Pat O'Bryan's Portable Empire Blog

In the future, will all book launches be in cyberspace?

2007-09-01T12:48:00.001-07:00

Here's the press release we're sending out today- enjoy.

And remember, you're welcome to hang around Portable Empire Island in Second Life any time you like... there's usually somebody there to talk to, and some very interesting JVs and co-writes are happening due to relationships formed on the island.

If you're new to Second Life, my buddy Gideon has put together a couple of videos to make it easy for you.

Second Life Easy Instructions 1

http://youtube.com/watch?v=wwj0FF_bL4k

Second Life Easy Instructions 2

http://youtube.com/watch?v=D6ZUzW7uZCA
____________________________________________________

In the Future, Will All Book Launch Parties Be in Cyberspace?

Pat O'Bryan, best-selling author of Internet marketing books, has invited the entire world to a celebrity studded online party to celebrate the release of "Your Portable Empire -- How To Make Money Anywhere While Doing What You Love", September 4, at "Portable Empire Island" in the online community "Second Life."

Wimberley, TX (PRWEB) September 2, 2007 -- The champagne and cigars will be virtual, but the party will be very real.

On Tuesday, September 4, online marketing expert Pat O'Bryan will host an online party to celebrate the release of his new book, "Your Portable Empire -- How To Make Money Anywhere While Doing What You Love."

I'll be on the island all day, giving away DVDs, CDs and other gifts to the people who make the effort to come to the party.
O'Bryan, a former "broke musician" who has developed a simple seven-step system for making money online, wrote the book to share his Portable Empire System for creating a profitable business you can run from anywhere.

He's holding his party at his Portable Empire Island in the online community, Second Life (www.secondlife.com).

"Since the book is about how to make money from anywhere," he said, "a party you can attend from anywhere seemed like a good idea.

"So many of my friends and clients live internationally, I decided to make the Portable Empire Island available all day on Tuesday, so that we can celebrate together," he continued. "I'll be on the island all day, giving away DVDs, CDs and other gifts to the people who make the effort to come to the party."

There is a lot to celebrate. Dozens of his friends have banded together to create a special bonus program for people who purchase his book from Amazon.com on Tuesday. In what must certainly be a first for the book-publishing industry, each person who registers their Amazon.com receipt at www.yourportableempire.com/book will receive over $10,000 in downloadable bonuses.

"I intend to hit #1 on Amazon.com on Tuesday," said O'Bryan, "to do that you've got to sell a LOT of books. Giving away over ten grand in bonuses to each buyer of a $16 book seemed like it might do the trick."

Joe Sugarman says that Pat's book is "the easy-to-follow instruction manual on how to first discover your niche and then build it into a big enterprise that can run itsemf from almost anywhere ... A great book for anybody serious about a better life."

O'Bryan's book has been called "the most dangerous book ever written," by best-selling author and star of the movie "The Secret," Dr. Joe Vitale. "Dangerous because companies may try to ban it ... If you're working for someone else, he or she may not want to see you reading this book."

To join Pat O'Bryan and his friends, go to www.secondlife.com and search "places" for "Portable Empire."

###

"Your Portable Empire" - The Movie

2007-08-21T10:43:00.000-07:00

Dumber than fiction

2007-03-29T11:01:00.000-07:00

Work at home- or from anywhere.

This appears to be my ranting blog. I've got another blog that also talks about work at home issues. It's at www.patobryan.com/blog

Rant 1. I just got an email from a subscriber who offered to help me with my grammar and spelling. She's afraid I might look unprofessional, and now that I'm going to be a big-time author, she wants to make sure that my correspondence looks good and has good grammar and spelling.

She's got a heart of gold, but she's missing an important point. I write to be read. I'm not writing to win awards, or get a good grade, or to be accepted by that rapidly shrinking group of people who give a shit about grammar or spelling.

I write like I talk.

My response to her was "you gotta be kiddin' me."

Which is what I would have said if she had been here, in my office, and had made such a recommendation.

