The OpenWorld Podcast: Live Without Limits

In this episode we talk with Evelyn Badia, an online solopreneur who quit her job in advertising and created a new lifestyle by leveraging the sharing economy!

An Airbnb superhost in New York City, Evelyn began hosting in the early days of 2010.

Airbnb has allowed Evelyn to generate a full-time source of income that covers all of her living expenses also create a wonderful lifestyle for herself.

During her former life as a television producer, Evelyn sometimes worked 35 hour straight without any break! Now, she works less than 10 hours a week and has free time to pursue passions and meet interesting people around the world.

She's working on writing a book, and even though she's nearing 50, she completed TWO triathlons (to all the millennials in the audience, time to step your game up!).

She's also become something of a spokesperson for Airbnb in NYC, perhaps the frontlines of the debate for and against peer to peer home sharing. In her words:

"Since the recession began, people like me from all walks of life have been renting out space in their homes using online services like Airbnb.

Airbnb saved me, and continues to do so. In 2011 I was only able to put together 20 days of full-time work. This past July, I worked for a company that declared bankruptcy before paying me. But I knew I’d be safe financially because I had guests arriving. I’m grateful every single day because of Airbnb."

In this interview, this expert Airbnb superhosts shares the "keys" (no pun intended) to becoming a successful host on Airbnb, so that you too can enjoy a lifestyle of freedom and pursuing your passions.

Resources mentioned during the interview:

Unanchor.com - create travel guides for your city and earn extra passive income

Guesty.com - automated messaging service for Airbnb hosts to respond to new inquiries.

Everbooked.com

Evelynbadia.com - Evelyn's Airbnb consulting website where she offers one-on-one coaching for Airbnb hosts hoping to increase their profits, as well as free guides and a helpful "check list" for preparing your home for Airbnb.

In this interview, we invite Nathan Chan, the entrepreneur and publisher behind Foundr Magazine, on to the show.

Nathan launched his digital magazine (www.foundrmag.com) from his bedroom and two years ago foundrmag.com and crushing it. It has since become a profitable 6-figure business with 25,000 monthly readers, and 150,000 downloads.

He's interviewed Richard Branson, Tim Ferriss, Arianna Huffington, Seth Godin, and many others, and he is on track to reaching over one million people the end of the year with his magazine, podcast, and social channels.

Nathan was an IT employee who was bored and reading a bunch of books. He wanted to be a create a successful online business - but kept putting it off, in true “wantrepreneur” style.

Nathan's story is a classic example that anyone can start from zero - with no entrepreneurial knowledge, background, or connections, and work hard to make a success and find freedom.

Things I discuss with Nathan during this excellent interview:

The journey from "wantrepreneur" to entrepreneur

The "Crossing the Rubicon" moment when he doubled down and took his entrepreneurial pursuits seriously

The moment he realized that his business model could work

On staying hungry, getting your first customer, and scaling up from $5 a day to $1,000 a day

How to optimize your channels so gain the most leverage for your time and dollar (Foundr is currently getting 1,000 - 1,500 new subscribers per week)

How to provide the most value to clientele - so that you can write your own paycheck

Nathan's business model for recurring income, and how to convert prospects to customers and keep customers around

A three step process for breaking down and pushing past the fears that hold us back

Lessons learned from interviewing the most successful people in the world

How to push your content out in front of the most people online

How to "de-risk" an online business and ensure survival as an entrepreneur

Plus a whole lot more! Enjoy this interview with a knowledgeable and successful digital entrepreneur, and please consider writing us a review on iTunes if you like the podcast!

In this inspiring interview we talk with the indefatigable Irishman ultramarathon runner Tony Mangan, who recently completed his "world run" around the entire planet!

At the age of 52, Tony left his home in Dublin in October 2010 and then ran around the entire world. He went from the top of North America down through Central America and to the very tip of South America, then on through Australia, Asia, and Europe. The incredible 50,000km+ journey lasted four years and two days. During that time, he ran the equivalent of one marathon a day(1,200 marathons total) - longer than any human has ever run.

So, of course I had to invite him on to this show to learn how he did it and what we can learn from this incredible adventure.

“People sometimes thought I was a hobo or a tramp, 
but I’ve been living my dream,” he explains during the interview.

During our discussion, I ask Tony what his "Why" was that motivated - and kept him going - through this incredible adventure. Tony breaks down the entire process, what it was like to prepare for this journey and how he kept going. Tony opens up about the sacrifices and challenges he faced, and gives tips for would-be adventurers.

Other topics we discuss:

Why he became motivated to start - and complete - this epic journey, the thing he calls "The Monster."

Highlights and stories from the road

How to find or invent unconventional solutions for something you want badly enough

The "magic letter" he carried which literally opened doors for him

The fears he faced during his adventure - and the fears we all struggle with

How his journey has changed who he is as a person

Plus - what Tony has planned next!

