Let’s get a few things out of the way.

TJ is 17. I am 33. He has dropped out of high school, and is debating college.  I dropped out of college, and debate on a daily basis what do I want to do next.

I have thousands of hours of audio book listening, couchsurfing with industry experts, reading regular books, and attending conferences on an extremely diverse range of topics (I’ve been to Cosmetics conferences, fishing conferences, manufacturing, modeling, photography, and of course, marketing).

One could say that I have an unfair advantage here. But, I’ve earned my network, TJ wants to get introduced to it, and Ideation is a skill that the strengths finder says he has in his top 5, while it is not listed in my top 5.

That being said, there is a beauty in not having the experience that I have.  Kids often have the best ideas, because they haven’t been told that they can’t do stuff yet.  They haven’t had the school and corporate system crush their dreams and creativity yet.  The same is true with TJ.  His younger age has prevented him from having many of the bad experiences I’ve gone through, and he is not as conditioned and set in his ways as I am.  That, and at 17, he has not killed as many brain cells as I have.

I already get paid to dispense my ideas (consult), and make them happen (implement), which is why this isn’t about me.  This is about giving TJ a chance to prove what he can do, and give people an opportunity to see (well.. hear) what strong ideation can do for them.

That being said, SEO questions , and the like, will not be answered, as TJ had to google what SEO is.  This is about creativity.  If you need ideas- directions to go, personal problems solved, directions for your business, ways of outdoing the competition…. You will get a lot of out this. Kate Buck Jr will be moderating the event.

Ask your questions here in the comment section, and tune in tonight at 11pm EST to http://CouchSurfingRadio.com -  tell any of your friends that are in a bind.

A younger gentleman contacted me that I’d make a good role model.  I love helping, and he did find me on ENTP.org — contacted on FB.  I went with it.  I listened to his stories, gave feedback in full honesty about my past, my experiences, and my answers to difficult questions… even one like “Should I go to college?”

ENTP’s are often the world’s artists…. yes, Seth Gofin’s Linchpin states that art is when you put your gift into what you are doing, so accounting can be art… it’s problem solving, navigating without a map, and working on the edge of the box.  But ENTP’s are the troubled ones that can do anything.  We know we can do anything, and thus we bounce around between anything.

We’re pretty popular in advertising… come up with creative ideas, fight deadlines, show diversity, emphasize with a brand or logo.

I gave all my answers for everything– the lessons I’ve learned in life. These are not the, but give you a sense of some.

Move away from negativity, move towards the positive stuff….. sometimes easier said than done.  This can mean reading a book that bores you, or helping someone without getting anything back.  It can – and ofte does – mean having to fire your friends that are losers.  Yeah… I wrote it… and for your question of “Who is he to judget?” screw what I think… what do you think?  It’s proven…. you are the average of the 5 people you spend the most time with.  Income, fitness, optimisim, negativity, sarcasm, love, success– everything.

So, a loser is someone that’s holding you back.  Someone who’s not taking chances, or willing to pursue their own dreams and goals.  Someone who is fine with settling, and always talks shit about your dreams.  Ditch ‘em, and get mentors; people that inspire you to do better.  People who have already done what you want to do.  Learn from other’s mistakes… it’s much cheaper, trust me.

One thing I’ve learned is that five years from now, most everything that will have changed in your life is who you spend time with, and what books you’ve read (what you’ve learned… I do a lot of audio books / videos).  I was told that everything I said resounded as right…. Others weren’t able to connect on the same level.  Cool, I can help.

The books I suggested were Tim Ferriss’s The 4 Hour Workweek, Dale Carnegie’s Win Friends and Influence People, and Strengths Finder 2.0.

TJ took action, and got all 3 books.  I continue to help when people take action.

