I love Amy Applebaum!  She is the force behind Amy Applebaum Inc. and “The Release Your Inner Millionairess” program designed to create life changing breakthroughs in her clients, mostly early stage women entrepreneurs.

Amy’s helped hundreds of thousands of female entrepreneurs across the globe and has been on ABC News, CNN, TLC, LX New York and Martha Stewart.

In 2009, Amy made a big evolution in her business to achieve Unique Genius Superhero status, and in the interview we talk about that change as well as other big work transitions over the past 15+ years that have led her here.

A great quote from this interview: “It’s ok to be afraid, just do it anyway”.

We covered…

• How Amy turned getting fired into freedom
• How Amy started her first company placing vending machines, and how her first disaster led her to changing her approach and making the business successful
• How Amy went from 1-1 life coaching to a business expert helping entrepreneurs all over the world
• How to make the most of your advisors & team
• Why having fun in work is so important & relevant
• How Amy gets out of a poopy mood

And more, of course!

Listen To Or Download The Interview

Want to download the interview?
Click here to download…

More About Amy Applebaum

• www.AmyApplebaum.com
• Amy’s Blog
• A Machu Picchu Unique Genius Superhero interview of Jodi Nelson, a client of Amy’s

About Unique Genius

Want to learn how to discover your purpose and answer the question “what do I want to do with my life?”  And learn how to combine all your interests, ideas and passions into a single successful business?  Find out more at www.UniqueGenius.com.

What Was Your Favorite Part Of The Interview?

Please leave a comment!

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Now Unique Genius is your purpose, translated into a successful, exciting business.  So this free series of videos teaches you two mainly about the two most important starting points:

1. How to discover your purpose (or mission), and answer the question “What do I want to do with my life?”

2. Learn how to turn all your ideas, interests and passions into a single successful business.

Some comments include:

• “I watched the video this morning and got totally inspired. I have a fire lit under my ass!”
• “Aaron!!! THIS IS MAGNIFICENT and BRILLIANT. I love the video. It’s very authentic and genuine. I can’t wait to share it to my network. Keep lighting those fires!!”
• “One of the best videos and communication of both the problem, aspirations, and the steps toward making things happen”

In the video, learn:

• How to start a business that can’t fail
• 16 myths of what it takes to start a successful business
• 6 common mistakes people make in turning this purpose into (lots of) income
• A Unique Genius exercise
• Lessons from some PAINFUL life & business mistakes I’ve made, and how you can learn from & apply them yourself

The video’s based on what I’ve learned from starting two kinds of businesses:
1) A conventional start-up: Spending $5 Million & working full-time for two years
2) A Unique Genius business: Spending $20-$100 and working part-time (4 hours a week) for two years

Forgetting fulfillment, freedom & happiness for a moment, which type do you think made more money?

This will be controversial to many of you because it’s so counter to what you’ve been taught by conventional experts.

(Forget market research & business plans? Enjoyment? Babysteps? Patience?!?)

I’d love to hear your questions & “skepticisms” (yes, I’m allowed to create words!) in the comments section of the video.

Register here to watch Unique Genius Video #2:

Let me just say, this interview was awesome.  Even a client of mine said “the Brian Johnson interview was stupid good. I really liked the way he lives his life and enjoyed the interaction between the two of you. There is much in common.  Thanks for making the time for this. Best, Eliot.” And thanks Eliot for suggesting I interview him!

By the way, even if you don’t listen to the interview, take this bit of advice to heart: when Brian was 24 and “a train wreck” (his words), all he could do was follow his “single little bit of bliss” (wanting to to coach little league baseball).  That eventually led to the idea, growth and $13 million sale of his first company.

So what is your little bit of bliss, however small, that you’re not following because it’s not “practical”?

A little about Brian:

Brian lived for a year in Bali as part of figuring out what he wanted to do and coming up with PhilosophersNotes.com. Brian, like myself, comes from a technology-entrepreneurship background, but left it behind to start a Unique Genius business.

In his first venture, as a 24-year-old law-school-dropout-turned-CEO, Brian led the creation of eteamz – the world’s largest amateur sports site that was sold for over $13 million of stock and cash to The Active Network, Inc. in 2000 (and it still profitably serves more than 3 million team players in 120 countries around the world).  So the guy knows some stuff

Also, Brian will be a guest expert trainer in my upcoming Discover Your Unique Genius program.  When you listen to the interview, you’ll understand why I invited him to participate.

Things we discussed:

• How Brian dropped out of law school at age 24, terrified & “a train wreck”… and then by following his “single little bit of bliss” (wanting to to coach little league baseball) led to the idea, growth and $13 million sale of his first company.
• Why Brian feels that raising money from investors – which he’s done twice, almost $10 million worth – is overrated (and why I agree!)
• Why taking a 10-day silent vipassana meditation course, and starting to meditate, was one of the most significant things Brian’s ever done for himself (although it almost drove him crazy).
• Brian’s two main sources of stress, and how he manages them.
• What kind of environment and activities lead to the idea and vision of PhilosophersNotes.com
• What led Brian to realize that “he’s just not that into business” and what he REALLY cares about.

