About Me
Behind the Empire
The digital empire concept was born out of my desire to figure out how I could build a series of businesses that helped me:
- achieve my goals
- enjoy not just one activity, but all of those that I love
- liberate myself from ever needing another job
As I pondered the reason why so many people were unhappy, I realized that we’re forced, at an early age, to abandon our hopes and dreams so that we can pursue things like “responsibility” and “security.”
My Battle with the Resistance
For 10 years I tried to convince myself that giving up on my dreams and accepting “average-ness” would be OK. It wasn’t…and I became miserable.
Eventually I found myself in the military, doing a lot of soul searching and thinking about where I wanted to be once my obligation was over. Fortunately, I didn’t have much time to think and was thrust into Afghanistan and away from my family for 8 months.
During that time I felt things that I never wanted to feel again, and in that pain found a way to bootstrap my the beginnings of my business from a little desk under a bunkbed in Kabul, Afghanistan.
From there, the Empire was born, and my goal now is not only to expand what I do and continue to level up, but to teach others how I do it.
I’m not a guru or an expert…I’m just a guy that would rather go down in a blaze of glory than live a life of being average. This website is my tribute to the Emperor inside all of us. The one that yearns to come out and play.
If I can build a business from Afghanistan, just think about what you can achieve from wherever you are.
What I Do
You might have seen me at Copyblogger, Problogger, Twitip, Social Media Examiner, or a dozen of the other blogs I’ve guest posted for.
I’ve been featured at Entrepreneur.com and had a small spot in a recent issue of Psychology Today.
I teamed up with Mike Cliffe-Jones to write a really cool book called Beyond Blogging, which achieved over 5 figures in sales in the first 24 hours, and have been fortunate to build a business there that has paid over $16,000 in affiliate commissions.
I’m also co-creator of Blogger Beats, which is an awesome motivational music mix for bloggers, author of several social media guides (Twitter Rockstar and Facebook Rockstar being the most prominent), and work with my friend and business partner Rich Lazzara at Roark Media, which is a digital marketing and software development agency.
More about Me
Outside of this site, I can sometimes be found at Live the Dharma (my Zen/Buddhist side), or the Triathlon Man.
What You Can Expect
I post 1,000-2,000 word essays on occassion, but mostly on Tuesdays. I have a great group of readers that fill in the gaps. We don’t post when we don’t have anything to say, and we don’t say anything unless it’s good.
If you’d like a great free sample of what we do here, then check out Claiming Your Destiny…it’s a fantastic introduction.
I’d also recommend signing up for my free Newsletter: 5 Steps to Building Your Empire. You can find that here.
You can also find me on Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, and LinkedIn.
Take your time to look around and see what we’re up to. If you’re an empire builder, then I think you’ll fit in just fine.
