The Meeting Of The J-Warriors

Seven of us Japanese Warriors got together in Tokyo on January 6th. Three up from Osaka, two from Chiba, one from the wilds of Fukushima, and one from Tokyo. We like to meet up every once in a while, so we can mastermind and basically have fun. (OK, we pretend to do some work so we can write off the trip, LOL)

Here we are in Shibuya in a TGIF restaurant. It was Happy Hour, so we proceeded to get happy. In the picture from left to right: James Brown, Mark McClure, James B Allen, Craig Desorcy, David McGimpsey, myself, and David Moscowitz.

Surprisingly enough, we did manage to stay sober enough — after hitting two more bars — to rent a Karaoke room and set up a video interview. David Moscowitz grilled all of us on a number of topics. The next morning, we did a Part II in the breakfast buffet room (Yes, the other diners did most likely wonder what the heck was going on, and who this rowdy group was).

Look for that video interview to be released some time soon. I’d guess as soon as David edits it.

The Shinkansen (Bullet Train)

I’ve been asked a number of times what it’s like to ride the Shinkansen. I hope this short video gives you an idea. This is on a stretch of the Tokaido Line, between Tokyo and Nagoya.

Web Prosperity & Product Creation Labs: What Does The Future Hold?

After receiving a concerned e-mail from a Product Creation Labs member (”Be careful. MLM changes people.”) I thought I’d better clarify my position.

My promotion of Web Prosperity is a separate venture from the Product Creation Labs. I did announce it to the Product Creation Labs member list, but that was only because I felt it was my obligation to give you that chance to get in early. Do not think I am trying to sell you on it!

In fact, I only want members who can see the opportunity — and commit some time to building a Web Prosperity team — to join me on that venture. I definitely don’t want you joining if it would take away from your product creation time.

As for MLM changing me — not gonna happen. I know that some people become obnoxious (annoying and alienating family and friends with constant bombardment), but I am a businessman. I will not be bringing this up again to the Product Creation Labs (You’ve had your notice). From now on, if you are interested, you must go to:

http://WebProsperity.me/blog

As for the Product Creation Labs, they will continue business as usual. In fact, the physical version of the Product Creation Lab Private Workshop will be released in late January.

Happy New Year! Please take a short minute to hear the official Riley New Year’s message. I’m looking forward to a very prosperous 2009 for all of us.

I’ve also shot another short video, because I had a few members ask me, “Kevin, why are you jumping on the bandwagon with the new Web Prosperity system?” Since I avoid many MLM companies, I wanted to show you why I think this one is different.

Joining me? Come get involved before this even launches. Right now, it’s a FREE registration. Click here to register with Web Prosperity right now!

Note: I’ve set up a separate and powerful promo campaign for this, so when you are signed up under me you will be getting spillover in the next few weeks.

OK, it’s actually already Boxing Day here, but at the Product Creation Labs, we celebrate Christmas and the holiday feeling right through New Years. I hope you’re taking some time off to appreciate life and your family.

Christmastime In Japan

Here, Christmas is not the important holiday that it is in Christian countries. It’s gotten more popular over the years since I arrived here, but mainly it’s Christmas Eve that’s important as a dating night for young couples.

On Christmas Day, families don’t do much of anything different. It’s not a public holiday, so the father still has to go to work. We actually have December 23rd as a national holiday, as it is the Emperor’s birthday.

There usually aren’t Christmas presents, but the family will have a nice dinner together — or even go out for Christmas dinner at a restaurant. Then, it’s time for Christmas cake. This is a big time of year for the patissieres, as they hawk a ton of decorated Christmas cakes. Below is one of the fancier ones.

No Harried Present Buying

It is one of the many benefits of living in Japan. Since we don”t have the Western world’s obligation to buy tons of Christmas presents, Rieko and I can truly enjoy the time leading up to Christmas. We only buy each other a small present. No rushing around. No fighting our way through the crazed crowds fighting over some toy that their children won’t appreciate anyway.

Christmas Eve At Our House

A nice, quiet time together. This is when we put out our decorations. Not much, just a few homemade decos we created years ago.

And, it’s time for some Christmas baking. We created a Gingerbread House. The first attempt did end in a disaster that had us laughing uncontrollably and total sticky with icing. Being an ex-builder and engineer, I should have taken gravity into consideration.

But, after a few adjustments we created a tasty little cabin that now tempts us to nibble.

Christmas Day At Our House

Totally lazy. Since we’d stayed up late watching such wholesome Christmas fare as “The Nightmare Before Christmas”, we slept ’til noon and then opened pressies in the futon. And that was Christmas. Dinner won’t be until tonight, as we have family coming down from Tokyo.

Your Christmas

We both wish you a very Merry Christmas, with lots of cheer and a houseful of joy.

All the best from Kevin & Rieko

I just got a thank you note for all of us who participated in the IM Dream Team giveaway event. It came from the folks in Mustang, Nepal and they sent 4 pictures of the kids who you helped with your involvement.

Thank you so much for helping these kids get a better education. Imagine the difference you have made in their lives.

As you can see by their present schoolroom furnishings, $3417 is going to make a world of difference here.

May even one day get a little more playground equipment.

