I’m not really sure if fundamentals can ‘technically’ change or not since they are “fundamentals” & all (the foundation and most basic part of our beings)…but I’d like to think that I can change whatever about myself when ever I want, or need to.

I was very quickly getting sick of my life (I recognized a pattern about two weeks ago), doing the same things that I’ve always done and expecting to get different (BETTER) results.
The end outcome wasn’t changing, so I decided to make it change…I only have one life and I better be the best ‘Chais Meyer’ that I can be! I always have the opportunity to compare myself to the countless other 27 year olds that have already made millions of dollars, sold multiple business and met the president of some far off country…but where would that get me? Life is based off of ‘Cause and Effect’ & what I did ten years ago, one year ago, or one week ago helped create a road map to where I AM today (as good or as bad as that is). The question that comes to mind after realizing this is, “What am I going to do today (the Cause) to change my future (the Effect) for the better?”
I can no longer be the victim because I AM THE VICTOR…and I need to start cusing acting like it!

“Take Responsibility for yourself and change your cusing fundamentals!”, I yelled at myself in the hotel room.
No one is going to take you by the hand and make you be better, stronger or smarter…YOU are the only person responsible for you!
DO YOU UNDERSTAND ME READER!?! YOU ARE THE ONLY PERSON RESPONSIBLE FOR YOU!

For me, that means sleeping less (from 9 hours to 5 or 6 a night has been good so far), learning more (applying myself and dedicating one hour or more each day to learning something that will better my tomorrow), applying myself (TAKING ACTION, ideas are great but their just ideas if they never get implemented) and limiting the amount of time I spend on things that distract me from progression (AKA. Disc Golfing and the above ;)!

Keep Pushing & Have an Awesome Day!
~Chais Meyer

[image used from: http://studio.angoulvant.net/tag/3d-fundamentals/]

Just now commenting on the book ‘Crush It‘ may seem a little late, as it was officially released back in 2009, but Gary Vaynerchuck just appeared on my radar…and I’m glad he did!

I first saw Gary when I went to an Up-lifting / Technological / Entrepreneurial conference in Omaha, Nebraska a few months ago (called BIG Omaha). Gary was one of the speakers and spoke about business, the web and all around randomness while he was answering questions that were asked by the audience; He’s a Total Stud, a creative thinker, a free speaker (he speaks his mind & cusses a lot), he’s inspirational, and an extremely potent individual (in the nicest way possible ;).

As soon as I heard about his book ‘Crush It’, I had to buy the audio version and see if Gary was ‘just another business guy’ or something more…I’ve since discovered that he’s definitely more!

I’ve listened to a lot of business related audiobooks and Gary’s is the most real audiobook I’ve EVER heard!
What makes an audiobook more REAL than the next?

• First, Gary goes off the script a lot in this book! This is right in line with his unedited episodes on his Video Podcast (for Wine Library TV). ‘Going off the script’ is exactly how it sounds…he stops reading the words that he wrote in his book and starts explaining in more detail, gives real world examples and he even comes up with new thoughts as he’s recording the audiobook and shares them with his listeners. This, in my opinion, is how ALL audiobooks should be…If the author wants to mention something else to his listeners, just do it…share any/all of your thoughts if they may help us get a more complete experience from your book, even if it wasn’t in your initial published draft! Thanks Gary for helping me find what I was missing in 95% of all audiobooks!
• Second, Gary speaks to his readers/listeners in a no bull shit way, “You’re not going to get rich over night, it may take months or years until your hard work pays off”. Thank you for not feeding us with another round of crap, the kind that eventually leads people to a feeling of disappointment because of their limited results after 2 months of ‘hard work’!
• Third, Gary puts a massive priority on what it takes to make yourself & your business(es) a success & that is Sweat (you know, the liquid that comes out of our pores when we do something that is intense)! When we realize the importance of our own hard work and how it’s the only thing that gives us a leg up over the next guy, we will change our priorities and stop expecting someone to just hand us success because we put 20 hours a week in on a particular project or business.

If you want to either create or re-create your own personal or business brand, this book  is a must have (the audiobook version is my recommendation)!

