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“So what is it exactly that you do?”

That is the question I get asked most often.  Not because it is standard, but because people look at my odd business card, and find out that I’ve been couchsurfing for over 3.5 years.  ”And you make money by couchsurfing?”

I have not really shared what exactly I do, until now! Read on! You may be surprised how I can help you, the people I have helped and how I have helped them, and WHY I am sharing this with you now! (In that order) Read the rest of this entry »

This post is about what just happened with one of my models… but keep reading, ’cause it also explains some neat marketing stuff.

What does it say about the world we live in, when you do something nice for a friend, but they have a hard time trusting that there’s no catch?

I’ve been off the grid.  I’m supposed to be working on my book, but the people I’m spending time with have inspired me back to the business side of things. I’m a closet workaholic!

See that image below?  That’s what I’m working on.

A series of Photoshop and Photography DVDs.  I’ll post more about those very soon, this post is about Daniela. Read the rest of this entry »

I teach clients how to improve their social media, but I haven’t blogged anything about it in a while… but this, I could not resist.

One of the first things I tell everyone is to monitor your brand– use Google Alerts, use Search.twitter.com — whenever someone talks smack, provide good customer service.  When someone talks nice, reward ‘em.  Well…  here’s an awesome example of that:

Tabitha Hancock (@fox_girl313) posted , “AAAHHH Im outta wheat thins… Mi life is officially over,”- and Wheat Thins brought an entire giant palette of wheat thins to her house.

Read the rest of this entry »

I’m  warning you in advance, this is not your mother’s book review (takes me a tiny bit to get warmed up)! It has a lot of really personal stuff from my life as I reflect on the book, and is discussed in my fun (and language filled) manner.

Siddhartha, by Hermann Hesse is a book that does not fit in my normal reading list. As with all things in my life, this too has a fascinating story and reflection.

It all started with Jaime. Read the rest of this entry »

My friend Robert had gone skydiving, so that was a conversation piece.  I asked Sheila “Have you gone skydiving? “Of course!” pause… “Have you?” “Umm of course!” as if it’s an insult that someone had to even ask!

The conversation then shifted to whether the skydiving was performed solo, or tandem.  If you haven’t gone, it’s really safe, part of that reason is because you go tandem, which means that there’s  an instructor strapped to your back, and they deal with the boring stuff… like landing, packing the parachute, and making sure it opens if you screw it up. If you want to jump on your own, it costs you about $1,800, and requires about 18 jumps and some tests.

Sheila, Robert, and I had all jumped tandem.

I added that I WILL get certified and go solo, because it is Read the rest of this entry »

Sponge Bob Square Pants died in BP oil spill!

Here’s a fun one to share with your friends!

British Petroleum has a gag order on their staff.  During this cleanup, no one can tell you what’s really going on.  So… all those dead animals, all that failure on stopping the flow of oil…. yeah, they can’t

Click this to see BP's "Oil Spill" ad

talk about it.  Additionally, BP is paying for sponsored ads, so whenever you search for a term like “Oil Spill” their ad shows up at the top, like so (see image on left).

Their BP ad (the one with the yellow background) costs them money for each click.  It takes you to their page, where they get to present the information however they want to… i.e. “BP cares, loves you, are the good guys, and are really making the world a better place…. and a little oil in your sea food is good for you!”

Now, I may be paraphrasing a little bit, but you get the idea.

The sad part is that millions of people do not know that it is an ad.  They search for “Oil Spill” (or any other term relating to the worst ecological catastrophe in history), they see “BP”, click on it, and think they are seeing the real news, and thus believe it.

So, to show BP that this campaign is just a waste of their money, and that people are smarter than that, just keep searching for Oil Spill, and clicking on BP’s ads!  Then just hit the back button on your browser, you’re back in the Google page, and you can click again… rinse and repeat!

Send your friends to this page! With enough people doing this, maybe BP can invest their resources into cleaning the environment, rather than just trying to bully us into thinking that everything’s peachy.

Here! I’ll save you the effort– Just click here, and it will take you to a Google page where you can click on oil ads.

Have fun!

If you want a quick dose of happiness, rent a roach suit.  I rented a roach suit! Then I wore it to go to the grocery store, and showed up at a few friends’ offices. Here’s my story (Pictures at the bottom)

It was a great day indeed– I refused to go to sleep until I finished this custom Twitter Background for someone, and when I woke up, it was to an e-mail saying how much the work rocked.  Then I got to see my buddy Tex… Well, actually, it’s Dave Bredesen, but I always called him Tex ’cause when I met him, I was living in Florida, and he was living in Austin.