Actually, my first response was kinda defensive. I'm a college graduate with a minor in English. There was a time, longer ago than I like to admit, when I was cranking out research papers on the Elizabethan metaphysical poets that conformed to the rules of style, grammar, and spelling.

I hate to be thought of as uneducated or stupid. She probably didn't realize that she was insulting me.

But, there's a lesson in this. When I look at the books on my bookshelf that I actually read, there is a pattern to my choices. Kinky Friedman, Douglas Adams, Chris Moore, hell, even Will Shakespeare- they write in smoooth, flowing dialog. They tell their stories in a voice and with word and sentence choices that their readers will comfortably respond to.

Their grammar is conversational.

It would drive my Freshman English prof crazy- but, I'd like to point out that Friedman, Adams, and Moore are millionaires. Well, actually, Adams' estate is a millionaire, but you get the point. God knows what Shakespeare would be worth if he was alive and getting publishing royalties.

My Freshman English professor probably made about twenty-five grand a year.

The story's the thing.

Anything the writer can do to break down the barrier between the reader and the author is a good thing. A writer who writes to show how much smarter he/she is than his/her readers is gonna be a lonely guy/gal.

Consider the television.

There are some programs that appeal to the cultural elite. Those are the ones that you tell others you watch, when you're at a party and people are talking about the downfall of western civilization and using TV as an example. You say, "yes, but, there's the history channel, and the discovery channel, and A & E."

Which is all true, but it's bullshit.

What do we really watch? Look at the ratings.

Who's gonna do a spell-check or grammar-check on Oprah, much less her guests? Reality shows? Lost? The cop shows?

We want action, and we want our characters to talk like we talk, or at least like reasonably realistic archetypes would talk.

There's a reason why advertisers will pay millions to be seen on the popular shows, and the "high-brow" shows have to be subsidized with tax dollars. (btw, I think subsidizing art with tax dollars is a lovely idea and would like to see more of it.)

The bottom line, way down at the bottom of all the other bottom lines is, "if something is working, do that. If something isn't working, stop doing it."

Damn few grammar teachers or proof-readers have publishing deals. One of the first things Joe Vitale told me, way back when I first started writing on my blog, was "write in your own voice."

His thinking was that the people who resonated with my voice would want more. It works for me, and it's what I teach my clients- and it works for them. Just imagine how much of a pain in the ass it would be to have to adopt a persona and write in somebody else's voice... and then send what you've written to the grammar nazis before you release it...

And if people like it, then what? Do you have to talk that way when you see them?

Bleh.

Be yourself. Be authentic. It's more fun, it's easier, and it can make you rich.

The Portable Empire Manifesto

2007-03-09T14:34:00.000-08:00

Manifestos are all the rage, right now, so I'm going to jump in with mine.

Most of the ones I've read have been fear based. They sell you on a fear, and then sell you the solution.

My manifestation is not fear based. There is no competition. We live in an infinite universe, and there is plenty of everything for everybody. You can live the life of your dreams doing what you love- and I'm going to teach you how.

This is part one.

***

In a Buddhist monastery, high in the mountains of Tibet, a long, long time ago, a student was summoned to sit with the master.

The student was honored, but a little surprised. He was not known as one of the better students, and a personal visit to the head-monk was considered a high honor. Or the precursor of a very enlightened ass-chewing.

The master's space is small, but larger than the rooms alloted to the monks. Rich tapestries hang on the wall, and comfortable, colorful carpets are on the floor.

In the center of the room, lit by candles and the yellow light from the one tall thin window, is a low wooden table, worn smooth by years of service. In the center of the table is a simple teapot, warmed by a single candle.

As the student entered, the head monk looked up from his side of the table, and motioned for the student to sit.

Wordlessly, the head monk poured tea into the student's teacup until it was full. After a brief pause, he continued pouring tea into the student's cup, until tea was running out of the cup, onto the table, and then onto the carpet...

The student looked up at the head-monk, who was staring him right in the eyes, as he continued pouring the tea.

Finally, after what seemed to the student to be an eternity, the head monk stopped pouring tea into his cup, and poured some into his own.

