Where great ideas are born

Orange Donkey administrative staff held its
first meeting to discu
ss important issues of today at Madras Masala, the finest Indian cuisine of Ann Arbor.

If you are interested in traveling and exposing yourself to various cultures and foods, Indian restaurant is a great place to get started on that. The moment you walk into Madras you get swept away by the aroma of curry, paprika, turmeric and a multitude of other strong spices. If you do not chicken out and leave to settle for plain ol' hamburger, but dare to pursue the unknown you will be

pleasurably surprised. Madras's buffet has a wide selection of lamb, chicken and vegetarian dishes

with radiant smells and colors. Bethany, Ben and I tried many of them without inquiring about the exact content or origin of dishes and gave thumbs up to most. Lemon curd soupy/saucy

dish was the only one Bethany and I turned down. Its odd flavor and texture did not seem to faze Ben so he helped us finish it up. (Sometimes I wonder if there's anything out there that Ben would not feel comfortable eating? Hmmm...)

Throughout the meal I kept taking bites of delicious naan (leaven, oven-baked bread) and Bethany helped herself to at least 2 full glasses of water (as they

did not have milk that she enjoys greatly with her meals) to dilute strong spices of the foods we ate. Mango lassi, which is a blend of yogurt, water and mango pulp, was the culmination of our dinner, its sweet taste and smooth texture calmed our taste buds down after being attacked by all the hotness of the entrees. When paying on our bill at the counter Bethany got intrigued by the bowl of mixed plain and candy coated anise seeds available for the customers to eat. After doing a bit of research on the topic I learned

that it serves to aid digestion and freshen breath.

In conclusion, Indian food is good for you, due to the medicinal spices (ginger, garlic, green chillies, turmeric) and fresh veggies used in preparation but what's most important delicious!

Salut!

Today is the day I make my first appearance here, on Orange Donkey! It is my first blogging experience of any sort thus I am excited and a bit nervous about the venture. Nevertheless I'm looking forward to sharing my thoughts and ideas with such great friends as Ben, Bethany and whoever else finds reading this page worth their time. It's almost midnight, so I am not planning on flipping your world upside down with my profound revelations... at least not just yet. More substantive posts that trigger your imagination, question the "truths" you never doubted, and raise controversies are soon to follow. In the meantime lets take our time and enjoy this holiday season and appreciate friends and family that we are so fortunate to have.

Playtime is Over!

Sorry for the lack of updates but since the end of finals I have allowed myself a bit of a breather. Now that I feel revitalized I will commence with goals for each of my days. This way I hope to be productive over break instead of wasting my time. With no school there will be fewer distractions as long as I plan my days they shouldn't be a waste.

So my goals for tomorrow are as follows:
Laundry
tuning up the resume
emailing possible internships
reading

My reward if this is all accomplished is to watch Love Actually with my roommate! I am hoping with a set of specific goals and a reward if I meet them I will be more productive.

another thing I'm hoping to do this break is find out how to best organize my time and motivate myself. I plan to do this by experimenting with a couple of different approaches, tomorrow's being a reward system.

well that's all for tonight

-Bethany

Here's to "do or die"!

I was going to write a post on Orange Donkey, but realized it would be exactly the same as what I just posted on Simple Challenges.  See above link.

Life Lessons, and a New Leaf

So I'm not exactly where I wanted to be when writing my goals Friday, but I am close. I have studied every section of math, finished and submitted my marketing final and set up a time tomorrow to meet with my math teacher before the final.

I feel good about where I am, but wish I felt great about it. This weekend however has taught me a lot about myself, and my habits. I think I may have figured out a way to boost my productivity immensely and that makes me feel great!

The biggest thing that has helped me this weekend has been planning! I never realized how having a plan could completely change the way I think about studying. Having certain check points and goals allowed me to stay on top of things, and better judge how to manage my time.

