This last Wednesday was Sayulita Day here in Sayulita Mexico. In the morning there was a parade and in the evening we went to the carnival that’s been running this past week.

Here’s a short video showing some of my experiences there.

One of those guys, Brad Jackson, sells a product that teaches guys how to use magic to pickup women. He calls it PUMA Skills (Pick Up Magic Artist). I kid you not. And his business is extremely successful - to the tune of 6 figures a year.

Brad’s site is a perfect example of the possibilities that are available to entrepreneurs online. He took two seemingly unrelated concepts, magic and attraction, and melded them together. It’s subtle genius and it’s worth a look for anyone wanting to create an online business.

You can check out his site and get a feel for his business model here: PUMAskills.com

I’ve posted up a *super-stereotypical-YouTube-minus-the-emo-haircut* video of myself doing a magic trick from Brad’s mastery course. It’s been raining a lot of in Mexico so I’ve had some time to practice my magic skills. I know I’m bad now, but I’m learning and it’s a ton of fun actually.

(Disclaimer: Brad gave me free access to his course. If you’re interested in buying the course, the links to PUMAskills.com are affiliate links)

2009 was a good year for me:

Business

• Started a business I can take with me anywhere.
• Sold over 400 copies of the flagship product - 007 Lifestyle.
• Teamed up with the expert in my niche, Paul Kyriazi. Sales and exposure continue to rise.
• Got invited into an exclusive marketing syndicate where some of the best in the business discuss marketing tactics.

Travel & Personal

• Biked the Pacific Coast of the USA.
• Lived in Argentina, Colombia, San Francisco. Visited the East Coast of the USA for the first time.
• This might sound stupid, but I got a six pack - for a month or two anyway. I’ll try to resurrect it in Mexico.
• Learned a lot about myself blah, blah, confidence, blah.

I have a strong feeling that 2010 is going to be a huge year for me. These are my goals and dreams.

Business

• Release 4 ebooks (1 every 3 months). Right now I’m working on the first: it’s an ebook related to communication influence principles. I’m drawing in part from my studies at UCLA and then real world experience (the marketing will make it sound a lot cooler when it’s done). Another one is currently in development by a friend.
• Continue to expand the 007 Lifestyle and add a continuity program (monthly subscription) to the back-end.
• By this time next year I want to be doing $8000 a month in online sales.

Travel & Personal

• I’m almost done with the first draft of a book (that I will make hard copy & digital). It’s a memoir, travelogue, short novel, whatever you want to call it. This is a lot more personal than business related. I don’t expect it to be a major source of income.
• Live in Mexico from early January to mid March. Continue working on Spanish, hopefully learn to surf, and get a tan.
• Bike tour late spring and summer. I’d like to be on a bike touring across the States or Europe this summer. Every time I think about my bike tour down the Pacific coast I get a chubby, so I think I want to do that again.
• Winter will find me somewhere working on music. Piano lessons, voice lessons, and writing to record sometime in 2011.

Gotta dream big people. Gotta.

I haven’t been promoting my 007 Lifestyle product on this blog for several reasons which I wont get into right now, but I’ve got a special holiday deal too awesome not to mention at this point…

Paul Kyriazi and I have formed a ‘Bond’, if you will, and packaged ours courses together.

Paul has had an audiobook seminar on How To Live The James Bond Lifestyle out for quite awhile now - almost 10 years. I hadn’t actually listened to his stuff until after I created The 007 Lifestyle and he contacted me. We swapped products and let me tell you, I was blown away.

Our products are like the perfect compliment. His is more the mentality of Bond, and mine is more the physical and practical side of things.

For the last couple days Paul has even helped me add a lot of great information to my product, boosting its credibility and adding more of an expert touch to it.

So what we’ve done is put my Ebook and his audio together to make what we call the “Double-shot-Bond” package.

I think it’d be a cool gift to send to someone or just to entertain yourself (while learning a thing or two and supporting me).

You can check out our special webpage for the deal here:

• http://livinglikejamesbond.com/holiday

Thanks and happy holidays!

I checked email on my iPod Touch at a cozy coffee shop in Port Townsend, Washington. A customer wasn’t able to download the information product I had created and launched to the world a few weeks earlier.

I forwarded the email to my dad who had agreed to be my VA for a month. He was in front of his computer everyday so he didn’t mind. If I had read David Walsh’s Source Control at the time, I would have had someone in the Philippines available for $3.33 per hour to do it.

My VA (aka dad) took the pre-formatted email I had mocked up for this situation, and sent the customer his product. If the customer needed help opening the files, I had an email for that. If the customer had asked for a refund, I was prepared.

And I spent the rest of the time on a bicycle tour of the Pacific Coast of the USA.

