How to Be Selfish + Selfless

We're back!  

Sorry for the long hiatus everyone.  For all you that are our facebook fans, you'll know that Monkey ended up with strep throat two weeks ago (and most of last week as well), thus much of our focus was on healing him up.  Seal was an excellent nurse, and did much to make sure Monkey didn't die.

Anyway, today we wanted to talk about selfishness.  Our society often gives mixed messages about selfishness.  We often see stories of people who are so obsessed with something (music, art, business, technology, etc.) that they devote their lives to it and selfishly put that love over everything else.  We are told this is the epitome of the American Dream of pulling yourself up by your own bootstraps and following your passion.

We also, however, often get the message that we shouldn't be selfish.  That we should think of society as a whole, that it's saintly to give to others and to give back to the community.  We praise non-profits and community giving and we are often socially rewarded for doing "selfless" things.  Also, especially in certain communities, (religious, immigrant, and/or minority) communities, emphasis can be strongly put on the community over the whole.  Pressure to "put the community over your own needs" can be strong, and it seems like the right thing to do is to be selfless.

However, we'd like to offer a different take on selfishness/selflessness.  We propose that if you live your live following your dream, it is not only the right thing to do, but it is the most selfless and selfish thing you can do.

Paradox time?  Not really.  You see, by following your dream, inherently you are being selfish.  But this is a good selfish.  You need to be listening to your Inner Artist and following that dream of yours because that is really what you were meant to do.  Your dream is unique, and by doing what you love, you're being the best person you can be, and you need to be relentlessly selfish about this - you can't put it aside for other people, whether it's your dying mother in Bolivia or your favorite teacher, or your boss, or your pastor.  

No matter who tells you otherwise, you need to live up to your full potential and follow your dream.  

At the same time that you're ploughing ahead looking after yourself, realize that by doing that, you're offering your gift to the world.  Maybe it's your unique way you look at the world (visual artists), or your pursuit of a new taste (culinary artist), or maybe it's an exploration of what the human body can do (dancers and performing artists).  Regardless, your dream is yours alone and if you can find that voice and follow it, you will reach your full, awesome potential.  

By being the best person you can be, you will undoubtably come across ways to give back.  Whether it's performing at a charity ball, or donating your art for a fundraiser, or maybe it's creating a path for an underrepresented group of people to follow in your footsteps, you will be able to give back selflessly while you selfishly pursue your own dream.  

As Chris Guillebeau puts it, you will be able to become a true key dropper.  As your dream manifests itself via your own selfish motivations and actions, make sure that when it's possible to do so, help out others along the way.  Drop keys for people to open doors.  Don't create cells by trying to shut out people asking for advice - drop keys.  

So go out there and do something for yourself.  Put yourself on that path towards following your dream, and opportunities to give back to your communities and the people who help you along will manifest themselves.  Don't hold anything back, and go after what YOU want.  

Do You Know How to Get a Book Published? Want to Learn?

So as of, uh, just about right now, Chris Guillebeau has just launched his newest guide, The Unconventional Guide to Publishing.

So to be upfront about all this, yes, we are affiliates (meaning that we get paid a % of the money if you click on the links in this post and end up buying something), but there is a non-affiliate link at the bottom of the page.

Frankly, we know a lot of authors out there, as well as people who are working to being paid authors, so we figured we'd talk a bit about what this guide is all about.

So it's authored by a guy named David Fugate who is a badass of a literary agent.  He's sold over 1000 books to publishers of all sizes over the past 20 years (meaning he averages about 50 books per year...not too shabby). So what is the guide?

The Unconventional Guide to Publishing is the beacon of light in the dense, hard-to-find-answers world of book publishing.  It was conceived of at a conference when people kept asking him the same questions over and over, and he realized that these questions were asked again and again of him for the past 20 years that he's been a literary agent.