Also going into it with a do or die attitude helped a ton! I have found that by breaking through the apathy I have towards homework/school work I am far more successful. It is easy to sit back and think "yeah homework I should do that, I'll do a bit tonight stop whenever, and say I'll do the rest tomorrow, whatever." This, I have come to realize is not an acceptable way to think about homework or work in general. I need to fight this urge, and that is just what I did this weekend! I told myself instead "Get this done tonight so tomorrow you wont be behind, the distractions can wait, if you don't do it no it wont get done." this is a simple idea that I have never really followed before, and can't for the life of me figure out why! I feel better about myself, my school work, my life and just about everything. I can't figure out why I haven't been doing this all along!

Another invaluable technique I used to get things done was small rewards. I told myself "if you finish this problem set you can watch one youtube video." this appeased my desire to watch television without derailing me for an hour our more. Youtube videos are great in that they last a few minutes then your back to work feeling refreshed and not like you're missing anything.

And lastly, I can't talk about what made this the most successful finals study weekend ever without talking about this blog. Writing my goals and outlining my plan has allowed me to feel as if I'm accountable to someone. I would hate to post on here saying I met none of my goals and watched a Survivor marathon instead. That would be unacceptable to myself and the point of this blog! so therefore I worked hard all weekend and will continue to work hard in the future, using this blog as a catalyst for success!

So to all those reading this wish me luck tomorrow! hope my hard work this weekend wasn't for nothing

-Bethany

Dear Orange Donkey

I'm not forgetting you! You are the only donkey for me, but I get so caught up in all the stuff I do that I don't make time for you. Please forgive me. You are such a good donkey, and you deserve better from me.

Love,
Ben

Home Stretch!

So today is my last day of classes then I only need to worry about finals (Yay!) but studying for finals is a daunting task, that usually does not go so well for me, but NOT this semester! I'm getting organized and setting goals, to avoid wasted time and maximize learning. here are those goals in a nut shell.

Today: finish exam review for section one of math final, Work on written final for marketing, Go over assignment for communications

Saturday: finish sections two and three of math, Finish written final for marketing, and begin work on Entrepreneurship final

Sunday: proof read marketing final and submit, go to math review and go over trouble sections, and continue work on Ent final.

Monday: study for math final/take math final, com final assignment, reward myself with televison after its all done!

Tuesday/Wednesday: work/present Ent final then celebrate my great success with friends!

those are my finals goals now that they are written down I know it will be easier to stick to them. I will give updates on my progress.

-Bethany

Stillness of the Night

After the last two days I'm so happy to relax with a cup of tea and write to you, although I apologize I'm a little mentally weary this evening.

So to get down to what I want to talk about tonight: Internships!

to graduate it is required of me to take part in an internship during the summer semester, and this is the time of year to begin looking. So my goal starting after my exams next week is to do the following:

1. Research: I need to know what is out there in order to know where I want to work and where I will receive the best education and experience for my money.

2. Emails: after narrowing down the field I will compose emails to the companies I would like to work for and hopefully go in over break for interviews, or at the least face to face meetings.

3. Resume: I will also have to revamp my resume to appeal to the specific potential employers.

I am hoping to complete each of these goals before going home for break, or by the 17th depending on work schedule.

I also wanted to take sometime today and talk about how all the stress from last night turned out. I had a very productive day with assignments going smoothly for the most part. I had a few things change unexpectedly with assignments but thankfully in my favor. All this made for a very fulfilling day. So as Ben suggested I'm going to celebrate the small victories.

So that's all for today I think

"witty sign off phrase here"

-Bethany

oh also if anyone has ideas for internships in the Mount Pleasant, Lansing, or Ann Arbor that would be awesome! I'm looking for a small business preferably a coffee shop or specialty restaurant.

okay really bye now :)

Close your eyes and hang on to your ass with both hands!

I've just made a very large and PUBLIC commitment (here).  I've got just enough time to meet the commitment, but it'll be balls-to-the-wall for the next three weeks. I've completed the outline upon which will be built the Manifesto, Toolbox, and essays that are punctuating the re-launch.  Good progress, but still... YIKES!