Information Products F***ing Rule

If you are not trying to create information products, then you are seriously missing out, SERIOUSLY. I don’t care who you are. We’re in an info-product gold rush right now.

What’s An Information Product?

An information product is any piece of knowledge that has been recorded and passed on to others. It can be in print, audio, or video format.

The main idea is that you’re taking something intangible - ie. the knowledge in your head - and turning it into something that’s beneficial for others.

Some of the most common information products are:

1. Print e-books
2. Special reports
3. Manuals and workbooks
4. Audio cassettes, CDs, or downloadable audio files
5. Videotapes and DVDs
6. Tele-seminars
7. Subscription-based web sites

The above story is just one reason why they’re great. Customer service is normally nominal. Most info products now-a-days are digital, so there’s no inventory to worry about. There’s a very low overhead in most cases - so you can be a one man show selling your info product.

Don’t I Need To Be An Expert Or Authority?

Absolutely not. I’ve talked about this before - here. So has The Launch Coach, Dave Navarro. You only have to be slightly ahead of people in your niche to provide them something of value.

The Best Part About Information Products

You make an information product and it makes you money for the REST OF YOUR LIFE.

You have some specialized knowledge. You know more than others in some area of your life or career. Make an information product for those who don’t know as much as you.

You don’t have to quit your job but you might need to donate an extra one or two hours every night for a couple of months to get it done (this is what a friend of mine is doing right now - I convinced him to write a fashion related ebook and he’s nearing completion as I write this).

Then you have something that makes you money for the REST OF YOUR LIFE. REST OF YOUR LIFE. REST OF YOUR LIFE. REST OF YOUR LIFE. REST OF YOUR LIFE. REST OF YOUR LIFE.

Is It Easy To Make An Information Product?

No, no it’s not. But just GET STARTED. Please.

Will My Information Product Make Me Rich?

No, it probably wont.

But if you make enough of them it will.

And, if you make enough of them, you can support your digital nomad lifestyle, if that’s what you want. Or it will help you pay some bills. Or start a business. Or whatever else money can do for you.

Get Help

• How To Launch The **** Out Of Your Ebook

• @RockYourDay / Dave Navarro
  

• Muselife.com / @dvdwlsh

• GateJumper.net / @corbettbar
  

• Me: @DJohanson

The second time I felt my life threatened in Colombia was more of a psychological scare than the first.

The Colombians that are in nice clubs (ones with cover charges) are upper class. They have money or their families do.

So when I set out to go to one of the nicest clubs in the capital city, Bogota, I knew I was going to be interacting with a different class of Colombian. Especially when I was paying the equivalent of $25 US dollars just to get in the door, an astronomical sum by Colombian terms.

This time I was accompanied by 3 Australian guys from the hostel. I thought I stood out. All of them were over 6 foot tall, blonde, and absolutely huge. It’s an understatement to say that when I went out with them over the course of a week, we got noticed.

The club was on the 40th floor of a high rise building and had views of the whole city. Once again I found myself on the dance floor. This time there was no salsa but electronic music. The coked-up Aussies (which is almost redundant) weren’t fans of salsa so we were frequenting electronic clubs.

Early in the night I approached a couple different groups of girls without much luck. These upper class girls weren’t curious about my white skin. They’d been there, seen that. But that’s a weak excuse because I seemed to be only one having problems. The tallest and blondest Aussie was dancing real close to a girl behind me. Her friends, one guy, and one girl were watching closely.

The guy was the oldest one in the club. Over 50 and wearing a very nice leather jacket. The girls he was with were in their young 20’s and beautiful. Something didn’t connect.

Like an idiot I thought, “Hey I’ll help my friend and try to distract the other two so he’s got some time to work his magic.” They were hovering around the Aussie and he needed the space.

I tried to start a conversation with the girl and even tried to include the older guy in it. He was not pleased.

In a very relaxed tone, he looked me straight in the eyes and said, “I will fucking have you killed.”

This type of threat normally wouldn’t scare me that much. Especially if I was in the States. But there were all kinds of red flags here that really got to me.

First of all this guy appeared to be a baller - nice clothing, young beautiful girls, in an expensive club. Second, he said, ‘have you killed’ implying he wouldn’t need to do it himself. He had the means to hire someone to do it for him. Lastly, there’s all types of negative stereotypes to overcome from my childhood. Was this guy a Colombian drug dealer?

That’s the second time my life was threatened in Colombia and the one I remember most.

Bonus Story

So now I’m freaked out but something I struggle with is learning my lesson.

Later, in one of the chill-out areas of the club, I notice one of the other Aussies. I throw the word ‘beautiful’ around a lot but in my humble opinion he was talking to two of the hottest girls I’d seen in Colombia. That says A LOT.

