Podcasts about iwearyourshirt

What does it take to be a super creative marketer? Jason SurfrApp (formerly Jason Headsetdotcom & Jason Sadler) is an unconventional marketer. Jason made over $1 million with IWearYourShirt, the company he created that used sponsored T-shirts to promote businesses on social media. To take his marketing creativity further, Jason auctioned off his [...] The post How to Stand Out with Super Creative Marketing Ideas appeared first on Small Business Advice Help For Startups and Entrepreneurs.

On this week's episode I'm sitting down with Jason Zook. If you don't know Jason, he started in online business over 10 years ago with a wacky idea called iWearYourShirt, that he turned into a business generating over a million bucks.He has since written books, launched online courses, coached hundreds of other entrepreneurs, and created a software company.All with his unique edge. If Jason Zook is doing something - I can guarantee you, he is doing it differently than everybody else.In today's show, he and I are digging into online courses. What makes a great course versus one that flops? Is the infopreneur market too saturated? How has he and Caroline (his incredible wife) created and sold over 30 courses between them?And then we're diving into Teachery. Jason is the founder Teachery - an online course software platform.I have used Teachery myself for years to deliver all of my courses, membership, and other digital products and I wanted to have him on the show to speak to how Teachery stands out against the competition, what makes it a great platform to use as a course creator, and what's coming up with their company. That's all on today's show - so stay tuned.Want to start your own free trial of Teachery? Make sure to use our affiliate link to get some extra special bonuses! www.teachery.co/gemmaWant access to the lifetime option of Teachery? Email us at hello@gemmabonhamcarter.com and we can hook you up :) Don't forget to subscribe and review the podcast if you like what you hear: https://podcasts.apple.com/ca/podcast/the-passive-project/id1470482672I love sending out emails to my peeps with helpful tips, inspiration, and free stuff I create and use in my own business. If you're already on my list, you'll see that I'll also be sure to alert you to the new episodes as they come out. If you aren't already on my email list, well babe… what are you waiting for? I can't wait to be BFFs with you and learn more about your business and goals and life.So make sure to get your cute butt over there. You can head to: https://gemmabonhamcarter.com/bestiesMake sure you go ahead and forward it to your biz BFF. Leave a review on iTunes. Share it on your instagram and tag me. I would give you some major online love for that.Support the show (https://thesweetestdigs.lpages.co/pp-webinar/)

When you look up the word authentic in the dictionary, the definition you'll get is "Jason Zook." He's what we call aggressively authentic. Jason plays by his rules to wild and unbelievable success. Jason shares how he ideates on ideas and how ideas turn into reality. Like how he came up with the idea for IWearYourShirt. --- This episode is sponsored by · Anchor: The easiest way to make a podcast. https://anchor.fm/app --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/life-on-brand/message

On this episode, I speak with my friend Jason Zook. Jason is the author of several books, including Own Your Weird: An Oddly Effective Way for Finding Happiness in Work, Life, and Love. This episode is sponsored by MeetEdgar. I've been using MeetEdgar to help me pay greater attention to what I share on social media, when I share it, and how I share it. One element of my work that is going to be impacted by using MeetEdgar is that I can give greater attention to areas of my work outside of social media - like the book I'm working on - because MeetEdgar will take care of my social media needs. If you want to give MeetEdgar a try, visit https://meetedgar.com/timecrafting (meetedgar.com/timecrafting) and use the code timecrafting to receive an extended 60-day free trial!Jason Zook is an unconventional entrepreneur. Tired of living a life that felt prescribed to him by society, Jason used his out-of-the-box thinking and ingenuity to create multiple profitable Internet-based businesses. From making $1m wearing sponsored t-shirts for a living with his IWearYourShirt business, to selling his last name twice and eventually even selling his future, Jason is all about owning his weird! Talking Points Why this book needed to come out now (3:33) Jason and I discuss the resonance of the word "weird" over "different" (6:05) What's difficult about adopting the mindset that being weird isn't just okay but how it can help you thrive (8:58) What (and who) is this book really about? (10:27) How do you pay attention to your "weird" above all of the other noise that's out there? (11:13) We talk about testing assumptions and how Jason does that (14:47) Why Jason can't work with a personal trainer to help him reach his fitness goals (17:09) I reveal this episode's Productivityist Podcast Pick of The Week (19:41) Why in the world did Jason decide to "sell his future" and how did it work out for him? (22:29) Does Jason look for weirdness when deciding to pursue projects? (26:37) This is what Jason said in his book that you can do right now to make your life better (28:30) Does every aspect of an initiative Jason pursues have to hit all three of his values? (29:11) Jason explains how challenging it was to write the "how to" aspect of the book (31:06) Quote "You cannot just go from 0 to 100 percent and be successful and have sustainability with it." - Jason Zook Helpful Links https://wanderingaimfully.com/own-your-weird/ (Get Own Your Weird) https://productivityist.com/podcast258/ (Episode 258: What You Can Learn from Napoleon Hill with Jeffrey Gitomer) https://wanderingaimfully.com/ (Wandering Aimfully) https://twitter.com/jasondoesstuff (@jasondoesstuff) The big thing that you need to think about around "owning your weird" is that you should absolutely OWN IT. I've found that when I embrace my weirdness that it hasn't led me astray - and has actually helped me forge a path that works even better for me. It's definitely worked for Jason and I'm certain it will do the same for you. (You've also got a book out there now that can help you out if you need it!) If you enjoyed the episode, please leave a rating and/or review wherever you listened to the episode. And if you want to have easy access to the archives of the show and ensure you don't miss the new episodes to come then subscribe to the podcast in the app you're using – or you can do so on a variety of podcast platforms by clicking https://productivityist.transistor.fm/subscribe (here).

The Learning Leader Show With Ryan Hawk #326: Jason Zook TEXT: LEARNERS to 44222 For full shownotes, go to www.LearningLeader.com Jason Zook is an unconventional entrepreneur. Tired of living a life that felt prescribed to him by society, Jason used his out-of-the-box thinking and ingenuity to create multiple profitable Internet-based businesses.  His most-notable business was IWearYourShirt, a company that generated over $1,000,000 by wearing sponsored t-shirts to promote over 1,600 businesses on social media from 2008-2013 before "influencer" was a mainstream term. If that wasn't weird enough, from 2012 and 2013, Jason auctioned off his last name to the highest bidders and made nearly $100,000 doing it. Jason's second book is titled "Own Your Weird." Jason has been featured by The Today Show, CBS Evening News, USA Today, and The New York Times. Notes:  The importance of reviewing previous work... And why it should embarrass you.  That is growth. "Don't compare your starting line to someone else's finish line."  We all started somewhere.  It is a progression. It's important to understand context. Leaders who sustain excellence = They test all of their assumptions on a regular basis They don't accept things as they are... Always trying something new They are extremely curious Have an experimenters mindset They are validated internally -- They don't seek the validation externally.  They are fulfilled from the inside. How to create a mindset to not worry about hitting a best-seller list? Set a low goal (getting the book published) and a high goal (selling 10K copies).  Understand that there is so much out of your control and celebrate hitting the goals that are within your control (writing and publishing the book).  You can't control how many people choose to buy it. The emails received from fans/listeners are the fuel that keeps you going.  The feedback from people you're positively impacting. Properly define success for yourself: You spend a third of your life working.  Make it count. Figure out a way to be see as excellent, out of the box thinker Have a mindset of, "How can I make this better?" Present your plan to your boss/leaders in the company: "Here's my plan, here is how we will do it..." Be proactive.  Make your boss's life easier.  Help them succeed. Rejection:  "When someone says no to you, it doesn't mean you're a bad person.  It's not a reflection of who you are as a person." Understand that "No" means "not yet" most of the time. "Choose Adventure" Not wanting to live the same life that others have lived Example: Moving to a sweet house in Southern California with another couple Challenge assumptions: You don't have to do it the way it's always been done Experiment -- Test --> Reflect, analyze.  Understand what worked, what didn't, and why? Working to live, not living to work How do you schedule your days? Start with living Define what really fills you up --> Prioritize that first.  Put it on your calendar first. Every six months, sit down and prioritize what's important to you. Constraints can be a powerful force.  Parkinson's Law. Set your "enough goals."  -->  "Getting to this number will be enough." "There's always more.  What about enough?" "We don't need to grow our business for growth's sake." "$33,000/month is our enough goal." -- "It's clearly defined.  It's right for us." The process of writing a book live -- Jason learned a lot about himself writing while others were watching. The end of the podcast club:  Email us (Ryan@LearningLeader.com) -- When was the last time you truly showed up as yourself?