1. Focus
• Take on only one major challenge at a time
• Minimize to eliminate anxiety and overwhelm
• How to find what's most important to you
2. Define
• Setting your sights: A specific outcome
• Specify to eliminate ambiguity, excuses, drifting
3. Make a Plan
• Intense, time-limited research
• (like I did with Think Traffic and ViperChill)
• Use free resources to get a broad overview (blogs, Wikipedia, etc.)
• Work forward and backwards - how do you get where you want to go?
• What milestones might you expect to see?
• Make a brief, rough written guide
• Make a minimalist checklist - what's the bare minimum needed to start?
• Don't buy something to get started, unless 100% necessary (it won't be)
• Your aim is to make it to your first milestone
• What are the first two actions?
• What obstacles do you expect?  How will you handle them?
4. Taking Action
• This is where most people flounder (but... having the previous steps in place make taking action immeasurably easier)
• First Action:  Do it NOW.  Really, actually NOW.
• Next Action:  Do it NOW, too.  Then figure out what the next two actions are.
• Having trouble getting going?  Break it down, down, down
5. Be Accountable
• Most people need a check against laziness
• Methods:  journal (private, public), partner, community, advocate (spouse, friend, etc.)
• What have _I_ used for accountability?
6. Everything is an experiment: how to fail successfully
• Failure preceeds success 99 times out of 100
• Paradigm shift:  Failure and success in an experiment
• Everything is an experiment.  That is, an opportunity to learn.
7. Organize - Minimize - Optimize:  The Blueprint
• A quick summary of all of the above 

Miles to go before I sleep

So today went fairly well with meeting the goals I set yesterday. I did watch about 15 minutes of television this morning while having breakfast and getting ready but it didn't hamper my productivity so I'm not going to feel to bad about it. The rest of the day went well with not watching television. I have also been doing pretty well with my social networking sites today, for the most part sticking to my goal. In fact I used them to a productive advantage today! My friend Corey helped my find sources for my paper (he knows a lot more about that subject than I do), he posted links to my wall VERY helpful.

But today was not all sunshine and productive roses, I'm behind currently due to my lack of ability to turn down social situations. I went to the bar for about two hours that could have been spent finishing and perfecting my speech due tomorrow and other such projects for school. So I feel a little bad about this, but It was nice to get out of the house and wasn't totally unproductive as the conversation was stimulating and thought provoking, and even gave me good ideas for my speech.

As a result however I will be up late finishing this, and I could really have used the sleep tonight. Tomorrow is going to be a long one with two presentations due as well as spending a large chunk of my day outside passing out hot chocolate in the name of secularism. It will be fun but exhausting! I'm looking forward to tomorrow night and the rest it will bring....

so until then...

dftba (don't forget to be awesome)

-Bethany :)

Procrastination and Headaches!

Today should have been way more productive than it was. I'm not going to make any excuses as to why I didn't get enough done but I do want to analyze why I'm doing these things and hopefully by doing this I will be better able to prevent it. Things I do that make me way less productive.

1. Procrastination: I put this down first because in nearly every aspect of my life this is the biggest problem I have. I put almost everything off, and even when I do it I know that I shouldn't so hopefully by admitting I have a problem it will be a first step in fixing it.

2. Headaches: Today I had a pretty bad headache...these stop me in my tracks and are most definitely a huge production killer. The worst part is that they are stress related so the more stressed I get the worse they get, which of course makes me more stressed. Hopefully by trying to lower my stress level I am able to either eliminate headaches or drastically cut down on there presence. One way I can lighten my stress load is to not procrastinate so much.

3. Distractions: I have a horrible habit of using distractions as a way to procrastinate, and a lot of the time I can convince myself that this is being productive.

To try and fix these things I am going to do the following tomorrow: not watch television and only spend 10 minutes at a time on social websites at a time, with at least an hour in between sessions. I will try this for tomorrow and if it goes well I'll continue to the next day. Hopefully by taking small steps I will be able to increase productivity and decrease the negative things in my life. Also I will update again tomorrow to let you all know how it goes.

until then stay classy

-Bethany :)

Better Late than Never!

