HillbillyDeluxe.com - Life and Times of Living the Dream

The Hustle Muscle Test - Video for Entrepreneurs

2009-08-11T08:38:00Z

Here's a video I did about marketing, testing ideas before implementation, and general hustle.

If you like what you see, please take a moment to subscribe by email on the right hand side of this blog.

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Learn anything? Entertained? You may subscribe by email on the right hand side of this blog.

A Rearview Mirror View of Entrepreneurship

2009-08-07T04:51:00Z

I stayed up pretty much all night thinking.

I've started five companies. Two sold at modest profits, one was dissolved after 6 months at breakeven, and the other two are in profitable operation. There's a reason you get into business, there's reasons you have fun in business, and there's reasons you say, "Enough, next!"

I spent 6 hours analyzing those reasons. After analyzing my past successes and not-so-much's, I had a takeaway that can be no less classified as an epiphany.

A rearview mirror look at all of my entrepreneurial experiences yields a pattern. There is a formula for small business start-up success. A Bootstrapper's blueprint, if you will. I've condensed it into a simple three variable equation. i want to share this blueprint, for your own success and happiness.

Watch the blog, because the next post will be in VIDEO!

Stay tuned.

Less is More. Even Less is Even More.

2009-04-27T19:32:00Z

I’m in the process of moving. I have a thousand things to do. Time for a blog post instead.

I called the cable people to move my internet service (already got rid of TV cable months ago-man what a time burglar TV is)

But I already have an air card I rarely use. Let’s analyze:

1. 1. Got rid of cable TV – huge boost in productivity

2. 2. Supplemented loss of TV by small allowances of Colbert Report via Hulu.com (minor reduction on productivity)

3. 3. Moving-get rid of high-speed internet altogether and remove practical use of online video?

4. 4. = Productivity further boosted to a nirvana-like level? Let’s find out.

I think this is a worthy experiment. How long can I go with limited use of the VideoTubeInterwebs?

I DID give up soda pop, Chee Whiz, and beer with only positive effects. What else can I cut out of my life?

Less is more.

Gary Vee - SXSW - One of the best entrepreneur interviews ever

2009-04-20T05:30:00Z

Whether or not you know who Gary Vaynerchuk is, I want you to watch this entire video. Gary was running the family business, a wine retailer, when he hit 30 and realized he was only 99.9% happy. He decided to take it ALL THE WAY to 100% and push the limits.

He's out there interviewing new people, reviewing wines(his passion), and at the forefront of social media.

ANY ENTREPRENEUR NEEDS TO WATCH THIS!

It's on Viddler:

See It Here

Oh How The World Does See- Francis Ford Coppola

2009-03-11T03:02:00Z

Francis Ford Coppola is one of my favorite filmmakers. from Patton to The Godfather, Coppola is a master of film. In this clip, Francis talks about how outstanding ideas can be rejected by the status quo, only because they are ahead of their time. Watch, believe, do.

Fast Fish eats Slow Fish

2009-03-05T06:05:00Z

It Is The Time Of “Fast Fish Eats Slow Fish”, Not The “Big Fish Eats Small Fish”.
Your Speed Determines If You Can Continue To Survive, Grow, Or Slowly Die In Your Business

A single piranha can give a lion a really bad day if he has to cross the river. Let’s go out and be that piranha. After all, you’re good enough, you’re smart enough, and gosh darn it people like you. If anybody tells you otherwise, give ‘em the teeth. They’ll understand their error as they nourish you for your next kill.

The speed of business is exponentially faster now than ever before in the history of man. And I must say, it’s awesome to see the Good Ole Boys get upended by 19 yr olds working out of their dorm rooms. I think it’s fantastic, really. Necessity is the mother of all invention. He or she who innovates, invents.

Celery and jelly sandwich? Why not? Invent.

New web app or widget? Where I’ve been map? Heck, why not. Invent.

In athletics, it’s Bigger. Faster. Stronger.

In business, it’s Better. Faster. Winner.

Gosh, I’m just full of one-liners tonight.

What I’m trying to say is that agility and quickness wins, not plodding and brute strength. GM struggles under its mass, hoping coach Obama will give him one more season. Meanwhile Honda, Tesla, and Toyota can zoom around with innovation.

The 40 yr old former college lineman is talking about the good old days, tackling beers, sitting on the couch, and punching in at the factory.

The 40 year old harrier is still running 5K’s, living the life, thinking new thoughts, and tackling opportunity whenever he sees it.

Analogies are a soft art of mine.

As Zig would say, “See you Over-The-Top”.

The Un-Settlers - Ambitious Champions

2009-02-12T05:40:00Z

In my book, there are two kinds of settlers. The first kind thought it would be a good idea to set out across the open prairie searching for a better life. They were pioneers first, settlers second. They explored the world while working to create better lives than they started with. Let me say that again. They explored the world while working to create better lives than they started with.

The second variety of settlers exists today…..and their lives aren’t so great.

You see, ‘settlers’ today….they’re just that. They settle for whatever they can get. Whatever happens to come to them. Whatever debris floats down the river and lands at their feet. They say thing like, “Well, these are just the cards I’ve been dealt in my life”.