Thanks again Gary for sharing your thoughts, examples, and experiences with us to hopefully better ourselves.
Please listen to this book and tell me what you think of it and have an Awesome Day!
~Chais Meyer

:: I’m going to be updating my progress as I start to re-create my own personal brand over these next few months…Stay Tuned & CLICK HERE if you’d like to subscribe through email…I’ll send you a new email every time I write or record a new blog post!

This image is great because the guy in this picture looks as proud to have $17 as we are.

This was truth about 5 days ago…I looked in my online personal checking account and saw a dollar sign “$” with the following numbers “17.00″. Unfortunately, this was not a mistake by Wells Fargo, they did NOT accidentally move the decimal point over two places from the end of the number, we actually had $17 in our checking account.

This is not a pity cry or a call out for help, I am proud to have $17 in my checking account!
Why? Because this is ‘the real dirty’ of not living a typical 9-5 lifestyle, of working for ourselves and putting all of our extra cash and resources into our businesses that will someday repay us for scraping by in order to feed our businesses.

Could we do it another way? Could we work a full time job and also make our businesses grow?
Yes & Yes.

There’s no right or wrong when it comes to living life the way you want to. For us, it’s all about constant progression…if we are moving towards a growth direction and we’re seeing constant change for the better (personally and professionally) we are willing to have a harder short term (and a better long term). On the other hand if we’re sitting back, blowing our money and wasting our time, we deserve to be in a tight spot without the reward of our business growing for the future. The fact of the matter is that we’re running, pushing, and sometimes fighting to get what we want…we plan to have a huge financial turn around during these next 6 months…and that news will be even more exciting to share!

Business is not always easy & it’s sometimes dirty, but as long as you have a higher purpose, bless others (individuals and businesses), and work with more passion than the next guy/gal…things will eventually go your way.

Have an Awesome day & don’t forget to thank your God for what you have!
~Chais & Shawna Meyer

A buddy of mine (Mike Nyffeler) sent me a link to this video today, and it really helps me see ‘what we really want out of life’…Purpose.

Take 10 minutes and watch this video, it will reinforce some thoughts you may have about your own life and what drives you.

I was shooting the shit (AKA. Talking) with a buddy of mine, in my office today. We started talking about business and happiness. The conversation was started by him recognizing my chalk board walls and the writing that is on them. (my wife and I painted 50% of the walls in our office with chalkboard paint to help us visually layout our ideas and thoughts everyday)
This particular section of the wall was designated for our “Star Customers”, the customers that do everything right and then some. This list is ongoing and ever changing to help us identify what makes up our Star customers and how we can get more of them.

For us, a Star customer recognizes growth potential in themselves and their business, they want to learn and better themselves rather than having someone spoon feed them everything. Knowing this, we can manipulate our current business systems to reward these Star customers. This is not standard business logic, “rewarding customers, it will never work, we’ll lose money on that”, says corporate America.

We’re starting to see this ‘new agey’ business logic with a lot of young business owners because they’ve seen how happy customers (and employees) make for an extremely profitable and Happy business.

Maybe I’m noticing this new model in more businesses recently because I’m reading Tony Hsieh’s (CEO of Zappos) new book, “Delivering Happiness” (http://www.deliveringhappinessbook.com), which is absolutely incredibly! This book is an overview of Tony’s life (Personally & Professionally), with his wins and losses along the way. He’s inspired me to be better at focusing on happiness instead of money, and then the money will take care of itself.

I’m striving to make every business I’m involved with a true success (according to my customers and employees), not Gross Profits. My wife & I are super passionate about this and challenge you to look at life this way. Take a look at Tony’s new book and tell us what you get of it, here’s the Amazon link if you’d like to buy it and check it out (http://www.amazon.com/deliveringhappiness).