Alright so I was planning on doing this when Ben made the site...then I didn't (procrastination is one of my biggest problems). So here it goes!

1. Ben this is a great idea and potentially just the kick in the pants I need to motivate myself!
2. I want to use this blog to help keep myself more accountable. I have found making promises to myself is not very affective.
3. things I want to do to be accountable!
A. write on here once a week
B. try and keep track of my business thoughts (if its dumb I still want to write it down) then I would like to post it here to see what you all think. It might be a way to spark discussion and inspire each other!
C. More things to come. (I'm very tired right now, I definitely have more to say)

okay now that all thats out of the way here is my first post!

So I was sitting in Kaya reading and watching the lovely people do there jobs. As I read/people watched I noticed a women run up to the front grab one of those hot coffee sleeves and run back to where she was sitting. This got me to thinking why are they two separate things? wouldn't be simple to just have them joined as one thing? or make the cups thicker?

With this one thought I realized I might be onto a real idea! and began to plan how you would make and sell cups like these. I then went home after my class to do some research only to find that there are a tone of different companies that make and sell cups just like what I had thought of.

So my first big Idea was a bust....BUT it sort of changed my way of thinking about things. It made me realize that event though this particular idea had already been done it doesn't meant that all my ideas will have already be done. For the first time I saw a need and immediately thought of a way to fix it. That is why I'm here and its what all this is for so I'm happy to see myself changing the way I see the world, and who knows maybe my next idea will make millions.

well that's all for today folks thanks for reading! :)
-Bethany

Gearing up for the big launches!

I'm making preparations for re-launching Simple Challenges and launching a new site. Details to come soon!

Far behind, but still in the race

I've checked off only three of the 12 items on my to-do list for Thursday. Sigh. Did I take on too many things for one day, or do I just suck at managing my time and attention?

As Bethany would say, "only time will tell."

Big deal, though. I'm not going anywhere except back to work today. This process is all about growth and adaptation, and I'm certainly doing those things!

Still need to make my first dollar, though.

When writer's block strikes...

I was down to the wire on getting today's post out on simplechallenges.com and I could not get anything good to come out.  Everything I wrote sounded... dumb.  Non-creative.  Not helpful or useful or adding value to the world in any way.

What did I do?  I took my own advice and just wrote about just doing.

There's never enough time to get frozen in inaction.  Whatever you want to do, just do it now.

'Night.

Wooo!

Record day on Simple Challenges - two days running! Must be doing something right :-)

Nap time, then back to work.

'night

God I'm Tired.

In pushing toward my goals, I'm making an intense up-front investment time and energy.  I'm not allowing myself to slack off.

But it's not always so simple.

Sunday was fantastic.  I was wildly productive and driven.

Monday, yesterday, was brutal.  I'm not sure exactly why yet, but I was 50% brain-dead all day.  I overslept on two(!) naps and got almost nothing done.

Today is shaping up well, but I'm still tired.  Maybe I'm just hitting growing pains as I go from being a turd to being a professional writer and entrepreneur.

Here's what I'm doing to figure all of this out and remain on track:

1) I'm tracking my sleep again.

I didn't do this for quite a while, allowing little blips here and there to take their course.  I can see now that I need to get back to being more disciplined about keeping my regular nap schedule.  30 minutes every 6 hours.  I know it works, cuz I've worked it before.

2) I'm tracking my progress every day.

I made a Gantt-style Excel sheet, printed it, and hung it above my desk.  It has a timeline of when everything needs to be done, and in what order, to achieve my 3 objectives.

As a reminder, partly to myself, they are:

- Write here and on Simple Challanges every single day without fail.
- Launch advertising for Study Faster Now by, well... yesterday.  Make that today, now.
- Launch one new niche-oriented product by Nov. 19

Everything else is secondary to these goals right now.


