Jason SurfrApp's Blog, page 27

An unexpected lesson about business and life from LeBron James

This article will have nothing to do with how LeBron James plays basketball and I hope you can suspend your like or dislike of him and/or the sport of basketball for a few minutes. 

For those of you who aren’t familiar with the story of LeBron James, let me very quickly catch you up to speed:

LeBron was a dominate high school basketball player in Akron, Ohio. LeBron got drafted directly out of high school in 2003 by the Cleveland Cavaliers with the first overall pick in the NBA Draft. LeBron played for the Cavaliers for seven seasons, never having any other superstar players on his team. LeBron, somehow, took his team to the NBA Finals in 2007, but lost. LeBron left the Cavaliers, after his contract expired, and signed with the Miami Heat in 2010. LeBron, with the help of his teammates, took his team to four straight NBA Finals, winning two NBA Championships. LeBron’s contract expired in Miami in 2014 and LeBron is now back playing for the Cleveland Cavaliers. 

Alright, I hope I haven’t lost those of you who don’t like basketball or LeBron James. Because I want to take you on a side journey.

When LeBron James left the Cavaliers in 2010 and signed with the Miami Heat it was incredibly controversial. Not only because of how he handled the situation, making it a spectacle of sorts*, but that he left his hometown state where he’d said he wanted to play forever. 

*The Decision, as it was called, garnered incredible attention and notoriety. Most people saw it as a pompous move, and it might have been, but what they failed to see was that the sponsors who were a part of it contributed millions of dollars to the Boys & Girls Club of America. But I digress… 

When LeBron announced he was leaving Cleveland, it was as if he’d assassinated the president. People setup hate groups on social media. Ex-fans burned his jersey outside the stadium. His likeness was used in many unflattering ways on the Internet. The owner of the Cavaliers wrote a [childish] scathing letter to LeBron. Pretty much, everyone in Ohio despised LeBron James and said “good riddance.”

LeBron went about his time in Miami like a professional. With every game the Miami Heat played against the Cleveland Cavaliers he was booed beyond belief. And I don’t mean he was booed just when they announced his name; I mean every time he touched the ball on the court during a game in Cleveland there was a roar of disapproval for LeBron.

As I mentioned in my quick career recap above, LeBron James has since returned to the Cleveland Cavaliers. I won’t bore you with all the contract details, but LeBron could have played for a handful of teams and actively chose to return to his roots (knowing, how much people had hated him and loathed his decision to leave). 

But a funny thing happened… LeBron became a hero again.

All the analysts, newscasters, reporters, bloggers, fans, citizens of the state of Ohio rejoiced in his triumphant return to Cleveland. It’s said that LeBron will have a $500M impact on the city of Cleveland by returning to the Cavaliers. Oh, and if you didn’t see it (or purposely ignored it), I’d highly recommend reading how LeBron handled his second decision.

Alright, so what the heck does LeBron have to do with you, your business (or life) and the idea of taking action? 

The main point I want to make is this: 

No matter what mistake or decision you’ve made in your past, it’s what you do in the future that defines who you are and what people remember you for. 

To me, it doesn’t matter what you think of LeBron or professional basketball, I just want to share the fact that we all make decisions in our lives. Some of those decisions can create turmoil and even tarnish our names. But almost no decision can define you for the rest of your life, even on the biggest of stages like LeBron has. And there’s almost always an opportunity to earn people’s trust and respect back.

Most people know me from starting IWearYourShirt and being “The T-Shirt Guy.” But for me, that’s only one step in my journey as an entrepreneur. IWearYourShirt won’t define me forever and I know I’ll come up with many more ideas and start many more businesses in the years to come. Luckily, I don’t think I’ve offended any entire cities by wearing sponsored t-shirts.

We all make our own decisions and have to live with the consequences of them. What we don’t have to do is sit by, idly, and be trampled by negativity and criticism of our decisions.

Truthfully, I searched for some eloquent quote to end this article with. Something that better summed up all my thoughts above and about LeBron James. But you know what? Life and business doesn’t always get wrapped up perfectly. I know some people won’t enjoy this article and I’m okay with that. We’re all entitled to our opinions. I just hope you’ll take a moment to see the bigger picture I’m trying to paint here and not focus on your feelings about one professional athlete or the sport he plays. 

[Photo credit: Associated Press]

The post An unexpected lesson about business and life from LeBron James appeared first on Jason Does Stuff.

You don’t get what you don’t ask for

90% of people are afraid to ask for things. Is that a real statistic? Nope. But I believe it to be a true statistic, if not higher than that.

We, as humans, are afraid to ask for things. We’re afraid to ask people to buy our products. We’re afraid to ask someone out on a date. We’re afraid to ask for more money at our jobs. We’re afraid to ask the tough questions in our relationships.

We’re afraid to ask because we fear rejection.

Rejection is this unbelievably strong thing that keeps us from getting so much in life. If you experience rejection one time, it is likely to derail you from ever asking for that thing again. Most of us have had the unpleasant experience of asking someone on a date and getting rejected. Unfortunately, that horrible empty feeling sticks with us for years to come (and for some people, the rest of their lives).

But why is rejection so strong? Why is it so hard to overcome the feeling that the tiny two-letter word “no” gives us?

Much like rejection, negativity is incredibly powerful. 100 people could tell you how freaking amazing you look today, but if one person says you look like crap, those 100 positive messages won’t matter.