Make others Happy in Life and you will be too!
Have an Awesome Day!
~Chais Meyer

This Blast from the past is one that helped me develop my marketing mind. It brought to my attention that I need to think about who’s listening to my story, instead of how great I think my story is. Take a look and tell me your thoughts. (This post was originally written on October, 1st 2007)

Marketing (in the form of advertising) affects who it affects…

Words following this statement might be something like this:
Duh…
No, Really…
Wow, That’s deep (with a hint of sarcasm)…

But it is so true and simple that we (especially myself) forget about it.

I was with my mom watching television last week and we saw an Alltel (cell provider) commercial that has the 4 guys (they represent the other cell phone companies) and “Chad” (from Alltel). The four guys always do something silly or stupid to make Alltel look like a better company. My mom loves these commercials (absolutely loves them…) and I…not so much.

So, I think to myself that this commercial is a waste of time and money and that if I were to do it, I would do them a different way (I don’t know everything about commercials, but I know my own tastes and what effects me). The interesting part is that my mom loves it the way it is, maybe my way wouldn’t effect the people that it currently does in a positive way.

Using myself and my views as a basis to judge whether all marketing is good or bad, is an incomplete way of looking at it. I need to view it (marketing) from other’s points of view (my mom and people like her), as well as from my own. This combined point of view is the middle ground that every non niche company tries to find. It requires more work and is more time consuming, but it is the area that I need to be shooting for.

What I learned:
1. Look into marketing deeper (my own, other company’s and individual’s)
2. Don’t judge what works or doesn’t off of 30 seconds of thought (I need to push myself to grow).
3. Don’t forget about the customers / partners / investors that don’t think like me!

I hope you enjoyed this Blast from the past & have an Amazing Day!
~Chais Meyer

[There is an update at the Bottom of this Post]

I was recently loaned an Audiobook called “Adventures in Creative Thinking” By Mike Vance. This particular Audiobook is a set of 6 cassette tapes, not CDs or an .mp3 file, making it very challenging to listen to if you don’t own a cassette tape player…I don’t know if you know this, but iPhones, iPods and most computers don’t have a cassette tape slot! You probably knew that

The last time I listened to a cassette tape was probably about 5-7 years ago. So, in order for me to listen to this highly recommended Audiobook, I would either have to convert these tapes to .mp3s or listen to all 6 of them on a tape player. I decided to convert this Audiobook Set into a single .mp3 file. Easier said than done…

After about 4 hours of searching for my old tape player, and having no luck finding it, I decided to search for this book on the internet…ARE YOU KIDDING ME? NO DIGITAL COPY OF THIS AUDIOBOOK AVAILABLE ON THE WEB…NOT EVEN TO PURCHASE!?!

I started doing a little investigating and found the company that made this Audiobook, here’s a link to their website: http://www.creativethinkingassoc.com/
“OK, now I’m getting somewhere”, or so I thought. They have a online store with all of their Audiobooks (15+ published books) but NO .MP3s!

Whether this was right or wrong, I noticed an opportunity to help a company upgrade their products and possible make a little money for myself in the process. So here’s what I did:

1. I went to Audible.com to see what the procedure is to submit published Audiobooks for digital distribution and possible resale on their website. I don’t see any actual instructions, just an email address that I can send my questions to…so I write them an email.
2. The email to Audible.com is copied below (I sent a copy to Audible.com and a copy to ‘Creative Thinking Association of America’ The creaters of this book) :
   “Hello Audible.com,
   My name is Chais Meyer and I’m writing for ‘Creative Thinking Association of America’.

   I am currently in no way connected to ‘Creative Thinking Association of America’, but I would like to assist them with the conversion of their Audiobooks to the proper digital formats to possibly be distributed and sold by Audible.com.

   ‘Creative Thinking Association of America’ currently has 15+ Complete and Published Audiobooks that involve creative thinking and entrepreneurial mindsets. These books have made a dramatic impact on myself and my business partners, and we would love the rest of the world to be able to have access to these Audiobooks in a digital Audible file format. I believe that this conversion will allow ‘Creative Thinking Association of America’ to earn additional revenue from their Audiobooks by being converted and sold with your proprietary digital format (I view your company as The Premium Audiobook Resource) .