Anyway, this is technically yesterday's "daily" update.  I missed a day by a few hours, but I can't take the pressure off - I just need to learn to work with it (for once in my life...).  No excuses.  They make poor currency.

Living the dream is hard work

No big surprise here, but to anyone who's wondering, you can't just quit your job and live like a millionaire. There are a few more steps that need to be taken before you reach the desired outcome.

I've spend the entire day, starting around 4:00 a.m., working on a landing page video for my seminar. I'll be working on just this one task until 8:00 a.m. tomorrow morning. I spent all of last Thursday writing the script and recording the voice-over. I'll probably total 20 hours of work - for one 8-minute video.

How important is this video that it's taking up so much of my time and energy?

Time for some math: I estimate, conservatively, that about a quarter of the U of M student body will see the flyers I'm going to distribute throughout campus tomorrow:

40,000 x 1/4 = 10,000

Of those 10,000, perhaps 3% will actually visit the website:

10,000 x 3% = 300

Of those 300 who visit the website, maybe 10% will register and attend the seminar:

300 x 10% = 30

The 30 students will have spent $47 each to attend:

30 x $47 =$1410

Subtracting costs of materials and venue rental, I'll net:

1410 - $200 = 1210

for 23 hours of work (20 hours prep, 3 hours for the seminar). That comes out to

$1210 ÷ 23 hours =$52.60 / hour


My highest-paying "normal" job paid about $20/hour and I was doing work that didn't remotely interest me.

"But what if it doesn't work out? Isn't this too risky?"

It's entirely possible that nobody will register and the who concept will flop. Sure it's a risk. But is it a risk worth worrying about? I don't think it is.

Why?

First, keep in mind that I'm managing three potentially income-generating projects right now, and have a dozen more on the back burner. My eggs are not all in this one basket!

Second, the only true failure is the one you don't learn from. I'm tracking web traffic. I'll be tracking the condition and presence of the ad flyers every day, replacing them as needed. I'm collecting data so the next product launch - probably NOT a seminar - will be that much better.

Third...

What is risk, exactly?

What you risk, at the extreme, is the so-called worst-case scenario. True risk is the likelihood of an irreversible negative outcome. I've already discovered that working "for The Man" is my worst-case scenario. Based on my 11+ years in the corporate workforce, I now know that it's an intolerable condition for me.

• It's creatively and emotionally draining.
• It's physically and mentally exhausting.
• It's spiritually crushing.

Nuh-uh. No can doosville, Baby Doll. If I allow circumstance to impose on me, "forcing" me into conditions that I cannot tolerate, and project that condition out 5, 10, or 15 years, I know with 100% certainty I'll be filled with nothing but disappointment and regret. With the above definition of risk - the likelihood of an irreversible negative outcome - inaction is the riskiest path of all.

It's not even a possibility for me to give up and go back to being other-employed. I've already taken a peek through the rabbit hole. There's no going back now.

Peace.

---

I'd like to thank Tim Ferriss, author of The 4-hour Work Week for first turning me on to the logic of risk I wrote about above. If you haven't read his book, make it the next book you do read.

3 goals, defined, expanded, with timelines.

It's do or die time.

I have just three goals now. Everything else is officially on hold. Nothing except eating and sleeping happen until I've done the required work for these goals each day. Here they are, with relevant sub-goals:

