Explore every episode of the podcast The OpenWorld Podcast: Live Without Limits

"Work is not a chore; it is a sacred dialogue with the world." -Hide Enomoto Most people spend their lives trying to find the "perfect" career, but today’s guest argues that a calling isn't found—it’s built. Hideyoshi "Hide" Enomoto is a pioneer of the coaching movement in Japan and the author of The True Work. From the corporate heights of Tokyo to the radical simplicity of a Scottish eco-village, Hide has spent his life studying the "invisible" side of success. In this episode, he breaks down his transformative framework for moving beyond "Social Desire" and "Salaryman Dread" into a life of Pure Resonance. Whether you are a founder or a nomad, Hide’s wisdom will help you stop looking for a job and start building a calling. In this interview, Hide shares how to peel back the layers of "Social Desire" to find the work that feels like joy in motion. Whether you’re a digital nomad feeling "pleasant tension" or an entrepreneur trying to lead your team like a symphony, this episode is a blueprint for living true. What You’ll Learn in This Episode: The London Glass: How a childhood trauma involving racism and broken windows became the catalyst for a lifelong mission of deep human connection. The Two Glasses: Why we need to swap the "Survival Lens" (work as a means to an end) for the "Purpose Lens" (work as an expression of the soul). Genuine Desire vs. Social Expectation: How to identify the activities that give you joy "for no reason" and why those are the seeds of your life's work. Resonant Leadership: A new model for entrepreneurs where leadership is defined by "vibration" and collective energy rather than hierarchy and control. The "Invisible Why": How an aspiring astronaut can find the same fulfillment in other fields by identifying the core desire (exploration) behind the title. The Power of Curiosity: Why "listening at the level of the soul" is the ultimate tool for cross-cultural connection in a divided world. Memorable Quotes: "A genuine desire is like a seed. You don’t need discipline for joy; you just need to water the curiosity until it grows into a flower." "Work is a process of exploring and expressing your life purpose. You don't need to wait until the end of your life to figure out why you are here." "If you see every challenge as a future resource, even a bad day for the ego becomes a great day for the soul." Resources Mentioned: Man's Search for Meaning: The work of Viktor Frankl and the concept of Logotherapy. Book: The True Work by Hideyoshi Enomoto. Coaching Philosophy: The Co-Active model and Hide’s work with the Living Well Institute (Yoku Kenusha). Thanks for listening and if you enjoyed this episode, don’t forget to subscribe and leave a review on Apple Podcasts!

Welcome to another exciting episode of the OpenWorld Podcast! In 2016, Palle Bo did what many only dream of: he sold his house, his car, and every piece of furniture he owned to become a "perpetual voyager." An award-winning Danish radio producer, Palle didn't just go on vacation—he launched an epic quest to visit every country on Earth and document the "story behind the story." Known as The Radio Vagabond, Palle has produced over 650 episodes from the road, ranging from the vibrant chaos of Accra to the raw, somber reality of war-torn Ukraine. But this isn't just a travelogue; it's a masterclass in lifestyle design. In this episode, Palle reveals how he maintains a full-time income while navigating border bribes and "sunless" apartments, and why the greatest risk to your freedom isn't a lack of money—it's the paralysis of overthinking. What You’ll Learn in This Episode: The "Burn the Ships" Moment: How Palle transitioned from owning 17 radio stations to living out of a suitcase at age 50. The Ghana Incident: A cautionary (and hilarious) tale of how a missing name on a vaccination card nearly grounded his entire global mission. Storytelling as a Business Asset: How to turn your global experiences into a "storytelling machine" that delivers massive ROI. The "Fork in the Road" Philosophy: Why saying "yes" to the unknown is the ultimate hack for serendipity and success. Productivity for Nomads: Palle’s strategy for using TPN (Task Positive Network) vs. DMN (Default Mode Network) to work in high-intensity sprints so he can be fully present for the adventure. Lessons from Buenos Aires: Why you should discover the best places before you leave (and how to avoid the "Barrio Norte" trap).

What does it take to visit 149 countries while building a global business from your laptop? In this episode, Danny sits down with Orest Zub, a Ukrainian serial entrepreneur, digital nomad pioneer, and the Managing Partner of NomadMania. Orest shares his transition from a law student to a war reporter and, eventually, a leader in the "extreme travel" industry. We dive deep into the philosophy of "intentional travel," the "Wheel of Life" theory for holistic success, and a raw discussion on the importance of mental health even when living a high-performance lifestyle. In This Episode, You’ll Learn: The Pivot to Freedom: How Orest realized a traditional legal career wouldn't offer the geographical freedom he craved and how he launched his first online venture in 2012. Professionalizing Extreme Travel: An inside look at NomadMania, a platform that helps travelers track trips across 1,600+ unique regions and connect with a global community. The Reality of Uzbekistan: Why this Central Asian nation is the "modern Silk Road" and a must-visit for undiscovered culture. The "Wheel of Life": Orest’s framework for balancing physical health (including his 3x weekly tennis metric), career, and relationships. Travel as a Mental Health Tool: A candid discussion on Orest's recent experience with clinical depression and why mental health must be treated with the same urgency as a physical injury. The "Don’t Be an Ahole" Rule:** A profound story from India that illustrates why the world is smaller than you think and why maintaining good relationships is your greatest asset. "Travel is the only expense that makes you richer." Resources Mentioned: NomadMania: The premier platform for tracking your travels and connecting with extreme travelers. Visit NomadMania.com. Bansko Nomad Fest: Where Orest shares his insights on lifestyle design. Connect with Orest: Follow him on Instagram and Facebook. Show Timeline: [00:00] Intro: Who is Orest Zub? [04:57] Life as a war reporter during the full-scale invasion of Ukraine. [12:54] Shifting from Law to Digital Entrepreneurship. [16:36] The power of compound interest in your career. [23:50] A lesson in kindness: Reconnecting with a gardener from Barcelona. [34:55] How to finance extensive travel at every stage of life. [54:02] A raw look at mental health and clinical depression.

"Ships do not sink because of the water around them; ships sink because of the water that gets in them." — Freeman Fung Our guest today is Freeman Fung, an international author, speaker, and Mindvalley certified coach who is on a mission to help people adapt in our modern, globalized world. Originally from Hong Kong, Freeman’s life was transformed at age 19 when he left home solo to live in Europe and began a decade-long journey of living, studying, and working in over 30 countries. He is a TEDx speaker, a Shaolin martial artist, a biohacker, and a dedicated lucid dreamer (or "oneironaut") who uses the depths of the mind as a territory for personal growth. We both met in Japan recently where we both spoke at Colive Fukuoka.  In his book, "Travel to Transform," he provides a map for shifting from a local (which he describes as ego-centric) to a "world-centric" mindset, raising our self-awareness and metacognition, by using travel as the ultimate fast-track for personal mastery. Notable Quotes "Global citizenship is not a result; it’s a mindset. It’s a way of seeing, a way of thinking, a way of living—at work or play, travelling or not travelling." "I am not what happens to me; I am who I choose to become." "The world is what we think it is, but there is a world beyond our thinking."

Today I have the pleasure of hosting an insightful interview with my friend and entrepreneur coach, George Katsiouras, as he reveals helpful strategies for us to break through mental barriers and achieve better performance and growth in our lives. One of the characteristics of the most successful and effective people is their speed of implementation. The most effective entrepreneurs have found a way to come to peace with their internal dialogue and reduce their internal resistance so that it doesn’t interfere with their performance. In the interview George shared several helpful ideas and metaphors to help us “reframe” our mindsets and better understand our growth as an individual and an entrepreneur. He explains why we trap ourselves with expectations, and how to feel more optimistic about our lives, standards, and qualities so that we are better equipped to handle the daily challenges that come with the entrepreneur life. He helps us to reassess our measuring stick of success in a way that empowers us and makes us less outcome-oriented. This interview offers an illuminating perspective into George’s system, the Effortless Action Protocol (E.A.P) and we discuss practical techniques to reframe your thinking and how they can translate to real world results. Learn how George has helped entrepreneurs worldwide double their income, secure dream clients, and 10x their productivity. Don’t miss this opportunity to gain a competitive edge and transform your mindset!

Join me in welcoming Christian Petersen (@chrisbuildsbrands) to the podcast! A lifelong traveler who has lived in Australia, Bali, Thailand, and Spain, Christian has become a trusted expert for creators and entrepreneurs who want to show up confidently on camera. With a blend of global experience, storytelling insight and on-camera performance coaching, he helps founders communicate with authenticity and turn their presence into a powerful marketing asset. If you're ready to strengthen your brand and show up more boldly online, then you're going to love this interview. More specifically, we discuss the best ways to work on your business rather than in it, and turn your passion into income. Chris is an expert at helping coaches and creators to turn their personal brand and social media into a sales machine, and he teaches us how to do it! He also shares his technical expertise with us to make your processes more efficient, so you can focus on scaling and growth rather than just putting out fires.