He said his strengths were:
Command
Ideation
Futuristic
Strategic
Self-Assurance

Mine are:

Command
Strategic
Futuristic
Activator
Self-Assurance

I’d say it sounds like he chose a role model pretty well.  I’m not talking about what my life’s been, but rather that we’re both ENTPs with 4 out of 5 overlapping strengthsfinder results.

“One day, I would love to meet you and work with you because I have noticed that you do not have Ideation listed as one of your top 5…I feel this is one of my greatest talents and I feel like out of all of them, it is what makes me stand out the most as an individual. I have endless, endless ideas. They come from everything I lay eyes on. If you used your talents and skills to help me launch them…We could make a shitload of money. A shitload. I have ideas for practically anything you can imagine….businesses included. Implementation is difficult for me though, because I have very little resources at the moment, a huge roadblock for all of my ideas is capital. This could be easily overcome if I could tap into your network….What do you think?”

Well… I value my network.  It’s my most priceless posession.  You!  Reading!  Your time and attention, and teh people I couchsurf with, do business with, go on adventure with, call friends…. It’s what I value in life.  So… to just prance into my life and say that you want access to that is balsy.  I encourage it.  Game on.  But ideation?  I don’t feel attacked, but trust me in saying that just ’cause it’s not in my top 5, does not mean that I do not posess the skill.

In fact, ideation is one of my most noticeable skills.  I can come with more uses and solutions for things than most anyone I’ve ever met.  Let’s see what he’s got.  That, and I know what motivates ENTPs    We’re a competitive bunch…. and we both have the self-assurance strength, and futuristic, so of course, we’re both going to think that we’ll win anything.    So, I challenged him…

This Monday at 11pm EST, on my weekly BlogTalkRadio show, Couchsurfing Radio, there will be an idea off!

40 Minutes of the show will be dedicated to this (Everyone still wants to know what’s up with Jason Moffatt’s cliffhanger about the Maori Healer (here’s a pic of the guy:

)

The 40 minutes will be split into 8 minute segments… 2 minutes of the person with a question explaining it, then each of us gets 3 minutes.  Part of the 1st 20 minutes will be to decide which questions will be answered.  We could do 5 of these, but I doubt we’ll stay to 3 minutes each   When ideating, it’s easy to get lit up, and want to just keep going on ideas.  If something truly rocks, then we’ll keep it going.  So, we will solve 4 people’s problems.

Leave a comment with anything that you need ideas on. My strengths finder results can be found at this Blog Post on Happiness. Please share this with friends, so we can really solve people’s problems.  I charge a lot of money to do this for your company… so this is your chance to get consulting for free.  What’s not working? What would you like to do?  What’s working and you’d like to improve?  Personal? Business? Social Media? Fitness? Music? Eating? Humor? Connecting? Dude- pick a question, post it as a comment.

Which question would you like to see answered? Comment about that?  We’ll decide based on comments that have been posted by Monday night.  I know what I Can do, and I”m constantly told how helpful it is.  Let’s see what TJ has.  If he kicks ass, maybe someone will want to hire him for his creativity and ideation, which he says is a large value component of who he is.

Leave a comment, and hopefully we can give you just the idea you need.

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All sorts of crazy, but you definitely want to catch the replay!  There’s a ton of awesome SXSW insider info on how to party for free, mingle with the stars, and all sorts of great reasons to go into town… with or without a badge.

My guest, Chase, talks about his pet mountain lion.

I tell jokes.

There’s a lot more– just listen, it’s fun!

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I even include some music in this one– let me know what you think of it.

A lot of you remember that I lost 28 pounds in 30 days, and everyone kept asking me how.

The answer is…

The Daily Juice.  It was at this place that I first sat down to chat with Craig Allen, and we ate and discussed raw food.

I had always been a brat about salads (ask my mom - she’s newly on twitter!).  I would not eat them (most veggies actually).  But that day, I tried the BBQ Coconut Burrito at Daily Juice.  Mmmmmmmm!!!!

