Every year, Inc. Magazine does an annual list of the top 30 entrepreneurs under 30.

I had wanted to share this cool inspiration with you a bit earlier in the New Year obviously, but Business MBA decided to compile the top ten into a very interesting infographic to find out how ten of these young adults are making huge impressions on business and on the world.

(click for a larger version)

Matt Mickiewicz, 99designs Co-Founder—27 Years Old

• 27 employees, with plans to double that number over the next year
• No official revenue released—“eight figures”
• Recent acquisition of Series A funding from venture capitalists Accel Partners—$35 million
• 80% of the company’s business comes from word-of-mouth
• 77,000+ projects completed so far

Drew Houston and Arash Ferdowski, Dropbox Founders, 28 and 25 Years Old

• 50 employees
• 3 months in, landed $7.2 million in funding from venture capitalists and individual investors
• 25 million users

Kevin Systrom and Mike Krieger, Instagram Founders—25 and 27 Years Old

• 4 employees (yes, 4)
• After it launched in the App Store at midnight on October 6, 2010, Instagram had 10,000 users in just a few hours
• Now 7+ million users
• $7 million funding from Benchmark Capital

Hussein Fazal and Kristaps Ronka, AdParlor Founders—29 and 24 Years Old

• 15 employees
• No official revenue released—“tens of millions”
• One of fewer than 100 companies with access to Facebook’s ad API
• Over 100,000 ads daily on Facebook

Alexa Andrzejewski, Soraya Darabi, and Ted Grubb, Foodspotting Founders—27, 27, and 29 Years Old

• 10 employees
• $3 million in angel funding after highly successful run at Startup Weekend in SF

Jason Baptiste and Andres Barreto, Onswipe Founders, 25 and 24 Years Old

• 12 employees
• Received over $6 million in funding from companies like Spark Capital and Lightbank before platform launched
• Now, a deal with WP has Onswipe running 18.6 million blogs for iPad

Siamak Taghaddos and David Hauser, Grasshopper Founders—Both 29 Years Old

• 50 employees
• Growth of 1,983% in 2007
• Due to grow 20% on top of 2010’s revenue, with more than $15 million

Matthew Corrin, Freshii Founder—29 Years Old

• 50+ locations in 4 countries—United States, Canada, Austria, and UAE
• 500+ employees
• No official revenue released—est. $50 million

Hayley Barna and Katia Beauchamp, Birchbox Founders—27 and 28 Years Old

• 25 employees
• Projected revenue for 2011: $7 million
• Currently about 45,000 members
• Just 1 month after launch, $1.4 million seed

Daniel Gomez Iniguez, Solben Co-Founder—20 Years Old

• 15 employees
• Revenue for 2010: $1 million
• Projected Revenue for 2011: $3 million

So what are you working on? How are you going to leave your mark on the world?

Read the original article on Thrilling Heroics here: The Top 10 Young Heavyweight Entrepreneurs of 2011

1,076,955 rupiahs – and that’s just what I spent on 9 drinks one afternoon at the pool!

About one week ago, my girlfriend Emily and I returned from a relaxing 2-week break on the stunningly beautiful island of Bali.

Being back on the ground in Indonesia reminded me how much I really love traveling to places like Bali, Cambodia, and Laos, with very high exchange rates to the US Dollar. Who doesn’t love to look at the ATM screen and see balances in the several millions?

According to today’s exchange rates, if you trade in 1 US Dollar you’ll get 4,005 Cambodian riel. That means that if you have $250 in the bank, you’re a millionaire in Cambodia.

In Laos, your dollar is worth 8,030 kip, so for every $125 you’ve got a million in local currency.

It’s 9,174 to the dollar if you’re buying Indonesian rupiahs, so it only takes $109 to be a Balinese millionaire.

And amazingly, in Vietnam you’ll get 20,833 dong to the dollar, so if you’ve got $48 pocket change, you’re a millionaire.

Of course economics, exchange rates, and cost-of-living are things that are constantly in flux, changing all the time, but for now Asia is where it’s at. The biggest corporations all flock here to keep their expenses down, and smart individuals are doing the same. There’s nothing immoral about going where the deck is stacked in your favor, seeking work and a thriving lifestyle where you have the best chances. So why shouldn’t you?

I’m not a millionaire in the typical sense of the word—in US Dollars. But in Thailand, I’d say I’ve lived like a king for the past few years, at a fraction of the cost I’d need to lead a similar lifestyle in San Francisco, New York, London, or anywhere in the West.

So many people I talk to think that a permanent travel lifestyle would cost a tremendous amount of money and that it’s out of reach for them—but it doesn’t have to cost an arm and a leg. Learn how Steve Kamb got his round-the-world tickets traveling 35,000 miles, visiting four continents, nine countries and 15 cities for just $418. Or read how Nora Dunn, one of our faculty members at Digital Nomad Academy, has been traveling full-time around the world for less than $14,000 annually for several years.

Money and toys and possessions are all fun and good, but I think in the West we have developed a serious societal disease—in the middle class at least, a majority of people mistakenly accept the fallacy that those things are an end rather than a means to an end.

What you do while you’re on this earth, how much enjoyment you get out of it, who you are, and the impact you make (on the world, on the people around you…whatever scale you want to operate on) matter far, far more than the things you own, and the material shit you collect.

“You’re not your job. You’re not how much money you have in the bank. You’re not the car you drive. You’re not the contents of your wallet. You’re not your fucking khakis.”

–Tyler Durden, Fight Club

They have you chasing all the wrong things, wasting your time working a job so you can pay for shit you don’t need, while they call all the shots.

We’re still a small minority, but I see more and more people “waking up” and realizing there is another way to live. I think the biggest thing I’ve learned living abroad is that you don’t have to play by anybody else’s rules, and you don’t have to do things the same way everybody else around you does them.

I boarded a plane in San Francisco on November 25, 2008, with a one-way ticket to Bangkok and a crazy idea to come out to Asia to bootstrap my web development business while I enjoyed a much lower cost-of-living than back home in California. I’ve now lived in several different locations around Thailand and traveled to at least seven other nearby countries here in the region on a regular basis for over three years. Actually, I’ve been living abroad and traveling for exactly 1,121 days now!