And so…

Listen To Or Download The Interview

Want to download the interview?
Click here to download…

More About Brian Johnson & Philosophers Notes

• www.PhilosophersNotes.com
• www,OptimalLiving101.com

Books & Sites Mentioned That We Both Recommend

• John Wooden & Steve Jamison’s “Wooden” (one of the best – if not the best – management books I’ve ever read)
• Gay Hendricks’ “The Big Leap”
• Tim Ferriss’ The 4 Hour Workweek
• Deepak Chopra’s The Seven Spiritual Laws of Success
• David Daeda’s The Way of the Superior Man
• Vipassana Meditation: www.Dhamma.org, and my post about my 10-day Vipassana meditation retreat: “A lifetime focus & happiness enhancer: Vipassana meditation”
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About Unique Genius

Want to learn how to discover your purpose and answer the question “what do I want to do with my life?”  And learn how to combine all your interests, ideas and passions into a single successful business?  Find out more at www.UniqueGenius.com.

What Was Your Favorite Part Of The Interview?

Please leave a comment!

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We talk about what she was doing before she started it, how she began, where the ideas came from, how her coach made a big difference, and what’s going on this year for her (her 4th year)…

The trip was awesome – we spent:

• A couple of days in Lima & Cusco,
• About three days volunteering in a local village school (building tables and chairs, planting trees, playing with kids),
• Three days trekking in the Andes, and
• A day in Machu Picchu.

The people on the trip were fantastic!  It was just awesome all around

Pictures of the Macchu Picchu trip on Facebook:

Peru & Machu Picchu Trip Pictures on Facebook

If this link doesn’t work, you can also just look them up on my Facebook profile www.Facebook.com/MotoCEO

How Would You Combine Your Passions Into A Business?

Leave a comment and let me know!

Let’s say you’re in a career that you may or may not like, but either way you have to make some money to pay the bills.  Let’s say the thought of actually enjoying work is probably more along the lines of “once I have enough money, then I’ll figure out what I want to do with my life and I’ll do what I want.”

Do you think the career track will create financial freedom for you?  How free is your boss, or theirs?  How many people do you know that have achieved financial independence by working for other people?

Even the Silicon Valley equity and stock options system is, except for the founders, more of a white-collar lottery than an actual path to financial freedom.

You will never achieve financial independence through working for others – you must start your own business.

At some point you’re going to have to start your own business. Just having your own business isn’t some golden ticket to wealth, but it’s a hell of a lot more likely you’ll get there than by clocking a job. I’m not saying you should quit your job – you need the income!  But at least make a plan to start your own business.

If starting a business feels like a “big leap” or a big risk – it doesn’t have to be.  So many people still believe it takes a lot of time (per week) and money and energy to start a successful business…

…but what if it doesn’t?

What if you could start your own business without much money or time per week on it, in which competition didn’t matter, and you felt fulfilled by the work?

What if there is a way to discover your purpose and answer the question “What do I want to do with my life?”

And a way to combine all your ideas, interests and passions into a single successful business?

Upcoming Unique Genius Education & Training

My purpose is to help more and more people ‘make money through enjoyment’ by discovering your purpose and turning it into a successful business.  Part of this includes democratizing entrepreneurship, to make it easier and more practical for anyone to start a business with confidence.

I have some complimentary training videos (part of a prelude to a full Unique Genius course) coming in about a week to get you started on envisioning how this is possible.

The videos and course are for you even if you don’t have extra time because of a current job or family.  Being busy can make it that much harder to figure out what you want to do with your life or work, and then stay on track. So I’m designing the content into bite-sized chunks that you can study and apply at your own pace.

You’ll want to study the videos, if…

• You know that you are ‘meant for more’: to make more money, to make more of a difference in the world, and to have more fulfillment and enjoyment in work.
• You want to be able to work on what you want, when you want, from where you want and with whom you want.
• You want to align your interests, passions and values with your work, and become MORE successful because of it! You don’t have to make less money doing what you love.

I’m looking forward to getting these videos done and sharing them!

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Here are some of the topics we covered…

• How he started his first business part-time (while working in medical sales), and turned it into a $8,000-$10,000 per month business before jumping ship to work full time on it
• The 2×2 matrix he uses to plan moving into new markets or building new products
• How Yanik’s money motivation shifted with success (away from Rolex watches and cars)
• The two things that REALLY matter in life
• How he manages his time with multiple businesses and a family

And more, of course! This interview was longer than usual, because we had such a good time and covered so many interesting areas

Listen To Or Download The Interview

Want to download the interview?
Click here to download…

More about Yanik Silver

• www.YanikSilver.com
• www.InternetLifeStyle.com/blog
• www.MaverickBusinessAdventures.com

Some of his blog posts that I highly recommend starting with or that we mentioned in the interview:

• 5 Unusual Ways To Motivate Yourself“
• GREAT example of laying out a company’s values and vision: “2012: A Maverick Space Odyssey, Painted Picture and Lessons Learned” blog post
• Example of PDA (“Public Display of Action”) Yanik used to get himself to launch a new company: “Maverick Business Adventures – A Startup Journal“
• About money and motivation: “Do Your Wants Create Your Ultimate Success?”   – you can see the early influence of my PebbleStorm diagrams

What of these resonated with you? Let me know!

