. Well to be specific it’s in the negatives as you can tell from my start up costs.

You see the problem is that bloggers love to write a transparency report when they succeed at something. When we were in grade two this was known as BRAGGING. Nobody ever sees the other side. I’m here to give it to you.

My friend I do NOT like to lose. Nor do I like to fail. Do you know what I hate the most? I hate to let my supporters down. This project was the first time that I got my girlfriend, friends, and family involved. I had friends proof read the guide. I had my girlfriend read it over, help me out with the sales page, and give me support. To be more specific, I don’t know how she put up with me all month. I spent every single moment jotting down notes or busting out my laptop to get some work done. Let’s just say that sometimes great ideas hit me at the WORST time.

All week after the launch my friends have been excited calling me to ask me how many copies I sold. They wanted to know if it was 20 or 30? It was ZERO. Do you know how embarrassing that is? One friend asked if I was a millionaire yet because he knows how hard I worked on this project. I’m sort of avoiding him because I don’t like the disappointed look that’s followed by a “better luck next time” bullshit line. Don’t feel sorry for me. I’m 23 and on top of the world.

Before you give me your expert advice…

I bough the $97 eBook on “How to Launch The **** Out of Your eBook” and I downloaded like 20 workshops that the author made available. I went over everything with such great detail.

I consumed every piece of information on the topic from CopyBlogger, I went through all of Ramit Sethi’s psychology links he has bookmarked, and my girlfriend gave me her psychology tips from years of studies.

My product was based on extensive research. I went through every reader email and comment to see what common questions were. I didn’t just launch some random project that I thought was cool.

Long story short, I did my research.

A little about myself…

I don’t play for second place. I don’t feel sorry for myself.

I’m not some person that got in debt $30,000 because I couldn’t resist buying stupid shit on my credit card. I finished college. I got my degree. I didn’t drop out to “follow my passions” or to “channel my creative energy.” I hustled. Worked full-time hours, blogged all of the time, and studied my ass off to get strong grades. I didn’t get poor grades and then turn around to blame the system.

I bought a condo when I was in college when it was still in pre-construction. It was in an up and coming area. I saw potential and more importantly, I saw dollar signs.

Well it has gone up over $100,000! Now I bought a second condo. I rent out my first unit for $1,400 a month. I get to travel and do cool shit.

I also worked full-time hours every year of college. I was able to earn over $40,000 while I studied and went down south a few times a year to party hard while other people complained about the economy and sat around on Facebook stalking girls that they had no chance with.

I don’t like to lose and I don’t want to be apart of something that sucks.

I consumed everything..

I swear to you I have consumed every piece of material on working for yourself and following your passions.

What books did I read on the topic of entrepreneurship?

  • Never Eat Alone.
  • Art of Non-Conformity.
  • 4-Hour Workweek.
  • I Will Teach You To Be Rich.
  • Career Renegade.
  • Escape From Cubicle Nation.
  • Crush it!

I didn’t stop with books. I took all of these online courses. I paid for:

  1. Earn1k with Ramit Sethi
  2. The Hustle Project with Adam Baker and Corbett Barr.

I’ve read everything out there on working for yourself because I’m very excited with the idea of working on my own projects and helping people. I now realize that it’s more realistic to get a real fucking job.

Selling the dream..

Everybody wants to follow their passions and read the next guide on how you can follow your passions. We all want to be “our own boss” and work on our own terms.

There’s a reason that Pat Flynn makes more in one month than most of us will make in a year from blogging. He sells the dream. We sign up for his affiliate links and he continues to live the dream while we work full-time jobs and walk around like zombies because we were up all night blogging.

Why won’t anyone else give you this reality check? Because then they wouldn’t be able to sell their consulting services to you or to push affiliates on you.

Pat Flynn made $12,600 from Bluehost on readers in September. The dream is being sold and we are all buying it.

[FYI, this is not an attack. I love Smart Passive Income and continue to read it on a daily basis. Actually it's my favorite blog. Whenever Pat releases a premium product I will be the FIRST person to buy it. It can be ANYTHING. I would purchase sand on the beach from Pat because he deserves every penny. I'm just saying that we need to take action instead of chasing dreams that are unrealistic.]

 Making money online.

I tried every strategy for making money with blogging. In three years you can really test everything out. Three years is a lot of time to see what works and what doesn’t work.

Google Adsense.

It’s sort of tough to rank high for any decent keywords. Plus I want to help my real readers instead of worrying on some random keywords. I usually make the monthly payout for Adsense. My record month was close to $400, nothing compared to others.

Affiliates.