I decided he needed some help. From my angle it looked like he was losing the interest of one of them and I didn’t want a cock-block scenario to take place. I walked over, patted the Aussie on the back and weaseled my way in.

The disinterested friend suddenly seemed to become very interested - interested in me. Her eyes lit up as I spoke Spanish to her. She wasn’t understanding the Aussie’s conversation with her friend.

We began talking about salsa and how much I enjoyed it. She asked me about a couple variations of the dance that I’d never heard of.

One of the most awesome moments of my life ensued. A Colombian girl that could easily have been a model told me to place my hands on her hips as she demonstrated the subtle differences in salsa dances.

I’m staying in Bogota forever!

And then he came back. He was at least 6′5 and 250 pounds of muscle. She introduced me to him and said he was from Mexico. She didn’t say boyfriend, but I got the feeling.

I tried my best to not seem intimidated. I started speaking to him Spanish and pointed out a Mexican flag pin he was wearing on his shirt. I reached up and touched it! I touched his Mexican flag pin.

He looked down slowly at my finger on him and then stared at me.

“You don’t have to speak Spanish bro. I speak English.”

He grabbed two flowers from a display case behind us, handed them to the girls, and then dragged both them away from the Aussie and me.

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photo by lornapips

I was in a big club in Cali, Colombia named Mangos. I had come with a big group from the hostel. The club wasn’t very full that night so we were able to get a table right next to the dance floor.

I’m a pretty terrible dancer but in Colombia I had taken a liking to salsa. I like mostly that it’s a very interactive dance so you can just grab a girl, pull her on the dance floor and go for it. I liked to try to get the girls laughing by spinning them because it took the focus off of my bad footwork.

The whole group of hostel people was having fun, drinking some rum out small bottles, and dancing. Eventually, a group of three Colombians, two girls and a guy, entered the club and sat next to us. One of the girls was bubbly and had very large breasts. I note her breast size because in Cali, it seems like fake boobs are a requirement.

The best thing about Colombia is that a girl like this will open you up and start chatting. So that’s what she did. Turned out she was born in Cali, lived in Miami for 10 years, and now she was back.

I talked with her for awhile before asking her to dance. It was clear from the beginning that she was the aggressor in our relationship so she tried without much luck to show me some dance moves.

We returned to the table and I began talking to the other girl. She was beautiful as well, and very drunk. When she stood up she could hardly walk with the giant heels she had on.

I didn’t think much of situation. I was chatting to these girls having a fun time. But the guy they were with felt a little differently. He was very angry at me, and also very drunk.

He got in my face and told me to leave his girlfriend - the drunk one - alone. “Yeah no problem,” I thought. I focused my attention back to the aggressive big boobed girl. But it wasn’t long before the guy was upset again.

This time he walked to the table of my hostel friends and stole a bottle of nearly full rum. I protested and told a friend we had, who was from Colombia, what the situation was. He chased after the guy and brought our rum back. He turned to me said, “I wouldn’t talk to those girls anymore. He is very upset.”

I agreed that it was probably best. I steered away from the table and went back to the dance-floor. But when I returned, the drunk girlfriend started chatting me up again. I tried my best to stop the conversation and exit. It was too late.

The angry boyfriend started making his way towards me. My Colombian friend stepped in and stopped him. The boyfriend then pushed my friend throwing him backwards. In big clubs like these there are always bouncers patrolling the dance floor so they pounced on the boyfriend in a flash.

The bouncers escorted him to the door and his girlfriend cried and chased after them. The big boobed girl then came back to me apologizing for how drunk he was.

That was the first time I felt my life was threatened in Colombia. The second time would come only a few days later.

+++++

photo by Marplar

Blog: Wandering Earl

About: Wandering Earl is 32 years old and spends about 9-11 months per year traveling outside of the USA. He’s been doing this for the last 10 years.

Why I like it: I really just like Earl’s style of writing and his take on life. He’s also living in Mexico right now, which is where I might be headed.

Current Favorite Post: The Currency Of Pad Thai

Blog: MuseLife

About: David Walsh’s Muselife focuses on providing resources for creating streams of passive income to support a more liberated lifestyle.

Why I like it: If David were from Boston I’d say he was wicked smart. But he’s from Philly, so I call him ‘brother’ a lot. Anyway…it’s a very helpful and interesting site. Love it.

Current Favorite Post: Live What You Sell: Muse Goes Heavy Metal (Profile: Metal Shredder TV)

Blog: Rules Optional

About: In Andrew’s words: I live on a sailboat. I explore, kayak, run an ad agency, and am known to wear a kilt. If you’d like to ask what I wear underneath… at least buy me a drink first. Maybe two..