Then he spoke, "one cannot pour tea into a cup that is already full. One cannot put knowledge into a mind that is already full. To learn what we have to teach, you must unlearn what you already know."

In that defining moment, the student "got it," and was able to successfully master his studies from then on.

Thirty years later, the head monk peacefully passed on to his next incarnation, and the student became, by acclamation, the new head monk.

After a modest ceremony, he was escorted to his new quarters. He stopped at the door, and looked over the room- the tapestries, the ancient wooden table, low to the ground, the thin windows that let in the pale light...

He looked at the tea-colored stain on the carpet, and smiled...

***

That's an old story that Christopher Moore stole to use in his book, Lamb, and I stole to make an important point.

The point of the Portable Empire "Write Your Own Success Story" contest is to prove that the Portable Empire 7-point system works.

If you were already happy with your success, you would not have entered the contest.

I'd like you to consider the possibility that what you're doing isn't working, and you need to do something else.

That something else is the Portable Empire system.

It works.

After you have mastered the system, you may want to go back and revisit your current projects. In the meantime, I want you to empty your mind of everything you think you know about internet marketing, and come to the system with a clean, empty, beginner's mind.

Over the last three years, I've developed this system with my own business, which is successful. I've helped hundreds of coaching/mentoring clients- or at least I've tried to. The ones who have become successful are the ones who accepted the system, and took concentrated action. Some of them have become quite successful.

The ones who wanted to argue, or who tried to mix the Portable Empire system with what other "gurus" are teaching, or who didn't take action... failed.

If you didn't enter the contest, you can still participate- I'll post the bare-bones of the system here. The Portable Empire membership site will have most of the rest- along with hundreds of hours of audio and video training.

Here is step one- remember to approach this exercise with a beginner's mind.

Choosing your niche-

Take a sheet of paper and draw a line down the middle. On the left-hand side, write down everything you're already good at. Use lots of paper. Include EVERYTHING- are you a good auto mechanic? A good kisser? Can you make a killer lasagna? Did you raise children well? Can you write? Draw? Organize?

Write it all down.

Now, on the right-hand side of the paper, write a list of everything you're passionate about. This will be a shorter list.

What's on both sides?

Pick the one that you're most passionate about and do a Google search on it. If you don't turn up a LOT of web pages on your subject, pick another one.

You're looking for a subject that you're already good at, very passionate about, and that has a large audience.

Don't worry about competition. Using the Portable Empire system, there is no such thing as competition.

Once you find a subject that you're good at, passionate about, and that has a lot of activity- congratulations, you've found your niche.

If you did this exercise correctly, with a beginner's mind, you were probably surprised at the outcome.

Your niche is your playground, where you will invite others to play with you.

Stay tuned for part two.

You may also want to check out my other blog- click on work from home to visit it now.

Big news about the contest

2007-02-26T21:45:00.000-08:00

If you entered the "success story" contest, go to Pat O'Bryan's Blog, quick!

one week and counting...

2007-02-08T09:04:00.000-08:00

Wow. How time flies.

This time next week, we'll be setting up video cameras, testing microphones, and sorting t-shirts. UnSeminar3 is about to begin.

Speaking of time flying, which we were, nine months ago I had never put on a seminar. I owned a cheap video camera but I didn't know how to use it. I had never done any public speaking. At all.

Now, nine months later, I'm hosting my third. I own a world-class video production company, that does a lot more than just record seminars. And, to be honest, I'm pretty comfortable on stage. Speaking is much different than singing, btw. At least for me. I don't rehearse my public speaking performances- I just wander up to the front of the room and talk. It's tricky, but I'm getting better at it. Try it sometime. At first, it's scary. Later, it's liberating.

This will be the biggest unseminar in terms of audience size. And the most relaxed. Looking back, thinking that we could teach all you needed to know about internet marketing in a weekend was pretty brazen. That was the plan at the first unseminar.

This time, we're focusing on the inner game. I know lots of people who "know how" and don't have a great life. The few people I know who have their inner game together don't have any trouble making money and living a grand life.

