Watch this amazing TED presentation by Steve Kamb to find out how you can live your life like an awesome video game. (more…)

If you haven’t heard of Prince EA, then you should of. He’s the guy who delivers amazing spoken word rhymes over the top of inspirational soundtracks. His YouTube channel has millions of views, and the video’s he produces are some of the best quality and most creative you will find.

The production that goes into these videos has to be seen to be believed. If you’re looking for a millennial with a different view of the world who is not afraid to ask the questions nobody is asking or the questions nobody wants to answer, then Prince EA is for you.

If you’re pursuing any level of success, then Prince EA is a must.

Below you will find what I believe are his top three videos that will change humanities path to greatness!

1. Why Most People Die Before Age 25

This is a heartfelt video about how people stop chasing their dreams before the age of twenty-five and how they die inside even if they live a long life. Prince EA talks about how people make excuses for their dream and delay their dreams.

He says that life shouldn’t be something that you just get on with. Everyone can relate to this video, and the challenges Prince EA talks about are real for all of us whether we like to admit it or not.

“You will never start this video again with the same perspective you had when you clicked play”

2. I Am NOT Black, You are NOT White

This video will seriously change your perspective on the world and the many different races that co-exist. Prince EA presents the idea that our race is nothing more than a label and that labels cause racism and wars.

He explains that who we really are is not skin deep and that we are all global citizens. He uses a brilliant analogy about our bodies being like cars that we get from a dealership called society. Our race is nothing more than a model of car but at its core, we are all the same.

I love how Prince EA says in this video that who we are is found inside, not on the outside. You’ll find this video will move you and challenge your current view of the world. This simple idea that is presented in this video is the key for all of us to have global success.

This idea is what has the power to bring us all together and create as one team rather than in silos. Burn the freakin labels!

“Who would you be if the world never gave you a label?”

3. Can We Auto-Correct Humanity?

Prince EA’s most popular video with more than 17 million views is all about changing our relationship with technology. The myth we have been sold is that technology has made our lives better. In reality, technology has caused us to lose the human connection between each other.

Yes, technology has many advantages, but what it has done is exacerbate the flaws of the human blueprint. The digital age, as Prince EA puts it, has become obsessed with taking selfies and creating content that is about “I” instead of “we” or “us.”

This digital disease has been caused by a choice. Choice is at the centre of every one of life’s significant challenges. Prince EA says it the best when he says that our choices cannot be autocorrected. It’s time for all of us to have a regular digital detox.

What is one lesson you learnt from Prince EA’s inspiring videos? Let me know in the comments section below or on my website timdenning.net or my Facebook. 

In my third and final interview from The Pause Fest Conference, I sat down with Kate McKibbin, who is the founder of the Drop Dead Gorgeous Daily Blog. Kate is an expert in building blogs from nothing and through her own sites, she was able to quit her day job within 12 months, and make multiple income streams.

Kate is so knowledgeable in the blogging world that she started an online course called Secret Bloggers Business to share everything she knows. She was able to make a substantial amount of money from these blogging courses in a very short period.

Check out my interview with Kate on YouTube below.

Here are 5 key takeaways from the interview:

1. Start your blog lean

The temptation to go onto Freelancer.com and hire the most expensive person you can to help you build the best-looking blog from scratch is something you should avoid. Early on, you should concentrate on finding your niche and narrowing in on your target audience.

If you waste too much money before you have got a small amount of traction, you won’t know if your subject matter and the way you present it is relevant. Once you have nailed your niche, concentrate on giving as much value as you can.

2. Build an email list from day one

The issue with building up followers on social media is that you don’t own their data; specifically their contact details. Even though this strategy has existed for ages, Kate still swears by it: make your main focus building an email list from day one.

This email list down the track will become your customer database when you turn on monetisation. Forget the naysayers who tell you email is dead because it’s not; you just have to use it in the right way, deliver value, and not overdo it.

To help build your email list, try releasing a free eBook or a free course to get more subscribers. These two methods have been around for a while, but that’s because they work the best, as long as the content is perceived to be valuable and you put some effort in.

3. Ignore traditional blogging models (monetise early)

The bloggers who are the most successful are the ones who are not trying to follow the traditional blogging model. The traditional blogging model, Kate says, is to try and build up an audience before you start making any money.

Why would you put all this time into something and then start to make only a little bit of money much later down the track?

Your goal should be to make money from your blog from day one – period!

4. Test some monetisation concepts

When you offer free content and products, pretty quickly people will contact you asking for more and that’s when you can test some paid products or services.

The best way to test a product, according to Kate, is with as minimal spend as possible. The easiest way is through a free Kickstarter Campaign or by creating a landing page and driving traffic to it through a low budget Facebook Ad Campaign.

One tip Kate insists on is never to run Facebook ads just to get traffic; always have some type of opt-in offer as part of the ad. Also, you don’t need a huge budget for Facebook Ads – try starting with $5-$10 a day.

Once you have tested a few ideas with these methods, you will then have a rough idea of what people want and you can concentrate on putting a lot more effort into some new products.

“What you think people want, and what your friends agree and your mum agrees people want, doesn’t necessarily have any baring on what actually is going to happen”

5. Sell your own product vs someone else’s

With a blog, there is always the option to sell and promote other company’s products or to sell your own products. If it’s a personal blog about things you love, then you may be better off being an ambassador for other brands.

The most effective strategy, though, that Kate recommends, is to establish your own platform to sell your own things. Otherwise, you will be helping grow someone else’s platform and only getting a percentage of selling their products.

The other advantage of selling your own products is that you can do it with a much smaller list of email subscribers.

If you insist on working with brands and promoting their products, then you should start communicating with them early on. This way, you will build a long-term relationship with them that you can leverage once your audience is big enough.

6. Try eCommerce early on

Another income stream you can earn from your blog is to trial an eCommerce store as an extension of your site where you sell physical goods and ship them to your audience. Kate tried this and for her, she wasn’t passionate about it and felt it was too much work.

Either way, you should test an eCommerce store early on to see if it works for your niche and to gauge if it’s a good return on your time. The key to putting time into an eCommerce store is to understand how it’s going to affect your lifestyle by taking time away from other things that you love to do.

7. Offer a paid course

If you’re solving a problem for people with the content you are sharing on your blog, then that can be turned into a course of some sort. Kate did this by emailing her followers and offering a blogging course to see if anyone would actually pay for it.

When people signed up and paid her through PayPal, she then began creating the content for the course. Taking this presale approach using the best platform to sell digital products is a great way to create the mental willpower needed to come up with quality course content that is valuable to your audience.

As you become a subject matter on the problem that you are solving, you may be asked to go to the next level and make a further income from your blog by being paid to speak at events. As your audience really starts to grow you could even think about running your own events.

“There is never a point where I can say this business is sorted. You have to be constantly growing, developing, and innovating. It’s all about continuous problem solving and trying new things out”

Books Kate Recommends

The One Thing – Gary Keller
Sacred Success – Barbara Stanny

Check out Kate’s blog Drop Dead Gorgeous Daily and if you want to start your own blog then have a look at Kate’s Secret Bloggers Business site.