   I do not have permission to act legally on Creative Thinking Association of America’s behalf, I am only doing investigative work to make this process as smooth as possible for them, if they do indeed decide to convert their Audiobooks into a digital Audible format. Can you please direct me to any/all page(s) or document(s) that explains the specifications and/or requirements needed for converting Audiobooks to the proper digital format? I would like to have a clear answer for this company of how these processes would work. If there is anything else they should know (contract documents, etc.) I would love to provide them with any appropriate literature that will help them understand this process and get everything moving in the right direction, if they choose to do so. I believe that their knowledge and experience needs to be spread to the world.

   Thank you very much for you help and I look forward to hearing from you.
   Chais Meyer
   (mobile) 402-419-1202
   (email) meyer@threedotinc.com
   (twitter id) twitter.com/chaismeyer “
   

3. I wait for either a good or a bad answer…nothing yet!

I do realize that this could be seen as presumptuous and/or very forward on my part (because I was not given permission to contact Audible.com). But I see such a huge need for any existing published Audiobooks to be converted and sold in a digital format. I mean, we’re in a day and age where portable audio is a standard thing and if your books aren’t in the format to reach the masses, they most likely WON’T reach the masses. Sounds logical anyway.

I don’t know whether this action will be good or bad in the long run, all I know is if you’re trying to run a business in ‘Today’s Business World’, you need to follow suite and sell what people are buying.
Who knows…Maybe this will be the start of a business that converts everybody’s old Audiobooks to the new standard Digital format, and maybe for all my hard work and forwardness, I’ll get a percentage of every online sale (Crossing my fingers). Whatever ends up happening, I know that if I didn’t have the balls to help this company make a change, I would never see any positive benefits!

Be Courageous, Daring, and Spontaneous, and if need be…be ballsy enough to tell others they need to change for today! (Just understand that change can be difficult and scary for certain people)

We’ll see where this goes from here.
Have an Awesome Day!
~Chais Meyer

[Update 3-18-2010 :: I received an email from Diane Deacon, President of Creative Thinking Association of America and it's listed below ]

Hi Chais,

Thank you for your letter and call.  We are glad to know that our Creative Thinking products have helped you be even more creative!

We are working on getting some of our audio programs into proper digital formats.  We will let you know when they will be available.

Keep the Creative Juices Flowing!!!

Sincerely,

Diane Deacon
President

…is an amazing line in the film “Lemonade“.

It is so true that we can take what life throws our way and just see negative side affects. If we look deep enough into our individual situations we WILL find good.
In fact, the good will very much out way the bad, after we get over the initial shock!

If you can, please take 35 minutes, and watch this inspirational film about turning Lemons into ‘Lemonade’!
It’s worth missing one of your favorite TV episodes for.

Live with Passion & don’t forget what you love!
Have a great Day!
~Chais Meyer

Resources from the Film:

• The Lemonade Website: (for additional details about the movie) http://www.lemonademovie.com/
• The Male Copywriter Website: http://www.malecopywriter.com/
• Please Feed the Animals Blog: http://www.pleasefeedtheanimals.com/
• Red Eye Roasters Website: http://www.redeyeroasters.com/

After a recent technological disaster, I realized that there really is a HUGE difference between skill and luck (and I’ve been lucky A LOT).

I took on a project for a local Doctor and I came up severally short! I was asked by this doctor to JailBreak his iPhone (allowing it to work on a competitor to AT&T’s phone network)…
This is normally no big deal and I’ve ALWAYS come out ahead on technology projects like this, without a flinch! To help somebody Jailbreak their iPhone, I charge $150 for the knowledge, actually  JailBreaking it, and filling in the voids that Jailbroken software has for the iPhone; I make them work like they should.

For people that understand technology, especially when it comes to iPhone Jailbreaks, this is NOT a very complicated task. The really smart people out there are the ones that come up with the Jailbreaking software in the first place, guys like me just use their knowledge to benefit from (of course I am actually providing a good service to people that don’t feel comfortable doing it to their phones in the first place).