Sulky Settlers don’t realize that ambition and risk taking and action are absolutely essential to ever achieve anything. They’ve self-programmed themselves to be losers. For every 1,000 in the breadline, there's one out selling apples or newspapers or cultivating melons or any other worthy pursuit. Action breeds results. And if you look at the photo above and say to yourself something like "But, these people here lost their jobs/not their fault/etc", than get the fuck off my web page and buy another 40oz with your unemployment check tomorrow.

Hustlers don't cry, they take their holey blankets and sell 2 million Snuggies.

Is society based upon a natural balance of permanent pioneers and sulky settlers? Do kings stay kings and peasants stay peasants? Well, yes……until a peasant realizes they can change their circumstances.

The modern pioneer is a boat rocker, a heretic. An Un-Settler.

Only through ambition, risk taking, and action can lifestyle elevation occur. The three key tenets of the Un-Settler. Only by a little unsettling of the status quo can change occur, dynasties be built.

The Un-Settlers of yore didn’t sit around waiting for a union job. They grabbed an axe, and rode out into the unknown. They found an untouched valley, spotted a fir and sunk their axe deep into it. Twenty years of planning, sweat, and triumph built a thriving ranch. Also known as ambition, risk taking, and action.

Get some.

You never see results until you put a little breeze in the trees.

Connecticut Jam

2009-01-31T23:57:00Z

In case you don’t know exactly what I’m talking about when I mention this ‘living a deluxe hillbilly life’ stuff, I think this video pretty much sums it up. It has nothing to do with CMT, mud bogs, or redneck weddings.

It has everything to do with creating beautiful things in an ideal environment. Courtesy of IowaNick, one of the few other people than myself who got out of our hometown.

This video’s about hanging out in Connecticut with Darryl Hall (of Hall & Oates) and jamming with Chromeo in an old timberframe barn.

Sort of like Charlie Murphy playing basketball with Prince, you can’t make this stuff up.

World Prize - Most needed invention

2009-01-28T04:35:00Z

These items have been nominated for my Hillbilly Deluxe World Prize for Most Useful Invention

Most Useful Tool on Earth: Grand Prize Winner

Second Most Useful Tool: Runner Up Award

Remember to subscribe in bottom right for MORE useful tools.

Frostily Yours,

The flow of the century - oh it's timeless

2009-01-28T00:39:00Z

Just do it. Make the change.

When you love it, you live it. It’s your passion. You work harder, faster, and have more fun in the process.

“But Hillbilly, if I leave my job to do what I love, I’ll take a pay cut”

Maybe, but it won’t last for long. The human brain is wired to avoid pain, and seek pleasure. When you do things you enjoy, you rock it. You are in the zone. On point. Feeling a perfect flow. You become best of breed, and guess what……best of breed always pays BIG.

Those in the flow, they know this brings about a fundamental change in a person. Being alive feels good, and it breeds more and more success.

And that’s how I live my life. I dream big dreams. And they happen. Not always right away, but they happen. Call it what you want……the secret…..mindpower…...it happens. Most importantly, I (eye) make it happen.

You determine your own reality. A lot of people are what I call ‘limiters’. They lack control of their own thoughts and actions, and spend the majority of their time downing others vocalized ambitions.

Walk away, make some new friends. Read some good blogs.

The world is out there waiting for you. Where’s your next mountaintop?

Yours in frostiness,

The Best Middle Name Ever

2009-01-26T02:14:00Z

If you ask Sheryl Crow it's not Billie or Dave or Mack or Buddy.

It's "The."

As in Attila The Hun or Alexander The Great or Jesus The Christ.

When your middle name is 'The', it means you're it. The only one. The one that defines the category. I think that focus is a choice, and that the result of appropriate focus is you earn the middle name.

Seek becoming 'The'.

Tomorrow, I want you to wake up and say to yourself, "I'm gonna be _______(Your name) The _________(Badass Aspiration) Today"

Do it for me, do it for yourself.

Inflatable Bag Monsters

2009-01-26T02:04:00Z

There are a few good things about the city after all.

Blue Ocean Business Strategy

2009-01-24T16:37:00Z

I recently read a short passage in a book that spoke of red oceans vs. blue oceans in business strategy. Basically the idea is that it is a lot easier to be highly profitable in a sector where no competition exists (a blue ocean), and you are free to define the rules, than attempt to conform and thrive in a red ocean.

(Look at the air time on that dolphin....wouldn't you rather be like that?)

A red ocean (existing market sector) would be defined as an existing industry with established competition, and an accepted protocol. The water of a red ocean is bloody from sharks fighting, as battle weary combatants add new scars.

A true blue ocean individual creates a product or service that fulfills an unfulfilled need in the marketplace. This can be an entirely new product (a la the ipod when it launched, or the pc in the 80s) or find uncharted new territory in an existing ocean (Amazon, an online bookseller, supplanting brick and mortar bookstores)

For example, don't let your mind become constricted. Why open an oil change shop in a town of 5,000 that has four of them already? (Red Ocean)

Would it make more sense to open the first on-site 15 minute oil change service in Aspen? (Blue Ocean)

As an individual representing the field of quick-to-adapt agile entrepreneurial forces, recognizing the existence of blue oceans is very important.