This is one of the most inspiring interviews we've published on OpenWorld, listen in and be motivated to begin your own epic adventure!

For more on Tony's adventure, visit his blog here.

PS please help support our show by leaving us a review on iTunes!

In this episode we welcome John Lee Dumas, host of the Entrepreneur on Fire podcast on to the show.

John's exploits in the podcasting world are the stuff of legend. He rose quickly to the top of the podcasting business; in March 2015 alone EoF pulled in $232,761 in revenue.

What is less well-known to most are John's travels around the world and how his personal experiences in new and foreign environments shaped and molded who he is a person as well as the path he is on today:

Active duty in Iraq, Kuwait, and Saudi Arabia

Lived with a local family in Guatemala for four months

Dropped out of law school and left to travel India and Nepal for four months to “find himself”

He credits travel with helping discover the type of life he “wanted to lead.” After all of these amazing experiences, he simply couldn’t return to a life that held little or no meaning to him.

In this episode we discuss the lessons John has learned in his life and business journey, and discuss his "Whys" which motivate and keep him "fired up" to take on new challenges and continue to give more.

We also discuss John's former life trying out multiple forms of employment, failing at those, before arriving at his true purpose and calling.

Listen to this wonderful interview with John Lee Dumas and prepare to ignite your life!

Free gift to OpenWorld planet from John

To get your free copy of John’s bestselling book “Podcast Launch” – the top ranked podcasting book on Amazon, with over 300 five star reviews – visit EOFire.com/gift

In this interview I talked with Alex Darroch, expat and co-founder of the Mad Monkey, Cambodia's largest hostel chain.

He has quite the story.

Alex is creating a new chapter in his life and together with his partners, helping to re-write a new story in a developing country that has reeled from decades of hell and hardship brought on by bloodshed, poverty and political instability.

In all began in the rural, rustic “Bamboo island” off the coast of Cambodia.

Far removed from the trappings of modern culture, and living a simple life amongst the locals, the existential questions in his mind became louder... and louder.

“I could go to Australia and continue to work as a plumber...”

“But why should I live half a life?” he thought.

He realized then that what he really wanted to do was work that mattered. He wanted to wake up every morning, fully engaged in the day’s work, and enjoying every minute of it.

He had fallen in love with the local Cambodian people - some of the friendliest on the planet - and witnessed firsthand Cambodia's legacy of hardship. Chronic problems such as lack of education, clean water, and fair wages made life difficult for the locals.

He felt the urge to do something.

It didn't take long - on his last day in Koh Russei, he met his future partner Steve who also shared this vision, and within 48 hours the two were signing a contract.

That was the start of his new life.

Now, together with his partners, they have created the most successful hostel chain in Cambodia, and are opening their fourth location in four years.

The Mad Monkey Hostel is a company and a vision built around a strong set of core values: a business concerned with doing good business and doing good for humanity.

Mad Monkey employs over 150 local Cambodians, who receive a variety of benefits: free English education, healthcare, interest-free loans, and good wages. The hostel has funded over 100 clean water wells in rural provinces, and provides a number of benefits to the community.

Cambodia has been to hell and back, but thanks to the efforts of Alex and others, they are reversing the damage and creating a new future for Cambodia.

Since settling in Phnom Penh, Alex has gotten married, and his daughter recently turned one years old. In this interview, Alex shares what the journey was like - from his old life as a plumber in the UK to his new one. We talk about how the company grew from point zero to the success it is today, building a company culture, and giving back.

Alex has also generously extended a special offer for a twelve-night free stay for listeners to the podcast. Click here for more details.

Introducing Rob Cubbon!

Rob is an Amazon best-selling author, online teacher, graphic designer, digital nomad, and all-round good guy from London, currently in Saigon, who blogs at RobCubbon.com.

Rob had a normal life in the UK as a graphic and web designer, but he was bored. He sought more excitement in life, and wanted to travel. So he started to focus on creating information products to break the chain of trading time for money.

In his latest passive income report he writes: "Just two or three years ago I was predominantly chasing active income, in other words, working for clients and swapping hours for dollars. In two short years my passive income has surpassed my active income."

In the first quarter of 2015, Rob has earned $26,093.12 in passive income. So I invited Rob on to the show to learn what's contributed to his success.

This interview just flew by and every minute was packed with valuable content:

A breakdown of the product creation process: how to tap your audience to discover great ideas, and turn them into income

The publishing platform that's delivering Rob's highest margins, by a long mile.

Doubling profits with the "Would you like fries with that?" approach - and how to follow up a successful product launch to build on your success

The Expert Paradox - why the smartest people fail

Blogging tips that Rob has learned from 10+ years of blogging

The types of blog posts that attract clients

The anatomy of great headlines that draw people in

How Rob built a mailing list of over 9,000 subscribers in just a couple of short years

The most successful email subject line Rob has used - and why it worked so well

And a whole lot more!