Welcome to another exciting episode of the OpenWorld podcast! We are back again with fresh new content for our you. In this episode, I'm joined by my friend Jonathan, AI futurist and founder of the Collective, a private AI mastermind for seven and eight figure entrepreneurs. Jonathan is a serial entrepreneur himself with over 30 ventures under his belt in technology, education, and e-commerce, with a unique vision for accelerating growth. As the owner of a Public Company, Co-Founder of an AI Startup, and the visionary mind behind A.I., WEB3, & Exponential Tech Lab, he has crafted four million-dollar brands spanning three different industries. His strategic prowess has led to three successful exits, and some notable clients in his portfolio include Audi, Maserati, NOKIA, and other industry giants. He has also worked with politicians, the Secretary of Defense of Mexico, and Fortune 500 companies. In the fast-evolving Digital Age, Jonathan believes in using patterns, social factors, and technology to reap not only monetary rewards but also to support humanity and the world of tomorrow. His mantra is clear: “Creating value out of nothing.” In this exclusive interview, we will discuss: – Strategies for Explosive Growth: Learn firsthand from Jonathan’s track record of creating and scaling million-dollar brands– Global Business Expansion: Understand the intricacies of taking a company to a global scale and successful exits– Clientele Management: Gain insights into client relations and management by delving into Jonathan’s experiences with renowned names like Audi, Maserati, NOKIA, and more.– Multi-Industry Mastery: Explore the dynamics of working across technology, education, and e-commerce sectors.Navigating Political and Fortune 500 Arenas: Hear about Jonathan’s experiences collaborating with political figures and Fortune 500 companies. Understand the strategies for thriving in high-stakes, influential environments.– Business Innovation: Discover strategies to leverage AI, WEB3, and exponential technologies to stay at the forefront of business innovation. Hope you enjoy the interview and thanks for listening! :)

In the last episode, we discussed an important concept in stoicism and how to reprogram the way that we look at failure and our relationship with failure. In this podcast let's learn how to program ourselves for massive success. In order for us to enjoy massive growth and massive success in our careers and in our lives, we have to first develop the capacity within us for massive success. It has to become our natural state of being. We have to normalize it. Anything that you think is impossible, difficult, challenging, needs to become normalized. It needs to become your normal state of being. When you program yourself at a higher level, it can't help but become your natural state of being and all of the success that you want will follow. As far as I know, there are at least four ways I know to program ourselves for massive success and abundance. Words, pictures, feelings, and kindness. Words There are reasons that I listen to guided meditations and affirmations on YouTube. The words that you tell yourself that you program into your mind, are the most important building block for creating the day and ultimately the life that you want. There is simply nothing more powerful. And you have to think about this motivation, this programming as something part of your daily routine just like showering and drinking your morning coffee or tea. If you were a high performance athlete, such as an Olympic athlete, you don't have the luxury of having mediocre thoughts, if you want to win a medal for your country. You can't just go and say I'm just going to give it my best. I'm just happy to be able to compete. You can say that, but if you want to perform your best, and have the best chance of winning, you have to program yourself with the most empowering thoughts possible. And we should do exactly the same, every morning when we wake up we should program ourselves with the most powerful thoughts, the most powerful affirmations so that we are on the level of an Olympic athlete. Muhammad Ali used to tell himself every day, “I am the greatest,” long before he ever was, and then went on to become the greatest. We don't need to compete in professional sports. But we do need to build this capacity for greatness, and we need to make it normal and familiar to us. This is one of the best ways that we do it.  Pictures Using visualization and creating mental pictures and mental movies is another way to expand our capacity for more success and abundance. Can you start to imagine yourself as being the ultra successful, super fulfilled and satisfied person that you see yourself in the future at this very moment? Is it possible to recreate that feeling of success and let it fill your body right now. Just take a minute and imagine everything. Imagine that your business has reached levels of success that you could not even expect. Imagine how you will celebrate. What will you do to celebrate your success? Can you go out and start to celebrate that success now? Can you do the activities that give you that feeling of success? Money visualization The next visualization involves money. I want you to imagine your money worth. However you think of it. It could be your bank balance, it could be your assets, it could be your monthly or annual income.  Whatever it is, imagine that you're looking at that number. Then imagine that it's 50% more than it is right now. Then imagine that it's twice as much as it is right now. Then keep going. Five times, 10 times. Imagine that you reached your destination. Think of everything around you, think of how you feel. Can you feel that way now? Do this, and it will increase your capacity. Visualize energy The last visualization exercise involves energy. Are you holding on to any energy that you don't want? Did someone give you energy which you don't want to hold on to anymore? Holding on to this negative energy is like carrying a backpack full of rocks. I want you to take all of that energy and just put it into a big ball. It can be any color that you want to imagine. And then I want you to just release it, like a balloon. Watch as it just slowly fades away into the distance. Now do the same with all of your fears. These also do not belong to you. So take them all and put them into a ball of energy, a different color than before. Then just release it, and watch it slowly fade away. All of that negative energy and fear from others, of that some external factor forced onto you, no longer belongs to you. It no longer has any influence on you, or any power to weigh you down. Feelings There's a story related by Ken Honda where he talks about when he was walking in the park with Wahei Takeda, Japanese billionaire. Ken was trying to pick his brain to understand the characteristics that make up billionaires. Wahei told him to just take a moment to pause and notice all of the abundance around them. The singing of the birds, the abundance of trees, the magnificence of the sunlight sparkling on the lake. The important lesson, is that there is already abundance everywhere. Chances are, that we are not appreciating the things that we already have to the extent that we could be. When I drink my cup of coffee in the morning, I get the same feeling like a millionaire as I might if I bought something 100,000x more expensive. And that cup of coffee will taste the exact same whether I'm a billionaire or just an average person. In his book, Honda says that "the more you appreciate, the more things appreciate." The more that we appreciate all of the abundance around us, the more capacity we create in our minds to create more abundance. "The more you appreciate, the more things appreciate." Kindness Our brains are chronically in "threat mode." This is a byproduct of outdated evolution. We are naturally fearful creatures, because in the past the most cautious of our human race survived and passed on its genes. This is a problem, because when we start to view our work as a burden, or we start to feel threatened by potential leads or our clients, then we start to run away from what we need to do. We need to run towards challenges. We need to run towards our to-do list, towards our emails, towards putting ourselves"out there." So what I like to do, is to practice daily kindness, daily helping, daily giving value. If I am talking to potential prospects and leads, I will start with brand new ones, and I will perform a helpful gesture or an act of kindness for them as a warm-up before I take on more important sales calls and appointments. This is really powerful, because it takes me out of the threat mode. It breaks down my internal resistance, and the guard of others. It makes me less defensive when I communicate to people, and it programs me to have the capacity for abundance. Einstein told us that the most important question in life is: "Is the universe a friendly place? Because your answer determines whether you build bridges, or you build walls."

Amor Fati – the antidote to anxiety and procrastination Amor fati is a Latin phrase that may be translated as "love of fate" or "love of one's fate". It is used to describe an attitude in which one sees everything that happens in one's life, including suffering and loss, as good or, at the very least, necessary. You need to have the mindset that it is impossible to fail. You need to be able to see what other people call failures as stepping stones to get you to success. Let me ask you a question. If you publish a post then it only gets one likes, how do you feel? If you publish the post and it got a thousand likes, how would you feel? Similarly, if you ran a promotion and it gets one sign up, how do you feel? If you run a promotion and it gets 10,000 signups how do you feel? Is it possible that you can feel the same regardless of whether you get results poor results far your expectations or amazing results that far exceed them? When you become indifferent to the outcome, you have tremendous Jedi level power. Why? Because you can get up every day and grind in ways that people who are emotionally attached cannot. If you had a bad day, if you had a failure, it's so easy to wake up the next day and charge ahead and get right back at it again. Whether something good or bad happens, can you be able to see it as a positive? Can you look at your past experiences to see things that you consider bad, and try to consider how something good might have actually come from it? There's a story of an old Taoist farmer that I want to share with you. On his farm he had one horse. One day, the gate was left open and the horse ran away. All of his friends said, such bad luck! He just replied, "Maybe. We'll see." Then suddenly, the horse came back a few days ago with three more wild mares. His friends once again said, “such good luck!” Again he replied, "Maybe. We'll see." As his son was breaking in one of the wild horses, it threw him from his saddle and he broke his leg. Once more his neighbors came over and said, “such bad luck!” He replied, "Maybe. We'll see.” The next day, military officials from the government came to the town to conscript young men for service in the military. Seeing that the son's leg was broken, they passed him by. Shortly after, almost all of the young men who were drafted perished in a great battle. Once again, the neighbors congratulated the farmer on how well things had turned out and told him “such good luck.” “Maybe,” said the farmer. The winds of fortune are always in flux. We need to arrive at a state of mind where chance does not affect us. Life does not always give us what we want, it gives us what we need. Nothing is good or bad, it simply is. 

Today I want to tell you about a very simple exercise that only takes a few minutes. And you can do this anytime that you feel yourself full of doubt about whether you're going to do something, whenever you feel like you're facing something that's impossible.  I'm going to teach you how to make that not only feel less impossible but how to make it's fulfillment inevitable. It's actually very simple: where the body goes, the mind follows. So imagine that there's three types of statements that you could make. One is a true statement like "the sun will rise tomorrow." You know that pretty close to 100% that it is a true statement. It is inevitable. Another one might be a maybe statement, like "I will work out tomorrow." And then the third one is something that would be completely untrue, like "the sun will explode tomorrow." So what do you do next is that whenever you come up with these kinds of statements you want to observe and see where you experience that thought in your body. For each person that can be something different. When I make a true statement, like "the sun will rise tomorrow," I feel that in my chest. It is very close to my heart. That's where my convictions are stored in my body. That is where I feel my truth. A maybe statement like "I will meet my friend for lunch tomorrow," is something that I feel is kind of up in the clouds. It's kind of at the tip of my head, it's kind of a question mark. Then let's take a statement which I know is impossible, like "the sun will sink into a black hole this week." Or, "will be hit by an asteroid tomorrow." It seems kind of farcical and nonsensical and I sort of feel it like in the tips of my limbs, the tips of my toes. So what you do, is whenever you have a statement or a thought which you feel like it's not likely to happen, you can move it from one part of your body to another part of your body. So for example, you can take statements that you think would never happen and start to believe that "well, maybe that could happen." "There might be a possibility that that could happen." Or you can take the statements that are maybe, and move those from up into the clouds to the center where it becomes a conviction. And so, through an exercise like this, you can notice where thoughts are stored in your body, and if it's not serving you you can move it somewhere else. In this way, what you think is very hard, or difficult, or very challenging or even impossible, you can put it somewhere where it becomes inevitable. By the same token, you can reject thoughts and beliefs that you don't wish to have and push them towards a different location so that they feel less true. Remember that visualization is more potent when followed up by action, so the next thing to do is simple. Come up with the immediate step that you're going to take today to physically act upon this impulse.