Teaching the "inner game" is tricky. I don't think there is a curriculum, and if there was, I wouldn't use it. Structure has killed more great philosophies... Just look at Taoism and Zen. They both started out as free and liberating (and liberated) philosophies. Now, Taoism is a mess. Lao Tsu would just giggle, grab a bottle of wine and head for the mountains.

I'm with him.

So, without a curriculum, what are we gonna do? We're going to put a bunch of people together with the intention of discussing the "inner game," and what it means to live a life. Some of these people will be at the front of the room. Some will be in the audience. I intend to learn from both groups.

interesting links

2007-02-06T12:38:00.000-08:00

Let's see if we can compile a list of interesting links-

Here's a few to start us off

Most Interesting Philosophical quotations: http://www.neatorama.com/2007/02/06/11-most-important-philosophical-quotations/

Free Utilities for just about anything: http://www.econsultant.com/i-want-freeware-utilities/

Free Utility to convert audio to MP3's: http://www.mp3surgeon.co.uk/

Solar energy supplies (the retreat in Terlingua is totally off the grid-) http://home.altenergystore.com/

Free games that are good for your mind: http://cognitivelabs.com/game_list2.htm

Very interesting site that improves your mood: http://moodgym.anu.edu.au/moodlogin.asp

Leave a comment with your favorite useful links-

thanks!

The Open Palm of Desire

2007-02-06T11:32:00.000-08:00

-we still haven't identified that mysterious black plane that Rodney and I saw over the desert. The best guess is that it was a B-1 with the wings in the "out" position. I'm not convinced-

Last night, as I topped the hill that overlooks the Wimberley valley, the sun was setting. Unlike in West Texas, it wasn't painting the hills gold, purple and red. It was just providing a gorgeous pink and blue lightshow behind the hills.

Over the last week, I've been to the farthest SouthWest corner of the State of Texas and hung out in the desert with the purple cactus, then to deep East Texas, where the pine trees frame the sky in a tight green window, then back to Central Texas, where the gentle hills and Cedar trees welcome the rivers that keep the valley lush.

Today, it's 72 degrees F, the sun is shining, and I'm real glad to be looking at the world without a windshield in front of my face.

Last night, as I was watching the big Mac put UnSeminar1 videos online, I picked up an old book that I first read in 1973. It's called "Be Here Now."

It was written by a Harvard professor who lost his gig because he took to hanging out with Aldous Huxley and Timothy Leary. Through their academic connections, they were able to acquire huge quantities of liquid hallucinogens from the government. They proceeded to perform "experiments" with the drugs (which were quite legal back then), which led to short periods of enlightenment.

Ultimately, they found the experience lacking. They were able to get brief glimpses of the "real thing," but they always came back down. After the drugs wore off, they were still the same boring people, with the same banal desires and insecurities.

Which, of course, led to the obligatory trip to India, where the author found a guru who could work miracles and read minds.

Hanging out with the guru, the author was trained in zen Buddhism- which is a philosophy that fascinates me.

Buddha taught that life is suffering. That suffering is caused by desire. By transcending desire, you can cause the suffering to go away. He then lists a pretty reasonable course for overcoming desire- it basically comes down to doing the right things, thinking the right things, and some simple diet and breathing stuff.

There's also the issue of duality. Right and wrong. Better and worse. There ain't no such thing. It's just a distraction.

Back in 1973, I didn't have enough life experience to make sense of all this.

Today, I'm closer.

Rupublican/Democrat. Jew/Muslim. White/black. Rich/poor. Just think of all the dualities that we can get confused by. Where would daytime TV be without the "I may be crap, but I'm better than that" duality?

I was talking to Betsy this morning about all the time we waste on this stuff. How much of your self-talk is about what you desire? How much is about how much you don't like ____________________. Fill in the blank.

Imagine what you could accomplish if you were able to just delete all that crap from your inner dialog.

For example:

I don't like people who start wars. Period. Especially for money, which, when all the dust settles, the current war is all about. That's murder. I don't like it.

I also don't like the fact that since 2003 I've wasted thousands of hours agonizing over it. When it's all said and done, there ain't a thing I can do about it. I'm not a billionaire. Not a member of the Carlyle Group.

