Frank vs Matt The Entrepreneur’s Journey by Andre Chaperon

Frank vs Matt is a concept I came up with to help demonstrate the two camps or categories (or models) that usmarketers operate within.

Although Frank and Matt are not real "flesh and blood" people per se — their traits are absolutely real and based on real people.

You're currently one of 'em.

Which one? … well, you'll need to read the rest of this page to discover that.

But know this … one of them makes no money online (nothing meaningful anyway). The other one crushes it.

One last thing … I'm not selling anything here. Nada. So get a coffee, get comfortable and relax.

Meet Frank:

well, I say "part-time", but I've really been "dabbling" in internet marketing since 2008. that's what? … a little over 6 years now I guess.

which is like forever in internet years :)

i do many different things online. difficult to explain really. i'm what you'd call a "jack of all trades". lol

– Frank

Meet Matt:

like my buddy frank, i've been doing this crazy internet marketing thing since 2008.

the beginning was difficult as hell. but as soon as i realized a few "truths" – it got a whole lot easier.

i now run an online business called 'sexy you inc'.

we serve various tribes of women within sub-niches of the weight loss and beauty markets.

– Matt

Decisions

Recently I read a book by the late Paul Arden (the former creative director for Saatchi and Saatchi at the height of their advertising might).

One of the things he wrote, is worth mentioning here:

I'm going to circle back to this quote at the end. Why I've written it will make perfect sense then. It's important … for you.

But let me first continue to explain the big DIFFERENCE between Frank and Matt.

Brief Backstory

You see … back in October 2003 I was thrown into the deep end. I was made redundant. Like millions of others I had become "replaceable".

But a few months earlier I had seen the writing on the wall.

Rumors were circulating. That management was going to cull a bunch of staff at the end of the year.

Right then and there … I made a decision that completely changed my life.

I didn't take the safe road, like everyone else in the office. You know, start looking for another job — then jump ship when one was found.

I'm certainly not judging them. But for me, I wanted to hit the reset button on how I earned a living.

I was 29 years old. I was foolish and hungry enough to believe I was brave.

So I took the risky decision.

I found the guts to roll the dice.

I had absolutely no idea what the hell I was going to do. I just knew I didn't want a boss. I didn't want to commute three freakin' hours a day to work and back.

So I went looking online.

The BIG CULL came two months early, on October 22nd, 2003.

I wasn't exactly ready. No one was.

But then I guess, looking back — I prob'ly would have never been completely ready.

The "chop" didn't take long. Prob'ly two hours tops.

I can't remember how many colleagues were given their marching orders. But our entire department, bar one, were told:

"Thanks pal, but we no longer need ya! …"

Everyone was mad, frustrated, sad, angry … all the negative emotions. They were feeling 'em all. The companyhad betrayed them.

But I was happy.

It felt strange. Because I was supposed to feel like my friends and colleagues did.

Yet I was as happy as fuckin' Larry.

A weight had been lifted off my shoulders. The weight of working for someone else.

The next day, October 23, 2003 … well, that was my very first day being self-employed … or was it just "out of work" :)

Didn't matter though.

Because this was when the rubber hit the road.

I wasn't earning money online (yet). I didn't have a business model. I didn't have a "master plan". Truth was … I really had fuck all.

It was scary as hell.

… and this is when — without knowing it — I started "operating" as a Frank.

The FRANK Role

During my "honeymoon period" I had joined a bunch of marketing guru email lists.

So I was getting hit with offers every damn day. Three things were 100% certain back then.

1. I was making no money.
2. I will die one day.
3. There would be a new "shiny-object" offer in my inbox each morning.

… and with the little bit of redundancy money I had in the bank, I went on a buying spree.

It started slowly, because I was broke.

Perhaps a new magic pill each month. It was like heroin. I was helpless. I constantly needed the next shiny-object "fix". The big promises of easy quick "push-button" riches.

But each product pulled me in a completely different direction.

• I was doing SEO (white hat, grey hat, black hat cloaking — you name it).
• I was writing articles (myself).
• I was doing mind-numbing link building (myself).
• I was building lists (cause the gurus said I should).
• I was driving PPC to affiliate offers (al la Google Cash, AdWords Miracle, AdWords Black Book).
• I was creating products, reports, give-aways (you name it, I was prob'ly doing it).
• I flipped sites (before site flippin' was popular).
• I participated in the AdSense gold rush (al la Traffic Equalizer).
• I leveraged outsourcing (but that didn't work because I had no focus).
• I was building this, creating that (it was never ending).