Have a very Merry Christmas knowing that your promo efforts put some happiness and hope in these kids’ lives.

Again … Thank you!

Today, Dr Mani Twittered about the nostalgia of the early places he hosted his websites. This reminded me of my first commercial venture — AutoNet.com. Don’t look for it, it is long gone. That was back in 1995, and I set up the domain through Island Internet (a small Vancouver Island provider set up by my neighbour’s son).

A Sea Of Grey

In those days, all backgrounds were battleship grey (who came up with that smart idea?), and I made my own red horizontal rules. All pictures were basically limited to 150 px to avoid super slow loading times.

Gone By 1996

The website — along with another one called SurfShack — lasted less than a year. I closed them all down when I was asked to build houses in Japan. Then, I fell in love with Japan … never went back to Canada … and for the next 4-5 years had little to do with Internet.

At The Y2K

Next, came EarthLink — where I built an adventure travel site called ExploreClub.com. It was pretty cool for the turn of the millenium. A graphic side navigation bar and a few bitmaps for navigation. Even had rollovers. I’ve actually forgotten how to code those.

Tell Your Story

What was your earlest site on the Internet like? Post it on your blog and then put a Tweet on Twitter (with #myfirstweb in the Tweet)

The IM Dream Team giveaway event is over. The money counted and shipped to Japan. After the dust settled, we found we had raised $3417 to give to the Mustang Development Services Association. That converted to 318,100 Yen which yesterday was donated through the Takamatsu Post Office and is now on its way to Nepal, with a note to earmark this money for the school kids.

Thank You Everyone

If you were involved in the IM Dream Team event in any way … you helped make this happen. You did MAKE A DIFFERENCE.

I just put out a brand new guide. This one shows you how to make extra cash instantly — without laying out any cash of your own.

You can get it now at the 12 Days Of Christmas giveaway:

http://a.gd/Christmas

GET IT … USE IT … MAKE MONEY. (It’s that simple)

So many things to be thankful for. Here’s just six — my main six.

Hope your Thanksgiving (or non-Thanksgiving) is a great one. Be thankful for what you have.

Join This Weekend’s Twitter Game

Go to http://TwitterKevin.com

Hit “Reply” and completer the sentence “Today, I’m thankful for …”

In September, you joined me in supporting Dr Mani’s Tweet-A-Thon. Now, you get to meet the lovely young children whose lives you helped to save. Because of your generosity, these children will get to live their lives the way children should — running around, having fun, skinning knees, growing up and falling in love.

Look at their faces and feel proud about what you did. This is what we can do when we work together. We can save lives!

Meet Subina

She’s seven years old and a 2nd year primary school student in Tiruppur. She had a hole in her heart (called a ventricular septal defect). Money from the Tweet-A-Thon provided her surgery. She’s now resting at home and recovering nicely.

Meet Sujithra

She’s only four years old and had a hole in her heart (called an atrial septal defect). Your help in the Tweet-A-Thon made sure she got surgery, and now she’s already running cheerfully around her house and progressing well.

Meet Mukundan

He’s a nine year old 3rd grader who had a hole in his heart (also a ventricular septal defect). Because we got involved in the Tweet-A-Thon, he had sugery and is now recovering smoothly.

Meet Dr Mani

Here’s the hard-working visionary who makes this all possible. He’s the heart surgeon and the fund raiser. And, you can help him perform more surgeries on children with heart defects. Help pay for the necessary medical equipment.

You can still help. Click here to help out today and create more smiling children’s faces.

I’ve been creating a series of videos for the Private Workshop at the Warrior Forum, and I want to share with you a few little tweaks I’ve done to increase the quality of my videos. Little things that give them a professional appearance.

Note: After clicking large arrow, give video 10-20 to load.

To set the stage, I’m using Camtasia to give a presentation of the lessons and show how to do things.

BACKGROUND

Instead of a plain vanilla white background, I took the gears image that I used on the Private Workshop salespage and turned it into a background. In Photoshop, I set it on a layer above a white layer. Then, I adjusted it’s layer’s opacity down to around 35% — until it was a light background that text would show well on.

Now, this background is used throughout my video. I simply brought the image in as a Callout and placed it over a Title Clip. This Callout is placed on the very bottom callout track, so all Text Callouts and Custom Callouts can be placed over top.

TRANSITIONS

At the beginning and the end of each video, I have the full opacity gear image as a title. The Day volume (Day1, Day 2, etc) is placed over top.

Then, I used the Cube Rotate transition that Camtasia 5 offers. With a short music intro, this makes for a slightly dramatic “sit up straight, we’re going to learn something” start to the video.

TEXT

Instead of the usual black text, I set all text at 85% opacity. This gives the videos a certain stylish quality that you don’t get with stark black characters.

I also made sure that all lines line up properly, by copying and pasting Callouts. After writing one line in a set of notes, I copied that Callout. Then, I pasted it at the point where the second note should appear, and simply edited the text in the Callout to add the second line.

PRIVATE WORKSHOP IS CLOSED

I’ve had a number of inquiries, but I must tell you that this Workshop is closed. We’ve just finished the third week. Never fear, all the videos, transcripts, worksheets, and directions will be packaged and released in January.

And, you can get started on your own information product business today with:

http://HowToBookBusiness.com