He did always tell me that I’d love Austin, and boy, was he right!  Actually, how we met is entertaining.  It was at Read the rest of this entry »

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:

One of the Maori Healers at the Longevity Conference

)

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.

So, I’m shooting photos at SXSW, and have a schedule. I noticed I was on fumes… for a while…. and the engine sounded different even! I was trying to find a gas station downtown with the last of my fumes (Oh yeah… traffic made for really long fume-consuming drive), ‘cept there was  no gas station!

My hero to the rescue... with a bundt cake

I get antsy if I can’t make it on time (early) to anything I need to shoot.  I decided to F**k it, I’ll get gas somehow later. Park now, figure out car later.

I sat down, shot photos of the panel, and sent out this tweet “Oh yeah! My car’s on fumes. Will trade 1L of Tito’s Vodka + portrait to the person who can bring a good size gas canister w/ gas. Dm me”

I had to shoot until 6.  I got to my car at 6:20, and had Kathryn already parked near mine, gas container at her feet, and a home made bundt cake wrapped in shiny aluminum.  I guess you can insert a knight in shining armor joke here, right?

I had multiple people offer to rescue me.  The funny thing is that Kathryn was in the audience when I was lecturing at Social Business Boot Camp the other week, in Dallas.  She had engaged me on twitter to get my thoughts on her 1st blog post- go check it out, and comment your thoughts about how shy people can engage.  I left a long comment, or two… and then gave her a few things to change on her site to make it more personable (permalinks, gravatar, admin nick, etc).

The interesting thing is that she claims to be shy.  We never actually spoke at my lecture.  The only reason we spoke was on twitter, when she tweeted me.

Now, if her day had gone as planned, she’d already been parked, and would not’ve left the garage to go get me gas.

I just think it’s awesome that through social media, you can solve problems such as being out of gas… in a fun and creative manner.

Today at SXSW’s Booze-bloggers panel presentation, Elizabeth Bellanti was talking about what a cult following they have, and how Tito’s Vodka has grown because of people talking about it…   I told the story of how I discovered Tito’s Vodka, and she told the panel that I was highly responsible for their social media success.  *blush*

The Couchsurfing Radio Host- Couch Surfing Ori

Check out the Couchcast

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!

Check out the Couchcast

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

Tellman is the first person ever to run coast to coast barefoot.

I’m thrilled to bring you guys this interview with Tellman Knudson, while running, as he runs across the country barefoot to raise $100,000,000 to help fight youth homelessness.

Tellman Knudson is a really awesome person.  He’s driven, but chill.  He knows who he is, and lives according to that.  People like that are far and few.  He is a very successful marketer, and decidedto do a first.  In this video, he tells the challenges of finding a “first”,  about why he’s doing what he’s doing, and the challenges of it.

He’s gotten to meet my hero, Richard Branson… whose charity (Virging Unite) he’s raising the money for.

I can hardly fathom $100,000,000.00 — I don’t care what your cause is, that’s a lot of money, that can really make a difference! Hanging out with Tellman while at Matt Bacak’s & Mark Joyner’s Survival Tactics for Tough Times was very enlightening and humbling.  What do you think of what Tellman’s doing?

Thanks to Harris Fellman, who’s another successful fellow who’s fun, money was raised just from this jog.

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

The answer is…

Click to see the before after

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.

The Couchsurfing Radio Host- Couch Surfing Ori

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

Check out the Couchcast

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

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

The Couchsurfing Radio Host- Couch Surfing Ori

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.

Check out the Couchcast

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

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

The Couchsurfing Radio Host- Couch Surfing Ori

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

Check out the Couchcast

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

The Couchsurfing Radio Host- Couch Surfing Ori

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.

Check out the Couchcast

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 »

I love Shankman's Shirt!

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:

Check out the Couchcast

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

Check out the Couchcast

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.

The Couchsurfing Radio Host- Couch Surfing Ori

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!

The Couchsurfing Radio Host- Couch Surfing Ori

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.

