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!

I was doing some random work for Computer Hardware about a two years back and I helped them make some movie posters for their ‘Home Theater’ side of their business.

I took a few original movie posters and slowly converted them into vectors.
If you know how to use vector files (.eps and .ai files) please click the “Download” Sticky note below to use this artwork for your own use. The text can be modified as I’ve included the fonts in this zip file…

I hope you enjoy some freebies (this falls under the creative commons license).
Have an awesome day!
Chais 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

About a month ago I met this guy named Tyler Wilterding (here’s his facebook page), a New pastor at a New Church plant in Kearney, Nebraska (the Church is called “The Table”).

I’m generally turned off by pastors and the standardization of organized religion because of what it all stands for…I realize that not every organized religion or church is the same, or even close in some cases, but I feel when the idea of ‘togetherness’ is to believe the “I’m right, you’re wrong and you’re going to burn Forever unless you follow my way of believing…” message, I don’t really belong.

My God is different than that, not pushy, arrogant or right until the very end…in my opinion, those things are not the vision I have of what/who God is.
This is probably why I felt comfortable around Tyler right away, he didn’t push me in any direction, he let me share my viewpoints and didn’t argue anything with me, he treated me like what I imagine the Biblical Jesus Christ is supposed to represent…Love!

Tyler asked me to have lunch with him and pick my brain about beliefs, the local Kearney people and to get my idea of where the 20 something’s mindsets are when it comes to religion. I pre-warned him that I’m not an expert on any topic and I just have my opinions to share…that’s it. He was okay with this so we had a beer and burger for lunch (that’s how it should be, drinking a beer with a pastor at lunch time…) and discussed all of the above.
Tyler mentioned to me that he wasn’t happy with his website and I felt okay telling him that I also thought it looked like crap and that I’d be glad to help him set up a new one.

He paid the basic fees (like $50 - $70) and I configured / set up the new site for him. He’s been managing his new website (http://www.thetablekearney.com) for about a week now, and I’m happy that he’s happy with the results.
For the work that I did for him, we would normally charge a customer $2,200/year to do the same thing…all I wanted of him is to pay it forward to someone else that needs something. Wouldn’t our world be better if these type of ‘pay it forward actions’ were done all of the time? Could we do one remarkable thing for someone every month, week or even day, without asking anything in return?

Think about how you can help someone with a talent that you already have, after you decide on a couple things that you can do to help,  just make them happen…don’t put to much thought into it…you may think your way out of helping someone because of the time and/or energy commitment it may take to get the tasks completed…just do it!

Thank you for reading and have an Awesome Day!
~Chais Meyer

:: [Update: Tyler has since gifted me with 2 frisbee golf discs and a $20 gift certificate to a local restaurant. Thanks Tyler!

The story of charity: water - The 2009 September Campaign Trailer from charity: water on Vimeo.

Last week I was at a conference of young entrepreneurs in Omaha, Nebraska and I heard a talk from Scott Harrison.

Scott is the founder of Charity: Water, he shared and explained with us the situation of water, or the lack of water, for hundreds of millions of people living on this earth.

I don’t normally rally behind fund raising campaigns because I feel like there are so many unknowns about the projects…Where’s the money actually going, how’s it actually getting spent, and who is in charge? After hearing Scott’s stories, reading on this website and learning about the situation myself, my wife and I decided to do something to help.

We get fresh drinking water everyday and we don’t think anything about it. We don’t ever stop to think about the people out there (near 1 billion people) that don’t have this privilege! If we can start a small page on the web and donate $20 to help one person have fresh drinking water for 20 years…Why wouldn’t we?

If not us, then who? If not today then when?

Start making a difference today and help change other people’s lives forever! Donate Here.

Thank you very much for reading this post and have an Awesome Day!
~Chais Meyer

:: Please let us know what you’ve heard about this company and we’ll talk to you soon!

I just watched a talk about Happiness by Professor Srikumar S. Rao and Loved how simple/right on his concept of happiness is!

This talk intrigues me because of how we deal with happiness day in and day out and what the majority of us thinks creates ‘real’ happiness.
We put conditional elements of happiness into a little imaginary box (This box could include any number of things; A new job, getting married, a promotion at work, the house our dreams, the perfect vacation, etc.) and we say to ourselves, “If only I can get that little box (no matter the time or sacrifice), then I will be truly happy”.

I don’t believe that the statement above is totally negative, we should have goals, dreams and ambitions…but these obtainables shouldn’t be the definition of Happiness in our lives.
We need to learn how to be happy, even if we have nothing ’special’ to speak of.

When happiness is dependent on the if/then statement, we set ourselves up to live an unfulfilling & depressing life…Be careful, because this could be a very poisonous mindset!
Let your daily happiness drive you to be a better & more full person.
Have an Awesome 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/