"Until You Make The Unconscious Conscious It Will Direct Your Life And You'll Call It Fate" -- Carl Jung In some of my recent posts on social media, I have talked about the importance of listening to your intuition and following it throughout your life. In today’s episode I want to share a couple of the best ways to develop your intuition and listen to your inner voice and how to use it for creative problem solving. This is one of the simplest and most effective ways to develop your intuition and to really understand it and shape it. The human brain has five brainwave states, these are: beta, alpha, theta, delta, and gamma. We spend most of our waking lives in the first state, which is the beta state. But most of our lives are actually directed by the deeper states of consciousness, and very few of us realize it. When we wake up from sleep, for the first 20 minutes our brains are in an alpha state. This is called "the doorway to the subconscious." I've always found the most fascinating insights immediately after waking up. My mind is suddenly full of all kinds of thoughts that I would never have consciously ever imagined during waking hours. And so one of the ways that you build up the muscles in your alpha brain state is to use what's called the alpha countdown exercise. Basically, within the first 20 minutes of waking you just count down backwards from 100 to 1. And what this does, is it trains you to operate within your alpha brain state. If you practice this everyday for a few months, you will start to gain a greater awareness and understanding of your subconscious. A couple of other techniques which I like to use involve journaling and guided meditation. I use guided meditation to program my subconscious mind with the thoughts and direction that I want it to have, both before going to bed at night and after waking up. Journaling before and after waking is great as well. When you write down your to-do list before going to bed, your subconscious mind will go to work on ways to solve tomorrow's tasks and problems while you sleep. Likewise, you can listen to guided meditations twenty minutes before and after sleeping so that you can program the thoughts and beliefs that you want to internalize. Finally, I find that much of my best writing comes immediately after waking up in the morning (or in the middle of the night). Most of the profound insights come from the alpha brainstate, before I start getting into the beta state and performing a whole bunch of routine daily mundane tasks. So when you wake up, whether you have dreams or not, observe the thoughts that you have when you wake up and find a way to record them. You don't always have to write, sometimes I just open my phone and talk and transcribe everything that my subconscious mind is telling me.

I have many friends lately that have been telling me that they are disappointed with themselves because of expectations that they have set that they feel like they are not living up to. And I think that the solution is very simple. There's something that's better than expectations. What's better than expectations is intuition. It always knows what you have to do. It always knows the next thing that you have to do. I like to think of it like going up a dark staircase. You can't really see 10 or 20 steps ahead of you, yet that is what everyone tries to do. You can only see maybe the first step, the next step, maybe the next two steps, maybe the next three steps and those are exactly the steps that you need to take. So if you listen to your intuition it's much easier than trying to meet these expectations which you don't even know how to get to in the first place and trying to jump 20 steps ahead when you have no clue. You just end up falling on your face and of course you are going to be disappointed. Another analogy that I like to make is that living well is like a form of sailing. You let the natural energy take you, you let the winds energy carry you. This is much easier than rowing and trying to use all your strength and all your energy and all your willpower. That might take you short distances but it can't carry you across the entire ocean.  It burns energy very inefficiently. it's much easier to just let things flow, follow your intuition because it already knows the next thing that you have to do.

As a marketer and an entrepreneur, programming myself with the right thoughts is something that I find essential to do everyday. Like working out the body, it's also important to train the mind. We take showers everyday, it's considered normal. But how many of us actively have systems in place to motivate ourselves and program the right thoughts and attitudes every single day? The first and easiest step is to practice some type of active meditation. This is not meditation as most people think of it, where they have to set aside time by themselves and clear their mind. It's about setting an intention and using the gears in your mind to propel you forward your intention. It's not about clearing your mind but setting it in the path that you wanted to go. For this, I highly recommend starting with some guided meditations. It's very simple, when you are getting ready for your day or having breakfast, you can listen to simple 20 minute audios that program you to be successful at anything that you choose to do. You can find many great guided meditations just from YouTube. You can easily search for and find guided meditations from some of the following creators: Dare to do Motivation, Marisa Peer, Paul, McKenna, Bob Proctor, Michael Sealey, etc. The power of listening to these audios everyday is that rather than leaving your mind to its own devices, you start it on the course that will give you the best results. You program it to reject disempowering thoughts and replace them with more empowering thoughts and beliefs. And this is especially important when it comes to creating the unshakable foundation that you need to grow your business. To successfully promote your product, it is also essential to integrate these types of beliefs: At the deeper state you can repeat the following beneficial statements: "My increasing mental consciousness is for serving humanity better." "Every day, in every way, I am getting better and better and better." "Positive thoughts bring me benefits and advantages that I desire." These are the three beneficial statements from the Silva meditation system. In addition to these, you can also program the following beliefs: "My job is to serve and give value. I will make the effort to help someone, whenever possible, every single day." Now I know that there are some people who may be rolling their eyes at all of this. But my question to you is: when you try and take the required steps out of your comfort zone and the moment of truth comes, are you prepared to face the potential hostility without missing a step? Even just the thought of promoting a product and encountering hostility can stop a lot of people from even trying! Even just dealing with the clients that you already have can be nerve-rattling! And yes, I do speak from experience. That is why what I'm teaching right now is so incredibly important.  If you have a purpose, if your mission is to help bring abundance and be a positive influence on everyone around you, doors will open for you where they may once have been shut.

For those of you who have been following me for a while you know I've done a lot of experiments about productivity to see how I can basically become a better version of myself. I want to accomplish more and just feel like I'm achieving something everyday and making the most of my time. Here on the blog, I've shared my experiments with different productivity hacks like polyphasic sleep as well as how I engineer my environment for peak productivity. One year when I wrote five or six e-books I did all of my writing on the Bangkok SkyTrain because for whatever reason I was in the zone, and without internet I had very little distractions. I just got my laptop out and started typing. What I want to share this time around are some of my revelations that I've uncovered within the last year or so.  Since the Covid era began, I've spent the time here in Vietnam which is a beautiful country and has a great cost of living so it's a very nice place to wait out a pandemic. However, last year Saigon began to go into a lockdown and I got out just before it was too late. I packed all my things and got on my motorcycle and drove up the coast, eventually ending up in a mountain city called Da Lat.  The lockdown in Saigon lasted about 4 months and it was extremely severe. But where I was up in the mountains, I was prospering. The cost of living was very low, my expenses were only around 13 USD today, including my room and all of my meals (and I eat a lot). I spent the time focusing on healing what needed to be healed, growing where I needed growth, listening to guided meditations every morning and taking courses from masterclass and mindvalley. Because life in the mountains was relatively simple and peaceful it gave me the space I needed to grow and to heal. Oftentimes I would rest early after sunset, sometimes in bed about 8:00 p.m. and waking up around 4 or 5:00 in the morning. This was a great exercise in simplifying my life, simplifying my routines, and also simplifying my diet. Basically I got into a routine where I didn't eat anything in the mornings and usually had my first meal in the early afternoon around 2:00 p.m., and ate everything within a 5 to 6 hour window.  It was incredibly convenient because in Da Lat, you could eat at an all you can eat vegetarian buffet for only 25,000 vnd (which is about $1 USD). And what I have found, is that during that stretch from 5:00 a.m. to 2:00 p.m., I have no issues at all with energy and productivity. If you have ever studied my work before, then you know that I'm all about managing energy, rather than managing time. And fasting seems to be, bar none, the best way that I can have my mind and body on board with what I want to do for the day, and operate at full steam without any sort of resistance or a fatigue.  Conversely, I always find myself very tired after I eat a meal and I don't want to do any work anymore. It's like my willpower is sapped. And all I want to do is rest. So on certain days when I want to take a nap, I will try and plan my naps after eating a big meal. People often ask me, since I wrote the book "Hack Sleep" and created a video course called The Sleep Hacking Masterclass whether I am sleeping better nowadays. But I think it's actually the wrong question. The issues that I have never really disappeared, but my capacity to manage my day in a way that suits me best has become greatly enhanced since I studied the content needed to write the book. It's about managing my energy and my body so that it does what I need it to get done. And this is really, really important for me particularly because I don't like to leave anything half finished. When I start something, it is very important for me to complete it.  I'm not interested in earning a participation medal for a good effort. If I say I want to do something, whether to myself or to someone else, it is absolutely essential that I do what I say. In any case, there's all kinds of literature about the benefits on the fasting online, from burning fat to extending lifespan. I don't need to get into all of the details on here, I just want it to share my own experiences and related in a way that's easy for the layman to understand, implement and benefit from in their own life.

We are hardwired to withdraw into a scarcity mindset because we think it protects us. By withdrawing into a figurative “shell,” we believe that we retreat into safety. Thousands of years ago, this was the case. This was how we survived. If you were kicked out of the tribe, more than likely you perished. And today we tend to continue adhering to this evolutionary mindset. We run away from things that make us feel uncomfortable. We run away from our emails. We run away from our to-do list. We stick with what is comfortable and resist doing things that can bring change. This can be a huge handicap when it comes to making the right decisions that lead us to abundance and wealth creation. Poor decisions caused by “turtling” behavior lead to long periods of hemming and hawing, frustration, and delay. In short, ineptitude. This mindset paralyzes so that we act dead, trapped in a non-generative retreat from living. When we hold onto a scarcity mindset, we doubt genuine opportunities. In general, we lack confidence of overall success. And worse still, it causes us to sabotage ourselves. But here’s the reality of the situation: The entrepreneurs who have experienced meteoric success have a huge “reality distortion field.” Richard Branson, who has undertaken numerous death-defying stunts throughout his lifetime, is an example. Elon Musk is another. They aren’t so blindly optimistic that they don’t realize potential risks, but their mindset more than compensates for any potential stumbling blocks. Musk, incredibly, is certain that what we experience as reality is nothing more than a sort of virtual simulation created by a more advanced life form. He recently insisted that our odds of living in “base reality” are less than 1 in 1,000,000,000. Is it any wonder, then, that his goals (and the expectations he sets for himself and those around him) seem outlandish and far-fetched when compared to our own? He literally believes he’s living in an altered reality than the one you or I take for granted. One where he can play by a different set of rules, one where things like failure and rejection are moot, one where he can dare to push the limit of reality. I believe there’s enormous power in deliberately calibrating our subjective view of reality in a way that empowers us to the utmost. Through the lens of mindfulness and introspection, we can adjust our subjective reality and thus what we’re able to accomplish. It starts with setting unrealistic goals. If your current goals don’t cause you to well up with excitement, then it’s time to go back to the drawing board. Embrace ideas and actions that challenge your preconceived notion of reality. Be flexible and fluid of thought. Question everything, including your own habits and beliefs. When presented with a new way of looking or doing things, try it out immediately and test the results in an objective fashion. Never become complacent in your routines or attitudes; when you do, it’s time to pause, take a step back, and reflect.

