Mornings with Matt

Or watch this on Youtube: How to cure laziness – These techniques give me the motivation to work hard even though I’m lazy by nature. Here are 4 tips to overcome and get rid of laziness: 1 – Pick a huge vision of life. How do I stop laziness? First

Watch it on Youtube Here: Need More Customers? – 3 Rules of Client Behavior your Must Know If you’re new to working with clients you might not realize that the most effective rules of customer behavior are counterintuitive. Understanding this psychology will dramatically affect your ability to get customers and

Watch it on Youtube: (A Reminder For Myself) Stop being normal If you want to live outside of the box, stop being normal. The first step is to change your mindset and you can do that by changing your actions little by little. Start by creating something authentic. Even if

Check it Out On Youtube: Want to succeed? Get ready to look stupid. In fact, success IS being outside of the norm, so you have to risk embarrassment to do that. And you have to be willing to be embarrassed over and over again – sometimes in big ways –

1) Find something people will pay you for2) Sell that3) Scale it I’m hesitant to tell other people how to do this, because I’m not sure if my way was the best way or only the way that worked for me. The one thing I can say for sure is – the more you try, I mean really TRY, and the more you can learn from your failures, the more likely you are to succeed. BUT – and this is important. . . There are lots of ways to start a business but way NOT to do it is: -Have an idea of something you think would be “cool” but that you don’t know much about.-Quit your job.-Take out a big loan.-Give it a shot. Unless you get super lucky, you’re lining yourself up for a world of hurt. For me there were a few very broad categories of going into business: I knew I didn’t want a “job”. I needed to make money so I taught piano. I started hiring other people to work for me. I started leveraging the digital world. Other people use the strategy of “apprenticing” in a field (e.g. getting a tech job). This works well if you need to learn a specialized skillset and get a feel for a field. Then, once they have a feel for what product society wants, they branch out. I like the model of starting to sell from day one. Maybe I feel that way because I already had a “product” in the form of piano lessons, or maybe it’s just my natural inclination. I simply feel that selling from day one – even if it’s menial labor – gives you a sense of the fact that business is SELLING something. That is, I like the idea of gaining momentum with whatever you have any then growing from there. For example, I personally knew how to play piano at first but I wasn’t a great teacher… but I was good enough that I could get in the door. I started teaching and developed those skills, and got a sense of what students want and what they don’t want. I also had other skills I could stack with this, such as website design, search engine optimization, etc. I then segued into hiring other teachers. This was a whole other skillset I had to build, managing, marketing, dealing with stress, numbers, accounting, landlords, etc. Then I slowly learned how to scale into the digital field which is where I am now. If I had done it all over again, I would have moved into the digital field sooner! So in other words, start where you are now, with something in your wheelhouse and interest. Start learning what it feels like to sell and make money without a normal job. And keep and eye to how you’ll scale that. Keep learning, adapting, and moving. Your end business might now ever be what you could even envision!

I tend to live very simply. I’m not against material things, it’s just that I like simplicity so I can focus on what matters to me. You might find this makes you a lot happier. For example: Simple clothes – in fact I hate to shop.Simple house – I live well under my means.Simple car – I choose a car that will last a long time with minimum repairs. Why? Here are a few reasons: 1) I’m not that interested. I find fancy stuff and showing off boring. I’m way more interested in learning, art, creating stuff. 2) Simplicity means a streamlined life and thought processes. It let’s me focus on what really matters, and on what I can create. 3) I’m going to die. My theory is people clutter their lives with “stuff” they don’t need so that they can avoid focusing on important stuff. Why? Because when they focus on important stuff they have to admit they’ll lose it some day. Coming to grips with my mortality lets me live simply. 4) You know who your friends are. You’ll find out about who likes you for who you are. 5) Stress and flexibility. If you live below your means in a non-cluttered way, you never have to worry about money, what other people think, and so on. Plus because you have extra resources and time, you can focus things that interest you, new projects, and things like that. To be clear: I’m not suggesting you should live like a slob. I still respect myself, clean up, exercise, and all that. It’s just that I keep things simple. Maybe you’ll enjoy trying out this lifestyle too.