I’ve learned a tremendous amount in those 3+ years. A lot about myself, a lot about business, about the world, about other societies and cultures, I’ve met hundreds (if not thousands) of interesting people along the way…

The biggest benefit I’ve had on my side throughout all this time “offshore” has been my ability to leverage geo-abritrage in my business—working remotely with clients overseas (in the US, Canada, Australia, UK, France, Singapore, South America, and more) where I can bring in strong currencies, while I spend in Asian currencies where my money goes much further, and I get to take advantage of a much lower cost of living in Southeast Asia.

My advice to anybody who wants to live the high life for less is you must come to Asia.

Tim Ferris said in The 4-Hour Workweek, it’s not that we really want to be millionaires, it’s that we want to have experiences we think only millions can buy.

While we were in Bali, we split an amazing 2-bedroom villa with private pool and gardens with our friends Chris and Hannah, definitely a four-star, truly luxurious experience that far surpassed most accommodations I’ve ever stayed in, for only about $150 a night.

Emily and I had a spacious, serene villa and retreat oasis all to ourselves for a few days—an interior designer’s dream, every detail crafted with care, a true sanctuary hidden away from the noisy chaos of real life around us, where we enjoyed the quiet, stunning views of wildlife, rice paddies and forests up in the mountains of Ubud.

We had a brilliant two-story family villa in Seminyak for a week with the parents, spent the afternoons catching up with friends, soaking up the sun in private pools…

We enjoyed cocktails, beers, and sangria at the swim-up pool bar at the Potato Head Beach Club, voted as one of Bali’s top restaurants and bars, and the kind of ultra-posh hotspot that would easily cost several hundreds of dollars (or possibly into the thousands) if you wanted to be a baller in Miami, Los Angeles, or even Ibiza.

We lazed on comfy bean-bag chairs of Bali’s beautiful beaches, taking in breathtaking sunsets that lit up the twilight sky with brilliant reds, yellows, and golds.

Definitely a million-dollar sunset.

I see more and more guys (and gals, and couples) selling all their possessions and choosing to travel and move abroad to experience a different kind of life. More people are “waking up” to the realization that it’s not about how much crap you accumulate or what your net worth is on paper, but life is more about how much varied experience you accumulate, how much fun you have along the way, and how happy you are.

Check out how my buddy Mark and his friends went island hopping in Palawan on their own boat with crew, eating a delicious crab feast on their own private beach, and how he felt like a millionaire, all for just 35 bucks (flight included)!

Dan Andrews, another collaborator of mine at DNA, has built an incredibly successful business here in Asia—he has a huge 4-bedroom house in the heart of Bali’s happening Seminyak area, with their own pool, and maids and gardeners, all for only about $1500 per month, where he brings interns out to live and work with him on the Tropical MBA (which I just think is the coolest fucking thing BTW), living a fantastic lifestyle, hustling and building a great business like nobody else I know, all while they have a great time too!

Back home here in Krabi, Thailand, my girlfriend and I have an immense, modern 3-story, 3-bedroom townhouse on the quiet outskirts of town that overlooks breathtaking limestone mountains and lush green jungles for just $575 per month. And that’s splurging for us, in a big way, so that I have a spacious office where I can be productive and so we can easily host a big happy family during the holidays.

I’d say that the value you get for your money is incredible here in Asia. If I’d been living back home for the last three years, I probably would be going out on the weekends with friends, but living on ramen noodles and sharing a small apartment with roommates to get by.

Instead, we get to have a wonderful, fulfilling lifestyle, live in abundance, travel frequently, spend a tremendous amount of time with friends and family, all while we keep our costs down substantially. That means we get to do a lot more of what we love here than we might somewhere else.

Making a move somewhere like Asia or South America might be a way you can also spend more of your very limited, precious time making memories you’ll cherish, having new experiences, and building something (preferably something of your own—a business, a charity cause, a legacy, what-have-you). You only live once, so don’t waste it.

Read the original article on Thrilling Heroics here: How to (Literally) Be a Millionaire and Live the High Life on the Cheap

Alright, so it’s official!

I’ve purchased tickets halfway around the globe and I will be traveling the U.S. for about five weeks, between March 14th and about April 21st, 2011. I’m very excited about this trip, because it will be my first venture home in two years, and because I’ll have the opportunity to visit several cities and meetup with old colleagues, blogger friends, clients, DNA students, friends and family.

(Read on to see my rough itinerary if you’d like to meet up in person in March or April.)

So here’s the slightly crazy part (every entrepreneur needs to be a little bit insane, right?):

I’ve already invested in airfare, I’m covering travel expenses myself, and no matter what happens, I will be visiting several conferences & events throughout Texas, Arizona, and California for five weeks. But I would love to find a corporate sponsor to help me make the most of my 2011 Whirlwind Thrilling Heroics U.S. Tour and fund some BIG ideas I have for my time there.

If I am going to spend just 5 weeks in North America out of every 2 years, then I want to do some huge, impossible, ridiculous shit while I’m there. I’m confident this can be a massive win-win-win situation for the right company or startup that shares my vision for making a change in the world.

Here’s what I’m about in a nutshell: I am tired of the world some of us grow up in and I want to shatter any notions that people have to settle for “normal” life. I want to truly convince people that they CAN in fact do anything with their lives. They can be anything they want. They don’t have to fit into anyone else’s cookie-cutter expectations, they don’t have to do the same thing everyone else does. I want to help crush people’s fears, and the self-imposed limitations that hold us back. I want to encourage more people to spend a LOT of time to figure out what they’re sincerely interested in and passionate about, to CREATE more, to start up their own small businesses, their own global microbrands and projects to leave their impression on the world, and to have more control over their own time, happiness, and freedom. I want to encourage more people to travel, to live abroad, and to have a wide range of experiences that will make them more informed, compassionate members of the human race.

I believe these things are the future. We won’t make the world a better place ensuring everyone studies calculus in school, by increasing spending year after year on stupid government “solutions” without ever looking at results, or by taxing everyone so we can go murder women and children on the other side of the world, all for control over resources.