What will you learn in this badass, 45,000 word mammoth of a guide?  Stuff like how to:
-Develop a compelling concept
-Land an agent/find information about agents
-Learn what editors are looking for
-Determine how much $$ should you expect for an advance
-Write a book proposal
-Hustle and get your book out there, and why you still have to do it even with a traditional publishing deal
-Actually write the book
-Negotiate a publishing deal

You'll also learn how foreign translations work, what "reserves for returns" are, and other cryptic stuff that budding authors should know.  There are also tons of bonus features, like sample contracts and proposals, audio recordings and transcripts of interviews with authors, There are three different packages (Hemingway, Fitzgerald, and Austin - clever!) which have different amounts of stuff and different price points.

A note about this.  Monkey bought Chris' Empire Building Kit in 2010 at the lowest price point (then it was $97, now it's $147), and it was pretty damn awesome.  Totally worth the $97, and it would be easily worth $147 as well.  So basically, if you can only afford the most basic package, it's still worth it.

So there's also going to be a product launch special(!!) that'll go on until midnight, PST, on Friday, January 13th.  Nutso!  Not only is there a 25% discount on the $129 tier (dropping the TOP tier down to $97), and extended Q&A conference all with David Fugate, but there's also a review of your community-buidling plan with Chris Guillebeau.  Both David and Chris don't offer consulting services, so if you can afford 'em, it's time to get 'em.

So if you're still asking "is this guide right for me," we recommend you going over HERE to check it out for yourself.  Is it right for everyone?  No.  If you're the type who isn't going to take notes while reading this, and isn't the type to take some inspired action steps, you probably shouldn't pick this up.  If you're not really interested in getting your book in the hands of a major publisher, then this probably isn't for you.  If the price of the book is going to cause you to miss rent, this is also probably not for you.

HOWEVER, if you are someone who wants to get serious with their writing (or hell, if you're a visual artist and you want to pitch a book of images), and is willing to make an investment in themselves, then by all means, this book is for you.

If you want to check it all out and deprive us of our share (that's okay, we understand), you can click this non-affiliate link here.

Rushing the Gates

Gatekeepers can be scary.

We're super excited as Chris Guillebeau is launching his Unconventional Book Tour to promote his new book, and his stop in San Francisco is going to be at our favorite bookstore, Green Apple Books! We mention this, because a lot of what Chris has to talk about in his quest for world domination is that in the traditional method of doing things, there are lots of gatekeepers.

Gatekeepers are people who watch the gates of success and choose who gets to come in or not. Gallery curators/owners are gatekeepers. Juries for craftshows are gatekeepers. Buyers for companies are gatekeepers. These are the people whose job it is to filter through all the products and people who want success.

While some prefer to allow these gatekeepers to determine their path in life, Monkey + Seal do our best to limit the amount of say gatekeepers have on our success. We prefer to rush the gates. While no one is advocating bum rushing gallery owners, what we're talking about is either finding creative ways to bypass gatekeepers, or just set up our own gate and police it yourself!

Example: Say you want to get into a huge craft fair. Huge craft fairs are generally very expensive ($300 is pretty typical for a two-day show, Comic-con is more like $800-1200), and there is generally a jury that selects whether or not you get in. While saving up and making sure you have a great product to sell and what not, you may still not get in. What to do? Make your own craft fair.

While Monkey + Seal have gotten into some large shows and not others, last year we decided that we might as well put on our own show. Thus, along with other members of SF Etsy, we organized the 2009 Holiday Handmade Ho Down. We pulled in a couple thousand people into a nightclub, had 65+ vendors hawking their wares, and had a great time.

Granted, there were many sleepless nights, bouts of drama, and lots and lots and lots of work, but that event helped establish us as event organizers, and we were able to leverage that to create our own Paper Hat Productions in order to focus on another venue that has gatekeepers: gallery shows.

I will be the first to admit that organizing an event is tons of work. Tons, and tons of work. However, you're working for yourself and you get to call the shots, and that's really really cool. You're also held accountable for the show, for better or for worse, so with all the great opportunities, there's also a margin for failure. But as we say, failure isn't the end of the world, so what's stopping you? Go out there and rush the gates.

Empire Building Kit Review

So we already reviewed Chris Guillebeau's Empire Building Kit for his 2nd 24-hour launch, but he's opening it up for sale again - but this time it'll stay open! So you may be asking "why even review this again if I can sign up whenever I want?" The answer is that if you buy it on Wednesday the 16th, when it goes on sale, you'll get a free copy of Chris' "Backyard Biz Profits," which focuses on applying his empire building strategies on local markets. Not bad, eh?