• Launch advertising for Study Faster Now - done by this Monday, October 31
• Finish the video for the landing page - due tomorrow
• Print the flyers - from get printer on Monday, 9:00 am
• Hang and distribute the flyers - by noon on Monday
• Follow-up on hung flyers, replacing those that are lost or damaged - everyday for one week
• Write two blog posts every single day for the next two weeks
• One post here as a progress update
• One post on SimpleChallenges.com
• Publish no later than 10:00 PM
• Posting to KungFuPlayground is allowed only as time permits
• Launch one new product (ebook, audio, or video) every two weeks for the rest of the year. The first will have a deadline of November 19, allowing one extra week for first-timer learning curve.
• For the first product, pick a niche topic from the personal growth, minimalism, or study skills genres - due today
• Spend 2 hours gathering relevant resources - due tonight
• Create a minimal outline with a focus on eliminating excess material - noon tomorrow, Sunday, Oct. 30
• Every day for 1 week, write 500-800 words for the book, starting tomorrow (totaling 3,500-5,600 words)
• Create the landing/sales page with video, audio, or written sales copy - due Tuesday, Nov.2
• Create Google AdWords campaign - due Wednesday, Nov. 3
• targeting 50-100 highly specific keywords
• 15-20 ad variants
• Nov. 6, thoroughly proofread ebook, getting at least two others to do the same
• Design ebook layout and typography (generally minimalistic, sans-serif fonts, heavy on white space) - due Monday, Nov. 7
• Implement design and create a PDF version of the book - due Wednesday, Nov. 9
• Learn how to use Google Website Optimizer and set it up with the niche site and AdWords campaign - due Thursday, Nov. 10
• Also Thursday, Nov. 10, investigate how to integrate ClickBank or other download management/content delivery system into the sales process (can MailChimp do this?)
• Setup PayPal shopping cart and MailChimp for email list building - due Friday, Nov. 11
• Saturday, Nov 12, give the book another once-over and apply any tweaks
• Also Saturday, Nov 12, write outline for follow-up email course (expanding on the topic in the ebook)
• Starting Sunday, Nov. 13, every day for one week, write one email in the follow-up series (except for the first email, these do not need to be done before the product launch)
• Sunday, Nov. 13, run a complete, end-to-end test of the customer experience:
• Seeing the ad
• Clicking through and viewing the sales page
• Purchasing product and signing up (by default) to the follow-up course
• Receiving/downloading the product
• Receiving the first follow-up email
• Responding with feedback
• Use the next six days, until Nov. 19 to fix any issues and apply any changes needed
• Saturday, Nov. 19 - determine daily ad budget and activate Google AdWords campaign

What I do every day

Shooting video today for the sales page on studyfasternow.com.  Video is a long and slow process...

For the record, doing Study Faster Now seminars is not my dream job.  It's not how I want to spend the next 20 years, or even 2 years.  But, if I can teach a few college kids to stress less and get better grades, and make a few bucks while I do it, that's a fine objective.

I think that, far too often, we entrepreneurial types keep looking and looking and looking for the BIG THING that will make us millions.  STOP.

I'll make my millions, but I'm going to start now, today, and try to make just $10.  Then $100.  Then $1000.  Soon I'll be free from any real financial worries and be able to play with the big kids.

If I wait for the big idea to hit me - and I mean just sit and wait - I won't have the know-how to capitalize on it when it arrives.

How do you get where you want to go?  You work at it.

Every.

Single.

Day.

I understand this, but the execution is never perfect. I miss days. More than I should.  But I'm getting better.  Every time I fart around with my email or RSS reader or fire up the Nintendo Wii instead of doing the work, I become more aware of how pointless it is.  Get the work done first and play around later.

Some people have the right mindset instilled in them from a very young age, but others, like me, were not so fortunate.  It's an uphill battle, fighting against decade-old habits.  Fortunately, I have a clear vision, a keen intellect, and highly supportive allies.

Thanks to you all. I won't let you down.

Marketing using a video sales page

I'm about to re-launch marketing for a study skills seminar that I'm running here in Ann Arbor. My original strategy was too "spammy" for my tastes. I found that I just felt a bit too sleazy - check the screenshot below. (The site will be up in its current form for a day or two while I finish work on the transition.)

I'm changing the page to incorporate a new style of sales copy - video. I can talk directly to the visitors, give specific examples of topics and techniques covered at the seminar, and ask for the sale without resorting to cheap tricks like highlighted red text and clever layout.

Lots of people have had success with video sales pages and I'm confident that, especially for a seminar type of product, I'll see similar results.

I'll post again when the new page is up.