No. The future—if our species is to have one for very much longer—requires more creativity (not destruction), more curiosity (not fear), more connectedness. We need to remove as many of the rules as we can—no more white picket boxes—we need to encourage young people to follow their passions, not money. We need billions of people all doing things they love, creating goods and services of real value for each other because they care.

If I sound like a raving lunatic, then you should probably leave now. If these crazy ideas sound like they align with your beliefs, if your company could benefit from working on some interesting projects along these lines, and connecting with a network of remarkable people who believe similarly—people who are actively working to make the world a better place—then read on.

There is a lot of crap out there. But I know for a fact there are thousands (maybe millions) of passionate entrepreneurs out there, creatives, and small organizations that truly seek to make a transformational change in people’s lives and change the world for the better. If what I have to say here on Thrilling Heroics resonates with you, with your worldview, with your company’s mission, then I truly believe there is an opportunity for collaboration that would both make sense commercially and make a difference—it would increase your visibility, get you connected with changemakers, and create a lot of excitement.

Who the Hell Am I to Sell Out Like This?

I’ve spent the last three months pouring myself into building Digital Nomad Academy with my two cofounders Brooke and Milt. In that time, I’ve not taken on any new paying clients for my development and marketing consulting business, no big new projects, other than DNA, which is a personal passion project to help more people create meaningful online businesses (that will also help them travel and live wherever they want). We had a hugely successful prelaunch, and now we’ve got roughly 60 students all going through our course for the first time and helping us ensure that everything is top-notch, and being patient with us as we sort out all the technical aspects and get things running smoothly.

We’re reinvesting a large portion of our revenue back into the business, into the infrastructure, into software to create the best membership site and deliver content in the best way possible, into marketing plans and tools for our official launch the next time around…  And I’m investing the bulk of my time now with our students, ensuring we get the best teachers involved each week to speak with them, answering questions on weekly live phone calls, combing through our peer forums, listening to a lot of feedback, making improvements to the site, and generally trying to ensure Digital Nomad Academy reaches its full potential and that our students are successful in making the life change they desire.

So naturally I was living on savings as we got DNA ready for consumption, draining most of the TH coffers for now…  And I’m investing several thousand dollars now in airfare, travel and living expenses, to get halfway around the world for five weeks and be at several big events.

Like I said, no matter what happens, I will be visiting several conferences & events throughout Texas, Arizona, and California in March and April, but with your support I hope to make this time absolutely remarkable, to plan several gatherings and at least one big retreat, and to connect with as many people as I can and make the biggest impact with my time as humanly possible.

With that said, I am certain if people are interested, I’ll have interest from some organizations that aren’t the best fit for Thrilling Heroics. I will carefully review anyone who applies, speak at great length with the best applicants to ensure that our vision aligns, brainstorm exactly how we could collaborate together on a case-by-case basis, and guarantee that we can create a win-win-win situation together. This is not an invitation to just any company; I only want to partner with someone if it’s a genuine fit.

The 2011 Whirlwind Thrilling Heroics U.S. Tour Schedule

Alright, so here’s my tentative itinerary for my five or six weeks back in the States so far:

• South by Southwest Interactive, March 14–18. I’ll be hanging out in Austin, Texas, for the tail-end of SxSWi and the beginning of the film & music festival. I’m already confirmed to hang out with Benny Lewis from Fluent In 3 Months (who’s generously hosting several bloggers for the week), Karol Gadja from Ridiculously Extraordinary, catching up with my old cofounders Adam Baker from Man Vs Debt, stellar web developer Andrew Norcross, and author Monica O’Brien, as well as Gary Arndt, Sean Ogle, Markus Urban (Mr. Impossible himself!), Chris & Cherie at Technomadia, Charlie Hoehn, Tyler Tervooren, and several others.
• Phoenix, Arizona, March 18–23. I’ll be visiting my little sister and spending time with family for my birthday on March 20th (btw if you want to help me make my biggest birthday wishes come true, please contribute), but would love to meet with entrepreneurs and blog readers in the area. I’ll also be in Sedona, AZ, on the 21st.
• Sacramento, California, March 24–? This is home for me. I’ll spend a few weeks here catching up with friends and working overtime on Digital Nomad Academy, interviews, and other projects for Thrilling Heroics (gotta make use of the blazing fast internet at home while I can!). But if you’re in the area, feel free to let me know.
• San Francisco, California, April ?? At some point, I will be heading to SF to catch up with my old friend Jun Loayza, gen-y serial entrepreneur, visit several friends, and hopefully several other bloggers and readers. Time for a Tweetup!
• Los Angeles, California, April ?? When I head south, I will definitely pop in to check up on my good friend Ryan Lei (recently relocated to the U.S. by the UN Refugee Agency), Clay Boeschen, possibly the Tropical MBA guys, and others. Tweetup time again!
• Coachella Music and Arts Festival, Indio, CA, April 15–17. This is a tradition with a few close friends of mine. I’ve already got my VIP tickets and would love to catch up with any readers who will be there. This is a great festival to see artists from across the region and meet many creative types who flock to Southern California for great music in the middle of the beautiful Coachella Valley desert, surrounded by palm trees, mountains, and gorgeous sunsets.

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Are you going to be in any of these locations?? I would love to meet you! Let me know in the comments below, on Twitter, or on Facebook.

Be a Thrilling Hero and Help Me Make My Impossible Dreams a Reality

I’m doing this either way, to the best of my ability. But with your help, I could network with the A-listers, organize several events in three states, and hopefully run a large retreat that will transform people’s lives. For the right sponsor, this could be a ridiculously cost-effective way to reach thousands of people.

Major Opportunities:

#1: As described on their website: “The South by Southwest® (SXSW®) Conferences & Festivals offer the unique convergence of original music, independent films, and emerging technologies. Fostering creative and professional growth alike, SXSW is the premier destination for discovery.”  I don’t have a badge to attend the official SxSW events, but being in Austin while nearly 30,000 people converge for the event still offers plenty of opportunities to meet & greet. For now I’m just crashing the unofficial events, meeting up with tons of people for coffee & after parties, and hopefully organizing my own meetup or two, but if I partner with a sponsor who can help cover the conference costs, that might change, and I’d have the opportunity to attend several keynotes, events, workshops, and private parties, and multiply my impact while I’m there.