And if you were too lazy to go click on the review, we'll sum it up again for you:
Basically, if you want to start up your own business, you need this guide.

Why?
- 365 emails (one per day!!!!) of reviews, hints, tips, action plans, and more awesomeness that'll inspire you to stay active and keep on keeping on
- interviews with other business owners that are making at least $50k a year with less than 3 employees
-answers to specific questions like "if you're starting an ebook business, how many people on my list do I need before I should start releasing new books?" or "what email service do you use to manage your email list and why?" or "how do I find my market?"
-there are bonuses up the wazzooo! Extra interviews from his other projects, and the seriously, the in-depth interviews with some awesome, awesome people.

If you have any questions, feel free to email us (at info@monkeyandseal.com) and we'll give you our honest opinion on the matter and answer as much as possible. We were a bit hesitant, but really, $149 (there's also more stuff if you get the $249 or $449) is totally worth it if you are serious about starting up your own empire. $149 can be made up by skipping your morning coffee once every three days. $149 can be made up by cooking instead of eating out (in San Francisco) 15 times. In our minds, it's a small, small price to pay to get the knowledge and key skills needed to take your game to the next level.

If anything, we look forward to 1am, as that's around when Chris sends out our next email. We signed up for the first go-around, and we're on day 68, and what we've got so far is well worth $149. It's actually a bit shocking to think that we still have almost 300!!! more emails to go.

Anyway, we believe so strongly in Chris' product that, even though we're part of his affiliate team, we highly encourage you to go pick it up even if you don't go through our affiliate link.

If you want to go check it out, no strings attached (ie: the non affiliate link) after 9am PST on Wednesday, you can go check it out at: http://unconventionalguides.com/. No hard feelings, promise. However, if you'd like to help support us along with Chris, our affiliate link is here: http://unconventionalguides.com/cmd.php?Clk=3725273, which we would super appreciate you clicking on, but either way, we highly recommend you checking it out!

I hope you jump on this offer now (it's your last chance to pick up his free guide on local markets (later to be sold at $49), but if it takes you a while to digest/save up/etc., take your time. Like we said, if you have questions, email us at info@monkeyandseal.com or leave your question in the comments and we'll do our best to answer you quickly. Huzzah!

The Empire Building Kit

So if you're not familiar with the work of Chris Guillebeau, he's sort of a badass of the non-traditional entrepreneurial circle. He is a writer and his goal is to travel to every country IN THE WORLD by the time he's 35. Crazy. However crazy he might be, he is on track to do it, and he shares his travel hacking tips, advice on starting up your own business, and how to set off on your own and make money doing something you love.

I randomly found out about him after clicking a link on twitter, and I was sold. After purchasing his guide to Art + Money, we were convinced he was the real deal. Now don't get me wrong - the dude gives you a lot of awesome advice, but it's not a get-rich-quick scheme. It's more like "here are the tools to go change the world, now it's up to you to start doing the heavy lifting (albeit in bite-sized quantities).

He sells Unconventional Guides with topics like travel hacking and making money off your art that, from what we've read (and we own three of the guides), pretty awesome advice. They run $35 and up, from when I last checked, but they're worth it.

He just recently released his Empire Building Kit, which we invested in, and has thus far been well worth the $149 (the lowest of three tiers) that we paid. It has helped us re-evaluate business strategy, and helped spur us onto creating the free 7 Ways to Make Ordering Wedding Invitations Easier (and Cheaper). Anyway, we are so all about this that we wanted to let you know that Chris will be selling his Empire Building Kit again for another limited 24 hour period. If you want it, you'll have to visit between 9am (PST) tomorrow (Tuesday May 18th) and 9am Wednesday.

Really, for $149, reading all the interviews with small business owners who are actually making it doing what they love (a lifestyle business, if you will) was well worth it, and the case studies are icing on the cake. The case studies, which you get more of, aren't as in depth as I might want, but the interviews definitely make up for it.