So why did I find out that there’s such a big difference between skill and luck? Well, I’ve always taken for granted the skills that goes into creating this Jailbreaking software (A new jailbreak is created every time a new version of the iPhone software comes out…that’s how it works, they stay in sync). I’ve always assumed that whenever a new version of the iPhone software comes out, there will always be people smarter than Apple and they will go ahead and create a iPhone fix for us everyday folk.
On this day, my mindset was no different and I decided to upgrade this customer’s iPhone to the latest Apple Software. I figured that a Jailbreak had already been created and it would be pud for me to go to the next step. I upgraded the iPhone to 3.1.3 and then proceeded to look for the matching Jailbreak software…I started having trouble finding the appropriate software I needed, so I dug a little deeper. Before I knew it, I’d been researching on the internet for 2 hours for a fix and I realized a fix DOESN’T EXIST!

No problem right? I can just undo what I’ve done and go to an older version of this fix…right? WRONG! This particular iPhone software upgrade changes things inside the phone that CAN NOT be undone! THERE IS NO FIX OUT THERE! Even the biggest brains in the iPhone tech world are saying that they’re not sure if this version of the iPhone software will ever be able to be Jailbroken.

What does this mean to me? What does this mean for this Doctor who put the fate of his iPhone in my hands?
It means that I fucked up…big time! I made a completely Rookie mistake by upgrading the iPhone before knowing if there was a fix out there! This Doctor CAN NO LONGER use this $600 phone for an unknown amount of time…it is essentially an iPod now. All because I thought I was skilled in iPhone Jailbreaks, because I’ve never messed before, I thought I was invincible!

At that moment I realized there’s a BIG difference between Skill & Luck!
I had been extremely lucky at every point until that moment. Luck, that relied on other peoples skill to make the impossible possible!

I still am not able to fix this guy’s iPhone, and I don’t know if I will ever be able to. I may have to buy this $600 piece of equipment from him (because I jumped the gun on a very simple thing)!
I learned a very important lesson that day, Never jump into something just because you haven’t failed at it before…Make sure to do your research, which allows you to under promise and over deliver!

Please learn from my mistake(s): Know what you’re talking about and know what process goes into accomplishing ‘your goals’…before you find yourself in a sticky situation!

Thanks for reading and hopefully learning!
Have an Awesome Day!
~Chais Meyer

This past year I’ve been doing contract labor (creating/building an educational system and identity) for a local electronics business that I used to work at, called Computer Hardware (while we’ve been building our own businesses). I’ve done what I was brought on board to do and now I’m going on my way again.

‘Going on my way again’ seems to be a little more scary this time than it was the first time. I’m not exactly sure why…maybe it’s because I’ve become accustom to the monthly paychecks that I’ve been getting for my services. Or maybe because I’m thinking like every other employee again (ARGH…) & I’m scared to leave a “secure” job to rely 100% on myself.

It appears to me that the ‘employee mentality’ creates a sense of fear & stagnancy that needs to be broken away from in order to enjoy life to the fullest (for me anyway). When I rely on an outside business (not my own) as the source for my main income, I forget to push/challenge myself to be the best I can be. I become ‘comfortable’ with how things are, and it becomes nerve wracking to walk away from the easy money.
Why do I call it ‘easy money’? Because, working for someone else (even as a contract employee) I get paid even during the shitty months when the business may not make a profit; it’s the owners responsibility to come up with the money for his employees!
What happens when I have a shitty month with my own businesses? I go hungry or I don’t pay my bills on time! A little different way of thinking & living.

Since I’m going to be relying solely on myself again, I need to take a new look at my life and prioritize which businesses will provide me with actual monthly Cashflow and which businesses are a good idea for the future (AKA. Time suckers that provide no cheddar right away). Don’t worry, I’ll share this with you!

This new phase of business has happened before and I’m on Round #2, with more experience, knowledge, and determination than ever before. Now is the time that I need to prove to myself that I can apply everything I’ve learned and fought for to become more successful than ever.

Bring it on Round #2, Just Be Gentle!

Believe in yourself and make the best of EVERY situation, even if that means working 12-16 hour days to make it happen (I most likely will be…).

Have an Awesome Day!
~Chais Meyer