… I was spinning my wheels. I felt like blowing my brains out at times. What I had didn't feel like a real business.

I was an "opportunity seeker". No two ways about it (honestly, I think this is where most of us entrepreneurs start our journey into the unknown).

My flawed process looked something like this:

… meaning that any little "opportunity" that presented itself to me — I would drop whatever I was doing at the time — and shoot off on a tangent as I explored the viability of the opportunity.

That workflow pretty quickly turned into a CANCER as I played the game with little results to show for my efforts.

Opportunities (the perception of an opportunity that will produce a quick and easy result) in the "make money online" MMO space is rife…

… and it is a cancer.

But you prob'ly know that already.

I'm not telling you anything new.

Our personal inboxes are a stark reminder of this fact, each and every day…

… as the next "magic-bullet" tactic pierces our mind-space and wrestles for our immediate attention.

Before I knew what the hell had happened … I was a year into doing this online marketing thing.

Results?

Miserable.

Worse still…

Business model?

Not a freakin' clue.

That was one full year "lost". So I chalked it down to lack of experience.

That was 2004. A lifetime ago.

I was more savvy in 2005. I felt I had learned by my early novice mistakes. I had my stripes now.

I would not "go after" every opportunity that would inevitably present itself to me.

I'd be more selective.

I was wrong.

I went on a massive SEO campaign as I followed the James Martell business model of building content sites.

I bootstrapped the whole operation and did almost everything myself (big mistake).

I wrote all the articles myself. I felt like I was giving myself brain damage.

I prob'ly was.

At the same time, I was selling an information product I had created (multitasking: another mistake) and driving traffic via PPC.

I was also creating presell pages, and playing the affiliate marketing game too.

2005 ended and I was F###ED!

Results?

Better. But still shit (in terms of my potential). I was earning between $2K and $3K per month. For the WORK I was putting in, that just didn't cut it.

Business model?

Not really — I was "jack of everything" and I still had the focus of a 3 year old child.

Then 2006 rolled around. About the time Google put an end to the AdSense gold rush…

… and I had an epiphany!

… the penny dropped.

I realized that the "role" I was operating as, was a Frank(although I had not yet labeled this trait a "Frank").

… and I had prob'ly maxed out the potential of what aFrank could earn (consistently).

The MATT Role

A Matt operates completely differently to a Frank.

A Matt "manages" his attraction to shiny-objects. He's not addicted. He can control what he purchases and what he chooses to ignore.

His attention is more selective and focused. He values histime.

Matt's MO looks something like this:

Matt doesn't create isolated money makers. That's not how he views what he does.

Matt builds assets … long terms assets, that he can leverage over time.

Matt builds a business.

Matt serves the needs of a specific narrow tribe (pocket of people) — the zealots on the fringes.

Matt is not all thing to all people.

We now do business in an age when it is far better to be everything to the right someone, than it is to attempt to offer something for everyone (al la mass marketing — which btw — we are exiting the age in which mass mattered).

The second that I changed my mindset (and my perception of what I was doing) — positive change happened,almost instantly.

I became a narrow-minded marketer.

I focused on building a real business … a real business because I had repeat customers.

Repeat customers are the backbone — the lifeblood, of every successful business.

What I did from that day onwards — the epiphany moment — was to operate far more focused and strategically.

As an affiliate, I built up a tribe of followers (many of whom are still with me today).

In fact, I established myself from the very beginning as THE ONLY VIABLE SOLUTION (from their perspective) to a problem, a challenge, an issue, or an opportunity in their life (al la Jay Abraham's Strategy of Preeminence).

I positioned myself as their most trusted advisor. Their fiduciary. The shift in thinking was a game-changer.

It was about giving value upfront, BEFORE any money changed hands. I realized that content is king.

Products stopped being commodities. They weresolutions to problems. Big difference. MASSIVE difference.

I looked at everybody out there that I wanted to do business with, completely differently to everyone else.

I made it a point of deciding I was not going to wait for money to change hands before I started contributing, guiding, counseling, advising and protecting them.

… because that's what a fiduciary does. They protect and they create value for the weird. It was a game-changer.

By the end of 2006 I was having $20K months. Hell, I even had a $70K (net) month. Big difference from a year earlier where I was struggling my ass off to earn $3K.