#2: If I get full funding, it’s my impossible dream to host an entrepreneurship, personal development, and lifestyle design summit—a sort of unconference & retreat with inspiring, like-minded people who want to create radical change in their lives and build meaningful businesses. Host a group of 15-20 for a series of talks, workshops, trainings, and networking in a beautiful venue for 3-4 days—a place where a group of motivated, creative people can hang out with other like-minded folks to encourage and support each other, probably either in LA or San Francisco in mid-April. Originally I had wanted to plan this in conjunction with Coachella—spend the week sharing inspiration & knowledge, and collaborating together on business ideas, and then spend a fun weekend together at the festival, but my early proposal didn’t get accepted for funding. You can see it here for more details. If not this year, then definitely we will make it happen in April 2012. Do you want to be a part of this??

Thrilling Heroics has over 5,000 subscribed readers, approximately 11,000 members in our larger social media community (on networks like Twitter & Facebook, etc.) and about 15,000 unique visitors per month. This is a relatively small, but very loyal and engaged audience of passionate, motivated, creative, entrepreneurial people who are curious about the world, travel, and building things that make a difference. According to Twitter, when I share about one of my colleague’s product, or a hotel I recommend, or a trip a take, my messages reach at least 50,000 people in my expanded network!

With other communities I have helped build (Digital Nomad Academy, Untemplater, Business Backpacker, In Search Of Sanuk, see here for many of my clients and companies I’ve built online platforms for), it’s nearly impossible to measure the reach of Thrilling Heroics online, however of all websites online, TH currently ranks #56,426 for traffic in the U.S., and is within the top 65K most-visited sites worldwide.

And imagine how those numbers will go up after I rub shoulders with the big wigs at South by Southwest and across the U.S. this year!

So how much would it cost to help make my 5-week U.S. tour Thrillingly Heroic and expose your company to thousands of motivated world-changers?

I am looking for 1-3 unique, remarkable companies to sponsor me with about $5,000–$6,000 US. This will help me cover all transportation and accommodation, conference fees, and startup costs for my big in-person retreat. If you think you would be a good fit, please send me an by email at cody at thrillingheroics.com and we can discuss further possibilities and how to make this a huge success for all of us.

6 Things You Get If Your Company Sponsors My Trip

1. A major sponsor that aligns with my philosophy and my audience’s interests will get prominent adverts across ThrillingHeroics.com site for all of 2011 (probably the only adverts you’ll see on TH anymore).
2. Major thanks and exposure in multiple blog posts, emails to my growing list, and social media updates throughout the year (Twitter, Facebook, etc.). Building communities is what I do. If you have something that I believe in and trust, then let’s talk about how I can help you present your service, product, or message to my community and create a win-win-win.
3. Here are just a few people I hope to interview in the next few months: Derek Sivers, founder of CD Baby, Brian Johnson of Philosopher’s Notes, and Vishen Lakhiani, founder of MindValley. Want your name or logo attached with interviews like these? Get recognition on any video interviews or podcasts I make for Thrilling Heroics this year.
4. Recognition and thank-you, as well as your banner or slide prominently displayed  at any events I coordinate this year, like my dream retreat. Help me orchestrate a killer major event and come participate in-person and present your business directly to attendees if you want!
5. Get access to my network of friends and colleagues on five continents. If there is a possible partnership or collaboration that benefits you both, I am happy to connect you to entrepreneurs in Asia, awesome developers in the US, assistants in the Philippines, affluent world travelers, sailing enthusiasts, underwater basket weaving experts, whatever!
6. Again, if it’s a fit, potentially promote your product, service, or message to customers of my other companies & projects elsewhere.

Make a Donation to Help Me Reach My Dangerously Ambitious Goals

As I said above, my birthday is on March 20th, and if you want to help me make my biggest birthday wishes come true this year, please do it by contributing to my 5-week 2011 Whirlwind Thrilling Heroics U.S. Tour! Individuals can make a small contribution through PayPal if you want to support my trip. Here’s the deal:

• If enough money is donated ($5,000+) and no company sponsors me, I’ll go to SXSW and write about it here to share what I learn with you, and I’ll do as many interviews as I can to help expose you guys to the coolest, most remarkable entrepreneurs out there, ad-free! Also we’ll have seed money to set up my personal development retreat for this and/or next April in Southern California.
• If a sponsor fully funds my target amount, I’ll donate all reader contributions to The Girl Effect and In Search Of Sanuk (my friend Dwight’s charity project in Bangkok).

Please click the donation button at the bottom of this page and make a $25 donation (that’s my suggested amount, but please feel free to make any contribution you feel comfortable with), or you can become a recurring micropatron if you love what I share here on Thrilling Heroics.

Help Me Spread the Word About My Impossible Dreams for 2011

Please help me seek sponsors and spread the news about my impossible goals by sharing this story on Twitter, Facebook and anywhere else you can. If you know anyone who works at a company you think would align well with my mission here at TH, or in an ad or PR company, please email them the link and tell them my story. If we make this happen, hopefully you can count on meeting me inside South by Southwest and there will be a HellaCoachella retreat in April!
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6 Damn Good Reasons to Help:

1. You love what I write here at TH and want to give back for the time & energy I’ve invested here for the last 5 years.
2. I’ve helped motivate or inspire you to make a major change in your life.
3. You’d like to meet me in person at South by Southwest Interactive.
4. You like to support a hard-working entrepreneur trying to make a little dent in the world in a very unconventional way.
5. Help me grow the Thrilling Heroics community so I can make a bigger impact to help you live the life you want.
6. You want to help me make my idea for a fun entrepreneurship, personal development, and lifestyle design summit a reality.

If you’d like to help me make the most of my 5-week trip Stateside, I will be truly appreciative for any generous contribution you can make. Just click here to make a donation. And if you will be in Austin, Phoenix, Sacramento, San Francisco, Los Angeles, Palm Springs, or Indio in March and April, let me know so we can try to meet up in person!

Thank you for your support!

Read the original article on Thrilling Heroics here: The 5-Week Thrilling Heroics U.S. Tour: Help Me Make the Most of It!