The world is full of critical people. They destroy dreams, both their own and others, by using words like "can't" and "won't." Choose instead to be a creator. Give things and people a chance. See the potential. See things as better than they are. Look for good in others. View events and situations through a positive filter. Always give value and abundance. And don't let the small thinking of some other people pollute your thinking. It's not lonely at the top, it's crowded at the bottom. Remember, that the most important words that you can ever speak are the ones that you speak to yourself. Your mind does what it thinks that you want. So tell it what you want. Feed it fuel for your intention. And remember to quickly forgive yourself whenever you’ve made a mistake. You were simply trying your best in that moment. Never use critical words of self-defeating thoughts, like calling yourself an “idiot.” Just say something else, like “You were so silly.” As Bruce Lee said: “Words cast spells. That’s why it’s called spelling.” Your words become energy and your energy influences how you shape each day. Cover art courtesy of freepik.com

Is there a possibility that the worst thing that you can imagine happening could actually be the best thing? Your life is going to be long and one of the only ways to not be dragged down into bitterness and live a happy life is to develop resilience. Anything you think might seem bad in the moment, can and often does turn out to have positive effects in the long-term. Anytime that you feel that you're going through something that is the worst thing that could ever happen, ask yourself is there a chance that this could be the best thing that could ever happen?  Maybe you don't see it today but one week, one month, or one year in the future, you might see things differently. There is a well-known Chinese proverb about a horse who ran away from a farmer. As it was his only horse, his neighbors sighed and said “What terrible luck.” But the farmer shrugged and said “Maybe so, maybe not. We’ll see.” A few days later, the horse returned home, leading a few wild mares back to the farm as well. The neighbors shouted out, “Your horse has returned, and brought several horses home with him. What great luck!” The farmer replied, “Maybe so, maybe not. We’ll see.” Later that week, the farmer’s son was trying to break one of the mares and she threw him to the ground, breaking his leg. The villagers cried, “Your son broke his leg, what terrible luck!” The farmer replied, “Maybe so, maybe not. We’ll see.” A few weeks later, soldiers from the national army marched through town, recruiting all the able-bodied boys for the army. They did not take the farmer’s son, still recovering from his injury. Friends shouted, “Your boy is spared, what tremendous luck!” To which the farmer replied, “Maybe so, maybe not. We’ll see.” The moral of this story, is, of course, that no event, in and of itself, can truly be judged as good or bad, lucky or unlucky, fortunate or unfortunate, but that only time will tell the whole story.  Heroes are born in hard times and adversity shapes us and makes us stronger.   Life doesn’t always give you what you want, it gives you what you need. Like a child who wants cake, he is given vegetables instead. Suffering only begins at the very moment you label something “bad.” But just think: could the “bad” things somehow lead to something good? Is there any way an event you considered “terrible,” could actually be the best thing that ever happened to you? Can you MAKE it the best thing that ever happened to you? Cover art courtesy of freepik.com

Welcome to another exciting episode of the OpenWorld podcast! After a long hiatus, I'm excited to kick off a new season with you all. We have great things in store! Today we bring you a value-packed episode from a friend, nomad, and entrepreneur that I truly admire. His name is Drew Taylor and he's one of the most industrious digital nomads that I know. The founder of Digital Nomad University, Drew is always sharing valuable resources about new ventures and income streams that he's tinkering with and enjoying success on. His blog (and Facebook group) is full of useful content covering everything from travel hacking and affiliate marketing to effective lead generation techniques to get customers. Drew started out with a meat-grinder job doing phone sales, an opportunity he took up just because it was available. But with entrepreneur's DNA, it didn't take him long to branch out on his own. Since then, he's tried everything from online freight shipping to social media marketing to blogging and investing. Today, he is the proud owner of about 7 or 8 different sources of income. During the interview, we talk about all of this and a lot more. In particular, I was curious to ask Drew how he discovers profitable business opportunities, launches them, and monetizes them in short order. I've observed him do this in a number of different capacities and noticed that he has an uncanny knack for it. We talk a bit about our philosophies to life and business and how it guides everything we are doing, the resources that have helped us along the way, and much more. A common characteristic that Drew and I share (and that I notice among many people who are having success today) is that we are both doers. If we see a fork in the road, we take it. When we see a promising opportunity in front of us, we take a chance on it. I've noticed that 90% of people don't think or act this way -- when they see an opportunity, they delay, they think it over, they pause and wait... and perhaps six months or one year go by and still haven't taken any action. Towards the end of the interview we also talk about what I call our own "universal basic income" that we've both set up where we use AI Forex trading software to create a hands-off passive income stream. I'm hoping this interview inspires and empowers you to take decisive action as you move down your ideal path in life! Resources and Links• Drew's blog, Facebook group, and Instagram• The AI Forex software that Drew and I are using to extract recurring income from the markets.

Welcome to another episode of the OpenWorld podcast! Our guest, Vin Clancy, was living on welfare and benefits 3 years ago, until he received a check for $250,000 for one of his ideas. He used the growth hacking techniques he was learning to get millions of visitors to websites he created and raise hundreds of thousands of dollars in investment, and got into the Techstars accelerator. He made over $165,000 with his previous growth hacking book launch, “Secret Sauce,” and was previously on the OpenWorld podcast during the launch of that book in episode #90. Since then, he's changed his name from "Vincent Dignan" to "Vin Clancy." And with his new book, “Ace the Game,” he raised $10,000 in his first hour. This will be a fun chat between two deliquents who are living far outside of the conventional norms, having a bunch of fun, and running profitable businesses at the same time. Interestingly enough, Vin is also an expat based in Los Angeles, while I'm an expat based in Asia. So if you wanna learn some “hints” on how to do the same, and create freedom and leverage in your life, by having a profitable business that you don’t slave over, I know you will love this discussion. Vin starts out the interview by stressing the most important metric of growth hacking: you want sales. Indeed, this is perhaps the most important metric of business in general, and the reason why I no longer track things like website visits. Vin then shares his system for brand building -- which is perhaps the most important long-term business growth strategy. Because here's the secret: once you have established a platform and a respected brand, you no longer have to work so hard. It's the key to having customers and prospects rushing to work with you, instead of struggling to hard-sell cold prospects. Vin is one of the best self-promoters on the planet.  To streamline the process of building a powerful brand, Vin shares his hacks to content marketing and making sure that he's everywhere his prospects can find him. It's a strategy that I've also written about (you may have read about it in our newsletter), but Vin takes it further than perhaps anyone I've seen. Throughout the rest of the discussion, Vin shares juicy hacks and tips for creating powerful marketing videos, high-converting landing pages, Facebook ads, market research, influencer marketing, and more. We also talk about creating upsells, subscriptions, and memberships to fully monetize and lifetime value. I also ask Vin to share his views about the future of marketing, along with the hot little tool he's bullish on which few people know about and isn't competitive yet. This excellent chat with one of the world's leading growth hackers is definitely one you do not want to miss! Aaaand if you enjoy this episode, please be a friend and leave a review on iTunes :)

If you love travel and pursuing your passions, you’ll love this episode! Back in 2016, Celinne Da Costa took a huge leap of faith: she left her unfulfilling corporate life in New York City behind to design the life she wanted from scratch. Growing up as an Italian-Brazilian in the United States, she never subscribed to the idea of the American Dream. Instead she yearned for a lifestyle that allowed her to travel, write, and share meaningful experiences with others. Packing her carry-on, she got on a one-way plane to Europe, and spent close to a year putting her fate into the hands of people–mostly strangers–around the world, and had an astonishing +70 hosts in +20 countries across five continents. Her accommodations have ranged from a tiny hut in a small rural Nepalese village to a penthouse in the heart of Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. Her hunger for meeting and befriending locals wherever she goes have taken her on all sorts of adventures, including: meeting locals at a Myanmar monastery who showed her a secret cave where a monk has been meditating for 40 years, meeting a Tasmanian man at a meditation retreat in Nepal for 30 minutes and visiting him in Tasmania six months later, jumping on the back of a stranger’s motorcycle in Indonesia and spending the afternoon learning about the ancient art of Javanese puppet-making. Her biggest adventure of all, however, has been rediscovering what it truly means to be human. She shares this in her book “The Art of Being Human.” During the podcast, Celinne shares her story pursuing the typical "American Dream." Like many of us, she became disillusioned, realizing that she the dream being sold to her was simply buying a product, and that she needed to look inside herself for true happiness. We talk about how we have worked to create our identities, and the trappings of the ego. Celinne shared some remarkable insights about her daily rituals, and how she lives by pursuing three things that set her soul on fire each and every day. She also shared some things which are new to me, such as the "Tibetan rites" that she follows for her wellness, and how she creates a powerful mindset to help her win at work.