I've taught others to do the same. And the results they got were amazing (if even a little unexpected by some).

Conclusion

A Frank sees opportunities as events — where results are, at best, a flash in the pan.

A Frank is a "jack of all trades and master of none". That's primarily how a Frank rolls.

Each "shiny-object" is the big answer — the reset button — for a new life. But, of course, that's just an illusion setup by the gurus.

The gurus know how a Frank operates. So they write copy specifically for the Franks of the world…

… copy that acts as a Frank "venus fly trap".

The outcome is always inevitable and predictable.

Matts are different…

A Matt knows that building a business is a process, not an event.

It's something that gets worked on, continuously.

The road ahead is not easy. Hell no. Not one little bit. It requires pigheaded discipline and determination.

A Matt is focused on creating value for an audience. Providing tangible solutions for real problems worth solving.

Matt's are all around you. From leaders at the top of Fortune 500 corporations, to bootstrapped lean startups operating out of a garage.

It starts with the right mindset (anyone can think like this). It's executed through customer development (creating products or solutions that people really want).

I've prob'ly said enough already. I'm sure you get the point by now.

But I will say this to end off…

There are different "layers" to both a Frank and a Matt.

Some Frank's are (very) content operating as their Frank role. They seek out the heroin rush of a new magic pill.

When it earns them $500 (once off), they see that as a big success. They're happy. They're ready to move on.

But if it bombs — and it almost always does — they cry wolf. Get a refund. And complain on forums where thousands of other Franks hang out. They feel comfortable in a pack of Franks.

Some Franks consciously know they're a Frank … but they want to change. But mostly, they just don't (yet) know how. They wanna be a Matt — if they only knew how.

There's still hope for those Franks.

Matts build businesses. Some Matts build 6-figure businesses. Some 7-figure businesses. Others 8, 9 and 10 figure behemoths.

… but the essence of a Matt is always the same. Building a business is a "process".

The most successful Matts are those that:

• create real value for the weird (Microsoft creates products for the MASS market. The normal people in the middle of the bell curve. Apple do the oppersite. They create niche products only for the weird. And in terms of market share, they're now the most valuable company on earth.)
• have a customer-centric approach to business(Zappos being a classic example)

… and the rarest Matt trait of all — truly great entrepreneurs don't get in this to make money (as their primary motivator), but to change the world.

More recently, Facebook founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg laid out his personal philosophy — the one he says will guide the company after it goes public.

It is a 21st-century manifesto for a new way of doing business. In it he says:

• We don't build services to make money; we make money to build better services.
• We don't wake up in the morning with the primary goal of making money…
• These days I think more and more people want to use services from companies that believe in something beyond simply maximizing profits.
• By focusing on our mission and building great services, we believe we will create the most value for our shareholders and partners over the long term…

Consequently, the side effect of "changing the world" (the betterment of others) is typically a crap load of money.

For better or worse, Mark Zuckerberg, Larry Page & Sergey Brin, Richard Branson, Jeff Bezos, Steve Jobs, Bill & Melinda Gates, Warren Buffett, Seth Godin, Tony Hsieh,Simon Sinek, and prob'ly thousands of faceless lean startups are changing the world.

It's no surprise that a lot of 'em are self-made billionaires. Like I said, the payoff for choosing to "changing the world" can be big.

It can make you millions.

It's all choices and decisions and attitude. None wrong. Just depends on what you want, and for what reasons.

Paul Zane Pilzer said that millionaires are made as a result of "choice & attitude".

What about you?

Are you a Frank or a Matt?

If you're currently a Frank — then you have a decision to make (reread the Paul Arden quote).

But whatever you choose, know that it's the right decision (for you).

I made the decisions I made because at the time I thought that was the right decision. I didn't know I was a Frank. I didn't know how to think like a Matt.

In 2006 I decided to change my core thinking. I become a Matt. That was my decision. For me, it paid off. Massively.

I choose to give a fuck. I choose to be different. I choose to have a personality. I choose to reject the status quo. I choose to maintain my core values and never "sell out".

I choose to change the world, if only in a small way:

http://www.zentrepreneur.com/special/andre-chaperon/invite

What about you? Have the guts to roll the dice. Perhaps it's time to make the right decision.

– André Chaperon

P.S. I love this video — "to the crazy ones".