Finally, you also get an email a day for 365 days helping urge you along your path to carving out your own empire in the world. Although 1/7 are recap emails (which I honestly don't find really that helpful), that's still a good 312 emails of motivational stuff, suggestions on small actions you can take, and other cool things that make it easier to keep on working towards the dream.

So Monkey + Seal are affiliates of the Unconventional Guides (meaning we do get a cut if you buy something), but like we said if you've ever checked out our affiliate policy before: we don't endorse crap that we don't use ourselves. I can't guarantee that you'll find the Empire Building Kit (or any of the other guides) useful, but Chris does come with a 100% money back guarantee - assuming you actually try his suggestions for a month and if you are still unhappy with the results, he'll give you your money back no questions asked. Not bad, eh? Additionally, Chris offers two free guides (his manifestos) which also offer loads of wonderful information, so even if you don't go to buy, at least check out the free stuff!

Go here to sign up for building your own empire! Huzzah!

Getting off the rump

To steal a worthy topic from the ever-awesome Chris Guillebeau, we gotta get ourselves in motion, people. Often, our sometimes crap-tastic situations are blamed on others, or other external forces. And sometimes, which I think a lot of forward thinkers fail to mention, it is these outside forces' faults. However, as Chris points out here, a lot of it is our own failings, our own fear, and our own inaction which really causes us to miss out.

Now, let me explain this from the Monkey + Seal point of view. In this crazy world we live in, there are most definitely circumstances that are out of our control. Things like the genocide, murder, rape - terrible stuff like that is not something that you bring onto yourself with the Law of Attraction. Monkey + Seal are very understanding of how traumatic events and our upbringings are extremely difficult to work past - socialization is a huge factor in our day-to-day lives (partially because we don't even realize it).

But (and this is the big But), we can take ownership of our agency and turn bad situations around by doing the most you can do every single day. What you can do is different from what Monkey can do, or from what Seal can do, or from what Barack Obama or Kobe Bryant can do. It's not about changing your entire situation in a day (although we'd all wish it was so easy). What brings about change is doing what you, not anyone else, can do in a day. If all you can do to work towards a clean house is just wash a single dish, then do it. If you're looking to start a business, and the only thing you can do today is to google unreserved domain names, then get on your computer. No matter how small or insignificant, if you start today and keep at it, eventually you'll be surprised at how much you've accomplished.

We are all about sustainability over here at Monkey + Seal. Even though sometimes it looks like we're totally overworking ourselves in an unsustainable manner, we don't push ourselves to the point of burning out, and if we do, we know to take some recovery time. Yes, sometimes you have to push yourself to meet a deadline, or to go above and beyond, but for the most part, we like to practice sustainability, as we are artists working with socialized norms that are detrimental to our dreams. If we push ourselves too hard and too fast, our pasts can catch up with us and paralyze us in emotional poop-storms. We've since learned to recognize when we're going outside of our means and to step back and take a night off (or at least to take a break).

So I just want to advise people to take action. It doesn't have to be earth-shattering at first, but as long as you are taking constant action, things will move into place for you.

The Art of Non-Conformity/9

So Monkey + Seal, through a series of random link exploration on twitter (btw, you should follow us: twitter/monkeyandseal - we have a twitter now, yay!), we stumbled upon a website titled "The Art of Nonconformity" run by Chris Guillebeau.

We highly recommend checking out his blog, as he has a lot of cool things to say about making your own path in life and being able to do what you want to do in life. Monkey read both his free manifestos (A Brief Guide to World Domination and 279 Days to Overnight Success) which you can easily download to your computer, and found a lot of really good information.

Anyhoo, we get his blog updates in our email, and so far, what the man has to say is pretty awesome. Go check it out today!

In other news, Monkey + Seal have started designing their new business cards and are kicking around the idea of getting some promotional postcards made. Any suggestions on items we should feature on the front? We're thinking of doing an old-fashion split card, with one Seal item and one Monkey item. We'd love for you to check out our shop and give us feedback as to your favorite item!

On a quick closing note, we're both really excited to check out 9, which opens in theaters today. When we saw the teaser trailer in the theater, we nearly got out of our seats to cheer, and we hope to get a chance to check out this film ASAP!