Check it out on Youtube: Creating Systems and Processes can free you from the mundane things in life. Quick notes on creating systems: 3 Steps: 1) Make Lists. 2) Leverage. 3) Find Underlying Principles What you’re doing is taking non-creative work that can be duplicated and creating efficiency or completely

When your business grows you might have to learn how to work with people. This was really tough for me at first. Especially learning how to hire! My golden rule: hire the person for the position, don’t try to change the person to fit the position.

Escaping the 9-5 Part 2 In this episode I’ll talk about the biggest mistake I made when starting a small business.

My own journey – from freelancer, to business owner, to time and life freedom, and beyond. I hope you find this helpful and can use some of it in creating your own life!

What do you do when you’re worn out? If you run a small business feeling drained is common, so it’s important to know how to tap into energy reserves when you need them. I’ve been feeling a bit worn-down the last few days, so in this episode I talk about

Running a small business can feel like the Wild West. When you’re your own boss, you are the one who has to make decisions about what’s important. But with a million to-do’s vying for attention, how do you decide what matters most? This episode is all about determining where is

Are you stressed in your small business? Most of us are. A big part of running a small business is learning how to grow into the type of person who can handle stressful situations in a calm reasonable way. I've learned a lot of techniques for this over the years, and in this podcast I'll talk about two big ones: finding gratitude and thinking long term. I'll also go through a couple of my own goal setting strategies and the seven lists I use every day in keeping myself grounded, grateful, and thinking long-term.

No one likes to fail, but some of us are more scared of it than others. When is a fear of failure healthy and when does it throw us off our path? In Mornings with Matt episode 16, I talk about my own fear of failure, how I lesson it

No one likes to fail, but some of us are more scared of it than others. When is a fear of failure healthy and when does it throw us off our path? In Mornings with Matt episode 16, I talk about my own fear of failure, how I lesson it and focus on what matters, how to think about worst case scenarios and mitigating risk. I also talk about how the most successful people are also "good at failing" and know when to keep going and when to change course or start a totally new project.

In Mornings with Matt Episode 15, I talk about what is maybe the biggest mistake new small businesses make – especially those with a client or service based model. That mistake boils down to this: spending too much focus on things other than getting clients in the door as soon as

In Mornings with Matt Episode 15, I talk about what is maybe the biggest mistake new small businesses make - especially those with a client or service based model. That mistake boils down to this: spending too much focus on things other than getting clients in the door as soon as possible! This is so important - not just because it generates revenue, but because it give you momentum and immediate feedback.It's easy to distract ourselves with trivialities in a startup but success depends on keeping your eye on what really matters.

This is Mornings With Matt EPISODE 14 2015 was a year of BIG changes for me, and in 2016 my main focus is to go deeper and more focused in my creative pursuits while also coming from a healthier place of more self-acceptance. I talk about viewing each aspect of

Keep up at http://www.NoBossNinja.com - Matt's free updates, the Mornings with Matt Podcasts, whatever else he thinks to write or talk about. This is Mornings With Matt EPISODE 142015 was a year of BIG changes for me, and in 2016 my main focus is to go deeper and more focused in my creative pursuits while also coming from a healthier place of more self-acceptance. I talk about viewing each aspect of my life from the creative standpoint - trying to make something very important to myself.This also means coming from a place of self-acceptance and creativity instead of negative motivations like trying to please others, be "good enough", and so on.View some of my other current projects: The McLaughlin School of Music: http://www.McLaughlinSchool.com Austin Piano Festival: http://www.AustinPianoFestival.com Piano Blog: http://PianoBlog.com (As a note - in this episode I do correct this but please don't get the wrong imprssions that Austin Piano Festival was only my project - there are a ton of amazing people in this organization of which I am only one part.)

In this episode I answer the question: “How do I figure out what I’m good at that other people will pay for? What are my marketable skills?” In short, my answer is that people put way too much stock in what people say and not enough in what people do.