Read the Original Article Here

5 Reasons Every Business Should be on Snapchat

Technology is transforming how modern entrepreneurs stay connected to their business, their team and their industry. In this series, learn more about the cutting edge tools and thinking allowing innovators to stay ahead of the trends.

Image credit: Dean Drobot / Shutterstock.com

Snapchat is the newest social tool that lets you share photos and video, or “snaps,” with the bonus of adding drawings or captions to whatever you record. Here’s the catch: Snaps disappear after a few seconds, and the sender gets to choose how many seconds messages will be visible before they self-destruct. The concept basically blends photo and video texting with the age-old tradition of sending notes with disappearing ink.

What’s the appeal? Less pressure to be perfect than on other platforms such as Facebook, where content is more permanent. It’s a simple way to share simple things, and in a world where every social media lover has to become their own personal public relations guru, Snapchat offers a stress-free way to say -- whatever. Here are five reasons your business should utilize the app:

1. People use it, and they’re going to keep using it. Snapchat first caught on among high schoolers, but now college students have checked in to the craze. The app, designed by Stanford students Evan Spiegel and Bobby Murphy as part of a class project, launched in Apple’s app store in September 2011. By October 2012, the company tallied its billionth snap. The company is estimated to have more than 30 million users as of December 2013, although they’re coy about sharing the actual number.

Scoffers might wrinkle their noses and shrug Snapchat off as another passing phase. But skeptics were momentarily silenced in November 2013 when Facebook’s Mark Zuckerberg offered the infant startup $3 billion in cash and was promptly turned down. Whether you’re keyed in to Snapchat or not, Facebook knows Snapchat’s hot, but Snapchat knows it’s even hotter.

2. Prove you’re a “cool” company. If you hadn’t heard of Snapchat before Facebook’s stunning $3 billion offer (or before you started reading this article), you’re not alone. That’s part of what adds to the inherent allure of the app. The number of users is growing exponentially, but it’s still new enough to make those who use it “in the know.”

The Snapchat frontier is still wide open for adaptive marketers who are ready to start exploring. Those who hit the ground running will have the biggest impact, plus the chance to define the ways marketers will use an emerging genre. Can anyone say, “Innovator Award”?

3. You’ve already built the audience on other social platforms. Snapchat is part social hybrid and part revolutionary, but adding it as a marketing platform doesn’t mean you have to reinvent the wheel. After all, what about all those Facebook fans and Twitter followers you worked so hard to collect? Does Snapchat mean those metrics have an expiration date? Not at all. Existing social platforms can remain healthy even as they drive fans and followers to explore a new sharing tool with you.

Incentivize your audience to join you on Snapchat and you’ll not only gain an instant audience on an emerging platform, you’ll find a whole new way to interest them. Offer mobile coupons, the chance to take a sneak peek behind the scenes, and the promise to deliver hot brand news to Snapchatters before anyone else, and fans will follow.

4. Embrace a new wavelength of messaging. Remember when YouTube grew in popularity and politicians began to realize the simpler, less professionally-staged videos were ranking better with audiences than pristinely polished ones? Savvy marketers are realizing the same is true of Snapchat. The app is supposed to be less-than-perfect, and that’s why people love it. The bonus for businesses is that you have the chance to kick your shoes off at the edge of the dance floor and have a little fun.

5. This is the new world of advertising. Traditional radio commercials were zapped by satellite radio. Television ads were nuked when digital video recorders careened on scene. And now, even digital recorders are being outrun by instant streaming. Mute buttons, spam filters, pop-up blockers -- all are ways audiences keep slipping through marketer’s fingers.

What if people actually wanted to engage with your brand? What if, instead of ducking behind junk settings and filters, people actually pushed a button of their own free will to watch your brand in action? Snapchat introduces a groundbreaking forum, one where people are interested in what you have to say and offer.

It may still be new, but it represents the new age of advertising.

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Joacim Jeppesen

Joacim Jeppesen is responsible for business development and digital innovation at Valtech, where he works with some of the world's leading brands spanning industries including retail, consumer goods, automotive, publishing and technology. He works to implement deep transformation processes that change and improve business capabilities including digital marketing strategy, e-commerce, definition of targets/KPIs, processes, people and platforms.

Sometimes a 1000+ word article is a little too much to digest some days. So why not watch a quick 4 minute video that will move and inspire you to follow your heart.

This amazing inspirational talk by Steve Jobs and Alan Watts is one to definitely remember.