And, despite the fact that all I've done is waste thousands of hours that I could have used for something much more productive, it's starting to look like there's going to be an end to this particular madness.

Whatever. It's historically inevitable that new madness will follow. It's a distraction.

As I zipped through my life, wasting time thinking how much better I was than the criminals who started this war, I was caught up the whole duality of the drama. There ain't no "better." There ain't no "worse." There just is.

The trick, like the book says, is to "Be Here Now."

There's an interesting little story that the Zen guys have been telling for years:

Before enlightenment, chop wood, carry water.
After enlightenment, chop wood, carry water.

As I understand it, this means that the outer world doesn't change that much once you "get it." The difference is the inner game. The acts of chopping wood and carrying water are the same, but instead of being what you have to do before you can go do something else (that you have to do before you can do something else), these acts become what you are doing right now.

The same thing holds true for writing ebooks, creating sales pages, editing video.

And, about that desire thing- apparently, it's the addiction that's the problem, not the drug. There's nothing wrong with having wealth. Where it gets ugly is when you're driven by the desire for that wealth.

I've noticed that quality in the really wealthy people I know. The wealth is a by-product. The people who keep their eyes on the wealth target seldom hit the bull-eye, and even when they do, they're not satisfied. There's never enough.

The ones who acquire wealth by dancing through life, playing the game with joy totally in the moment, seem to acquire wealth almost by accident.

Fascinating, huh?

about that plane

2007-02-04T22:39:00.000-08:00

I've gotten some emails about the plane- one person said it might be a black U-2, another said it coule be an SR-71.

I pulled up pics, and it ain't them. :)

Let me try to decribe it better. Pull up a pic of a U-2. (not the band. the spy plane first built in 1955. Gary Powers. Cuba. You know...)

Now imagine the fusilage longer, the wings pulled back, and the whole thing sleeker. There might have been little angles to the wings at the end, coming up 90 degrees. The wings were normal- not triangles. Kinda like a small concorde, but without the weird cockpit.

We were so amazed by this thing that I wouldn't testify to anything, but I'm telling you what I think I saw. It was the most bizzarre thing imaginable to be the only car on a desert highway and have this evil black thing fly across the horizon.

And here's more data for ya- we were traveling west to east on HWY 90, which follows the Rio Grande river. That plane had to start out in Mexico, because it was going South to North.

It wasn't all that fast, and it was just above the peaks of the mountains. The mountains aren't all that high on that stretch.

Anyway, keep those emails and comments coming. We might get to the bottom of this, yet.

Thanks,

Pat

Miles and Miles of Texas

2007-02-04T20:09:00.000-08:00

I'm sitting in a hotel room in Conroe, and the computer I usually use to post to my blog is in Wimberley, Texas. Luckily, Google and Blogger have conspired to create online software that is free and accessible from any computer.

Welcome to the "Portable Empire Blog."

And, just as an aside, do you think that poor quarterback for the Chicago Bears is gonna get any lovin' tonight? I don't. I emailed my buddy Bill during the third quarter with the opinion that he couldn't play Texas high-school ball.

From Presidio to Conroe, I've seen miles and miles of Texas. My friend Rodney (www.rodneybursiel.com) and I zipped down to Terlingua on a photo-safari last week. Alpine, Terlingua, Lajitas, Presidio, Marfa, and there and back.

If you've been reading my blog a while, you know that I'm setting up a retreat outside of Terlingua, in the desert. Rodney also runs a bed and breakfast in Wimberley (www.canyonsunrise.com) that he built himself.

I learned a nifty trick from Joe Vitale (www.mrfire.com). Do what you love, and find people who love doing the things you don't want to do. I use that strategy to keep my business going. Rodney loves to build. The Portable Empire cabin in Terlingua needs a lot of work. This is gonna work out just fine.