I think with the economy in the toilet, business owners are eager to expand their online reach, and they’re trying hard to get creative with advertising and promotions. I’ve been getting a lot of questions from colleagues and friends recently about how to best promote their businesses online, and there are a few things I’ve been recommending a lot lately, namely: Local Search. A sidenote: For drumming up business I would also highly suggest testing out targeted geographic ad campaigns with Google Adwords and (if you’re web-savvy) building a presence on Twitter. But today I want to give you a few simple tips on how to easily improve your search engine ranking for free with Local Search.

Want to see your business here?

Depending on the type of business you run, local search results may drive the majority of your web traffic. I’m a one-person, location-independent web freelancer who does the majority of my work via email with out-of-state and international clients, for example, so my local visibility is not as high of a priority as a Sacramento-area magazine or a local small business owner with a brick-and-mortar shop. But I recently read an article by Jacob Cass that explains how local search hits can frequently give you the advantage over your competitors, because local businesses often tend to come up at the very top of search results. In other words, if anyone performs a Google search for something like “yourindustry yourcity” or they search for your kind of business within Google Maps, then having your listing on Local Search means you’ll be one of the first companies that show up! Just look at the positioning Jacob’s business Just Creative Design has on the search results page for Newcastle graphic designers!

So even though my target clients are in the Silicon Valley area or abroad, well outside the greater Sacramento area, I decided to go ahead and list my business in the search engines’ local listings. It can’t hurt, and it gives your clients the ability to rate your business and write testimonials for you! In addition to Google Local Search I’ve also been recommending Yelp to all of my friends with small businesses. While Yelp doesn’t have the same traction here in Sacramento yet as it does in the San Francisco Bay Area or other large metropolitan areas, services like Yelp (sort of a social networking-style local search engine where users rate their favorite hangouts and other businesses) will see increasing exposure in the years ahead and give web-savvy companies the edge as the economy suffers and more businesses decide to make the transition online. Anytime I’m somewhere I’m unfamiliar with, I can easily pull up Google Maps or the Yelp application on my iPhone (available for free at the iTunes App Store) to find out where the nearest Starbucks is, or what hotspots, businesses, and events are going on in my immediate area. And so can your customers! Are you there, ready to be found?

Below I’ve listed the most popular local search engines and most important places to submit your business listing. For most of these services, you’ll need to sign up for a free account, and you should have a brief description of your company, contact information, hours of operation, and company logo or photos to attach to your listing (people always click more often on photos than plain text):

• Google Local Search
  
• Yelp (feeds data to Windows Live and Yahoo)
• Yahoo Local Search
  
• Live Local Search
  
• CitySearch (feeds data to Ask.com and Windows Live)

Additionally, if you do any sort of event marketing, it can be beneficial to get involved on some of the most popular web 2.0 sites such as Upcoming.org, Meetup.com, and Eventful.

Here’s to your entrepreneurial success! If you appreciate this helpful tip, please give me a nod and help rate my freelance web business on Yelp!

Read the original article on Thrilling Heroics here: An Easy, Free Way to Get Top Search Ranking for Your Small Business

Speaking of travel, my stepmom sent me this video of Matt Harding dancing his way around the world and I love it! Now this is a guy who knows how to get around—he’s been to over 80 countries.

I remember seeing Matt globetrotting through dozens of countries dancing his goofy dance back in about 2006, but this time, he’s joined by locals who are sharing this fun experience. It reveals a connectedness through dance and childlike innocence, and makes it hard not to get a huge grin on your face.

From a July 8 New York Times article about Matt and the journey around the world to film this viral video:

The idea first came to him in 2006, he recalled, when he was dancing with some street kids in Rwanda. “If I had tried dancing with kids in a mall in San Francisco, say, I probably would have got arrested,” he said. “But in Africa there aren’t any barriers, and there’s immediate access to this kind of joy and irreverence.”

It’s a pretty unique idea and a good way to interact with the people you meet during your travels! Wish I’d thought of it. Follow Matt at wherethehellismatt.com.

Read the original article on Thrilling Heroics here: Goofy-Dancing Your Way Around the Globe!

Somewhat surprisingly, my hometown Sacramento was recently included on a new Yahoo! Finance list of ten Best Cities to Live, Work and Play in the U.S. “Our approach this year to picking the ten best cities in which to live and work was simple: Look for places with strong economies and abundant jobs, then demand reasonable living costs and plenty of fun things to do.” The results of the study:

The Top Ten Cities to Live, Work, & Play

1. Houston, Texas
2. Raleigh, North Carolina
3. Omaha, Nebraska
4. Boise, Idaho
5. Colorado Springs, Colorado
6. Austin, Texas
7. Fayetteville, Arkansas
8. Sacramento, California
9. Des Moines, Iowa
10. Provo, Utah

With a population just over 2 million, Sacramento is the largest city besides Houston, TX. The researchers at the Martin Prosperity Institute say that about 34% of workers are in the creative field, surprisingly. And it’s revelatory to learn that we’re also the only city on the list that has an above-average cost-of-living index, at 121.7% the national average!

It is promising that the researchers believe the California state capital has a relatively healthy job market and shows promise for future success, but I also wanted to take the opportunity to examine reader feedback.

Although Yahoo! doesn’t allow discussion, a reprint of the results at Lifehacker has already prompted over 100 comments:

XanderCrews says:

“Living in one of the suburbs would be fine, if an acceptable starter home was available for less than $350,000.”

aj_robins says:

“There may be fun things to do there, but the cost of living is probably only great compared to Southern California or the San Francisco Bay area. The price of homes in Sacramento is still pretty high compared to other parts of the country.”

Listen2Eurobeat says:

“I’ve lived in Sacramento for 8 years and the only things you can do there are LIVE and WORK. […] You’ll have a hard time finding PLAY in that city.”

cnc says:

“…the real estate bust hit here harder than almost anywhere else in the country. Starter homes in decent suburban neighborhoods can now be had around $200,000, which is what they were about six years ago. Cost of living has improved dramatically (or worsened, depending on whether or not you’re a homeowner).”

