If you’ve been following along with my progress on The Tao of Rob, you’ve seen me working diligently, posting religiously every Monday and Thursday like clockwork.  Many of you have commented and shared, and for that, I want to say that you’re freakin’ awesome.

But I’ve been slacking.  My mission is to change the way that people approach self-employment.  My goal is to help as many people as possible actually get up and running with that business idea that they have in their heads–and to make it instantly profitable.  My goal is to help people build businesses that enable a lifestyle, not consume every waking hour of every single day.

So now it’s time for me to step up my game and better serve you–and I’m going to need your help to do it.

A quick aside.

For a quick back story, the Tao of Rob project started a couple of months ago when I sat down to write a manifesto on my ideas in lifestyle design.  There are already a bunch of big players in the field, each with a different take on the idea of living life the way you want, yadda yadda.

I quickly realized that I didn’t have anything really remarkable to say.  Sure, I knew my stuff.  Sure, I what I had to say was pretty good, but in the words of the super-awesome Seth Godin:

“The opposite of remarkable is very good. If your product is very good, How fast can you stop making it?” – Seth Godin, Purple Cow

So I took Seth’s advice.  I stopped making it.  And I set about learning how to make something great.

Here it is.  Two huge awesome projects, and a super challenging timeline.

One of the things that keeps me moving forward is setting lofty goals and making them happen.  I get a high off of it, and it keeps me going.

First, between October 11 and October 15, I’m going to write and publish The Lifestyle Manifesto.  The manifesto is going to answer two very important questions that I’ve been artfully dodging since I started the blog: “What the heck is a lifestyle entrepreneur, and why should I care?”

The goal is to help normal folks like you and me create better businesses and do better work in order to live better lives. No more slaving away at an uninspiring job, or running a business that drags you down, or freelancing for crap wages because you believe that “that’s just the way things are.”  I’m about to show you how it can be better–much better.

Second, between October 18 and November 1, I’m going to create a new online workshop for you, which I’ve tentatively named Jump Starting Your Lifestyle Entrepreneurship. In a nutshell, it’s a crash course in how you can start a lifestyle entrepreneurship right away–without having to take huge risks, like quitting your job or selling your house.  And the best part, I’m going to give it away to my beta testers, absolutely free.  Read more below.

How to help (and how to get a free workshop from moi).

For starters, I need a cheer squad if I’m going to get this manifesto done.  And by “cheer squad,” I also mean “slave drivers.”  Follow me on Twitter or friend me on Facebook (please include a quick message telling me that you read this post), and ride my ass until I get it done.  I will be updating my social networks as I work on the manifesto.  If you’re reading on the website right now, you’ll see the countdown timer on the top of the sidebar, too.  Hold me to that.

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Second, I’m accepting a small group of people (no more than 100) to take part in the Jump Starting Your Lifestyle Entrepreneurship workshop.  You will be my “beta testers” who want to get in on the ground floor and have a stake in creating the product with me.  You tell me what you need in order to be super-successful, I’ll organize it into an outline, and I’ll release each module of the workshop as I create them so that you can ask any questions that you have about each piece.  You can expect to contribute a couple of hours a week during the last two weeks of October.

When the workshop is done, I will release it to the world (I haven’t decided on the price yet–either $47 or $97), but my awesome beta testers get to keep it for free.

Ideal participants are people who are ready to start a business and need the nudge in the right direction, or people who have an existing business that they want to take to the next level.  To get with the program, either send me an email at beta [at] roblaughter [dot] com, or sign up at The Lifestyle MBA website.  I don’t spam, I promise.

Words of encouragement?  Trash talk?  Just want to chat?

How can you resist a face like this?  Leave me a sweet note in the comments below.