Let's pause a minute. Are there any aspects of your business that you don't love? Those are the things that you can farm out. In my business, I definitely don't love doing the books. I found a bookkeeper who does. I HATE dealing with customer service. David loves helping people, and is much nicer than I am- he does customer service. I'm useless at swinging hammers. Rodney is an artist. He's going to turn my cabin into a very comfortable showplace with a huge deck where we can sit, smoke cigars, and watch the sun paint the mountains.

How 'bout you? You'll find that you make a lot more money, and enjoy your business much more, if you find people who love to do the things you don't want to do and let them do it.

After we'd inspected the cabin, we sloped on into Terlingua. In the afternoons, the big porch at the store in the ghost town is crowded with characters. One dude was playing bad cover tunes at one end of the porch. Another guy was playing "Country Metal" songs at the other end. It's an interesting place- so interesting that Blair Pittman wrote a book called "Tales from the Terlingua Porch." http://www.txstarbooks.com/

Blair was there, and he and Rodney talked photography while I talked to Ray, the Country Metal guy. The porch was worth the trip.

And then it got good. The drive from Terlingua to Presidio is the most beautiful drive in Texas. Fifty miles of stunning mountains, wind-carved rock sculptures, purple cactus... we had to stop several times to take pictures. I'll post some at my other blog (www.patobryan.com/blog.htm) when I get home.

The next day, we drove highway 90 back home, and the stretch between Alpine and Del Rio is almost as good.

We had a sobering moment when a huge black plane, flying just above the mountains, flew by. When I say black, I mean it was completely black- no markings, no insignia, no flags or stickers. We pulled over and rolled down the windows- and didn't hear a thing. It was silent. I've been researching it online, and I can't find a picture of any plane that looks like this plane. Imagine a U-2, but longer. I don't know what it was, and I hope to never see it again.

If you know what it was, and can tell me without compromising national security, email me at pat@patobryan.com and tell me about it.

It gave us the willies.

A cold beer and carne asada at Ma Crosby's in Ciudad Acuna helped.

I took a day off from traveling to edit some video- let me tell you about the video. We're just about ready to release the UnSeminar2 videos. This time, they're gonna be online. You'll be able to immediately watch or download them. I'm also putting UnSeminar1 videos online. Not sure what I'm going to do with 'em... well, actually, I'm pretty sure they're going to end up in the resource section of the new membership site David and I are putting together.

Let's talk about the membership site. Did I mention I am in Conroe, Texas. That's the answer to the question, "why is he writing such a long blog post?" If you've ever been to Conroe, you'll understand. It's a nice place...

Anyway, the way the membership site is going to work is that there will be hundreds of hours of resources. Audios, videos, articles, interviews. And, I'll be adding more all the time.

There will also be a complete curriculum. An online university for internet marketing training. Classes. If you want to learn, for example, copywriting, you just log onto the copywriting classroom and start taking classes. It will all be in a very logical order, and each lesson will lead to the next lesson. We'll have courses in copywriting, product development, list building, relationship marketing, and SEO. In all modesty, it's going to be the best, most comprehensive- and entertaining- membership site on the 'net, and it's gonna be so inexpensive that you won't even have to think about the money.

We're going to launch that at UnSeminar3, which is coming up... oh my gawd... weekend after next!

I've been so busy writing books and editing video and going on photo safaris that I've let it sneak up on me. Probably should give that some attention, huh?

So, after a day off editing video, I got back in the Volvo and pointed it at Conroe. I'm doing research for an article I'm writing.

I got almost to Bastrop when I realized I had forgotten my cigars. I chew them like bubble gum when I'm driving... by the time I got to Houston, the one I started with was kind of soggy and gnarly. Luckily, Cabana Habana was open and I grabbed a box of CAO double maduros.

Relief.

Anyway, it's been quite a week. From far West Texas to East Texas. From craggy mountains to towering pine trees.

That's the joy of having a Portable Empire. During the whole time, I was able to keep my business running. There is internet access just about everywhere, and almost everything I do is done online. I launched a product promotion, wrote articles, took photographs, strategized with David about the membership site and customer service issues...

If it sounds like a lot of fun- well, it is.

And in just under two weeks, I'll tell you how you can enroll in "Portable Empire University" and learn, once and for all, how YOU can do it, too.