Xerloq says, with regards to Sacramento:

“Move to Napa. Nice winters, though. I prefer the wine country and the Delta area more though, especially with BART nearby. Summer not bad, though it’s far from everything (e.g. San Francisco).”

Mile High Soapbox says:

“I don’t know why Sacramento is on the list. It has crazy traffic, pollution, is no where near anywhere to play.”

Looks like lots of commentary regarding the housing bubble. And it is eye-opening how high the cost of living is here, which might help explain why it’s so difficult to prosper in this town, financially.

On the bright side, danahyatt adds a more positive note:

“Overall, Sac has everything that one wants in a living place. Employment is plentiful while cost of living is low (in balance) compared to salary. Transportation (public) relies on county board’s decision making, and comes up short most of the time. Poor public transportation. Mid town is accessible to most everything one needs. Schools are wonderful. CSUS offers classes in everything. However there should be more PHD Degrees offered. It’s hard to complain about anything here in Sacramento.”

And cnc returns to say:

“I see the glass as half full. Outdoor dining is awesome as late as you want to go. […] Sacramento isn’t as cosmopolitan as the Bay Area, and our outlying areas are as boring as anywhere. But the central city is vibrant, interesting and fun and the weather for most of the year can’t be beat.”

It’s always interesting to hear people’s perspectives on our little city in comparison to other parts of the country. I enjoy it here and I know I’ll want to return one day, but I know I’m definitely prepared to experience life in another part of the world! I wonder if prosperity is easier to achieve in other areas with a lower cost-of-living index and a little less “keeping up with the Joneses.”

What’s the most prosperous city in the U.S.? Share your opinion!

Read the original article on Thrilling Heroics here: Sacramento is the 8th Best Place to Live and Work in the States!?

Steli Efti, a friend of Thrilling Heroics and creative entrepreneur behind Supercool School, is looking for a rockstar coder for a summer internship. Supercool School is a revolutionary concept in education, offering a free online learning marketplace that enables users to teach and study from each other over the web using audio-video chat.

Steli and his colleagues are working hard to expand their network with the dream of changing the education system forever, so if you’ve got expertise in programming or a desire for an educational partnership, I highly recommend you get in touch with this guy!

Founded in January 2008, Supercool School is a San Francisco-based startup that continues to build an online platform for request-driven, interactive, social learning. From their job description:

We’re growing fast and are seeking some highly inspired and passionate talent to join the team. For starters, we’re seeking an intern and a full-time Web Developer. The ideal candidate will have a passion for learning and the drive to create reliable and elegant software quickly, using agile methodologies.

If you’re familiar with Windows and Linux development environments, have experience with Ruby on Rails, Ajax, XML, JavaScript, DOM, HTML & CSS, and you’d like to help tackle the challenging problem of improving education on a global scale with an innovative, entrepreneurial team, I’d highly recommend that you consider sending a resume and introduction to Steli at steli *at* supercoolschool *dot* com.

To learn more about the company philosophy, I recommend reading Steli’s 7Lessons You Learned @School That Could Possibly Ruin Your Life, and you can learn more about the summer internship here.

Read the original article on Thrilling Heroics here: Are You a Rebel Programmer Without a Cause? Help Transform Education

For any readers in the greater Sacramento area, there is a great business networking opportunity on Tuesday, June 17th at the Mondavi Center at UC Davis: The New California 100. Billed as the Central Valley’s first leadership summit, the event will honor the top 100 companies in Northern California that generate more than $50 billion in revenue and employ more than 250,000 people. The event will feature 100 companies, 100 C-level executives, and 100 entrepreneurs and investors, so it will be a good opportunity for entrepreneurs or leadership-minded graduates to meet some influential individuals.

There will be a keynote address by Steve Sabol, President of NFL Films, discussions on the growing network culture among businesses, and some appealing showcases on the High Technology and Internet/New Media Industries. The summit will also have sessions focused on cleantech, manufacturing, consumer products, healthcare, land development, and more.

• The event is designed to bring together the top 100 companies in the 19-county area that stretches from Redding to Bakersfield through the Central Valley
• The economy in this area is different than in San Francisco, LA, San Diego or other coastal counties
• The goal is to bring together the leaders of these companies, along with several early stage companies from the region, and hope to stimulate ongoing dialog and business activity among them to benefit the area
• The primary producer of the event is Golden Capital Networks, based in Chico, and the producer of several regional venture capital events (Venture Vineyard in Napa, Silver & Gold in Reno and Angel & VC Investment Summit in El Dorado Hills)

The New California 100 summit should offer many opportunities for CEOs, entrepreneurs, VCs, development professionals and professional services providers, but Josh Morgan, principle of Morgan/Dorado Public Relations, also wants to draw a younger crowd out to the leadership event this year. I know that there are special rates for students and free press passes available for a select few business- and entrepreneurship-oriented bloggers. Follow me on Twitter and send me a direct message to get connected to Josh for student/blogger passes. Or you can contact Josh directly via Twitter.

Read the original article on Thrilling Heroics here: California 100 Leadership Summit at UC Davis Next Week

Sat, Dec 29: After cleaning up the apartment and preparing for our flight to Ibiza all day, we caught up with Meye once more this evening, to give her a piece of climbing equipment that Ryan had left for her as a gift. The four of us wandered a off the beaten path to Granja Dulcinea—one of the two chocolateries in the area most popular with the locals. We waited in line for a half hour and then sat down for some xiocolate and churros. Delish! Meye says we must come and meet up with her again on our return trip—5 January is the celebration and parade on the eve of Three King’s Day—when children in Spain traditionally received presents (as opposed to Christmas day).

We rushed out of town to catch our 9:55 PM flight from Barcelona to Ibiza. And while we didn’t know it at the time, it turns out that we boarded the wrong train, even after we could reasonably gather that two metro workers had pointed us to it. It was the most crowded train I’ve been on—the guy who conveniently placed his ass in my face for the majority of the ride definitely needed a change! We still thought we were heading in the right direction toward the airport, but once it got to about t-minus 30 minutes, we were worrying: shouldn’t we be there by now?