In this episode of the podcast I have the pleasure of welcoming my friend and fellow nomad extraordinaire, Doug Crowe. Doug is the chief instigator behind Real Best Seller and helps regular business people to create books and profitable businesses with their book as an anchor. An avid traveler, 

Doug travels around the world and seems to be in a new country almost every week. He recently brought his mother with him on an unforgettable voyage to Antarctica. We had a chance to hang out in Bangkok recently, where we rode bicycles around the old neighborhoods and floating markets, and had a fantastic time. As a veteran of the publishing industry, Doug possesses a wealth of knowledge and experience for what it takes to help people become bestselling authors. As an entrepreneur he earns $20k per project, which is aspirational and enviable (to give you an idea, I've never sold a one-off service for more than $3.5k, so you can tell there's a lot we can learn from him about high-ticket selling). Doug also offers a done-for-you social media marketing service and has a lot of “hacks” to share, so I was very curious to pick his brain about his unique strategies for generating leads and traffic. Doug got his start in real estate investing, and over twenty years became very successful. However in 2008, the real estate market crashed and he lost everything. Sixteen foreclosures. A painful divorce. Loss of his home, career, and self esteem. He had to start all over again from square one. He wrote his first book, but wasn't successful. He did however learn from successful personalities such as Robert Kiyosaki and Loral Langemeier about how to become an "entrepreneurial author," a writer who is able to get full leverage and monetization from their book and brand. In this podcast, Doug and I had a brilliant conversation about building your personal brand and platform, and building mutually beneficial high-value relationships with successful people and clients. We discuss strategies for content marketing and reaching markets with your message, the art of high-ticket selling, prospecting online, why "getting the short end of the stick" can help you be super successful, Doug's "newsjacking" technique, and much more! Hope you enjoy this interview with Doug and I! And please become a friend of the show and leave us a review on iTunes :)

On today's podcast we're speaking with Kim and Ryan Desmond who run CodingNomads, which teaches intensive software development courses around the world. When I first read about Kim and Ryan's business, I really thought they had taken the tough route - after all, setting up an onsite technical training camp in Bali or Thailand cannot be easy, right? However, Ryan's expertise with in-demand coding skills, Kim's chops in marketing, and the couple's combined dream to help people worldwide learn skills that can change their lives for the better drove them down this road. As you will hear, it has been extremely rewarding. They ran their first 3 international training courses in 2017, which went even better than hoped for. Students say that learning to code abroad actually helps them focus in on learning fast, whilst getting to experience the digital nomad lifestyle. It also creates a real family feel amongst the cohort, with many keeping in touch and helping each other after the course. Beyond CodingNomads, Kim and Ryan have particular insight on what it's like to start an international business as a couple, what they love about being digital nomads, and advice for those looking to take the travel leap. I am really looking forward to chatting with Ryan and Kim, and hearing more about how they've turned their skills and passions into their dream digital nomad jobs.

In this episode, we've flipped the tables and I'm the one being interviewed by my friend and new OpenWorld podcast co-host, Lloyd Hester. Sometime ago, Lloyd and I connected on Facebook and connected instantly as fellow entrepreneurs, global nomads, and kindred spirits. Both of us were the archetypal "square peg in the round hole" growing up; we really didn't fit in with traditional education and a traditional career path. Despite natural gifts, we always seemed to be the troublemakers, the ones who seemed to be destined for failure (or at least a life well outside of the traditional path to success). In this discussion I share with Lloyd the formative stages of my years of starting out in business as a young adult (starting at 23) and how I progressed into the entrepreneur I am today. We talk about all of the lessons I learnt along the way (most at a high cost!). For example, the first internet marketing program I spent set me back $3,500 -- which I couldn't afford, so I paid in installments and hustled as hard as I could for the rest. We talk about keys to productivity and effectiveness, building successful online businesses and products, and my long-term strategy for success. I also share my "black box advantage" that I've been using in my current main revenue-generating business which gives me the biggest competitive advantage. We talk about "grey hat" marketing strategies and how you can leverage technology to reach more people. I also share my process for creating efficient systems to unlock freedom in your business and life, and a bunch more! This was a very fun chat and an in-depth discussion, thank you for your continued patronage of our podcast and hope you enjoy!

Welcome to another exciting episode of the OpenWorld podcast! Today I'm joined by the one and only James Schramko, author of the new book "Work Less, Make more!" There are plenty of people who talk about lifestyle, and traveling and working remotely. Browse around on YouTube and you'll find plenty of "How to Live in Chiang Mai for $10 a Day" videos all over the place. James is a bit different. He is one of the only lifestyle guys who is earning six figures a month while working about 20 hours a week. He does this through a series of principles and processes that he's developed, which can be duplicated for virtually any type of business. He employs a small but effective team of five team people, and spends most of his time surfing, traveling, and wearing a big grin.  If you ever feel like you are working way too hard (or not earning enough for the time you put it), then you’ll love this interview. If you ever feel like you’re stuck doing work that’s not meaningful, James will help you find clarity and prioritize your direction. As the creator of SilverCircle, a private mastermind for six figure and seven figure business owners, James coaches the top entrepreneurs to help them reach the top of their game and reduce the struggle they face in business. Fire up the coffee pot and get ready for a whirlwind discussion between James and I about mental performance, productivity, psycho-cybernetics and sales psychology, personal branding and a whole lot more! Hope you enjoy the interview, leave us a comment if you have questions for James or me :)

Welcome to another interesting and educational episode of the OpenWorld podcast. In this episode I'm joined by my friend and colleague, Beck Power, who is hard at work building her digital nomad empire! Before she began her new life living abroad, Beck was working as a travel agent in New Zealand. She was earning a decent salary of $75,000, but she was making her company than two million! She thought I'm tired of making other people rich and decided to strike out on her own, come whatever. She hit the ground running, but it was much harder than she had anticipated. In May 2016, she lay silent on her bed, frozen in fear. She had just paid rent in my Bangkok apartment. As she stared at her phone screen, only 42 cents remained in her bank account. She had NO idea how she would pay rent next month. Everything she had tried up to that point was useless. She wasn't in the right mindset to pull anything together and would just give up and go back to bed. She felt like the biggest failure EVER. For two weeks, she cried herself to sleep and didn't leave the room. She had no idea what I was going to do. The fear crippled her from trying something new. She couldn't handle another failure, another piece of evidence that she should just give up this digital nomad dream and go home. As a last ditch effort she tried to discover a way to "reverse engineer" selling products online, a way that was completely different than anything she had tried before. By Christmas of 2016, she was making $3k a month. She implemented it for someone else and they made $4k the first month. She has since made almost a million dollars across more than eight funnels. Now, she's focused on creating a number of different useful products related to e-commerce, travel hacking, digital nomadism, and cryptocurrency. During this interview, Beck and I discuss everything related to digital nomadism and online entrepreneurship. We talk about mindset, marketing and promotion, travel hacking, growth hacking, and much more! Hope you enjoy the podcast and please leave us a review on iTunes if you like our show :)

Welcome to another action-packed episode of the OpenWorld podcast! In this interview I'm joined by a true man of mystery, the founder of Nomad Capitalist, the one and only Andrew Henderson. Andrew is one of the world’s most sought after experts on offshore and expat tax issues, second passports, and global citizenship. Andrew’s mission is to show you that geography is no longer a limiting factor and that you can exponentially improve your living situation. What I like about Andrew is he’s a doer, he doesn't just talk; he actually goes out and makes stuff happen.He has been blogging for five years at NomadCapitalist.com and today his blog reaches over 4 million readers. He’s also traveled for about 10 years and been to 89 countries and is one of the most established thought-leaders in the location independent lifestyle. Things he teaches: • Save hundreds of thousands in taxes • Create a second passport • Get started creating the business of your dreams • And and everything related to geo-arbitrage In this interview, Andrew shares his best advice for helping you keep more of their money, living where they want, and becoming a global citizen! We start by discussing Andrew's upbringing and the lessons his father instilled in him which contributed to his access, including Andrew's personal mantra, “go where you’re treated best.” We also discuss the finer points of long-term international travel, geoarbitrage and lifestyle design, overseas bank accounts, taxes, favorite destinations to live, travel, and invest, and much more!

Welcome to another fun episode of the podcast! Today I'm honored to be joined by a fellow Southern Californian :) He's a nomad currently calling in from Da Nang, Vietnam. We were neighbors together in San Diego, now both exploring the world. David s running a laptop business, traveling the world fulltime, wherever the wind takes him. He lived in Alaska for a year, traveled extensively through Europe, Asia, India, and Central America. He started out as a freelancer, and now he’s partnered with an expat and running a full on agency called Handmade SEO which you can see at handmadeseo.co. • Tips and tricks for making it as a freelancer • How David finds high-paying clients on Upwork • The trick David used to cut through the competition and differentiate himself • Strategies for consulting and converting clients • Favorite SEO strategies • Mistakes people make with their marketing activities • Why experts in a field handicap themselves • Techniques and tools to gain user feedback and improve websites • And much, much more! Hope you enjoy this fun chat between myself and my friend David. If you like our show and want us to keep going, please do take a moment to write a quick review on iTunes. We'd like to hear from you!  

Welcome to another episode of the OpenWorld podcast! In this episode, I give you a sneak peek into my new upcoming book, dubbed "Dr Growth." I'm really excited about this new book, and you'll soon see why! I've been hard at work for the last seven months to create one of the best and most comprehensive guides to growing your business and brand online. Through the course of launching five best selling books, starting a top-ranked blog and podcast, publishing courses, a magazine, and information products, appearing on more than 50 podcasts, I've had a hand in everything. I've learnt a ton about how to best bring products to the online market space -- and how to blend in the secret ingredients of leverage and automation for best results. In the new book, "Dr Growth," I share all of my best secrets -- most of which you will not find anywhere else, in any other book, or even on this blog. • How to create viral launches • How to automate lead generation with social media • Price, promotion, neuromarketing hacks • Hack press to become an internet celebrity • How to appear huge by being "Twitter famous" • The most effective free traffic source you aren't using • And a bunch more! In this free excerpt from the book, you'll receive exclusive access to the foreword of this exciting new project, titled "Marketing is War, Minus the Venom:" • Lessons in marketing from history's greatest generals • Why those who create their own rules win • The most fascinating dentist you've never heard of • How to thrive in a world of chaos and change • What separates the most successful entrepreneur from the rest. • Plus more! Hope you enjoy this episode! If you're interested in receiving an early copy of the new book as a beta reader or helping with the launch, please comment here or send me an email to: danny@openworldmag.com.

On this week's podcast I was interviewed by Chris Reynolds of the Entrepreneur House, a friend of mine who I met in Thailand. Chris has created a business accelerator for digital nomads and location-independent entrepreneurs and is connected to some of the best and most inspiring players in the game. It was an honor for me to chat with him and be featured on his podcast, which we've reproduced here. Hitchhiking through the south of India. Sree Manakshi Amman temple, Tamil Nadu. Chris calls me a "modern day Indiana Jones" entrepreneur and we discuss how I've made my life traveling and adventuring around the globe while creating online businesses over the past six years. This was a fun discussion between two veteran nomadic entrepreneurs where we discuss how we take traveling, adventure, productivity and entrepreneurship to another level. We also discuss some of our grandest business and lifestyle goals and our processes for achieving them! Today, I share a bit about my journey as what Chris calls an "adventrepreneur," some of the crazy travels I've been on, how I apply my adventurous mentality to being an entrepreneur and my new book. We also discuss accelerated learning, growth and life hacking, and exchange some great tips on how to maximize personal development. We discuss why mistakes and failure are an important stepping stone to success, and much more! If you desire more free time, personal power, and adventure in life, then you'll certainly love this discussion.