A great deal of the businesses we sell at Quiet Light are founded by entrepreneurs looking for the rush of finding the next thing. Sometimes they look to sell because of burnout and sometimes it's just boredom. Today's guest's business is designed to help entrepreneurs really question the goal of the businesses they run. Jason Zook earned social media fame and experienced that burnout while on his first entrepreneurial ride after walking away from his day job. For five years Jason ran IWearYourShirt, creating thousands of videos, photos, posts on social media, and had countless media outlets talking about IWYS during the early days of social media marketing. At some point, Jason realized he had almost created a self-made work prison for himself. He and his creative wife started their company to guide owners towards financial freedom and a business they actually want to work on. Jason's focus is now on working to live rather than living to work. He strives for entrepreneurship with a healthy balance. Episode Highlights: The backstory on Jason's current company, Wandering Aimfully. Why the t-shirt business had to end. The things Jason learned from that business and his subsequent years of starting and growing companies. How Jason and his wife formulated the idea for the business. The importance of setting a mark and working towards it. What the “enough” number means to Jason and his wife. How to create the balance between getting ahead and falling behind. How that balance applies to the business creep that can often take over work-life balance. Ways Wandering Aimfully helps people build their business impactfully based on what they need, How Jason uses challenges to create habits. Transcription: Joe: Most of the businesses that we sell Mark … well maybe not most but a great deal of them are businesses where someone bootstrapped it, put all their energies into it, got it up to a certain level, and then looked around and thought “man, this is kind of work now I'm not loving this day to day anymore; I'm not happy with this challenge and I'm getting burnt out”. It happened to me. I had a cushy gig, I was working 20 hours a week, easy business, recurring revenue, and I looked around and said this isn't fulfilling me, I'm burnt out I need to move on. A lot of buyers that are from the corporate world don't understand that. Those people that are in the entrepreneurial world know that they need that new challenge, that exciting challenge. And as I understand it you had Jason Zook on the podcast; a husband and wife team actually and they talked about working to live not living to work and trying to overcome that burnout challenge. Mark: Yeah, Jason got completely burnt out with one of his 1st businesses and one of his 1st businesses; really simple concept, he would wear a t- shirt that was a sponsor. It would be their company on the t-shirt and he would wear a t- shirt every single day and put up a YouTube video of that and the prices increased every single day for that sponsorship. And so as he put it he said I was doing daily videos before Casey Neistat made that cool to publish daily videos on YouTube. He said it was great initially and he was making money by just wearing t-shirts and having people follow him around with cameras. But then this organization grew and it grew more and more and his whole life every single day was being documented and he built this prison. And I think as entrepreneurs a lot of us can relate with this idea that you build prisons sometimes for yourselves with the businesses that we've built. And so he naturally got completely burned out on that and now his whole focus and life as entrepreneurship but with a healthy balance in that life and understanding what are the real goals of your life. What do you really need and why are you doing what you're doing? And I think these are really important lessons for all of us just to keep in mind and have as a focus when we're pushing that entrepreneurialism envelope like why are we pushing growth, why are we adding this new feature to our business, and really understand what is our goal as an entrepreneur? Maybe you want to be a billionaire and if that's your goal all right then go for it but I think most of us get into this entrepreneurship game for the lifestyle. We get into it for the freedom. We get into it to be able to do what we want to do by our own rules. So are we actually doing that? Are you doing that? And is what you're doing fulfilling you today? So this whole podcast … Jason is somebody that I did not know before this podcast. He and I had never talked before and … just a fascinating guy, an absolutely magnetic personality so I'm excited to share this interview with everyone today. Joe: I don't think we can have enough people on the podcast talking about work life balance. We had Ezra Firestone; Ezra's got a staff of 25 or 30 VA's working all over the world and his work life balance is his primary focus. He and his wife they've got a certain lifestyle that they want to live and he is growing the business but at the same time making sure everybody within the business understands that work life balance. So I'm excited to hear what Jason has to say, it's always interesting to hear somebodies approach in what they do on a day to day basis. Let's go right to it. Mark: Jason, I'm super excited to have you on the podcast. Thank you for agreeing to come on here based off a completely cold and random e-mail that I sent to you. Jason: It was a good cold and random e-mail. As someone who has sent thousands of cold and random e-mails in my time as an entrepreneur, it was a good one. You didn't just kind of like lay out exactly what you wanted, you were kind, you were nice, you really presented yourself well and I was like yeah I'll say yes to this interview. I have no idea who you are, we're meeting for the 1st time in this conversation which I think is fun. Mark: Yeah absolutely and I'll tell you why I wanted to have you on the podcast. I think I said it in an intro e-mail that I sent to you. But on your website, you and your wife have a phrase on there and it's actually one of the core values that I consider my company Quiet Light Brokerage to have and that is that we work so that we can live we don't live so that we can work. This idea that hey we're entrepreneurs, we get obsessed, we love the grind, we like that sort of thing but at a certain point it's got to have something else beyond just the work itself; right? Jason: Yeah. Mark: I would love to get your story, have you share your story real quick with the listeners as to how you kind of came about this with Wandering Aimfully and this new mission that you and your wife have. Jason: Yeah sure. My entrepreneurial journey actually started kind of way late in life for a lot of people who are entrepreneurs like had lemonade stands and they like went door to door and did all those things and started businesses super early; I didn't. I started my 1st business when I was 27 on a whim after leaving a full time job that I in all essence liked it just was a very boring job and I didn't see a lot of potential for myself there. And I really felt this drive and this pull to do something better and something else. I started my own design company. It was just two people and from there I had this kind of crazy idea to get paid to wear t-shirts for a living for no reason whatsoever other than I just thought social media is kind of growing. This was 2008, 2009 I just … I don't know there was just something about it that seemed interesting to me and it struck me one day when I was literally standing in my closet looking at all these clothes that I had paid brands to own and then walk around and kind of schlep and promote. I was like wait why am I doing this? This is so weird. Could someone just pay me to wear their shirt? So that idea did not take off. I launched a website called iwearyourshirt.com five people showed up on the 1st day. I think three of them were my grandmother like refreshing the page, no joke. And then I really had to start doing the entrepreneurial kind of hustle and sprint that we all do to get things started. I was e-mailing friends and family and I was getting on Twitter and jumping in conversations back when Twitter wasn't just a barrage of political nightmare that it is now and that's not to say there's not some still good stuff on Twitter but this was 2008 so it's very different; a very small community. And yeah that idea just kind of took off on its own after a lot of hard work putting in a daily YouTube video. So I recorded 889 videos straight every single day before vlogging was a thing before Casey Neistat was recording videos and we were all watching them and loving them all I was making really terrible videos every day. But yeah that led into a couple of different ventures along the way. I created a software company to help people build and sell online courses because I wanted to build and sell online courses I just wasn't a good one at the time, a couple of other little random things and then yeah just a couple of weird different changes and ebbs and flows. My wife actually worked for my I Wear Your Shirt business and when that had to shut down in 2013 after 5 years she was kind of left with like I don't wanna go back to the nine to five world, I'm going to start my own business as well and so she started a business. So we kind of worked like 12 feet from each other but we always chatted and then we kind of came back together this past year on this Wandering Aimfully project. Mark: So why did the t-shirt business has to end? Jason: So many factors that we can dive into, I'll lay down on the couch and we can talk about them all. Truthfully it was my 1st business and I think so many people can resonate when you start your 1st business you don't know what you don't know. And I didn't know about managing people, I didn't know about managing money, the pricing scheme of I Wear Your Shirt was very poorly designed for paying people at a consistent salary. So the 1st year it was just myself and it was a dollar on the 1st day, $2 in the 2nd day, $3 in the 3rd day and so that pricing scheme is cool because it's so low barrier entry in the beginning and towards the end of the year once you build momentum it makes sense and it adds up. It made $66,795 in the 1st year which is really cool. But when you have five employees as I grew the company too because I thought I had to scale up, I thought I had to grow, I'm reading and watching all of the things that we're all reading and watching and I'm thinking that's what I have to do. I ended up having $30,000 in salary in January when my business only made $800. That doesn't work out well and so it was just a lot of those things where I just was so new to things; we had billables, we were printing all of the t-shirts through an outsourced printing service. I didn't know about just like paying invoices and all those things and so I got very back on bills and I actually built up a $100,000 in debt not overnight but in about a year and a half and it just it was so crazy to me because Mark it went from I was making almost $100,000 with literally no expenses, literally getting e-mails from PayPal like “hey there's a $100,000 in your PayPal account what's going on” to people e-mailing me and going “hey what's going on you can't pay your bills or you're 30 days late in your bills”. And so eventually I just saw the writing on the wall and I was just like this isn't sustainable. I tried this thing, it kind of grabbed its moment in time in social media and the landscape of it and I just wanted to move on to other things plus I really overworked myself every single day running the business, wearing a shirt, managing people, doing all of the marketing and sales and interviews and things. It was just time at the end of five years to move on. Mark: Five years is a long time to be wearing other people's shirts. Jason: And I'm still wearing other people's shirts if you think about it I'm just not talking about them at all. And almost none of them have a brand name on them because I'm just so burnt out from that. But yeah I actually don't regret any of it. I think I learned so many unbelievably important valuable lessons that I continue to use to this day in everything that I do. So while it ended not on a wonderful note and I don't feel like I have like this crazy awesome success story I also have a really relatable story that so many business owners can kind of stand behind me or stand with me and go “yeah my 1st business didn't do well either or my 2nd, or 3rd, or 4th it fizzled out or I didn't manage it properly” and you just learn from those experiences and you kind of take those with you and you kind of take your lumps and move forward. Mark: Yeah you know I would disagree I actually think the idea that you were able to take something as simple as wearing a t-shirt and having somebody paying for that and turning that into something that actually generated revenue is pretty remarkable. Now obviously is it sustainable, eventually, you're