The Journey of Purpose has created this into an amazing visual experiences that paints a perfect picture of what it means to follow your heart and intuition.

“You can’t connect the dots looking forward; you can only connect them looking backwards. So you have to trust that the dots will somehow connect in your future. You have to trust in something – your gut, destiny, life, karma, whatever. Because believing that the dots will connect down the road will give you the confidence to follow your heart even when it leads you off the well worn path; and that will make all the difference.” - Steve Jobs

Joel Brown is the CEO and Founder of Addicted2Success.com. With a long time passion for Entrepreneurship, Self development & Success, Joel started his website with the intention of educating and inspiring likeminded people all over the world to always strive for success no matter what their circumstances. Follow Joel Brown onTwitter or keep upto date with him on Facebook:https://www.facebook.com/joelbrownA2S

Turning Your Passion Into Your Position: Social Media for the New Job Market

Amongst high unemployment rates, a competitive job market and a shrinking global economy, the emerging social media industry only continues to grow. One of the newest positions for companies to adopt is the role of a social media manager -- and it's in high demand.

Social media job listings have increased 75% from 2010 according to Monster.com, with more than 10,000 jobs being posted each month requiring digital and social media skills. However, it's not just the independent manager and consulting positions that are now heavily sought after.

A social media skill set is valuable to anyone entering the job market or looking for career advancement, as August 2011 saw a 94% increase in jobs that required social media knowledge over the same month last year, according to WANTED Analytics. But is everyone who uses Twitter or Facebook a pro? Not even close.

The Myth of the Digital Native

"Using digital and social media to connect with friends and family is worlds apart from the professional social skills, digital brand savvy, and integrated marketing strategic thinking demanded by employers today," said Dr. William J. Ward, a social media professor at S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communications at Syracuse University, who is known on Twitter as @DR4WARD.

So if using social media strategically for business is different than personal use, how do you learn these skills to get ahead in your career?

Certification programs for social media are blossoming as a response to the demand for more social media training. Both industry professionals and recent graduates are tapping into tactical training programs to help them stay up to date as the industry grows.

There's no better time for individuals to invest in their professional development than now, with tens of thousands of opportunities for those with the right digital and social media skills. Yet, for every one job opening, there remain four individuals who are unemployed. Why is that?

Employer Challenges

Social media is the future, with employers recognizing they need to start hiring people with the right skills. However, a Manpower Group study shows that over 52% of companies are finding difficulty filling positions, due to a lack of "hard" technical job skills from candidates.

While social media skills were once a "nice-to-have," accreditation in the space is becoming a requirement for many of these job titles. Hiring managers and job seekers are realizing that printing stacks of resumes is turning passe, and social media is rising as the new way of generating real-time networking opportunities.

While hiring managers attempt to determine a candidate's social media experience, the biggest struggle they encounter is knowing which of the candidates that claim they're "social media experts" or "consultants," actually are. How can they determine credibility and ascertain their level of skill with certain social media tools?

To say that you've completed training is to admit you've finished learning. And in a space that changes as quickly as this, you've already fallen behind.

Candidate Challenges

Dr. Ward insists that it is up to employees to be proactive with their social media training. "Mastery of the digital and social media skills needed for the future will be beneficial to those looking to find a job and for employers looking to fill these positions today and tomorrow," he said.

Dr. Ward agrees with the 4A's and Arnold Worldwide March 2011 study that found "higher education is failing to prepare students with the needed digital and social skill set in any meaningful way, yet at the same time -- employers are failing to train their own employees. 90% of employers provide no training to staff, and 50% of talent feel under-trained."

Individuals that demonstrate their expertise through professional social media training programs not only have a way of differentiating themselves from their peers, they feel the confidence that comes with credibility.

Social Media Education

By staying ahead of peers, forward-thinking individuals take part in personal development opportunities, one of which is offered through HootSuite University. "The value of Hootsuite University has been immeasurable for us, as it keeps our services above the rest in performance and productivity," said Bonnie Cranmer, a Business Marketing Strategist at New Media Strategy Team and a recent graduate of the program.

HootSuite's Certified Professional Program doesn't break the bank either, offering graduating students the ability to continually develop with new courseware releases. Their video-based learning modules educate students on how new announcements, such as Facebook Timeline, may impact their business' social media activity.