See, on some level, we all just want to fit in. The reason we fixate on things like rejection and negativity is because they make us feel alienated from the rest of the world. Experiencing those things on any scale cuts us to our most basic human core.

Think about the last time you asked for something out of your comfort zone? Or even something in your comfort zone. You probably felt hesitation. You probably had 20 scenes play out in your mind, all disasters and worst-case scenarios. You might have even delayed your ask until you finally built up enough courage.

Over the years, I’ve had success in business for two reasons:

I wasn’t afraid to ask for things most people wouldn’t dare ask for.
I was willing to work my ass off to get the thing I wanted, because it was something I was really passionate about.

When people hear that I’ve made over $1,000,000 and worked with over 2,000 companies since 2009, I’m sure it comes off like a nice shiny success story. But what they don’t hear is that I sent more than 15,000 emails to make those deals happen (75% of those emails were most likely follow ups).

Writing that many emails wasn’t easy and on many occasions I was afraid to make “the ask.” One thing that always helped me overcome my own fear of asking was that I believed in myself and the thing I was asking for. If you don’t believe in what you’re asking for, you’re never going to overcome your initial fear.

Everyone wants to make good money, but most people are afraid to put in the hard work to make it happen. There were many times when I got discouraged when people said “no” to me. There were many times when I wanted to give up and thought my ideas weren’t good when I got negative criticism. But I believed in what I was selling and wanted it more than the feeling of rejection could dissuade me.

The simple magic to getting anything you want in life is just to ask.

The only caveat to simply asking for what you want is this: make sure you do it with creativity, confidence and effort.

When it comes to selling something online, your product or service most likely has competition. Someone else is already asking people to buy, so that alone should give you the validation and confidence to ask. But, you should also think about a unique or creative way you can package your ask so it stands out from the crowd.

When it comes to relationships, confidence is key. No one wants to talk to, let alone go on a date with, someone who has zero confidence. But just like asking for things, the more you work to build your confidence and the more practice you put in, the more results you’ll see. No one becomes confident overnight or by reading a few self-help books. You have to put in the work and not give up at the first sign of rejection.

The four-time Olympic gold medalist Jesse Owens put it perfectly: 

“We all have dreams. But in order to make dreams come into reality, it takes an awful lot of determination, dedication, self-discipline, and effort.”

Effort is truly a secret to success. No one has ever put in an insane amount of effort for something and not gotten some value out of it. The more you ask for things, in the right ways, the better you’ll get at it. And the better you get at asking, the amount of times you hear “yes” will increase.

You’re going to hear “no.” You’re going to feel rejected. You’re going to encounter negativity. But if you truly want whatever you’re asking for, you won’t and shouldn’t give up at the first sign or thought of adversity.

Start repeating these words to yourself every time you’re feeling hesitation: You don’t get what you don’t ask for.

The post You don’t get what you don’t ask for appeared first on Jason Does Stuff.

Social media detox update, 3 weeks in

Since October 1, I’ve been completely off social media websites. For those of you that know me or have been following IWearYourShirt for years, this is absolutely and utterly shocking (I know). I’ve been keeping a daily journal on my phone which I’ll share at the end of the month, but I wanted to talk about one big takeaway so far.

After 3 tweet-less, Instagram-deprived, and Facebook-free weeks something has become incredibly clear. It’s not my increased level of happiness (which is true). It’s not my sizable lower level of cynicism (which is also true). It’s that social media allows people to penetrate our personal bubbles and attack us with their insecurities, insufficiencies, etc. 

What the heck does that mean?

Let me share a quick story that happened about a week ago:

My lovely better half Caroline was browsing Instagram. She noticed she had gotten a few new followers. She happened to click on one of her new followers and read the person’s bio to me. It read something like… “Marketing Maven, Social Media Guru Extraordinaire, Chief Gravity Defier, Greatest Dad Ever, Inventor of Chia Pets, President of Hamster Lovers Anonymous!” 

Okay, so the person’s bio didn’t actually say all those things, but it did say some of them. After she read the bio, I could feel myself getting angry. This isn’t the type of person I would want in my life, and I know it’s not the type of person Caroline wants in her’s (not our “Rat People” as my friend Paul Jarvis says). 

However, due to the fact that social media creates accessibility to complete strangers, people like this guy can weasel their way into our space and infiltrate our bubble’s with their nonsense. And yes, I totally get I’m overreacting just a bit to this guy’s bio, but it’s painfully obvious that he wants the world to know how important he thinks he is.

Life tip: If you’re important or great, you shouldn’t have to give yourself multiple made up titles to prove it.

Yes, I get tired of the political rants on Facebook. Yes, I get bummed when a really witty tweet of mine gets barely any interaction. Yes, I’ve openly admitted that I am addicted to social media and that I constantly refresh my feeds. And yes, I do get consumed with the amount of new followers, likes, comments, etc I get, as much as I’d like to pretend I don’t.

But the thing I’ve come to notice I dislike most about social media sites, is that people can bulldoze their way right into our lives and it’s hard to filter them out (and even when we do, another one can pop up).

For those of you who are old enough to remember a time before social media (and even the Internet), the only way complete strangers got in your personal space was two ways: Being door to door salesman or being telemarketers. I think everyone remembers how much we despised those people barging their way into our lives. 