going to run into the problem that you ran into which is I don't want to wear your shirt anymore and I don't want to be on TV … have a video done every day and everything else that you ran into. You said something in there in that story that you were reading and listening to what everybody else was reading and listening to, there's a sort of like momentum that's out there in the business community where there is this almost like a psych guy stuff here's what you should be doing and it's all towards drive, drive, drive, grind, grow, expand, and all this sort of stuff. What are some of the things you've learned over the years with all the different ventures that you've been in about listening to that or not listening to it? Jason: The 1st one is more money more problems and as silly and as dumb as that sounds it's true. I mean it's just I don't know any business owners that have taken their business from one level to another level whatever that means and not encountered so much more work, so much more stress, so much more all of the things. And I saw that with myself like in that 1st year of I Wear Your Shirt I was making almost $100,000 because I had some other sponsorship stuff in there. There was literally almost no stress. I mean the daily creativity and all the things I had to do was a lot of work but in the 3rd year of I Wear Your Shirt when I had five employees, we had five sponsors per day, we made almost $600,000 that year; I was so much stressed. It was a nightmare almost. And I'll tell you I made $30,000 that year. I got paid the least as the person who was doing the most. And I think so many people can relate to that and so I just saw all of these things that I was latching onto of like I wanted a million dollar business what does that mean? I wanted this big house, why? I don't need a big house, I actually like having a small place where I know where everything is and I don't have a lot of stuff. And so I really just started to look at a lot of these different values that I was buying into or believing into especially the ones that society puts pressure on you and when you read Entrepreneur.com, or Business Insider, or Forbes, or whatever you're reading we all read these stories of millions and billions and all this stuff. It's like where are the people who are just making $100,000 or a couple $100,000 or $50,000 that are super happy? And it's because those stories don't sell. Those headlines don't get clicked and I really just started to reevaluate all these decisions and it was through a lot of conversations with my wife and we just kept saying this phrase what is it all for? Like what is all of the work for, what is all of the time for, what is all the energy being put into this for if at the end of a day or the end of a week or a month or a year you're so tired and you don't enjoy the life you've created? Why are we doing that? I should just go get a nine to five job at Target and clock in and clock out and leave and that's it like I don't even think about it. And so I do think there's just a lot of misnomers that go on with this like buying into up into the right mentality and you should always be growing and social media landscape can change so you got to grab all the Facebook advertising stuff you can do. It's like no you don't have to do that. You build the business around the life that you want and you really figure out what that means to you and I think that's so personal and subjective to everybody that's starting a business. Mark: At what moment of your life did you really start to formulate that when you and your wife were thinking what are the values that we actually want to have? Because look I agree with you 100%, this idea of I want a million dollar business and once I get a million dollar business I want a 10 million dollar business. When I talk to some of our clients, some of the people that are preparing to sell and I ask them what are your goals, why are you thinking about selling? Because one of the things that I try and impress especially on sellers … I'll tell you a quick story here; the 1st client that I worked with, a good friend of mine he had a company and he came in and said “Hey would you help me sell my business?” Well this is how Quiet Light Brokerage started and I went through the process, we got it sold. I won't say exactly for how much but you know what he was in financial trouble just a couple of years later. He gave up a lifestyle business for a big pile of cash today thinking this is going to set me free only to find out that he was back in the grind that he was in before. And so I'm curious from your standpoint what was it where you started to question that up until right mentality and same maybe it's on up into the right maybe it's whatever is right in front of me today? Jason: Yeah it's funny I get chills because I think back to the exact moment. I was in Fargo, North Dakota speaking at a very small conference called Misfit Con; they don't even do it anymore. And this is like literally 120 people and I was a speaker. No one knew who the speakers were so it's just a group of us sitting in this really cool yoga studio actually kind of converted into this space. A guy stepped on stage and he had well-coiffed hair and he had skinny jeans and he had really nice boots and I'm like this guy's going to tell me all the secrets that I need to know to succeed. And he started telling the story and it was eerily similar to mine of trying to grow, being focused on the money, the big house, the things, the stuff and I come to find out that was Joshua Fields Millburn of The Minimalists and his story was so akin to mine. And then when he started talking about these specific values and these specific things and really questioning all of the stuff that we buy into both societal and personal and these things it really hit me. It hit me hard sitting there and I remember sitting with my wife at the time just looking at her and going like uh-oh we got to rethink everything. And I think I spoke like two or three spaces after him and I just remember spilling my guts about how everything wasn't perfect at the time for my I Wear Your Shirt business and yet I was there to talk about this is a business that was supposedly doing so well. And that flight home after that conference we basically sat down and were just like what do we actually need to live? What do we want our lives to look like? Then those questions are so big and they're so heavy and they're scary because you tend to find yourself thinking well if I'm going to make a decision that's the decision forever. That's just not true. It can be a decision for the next three months, six months, a year, two years, five years, whatever it is and we've changed so much in that time since that conversation; that was 2012, 2013 and it's just been really big for us too at every turn and every opportunity where we can do more or we can sell more or make more is to ask ourselves hold on what is this going to add to our plate. And just like your story with the client that you worked with I find that question to be so interesting to me, I was like if I sell a business or anything I'm a part of, like I have a software company, the online course business, like if I sold that business and I made X amount of money from it what would I do with that time? I like working on that business. I actually enjoy it and I want to invest in it and so if I just sold it for a small chunk of cash which is a sizable chunk of cash, in a long term it's not really that big of a chunk of cash I'm going to have to start over. And I think we see that with so many people and you suppose this way more than I do but so many people sell a business that they actually enjoyed working on only to then find themselves a couple of months or years later bored out of their minds wishing they had something that fulfilled them to work on every day. And that for me is kind of where this comes from too of like I want to make enough money that we don't have to think about money and truthfully we're not there yet. We don't make enough money every month. We were just like we don't care about money but we've set what mark looks like and we're working toward that mark. We call that our enough number and once we hit that number we're just going to stop trying to make money. And you are going to have to fill in gaps [inaudible 00:08:45.1] we have a lot of monthly recurring business stuff. And so it's always going to be a game to just kind of stay around that enough number but I love the work that I'm doing so I'm happy to do that. Mark: How would you balance out the difference between … I think there's two motivations for working hard, right? One is to get ahead the other one is to not fall behind. Jason: Yeah. Mark: Because oftentimes in business I've seen it some of our clients that come to us with distressed businesses where they got to that enough number or probably more than enough and then they're like I made it and then they relaxed and then a year later they're thinking oh my gosh my business just completely fell apart underneath me. How would you approach that in your own life when you get to that stage of having enough to make sure that you're also not necessarily falling behind? Jason: Yeah I think it really depends on your lifestyle and I think lifestyle creep is such an interesting idea that we all run into and just like you started saying earlier it's like well you create a million dollar business and then you want to make a 10 million dollar business or even just a two million dollar business and the reason that that tends to happen is not because you need that money, you don't need the money, it's that you go oh well now I can afford this and so now I'm going to … I need more money to kind of balance that out. And so I think for Caroline and myself, my wife, we really just started to try and define what are the things that we love and want in life and if we don't have those now what does it actually take to get those things? And to really put a price tag on those and then to question those things and to go … for one thing for us has been looking at buying or building a dream home and for most people, that's in like the millions of dollars. For us, I think we could actually do it for a couple hundred thousand dollars. Like we just want a 1200 square foot cool modern pretty fab place and we keep going through the effort of that and just going you know what though the cash that it would take up from for it, the time and stress to deal with everybody building all the things right now in our lives it just doesn't fit. And it may be something we do down the road but it just is not … I don't want to creep into that and have that completely change our life. So to answer your question I really think it's about checking in constantly with the things that matter to you and then really questioning every single one of those things and just going like do I need more money to do this or do I just need to change something in my life or change something in the way that I operate because I kind of … I tend to find for myself at least like flexibility and control of my time is the number one thing I want. Of course, I want more money in the bank but if I can make a little bit less money and have a little bit more time because I'm not working to make more money I'm happier because I can then choose my schedule every single day of my life. I don't have to give up and sacrifice things at the whim of making money and that to me becomes a really important discussion to constantly be having with yourself and thinking about. Because just like you said with that client you can reach your enough number and then just fall back and go okay I'm good like I don't have to do anything anymore and it's like yeah but that's not how business works. You just don't get to a finish line and then you're done and you won the race. You kind of have to stay in the race at a certain point and you find that pace that you can kind of go at that makes sense with you. Mark: Yeah I think something that's interesting with business as well because you talk about lifestyle creep and that's obviously a problem. I think anybody can relate with that but there's also business lifestyle creep that I've found where when you start up a new business some of it … a lot of it is bootstrapping, you're going out there and you're figuring out how am I going to make this business work with whatever little money I have and then you get that client they pay you less money and like awesome I can now pay for ads. It how you start paying for ads, you have an ad budget and then you hire a few employees and now have those employee … the next thing you know your monthly budget is ramping up and you have the added stress of I got to keep layering on more and more revenue to be able to cover this monthly budget as well. I think it's an interesting concept to say core value is both for the business core value is also for yourself and keep reminding yourself of those core values in order to stay true to that and have a balanced