Archive for September, 2008
Work from Home & Lifestyle Design Renegades: Chris McCombs
Welcome to the "Work from Home & Lifestyle Design Renegades Series." This inaugural interview is with my friend Chris McCombs, who I had the pleasure of interviewing last Friday.
Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.
(Click on the play button above to listen to the interview; if you’re viewing this in an RSS feed reader, click here to view the audio player).
If you’d like to download the interview and listen to it later then right-click on this link and click "save as."
A little about Chris . . .
- It takes Chris between 1/2 hour and 2 hours each day to run his immensely successful Orange County personal training company.
- Chris is a married father of two girls, an Orange County personal trainer, and a fitness marketing blogger.
- In a past life, Chris was a marijuana trafficker and has (at various times) been both homeless & incarcerated.
- Chris is an amazing person and one of the best lifestyle designers I know.
In the interview we talk about . . .
Day Job Killer Consulting and The Three-Percent Solution

Announcement #1: The Finance Your Freedom blog is now in pre-launch mode. See here for a sneak peak (see here for more information about Finance Your Freedom).
Announcement #2: Next week I’ll be interviewing my friend Chris, who does what he loves and makes mucho dinero. And get this: it only takes him 2 hours per day to run his fitness business. I wouldn’t believe it either if I didn’t actually KNOW this guy. Check back soon for that interview.]
Announcement #3: This week in the VERY FIRST Finance Your Freedom newsletter, I’ll be answering a questions by Frans D. who asks “If you had to start over tomorrow from scratch (day job) to funding your freedom; how would you do it, what would be the most important thing to do and what do you suggest I do to get a jump start?” Sign up here to see my response:
Most people can work from home and make a living if they’re determined and don’t mind working their asses off. That part’s doable. Working at home and actually loving it, however, is a different story: it can be hard as hell.
It’s Hard as Hell Because of . . .
The blue circle represents things you really like to do. Something doesn’t have to be ostensibly important, significant, worthwhile, or respectable to fall in this circle. If you really like to dance, go camping, cook, or play with your children, then those things go inside this circle (something tells me you know what’s in your blue circle, but read this if you don’t).
The green circle represents the realm of things you can do IN THE VERY NEAR FUTURE to earn money, support your family, and live comfortably. Your green circle isn’t just determined by you: it’s also determined by market forces, supply and demand, the global and local economy, etc.
For many people, there’s very little overlap between the things we really enjoy doing, and the things we can to do make a healthy living in the very near future. That’s part of the reason why so many people hate their jobs: they just can’t get paid for doing things they like to do.
By the way, I know plenty of people who work from home AND hate their jobs: working from home or owning your own business doesn’t necessarily fix your problems (it often makes them worse).
The Three-Percent Problem
The Three-Percent Problem is the reality that — for a hell of a lot of people — there’s only a 3% overlap (i.e. a VERY SMALL overlap) between the things we love to do and the things that pay the bills (as illustrated by the circles above). 3% is arbitrary. The point is that the overlap is small.
In fact, the overlap is so small that most people don’t even see that such an overlap exists at all.
At any rate, the Three-Percent Problem lies at the root of . . .
just enter your email address below to get this blog's updates, news, and more!
Finance Your Freedom Sneak Peak: The "Interviews with Lifestyle Design Renegades Series"
I’ve been working my ass off getting Finance Your Freedom ready, and it launches in 22 days.
But before FYF launches, I want to give you a flavor of what’s to come. So tonight I’m not-so-subtly “leaking” (ha!) part one of a series of “Interviews With Work from Home & Lifestyle Design Renegades.” Go check it out here.
A little about Chris . . .
In the interview we talk about…
But enough talking already. . .
Just go here and listen to Chris droppin’ knowledge.
For more marketing hype surrounding Finance Your Freedom, subscribe to The Growing Life.