Seriously, take a moment to remember the anger you felt when the phone rang during dinner and it was some random dude in Albuquerque trying to sell you something you didn’t want or need.

Unfortunately, social media is overrun with door to door salesmen and telemarketers, they just come in multiple forms now. And also unfortunately, social media is the place we all go to vent our frustrations, negative customer service issues, and rants about life. 

Of course there is another side to this coin. Without Facebook, I may never have reconnected with my long lost cousin from Aunt Gertude’s third marriage (good ole Aunt Gertude). I also wouldn’t have had the pleasure of meeting and connecting with many of you reading this post. And that’s why this was a 30-day detox and not a hard delete on all my social media accounts. 

What will I be doing as far as social media is concerned after my detox is over? I’m not sure yet. I’ve had many conversations about this with friends. Conversations on Skype, text message, over email, and believe it or not – IN PERSON! Whoa! Mind blowing. I know.

What I do know: I feel great right now.

I feel an overwhelming sense of calm in my life. My iPhone has never been quieter, and that’s been equal parts weird and refreshing. The people who’ve wanted to reach out to me and see what I’m up to have done so. The social media door to door salesmen, telemarketers, mavens, gurus, etc, haven’t come close to being on my radar. 

I have a lot more I’m going to share once my detox is over, and the first place I’ll be doing that will be on my email list and on this blog. Two “social networks” I’m in complete control of and want to put a lot more energy and value into. 

You should try a social media detox too.

Try taking a break from social media websites for a week or weekend or 30 days. Delete the apps from your phone and turn off your email notifications during that time.

You can easily re-download your apps and turn your notifications back on. If you’re feeling a huge resistance to this idea, I think that means you need to do it that much more. We all lived happy and productive lives without social media 10 years ago. We can all go a few days or weeks without it. 

Give it a shot and see how it goes. See how you feel. See if you get more done. See if you’re less distracted. And, take note of how much of an itch you feel to check social media (that itch is called addiction). 

I hope I’ve made it clear how much better I’ve felt during this detox. Because it’s been one of the best things I’ve done for myself in quite some time.

The post Social media detox update, 3 weeks in appeared first on Jason Does Stuff.

Social Media Detox Update, 3 Weeks In

Since October 1, I’ve been completely off social media websites. For those of you that know me or have been following IWearYourShirt for years, this is absolutely and utterly shocking (I know). I’ve been keeping a daily journal on my phone which I’ll share at the end of the month, but I wanted to talk about one big takeaway so far.

After 3 tweet-less, Instagram-deprived, and Facebook-free weeks something has become incredibly clear. It’s not my increased level of happiness (which is true). It’s not my sizable lower level of cynicism (which is also true). It’s that social media allows people to penetrate our personal bubbles and attack us with their insecurities, insufficiencies, etc. 

What the heck does that mean?

Let me share a quick story that happened about a week ago:

My lovely better half Caroline was browsing Instagram. She noticed she had gotten a few new followers. She happened to click on one of her new followers and read the person’s bio to me. It read something like… “Marketing Maven, Social Media Guru Extraordinaire, Chief Gravity Defier, Greatest Dad Ever, Inventor of Chia Pets, President of Hamster Lovers Anonymous!” 

Okay, so the person’s bio didn’t actually say all those things, but it did say some of them. After she read the bio, I could feel myself getting angry. This isn’t the type of person I would want in my life, and I know it’s not the type of person Caroline wants in her’s (not our “Rat People” as my friend Paul Jarvis says). 

However, due to the fact that social media creates accessibility to complete strangers, people like this guy can weasel their way into our space and infiltrate our bubble’s with their nonsense. And yes, I totally get I’m overreacting just a bit to this guy’s bio, but it’s painfully obvious that he wants the world to know how important he thinks he is.

Life tip: If you’re important or great, you shouldn’t have to give yourself multiple made up titles to prove it.

Yes, I get tired of the political rants on Facebook. Yes, I get bummed when a really witty tweet of mine gets barely any interaction. Yes, I’ve openly admitted that I am addicted to social media and that I constantly refresh my feeds. And yes, I do get consumed with the amount of new followers, likes, comments, etc I get, as much as I’d like to pretend I don’t.

But the thing I’ve come to notice I dislike most about social media sites, is that people can bulldoze their way right into our lives and it’s hard to filter them out (and even when we do, another one can pop up).

For those of you who are old enough to remember a time before social media (and even the Internet), the only way complete strangers got in your personal space was two ways: Being door to door salesman or being telemarketers. I think everyone remembers how much we despised those people barging their way into our lives. 

Seriously, take a moment to remember the anger you felt when the phone rang during dinner and it was some random dude in Albuquerque trying to sell you something you didn’t want or need.

Unfortunately, social media is overrun with door to door salesmen and telemarketers, they just come in multiple forms now. And also unfortunately, social media is the place we all go to vent our frustrations, negative customer service issues, and rants about life. 

Of course there is another side to this coin. Without Facebook, I may never have reconnected with my long lost cousin from Aunt Gertude’s third marriage (good ole Aunt Gertude). I also wouldn’t have had the pleasure of meeting and connecting with many of you reading this post. And that’s why this was a 30-day detox and not a hard delete on all my social media accounts. 