About Unique Genius

There’s a process to discovering your purpose and turning it into a business you love. Find out the latest at www.UniqueGenius.com.

What Was Your Favorite Part Of The Interview?

Please leave a comment!

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I’ve been doing a whole series of Unique Genius Superhero Interviews (including some new ones coming in the next several weeks of people like Yanik Silver, George Kao, Clay Collins & Amy Applebaum), but now it was my turn to be interviewed, this time by Ali Berlin.

Ali Berlin (a life coach in San Francisco with a Saturday morning radio show) interviewed me recently about topics like:

• Why I started PebbleStorm
• Where the inspiration came from
• How and why I broke away from the corporate world
• the inspiration for Unique Genius,
• tips and advice on finding your own Unique Genius (even if you have a full-time job and family and have little free time and energy)

The interview is a great first introduction to my own story and what PebbleStorm and Unique Genius is all about…including some practical tips

Listen To Or Download The Audio Interview

Or Download The Interview

Ali Berlin’s Original Post

On AliBerlin.com: “Make Money Through Enjoyment with Aaron Ross”

Have More Questions For Me?

Leave a comment and I’ll answer them!

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I did the above painting while at a cool walk-in painting studio in Santa Monica called PaintLab, at an event my friend Elliot Lemberger put together.

Sketched Version

More PebbleStorm Art

You can see that many of the individual components of the painting (like the rainbow, treasure chest, tree, sun…) started as individual sketches.  You can see ‘em in the “Art Of PebbleStorm/CEOFlow” past blog post.

What’s Your Dream World/Work/Life?

Your dream work gets more real the more specific you describe it to yourself and others, and the more you declare it to the world. You can do this through writing, drawing, video or any other number of ways.

Here’s my original “Small Pebble, Big Wave” Self-Manifesto that remapped my mind and was the beginning of the vision for PebbleStorm. I did it before the sketches started coming to me.

Want to make your vision more concrete? Leave a comment below about 1-3 things that describe your dream business (or life)…declare it to yourself, me and the world!

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If you think all the productivity & life direction advice sounds the same out there (except for mine, of course), meet Jonathan Mead, founder of Illuminated Mind & Body (or just “Illuminated Mind”).

Jon’s a really interesting guy who has fun turning “success/life advice” on its head with attention-grabbing blog posts such as “If It’s A Good Idea, Don’t Do It“, “The Best Way To Solve A Problem: Give Up“, and “The Lie Of The Four Hour Workweek“.

Jon’s a precocious 24-year old entrepreneur, author, blogger, martial artist, general seeker adventure and husband who bailed on his 9-5 job in 2009 once he could support himself on his Illuminated Mind business. It’s not yet making him rich – it’s under six figures (for now) – but he supports himself on it and he’s living and working his purpose. And the money will keep coming & growing as he keeps this up.  He’s “got it”.

Jonathan started simply – as a part-time blogger  – and his unique take on topics and no-nonsense writing style…if you’re turned off by the terms ‘ass-kicking’ & ‘kicking ass’, stay away

Here are some of the topics we covered…

• How Jon juggled creating Illuminated Mind while working full time and being married
• What Jon sacrificed to start and grow Illuminated Mind
• How he got to making about $4k per month working part time (before he quit his job)
• Two methods Jon uses to be hyper-productive
• The REAL value of blogging (it’s not all about building an audience)
• How to make success or a goal “inevitable”
• An unforeseen challenges of being his own boss

And more, of course!

Listen To Or Download The Interview

Want to download the interview?
Click here to download…

More About Jonathan Mead

• www.IlluminatedMind.net
• Bodyweight Renegade
• Follow Jon on Twitter

Here is the Steve Pavlina post that he refers to in the interview: 10 Reasons To Not Get A Job

More About Unique Genius

There’s a process to discovering your purpose and turning it into a business you love. Find out the latest at www.UniqueGenius.com.

What Was Your Favorite Part Of The Interview?

Please leave a comment!

I can feel confused. I can be overwhelmed.  I get anxious.  I feel all the same stuff you do. The fear comes up…but I don’t let it stop me from moving forward, even if ‘forward’ is a babystep.

Babysteps, no matter how small, are one of my main “get unstuck” practices. I LOVE babysteps!

Here’s a two minute video of me sharing about what I did when I was feeling totally overwhelmed last week:

What I Created

In the video I share the next step that gave me a real sense of relief.  Below is the landing page I drafted in Powerpoint.

If you haven’t done one before, or anything like it, it might look like a lot of work.  It wasn’t – I’d already written much of this content up in different places, or in my Unique Genius webinars and invitations.  For me, the challenge was removing content to leave behind the least, best stuff (click on it to enlarge it):

Related Posts

• Using Rocks & Babysteps To Overcome The Fear
• Fear is Natural – Just Get Started

Do you worry about being transparent with clients and friends? It’s much easier to be this way and BE YOURSELF…rather than putting on a mask of perfection.

What Do You Do When You Feel Like This?

Please leave a comment, I and others would love to hear from you and get your advice!