Welcome to another great episode of the OpenWorld podcast! As a podcast that encourages people to view the entire world as a home base (and potential market), we don't often feature the traditional Silicon Valley type of entrepreneurs and startups. Today's guest is an exception, as someone who grew up in Palo Alto, with companies like Google and LinkedIn in his backyard. It was there he began his journey four years ago... as a part-time valet driver. In this interview I have the pleasure of welcoming my friend Amar Ghose, whom I met recently in Bangkok. Amar is the founder of Zenmaid, a calendar and scheduling application for maid services. Today, Amar's business is doing well and is very profitable. In this chat we discussed how he was able to "rearrange his stars" and go from an employee earning a pittance to creating his own successful software as a service company with over 200 customers and traveling the world. In the beginning Amar struggled to find qualified prospects for his niche product - a struggle all too common to new businesses. He kept plugging away, kept testing methods, and eventually discovered how to make very profitable partnerships and the best mediums to promote to scale up to his first ten clients, 50 and then 200. Amar is a very smart guy, and we had a great discussion with a ton of insights related to marketing and lead generation. We also discuss how he created a successful software as a service business (with a model that can apply to any type of business) by uncovering the market needs, niche selection, entrepreneurship, and travel. The spark that set Amar on the entrepreneurial path Methods Amar and I have been using successfully to generate productized service leads using online portals Simple techniques to build a stronger professional network How Amar created two years worth of e-mail follow up content - to successfully nurture and convert leads over time The most effective client-getting lead followup / onboarding process that Amar has used How to easily craft powerful headlines and offers Best lead magnets and offers The #1 asset to focus on for long-term success and freedom Monetization strategies using value generation, cross-sells and affiliates Zenmaid's best marketing channel - and actionable takeaways Marketing on Linkedin, Amar's LinkedIn marketing course. And much, much more! Hope you enjoy this awesome interview with Amar! And please do remember to show your love for the show by writing us a review on iTunes!

Welcome to another action-packed episode of the OpenWorld podcast! If you're stricken by a sense of wanderlust and looking for inspiration, you're in exactly the right place! In this episode I'm by Matt Prior, a Briton based in Hong Kong. Matt is someone who truly takes adventure to a new level. He is a world record holder for the Highest Altitude Reached by a Taxi – 17,143ft. A former fighter jet pilot, an adventurer, and photographer. He recently just completed the world’s first circumnavigation of Lake Baikal, in winter, on the ice, in a WWII era motorbike. A member of the prestigious Explorers Club, his past endeavors have included circumnavigating Lake Baikal on a WWII-era Russian motorbike, traveling across Sri Lanka in a rickshaw, and even participating in a Guinness World Record-setting taxi journey at 17,143 feet. Prior's first real adventure began almost a decade ago, when he and a friend drove from London to Mongolia and back in a $180 1.0L car. He’s also created Matt Prior Adventure Academy, a one-week course that teaches people how to conquer and enjoy extreme travel experiences. He exposes travelers to the joy of traveling off the beaten path. • The highlights of Matt's exploits around the globe • Does Matt have any sense of fear? If not, why? • Reflections on death and living to the fullest. • Why Matt is drawn to extreme experiences. • Matt's philosophy and process for achievement - and how to identify plateaus in life and move beyond them. • Advice for funding a lifetime for adventures • A simple way to encounter failure and defeat and emerge as a success • The #1 regret of self made billionaires • Exactly what Matt said that brought a cadre of successful Hong Kong bankers to tears • Living with intention, visualization, and creating the "perfect picture" in life • Matt's advice for would-be adventurers who would follow in his footsteps • And so much more! This interview with Matt, our awesome guest, is sure to leave you inspired to dream bigger and to reach higher! No doubt you'll come out of it charged and ready to 5x or 10x your goals, as I have :) And please do remember to show your love for the show by writing us a review on iTunes!

In this interview of the podcast I'm joined by my good friend Pope Bustos. Hailing from Cordoba, Argentina, Pope and I met in the small town of Luang Prabang, our base from which we explored Northern Laos together on bicycle. As an expat based in Bangkok, Pope manages an exporting business and has created a great lifestyle for himself abroad. Like many of us, Pope started out following the "default path" that he felt he should follow, following in his family's heritage by studying law. And also like many of us, he quickly realized that following someone else's path wasn't for him. Going to court and wearing a suit didn't mesh with his personality, his dream was to go abroad and travel. He embarked on his first experience as a young man working abroad in the US, and despite only being able to speak ten words in English at first, he loved the experience. Later, when presented with an opportunity to live abroad in Thailand and become an entrepreneur, he immediately jumped on the chance. Since then, he's created a great lifestyle for himself of abundance, friendships, and travel. "That's the good thing, when you keep trying, trying, trying, experience teaches you how to grow and you find a way." - Pope Bustos This discussion provides a unique look into the experience of life as a successful and happy expat operating a business abroad. Some of the topics we discuss during the interview: • The effects of living abroad and doubling, tripling, and quadrupling life experience through travel • How traveling accelerates learning • The gifts of understanding, challenging our values, and empathy • Cognitive filtering and how your perception shapes your reality • Stories of unique cultural experiences and culture shock • Lessons and skills learned from local peoples • A look inside the expat lifestyle in Thailand • Three qualities to succeed as an expat entrepreneur • Highlights of the expat lifestyle • Why I was miserable when I started out as an entrepreneur - and how travel changed me • Best advice for anyone looking to make a positive lifestyle change • The most empowering outlook to break down limitations • Plus more! Hope you guys enjoy this latest interview of the podcast! I've worked very hard to keep this podcast going for you guys while on the road searching for strong internet connections and quiet mosquito-free rooms to record. I want to continue providing these free interviews for you guys out there for a long time - so please become a friend of the show by leaving us a review on iTunes. 

In this episode of the the podcast I have a special treat for you guys. Adrian is a 23 year-old Amazon author from Australia who has created a strong recurring income source through Kindle Publishing, having self-published more than 200 books. In January 2017 alone he just received royalties from Amazon for more than $11,000 from his book sales. We met last year in Chiang Mai where we co-hosted a presentation on self-publishing together. He also spends his time helping others to publish their own books through his course Freedom Self Publishing, writing for his blog Driven Living, and creating videos for his YouTube channel. Just a couple of years ago, Adrian was working a normal salaried job at a gym. But he knew he was destined for more. He had an itch for entrepreneurship and travel which couldn't be ignored. He began dabbling in online entrepreneurship peddling various products on eBay, from basketball jerseys to cosmetics, but found that selling physical products came with too many hassles. He discovered Kindle publishing, and the model suited him perfectly. At first, he stumbled learning the ropes and his first books were terrible. But within 12 months he was earning enough money to quit his job, and he hasn't looked back since. During the interview I picked Adrian's brain to share his entire formula for self-publishing success: The mentality that holds people - including Adrian at first - back The #1 biggest mistake that the majority of authors make - and what to do instead How to assess profitable opportunities and competition within an Amazon niche The #1 marketing "hack" How to use sites like www.ewritersolutions.com or www.hotghostwriter.com to get books ghostwritten on the cheap How to use tools like Kindle Spy and K Optimizer to simplify your life How to research what the market wants and create a killer outline for each book Quality controls to create books that sell Adrian's pricing strategy to sell printed books - which makes up 70-80% of his sales And much more! Enjoy this epic interview about self publishing with Kindle author Adrian Ingram! If you find value in what we're doing and want us to continue creating epic podcasts, please take a moment to hop over to iTunes and leave us a review. Thank you and see you next week! You might also like: How I've Optimized My Kindle Books for Better Rankings and Sales Earning Serious Bank with Kindle and Helping Others do the Same My Six Figure Self-Publishing Success Story

Today we’re going to talk a bit about love, a first on this show! Valentine’s day passed last month and if you found yourself single - as I have - you’ll probably take keen interest in this conversation. In this interview, I’m joined today by Aline Dahmen from Germany. A nomad for the last four years, she's on a mission to help nomads find love through Nomad Soulmates, an application for long-term travelers. She started out as a virtual assistant working remotely for $25 an hour, in the beginning working for exactly one hour per week, and has come a long way in her journey, launching her first Indiegogo campaign to help nomads find their soulmate.  Does a lifestyle of endless dream chasing, goal setting, and pursuing the next high in some exotic place come at a cost? There's a tiny voice in our heads, a shadow of something missing, that grows over time. It may be something we ignore at first, or overlook... but eventually it catches up to us. What good is it to rack up all these quirky travel memories with no one to share it with?  Watch the sun go down in Uluwatu without an extra set of eyes at your side? Fly in a hot air balloon above Bagan alone? It doesn't add up. Clearly life is better when shared with someone meaningful. Speaking from personal experience, I have failed at romance enough times to fuel my own soap opera. Travel exacerbates this. I've packed up and settled down, gone all-in for love, only to watch it vanish through my fingers. I've gone and done it all over again. Lots of hard lessons. Although being a nomad promises a life of adventure, fun, and friendships, this very unconventional lifestyle seemed to be holding people back from basic needs that we all have, such as love, belonging, and fulfilling relationships.  At some point, reality hits like a ton of bricks. It’s not as rosy and straightforward as we’d thought. We experience encounters with loneliness, heartbreak, missed chances – and it’s a tough freakin pill to swallow. To put it frankly, trying to find love as a digital nomad can suck! This podcast interview is centered around this discussion. We talk about: Why finding love as a nomad is so hard Ways nomads can find the kind of partner who really complements them Why the very things that make up the nomad DNA also holds them back How to manage finances as a digital nomad couple - who pays, when? Aline's business model and how she built her community first, then launched her product And much more! Hope you enjoyed this interview, please let us know your thoughts by leaving a comment! And if you like our show - become a friend. Write us a review on iTunes, each one counts!