This was an in-depth and wonderful back-and-forth conversation between a seasoned marketer and myself (lol)... enjoy!

Introducing Josh Denning!

Josh is known as the “Tropical Entrepreneur” and he has a podcast of the same name that he’s been able to set up while living a Tropical Lifestyle from his base in Thailand. He regularly interviews some of the most successful location-independent entrepreneurs and digital nomads.

Josh calls himself the "inquiries super charger," because he has more than a decade of digital marketing experience and teaches how to leverage podcasts, blogging, digital advertising book publishing and messaging maximum traffic, leads, and high-transaction sales.

Josh is also the founder of Authority Factory - an digital marketing agency, and the author of the soon to be released book "Authority Marketing."

During the interview we discuss sales, lead generation, digital marketing, and scaling up an online business.

Josh shared a ton of great strategic and tactical insights, such as:

Why offering product to high-value, premium clients too early backfires - and the exact steps to take instead to qualify leads and close big transactions.

How Josh collects several new leads per day through simple cold e-mail outreach - his most powerful marketing weapon.

Common mistakes that online businesses make that reduce their number of leads

Josh's best strategies for creating massive growth for businesses through digital mediums

How a business can go from six figures yearly revenue to $15 million with the right digital marketing strategy

Why the top online businesses earning the most revenue create their own private blog networks (PBN) - or link networks - and how you can start your own

What Josh learned as a student under John Lee Dumas'

How to conquer the entrepreneurial internal resistance - the "impostor"

And a lot more...

Enjoy! And if you have a moment, please leave us a comment or help the show by leaving a review.

Welcome to another episode of the OpenWorld podcast.

This one was exciting, and after you listen, I'm sure you'll agree. I took a TON of notes.

But first...

Not sure if you've noticed, but lately around here we've been running a bunch of promotions. I've been trying to see what works and what doesn't when it comes to selling products online.

Most attempts to sell fail flat. Based on several recent tests, here are a few lessons:

Trying to sell directly to random web visitors on your blog fails. You can put all the ads on your blog that you want, but random visitors won't convert well enough to support your basic needs (selling the right product to your list is better. What's the "right product?" Listen to this podcast to find out).

Offering consulting to brand new prospects fails (offering them a low-end introductory product you've created instead works much better)

An offer that's so unique or compelling can motivate people to buy in and of itself - and the actual product is secondary.

One of my favorite podcasts that I've been listening to A LOT lately is "The Three Month Vacation" by Sean D'Souza.

Introducing Sean D'Souza

For the last 11 years, Sean has taken three months off every year ten different times. What makes it possible? An expert level proficiency in the psychology of sales and marketing.

A former cartoonist, Sean decided he wanted more freedom in his lifestyle. He had to learn marketing. So he went to the library, picked up thirty books on the subject, and studied everything he could.

Fast forward to today, and Sean regularly sells online courses for $3,000, even $5,000... and sells them out.

What's unique about Sean is that he doesn't rely on a lot of sales tactics or gimmicks to convince customers to buy.

Instead - he's an expert at engineering a unique and special experience for customers so that they remain customers for life. The real money is made in long-term, loyal clientele - and Sean has been able to keep the same clients coming back and buying from for 13 years (His secret surprised even me - listen to find out).

Freedom fighters, this is what creating lifestyle freedom for yourself is all about.

Even better: the subtle psychological tactics that Sean teaches trigger a prospect's motivation to buy - eliminating or reducing the need to sell.

As always, during our podcast, Sean over-delivers. He shares a ton of insights during this discussion, such as:

A powerful paradigm shift: think of your customers as children. Sean teaches us how to care for clients as you would your own children - under your "protection, care, and guidance"

How to engineer a customer experience so unique that clients become raving fans you purchase everything that you offer.

A metaphor to creating additional back-end products for existing customers

How to convince people to buy at the same time you pull away (demonstrating higher value)

The secret formula to designing a life of freedom in two words - "creating magic" - and what that really means.

The concept of "dartboard pricing," and how to price your products and services for maximum profit.

"The Bikini Principle" - how to offer just a tease of your product... and stimulate a buying frenzy.

And a whole lot more...

If you want to learn how to create products that will sell, sell premium products at high prices, or retain highly-profitable customers for life, then listen to this podcast.

And most important, go out and implement once you're finished. Sean generously shares a wealth of valuable tactics that any entrepreneur can apply to their own business and create a life of greater freedom.

Please feel free to leave a comment with your thoughts or any questions.

He’s known as the “Fearbuster.”

He’s one of the people I feature in the introduction to my book.

