Online Entrepreneur Lifestyle Tips

It's been awhile since I've done a post on Think Entrepreneurship, and boy does it feel good to sit down and write. Over the last year my online businesses have had their fair share of ups and downs, but the journey has been exciting and I wouldn't do it any other way. In this post I'm going to give a brief update of a few things that have been helping me along the journey and give you some tips on building an online business that will grant you freedom and flexibility for your lifestyle.

Masterminds

This year I've attended a number of online entrepreneur conferences where I've met and since become friends with other online entrepreneurs. To keep in touch with these folks, we've created Google Hangout masterminds as well as traveled to do bi-yearly masterminds in different cities around the country. My favorite local mastermind is with 2 of my good friends and fellow entrepreneurs / business gurus. Jake and Dustin. We grab breakfast the first Wednesday of each month at 7am sharp. We celebrate our wins, go over our losses, and set goals for each other. I'd highly recommend starting a mastermind with other entrepreneurs if you haven't already done so!

Getting together and spending time with other online entrepreneurs has been a key to learning new things and growing the business. Brainstorming sessions with many minds together from various industries will always spur new creativity. This photo was taken at EcommerceFuel headquarters with Andrew Youderian, Traveling Jackie, and the Bibs&Binkies online store team.

TRAVELING – JUST GO!

In 2014 I did some international traveling which truly broadened my horizon and inspired me to be more spontaneous, to go outside my comfort zone, and to try new things.

I love to travel, and having the freedom and flexibility to pick up and travel at any moment has been something I've been working towards for a long time. Creating digital products, affiliate marketing, and putting myself out there on various platforms like Youtube and podcasts have all been large factors in the growth of the companies and ability to work from anywhere. A good computer with plenty of power to do all my video editing remotely has also been a key factor in making remote video editing and blogging a possibility. I use the Macbook Pro 15 inch with the 1 tb drive and it works great.

Less than a month ago I decided to take a sporadic trip to Alaska to check out the scenery and do some planning and writing for my DIYPETE.com website. It was a great way to relieve stress, see new sights, and strategize my businesses for the final quarter of 2015. I learned about the importance of travel from trips I've done both with Under30Experiences and TravelingJackie.

Homer Spit – Kenai Peninsula – Homer, Alaska

Running and Exercise

Running is an activity built into my routine that I do consistently. I've found my best ideas come while running. I also feel great after a run, have more energy during the day, and have a clearer mind. I mostly enjoy trail running and running on my own terms. However, my older brother told me he was going to run in the Medtronic Twin Cities Marathon on October 4th. So of course, I said I'd join him. This was my second marathon and I made the mistake of not training much at all, so I didn't set any record times. But I finished, and enjoyed the run! I'd highly recommend exercising at least 2 to 3 times a week and setting goals to reach. Your body will feel great and reaching your goals will give you a huge sense of accomplishment.

Here is a photo at the start of the run in downtown Minneapolis. You couldn't have asked for a better day. Below is a photo after about mile 7. I was still feeling pretty good and chipper. The legs slowed down a bit after about mile 13, but batting through the next 13.2 miles was well worth it.

Consistency

Consistency has been super helpful in growing the DIYPETE brand. Thirteen weeks ago I hired a full time employee to help give me the ability to create more video content for my Youtube viewers. Setting a schedule where viewers know that every Thursday a new project will come out has increased views and adsense revenue tremendously. The Compound Effect book by Darren Hardy is a book I'd highly recommend if you are wanting to improve you consistency for all aspects of life. It is one of my favorite books.

Hiring an Employee

The realization that we can't do everything in 24 hours recently hit me, and after talks with my mastermind I decided it was necessary to hire a full time employee as a content manager for DIYPETE.com. As hard as it can be to let go of some of the processes, I've learned that without hiring, the business is never going to get to that next level. Scott's been an amazing addition to the business and without him I'd be burned out, stressed out, and stuck. If you are at the stage where you don't have enough time in the day to get everything done, look into hiring an employee or hiring a Virtual Assistant. Also look into outsourcing tasks on websites like Upwork.

Create an Office Environment You Love

You spend a lot of time in your office. So why not create an environment where you want to hang out? Over the years I've continued to make my home office a more fun and inviting space. Whiteboards, a standing desk, monitors, a couch, and flatscreen have all contributed to a more tech savvy room that improves productivity and makes me want to hang out in the office.

Here is a video showing how I made the top for my standing desk. Being able to break up the day by both sitting and standing is refreshing and helps add to productivity levels in my experience. I have also read that sitting down all day can lead to the increase in lung disease, liver disease, peptic ulcer and other digestive diseases as well as bladder issues that you would need to go to places like Advanced Urology (https://www.advancedurology.com/) for treatment.

Get up Early

Rising with the sun will give you more time to relax and enjoy your day. There are so many benefits related to getting up early. Some of the benefits of rising with the sun include giving yourself time to enjoy a warm cup of Joe, time to meditate, time to get in an early morning run, and peace and quiet to start the day. For tips on getting up early and more benefits check out this post I wrote about the benefits of getting up early. The photo below is the Sunrise over Homer, Alaska from the front porch of where I stayed.

Teaching and Inspiring

Teaching and inspiring others is super rewarding. I've found teaching and inspiring to be a very scaleable and evergreen. For example, I can build one project, document it, upload it to Youtube, and help and inspire hundreds of thousands of people. The content is “Evergreen,” meaning it is something people will continue to search for year after year. With each video created, the ability to sell digital products, products on Amazon, and plans continues to happen. Compare this with a small business where I build furniture. Income would be confined by my time to build each product. I could sell a project for say $1000 that took 20 hours of my time. Or I could spend 40 hours of my time to document the process and upload the video. The extra time to document the process will bring in $1000 many times over throughout the years of it being online if I combine the video with paid for products that convert. If you like to teach and inspire, look into starting your own blog and build your online presence.

Trying New Things

A friend of mine recently inspired me to get into kiteboarding. We were having a beer watching the Monday night football game, and before the end of the game I had ordered the whole kiteboarding setup off eBay! I'm currently learning on land, and am now waiting for the snow to fly so I can strap on some skis or a snowboard and do some boarding out in big open fields and on frozen lakes. Extreme sports are something I've always dabbled in, so this seems like a good fit. It's certainly a new challenge and something I'm learning a lot about. (this is a 10 meter /30 foot wide kite – so it has a heck of a lot of power. I invite you to learn or try something new, you'll be glad you did!

Business Update

I've been focusing more and more time building DIYPETE.com and the hard work continues to pay off more and more as time goes on. By putting more emphasis in focusing on fewer things, I feel the 1 business is getting where I want it to go much quicker. When focusing on multiple businesses, all businesses slowly progress, but not at the rate I'd like. So FOCUS is KEY and something I'd recommend to all entrepreneurs.

In addition to DIYPETE, Think Entrepreneurship is a place where I can document my journey and share what I've learned to hopefully help and inspire other entrepreneurs. If you want to learn more about how the online businesses have grown and how to monetize a website in terms of passive income you can check out a recent income report here for ideas on making money with your own blog.

Summary:

Being an entrepreneur is like nothing else. You are constantly thinking about your business and what you can do to take it to the next level. As entrepreneurs, we need to remind ourselves how to balance our businesses with our personal lives and how to continue to grow and become the best we can be. Thus, it is important to travel, try new things, exercise, surround yourself with good people, and to help and inspire others. Keep up the hard work and please comment below with tips that have helped you as an entrepreneur. I'd love to hear them!

Cheers from Montana! – Pete