How many credit cards or bank accounts can you promote? I’ve had good results with affiliates and plan on pushing more credit card offers because it seems that my readers would rather sign up for credit cards than learn how to conquer their credit. More credit card offers it is!

Creating products.

Well you know how that went…

Funny story, one day a reader emailed me to tell me that he loves my blog. Then he asked me why I even bothered with it. We got on the phone and he told me how he makes thousands per month from promoting credit cards and creating niche sites. He said he loves the idea of writing for readers but doesn’t get it. I didn’t want to get blinded by the dollars since you know, “follow your passions and the money will follow.”

I told him that I love to help people. I guess people don’t love my help.

Stay tuned…

Thanks for reading this far. Please do NOT leave any motivational quotes or anything like that. I don’t want anyone to feel sorry for me.

I’m nowhere close be to being done my friends. I got a lot left to say. I hope you join me next week. What can you expect next week?

  • Tips on what you can do to make money online.
  • Lessons learned.
  • A few more lethal doses of reality.
  • Another 2,000 words or so that you need to read.

In the mean time you can BUY A COPY of my premium guide on how you can Completely Conquer Credit. It doesn’t show you how to follow your passions or how to set epic goals. It WILL save you thousands of dollars in your 20s. This is money that you can spend on following your passions eCourses.

If you liked this articles, you might want to sign for my FULL RSS FEEDS. Then, you will get my daily post to your email and can read it at any time. To subscribe CLICK HERE

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 October 27, 2011, 6:00 am

Do The Best Discussions Happen in Public?

by: MD    Category: Alternative Income

Do the best discussions really happen in public? Are you missing out on anything by not going on Twitter or joining forums? Lately I’ve been thinking about the idea of where you can find the best chats taking place and the best opportunities for shooting the breeze with remarkable people.

Are the best discussions really on Twitter?

I don’t think so.

The best discussions happen in private when you ask highly tactical questions. The most valuable discussions go on when you get answers to your specific problems. The most valuable conversations occur when that light bulb goes off in your head and you think of some remarkable new idea. This doesn’t happen when you’re killing time on Twitter and you need to filter out all of the noise.

Now don’t get me wrong because I’m not saying not to read blog posts or to stay off Twitter. There’s lots of free information out there all around you. I just want you to think outside of the box and to get in on the private discussions.

How can you get in on this enlightening discussions? How can you be apart of unique discussions?

Attend conferences.

You can guess where I got this idea from. At FINCON11 in Chicago I engaged in some of the best discussions ever. Some of them were over dinner. Others were over drinks. Some happened just by hanging out in the lobby all day. Attending relevant conferences is the best way to help others and to learn the cool people that you’re bound to meet.

If you’re not attending conferences in your field, what’s your excuse? None. There’s absolutely no excuse for not attending conferences. You need to get your name out there, meet others, and keep your ears open. There’s only so much information you can pick up by sitting in your living room all of the time.

Go out for drinks.

Why’s there such a negative stigma surrounding going out to bars and getting wasted? I’ve had some amazing chats with successful entrepreneurs and business people over rounds of pitchers and plenty of laughs. We are all different people after a few drinks. We loosen up and drop our guards a bit. This is usually the best time to see how someone REALLY feels about something. I’ve had some amazing conversations with successful people that I look up to over drinks. This also gives you a chance to improve on your social skills.

Take successful people out for lunch.

Every single human being goes for lunch. If you don’t eat lunch then how do you have energy? Who doesn’t enjoy a free lunch?

The best couple of dollars that you could ever spend is on taking someone successful to lunch. Shoot over an email or get in touch through a mutual friend with someone that you want to meet. Offer them lunch and make it easy for them to show up (work around their schedule). Get out there and enjoy the lunch time chat. What’s holding you back?

Offer your help through email.

Everyone has an email address. Why not reach out to someone that you find interesting through email?

Due to the likelihood that most of us are totally busy these days I recommend that you take the time to leave comments on that person’s blog first. Then once you get a few conversations going you should try to offer your help in some way. This is likely the best way to get a response from a busy person… or you can spam their inbox with lame messages asking for links (am I the only one that gets so many of those?).

Get someone you respect on the phone.

This has surprisingly worked well for me. For some reason some of the top bloggers in the personal finance field were willing to get on the phone with me and actually share some amazing insights. I’m so grateful for this and I learned so much more from these private discussions than I ever could from reading blog posts. This might not always work for you but it doesn’t hurt to ask.

What are you waiting for? Are getting in on the best discussions going on around you?

Do you think that the best discussions happen in public? Where do you find the best engagement with others?

 

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