It was at this time that Paul also realized he had misplaced his passport, and was frantically searching his bags to find it. After looking through everything twice, he was fairly certain he had left it hidden in our apartment. Moral of the story: don’t hide your passport away like your secret stash kids, you might forget it if you’re leaving in a rush! So we’re tripping about if Paul would even be able to board the flight with us or whether he would have to catch up a day or two late. Meanwhile, it turned out that no, we weren’t on the way to the airport, we were on the way to the absolute middle of nowhere! It seemed reasonable that a free train to the airport would be so busy, but why everybody in Barcelona goes here in the middle of the night, I will never know! And not only was this the middle of nowhere, but it was pretty ghetto too! Oh well, so now it was blatantly obvious that we were not going to make it to the airport in time to catch our scheduled flight—we waited patiently for the return train and used Tim’s Blackberry to search the net for solutions to our little predicament. Over the phone, Clickair (a subsidiary of Iberian Airlines) told us they wouldn’t refund our tickets, but if we came in they would give us a 20% discount on new tix. Oh well, 500 bucks on my credit card well spent! It’s not a true adventure until something goes wrong.

We spent several hours running around Barcelona like chickens with our heads cut off—only chickens with 40 pound packs on our backs—and we missed the 11 PM ferry to Ibiza by a matter of minutes. We missed the internet cafe. So we grabbed a pizza at a local vendor. Que pasa nada. Plan D: we finally gave in to our destiny, checked our bags at the Hotel Arts across town (where we’ll stay next week), and decided to stay up all night and catch the 6:45 AM flight in the morning. No point trying to find reservations and sleep at this point. At about 1 AM we went to Shoko Restaurant & Lounge Club across the street and enjoyed some DJ music for a while. I also struck up conversation with these three local hotties—Yanina and Lupe were two of them, don’t remember the third’s name—a big accomplishment for me with my extremely limited Spanish. Anyways, with them on our arms, we easily got into the big disco next door, Catwalk, and danced until 4:30 in the morning.

Sun, Dec 30: We taxi’d it to the airport by 5, and Tim and I bought new tickets for the 6:45 plane, but Paul had to track down the policia and fill out a lost passport report to get approval to travel without it. Then the fuckers took my laptop lock! Because, of course, laptop cables pose a dangerous terrorist threat to Ibiza! In summary, we barely made the 6:45 flight, but at last we were all on the same plane and destined for the Balearic Islands!

This is why we were meant to be on this plane! There was this incredibly gorgeous Barcelona girl and two friends that I took a seat right next to. Smokin’ hot—easily a 9 or 9.5 if you ask me. So when the time was right, and I finally grew a pair, I leaned across the aisle and asked them about themselves and for tips for a first-time trip to Ibiza. Jennifer, Ester, and Maria. Turns out that Hottie has a house in Sant Antoni, the other side of the island from Ibiza Town, and I got the scoop on what beaches and sunset bars to look for. I also left with two of their phone numbers, so it all worked out alright. Maybe we’ll catch up with them for New Year’s Eve…

We checked into the Hostal Parque. The streets were dead at 7AM, but it turns out that our hotel is right in the center of the winter-time action. Plaça del Parque fills up with locals enjoying coffee and lunch in the afternoon, and lights up with a carnival and live music at night. And we have a balcony that overlooks the whole square and the old town—Dalt Villa, very pretty by night.

Later that night, we spent a few hours wandering around looking for this place Bar Incognito with Lori, a gal we had met at the nearby internet cafe. Lori is from San Francisco, and she’s on a month-long hiatus from work as sadly, she just had a miscarriage—traveling on her own to work some things out before she goes back to real life. Bar Incognito turned out to be VERY incognito, and unfortunately closed for Sunday night. But at least we found the location for clubbing tomorrow night, and some good restaurants on the marina. Back at Plaça del Parque, it definitely seems as though we picked a good central spot with lots of cool-season traffic—we came back to find some pretty cool live music and relaxed at Cafe Bliss on our square for some late night chorizo & wine before calling it a night.

Mon, Dec 31: I met up with Lori for some brunch at Cafe Bliss again, and for some sightseeing. The two of us hit a few clothing shops, where she helped me pick out two nice designer shirts in the local style, and then I joined her in the hot tub back at her fancy hotel the Royal Plaza. Later Tim and I spoke with Ester, the reception girl in our hotel, who helped us find a primo spot for New Year’s Eve dinner. After sharing some holiday sangria, the three of us walked across the marina, where we dined at Trattoria del Mar, an Italian resto right on the water. For 95 Euros each, we were served a fine seafood dinner—caviar, oysters, crab cake, prawns, tuna, and more. The Spanish tradition is to eat 12 grapes when the New Year starts, one for good luck for each month of the year. And of course there were the normal noisemakers, hats, masks, silly string, and kisses on the cheek.

Once dinner died down after 1AM, we went to Pacha, one of only two of the big clubs open for New Year’s Eve. Everyone was supposed to be there. And everyone was! We waited in line for a while to get in, waited even longer in coat check. Pacha’s supposed to have 15 bars, and all of them appeared to be open. I don’t even know how many dance floors, but this place was pretty huge, and cavernous. It was multilevel, and seemed to burrow down into the earth. The music was good. Dancers were amazing. We somehow bumped into a few gals from the US and chatted for a while. All good times, and we ended up back at home and in bed by about 5 or 6. Just in time to get four hours of sleep and go back out again in the morning!

Tues, Jan 1: After a little shut eye, we had a morning glass of champagne to ring in the new year, and caught a taxi to the next club. That’s right, the dancing goes all night, all day, and all night again for New Year’s here on Ibiza. We arrived at DC-10 by about 11AM—the earliest I’ve ever been clubbing. This is the all-day hotspot that all the locals recommended, where the party starts at 6AM and goes until 3AM the next day. And slowly but steadily, everyone came out in style, with their sunglasses to protect them from the sun’s penetrating rays, and with tequila/orange in hand. It was a very interesting mix of all demographics. We met this one gent Alberto, a friendly, gentle guy probably in his 40s that spoke flawless English. Several telltale signs gave him away as one of the bigger drug dealers at the venue, but he was very relaxed and nonaggressive, and actually held a very interesting conversation with us about his experiences in the US, about education, and spirituality. Interesting dude!

