Now that the Blogger Weight Loss Challenge with Tyler is on, I’m working on my preliminary strategy.

I know Tyler is probably already making changes to his diet and trying to get outside to run around that lake he loves so much, but I’ve got a totally different approach.

I think this quote says it best:

“If I had eight hours to chop down a tree, I’d spend six hours sharpening my axe.”

- Abraham Lincoln

Instead of putting my running shoes on, or hitting the gym or even making any changes to my diet, I’m putting my energy towards getting my mindset right first.  I’m a big believer that if you get the mental side of things figured out first, the rest falls into place.

In this video I’m going to go over the first two steps I’m taking in this challenge.  One is a life planning process I’m going to follow and the other is a neat little product I got sent for review a few weeks ago.

Yesterday I had an interesting chat with Tyler Cruz, a friend of mine who’s also a Blogger and an Internet entrepreneur like myself.

Since we both make money online and work from home, we chat online a lot and one of the things we talk about from time to time is how crappy we eat and how we put on weight due to our bad eating habits and mostly sedentary lifestyle.

Last year Tyler did a Weight Loss Challenge on his Blog and asked me if I wanted to participate, but at the time I was still planning on getting back to my P90X workout schedule so I declined the invitation.

Yesterday Tyler informed me that he’s planning on doing another Weight Loss Challenge and asked me if I wanted to participate.  This time I decide to accept the challenge and take him on.

A couple of weeks ago my wife went on a trip to Hawaii with her parents for a week.  During that time I made plans to work on my Blog Business course that I’m planning on releasing this year.

I was thinking that the time I normally set aside to spending with her in the evenings I could set aside to work on the course instead to give me a nice boost to get started on it.

It may not seem like much, but even just 3-4 hours/day extra that I would normally spend having dinner with my wife and hanging out with her can add up quickly if I were to focus myself.  Multiply those 3-4 hours by the 10 days or so that she was gone and it adds up to 30-40 hours.  Putting 30-40hours of extra work into a project, especially when you’re just getting going can be a big boost.

However, to my surprise something really interesting happened.

I’m looking for three to five beta testers for my upcoming Blog Business course.  The course is very much still in it’s infancy stages, but I am looking for a few people who would like to participate in testing the course as I build it.

In exchange for helping me beta test the course, the participants will of course get free access to the course materials as I create and publish them, as well as semi-private coaching and the opportunity to potentially earn some money by promoting the course as affiliates when I launch it.

Ideally I am looking for people who fit this criteria:

• Want to build an online business centered around a Blog
• Looking to launch or re-launch a Blog from scratch (new domain, new hosting setup etc.)
• Willing to follow what I teach to the letter so I can better test the training
• Have ability/desire/passion to create content, just looking for direction on how to build a solid online business
• Possibly already have or planning to offer services, or products online
• Preferably not someone who is a total techie or programmer as I want someone who can test the beginner level content too
• Preferably someone comfortable with computers, word processing, taking photos etc.
• Has high-speed Internet, email, etc.
• Has approx. 8-16hrs/week to devote to building their online business.  (Not just for training but for assignments/building their business)

As I mentioned, I am just now starting to begin scripting out and putting together content for the course so if you’re interested, you’ll need to be patient in waiting for me to produce and publish the content.

So far I’ve got a domain registered, a CMS platform installed with membership site functionality mostly setup.  I’ve also created one video lesson so far to test some things like video encoding, hosting, editing, audio editing, etc.

The rest of the lessons I have mostly in handwritten notes across my journals so they still need to put together into scripted text for me to create video’s from.

As of right now my intention is for this course to have a lot of video content.  More than I have ever created before, so I’m still learning how to do that right now.

Another benefit to the beta group is that I will work with them as I create the course to make sure they are getting as much out of the training as possible and in a way customize the content to their needs.

I will not charge anything for the access to all the videos and course materials, but participants should be aware that they will need to register their own domain and setup hosting as part of the training.

If you’re interested, leave a comment and I’ll contact you directly via email.

My wife is currently in Waikiki, Hawaii with her parents and this morning they were evacuated from their hotel room as a Tsunami warning hits Hawaii after a massive 8.8 earthquake hit Chile this morning.

The hotel they are staying in evacuated them from their 3rd floor hotel room, moving them to the 9th floor just in case the waves hit hard.  Sirens have been going off and announcements of the water and sewage systems being shut down were given.

I’ve been monitoring the situation on CNN, Twitter, and other Internet live-cams and websites.

My wife has been able to send me some pics from her 9th floor hotel room view, as they wait to see whether a tsunami hits Waikiki or if they dodge the bullet.

The last time my wife was in Hawaii was for our honeymoon back in October 2006, and during our honeymoon there was a major earthquake that hit Hawaii so this is kind of like deja-vu for her.

Once I get some more news and/or pics I’ll do an update.

** UPDATE: As of 3:44 PST, my wife reports they just announced on the hotel intercom that the warning is over.  Hawaii dodged a bullet.