life. That's what you question, just kind of riffing on what you're saying there. Jason: No and I do think it's a really valid one because we've thought about that. My wife and I, we live and work at home so where we would have a dining room table we have our desks and it's been that way for the past six years, five years something like that. And for a lot of people that would probably be the worst thing ever. They'd be like oh I don't want to look at my work I want to be completely separate so I need an office or I need a studio or whatever. And so I do think there are some decisions you could make for your business being separate from your life if that really matters to you. For us we run very creative businesses, we love the community that we built so I don't hate my e-mail inbox. I don't loathe looking at these things so for us it is such a blend and lifestyle career business creep for us would potentially be like oh we want like a really cool office base like we've talked about this before. And it's like yeah but we have that in our home it's just not a full dedicated space and we don't actually need that. So it's continuing to come back to that and then honestly I think a big part of it too is not watching all of the videos and reading all the stories of the cool office spaces. Because then you just get stuck in that mode of like oh yeah but I really want a ping pong table and the full living wall and it's like I don't need that. That's just a cool thing and I can appreciate someone else having that. Mark: I do want to nap pad. I'm just going to say it like I want a nap pad in my office because that would be awesome. I've got a glass door you can actually see it. If you're listening in your car you can't see it of course but I have a glass door behind me so I can't really take naps in my office. Let's talk a little bit about your community. I love what you guys are doing with the community over at WanderingAimfully.com. Tell me a little bit about it and who it's targeted towards and what the whole purpose of this is. Jason: Yeah I think it's a really good question of who it's targeted toward because when we started to blend Caroline and mines two businesses together in March of 2018 … and actually the conversation started many months before that. We weren't sure who to target because her business was targeted to soulful creatives which is kind of general in a way and my business was targeted to business owners who just want to get better at taking action. Again very general audience it's not like stay home moms who love to cook vegan meals. It's like it's not as focused as it could be. And so when we started Wandering Aimfully it was very generic of like independent creative business owners and that's designers, musicians, artists, [inaudible 00:24:57.5] and we really found that it was tough to get people to identify of like hey I'm raising my hand I fit within Wandering Aimfully. They kind of felt like they did but it just wasn't kind of niche enough if you will. And so in the past couple of months we really decided to hone in further on okay who have we attracted over the years that we've made the most impact for? And what we found is that that's service based business owners or like client based business owners; so that is your designers, that's your developers, that's your coaches, that's people who have clients and that they want to move away from selling their time one on one to building digital product businesses. So it's having online courses, books, workshops, membership communities of their own whatever that is. And we went back to the root of what did we do when we were getting started and that's exactly what we did. We were service based business owners and we wanted to stop trading our time for money and we want to try and reach more people and make more of an impact based on what we had learned and experienced. And so now that's essentially who Wandering Aimfully is for and there are some fringe benefits to people who are not those people but if you run a service business and you want to transition into selling digital products we're the perfect community for you because we ourselves have had that exact experience. We know exactly how to help you. We built now a six months program that helps people really do that without burning out because we just decided the people need to slow the hell down and not try and transition their entire business in 24 to 48 hours or a couple of weeks. And it's been really interesting to shift the focus on this is exactly who we are for and it's a smaller audience and you have people who self-identify much faster than we did before where people are like I don't know if it's right for me it's like now they know that it's right for them and then for everybody else they can still kind of try and figure out if it's right for them but we can now more clearly identify. Mark: That's pretty cool. I've kind of poked around through your website and you guys have all sorts of prepackaged courses and checklists and everything else. One thing I love about this and I can relate with buyers who are acquiring a new business or anyone growing a business as well you get into something and there's a sense of I've got to be doing all the things all right now. I got to have my Facebook marketing strategy, do some CRO, get an Instagram account going because it doesn't have that and it's this long list of things and you're going to just kill yourself in trying to do that. What you guys have through this community, I saw you have a bunch of checklists and action plans for some pretty normal things that a lot of different companies are going to have to deal with as well. And it seems like the entire goal and correct me if I'm wrong but the entire goal is just that breaking up these projects into bite sized pieces. Jason: Yeah absolutely and we just want to help people navigate. Like you said when someone is running a business or starting a business or making that transition from clients to products there's a lot that can be done and really what we try and do because it's what we've done for ourselves is to identify what do you need to do. Like what is actually going to make an impact? Because for so many people a Facebook ad campaign or an Instagram account is not at all what they should be focusing on. What they should be focusing on is creating some type of really valuable content that can be searched for on the internet because Google is still the number one place that people go on the internet and that is not going to change for quite a while. And so we've just seen through a lot of experience that people want the shiny new and fancy and we've been there as well, we've been one of those things too but you find that they actually don't make that big of an impact on your business and it's a lot of time spent without a lot of return. And listen I'm all for branding, I'm all for hitting the word out about your business and going where people's attention is but I think that there's a lot to be said for having a good foundation for your business, making sure that your ducks are in a row and so much and you probably see this so often is as business owners a lot of times we don't even know the basics of expenses and cash flow and I know that stuff can sound really silly to people like oh how do you not know that? It's because it's different for every business. So what we're taught about how to run a business may not be applicable to the business we actually create and start. And so I think that so much of that we've seen is just trying to help people navigate their own journey based on our experiences, experiences of community members, identifying bigger tasks like you said that people want to do like if you want to start a podcast that's a pretty big task. There's a lot of things that go into that that you don't see and so we've broken it down. I think it's in like I don't know … I want to say less than 100 steps and that sounds like a ton but some of the steps are like name your podcast step cool, check it off the list. But it gives you this incredible bite sized thing and people find it so helpful to just have this list to be able to like yes I did that, yes I did that, and go through and knock it all out as opposed to having to think of everything themselves. Mark: Yeah it reminds me of a couple of other episodes that we did here at the Quiet Light Podcast. One was with Bjork Ostrom who owns Food Blogger Pro and a few other pretty big food blogs and he talked a lot about … he's grown that company from nothing into a significant enterprise and he talked a lot about this idea of I'm not going to try and double my business tomorrow. I'm going to try and have this single daily marginal improvement and the compound in effect of this on a day to day basis. The other person … you talked about going back to the basics and focusing on those things that really work well the person you're agreeing with right now Babak Azad who grew Beach Body into a billion dollar business that was on the podcast and he told me … he said people are focusing on way too many advertising channels. He said that you should really be focusing on just a few; probably one, maybe two because if you're focusing on six that means you're not doing any of them well. You've got to focus on those basics so I think that's fantastic advice. Okay, I'm going to round this out with a final question here for you and this is really the content on your site. I absolutely love … I've always liked this kind of I'm doing this productivity experiment or just whatever sort of experiment. Jason: Yeah. Mark: You recently rode a stationary bike at your standing desk for 30 days and I haven't read how it finishes out but how did that go? Jason: Cliff hanger, okay, so the reason why I did this experiment … why I love doing 30 day challenges specifically is because it's just like you said with like you do these little daily things that can add up and incrementally make a big change or make a big impact. And it's hard to change, it's hard to build habits, it's hard to do those things and I highly recommend a book Atomic Habits by James Clear; a friend of mine and just a super smart guy when it comes out. So if anybody is like I'm bad at habits James will help you, that book is really great. But for me, I just always like breaking these things down into 30 day challenges. So to round this out I rode a stationary bike at my standing desk every single day for 30 days. I just wanted to know could I get a little bit of exercise every day because I'm just at my desk. I didn't want to sit at my desk and do those things and I ended up burning 18,339 calories in 30 days. It's insane. And I wrote this at the end of the thing and I talked about this in the video that I kind of recapped and put it all together it did not feel like I was working out. It felt like I was sitting at my desk very slowly methodically riding this bike while doing e-mails and bunch of other admin tasks and the average amount of time that I rode the bike a day was one hour. It didn't feel like I was riding an hour because I would break it up into different chunks throughout the day. I rode an average of 25 miles a day and at the end of it my pants fit better, I had more energy every day, and it really became a good solid habit for me. So it was super … just a weird random thing I wanted to do but now like I still have the bike we're now a couple of weeks after that I've finished up I'm still riding it. It's great. My wife is starting to ride it and it's just one of those things that's like challenge yourself to do something for 30 days that you might think is weird or out there are different and see what kind of tangible result you get cumulatively over the time and you might realize like wow yeah in a couple of days of course I didn't get like six pack abs from riding this bike but I think if I do this for six months I'm probably going to be in a better shape than I would have been than just if I'd continue doing at the gym and eating better and all those things. Mark: That's fantastic. I absolutely love everything that you guys stand for. I think it's so easy for all of us entrepreneurs to build businesses but at the same time build little prisons for ourselves as well because we get so driven by productivity when we worship at that altar and then also by just having more and more and more instead of thinking about like you said at the beginning that focus on the goals and ask yourself a question and I'm encouraging everyone listening that's thinking about buying a business or maybe you want to sell the business or you're building something right now to ask those questions; why, for what, what are your goals, what are your values, what do you value in life, a really good advice. Jason: Yeah, absolutely. Great chatting with you. Mark: Thanks for having … thanks for coming on I should say. Way to end that professionally. Alright, thanks for having … for coming on Jason. Jason: Yeah no problem.   Links and Resources: https://wanderingaimfully.com/ Atomic Habit