Seriously! It was so good, that I was able to not only finish the meal, but also crush my disbelief that veggies can’t taste good without being fried (Tempura veggies aren’t healthy?? what?).  After that, I had gone on a 30 day raw challenge, and lost 28 pounds in 30 days.

I ran into my friend Lyn Graft, and told him about this contest I’m entering called Live Off Groupon (You get $100,000 if you can spend a whole year living off Groupons-  check their site to learn all about ‘em).  Turns out that not only did Lyn know all about Groupons, but his favorite Groupon Deal so far has been for Daily Juice.

I went in and chatted to one of the staff there today about the establishment, and their experience on Groupon. It was a lot of fun- check it out:

Now you know why this place is a healthy Austinite’s favorite hangout.  If you haven’t been, try it out.

Since I like to share marketing ideas, I recommend that you contact Groupon about being a deal on there. It would take you a long time to sell 1,000 smoothies (or whatever your product is)…. Groupon helps you get the word out about your business quickly. It’s tied into social media.  I even spoke about it as the marketing advice for Couchsurfing Radio Episode 9.

Everyone wants to know how Mardi Gras was…. Find out on the podcast!

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I also talk about some killer ways to save money based on group buying, and how to use that for your own advertising and marketing.  What the heck a hackintosh is, and how that’s going.  And of course, the latest trouble I’m looking to get into

My first broadcast from a cell phone, and the longest I’ve been on an iphone. I recorded this on the drive to Mardi Gras with Jason Moffatt and Randy Primm.

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The themes are collaboration, networking and… well, you should listen and find out!  Some decent marketing ideas in there too, so take notes

What did I do in Dallas?

Billboard climbing

Art fair

warehouse party

consulting

met new people

got a speaking and mc gigs for next month

played poker (learned to play poker actually)

There was more… and that’s why you need to listen to Episode 7.  You can hear what the listeners who got their consulting thought, and check out a funny conversation with Jason Moffatt.  That reminds me– this is the first episode to have the word “shit” in it.  I was wondering how long the G rating would last

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Didn’t make the show? That’s too bad, ’cause that’s where the information on how to get free consulting.

For this week’s show, I asked people what they wanted to hear, and gave it to them. The short version: My predictions on where tablet technology is going, ways to be more productive, P90x and fitness, a bit of consulting on the show, as well as giving away 3 one hour sessions of consulting for the next day. Need your problems solved? Catch the next episode, and follow @couchsurfingori on twitter… I’ll be posting when the next giveaway, and may do live consults as a regular part of the show.

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Many people are often baffled by “What exactly is it Ori does?” and “How the heck does Ori pay for his journey?” – while these things are written in my book… my book isn’t out yet

I can tell you a bunch of things that I do, but I’ll use someone else’s words. Elizabeth Potts Weinstein wrote this after a short while of consulting with me:

“Ori is brilliant in so many things – photography, graphic design, web design, business strategizing, personal coaching, marketing – but those are just the tools he uses to express his creativity, to solve problems, to do what he really does … which is to pull the unique brand out from inside of you and give you the tools you need to express that brand to the world.

And I’m not talking about *thinking* your way into a brand that you “should” be or a brand you “wish” you could be … here I’m talking about a brand that is the expression of your personality, the uniqueness that you already are. Bringing together all your seemingly disparate passions into sync, figuring out the nexus that pulls everything together!”

I like that description. Everyone says it’s accurate. So, yes, I can do Read the rest of this entry »

Want free advertising? Want more credibility than you get out of an ad?  You need to listen to Peter Shankman’s interview.

I frequently refer to Peter Shankman as a roll model, ’cause he’s a spaz, funny, adventurous, and successful.  Last night’s call was haunting, because it showed that there were a lot more similarities (even the listeners were commenting on that). We also spoke about many other topics, such as bucket lists, skydiving, flying all over the world, and much more. Have a listen:

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Download the episode for home/car/plane/etc..  listening.

Check out the Couchcast

 
Download the episode for home/car/plane/etc.. listening.

