Mike Roberto's Blog » Travels

If You Like “All” Music, You Like NO Music

Berto — Tue, 16 Nov 2010 17:55:22 +0000

On my last day in Hong Kong, I had the honor of being the worst-dressed person at a Chamber of Commerce business networking luncheon and speech. The speech was about Hong Kong, so I didn’t learn anything applicable to my business, but I did learn a valuable lesson on how I should network.

We sat at a table with other members of the American Chamber of Commerce in Hong Kong. The typical conversation went like this:

Me: Hi, I’m Mike, good to meet you.
Him: Hi, I’m John. (exchange business cards)
Him: Oh, founder of your company. So what do you do?
Me: I run a network of fitness and nutrition websites that helps users find the best information and lowest prices on different nutritional products. How about you?
Him: I’m a consultant.
Me: (…awkward silence…)
Me: Ummm, doing what?
Him: I’m like a janitor. I clean up problems.
Me: (…awkward silence…)
Me: Oh, ok. Well I’m gonna go over there so that I don’t breathe any of your stale carbon dioxide.

Out of the 8 other people at our table, this was basically the jist of 7 of the conversations. By the end, I quickly recognized the futility and simply started talking about my personal travels and how much I liked Hong Kong, as

These people didn’t give a shit about Internet Marketing and had no use for me
I didn’t own a sweatshop somewhere in China where they could run a Kaizen event, so I had no use for them, and
They wouldn’t know a dumbbell or high-protein meal if it smacked them in the face, so they had no use for my web platform.

This reminded me of the time I went to the “South Bay Internet Entrepreneurs” meetup.com meeting. Some guy gave an INCREDIBLE on-site architectural SEO presentation, and out of the 30 people in attendance, 2 others besides myself actually had a clue. The other 27 were wastes of space who were merely looking for easy “Make Monies Online” schemes.

After complaining about the idiocy that meeting, my friend Larry explained it best: “Because REAL entprepreneurs are busy WORKING, not going to lame meetup.com meetings”.

Lessons learned? Just like you need to focus on a niche (and divide that niche by 1000) in your small business pursuits, you need to stay within your niche when socially networking. Going to general business luncheons like this is where you find generally boring people with no specific passion who are generally clueless.

“If you like ‘all’ music, you like NO music”
– Chuck Klosterman

So I need to start networking better within the fitness/health/nutrition industry. I need to meet personal trainers, dieticians, health counselors, etc.

The reason I haven’t been confident enough to do this yet is because PricePlow is what I consider an absolute wasteland of a website*. It’s on my roadmap to fix it all up in a monstrous project, and even though it’s not there yet, now is the time to plant the seeds in my niche so that I have a better social network ready to go when it’s time to rock.

However, I will attend the Affiliate Summit West. These guys might not all be in the health niche, but they do similar things as I do and use similar tools. I don’t care for 99% of ad networks that will be at this convention… but the party will be awesome and I’m going to learn some new tactics.

Besides that, it’s time to stick with my niche and away from these “consultants”, who I still can’t figure out what in the hell they do anyway.

* It’s never easy for a parent to admit the truth in that that their child is stupid, ugly, and fat… but this is the case so let’s not beat around the bush.

Land of the Free, Right?

Berto — Thu, 04 Nov 2010 16:21:05 +0000

Throughout my time in “Communist” China, one of the recurring jokes has been how there is often so much more economic and business freedom in China than there is in the U.S.

It sounds counter-intuitive, and small businesses in China definitely have to deal with a lot of hassles and paperwork, but they’re also given a great amount of leeway in terms of how they get to run their operations.

Some great examples of this are in Mike Michelini’s recent blog article titled Maybe I’ve Been in China Too Long. Mike is a businessman who has been bouncing between the US, China, and Phillippines. While I don’t agree with the Healthcare bullet point at all, it’s hard to argue with the other points.

One of the many interesting things I saw in China was a Help Wanted sign at a clothing store that dictated the prospective employee had to be under 5’4″ and 90lbs. Imagine doing that in the States! Every obesity support group in the country would have you in court by the week’s end. God forbid you want someone attractive and healthy modeling your petite line of clothing.

In the US, on the other hand, we have exceedingly aggressive laws and tax codes that have been written by lawyers and CPAs – two regulated industries where you need “certification” in order to enter the industry. This creates a barrier to entry, thus artificially inducing the wage floor. At the same time, since these are the people writing the laws, they write them in such a way that you need to hire one of them to figure it all out – and if you don’t, you’re going to get screwed by someone who does. Land of the free, right?