What will I be doing as far as social media is concerned after my detox is over? I’m not sure yet. I’ve had many conversations about this with friends. Conversations on Skype, text message, over email, and believe it or not – IN PERSON! Whoa! Mind blowing. I know.

What I do know: I feel great right now.

I feel an overwhelming sense of calm in my life. My iPhone has never been quieter, and that’s been equal parts weird and refreshing. The people who’ve wanted to reach out to me and see what I’m up to have done so. The social media door to door salesmen, telemarketers, mavens, gurus, etc, haven’t come close to being on my radar. 

I have a lot more I’m going to share once my detox is over, and the first place I’ll be doing that will be on my email list and on this blog. Two “social networks” I’m in complete control of and want to put a lot more energy and value into. 

You should try a social media detox too.

Try taking a break from social media websites for a week or weekend or 30 days. Delete the apps from your phone and turn off your email notifications during that time.

You can easily re-download your apps and turn your notifications back on. If you’re feeling a huge resistance to this idea, I think that means you need to do it that much more. We all lived happy and productive lives without social media 10 years ago. We can all go a few days or weeks without it. 

Give it a shot and see how it goes. See how you feel. See if you get more done. See if you’re less distracted. And, take note of how much of an itch you feel to check social media (that itch is called addiction). 

I hope I’ve made it clear how much better I’ve felt during this detox. Because it’s been one of the best things I’ve done for myself in quite some time.

The post Social Media Detox Update, 3 Weeks In appeared first on Jason Does Stuff.

The secret art of the follow up email

For years I’d been doing something when sending (or responding to) sales or pitch emails that just came naturally to me. That thing was sending a follow up email. I recently realized that over 75% of the 2,000 deals I’ve landed over the years have come from sending follow up emails.

You read that correctly. Over 75%

First, let’s talk about why you should care about follow up emails:

Have you ever sent an email to a person or company, looking to partner with them in some way?
Have you ever sent an email to a potential employer?
Have you ever sent an email to a potential employee?
Have you ever reached out to the media in any capacity?
Have you ever been contacted by someone from the media?
Have you ever tried to connect with someone influential via email?

My guess is that you probably said yes to at least one of those questions. My other guess is that you probably didn’t hear back after sending whatever email you sent (and you definitely didn’t send a good follow up email).

Follow up emails are your way of showing that you’re putting in more effort than everyone else. Don’t feel bad about sending follow up emails either, especially if you’re passionate about the thing you’re emailing someone about.

An example of your first follow up email, which should be a direct reply to your first email, could read something like this:

“Hey again NAME, [Show them you aren't a robot]

I know your inbox is probably a busy place, so I just wanted to send a quick follow up email. I’d love to chat with you about having INSERT THEIR COMPANY AND THE THING YOU WANT. My original email is copied below for quick reference.

Would love to chat,

YOUR NAME”

That first follow up is a gentle nudge. It’s not a hard sell, but it’s also not as simple as just saying “hey, I’m following up.” You’re showing more effort than probably 95% of the people that email that person. And I’m willing to bet that percentage is accurate based on how many people send me emails and never follow up. Ever.

If you don’t hear back after your first follow up email, or you just want to add more creativity to your follow up emails (which you should), you’ll need to invest a bit more time to grab the person’s attention. Getting more creative with your follow up emails can look like this:

Your follow up email can include you holding up a photo with the product you’re trying to partner with it (put in effort, don’t take a poorly lit and blurry selfie).
Your follow up email can include a short story that shows how much research you’ve done on the person you are emailing.
And best yet, your follow up email can include specific ways you are going to provide value to the person you are emailing.

The idea of sending follow up emails might sound daunting and hard to keep track of. Don’t worry, it’s not! Here are three ways to make follow up emails easy:

1. Create a Google Spreadsheet (or Excel) and catalog all your email outreach efforts.

In your spreadsheet include columns for the person’s name, their company, their email address, when you sent (or received) the first email, when you sent your first follow up email, when you sent your second follow up email, etc. This document is crucial if you’re working on one big project. I created a Google Spreadsheet for my SponsorMyBook.com project and had over 1,200 emails catalogued in it (about 80% were follow up emails).

2. Use tools like FollowUp.cc or Boomerang to remind you to send follow up emails.

I probably use FollowUp.cc 2-3 times per day. It’s a simple (free) email tool that doesn’t require any software or installation. Simply put a time you want to send a follow up in the Bcc field of your email you’re sending and the service will send you a reminder email that you need to follow up. (You can set whatever time you want, example: 2hours@followup.cc, 37days@followup.cc, etc.)

3. Use virtual assistants.

For not much money, you can hire a virtual assistant to work hourly and help keep your follow up emails organized. One great virtual assistant company I’d recommend is Don’t Panic Management. They can help you plan, strategize, and get creative with your email pitches and subsequent follow up emails.

I can’t stress the importance of sending follow up emails enough. People are busy and get lots of email every day. I also know that when people have reached out to me via email asking for things, I tend to wait and see if they’ll send a follow up email. This shows me they actually care and really want whatever they emailed about. Following up doesn’t have to be difficult and shows extra effort.

Be diligent about your follow up emails and you’ll start getting responses!

The post The secret art of the follow up email appeared first on Jason Does Stuff.

Meet the evil villain Dr. Resistance and learn how to defeat him

Recently I was on a call with a fellow entrepreneur and while discussing why they hadn’t put their new project out into the world the person said this to me (something I hear often):

“But Jason, I’m not like you, I can’t just, you know, do stuff… Launch things all the time and take risks. It’s not in my DNA.”