Check out the Couchcast

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)

Gary Vaynerchuk and Kate Buck Jr. 2 REAL social media experts

Caution! There’s some cursing in here! Now you can’t complain that I didn’t warn you. This is a hillarious clip about what is going on in the world. There’s thousands (actually – there are 15,740 social media experts on Twitter, according to Mashable).  I’ve had my clients send me copies of their social media strategies (I helped with) get praised (Tito’s Vodka for example), and others just tell me thanks… ’cause business is doing better because they’re on social media.  But Social Media has become a buzz word. It’s gotten to the point where people have heard the terms, but don’t know what they mean… just that they need them (reminds me of Dilbert’s boss).  “I need some SEO!”  “I need an Opt-In!” “I need to tweet!” — you probably do, but that doesn’t mean that the guy who bought $80 worth of books at Amazon (Free shipping after $30, how can you go wrong?) justifies the $5,000 he’s charging.

Don’tbe intimidated by language and terms.  You can totally google them, or I can Google that for you! There are so many tutorials and courses out there.  Many of them are good content actually, but just like Law, you want to make sure you have the latest and greatest… A technique may be in a book that no longer works… or that works with consequences.

There definitely are social media experts out there.  For example, one of my close friends and one of my couches,.  Meet Kate Buck Jr. a REAL Social Media Expert. Kate can get you tweeted for, Facebooked for, and your customers dealt, educated, and cared for through Social Media. She actually has it down to a science how to get you more followers (that interact with you, not just follow-bots), and what time of what day gets the best retweets  or reaction.  She’s got many of “the gurus” as clients.  Why? ‘Cause she knows her shit, and to them reputation is more imporant, as is their free time. I know a few awesome people in social media. But don’t go putting “Social Media Expert” on your profile if you have less than 2000 followers. Anyways— screw it… I’ll get off my soap-box– enjoy this hilarious clip, and leave a comment if this seems familiar at all

One last thing… you can hire an expert… but remember- no one’s a guru… we’re all born crapping ourselves (We’re all human).

ebook cover design is fun

I have to pay for gas, food, gadgets, and fun…  I’m often asked “How do you make money when you’re on the road?”  I’m a male stripper of course.  Actually… that would probably be way cooler.  No, I’ve been called “The most highly skilled hobo in history” because I do marketing (ad-writing, graphic design, analytics, ppc, seo, website design, printing, videography, video editing, motion graphic design, branding strategies, social media strategies, local-search submissions), Photography, consulting, and the occasional workshop, and public speaking.  What?? I get bored easily

One of the websites I just designed is BeWellWithSue.com, a blog about healthy living, practical raw lifestyle, and healthy cooking.  It belongs to Suzanne Thomas, who I”m couchsuring with right now in Austin, TX. A little “Internet Marketing 101″ – Sue wants to build up her mailing list, so she is offering an “Ethical Bribe” to get people to give her their contact information, so she can continue to market to them on similar topics. This is called Lead Generation, though it’s often called an “Opt-in”.

A picture is worth 1,000 words, and a good picture that represents a concept well is worth dollars too.  One of the things I do is design. Since I created her theme (the way the site looks), and header, and logo, it only seemed logical to have me create the Ebook cover.  The ebook is called “28 tips for a healthier, skinny you!”  I believe the title, because Suzanne is the one who helped me lose 28 pounds in 30 days.

A lot of people hire designers to create e-book covers, regular book covers, flyers, and much more… Design is actually simple, and with Photoshop (free 30 day trial of Photoshop available), you can do it yourself fairly quickly.

I recorded the entire process of how I created this ebook cover, and you can do it yourself, and save hundreds of dollars of hiring designers.  If nothing else, you can show your designer EXACTLY how you’d like your cover to look.

Since I explained what an opt-in is, an ethical bribe, and lead generation…. let me give another awesome example!

Get my free video on how to create a ebook cover of your own!  Just fill out the (opt-in) form below with your primary e-mail and your name, and I’ll send you the video!  I hate Spam, and so I solemnly swear not to give your information away, or even sell it. I’ll just send you notices when I have additional awesome new training videos (they don’t ALL make it to my  blog). Trust me, I know a lot of really cool stuff!

Then you’ll get a quick e-mail you have to click on, to prove that you’re you, and then you’re good to go! I’d love to know what you think of the video, and what other topics you’d like to see me explain.

The very 1st

I’m so excited.  I got e-mailed this photo tonight from my 1st buyer of my BalloonBoyWear shirts.

Will is wearing this awesome design:

If it's on TV, it must be true!