It’s a vicious circle, and if you’re not one of them, it affects you negatively. Not a day goes by where I don’t respect lawyers less. What am I doing about it? You’ll find out soon enough, but it’s phenomenal to see people such as Rand Paul, who I heavily support, getting elected this week. Rand will fight this kind of nonsense and try to reduce these laws and simplify the tax codes.

In the meantime, we have sticks-in-the-ass like this clown who shut down a 7 year old’s Lemonaide stand in Oregon due to lack of paperwork and licensing. Yes, I know the story had a happy ending, but it should have never have happened in the first place – and WOULDN’T have happened in “highly regulated” China. Land of the free, right?

As for me right now, I’m happy to admit that I’m struggling with the growth of my network. I have several successful projects, but I do nearly everything for every single one of them. The profit margin is great, but it’s time to start hiring other people.

The first thing I want to do is hire a writer. While I love writing, the research and composition takes too much time I’d rather be doing other things (designing, coding, marketing, and surfing, mainly).

Clearly, I want a quality writer who speaks English as his or her first language. But guess what – In the Land of the Free known as the United States of America, you can’t ask or require that English be your first language. That’s illegal become some bureaucrats decided that I need to give everyone a “fair chance”. The best I can do is massage the system and ask backassward questions such as “Do you have any language abilities that would be helpful in doing this job?”. A lot of good that will do.

So I either have to waste my time testing and weeding a bunch of people out (and most likely ultimately arrive at a native English speaker), or I can just say screw it and outsource the service to contractors, who likely aren’t Americans (right now I’m actually working with a British team). I don’t have to pay them benefits that I can’t currently afford, I don’t have to worry about ridiculous Obamacare rules and Welfare policies that may or may not get enacted, and I can stop sourcing to them whenever I want for any reason I choose.

So tell me, who are these laws really helping? Because let me tell you something: Life isn’t fair, and if you don’t meet my requirements, you don’t deserve a “fair chance”. In the real Land of the Free, you don’t have the government make fair chances for you – you make them yourself.

You Can’t Live the American Dream in Europe

Berto — Sat, 23 Oct 2010 05:34:55 +0000

Greetings from Guangzhou, China! A few weeks ago, I traveled to Europe with friends. We did a weekend in Amsterdam, spent Sunday night in Belgium, hung in Interlaken, Switzerland during the week, and then finally the boys and girls split and we guys headed to Munich, Germany for Oktoberfest (the girls opted for somewhat-less-exciting Paris). It was an utterly epic trip.

Throughout these travels, I met an incredible amount of European men and women, and we often compared lifestyle and culture. No matter what part of Europe I was in, one theme remained constant in each one of these conversations: When I told the other person that I ran my own business, they were absolutely floored and couldn’t have been any more interested.

In America, it’s interesting to meet business-owners, but there are a great number of us, so it’s no big deal. From independent limo drivers to contracting plumbers to wedding photographers to Internet marketers, we’re not that rare.

However, in Europe, that didn’t seem to be the case. The Socialist regimes put a government stamp on basically everything, and everyone is complacent to work their 9-5 job so that they can save up enough to go on “Holiday” for the month of vacation that they’re given. And I’m not one to argue – our measly vacation policies are probably the #1 thing I hate about Corporate America. Europeans don’t have that problem.

In the meantime, someone like me who wants to rise above the masses in Europe has to deal with ridiculously high taxes and unlimited amounts of government bureaucracy. With these obstacles, combined with the fact that you can get taken care of considerably well without using much of your brain, why bother going above and beyond to produce something new to the world? The status quo is fine for most.

However, I was amazed by the amount of attraction I created in women that I talked with. Sure, maybe it was the mustache I rocked that one day, but I think it goes deeper than the physical. In their eyes, here is a guy who does whatever he wants, reports to nobody, and is at least wealthy enough to go on a trip overseas with the sole purpose of drinking beer and throwing Euros around like they’re Monopoly money. On the surface, he’s an alpha male – the leader of his tribe who leads the pack (even if it’s a tribe of 1 – but they don’t know that). And to women, that’s naturally attractive, no matter what society or tax system you live in.

The troubling thing is that our current Administration is steering our great country towards the demotivational mindset of Europe. Right now, the question entrepreneurs ask is, “Why should I hire more employees when I don’t have a clue what kind of health care and welfare I’m going to have to provide this person?”. We have absolutely no foresight into what’s around the corner, and it’s scaring a lot of business owners into inaction. But at the big picture level, while this is hurting our country, it’s not stopping us from starting our own businesses.