Working for many years in nonprofit and tourism, Cranmer understood the importance of communicating with her customers using social media. When deciding to further her social media education, Cranmer's primary goal was to provide her customers with the most comprehensive level of service. Staying up to date with constantly evolving world of social media can be a challenge, but certification programs like HootSuite University are looking to change that.

Besides offering accreditation in social media through courses and tests, there is a constantly updated library of webinars, called Lecture Series, from top educators in the industry. These social media leaders teach students tactical, hands on strategy for leveraging their business with the latest feature releases.

When it comes to personal development for 2012, perhaps Dr. Seuss said it best: "Oh, the things you can find, if you don't stay behind!" Having the ability to keep up in this rapidly-moving space is a vital skill set, and education is the easiest way to turn your passion into your position, now.

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3 Simple Steps to Making Money From Any Passion

“Choose a job you love, and you will never have to work a day in your life.” ~Confucius

Pre-Note - This is a Guest Post from Scott Dinsmore on the very successful Zen Habits blog. I have shared it with you for your use and provided links below to the Scott and Zen Habits blog's if you would like to learn more :) So here we go.

Is it possible to have your passion also be your core source of income?

We seem to hear more and more stories of people reaching the promised land, but is it really possible for the everyday person? Or are those ‘lucky few’ just that— lucky?

After years of research I have good news for you…

I bet you there’s something you love doing that someone else would be happy to pay you for right this second. I might go as far as saying I’m sure of it.

But let’s start with a question.

Why is it that the people who succeed once, seem to have similar successes on future endeavors? Whether it’s fitness, entrepreneurship, career, relationships, you name it.

Success begets success.

What are the things that consistently allow certain people to build a business and living around the things they love most, but allow the other 80% of the world to continue to drag themselves, day in and day out, to a job they can’t stand?

Why can some people charge seamlessly from one creative endeavor and passion project to the next, experiencing all sorts of success along the way, while many others can’t take the first step to finding their passion, let alone building a career around it?

The steps aren’t foreign, they aren’t cryptic, or hidden behind some secret handshake. They aren’t complicated and in many cases not even that difficult. But yet they are still massively underused.

Why is that?

These questions have kept me up at night for years.

As it turns out, the answer is pretty simple…

The passionate people simply know what’s actually possible. They are crystal clear about the steps that work, so they don’t think twice in applying them to whatever the excitement of the day is.

The rest of the world doesn’t know the first move to distinguish up from down.

It doesn’t have to be that way.

Living Off Your Passion Is a Right – For Everyone

For the past eight years, and more specifically the past three, I’ve lived and breathed passion. I’ve done case studies with hundreds of passionate workers around the world, conducted countless experiments and profiled 14 of the top experts on and off the web.

Not only have I been obsessed with how people find their passion, but also how the seemingly ‘lucky few’ (hint: it’s not about the luck) are able to push through to the next level and turn their passion into a career – as entrepreneurs and employees alike.

My goal was to combine the art of discovering your passion with the science of making money from it. I recently published the results and process into a self-study course called Live Off Your Passion.

The results were invigorating. But as it turned out, they were not as complicated and unique as one would think.

Living off your passion is more possible than most realize. We just have to condition it.

I wanted to share some of the most profound lessons with you all. If you follow the steps below, I’m sure you can monetize your passion in record time if you want it badly enough.

The 3 Sacred Steps to Converting Passion to Income

1. Separate passion from reality.

We must start with brainstorming your passion projects in a way that encourages success. Unfortunately most people do the opposite.

As humans, our immediate reaction to someone’s new idea (or our own) often is to figure out why it won’t work. I know, sad but true. The problem is that when you get critical of something the moment the idea comes up, it gets stomped out immediately. It might not even make it more than a sentence or two before someone else yells out the reasons it ‘obviously’ won’t work. Then you feel stupid and move on.

But if that idea were given say five or ten minutes of brainstorming whiteboard action, along with a solid dose of open, creative and non-critical discussion, it’s very possible that the idea would turn out to have some merit.

Imagine how many brilliant ideas get killed too soon due to premature criticism.

This happens with passion every day—even if we’re just doing it in our own head (which is the most likely and most dangerous case). A lot of times when we task ourselves to think of our passions we only allow ourselves to play in part of the sandbox. Since the end goal is to find something we can make a living from, we subconsciously discard the ideas that are totally off the wall. We stifle our creativity without even knowing it.

In order to have a fighting chance at developing world-changing business ideas or personal passion pursuits, you absolutely must separate the creative and the critical stages.