Up until a couple days again, my answer was simple: Yes you can, you just need to try harder.

Not the best answer right? I know. But then I finally started reading a book that’s been gathering dust on my bookshelf since last year (Nov 13, 2013 to be exact – thanks Amazon). That book is The War of Art by Steven Pressfield.

*That’s my Amazon affiliate link and here’s a normal link if you don’t want me to make $0.35 if you buy the book.

In The War of Art, which is a really solid book, Pressfield talks a lot about resistance and how it holds us back from everything we want to do in our lives. Resistance (aka the evil villain Dr. Resistance) is a constant thorn in our sides, always trying to keep us from saving the day or damsel in distress. Feel free to choose your own adventure in this metaphor.

We all deal with the evil villain Dr. Resistance. He can appear as an incredibly loud voice in our heads. He can be an uneasy feeling in the pit of our stomachs. He can even work his resistance magic and take over the people around us, infiltrating their words and thoughts with pessimism and negativity.

Unfortunately, Dr. Resistance is incredibly powerful. But, he does have a weakness… and that weakness is effort.

I will 100% admit that I’m probably more of a risk-taker, especially in business, than most people. But I haven’t always been that way and that doesn’t mean I don’t feel resistance. I’m just more willing to fight resistance because I want whatever thing I’m striving for more than resistance doesn’t want me to have it. And part of my abundance of effort to push through resistance has come from previous experience and success.

Here’s an example from the last 10 years of my work life:

I took a small risk in applying to work at as a graphic designer for Men’s Professional Tennis (ATP) out of college. I had no experience with the sport of tennis, barely watched it on TV and certainly didn’t know how to hold a tennis racquet properly to rip a wicked top-spin-cross-court-forehand-winner (I still can’t actually do that with any consistency).
Then I took a bigger risk to leave that secure 9-5 job to start my own design agency. I had no experience running my own company, getting my own clients, or doing any sales/marketing.
Then I took an even bigger risk and created IWearYourShirt, a ridiculous idea for a business.
Then I took a huge risk and put my name up for sale. Then I wrote the first ever fully-sponsored book. Etc etc.

The point here is that the more risks I take the less resistance I feel to taking action and doing things. Whether that’s starting a new business, asking for sponsorships for random things, or whatever I’m doing.

To visually illustrate this point, I want to present two diagrams to you:

1. The first one is my Effort vs Resistance. The two spheres are further apart because I’ve done lots of things to lower my feeling of resistance in work and life. You can see the intersection of those two spheres, which I’m calling “Holy sh*t I’m afraid to do this” zone, is fairly small. This leads me to taking lots of action and not being afraid to do so.

2. The second diagram represents people who don’t have as much experience as I do fighting off resistance. This means the sphere of resistance overlaps the sphere of effort much more, thus causing a much larger “Holy sh*t I’m afraid to this” zone.

Alright, I think you get the point. So, how can you defeat, or at least start fighting, the evil villain Dr. Resistance? How can push the sphere of resistance further away?

Start with looking at the thing you want to do and break it into tiny bite-size steps.

If you’re trying to quit your job and start your own business, don’t put “Quit job and start new business” on your to do list. Instead, create a plan with daily/weekly goals and to do lists (I wrote an entire other post for this too). If you’re trying to build an online course for something, don’t put “Build Online Course” on your to do list. Put “Write script for video for Lesson One” on your to do list and then go from there. If you’re trying to write a book, don’t put “Write Book” on your to do list. Start with a daily writing practice of 500 words. Focus only on getting one part of your book outline done per day. Whatever the thing is you’re trying to accomplish, make the steps to get it done much smaller and more accomplishable.

Don’t let resistance drive you to comfortable distractions.

I’m currently on a 30-day social media detox, but I’m fully aware that when I sit down to work on something, I immediately feel like I want to check Facebook. Heck, I’m willing to bet some of you have probably checked Facebook while reading this because the length of this email made you feel resistance to investing the time to read it. I get it. The trick is to replace your distractions with things that can help you finish the task in front of you. Maybe that’s grabbing a journal and writing down your fears (in that moment), or just sitting quietly, not actually doing anything. Replace your comfortable escape with a task that might actually benefit you.

Ask for help.

This is something I was terrible at, and am still not amazing at. But we all resist asking for help because we’re embarrassed that we can’t do everything on our own. That’s a totally natural feeling. If you ask the right people for help, which is an entire other topic, they won’t make you feel embarrassed or bad for wanting help. Find the right people through friends/connections and swallow your pride. You’ll be really glad you did.

Bonus tip: Write out your strengths and weaknesses (especially as it relates to the thing you’re resisting). Who is someone you know (or could get introduced to) that is strong where you are weak? Reach out to that person and ask them to help you with the things they’re good at that you’re not. Make it easy for them to help you.

Every single person reading this article feels the wrath of that a-hole evil villain Dr. Resistance. The key is to manage your level of effort and to acknowledge when you are resisting. Sometimes you may just need to hunker down and put in more work. Other times you might need to ask for help or reassess the task at hand.

Either way, understand resistance is something we all deal with. Fight the good fight and don’t give up!

The post Meet the evil villain Dr. Resistance and learn how to defeat him appeared first on Jason Does Stuff.