He’s been a nomad for the past 15 years - nearly a decade longer than I have. For the last five years, he’s visited 30 countries a year on average, visiting about 15 new countries per year. He proudly declares to have never had a real job in his life. Today's guest is none other than the international entrepreneur, philanthropist, and adventure capitalist, Scott Brills. He’s an expert at creating and marketing businesses online since he was 19. He runs a successful web design business, Brothers Design and also organizes group tours around the world through his brand, Pamoja Safaris. Scott's journey begin with a stint living abroad in Japan fresh out of high school, way back in 2001. Fulltime traveling since 2001, visited almost 100 countries. For the last two years, leads culinary tours in Japan, adventure tours in Madigascar, and safaris in Tanzania. Scott and I had a really fun discussion discussing many of the highlights of his adventures around the globe, and discussed how to live the globetrotting lifestyle the way that Scott does. Just a few of his adventures include raising money for charity by driving a car from London to Mongolia, then from London to South Africa, driving the length of the Indian subcontinent in a rickshaw - twice, meeting Richard Branson at his private estate (Kasbah Tamadot) in Morocco, and so much more. During the discussion Scott also "peels back the curtain" and reveals what it takes to create a vibrant location-independent business and you’re completely free to roam the world and do whatever you want. We also bounce around ideas about how to create "passion projects" as side businesses (and fulltime businesses) and get them off the ground, where you do something you really love versus creating a boring business that only pays the bills, such as marketing or web design services. This was a really fun chat with a very interesting guy, hope you enjoy the interview! Please become a friend of our show, by leaving a review on iTunes. Every bit helps.

Hello and welcome to another exciting episode of the OpenWorld podcast! Today we're joined by our fabulous guest, Tayo Rockson. Tayo Rockson is a man doing big things with a big dream to make a difference in the world. He’s the host of As Told By Nomads podcast and has a YouTube channel called “Use Your Difference” which helps elevates cultural awareness. He also helps millennials pursue their passions in careers they love while making a difference. Tayo is a true global citizen; he has called Sweden, Burkina Faso, Nigeria, Vietnam and the United States home. I’ve been a guest on Tayo’s podcast and it was a great discussion, we had a great chat about leadership, and identified a common mission to create a new generation of global leaders. In this discussion, we reflect upon how experiences as a long-term nomad have shaped our lives and molded into more confident, self-aware, more compassionate leaders and entrepreneurs. Tayo has some unique stories to share. You'll learn how he's been able to absorb different cultures and form different viewpoints and perspectives. We also discuss how we, as people, can make better decisions and set meaningful goals with an eye towards the big picture that will help the most people. We also discuss how empathy can transform you and your efforts, stoicism and objectivity, our business models, delegating, leadership, and so much more! I think you'll come away from this interview feeling charged and with a fresh and new perspective to play big in the new year. Enjoy this episode with Tayo! If you like our show, please consider leaving us a review on iTunes :)

Thanks for joining for another episode of the OpenWorld podcast. Today I’m joined by Johannes Koeppel, a long-term nomad and wanderer who with two friends created a travel startup, WeTravel. Johannes has a pretty inspirational story around travel, entrepreneurship, and changing your life. Out of college, he moved from his native Switzerland to Central Asia to work for the Red Cross first in a prison facility in Uzbekistan, then as head of the Tajikistan office. While living there for 3 years, he began to organize group tours for Europeans hoping to explore Central Asia off the beaten path. This became the seed of an idea for a startup, and now WeTravel is an 11 person team speaking 22 languages and representing 8 different nationalities. Anyone can sign up on the site and earn a living or extra side hustle doing similar things across the globe. WeTravel's growth has been phenomenal, within a year and a half it has organized more than one million in tours just this month. In this episode we discuss: Johannes' adventures in off-the-beaten countries around the globe, his motivation for adventure travel, and how he's funded his trips - starting with selling Yo-Yos on the street during his youth Lessons learned from working with political prisoners in Central Asia - and how he started a business on the side - which became his main venture How his platform grew so quickly to more than 1 million in transactions in a month after just a year and a half after launch How his team achieved its "product / market fit" based on early user testing (applicable to any type of business) How WeTravel helps travel-lovers become entrepreneurs How anyone can take advantage of the rise of the "sharing economy" to start a side business, or just live beyond their means Plus a bunch more! Hope you enjoy this interview with Johannes! If you enjoy our podcast, show your appreciation by leaving us a review on iTunes. It only takes a minute and makes a big difference.

How do you overcome social isolation, depression, anxiety, shyness, and loneliness to create a thriving online entrepreneurial career? How do you continue on and prosper after working your way through more than 30 jobs in your youth to find a mold that kinda - sorta - fits you? I was looking forward to this podcast interview because today's guest shares a backstory similar to my own. Just like me, Justin Stenstrom was a young adult who felt lost and confused. He couldn't find his tribe, and (just like me) had no mentors. Yet he went on to become a self-made man, and carved out a niche for himself in the online space. Today, Justin is a nationally acclaimed life coach, author, entrepreneur, and speaker. He is the founder of EliteManMagazine.com, the host of the Elite Man Podcast, and hosts the annual Elite Man Conference. We discuss a bunch of interesting subjects, and there are takeaways sprinkled throughout the podcast: • What we learned from experiences of failure and coming up short • How Justin has been able to connect and interview the world's top mentors such as Robert Greene, Sean Stephenson, Ryan Levesque, and many others. • Bonus strategies to connect with anyone. • Business models of coaching and methods for building a tribe. • And much more! Justin reveals all in this week's action-packed episode of the OpenWorld podcast. Thanks for joining us, hope you enjoy the interview, and leave us a review if you like what we're doing! Subscribe to Justin's new podcast, "The Justin Stenstrom show," and join the Elite Man Mastermind on Facebook.

"Mind your mind; guard it resolutely. Since it is the mind that confuses the mind, don't let your mind give in to your mind.” -Suzuki Shosan In this episode of the podcast I was invited on to the "Suitcase Entrepreneur" podcast where I was interviewed by the host, Natalie Sisson. We chatted about the mindset and lifestyle of high achievers, how to create your own set of rules to live by, and how to write your own life's narrative. It was a really interesting, candid discussion. Some things we discuss: How to flip the script on your internal dialogue and mindset Why perspective is everything and what you can do to change yours How to set specific and purposeful goals What do if you’re doubting your path What mindstorming is and how to do it Enjoy this conversation between me and the one and only Natalie Sisson! And let me know you think :)

Hey there, welcome to this week's action-packed episode of the OpenWorld podcast. Thanks for joining us! In this interview I had the pleasure of welcoming Ron Malhotra to the show. Ron spent most of his adult life trying to figure out who he was. As a young man, he thought that he needed to chase status, wealth, and own an expensive jet in order to matter. He was so full of doubt and uncertainty, and had no mentors to guide him - yet plenty of lingering questions. So he embarked on a lifelong quest to seek the "truth" of what success really meant - and stumbling upon a holistic approach that helps people find success on their own terms. Today Ron is a speaker, coach, wealth planner, leadership trainer, and a best-selling author. He’s been featured by the Huffington Post, the International Business Times, the Daily Herald, CNN’s iReport, and been endorsed by Jack Canfield. He is also the Founder of 'The Successful Male', a movement that seeks to help men develop holistically so that they can become more high-charactered, purposeful, confident and successful in all areas. Even if you’re not a man, I think you can still benefit from the leadership and wealth building concepts that he teaches. I’m excited to have him here, and we had a great discussion, hope you enjoy!

Anita Wing Lee is a digital nomad, online entrepreneur, and social media guru who has been living out of one suitcase for many years now. She's a bit unique in that she couchsurfs wherever she goes, meeting people among her huge social media following. She travels six months of the year, and lives abroad the other six. She is the founder of Global Meditation Scope, and has built an audience of nearly 50,000 on her Periscope channel. There she chronicles her journey as a millennial committed to fulfilling her highest potential to an audience of over 50k everyday. She has been featured in Mashable, CBC, Adweek, and numerous online publications. I was really excited to have Anita join us for this podcast and share her unique insights into how she's made this lifestyle work. We discuss travel, monetizing a brand, and leveraging an audience to make your goals reality, how to build a powerful international network of fans and supporters. We discuss Anita's "top six tips" to work and travel, how she crowdfunded a book, and so much more. Anita also shares her one most important "daily goal" that she acts upon every single day - which has been the backbone of her success. Listen to the interview to learn more... And if you like our podcast, please become a friend of the show! Write us a review on iTunes, and consider backing us Patreon - we're free for all as a listener-sponsored show. See you guys again next week!

Hey there, welcome to this week's action-packed episode of the OpenWorld podcast. Thanks for joining us! In this interview I had the pleasure of welcoming Pete Sisco to the show. Pete has been an expat for 30 years and a Permanent Traveler for 10 years. He’s also made his living 100% from online income for 15 years and earned several million doing so. And he's passionate about helping others achieve their own dream of personal freedom. He made over $2 million when he wrote his first e-book way back in 2001 (for reference, I was a freshman in high school). During our chat, I picked Pete's brain to share his vast experience and what he's learned as a result of his journey. Most importantly - Pete shares his model of the "nanoeconomy" - a concept that enables you to create and sustain your own personal economic freedom autonomous from the fluctuations and trends of the world macroeconomy. He loves to talk about personal freedom, travel and expat life, and earning an online income. I’m excited to chat with him, and if you want to hear his take and advice on how to live on your terms, then you’re going to love this interview.

