Adam Kayce

Most days, I’d bet most of us feel like drones. Life’s commitments suck you dry, you race from one place to another only to complete seemingly inconsequential tasks half the time, and the phrase, “rat in a maze” comes shockingly close to summing up your daily activities.

Wouldn’t you rather do amazing things with your life? You can. And one of the ways to make sure you do is to preserve your sanity by not acting like a rat, and doing the things that will set you free. How? Genius Time.

Genius Time, in a nutshell, is about building time that’s for you and your most important things into your schedule.

Want to make stuff this cool? Genius time, baby. Genius time.

Sounds simple, huh? Hardly.

I’ve seen this idea talked about most often by “Creatives” — folks who do creative work for other people, like designers, artists, etc. If Creatives aren’t careful, they can spend all their time and energy working on client projects, and not have any juice left over for their own business.

But it’s not just for Creatives. Everyone needs genius time.
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I am thoroughly and utterly convinced that fear is the driving force behind every bad decision we ever make.

Now, don’t be afraid of fear—that’s a scary thought!—just learn to recognize it for what it is.

And now, on with our story.

The search for inner peace led John to a group of other like-minded people who also saught the same thing, all rallied around a teacher who demonstrated some very successful techniques to help his students find and experience that peace. As the group grew, the teacher realized that he must establish a “method”, so others could teach the work as well. After all, what good would it do unless a means could be identified? And so, this method became concretized, shared, and taught to many more seekers of peace.

John, who believed the methods and the community around it to be the best thing he’d ever seen, became a teacher of this system. He taught others the methods, used them himself, and his life got better.

But then, a shadow began to grow…

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I watched The Ramen Girl last night. I know, I know… not exactly the kind of movie you’d expect from a carnivorous, Olympic-lifting male, but I did. And you know what? I enjoyed it. Truth be told, I actually like romantic comedies as a genre—call me a sensitive, new-age guy, if you must—but what I enjoyed most from The Ramen Girl wasn’t the trials and tribulations of Brittany Murphy, or even the food (and I love food movies).

Mmm... steaming hot ramen.

What I enjoyed most about the movie, without giving away too many details, was the main ingredient that Brittany Murphey’s character, Abby, learned to infuse into her ramen that made it special: spirit. Because in the end, this was not a movie about ramen, or romance. It was about finding one’s place in the world by focusing on the how more than the what.

“How” comes from within

The fact that Abby learned to make a great bowl of ramen is secondary to what it required of her to do it. She got the recipe right long before she was able to make a meal that was worthy of being served to her customers, because she was taught that making soup isn’t just about getting a bunch of ingredients and assembling them. It’s about heart. Unless your soup has spirit, it hasn’t got anything.
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Blogging is arguably one of the best, most fundamental actions you can take to further your business, your self-expression, and deepen your understanding of your place in the world. Don’t just take my word for it; ask Seth Godin & Tom Peters…

But there’s a big difference between writing for the heck of it, and actually expecting to get some positive return out of it. There’s also a big difference between writing a five-post boom-and-crash, and blogging for a lifetime.

Hoping to get some help both of those points, I recently watched an excellent video by Mr. 4HWW, Tim Ferriss, and I thought it was fantastic. He calls it “How to Blog without Killing Yourself”, and says, “one of my favorite presentations I’ve given in 2009.” After watching it, and taking notes of the highlights for myself, I’d have to agree.

Now, for anyone reading this who’s anti-Tim, just let me say this: On one hand, that’s cool. Like who you want, and don’t who you don’t. I’ve got no beef with you. But, if you’re thinking to leave me a trollish comment because you’ve got an issue with him, then answer this: Who are you? What have you done with your life so far? How many people have you impacted? Smile on your brother, y’know?

What I’ve written below is my own personal commentary on the notes I took from the above talk. He covers a lot more than what I took notes on, which is why I recommend you watch it – my takeaways are going to be different from your takeaways, by necessity and design. My hope in adding my notes is that it’ll help add some context to quotes taken entirely out of context, and lend some insight from my own personal perspective, for what it’s worth (and hey, if you’ve read this far, then maybe it’s worth enough to you to keep reading…).
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Hi, all.

I’ve had it in mind to write a personal blog for some time. I’ve got a business, an ex-business, a Facebook page, and a Twitter page, so what’s up with this blog?

Good question.