His mission is to inspire the world to become more fearless.

In his words:

“I just want to see what people can do, if we can all be less afraid. How many ideas we can realize together, how many dreams can be fulfilled, how many new products can be made, how many dream jobs can be had, and love stories can be told. I want to see that. I want to help make that world happen. That’s my goal.”

His name is Jia Jiang.

A few years ago Jia pursued his dream of being an entrepreneur. He felt the thrilling high of being his own boss, setting his own hours, and working on a project he loved.

Then... it came crashing down.

He sought investment for his dream and it was unceremoniously rejected.

The experience was debilitating for him, and he sunk into a dark hole mentally and emotionally. But from that place, he discovered something incredible.

He realized that the real problem that held him back was the possibility of rejection. It was so fearsome that it blocked him from making any progress as an entrepreneur.

So he took action - and initiated a large-scale social experiment called “100 Days of Rejection Therapy.”

The first time he asked a stranger if he could borrow $100 was terrifying, and he quickly ran away. But as each day went on...

Jia calls his 100 days of rejection therapy his “personal MBA” - and from the experience he’s been able to build a successful career as a “rejection therapist.” He's just completed his first book for Crown Publishing called “Rejection Proof,” now available on Amazon, which documents everything he's learned. 

He's spoken at Google, TEDx, the World Domination Summit, and at an event hosted by Tony Hsieh.

This was an awesome interview - one of the best we’ve had on our podcast so far - with a ton of paradigm-changing takeaways and soundbites.

A few of the things we discuss...

Jia’s upbringing in Beijing, where he was molded from an early age to be “a building block in the country”

How taking action - by asking for things - changes your reality to become more empowering

How to make your requests more compelling and engaging

If you ask enough, you can turn “no” into a “yes”

An incident where Jia told someone “no” 41 different times - then changed his mind later - and why he did it

How a compelling “why” - that people can easily relate to - multiplies the likelihood of a request being accepted

Why I rejected someone - and what that person should have done differently

A simple way to start a conversation that increases your credibility, neutralizes someone’s “BS meter,” and lowers their defenses

The importance of recording your progress - especially the feelings you had in a particular moment

The “silent thief” that prevents us from getting the result we want (Hint: it starts with an “E”) - 32:25

The key differences between the “new Jia” and the “old Jia” predating the “100 days of rejection therapy” experiment - and how the new Jia responds to setbacks

The “rejection toolbox” - a set of techniques to pull out and try after rejection

What it means to “lean just beyond your edge” - and how it’s the key to getting everything you really want in life but are afraid to go after.

How you can start taking action today.

Other takeaways:

Three ways to improve your requests:

Demonstrate empathy for the other person’s thoughts and feelings

Reveal a chink in the armor - demonstrate vulnerability

Create “future projections” - where you zoom to the end of your life - to motivate yourself to take action in spite of fear

If you are rejected by someone, ask why they rejected you.

“What I’ve found is - if you don’t run away, if you’re not afraid of rejection - just by asking the question “Why?” sometimes after you’ve been rejected, you can learn so much.”

Jia continues:

“I’ll give you an example - I knocked on a stranger’s door and said, ‘Can I plant this flower in your backyard?’ This old man said no. Before he turned away, I asked him, ‘Why?’ He said: ‘It’s not that I don’t like flowers, but I have a dog that will dig up everything that I plant in the backyard. My neighbor actually loves flowers - if you ask her, she’ll probably say yes.’”

Other memorable quotes from the interview:

(30:10)“When we are not going out there getting rejected, we are just rejecting ourselves more comfortably, and being ignored by the world.”

(43:57)“The comfort zone is almost like a death zone. Because nothing amazing happens. There’s so many amazing things you can, so many amazing things you can discover, and secrets that you can unveil if you get out of that comfort zone.”

(46:38) “Your courage is like a muscle. It’s not like your height - which is pre-determined. With a muscle, you can change it, you can strengthen it. You can improve it dramatically if you try - if you put in the effort. So, exercise. Go out and start small. And then build on top of that. Build out your confidence gradually. Rome wasn’t built overnight. It wasn’t. Don’t think your courage can be built overnight either.”

References mentioned:

Brian Tracy: "The Art of Closing the Sale"

Leil Lowndes: "How to Connect with Anyone"

Brene Brown: "The Power of Vulnerability"

David Dieda: "The Way of the Superior Man"

Hope you enjoyed this awesome episode! You can connect with Jia here: [email protected]. Also be sure to check out his new book “Rejection Proof” and be inspired to take your fears head on!

Please leave us your comments with any feedback.

He’s known as the “Fearbuster.” He’s one of the people I feature in the introduction to my book. His mission is to inspire the world to become more fearless. In his words: “I just want to see what people can do, if we can all be less afraid. How many ideas we can realize together, […]