Watch me build an online business (part six)

If this is the first you’re hearing about this, I’m sharing an unfiltered behind-the-scenes look at how I’m building my next online business. Get caught up on previous updates here: Part One, Part Two, Part Three, Part Four, and Part Five.

What’s in a name anyway?

Gerlando (my co-founder) and I never really loved the name “CreateYourOnlineCourse.” While descriptive to what we’re building, it’s not super sexy or memorable. Plus, it’s not really unique either. A few weeks ago we started a Basecamp message and dropped in different ideas for a new name.

The names I came up with (while making sure the corresponding domains were available*) were: Yoursery, Coursection, ReallySimpleCourses, CourseBuild, IsLearnable, and a few awful names I’m ashamed to share. Ugh, I said unfiltered, so here are the terrible names: VeryFalcon, Fivete, ZebraCourses, SendAdvice, and my personal favorite (still) – Flimdazzle.

None of those grabbed us by our haunches and said “YES!” So we kind of tabled the discussion and I let me brain stew on it.

A few days later as I was driving down one of my favorite roads (everyone has a favorite road to drive on with the windows down right?). I was trying to enlist my awesome girlfriend Caroline to brainstorm names with me.

Name after name, nothing really stood out. She would blurt out a name and then we’d check to see if the domain was available. After about 20 names I felt a small lightning storm happen inside my brain.

“What about Teachery?” I said.

“That’s the best name I’ve ever heard!!!” Caroline yelled. (Okay, to be honest, she didn’t yell anything, but she acknowledged it was better than Flimdazzle.)

“Can you check if the .com is available?” I asked, my hair blowing in the Florida afternoon wind.

A couple moments passed…. “Ugh, nope.” Caroline muttered**.

“Hmmm… what about .co?” I questioned.

“Yep, oh, and the .club is also available…” Caroline sarcastically joked. (Seriously, who buys .club domains??)

While it’s not as common or as memorable as .com, the audience we’re trying to reach with this business should be tech-savvy enough to remember a .co URL***. Once I convinced myself of this, I sent a text to Gerlando. Within a few minutes he had written back saying “I like it!” I replied “Let’s do it!” and we were off to the races to buy the domain and change all occurrences of CreateYourOnlineCourse to Teachery.

*Note #1: While they didn’t provide our new awesome domain name, the sites and Wordoid.com were helpful in getting my brain moving with new names. Give ‘em a shot if you’re struggling to find a name for your next business.

**Note #2: Later on I contacted the owner of Teachery.com (finding his info via Whois) and offered to buy the domain for $100. He replied fairly quickly and said he wasn’t interested in selling. Dang it. Oh well, I tried.

***Note #3: I also think if you build a great product or service, it doesn’t matter what you name it or what URL you have. We’ll see if this holds true for my first project with a .co URL.

Uservoice and our first group of beta users!

For a few weeks we’ve been wanting to let 10 people signup for Teachery (formerly CYOC). There were a bunch of bugs and outstanding features that weren’t quite ready yet. You know, like the feature of actually being able to let people signup on their own, without manually adding their email and info to our user database.

Gerlando did a kickass job of quickly building our user signup/subscription form. The other thing he added to Teachery was a little product called UserVoice. While we might not use it long term, it’s perfect for getting usability feedback and finding errors/bugs from our initial users (while the handy option of taking a screenshot of the current page they’re having issues with).

I actually used UserVoice a few times while creating a course of my own. It’s so much easier than taking screenshots and emailing or submitting them to Basecamp. Just click the little “?” button, type in the issue, check the screenshot box, and hit send.

With our subscription form ready, UserVoice installed, and our fingers and toes crossed that we’d built a decent enough product for people to use, we crafted our first email to the Teachery pre-launch list. In the email we said we were only letting in 10 users and we hoped they’d be active, willing to help us squash virtual bugs, and okay with getting to use Teachery for free for a year (not including transaction fees).

That email went out to 66 people and within minutes we had multiple responses. Yay! Then I started to read those emails… Booo…

“Jason, I can’t get in, there’s an error?”
“Hey guys, tried to sign up and got this error message…”
“I tried to sign up, but got this error.”

Crap! The link we sent in the email was wrong and didn’t work. Oh, the joys of launching things!

Gerlando quickly scrambled to check the error logs and found the issue. In a matter of minutes he made a new working link and emailed all the people who tried to sign up. Crisis averted, but a good lesson here: Things will ALWAYS go wrong, be prepared to deal with bumps in the road.

After a rocky start, the beta user spots were full and we had our first users. Because this just happened last Friday, I don’t have much of an update on user feedback yet. I’ll include that in the next update.

It’s Teachery branding time!

For the last part of this week’s update I wanted to share where we’re headed with the Teachery branding. I’m fortunate to live with a super talented creative, you may have seen her name in the footer of JasonDoesStuff.com (Made Vibrant). So I talked Caroline into using her skill set to produce a logo and look and feel for Teachery (read: branding).

It started with discussion the brand and elements that went along with it. As you can see, the sketching process didn’t go too deep as we both agreed the idea of combining an apple (an icon for teachers/teaching) with a gear (an icon for building/machinery). These initial sketches were done while discussing who the target audience was for Teachery. Truthfully Caroline’s process is much more in-depth than this, but I like to circumvent processes as much as possible!