Why I like it:I like it because Andrew continually comes up with stuff like this: “’Fake it ’til you make it’ is an adorable saying, but I’d tweak it a bit. Fake it, then make yourself into what you described… but fast.” And he’s a badass entrepreneur who lives on a sailboat. ‘Nuff said.

Current Favorite Post: Failure and Leverage (Part 4 of 4)

Blog: The Life Design Project

About: Robert & Brandon have created a blog to investigate their methods to becoming “experts”, “CEO’s”, world travelers, productivity masters and dream fulfillers. Their end goal? Freedom to live out their dreams and have notes on exactly how they did it.

Why I like it: I love how detailed their posts are. They describe exactly what they’ve done. It’s great. Check the post below and you’ll see what I mean.

Current Favorite Post: Results | Outsourcing and Automation in Freelance

Blog: Location 180 by Sean Ogle

About: Sean is a 24 year old living in Portland, Oregon. Sean writes about travel and entrepreneurship, as those are his two passions.

Why I like it: Sean is a stand up guy who writes with a lot of honesty. He recently lost his job and now is going to be forced into making something happen. I look forward to hearing about his adventures.

Current Favorite Post: Video Of South Sister Hike

Blog: Free Pursuits

About: Corbett recently took a six-month sabbatical to Mexico and built a power-house blog in the process. He’s trying to build a community of smart, motivated people who want to challenge themselves to live a more fulfilling life.

Why I like it: I got to meet Corbett face to face recently and learned a lot from him in a short amount of time. He’s also been churning out consistently solid and insightful posts that grab my attention.

Current Favorite Post: Is Fake It Till You Make It Mentality Keeping You Down?

Blog: Thrilling Heroics

About: Cody McKibben started Thrilling Heroics in 2006 to encourage young professionals and entrepreneurs to pursue an unorthodox, exciting lifestyle and career, strive for excellence, and make a positive difference in the world.

Why I like it: Um, Cody just interviewed Ramit Sethi and Gary Vaynerchuk. Plus Cody is a genuinely good guy as well. He lives in Thailand at the moment and is crushing it.

Current Favorite Post: Why You Need To Listen To The Legendary Gary Vaynerchuk

Honorary Mention Blog: Tynan.net

About: Tynan is a 28 year old guy with no permanent home traveling around the world by boat, train, and plane, and around the United States and Canada in his tiny RV.

Why I like it: I originally found Tynan through his writing for Life Nomadic. That blog has since been merged into Tynan.net but he recently released a pretty good book about living the nomadic lifestyle by the title Life Nomadic (that was a crazy sentence). I’m sure all the lifestyle designers would have loved it, but he didn’t promote it to any of us…get on it Tynan! You should read it (for free or by a donation) here - http://tynan.net/lifenomadic

Current Favorite Post: Video Tour Of My RV

Last Friday I met with Corbett of Free Pursuits here in San Francisco. It was great connecting with someone who is A) smart as hell and B) interested in the same things I am.

We decided that we should put together an informal meet-up for other like minded individuals who are in San Francisco.

So anybody with an interest in lifestyle design, location independence, digital nomad-ary or just anyone who’s cool. Lets drink a few beers and meet each other face to face.

We’ve set a tentative date of Wednesday Nov. 11th @ 7 PM and probably will meet somewhere in the Mission.

If you’re interested, shoot me an email or hit me up on Twitter: @DJohanson.

+++++++

Site Update

I’ve begun moving TalkMuse.com over to this blog. I think people that are interested in my stories and travels are also at least partially interested in how I’m funding them. I think they’ll find value in the Talk Muse posts. It will also be easier for me to just have one blog for now.

I’ll also probably be re-releasing the LU Guide To Muscle for like $5 sometime soon. I like the idea of releasing small reports and charging only a few bucks for them. This would partially be a way for me to begin monetizing this site. Although I’m not overly concerned with making money off of Live Uncomfortably at the moment.

Personal Update

As you probably inferred, I’m currently in and around the San Francisco area. I’ve been living with Clay’s family in Marin county during the week, and then riding my bike into the city to hang out with my other friends on the weekends.

I’m loving it here. Every time I ride in and out of the city, I cross over the Golden Gate bridge which (on sunny days) is an incredible experience. I also am enjoying the people, festivities, beer, and especially Miller’s Deli on Polk Street. Get the pastrami philly and your life will never be the same.

Sadly, I’ll be leaving SF soon - obviously after the meet-up - for Yosemite to visit my parents for Thanksgiving.

After that, I’m not 100% sure. I’ve got a lot of ideas spinning in my head but the latest one is: going to Mexico, finding a small beach town, getting more work done, learning to surf, learning more Spanish, and working out.

Got any ideas? Anything you’d like to see me do?

Photo by Tait Campbell