Welcome to another episode of the OpenWorld podcast. Today I'm joined by my new friend Anfernee Chansamooth. He's founder of Simple Creative Marketing, a marketing consultant, small business advisor, and host of the Transitions Podcast. He’s trained over a thousand business leaders across 14 countries, empowered over 500 students in Laos, Sydney and Toronto, has appeared on Network Ten, in Anthill Magazine and at TEDxTelstraSydney, and is a regular writer for Huffington Post. Anfernee has been a bit of a nomad, and launched cross-border initiatives such as Design for Change and Warrior Women in his native country of Laos. He is passionate about helping creatives, entrepreneurs and changemakers to become influencers online so that they can make a bigger impact. During this podcast, we had a deep discussion about Anfernee's upbringing as a "third culture kid," the impact on culture and travel upon who we grow up to be as adults and entrepreneurs, introspection, aligning to your core values, authenticity, empathy, and much more! Towards the end of the interview, Anfernee also shares FARS, his "four step framework for creating content that rocks." This podcast was all about deeply understanding yourself and your place in the world - and aligning your entrepreneurial efforts to match what you wish to create. I thoroughly enjoyed this chat, and if you're looking for more you may also love episode #66 with Lydia Lee. And if you love our podcast, please leave a review on iTunes. It will encourage me to purchase a new microphone soon :)

Hey there, welcome to this week's action-packed episode of the OpenWorld podcast. Thanks for joining us! In this interview I had the pleasure of welcoming Michael Margolis to the show. As the CEO and founder of Get Storied, Michael has spent the last 15 years on a path of transformational storytelling, pioneering new practices for corporate innovation, social change, and career reinvention. He’s served as a story advisor to leading institutions like Google, NASA, and Greenpeace. He has unlocked core narratives for 30+ different industries. Developed online courses, virtual summits, conferences, and live workshops that serve tens of thousands. On the outside he was a success. But on the inside, he was a mess. So he knew it was time for a sabbatical to really discover the core of himself, that he had long forgotten during his career. He sold off 90% of my possessions, emptied a big house in Marin County, California. Since then he’s begun living, working, and teaching around the world. Vancouver, Amsterdam, Mumbai, San Francisco, Melbourne, New York City, are just a few of the places he nows consider home. Michael believes that story is the biggest and most overlooked factor in the success of our lives. So I invited him onto the podcast to share more and also teach us how to create a powerful life story and narrative. "Life is performance art. We're all on stage. I'd much rather bet the house on you becoming more of who truly are, and letting that presence be your performance, than you trying to perform being somebody you're not. Just be you." -Michael Margolis We discuss some heavy and meaty subjects, such as: Michael's own breakdown. Burning the candle at both ends and hitting the wall, he got so sick he could barely walk. The "Dark Passenger:" What’s my place? And where do I belong? Making friends with "the dragon," and why it's the vehicle for growth. How to avoid becoming the victim of your story, and become the master of your destiny. Resistance and creative tension. Michael's six-step methodology for creating a powerful narrative that he used with Google and Greenpeace. Plus a lot more! This was a very informative and entertaining interview, and one not to be missed! Michael shared a number of deep and profound insights, that I plan to listen to over and over. Enjoy this episode with Michael and become a friend of the show, please leave us a review on iTunes.

Today I have a real special episode. I’m joined by Natalie Sisson, a lifestyle entrepreneur, nomad, podcaster, blogger, and #1 best selling author of "Suitcase Entrepreneur," a genre-defining book and blog of the same name. She got her first taste of international travel in 2006, and fell in love with the minimalist traveling life, and living out of a suitcase. In 2010, she quit her corporate career and officially became “The Suitcase Entrepreneur,” and since then she has been inspiring and educating thousands of entrepreneurs how to create a business around a fun idea and really upfront about she sharing everything. She was couchsurfing, and got to the point where after six months she had only $18 left in her pocket. She managed to get one client, and then another, and scrape together a modest $30,000 the first year. Now she’s making several times that. She’s traveled to more than 70 countries, which is more than double what I have. She recently just bought a home in Lisbon, where she’s calling from today. She’s someone who’s truly been around the block and around the world, and walking the walk. I’m super enthused to have her here. During the interview, I asked Natalie to share the formula for success that she's created over the last decade of "choosing freedom." We discuss intention, visualization, and the steps she teaches people to "paint the perfect picture" for their life. I asked Natalie about how she structures her time for productivity, whom she looks up and learns from, and so much more. We also discuss what Natalie's picture looks like, and how she's repainting that picture with an eye to the future.

Hey there, welcome to this week's action-packed episode of the OpenWorld podcast. Thanks for joining us! In this interview I was joined by Meryl Johnston from the Gold Coast, in Australia. Meryl is the co-founder of Bean Ninjas, a bookkeeping accounting firm which in just one year she’s grown to over 70 customers and approximately $15,000 / month in monthly recurring revenue. Her business currently employs 9 people in Australia, the US, and the United Kingdom. Inspired by Dan Norris of the 7 Day Startup, whom we’ve interviewed in episode #52, she launched the business in just one week and created a profitable productized service business. Feeling frustrated with her time-sucking consulting business and putting out fires, she was immediately intrigued by Dan's productized service business model. She wanted to create a business that could be systemized, built to scale, and could deliver a great consistently. It also needed to have monthly recurring revenue (MRR) so that cashflow would remain stable. We had an excellent conversation and covered a lot of points important to this type of business: • How to create an irresistible copy and offer • How to understand your market and create an ideal customer profile • How to easily carve out your own space within a niche • Getting clients globally vs locally • Where to find the best pre-qualified leads • Meryl's best sources of leads online - and how Bean Ninjas got dozens of clients for free • Content marketing strategies to promote an online business • The lead to conversion process and customer success process • Plus a bunch of other goodies... If you're interested in learning how to set up your own profitable productized service business, you'll find everything you need to know from this conversation. After you listen to this interview, be sure to also check out episode #93 with Russ Perry of Design Pickle. 

Welcome to another illustrious episode of the OpenWorld podcast! I'm super excited to have you join us. If you're an author or interested in how to earn a serious living through self-publishing, then you are going to be absolutely blown away by this episode. So many people say you can’t make money self-publishing books. That it's just a business card, or a business building tool, and not a potential cash cow in itself. And there's far too many "gurus" out there who just make money showing wannabe authors how to publish books. Dave Chesson is completely debunking these stereotypes. What I love about Dave is that through his blog, Kindlepreneur, he gives away some of the best resources and cutting-edge techniques to earn a serious living as an author, for free, that I've yet seen. In fact, this has contributed largely to the success of Kindlepreneur.com, which in just one year he grew from 0 to 45,000 monthly visits (and I ask him how he did that as well!). Oh, and he's also earning a cool $8,000+ per month from the five books he's published, so he walks his walk. In this interview, I press him to reveal how he's done it, and he didn't shy away from sharing a ton of valuable nuggets. • Lessons learned from being active-duty Navy and how that contributed to his business success. • How to develop powerful habits and discipline so that success becomes inevitable. • The secrets of Kindle SEO, probably the best long-term strategy to create a perpetual salestream of books! • How he doubled sales of books for his friend Alex Barker simply by rewording the pages and optimizing them. • How to assess competition and dominate a niche on Kindle. • How to optimize your book listing keywords, to help your books gain more traffic. • How to increase conversion rates, so that Amazon displays your books to more people. • KDP Rocket, Dave's new tool, which makes book idea research easy. • Plus more! Hope you enjoy this action-packed podcast as much as I did recording it. Dave joined us from Sri Lanka, whereas as I recorded from a hotel in Thailand. Wherever you are in the world we're completely dedicated to helping you succeed! Leave us a comment with your thoughts about the podcast!

To say goodbye to your first business after 10 years of blood, sweat and tears is gut-wrenching. Today’s guest Russ Perry was heartbroken and jobless after his agency fell apart. Worst of all he had slipped deep into a scarcity mindset. He could have easily continued into a downward spiral, as so many might in this situation, but he bounced back. He turned to consulting to get by, hired a business coach, and leveraged the skills he already had to create a multiple six figure business in just 106 days. Design Pickle provides unlimited graphic design services for a monthly rate and in just two years has expanded its customer base to 360 clients. I was really excited to pick his brain and hear his story, and what he’s learned. You’ll love this interview if you want to create a similar type of business that works for you, or if you want to learn the ins and outs of a productized service company. Russ shares everything from creating successful marketing that works, scaling up a service business, managing effective response times for hundreds of client accounts, lead generation, and standing out in a crowded market. Note: There were a few audio issues with Skype during this call but these are minor and I have done my best to fix them. Otherwise, enjoy this excellent discussion with Russ!

Welcome to another episode of the OpenWorld podcast! Today I’m joined by Adam Franklin, he’s the owner of Bluewire Media, host of the “Web Marketing that Works” podcast, and author of “Web Marketing That Works: Confessions from the Marketing Trenches.” Adam got his start in the web design business way back in 2005 with just $120, doing a bunch of knocking on doors, cold calling… and got rejected over and over again. After more than a decade of trying every marketing tactic under the sun, he's obtained a good grasp of what it takes to make successful marketing. When I talk to a lot of people who listen to this podcast, and subscribe to the newsletter, it seems like a common problem is that people have created a business, they a brand, a product, and a website, but they aren’t earning enough customers to replace their job. So Adam and I are going to discuss this detail and hopefully you’ll leave this conversation with several strategies that you can use. Some of the topics we discuss: • Filtering out high-friction clients to find and attract the best leads for your business • How to hone in and find the best leads • Creating an effective customer avatar - to give your marketing efforts clarity • Ways to pre-qualify potential customers and clients • How to stand out and gain a competitive advantage • How to rise to the top of your niche through public speaking • 33 marketing templates that you can apply to your business • And much more! Adam shared a bunch of hard-earned insights from the marketing trenches of strategies you can use to work smarter, not harder! Enjoy this interview, and let me know how you plan to implement these techniques in your own business.

This was a real fun one! In this podcast I’m joined by Amanda Geary, who has worked onboard cruise ships for over 10 years for a variety of companies including; Princess Cruises, P&O Australia, Cunard & Royal Caribbean International. She also helps other people as a recruitment specialist to find travel jobs on cruise ships. And she’s here to share her experience getting paid to see the world! If you’re social, worldly, interested in culture and
languages, traveling the world while working on a cruise ship might be an opportunity for you. But part of the problem is that these dream jobs are competitive. Many people apply, but most don't hear back from anyone. Amanda shares some very keen insights into how to stand out from the pack, get the gig, and begin your dream voyage! During the second part of the interview, we discuss how Amanda leveraged her experience and skills to create a successful product and consulting business, Get a Life at Sea. Some great insights for entrepreneurs to leverage their knowledge to create a great brand, profitable product line, and market themselves online. Amanda has also graciously offered a coupon code for listeners to get 50% for her "How the Heck to Get a Job on a Cruise Ship Guide." At checkout, use the promo code "OpenWorldGetPaidToTravel." Best of luck on your journey! If you like listening to our show, please support us by leaving a review on iTunes. Each one helps :)