Jason Zook is one of the most creative entrepreneurs that I’ve ever met or even heard of. He left his dayjob, and managed to creatively build a 7 figure business called iWearYourShirt which was covered on almost every possible news outlet. He basically wore tshirts of brands and made a creative viral video on a daily basis wearing tshirts with the paying company’s logo. But then he found himself in a lifestyle he did not want for himself - so he made a bold descision, shut down iWearYourShirt and make a new lifestyle for himself.

We weren’t bitten by any radioactive spiders (thankfully!) but we do have origin stories of our own and share them with you in this episode. We share the experiences that shaped us into the creative entrepreneurs we are today, including our upbringing, our very different college experiences, and the pivotal lessons we learned from our crappy jobs. We also discuss IWearYourShirt and the impact it had on both of us. If you want to learn more about Wandering Aimfully head to wanderingaimfully.com. And, don’t forget to subscribe and leave a review if you enjoy the show.

You know that idea you had? The one that seemed like it could really make a difference in your life. Then, over a period of time, you convince yourself that it will never work. Why do we do this? Well, one day Jason Zook decided to be a force of nature. He took one of his crazy ideas and decided to launch a company where he was paid to wear t-shirts. And it worked…eventually. Because he did the work. He contacted everyone he knew. And hustled. And after months of not quitting, he got traction. Eventually, IWearYourShirt made over a million dollars in revenue. Then he shut it down and forced another crazy idea to work. So why aren't you doing your idea again?