I just desperately hope that we stick to our revolutionary roots and change direction before that question becomes “Why should I bother producing something new when there’s a 40% tax and everyone gets spoonfed from the Uncle Sam anyway?” It’s a question that I will actively fight from ever existing in America.

But in the meantime, I will continue to lead my tribe of 1, rise above the masses, and continue to mystify German women who want the unfamiliar – because You Can’t Live the American Dream in Europe.

Cheers to My Personal Hero, C. Reeve

Berto — Sat, 19 Apr 2008 04:01:57 +0000

Those of you who followed me during the MS150 know how I excited I was on “the hunt”. Immediately after I finished the ride, I pulled my cell phone out of my bag and messaged Eric to see if he finished yet (he had not).

In the process, my ID and the $23 wrapped around it must have slipped out, because it was gone after that. I realized this later, and had to get to the airport early to board the flight and get searched.

So guess what I got in the mail today:

A letter from C. REEVE (let’s call him ‘Christopher’, for the obvious reasons) of Bridges Fairway in Houston:

FOUND THIS DL. ON THE STREETS OF AUSTIN, 4-13-08

with my ID enclosed. How amazing is that?! ‘Christopher’, you’re my new hero! As much as I love this part of California, Texas is the only place where I see such friendly people. Awesome!

So it’s time for a new poll. How do I re-pay Christopher?

Note: There is a poll embedded within this post, please visit the site to participate in this post's poll.

Your comments are appreciated and welcome!

THANKS CHRISTOPHER!

(PS – It’s been far too long for me. We gotta file this one under HUMILIATIONS. Coming soon – my technological review of the tracker app, along with a write-up on the cycling culture I witnessed)

173.29 Miles Later…

Berto — Sun, 13 Apr 2008 19:32:46 +0000

Yall know I love Austin, but never has it felt so good to get back in!

I made it in at 2PM on the nose after traveling through tons of farm country, the Austin outskirts, and then into downtown and through UT.

Results from the hunt? Success! The lion has caught the gazelle and will be eating good tonight!

Lunch and the Hunt

Berto — Sun, 13 Apr 2008 16:16:12 +0000

Eric, Steve, Jessica, and Kristen are 8 miles ahead of me. There are 32 or so miles to Austin.

The hunt is ON.

Cold Morning!

Berto — Sun, 13 Apr 2008 15:15:57 +0000

La Grange was cool, but by 4am it got way too cold in Texas last night.

So I cacooned up in the sleeping bag and didn’t wake up until the last minute. I’m a bit behind the early birds!

Now I’m at a rest stop, I took the challenge route but took a wrong turn and ended up with the slackers. Probably for the better!

So now its time to catch up and cookem out there. I really wish I didn’t forget my headphones in Austin. I’d love to have them around my neck.

Biofreeze rules!

100 Miles, 90 Against Wind

Berto — Sun, 13 Apr 2008 00:04:21 +0000

We’re in La Grange!

The ride ended up great, after lunch I tore it up on the third quarter, but really struggled the next 15 miles.

My bike says I averaged 15mph and it took 6.5 hours.

I didn’t mention this, but we faced 10-15 mph winds nearly the entire time. This was nothing new for me, but it really wore on us as the day went on.

I did a lot of riding with Eric G, and then Platt and Dylan. Good times, we did a lot of drafting off each other.

Time for a beer and the best night of sleep under a tent ever! I feel like jello.

See you in Austin!

Beagling in Bellville

Berto — Sat, 12 Apr 2008 16:40:31 +0000

Lunch time!

I’m ahead of most of my friends, so I’m waiting around to eat with them.

So far all is good, my main ride partner has been Kristen, James’ girlfriend.

Just before lunch we hit some hills, nothing tough, but I realized how much I like climbing. I was pasing everyone in high gear.

The beginning of the ride was a bit frustrating for the faster guys, which doesn’t include me really. It takes until the first breakpoint to separate the chumps from the champs and to scatter everyone. In the meantime, you got these cyclists who are completely passive aggressive and get mad at people who hang on the left, and rightly so sometimes. But shut up with the abide comments!

The GPS is tracking but I’m low on battery and when I lose intenet access in the middle of nowhere, things shut down.

Ok everyone is here, see ya!

Howdy from Houston

Berto — Sat, 12 Apr 2008 02:34:35 +0000

This is a test post from my phone. I have some bugs in my tracker program but I think I figured the quirks out.
Houston is a hellhole. I can see why this ride is FROM Houston and not TO it… Nobody would want to participate! The most epic part of the ride is leaving this dumpster of a town, and hopefully not returning for a year!

In all seriousness, we’re stocked and ready to go, and James’ bike is phenomenal! See ya early in the morning!