Because Caroline is ridiculously talented, within a short period of time she had a few logo comps to share. Using a few different fonts and font styles as well as a few variations of the apple + gear, I had a few choices.

There wasn’t a bad logo to choose from. We discussed a few minor details and we both agreed on our favorite. Oh, and the font she chose for the logo was only $47. Not too shabby.

It’s a pleasure to introduce the official Teachery logo! It feels simple but also sophisticated at the same time. I love that the icon is recognizable and accomplishes our goal of showcasing teaching and building.

Oh, and for some additional fun, here’s a sneak peek of the Teachery landing/sales page. Much more on this page very soon!

To be continued…

In the next update I’ll dive into user onboarding, the psychology of sales pages, and hopefully have feedback to share from our first set of beta users. Don’t forget, you can get these updates sent directly to your inbox by signing up for my weekly newsletter.

Welcome to JasonDoesStuff.com

If this is your first time visiting this site, welcome! I genuinely appreciate you taking time to be here.

I want to help YOU take action.

The goal of JasonDoesStuff.com is to help YOU take the next step with whatever you want to be doing.

Are you trying to start your own business?
Are you trying to quit your shitty 9-5 job?
Do you want to learn how to be more intentional with your time?
Do you want to better prioritize your schedule for optimal work output and maximum income?
Does it feel like you have no balance in your work/life?
Does it feel like your business is being seen by almost no one (or the wrong people)?
Have you tried marketing your product or service with little success?
Have you recently felt unfulfilled and are looking for a nudge in the right direction?

If you said yes to any one of those questions I want to help you. I’m not a miracle worker and there’s no 31-step PDF you can download to get started. But I can tell you that the content I’ve created here (and am going to create) will be directly related to answering those specific questions.

And let’s be brutally honest with each other. I’m not going to pretend I have everything in life figured out and that I have all the right answers. This process of work and life is constantly changing. The key there is change. You have to be willing to make a change, especially if you want different results in your life. Remember this: if you only put in part-time effort, you should only expect part-time results.

I have never put in effort and hard work and regretted it. I may not have hit a home run with whatever I was working on, but I certainly learned a ton along the way (and most likely stumbled upon new relationships, projects and knowledge).

There are a couple things I’m really excited for new (and returning) visitors to check out:

1. My “About Me” page. For most people, this is a simple bio, for me it’s a catchall for all the crazy stuff I’m working on. You can learn a bit more about my story, but also see Stuff I’m Doing and Stuff I’ve Done.

2. The Action Army newsletter signup. I’m incredibly focused on delivering awesome weekly content to a community of action takers (like you!). Each Monday I send out an email to the Action Army and hope to help them learn something new, get inspired, or read an interesting story. My weekly newsletter is free and I’d love to have you join the army (zero pushups required!).

3. Consulting information. One of the most frequent emails I receive is someone asking for advice for their business, brand, product, service, etc. For the first time (ever) I’m offering consulting calls and in-person workshops publicly. Whether you’re a fellow entrepreneur who needs a good kick in the ass, or an organization that wants to bring in a dynamic speaker to ignite your team, give that page a look.

I’m incredibly excited about my new virtual home. I finally have a cohesive brand, a URL that accurately describes me, and a place that I feel really happy and proud of.

(If you don’t currently have those things for yourself or your brand, I’d highly recommend contacting the talented person who was instrumental in building JasonDoesStuff.com: Caroline @ Made Vibrant).

What do you do when a name no longer serves you?

Since 2012 my personal brand has been tied to a name I no longer wanted. When I decided to auction off my last name after an unfortunate family situation, I felt stuck with JasonSadler.com. Yes, that’s who I was for many years, but I will never carry that name again and honestly loathed seeing it.

I’ve also used the moniker “IWearYourShirt” on every social media website. This name was great for me while IWearYourShirt.com was active, but as of May 2013 I’ve retired from professional t-shirt wearing (yes, I’m fully aware of how silly that sounds). You’ll notice I’m transitioning from @IWearYourShirt across all social media websites and moving to “JasonDoesStuff.” Talk about a tough decision. But, I’m a big believer in letting go of the past, no matter how hard it is. Twitter is going to be the most difficult place to change my username, because having that fancy Verified badge doesn’t allow me to change the name. We’ll see if I can sweet talk someone over there.

I’m excited to move away from Jason Sadler and IWearYourShirt. Those names served me well during their time, but their time has passed. I’m ready to embrace a new direction and to get laser focused on the goal of this website.

So what thing have you been avoiding taking action with? What hard decision have you struggled to make? Take a small step forward today and do something. If I can help you on your journey, please don’t hesitate to contact me.

One month detox: I’m not using social media from October 1 – October 31

Anyone who knows me knows that I’ve lived, eaten, and breathed social media since October 2008. There have been less than 50 days in the last 2,190 days (six years) that I haven’t checked a social media website. Just typing that is a bit shocking.

Social media websites have been instrumental in my businesses and in helping define my identity. There’s no denying I wouldn’t have been able to do the things I’ve done in my short entrepreneurial career without Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, etc.

But I also know the downside of the current state of social media. I’ve talked about it before, but these platforms are a breeding ground for negativity and distraction from real life. Even with doing some heavy curating of my Twitter account and swinging the Hide From News Feed Hammer on FB, I can’t escape the random political rant, the addiction to vanity metrics (likes, RTs, favorites, follower counts, etc), or the dab of social media makeup to pretend life is perfect. And I’m certainly guilty of the last two items.