Brainstorm your most far-out dreams of passion careers you can think of. Then wait for at least a few days if not a week or more before you start to get practical and critical. Mark my words, for every wild idea you come up with, I’m sure there’s already someone out there making a great living off it (and that’s a good thing). More on finding them below.

2. Be the expert you already are.

One of the most common barriers keeping people from making money from their passion is the belief that you don’t know something well enough to get paid to teach it to someone else.

That’s just flat wrong – You know more than you think. Being an expert is purely relative and based largely on perception.

The crazy thing is once you find something you’re passionate about, you’ll likely realize it’s something you’ve been learning and improving upon for years and maybe even decades. You have more experience with your passion than likely 99% of those around you, simply because you love doing it.

If you’ve been on this earth for at least a couple decades, I guarantee you’re an expert at something. Give yourself some credit. Find what it is and find the people who desperately need your help. Combine the two and living off your passion starts to become a reality.

3. Do the impossible.

For decades, breaking the four-minute mile was believed to be scientifically impossible. Right up until Roger Banister did it in 1954. Then you know what happened? 16 more people ran sub four-minutes in the three years to follow.

We’ve been largely conditioned that it’s not possible to build a career around passion. So many people hate their jobs and many of us have decided to accept that as a fact of life. I did too, right up until I started meeting people who showed me another way.

Listen carefully. The most crucial ingredient to loving your work and living off passion is to surround yourself with people already doing it. You must reverse the brainwashing. Spend time around enough people living squarely in their dreams, and living off passion not only becomes possible, it becomes probable. That shift in psychology will change your world.

My recent course, Live Off Your Passion, as well as my site, Live Your Legend, would not exist today if it wasn’t for the ‘crazy’ people I spend time with every day. Leo is at the top of that list. He and others changed my thinking from “making a living online, helping people while doing something I love, isn’t possible” to “I can’t imagine any other way to build a career”. Thanks to Leo and the rest of you.

Once someone knows the process and is convinced not only that it works, but that it is indeed possible, their creative and business potential becomes limitless. It’s just a matter of time before they turn the passion of their choosing into a full-blown career.

Start surrounding yourself with people doing the impossible. Don’t look back.

Who can you help right now?

Often the first step to living off passion, and the most realistic for those scared of the threatening income gap, is to start working with people one-on-one.

Remember, there are things you are better at (and enjoy more) than the great majority of those around you. There are also people actively looking for the expertise you have.

Find the right connection and you could begin making money from a passion tomorrow if you wanted to. It’s that powerful. And it’s that fast.

Need reassurance? Go do some research on some of the people charging folks and making a living from the skill and passion you enjoy. Are they all the next Steve Jobs? I doubt it. They just decided to focus their energy where they could help the most.

The great majority of people who have not been able to monetize a passion does not come down to lack of skill. It does not come down to lack of credentials. It does not come from lack of experience.

It comes from lack of creativity and courage.

Combine those two with something that makes you come alive, and the world will be beating your door down to give you their money.

Crossing the Chasm—From 80% to 20%

A recent study reported that as many as 80% of the people in the workforce don’t enjoy their job. And nearly 75% don’t know their true passion.

This is not a coincidence.

You don’t have to be one of them.

What would happen if we could reverse that statistic? Think about it for a second.

If we can begin building an income around the things that excite us, our work will no longer be something we loathe. It will be something we can’t get enough of. Which quickly becomes something the world can’t get enough of. If we can do that, we can literally change the world.

The all-important first dollar

The first hurdle in living off your passion is realizing it’s possible to get paid to do what you enjoy—to show yourself that you’re capable of helping people and they are willing to pay you for it. Whether it’s $1, $15, $100 or $1,000, the point is to make the massively huge leap from earning exactly ZERO from what you enjoy doing, to earning something. Anything.

People will find value in what you have to offer, but you’ll never know unless you start offering it.

In my years of passion research around the world, one belief has become a part of my core more than any other: If you can find something you’re passionate about, you can find a way to turn that passion into profit. I’ve seen too many examples of people living their dreams to believe anything else.

You just have to be willing to get a little creative.

So when are you going to join the 20% club?

You have the tools. The rest is on you.

Scott Dinsmore is the founder of  Live Your Legend, and the author of Live Off Your Passion: An Unconventional Guide to Finding Passion and Getting Paid to Do Work You Love. Click here to visit his site

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