(Look at the air time on that dolphin again....man blue oceans are fun)

Harnessing the capital resources and managing the logistics to create a new multinational silicon chip maker would be like leading an elephant into a shark infested red ocean. If executed perfectly, it could be done. Regardless it would be a high-risk venture, with limited profit conversion potential.

Creating and training a team of dolphin decathletes to jump into Lake Lucerne and kick some serious ass (creating a new web application to serve a new need in the marketplace) is the preferred philosophy. You and your team would look something like THIS.

Businesses operating in Blue Oceans can make a few mistakes, because you're making the rules of the game up as you go!

New ventures, new opportunities, original ideas. Make Things Happen!

Your comments are always appreciated. And if you you'd like some further reading on what to do next read here

Video Mantra

2009-01-23T05:12:00Z

Stirring it up, Hillbilly Deluxe

Ronnie and Kix can still rock it.

Daily Motivation for Accomplishing Any Task

2009-01-23T04:40:00Z

If you were thinking about making a move on that gal, reading that book you always wanted to, or starting a new business venture, I have something you should read first: see the link below for the best site on the planet.

The BEST Motivation EVER!!

Snowbound, Iowa bound, etc

2009-01-23T03:10:00Z

So I heard it snowed in Iowa?

Yes, yes it did.

Anything like here in Steamboat?

Well, yes. It was also the coldest place in North America for a few days.

Good to have you back Hillbilly,

Good to be back.

To new beginnings.

Election Wrap (Rap)

2009-01-23T02:28:00Z

My hair's blonde, my beard's red
We all know what's been said

The things we know, true and told
The things below blue and bold

The mavericks, the hope, the hype, the spite
Tired of media bombardment, personal agendas

I wake up everyday working, seeking, discovering, uncovering
Making positive impacts, not just 'change'

Prospecting for opportunity, fruits of my own labors
Helping those unable, zapping those unmotivated

If there's anything in life you want........
Go make it yours

I am an independent voter. An independent thinker. ...

I admit it..........I watched TV

2009-01-23T02:25:00Z

I broke down tonight. "Just while I'm eating, just for a bit"

Two bowls of raisin bran, a tortilla concoction and a mountain dewski later.......

I'm dumber. I watched TV.

You see, the main reason I dislike TV is that I'm a whore for efficiency. Please note that I am the only person you know who uses the term 'time burglar'. For instance, "I cannot believe you play Guitar Hero, what a fucking time burglar".

For those who don't know, I'm in a race I take quite seriously. I'm in a race against time. I am trying to do as much as I possibly can while spending my brief time on this planet.

TV just can't feed me information at the rate I want to devour it. "What, I've got to wait through 3 minutes of ridiculous consumerism to find out if the Mythbusters can make a glider out of a craash dummy and plywood.....that's bullshit"

Newspaper....Wall Street Journal for instance (the only paper worth a shit).

As I browse the Journal, "Let's see.......don't care, don't care, China's screwing somebody again, Hank Paulson looks like an alien, someone invented a better toilet."

Done. In 5 minutes I learned more than you did all semester between bouts of 'Runway', Guitar Hero, and hanging out at some overhyped bar.

Am I cocky? No, I'm just better than you.

Stay frosty.

The Problem with my Redhead Infatuation

2009-01-23T02:25:00Z

You see, sometimes it’s best to put it all out there.
I am the most socially reserved person on the planet. But I’ve gotten pretty good at fakin’ otherwise.

I suffer from none of the conventional addictions; I have never done an illicit drug of any kind. I average around 2 beers a month. Never smoked a cig......ever. Never gone skydiving. Never taken a life threatening risk of any kind.

*Disclaimer: (I have ice in my arteries when it comes to business risks, I do shit everyday that would make you cry)

I have but one addiction: I am a sucker for leggy redheads.

Problem: ALL redheads are crazy.

Whenever I get involved, I am reminded that all prudent people left Ireland not due to a ‘potato famine’, but in an attempt to escape the redheaded women. These silly Irish fools were fine for a while, until they decided to procreate, producing these vixens, bringing them to MY continent.

Recessive trait? My ass. Redheads know nothing but passive aggression. They hide in the margins of a Punnet square, and then jump back out when scientists aren’t looking.

How, oh how, shall I beat this addiction?

The Skinny on Skinny Europe

2009-01-23T02:23:00Z

Observation of the Facts

;

Fact: In 4 days of traveling Germany/Austria, including a day and a half in Munich (pop 1.35 million) I counted 6 fat people. Six (6). How many have you seen today?

I saw 80 yr old women hoofing it up alpine trails for the exercise. Exercise.

This is not meant to be a witty post, nor a bitch session. Americans, get some personal power and make decisions in your best interests. In much of Europe, homes get built to last, lives are fulfilled, health is maintained, and the environment is thriving.

And though hippies exist in Germany too, they do put rims on their ride.