It seems the show just keeps getting better. The topics are pretty diverse- bankrupcy, falling for scams, fighting back, photography, facial expressions, PR, Peter Shankman, various jokes, and more!

Have a listen, leave a comment!  You can download this, and take it with you.

Episode 3 was fun! This time I had a full-time guest on the show, Elizabeth Potts Weinstein. She had said that it’s on her bucket list to go on an adventure with me… so she came into town, and had an adventure!  You can hear many of the details on here, as well as learn some marketing, humor, etc… Enjoy!

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Good news / Bad news kind of thing.  Mr. Peter Shankman will not be on my show tonight, as he will be out of the country.  He will be on next week.  Instead, I am bringing you Elizabeth Potts Weinstein, who just completed a weekend of adventures with me.  You can check out Elizabeth’s blog: The Continuing Adventures Of Living My Truth.

Make sure to tune in tonight at 11pm EST at http://CouchSurfingRadio.com

More blog posts soon to discuss the weekend’s adventures / photography.

Couchsurfing Radio Episode #2 was a fast-paced humor-filled, inspiration laced ride!  It’s hard to believe that just last week I spent an hour of going “uhhhhh”- and harder to believe that yet again, I threw it together!

At first, neither I nor my listeners could get on! I set the settings wrong, and we had to move the show to 11:30pm EST, instead of 11. But from that point, everything was on track.

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This time, I had two guests.  Hottie adventurer entrepreneur Ingrid Vanderveldt who races motorcycles, jumps out of a plane, is building up a company valued at $100,000,000, and knows the value of being unique, and seeking mentors. I find her inspirational, and she tries to empower women-entrepreneurs. Read the rest of this entry »

sorry folks!  I know! I know! I was excited too… but, that’s technology for you.  I misclicked, and kept getting the date wrong somehow, so… I couldn’t get into my own show.  So, 11:30pm EST now– I got 2 awesome business minded babes on the show, and it’s gonna rock!  I’ve love to have you there!

Make sure you catch tonight’s show! It’s at 11pm EST, on CouchSurfing Radio.

Good news: Tonight I will be less distracted! Through the magic of technology, a lovely assistant

I”m already getting momentum.  Peter Shankman agreed to do next week’s, Tony Hsieh is doing the show in May.  If you don’t know who they are, google them…. but both shows, you’ll definitely want to catch!

I haven’t really been preparing. Life goes on… but I did leave you guys with that cliff hanger, so I’ll have to tell the entire guitar story…

If you have questions you’d like answered, you can start sending them to me through the contact form, or facebook.

See you tonight!

Have you ever felt you were destined to be on TV or Radio?  Yeah… me either.  But I sure was told it often that I should have my own show.  At least for 10 yearas now.  So… here it is

I present to you CouchSurfingRadio, my latest creation. Right now it will be on Monday nights at 11pm EST, with replays available for your downloading pleasure (so you can hear it again and again… have it on as you clean, drive, work, jog, poop, etc..).

The show will cover many topics, but most of them will be what I often blog about: adventures, travel, incredible people and places, marketing, life lessons, motivation, design, jokes, and of course, my odd perspectives on everything.

Here is the very first episode.

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It’s a great story… the forming of this radio show:  I felt like putting on a radio show, I tweeted and facebooked that in 2 hours I’ll be putting on a radio show, and then I put on my radio show.  Exciting, huh?  There was more to it than that, of course. I didn’t figure out how to log-in to the host number until (literally) 3 minutes before showtime. I was a distracted spaz.  I didn’t know how to read the questions that were coming in through the show’s chat-room, through twitter, and through skype. So.. yeah.. I was all over the place.

The feedback thus far has been great though!

For next episode, I will have a surprise guest, someone to filter the questions/chat for me, and segments… so, some kind of structure.

Take a listen, I’d love to hear your thoughts on the show (Leave a comment below please)