So for the first time since 2008, I’m cutting myself off from social media* for a month.

How am I going to do this without cheating? Luckily, there’s an app for that.

I’ll be using the SelfControl app. In essence, you type in websites you want to block and the time for which you want to block them, and you cannot access them. It’s a genius-ly cruel app that I’m excited to put to the test.
I’ll be turning off all notifications from Twitter and Facebook (phone and email).
I’ll be deleting the Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, Instagram, Vine, Google+, and Timehop apps from my phone.

*I’m not counting email as social media, I’ll absolutely still be using email.

You may be wondering why? Why do I want to detox myself from social media?

One reason is that I’ve used it as a crutch for the past few years. When I was afraid to work on something hard or challenging, I’d escape to checking tweets and my FB feed. Even while writing this blog post I’ve felt the urge to check the little red notifications on Facebook. I know I’m addicted to social media and I’m not afraid to admit it. I’m just choosing to do something about it.

The second reason is that I’ve become very cynical of other people. I’ll see a fellow Internet Marketer pop up in my feed promoting a product or service and feel jealousy or anger towards them. I try to preach putting more positivity out into the world, but every time I check a feed of updates, I feel negativity creeping in.

I’m hopeful this 30-day detox from social media will help me get more focused on a few bigger projects. I’m currently building a business and have felt myself putting off my growing todo list. When I should be working on issues or features, I’m wasting time trying to write a compelling Facebook status that I hope will get a bunch of Likes or browsing my Instagram feed.

So what will take the place of social media in October?

I’ll be focusing more on my writing. My weekly email updates definitely won’t stop, and if anything, I hope will be better. My weekly column for Inc Magazine will continue. I’ll be sharing more thoughts on a newly redesigned and renamedJasonSadler.com. And, I’m hopeful that I can read at least 8 books in October (2 per week). I have quite the stack piling up.

This is an experiment, just like a diet (and I’ve certainly tried a bunch of those). Except, instead of losing weight, I’m hoping to shed some habits, change my attitude, and see what I end up doing with the extra time and mental energy.

Maybe you’re not ready to admit you’re addicted to social media, but I am. And I’m tired of feeling like I can’t let go of it.

One month detox: I’m not using social media from October 1 – October 31

Anyone who knows me knows that I’ve lived, eaten, and breathed social media since October 2008. There have been less than 50 days in the last 2,190 days (six years) that I haven’t checked a social media website. Just typing that is a bit shocking.

Social media websites have been instrumental in my businesses and in helping define my identity. There’s no denying I wouldn’t have been able to do the things I’ve done in my short entrepreneurial career without Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, etc.

But I also know the downside of the current state of social media. I’ve talked about it before, but these platforms are a breeding ground for negativity and distraction from real life. Even with doing some heavy curating of my Twitter account and swinging the Hide From News Feed Hammer on FB, I can’t escape the random political rant, the addiction to vanity metrics (likes, RTs, favorites, follower counts, etc), or the dab of social media makeup to pretend life is perfect. And I’m certainly guilty of the last two items.

So for the first time since 2008, I’m cutting myself off from social media* for a month.

How am I going to do this without cheating? Luckily, there’s an app for that.

I’ll be using the SelfControl app. In essence, you type in websites you want to block and the time for which you want to block them, and you cannot access them. It’s a genius-ly cruel app that I’m excited to put to the test.
I’ll be turning off all notifications from Twitter and Facebook (phone and email).
I’ll be deleting the Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, Instagram, Vine, Google+, and Timehop apps from my phone.

*I’m not counting email as social media, I’ll absolutely still be using email.

You may be wondering why? Why do I want to detox myself from social media?

One reason is that I’ve used it as a crutch for the past few years. When I was afraid to work on something hard or challenging, I’d escape to checking tweets and my FB feed. Even while writing this blog post I’ve felt the urge to check the little red notifications on Facebook. I know I’m addicted to social media and I’m not afraid to admit it. I’m just choosing to do something about it.

The second reason is that I’ve become very cynical of other people. I’ll see a fellow Internet Marketer pop up in my feed promoting a product or service and feel jealousy or anger towards them. I try to preach putting more positivity out into the world, but every time I check a feed of updates, I feel negativity creeping in.

I’m hopeful this 30-day detox from social media will help me get more focused on a few bigger projects. I’m currently building a business and have felt myself putting off my growing todo list. When I should be working on issues or features, I’m wasting time trying to write a compelling Facebook status that I hope will get a bunch of Likes or browsing my Instagram feed.

So what will take the place of social media in October?

I’ll be focusing more on my writing. My weekly email updates definitely won’t stop, and if anything, I hope will be better. My weekly column for Inc Magazine will continue. I’ll be sharing more thoughts on a newly redesigned and renamedJasonSadler.com. And, I’m hopeful that I can read at least 8 books in October (2 per week). I have quite the stack piling up.

This is an experiment, just like a diet (and I’ve certainly tried a bunch of those). Except, instead of losing weight, I’m hoping to shed some habits, change my attitude, and see what I end up doing with the extra time and mental energy.

Maybe you’re not ready to admit you’re addicted to social media, but I am. And I’m tired of feeling like I can’t let go of it.