Want to get paid to create content? Jason Zook is the undisputed king when it comes to sponsored content. You may know Jason as the IWearYourShirt guy, where he earned over $1,000,000 wearing t-shirts for various companies. He's even sold his last name (twice -- each for $40k+), formerly going as Jason Surfrapp and Jason Headsetsdotcom. In this episode, he shares his tips for getting sponsors for your work, even if you're just starting out. I think you'll like it!

"I make things that help people." - Jason Zook Jason Zook - Founder of BuyMyFuture.com Jason Zook is the fearless entrepreneur who made over $1M wearing t-shirts for a living on IWearYourShirt. He sold his last name twice and wrote a not-best-selling book that’s helped thousands of entrepreneurs. Jason helps people take action in their businesses and lives at JasonDoesStuff.com and is currently selling his future at BuyMyFuture.com. Connect With Jason: Website | Facebook | @IWearYourShirt | BuyMyFuture Podcast   Subscribe to the Outlier Newsletter: Click Here If you enjoy Outlier On Air, please Subscribe & Review on iTunes or Stitcher Brought to you by: SALES PRIMER: 4-PART SALES WEBINAR REGISTER HERE

Grant and Vince are joined by Jason Zook, formerly famous for I Wear Your Shirt and for selling his last name, and currently continuing to pioneer in the world of entrepreneurialism with his latest project “Buy My Future.” A creative innovator with a unique point of view and endless insight, the trio tackled a tough question: what does it mean to have “value.”

What if you could sell everything you will ever create in your future—today? That is exactly what Jason Zook is doing, with a bold new concept he is calling Buy My Future. I'm calling it Back To The Future of Sales! Time to fire up the DeLorean and enjoy the ride! Jason has pulled off some of the most creative online businesses ever created, including IWearYourShirt. He discusses his business successes and failures and his newest concept in today's episode of the Go For Launch podcast.

"My best ideas come in moments of stillness" Today's guest on the Art of Adventure podcast has made a name for himself by thinking outside the box with unconventional and creative business ideas and marketing strategies. He is the man behind IWearYourShirt.com, a million dollar business where he got paid to wear t-shirts for a living. He has changed his name more than Prince: Jason Zook (rhymes with 'look'), was formerly known as Jason Sadler, Jason HeadsetsDotCom and Jason SurfrApp. In 2014, he self-published his book Creativity For Sale by crowd-sourcing over $75,000 worth of sponsorships before the book was even written. This episode is all about how to exercise your creative muscle, take action, and have fun making money. Quotes: "NO is another opportunity to hear yes" - Jason Zook "You don't get what you don't ask for" - Jason Zook "I want people to feel the empowering feeling of getting something into the world" - Jason Zook "Follow your effort, not your passion" - Jason Zook "Adventure is realizing a big dream" - Jason Zook "If could add anything to the world, I would bring Steven Jobs back and add another Elon Musk" - Jason Zook "Take a photo of you with your favorite author's book and send it to them" - Jason Zook "The first 'weakness' I outsource is to pay for a good designer" - Jason Zook "My best ideas come in moments of stillness" - Jason Zook What you will learn in this episode: -How to tone and build your creative muscle -"Hacktics" - hacks and tactics to help you take action -What Jason's greatest strength is -How Jason funded his podcast with a product bundle -Why you should make yourself accessible to help others -How to find your unifying theme -How to get over self doubt and get used to rejection -Jason's favorite pricing model and how it works -Plus much more... Continue the Adventure: Jason Does Stuff - for all Jason's past and current projects Author at The Next Web Creativity For Sale: How I Made $1,000,000 Wearing T-Shirts And How You Can Turn Your Passion Into Profit, Too Thanks Jason Zook! If you enjoyed this session of The Art of Adventure Podcast, let Jason know by clicking on the link below and sending him a quick shout out on Twitter: Click here to thank Jason on Twitter! Support the Art of Adventure! This podcast is supported by listeners like you! Become a patron of the Art of Adventure on Patreon This episode is also brought to you by Red Revive! We have an amazing new partner and are offering a special sale for Art of Adventure listeners – click here for 30% off! Subscribe to The Art of Adventure Podcast for free in iTunes or Stitcher. If you enjoyed the show, please help us by leaving a 5-star rating and review! You might also like these episodes: AOA 031 | Shane Snow | Smartcuts and Storytelling AOA 039 | Jesse Krieger | Focus On Your Area Of Genius AOA 025 | Steve Daar | Profit Hacking For Web Entrepreneurs AOA 020 | Scott Morrison | The World Of Sponsorship Did you enjoy the episode?: What was your biggest takeaway? How are you using creativity to make money right now? What is the craziest creative business idea you have heard of? Please share in the comments section below as I’d love to hear from you.

009: The Creative Leader’s Guide To Making Money By Thinking Outside Of The Box With Jason Zook (SurfrApp) I love discussing how we can all better ourselves using the creative portion of our brain.  Jason has mastered this vital skill.  I loved this episode.  I’m proud to say that Jason has become a great friend!  I think it is one of most life-changing and important skills we can master. That’s just one reason I had an awesome time interviewing today’s guest on The Learning Leader Show. Jason Zook (SurfrApp) was tired of living a life that felt prescribed to him by society, so he used his out-of-the-box thinking and ingenuity to create multiple profitable Internet-based businesses And in his new book “Creativity For Sale”, he faces head on the belief that a creative mindset is always the best one. We go over everything from Seth Godin’s “Purple Cow,” to how to become a great public speaker. We talk about building a “trust circle” and how that can help each and every one of us. Welcome to Episode 009 with the creative genius, Jason Zook (SurfrApp) Subscribe on iTunes or Stitcher Radio. The Learning Leader Show “Show me your friends and I’ll show you your future.” – John Wooden  Some Questions I Ask: What big moments in Jason’s life made him who he is today? How to view adversity as an opportunity? How did you turn wearing t-shirts into a million dollar business? At what specific moment did Jason know he had created something meaningful? Why he sold his name? What specific things can people do to get outside of their comfort zone? In This Episode, You Will Learn: How to create a business from a passion of yours The benefits of utilizing James Altucher’s 10 Ideas a Day approach to life Specific Goal Setting Practices The importance of loyalty How regular people can do what Jason has done How to become a better public speaker How high performers use fear instead of getting rid of it How To Stop Failing at “To Do Lists” “Build a Trust Circle.”  Continue Learning Go to Jason's Website Read Smartcuts by Shane Snow Follow Jason on Twitter @IWearYourShirt You may also like these episodes: Episode 001: How To Become A Master Connector With Jayson Gaignard From MasterMind Talks Episode 002: How To Take Over And Set Bigger Goals With Chris Brogan Episode 004: How Todd Wagner (and Mark Cuban) Sold Broadcast.com To Yahoo! For $5.7 Billion Did you enjoy the podcast? I love discussing how we can all better ourselves using the creative portion of our brain.  Jason has mastered this vital skill.  I loved this episode.  I’m proud to say that Jason has become a great friend!  Who do you know that needs to hear this?  Send them to The Learning Leader Show! Episode edited by the great J Scott Donnell   Bio: Jason Zook (formerly Jason SurfrApp, Headsetdotcom & Jason Sadler) is an unconventional marketer and entrepreneur. He created IWearYourShirt, a company that used sponsored t-shirts to promote businesses on social media and in 2012 and 2013, he auctioned off his last name to the highest bidders. Jason recently wrote a book about his entrepreneurial journey, but in a very unique way. Frustrated by the confusing landscape of book publishers and book agents, Jason self-published and raised over $75,000 through sponsorships in his book Creativity For Sale before a single word was written or a single copy of the book sold.   Tired of living a life that felt prescribed to him by society, Jason SurfrApp used his out-of-the-box thinking and ingenuity to create multiple profitable Internet-based businesses. Jason is a public speaker, an entrepreneur at heart, lives a life of intention, and continues to strive to make a living doing what he loves.