To be honest, I’m not sure where this is going to go. What I do know is that I’ve been writing “for” something other than the joy of writing for so long, I’m beginning to forget what it’s like. I’ve been thirsting for a venue that doesn’t have to “produce”, in the sense of generating business for me and/or my company. I’ve seen friends like this write for no obvious reason other than the joy of expression, and it appeals to me.

And, after years in the limelight (I used to be an “esteemed faculty member” of a seminar company/spiritual movement), I’m wanting a place to let my hair down — well, if I had any left, that is. I’ve grown very, very tired of censoring myself, doing what’s socially appropriate, and toeing the party line for the purposes of acceptance. So, with all proper respect, eff that. No more.

I’m not saying that I’m here to be a crabby bastard… just that I could be, if the mood struck. Most of the time, I prefer not to be. Life’s just better when I’m happy and joyful. But, from time to time, I might get my back-end outta whack about this or that, and who knows, I just might write about it, in the name of being therapeutic and all.

So, with no promises, and no more excuses, here I am.

Image by Tyson Cecka via cc on Flickr.

Sometimes an idea comes along that revolutionizes your way of thinking about a subject.

A conversation got started at Dawud Miracle’s site not too long ago, about “What Would You Rather Have, Clients or Customers?”

The ensuing conversation completely reframed the way I view people who come in and out of my business. Isn’t it just semantics? Hardly.

The way we orient to an idea will shape how we view it, the identity we give it, and the actions we take in relationship to it.

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My youngest daughter turned two in November, and I think she’s starting to hit her stride.

Every other word she utters is, “Why?”
Every answer to her, “Why?” is followed up with another, “Why?”

And so I started thinking: That’s a great question.

Why do you do what you do?
Why is your work, your work?
Why do you stay at it? Why do you love it? Why?

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Revolving debt, as anyone with a credit card can attest, is more stifling than a rugby dogpile. By dumping negative on top of negative, it keeps you stuck, hungry, and unable to feel true freedom.

But as onerous as being in debt to Big-Brother-esque financial corporations can be, there is a subtler, even more transfixing form of revolving debt that can hamstring your best efforts at working productively, being effective, and feeling free.

It’s the revolving debt of normalcy.

Say what?

Everybody wants to fit in. And each of us has old pictures in their minds from the time when “being cool” was hot — yes, even the in-crowd.

But yearning for a sense of social normalcy only straight-jackets your success as a small business.

Because when thoughts of, “What will they think? Will they like it? Will they buy it?” start dominating your mental landscape, then you’re spiraling quickly down the toilet-bowl of revolving debt.

Maybe not financial debt (or, not yet). But spiritual debt, the kind of soul-gnawing itch that tells you you’ve given too much of yourself away, yes. Because following anyone else’s idea of what’s right for your business is as exhausting as sitting in rush-hour creep.

Not to mention, it’s the worst way to get noticed, liked, and listened to (and ultimately, bought from), even though that’s the intention that drives you to adopt the vanilla attitude.

Why?

Because people don’t line up for vanilla. They don’t want to listen to you say all the same things everyone has already said.

People — the people that are waiting for you — don’t want you to fade into the monochromatic background of normalcy. They — the people that need your help — want you to stand up strongly for who you are and what you believe, even if (or especially if) it goes against the grain.

Don’t be a sheep… be a shepherd.

Why is standing out so important? It goes back to the primary rule of marketing: People listen to you because they want what you have. That’s right; they see the success (however they define it) they want in you, and figure that listening to you is the best way to get it for themselves.

So do you think people want vanilla? Do they want to be sheep? Do they want to blend into the crowd? Stone the bloody crows, no!

They want to be inspired, strong, and capable of standing on their own. They want to be able to resist the black-hole-pull of normalcy, and sound their own barbaric yawp across the rooftops of the world (hats off to Whitman). And the last thing that’s going to get them that is a vanilla sheep.

But a shepherd? That’s a world apart.

Shepherds aren’t in spiritual debt, because they aren’t letting the sheep dictate their pace. Shepherds stand out in a field of sheep, and that why they’re followed.

But, if I stand out, will people like me?

No, they’ll love you. They’ll love you because you aren’t letting your fear get the best of you, like their fears have bested them. They’ll love you because you’re unique, just like they want to be.

And, speaking your own message is as energizing as a caffeine IV drip. Stepping out with your own passion, bringing the love you have in your heart to the world juices up everything you do, because nothing is more enlivening than freedom. It will free you from the malaise of conformity and the debt of inner emptiness.

So go on — beat that drum, sound that yawp, and get out of debt. Your clients will love you for it.

Image by falcifer.