Imagine taking all of the things you already happily do without getting paid for... And getting paid for it. Meet Jason - he does just that. As a natural born risk taker, Jason has taken smaller personal projects and scaled them to a point that demanded the attention of places like The Today Show and CNN Money. Take his first project, IWearYourShirt for instance. What started as a one man operation grew to a team of 5 and made over $1,000,000 - wearing sponsored t-shirts. Jason looks at life through a different lens. It's something he's very aware of. A few years later he went on to become Jason Headsets.com, and then Jason Surfrapp, by teaming up with companies to sponsor his last name. He has incredible insights into business, standing out from the crowd, and creating value that you can take and run with. Jason Surfrapp: "Hearing no, for me, is just another opportunity to hear yes." Share [ Find Jason ] JasonDoesStuff.com YouCanGetSponsors.com IWearYourShirt.com [ Resources ] The Purple Cow by Seth Godin (aff link) Creativity For Sale by Jason Surferapp (aff link) Amy Schmittauer  - SavvySexySocial.com (if marketing is your thang, check out her podcast The Marketing Lifestyle) Get started with sponsorships by reading Jason's post on medium. [ Today's Sponsor: The Laboratory ] Do you consider yourself an out-of-the-box-thinker? Are you the oddball in your group of friends because you like expanding your mind and testing your abilities? Then you need to be in The Laboratory - a growing community of entrepreneurs, all star employees, and game changers. Join today for exclusive updates and offers I only make available behind the closed doors of my workspace. Go here to join for free.

Jason SurfrApp (also known as Jason Sadler) is an entrepreneur, action taker, and unconventional marketer. He has been recognized by media outlets around the world including The Today Show, Wall Street Journal, Forbes, and CNN. Jason is a contributor to Inc., The Next Web, and Entrepreneur.com. He is also the author of Creativity For Sale: How I Made 1,000,000 Wearing T-Shirts and How You Can Turn Your Passion Into Profit. This is part 2 of my interview with Jason NBN 34 Show Notes Listen to part 1 of my interview here. Join the NBN Club today and meet over 90 smart minds who want to help you achieve your professional goals. Listen to episode 34 in iTunes or Stitcher. Sponsored by Refresh, who just released a new product specifically designed for professionals. It searches the web and social networks to add new professional and personal insights about your contacts to Salesforce. The most comprehensive online profile available will automatically be right in your Salesforce. NBN Radio listeners get a free trial from refresh.nbnradio.com. Please record your audio comment or networking tip here. I'll include it in an upcoming episode. Don't be shy! Jason shares his thoughts on taking a 30-day social media sabbatical. Baratunde Thurston's escape from the Internet. He launched JasonDoesStuff.com and then turned off his social profiles. He did this to prove that people would still come, read his posts, and reach out to him without using social media. Social media is an addiction. People do it while they drive and while they are spending time with their loved ones. Try deleting social apps off your phone for a weekend or a week. Try it for December to realign your goals. What happens November 1st? I wouldn't have had the success I've had without social media. Jason still plans to continue using Instagram. I want to challenge myself to say I don't need social media. Facebook changes. The email algorithm doesn't change. Focus 100% on email. Jason used his email list of 623 people to raise $30,000 in the first day of bidding for his last name. You don't need big numbers to feel validated. Focus on events you want to be at. Be challenged by going to things that put you out of your comfort zone. Gary Vaynerchuk is the biggest person in the social media space, but people don't know who he is outside of that space. We think our social world is so big. Read about Gary's story in my book, New Business Networking. There are so many people out there you can reach in different ways. Chris Brogan's newsletter. My newsletter (I'll do better). Please register below. App Recommendation: ProductHunt  and Angry Birds Transformers. Book Recommendation: The Circle by Dave Eggers. Contact: JasonDoesStuff.com and subscribe to his email list. Thanks to Erik Fisher from Beyond The To-Do List for submitting a question via Twitter. Submit your questions and comments by using #nbnradio. You can also record an audio comment at speakpipe.nbnradio.com. Thanks! Click HERE to subscribe in iTunes Click HERE to subscribe in Stitcher  

**UPDATE: Download Jason's new book, Creativity for Sale for FREE here: www.creativityforsale.com/radical EPISODE 34: Jason SurfrApp sold off his last name to the highest bidder twice, making over $100,000 in the process. If you listen to what prompted him to come up with and execute this wild idea (besides the profit), you won't judge him for selling out. Before that, he founded IWearYourShirt.com, a company where clients paid him to wear t-shirts and which generated over $1,000,000 in revenue. He also made a big chunk of cash by getting 20o+ sponsors for his new book, CREATIVITY FOR SALE (currently $13 on Amazon, but available FREE  to download for Radical Tribe listeners). I have a casual yet very interesting conversation with Jason where we chat about various topics, from his beginnings as an entrepreneur to coming up with crazy business ideas and profiting from them.  Here's what you will learn in this case study: Why and how he sold off his last name - twice. How Jason and his partner landed Kanye West as a client for their graphic design company. How Jason came up with and started IWearYourShirt.com and built it to an 8-person business that generated over a million dollars in revenue. How to come up with a business idea - do you start from the problem or solution? A method to his madness: how Jason follows a structured process to come up with and test wild ideas. The number 1 tip you implement to be more creative. Key principles for successful pricing. Why you shouldn't emulate or copy anyone while building a brand, and what you should do. Jason's biggest mistake, and how you can avoid this no matter what type of business you're building. How he structured his pitch to potential sponsors for the 'Sponsor My Book' project for his book, Creativity for Sale. What happened when he started tearing down personal walls and shared authentically with his audience, and why you should do this with your audience as well. Key Actions you can take to start a business based on your interest and passions.

Jason SurfrApp (also known as Jason Sadler) is an entrepreneur, action taker, and unconventional marketer. He has been recognized by media outlets around the world including The Today Show, Wall Street Journal, Forbes, and CNN. Jason is a contributor to Inc., The Next Web, and Entrepreneur.com. He is also the author of Creativity For Sale: How I Made 1,000,000 Wearing T-Shirts and How You Can Turn Your Passion Into Profit. Talking about publishing, networking, and entrepreneurship. How I received my copy of Creativity For Sale, a book every entrepreneur should read. Jason shares his story of how his book came to be. He put all 200 pages for sale for sponsorships and made over $30,000 in 24 hours. It took over four months to sell the remainder of the space. The book earned Jason $75,000 before he had written a single word! Jason began his entrepreneurial journey with IWearYourShirt.com. The truth about making a million dollars. The importance of a “trust circle” and how to build one. Add a personal touch to what you do. It seems so simple, but we see the success of others in our relative industries and want to emulate them. Instead, we should strive to stand out from them. As a kid Jason wanted to be a zoologist cartoon artist. You should take full control and make all the decisions. Figure out your way of standing out in a crowded space. How Jason stopped caring about what people think and you should too. The War of Art by Steven Pressfield. The more you put stuff out there, the less resistance you will feel to do so in the future. Practice makes perfect. You have to make mistakes, you have to iterate. The Lean Startup: How Today's Entrepreneurs Use Continuous Innovation to Create Radically Successful Businesses by Eric Ries. Gary Vaynerchuck. You don't get what you don't ask for. Jason's article from Inc., "The Secret Art of the Follow-Up Email". Follow up! 75% of the 2,000 deals Jason has received are from follow-up emails. If you only put in part-time effort, you're only going to get part time results. I'll send emails until I get a “no”. The trick is you need to get creative. Jason shares ideas. Listen to Billy Burle's tip on sending videos in episode 31. Don't miss part two of this interview next week. Jason shares his experiences quitting social media for thirty days and much more. Click HERE to subscribe in iTunes Click HERE to subscribe in Stitcher  

Jason SurfrApp (formerly Jason Headsetsdotcom & Jason Sadler) is as unconventional a marketer and entrepreneur as you'll find anywhere. He's an idea machine who knows how to execute his ideas. He created IWearYourShirt, a company that used sponsored t-shirts to promote businesses on social media, and in 2012 and 2013, he auctioned off his last name to the highest bidders.  James and Jason dive into what it takes to really build a buzz, and talk about whether traditional PR companies are worth the money they charge. Jason has found a better way... He just asks. That may seem easy, but it's really a huge amount of work to do it right. Do you have a "trust circle"? James and Jason talk about how important it is to have one. Frustrated by the confusing landscape of book publishers and book agents, Jason chose himself by self-publishing and raising over $75,000 through sponsorships in his book Creativity For Sale before a single word was written or a single copy of the book sold.   ------------What do YOU think of the show? Head to JamesAltucherShow.com/listeners and fill out a short survey that will help us better tailor the podcast to our audience!Are you interested in getting direct answers from James about your question on a podcast? Go to JamesAltucherShow.com/AskAltucher and send in your questions to be answered on the air!------------Visit Notepd.com to read our idea lists & sign up to create your own!My new book, Skip the Line, is out! Make sure you get a copy wherever books are sold!Join the You Should Run for President 2.0 Facebook Group, where we discuss why you should run for President.I write about all my podcasts! Check out the full post and learn what I learned at jamesaltuchershow.com------------Thank you so much for listening! If you like this episode, please rate, review, and subscribe to "The James Altucher Show" wherever you get your podcasts: Apple PodcastsiHeart RadioSpotifyFollow me on social media:YouTubeTwitterFacebookLinkedIn

Jason SurfrApp (formerly Jason Headsetsdotcom & Jason Sadler) is as unconventional a marketer and entrepreneur as you'll find anywhere. He's an idea machine who knows how to execute his ideas. He created IWearYourShirt, a company that used sponsored t-shirts to promote businesses on social media, and in 2012 and 2013, he auctioned off his last name to the highest bidders.  James and Jason dive into what it takes to really build a buzz, and talk about whether traditional PR companies are worth the money they charge. Jason has found a better way... He just asks. That may seem easy, but it's really a huge amount of work to do it right. Do you have a "trust circle"? James and Jason talk about how important it is to have one. Frustrated by the confusing landscape of book publishers and book agents, Jason chose himself by self-publishing and raising over $75,000 through sponsorships in his book Creativity For Salebefore a single word was written or a single copy of the book sold. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Jason is the Founder of IWearYourShirt. In 2008 he recognized the growing influence of social media and decided he could utilize these platforms in a new and unique way, by get paid to wear sponsored t-shirts for a living. Jason previously co-owned a web design company and in 2012 and 2013 auctioned off his last name to the highest bidders. Jason will be known as "Jason SurfrApp" in 2014 and is currently writing and crowdfunding an upcoming book titled "Creativity For Sale".

Welcome to episode #416 of Six Pixels Of Separation - The Twist Image Podcast. I had heard of Jason SurfrApp before, only that wasn't his name. The last time I had heard of him, his name was Jason Headsetsdotcom (not kidding). That right, Jason had done this before. He had legally changed his last name to the highest bidder... and he had done it again. Call it a stunt. Call it unconventional, but Jason has a knack for this kind of marketing... or entrepreneurship (depends on how you slice it). He created IWearYourShirt, a company that used sponsored t-shirts to promote businesses on social media and turned it into a million dollar business (not a typo). He took the same approach to the recent publishing of his business book, Creativity For Sale. Frustrated by the landscape of book publishers and book agents, Jason self-published and raised over $75,000 through sponsorships in the book before a single word was written or a single copy of the book sold. If you know anything about book advances and business book sales numbers, that's not a bad amount (at all). The Unmarketing hero, Scott Stratten, took to Facebook to record a video about how personalized Jason's pitch to Scott was. Stratten's video was so compelling that I invited Jason to talk about how he sees marketing, and what stunts look like in a world with so much noise. Enjoy the conversation... Here it is: Six Pixels Of Separation - The Twist Image Podcast - Episode #416 - Host: Mitch Joel. Running time: 46:06. Please send in questions, comments, suggestions - mitch@twistimage.com. Hello from Beautiful Montreal. Subscribe over at iTunes. Please visit and leave comments on the Blog - Six Pixels of Separation. Feel free to connect to me directly on Facebook here: Mitch Joel on Facebook. or you can connect on LinkedIn. ...or on twitter.  Six Pixels of Separation the book is now available. CTRL ALT Delete is now available too! In conversation with Jason SurfrApp. Creativity For Sale. I Wear Your Shirt. Follow Jason on Twitter. This week's music: David Usher 'St. Lawrence River'. Get David's song for free here: Artists For Amnesty. Download the Podcast here: Six Pixels Of Separation - The Twist Image Podcast - Episode #416 - Host: Mitch Joel. Tags: advertising podcast blog blogging brand business book business podcast creativity for sale david usher digital marketing facebook i wear your shirt itunes jason headsetsdotcom jason surfrapp marketing podcast scott stratten twitter unmarketing

By today's standards, "build marketing into your book" has become common business advice for authors. There are, of course, a bajillion ways to go about doing that, some more effective than others. Jason Sadler, now Jason SurfrApp of IWearYourShirt.com fame, has embraced that logic in a mind-blowing way: he has a sponsor for every page in his book as well as the covers (front and back) and inside flaps. That may sound off-putting (yuck, too many sponsors!). But Jason is a seasoned professional on nurturing and integrating sponsorship relationships into consumer product experiences that are tastefully done, align with the message, and add value to the overall experience. In fact, Jason's entire book project for 'Creativity that Sales' is a wild, show-me-the-proof way of teaching how to blend creativity with business in a way that doesn't suck for the consumer. Jason's project—and entire approach and personality—is far more than just these promotions. In our chat, we explore how he's using this one-of-a-kind book project to begin a new chapter in his career as a creative professional, including future aspirations for "authorship." Join us as we delve into the truly extraordinary for author and publishing professionals. After the show, find us on Twitter @WinningEdits or #authormba with your questions and comments. Enjoy!

Jason Sadler, @iwearyourshirt, is one of those entrepreneurs who had a simple but brilliant idea and executed on it successfully. We talk business, social media and his plans for the future of IWYS.

Episode 44 – New InternetMarketingClub.Org, Six Pixels of Separation with Mitch Joel, IWearYourShirt.com, How to become a Marketing Consultant, Song-of-the-Week Liberty Jones from the Shakes. Special GoToMeeting Offer 45 Days Free with code GOLDEN, Call in line 206-888-6606 00:01 Tim Ferris Promo 00:15 TGR intro 01:01 IWearYourShirt.com 12:15 TGR Bumper 12:51 Emna Atrous – 10 […]