Later, we finally had some blue skies and sunshine and were able to explore the Dalt Villa, the old walled village just adjacent to our square, toped with a centuries-old Catedral at the top of a hill. Tim scaled the crumbling ancient wall, and as we climbed up to the beautiful vista point, my camera batteries powered down! The view was spectacular, but I was almost regretting it—almost wanting to turn back, afraid to finish the trip because I had no way to capture the amazing shots of the bay, the cliffs, the ocean, and lighthouse. This is what the Balearic islands are all about! The weather was absolutely perfect. The three of us sat on the edge of the wall and enjoyed the chill, relaxing sound of the waves for about 15 minutes. We kept pressing towards the cathedral at the summit, and we later found some fun local kids that played around with us for a while. A wonderful, beautiful last afternoon on Ibiza.

Wed, Jan 2: Wednesday morning, we were scheduled to fly back to Barcelona, but I woke up at about 5 AM with food poisoning. I won’t go into details, but this was one of the worst days of my life. Tried to make the best of the afternoon by chatting with Ester at the front desk while the guys went out shopping as we waited to leave for the airport. I had to work hard for it, but we finally arrived at the Hotel Arts in Barcelona—very primo, on the 21st floor overlooking the sea and the city, and with a killer Bang and Olufsen sound system to enjoy our chill Ibiza CDs on.

Thurs, Jan 3: Today was a day of rest, and all we really did was set out to retrieve Paul’s misplaced passport at the old apartment. It’s awful nice to have a free room at the 74th rated hotel in all of Europe (earned with Paul’s business travel credits), but the downside to staying at the Ritz is that everything costs money, and it’s out of our league! Can you believe, a bottle of Jack Daniels costs 120 Euros here!? Is that what it means to be rich? To be willing to pay an obscene, complete unreasonable premium on everyday things? It’s a great room, so I’m not complaining, but it’s kind of the place you go to stay in your safe tower, high above the city, not really to experience a place, but to grace it with your presence for a few nights and drop a few cool grand.

So, I broke the rules and bought some groceries and some Wok to Walk, which should last me a few days. There’s no kitchenette, but with a little ingenuity I can make meals for the next few days. Paul and I ran some errands while Tim went to pick up his French girlfriend, but the skies opened up over Barcelona and started pouring rain like crazy so I retired for the day to care for my upset stomach and brewing cold.

Read the original article on Thrilling Heroics here: Balearic Adventure: Spain for the Holidays, Part III

Anyone who was present for Steve Jobs’ keynote speech at this year’s Macworld conference in San Francisco (or anyone who watched online), in which he introduced the iPhone as a groundbreaking new product, knows how captivating a speaker the Apple CEO is. And anyone who saw the long lines in anticipation of the iPhone’s release date knows how effective the PR hype has been.

Communications coach Carmine Gallo recently wrote up a great critique of Jobs’ presentation, packed with some useful tips for the rest of us to improve our public speaking skills:

1. Build Tension. A good novelist doesn’t lay out the entire plot and conclusion on the first page of the book. He builds up to it. Jobs begins his presentation by reviewing the “revolutionary” products Apple has introduced. According to Jobs, “every once in a while a revolutionary product comes along that changes everything…Apple has been fortunate to introduce a few things into the world.” Jobs continues by describing the 1984 launch of the Macintosh as an event that “changed the entire computer industry.”
2. Stick to One Theme Per Slide. A brilliant designer once told me that effective presentation slides only have one message per slide. One slide, one key point. When Jobs introduced the “three revolutionary products” in the description above, he didn’t show one slide with three devices. When he spoke about each feature (a widescreen iPod, a mobile phone, and an Internet communicator), a slide would appear with an image of each feature.
3. Add Pizzazz to Your Delivery. Jobs modulates his vocal delivery to build up the excitement. When he opens his presentation by describing the revolutionary products Apple created in the past, his volume is low and he speaks slowly, almost in a reverential tone. His volume continues to build until his line, “Today Apple is going to reinvent the phone.” Be an electrifying speaker by varying the speed at which you speak and by raising and lowering your voice at the appropriate times.
4. Practice. Jobs makes presentations look effortless because he takes nothing for granted. Jobs is known to rehearse demonstrations for hours prior to launch events. I can name many high-profile chief executives who decide to wing it. It shows. It always amazes me that many business leaders spend tens of thousands of dollars on designing presentations, but next to no time actually rehearsing. I usually get the call after the speaker bombs. Don’t lose your audience. Rehearse a presentation out loud until you’ve nailed it.
5. Be Honest and Show Enthusiasm. If you believe that your particular product or service will change the world, then say so. Have fun with the content. During the iPhone launch, Jobs uses many adjectives to describe the new product, including “remarkable,” “revolutionary,” and “cool.” He jokes that the touch-screen features of the phone “work like magic…and boy have we patented it.”

[via: Steve Jobs' Greatest Presentation]

Read the original article on Thrilling Heroics here: 5 Ways to Pitch Your Product Like Steve Jobs

Many believe that in order to conquer global warming, we need to see a full transformation in human living spaces and transportation. Which is a LOT of work!

Well, there are a few communities that are working hard to create drastically innovative living centers that change land use and transportation needs for the better. These “eco-cities” are something I’ve been meaning to share for some time—there’s one in development right here in California’s Bay Area! Califia is a proposed economically- and ecologically-sustainable community in the works for the next ten to fifteen years which will support a population of 10,000 in the San Francisco metro area. In conjunction with a worldwide network of similar development projects, the Green Century Institute is leading what it calls “network-facilitated community development”–through online wikis and forums, as well as offline salons and community design summits–with leading urban design advisors Paolo Soleri and Jon Jerde.

“…We envision Califia as a leading edge eco-development joining next generation green architectural design principles and information systems into integral human living environments for the 21st century. Key to the design will be the innovative social meshwork underlying it, which will be implemented in a flexible mixed-use project combining traditional and cohousing-style residential development–a full suite of community, commercial, and social spaces to maximize human potential and group interactions.”

For a look at some similar development projects, take a look at Arizona’s Arcosanti and Auroville in Southern India. For more on Califia, here’s the Green Century Institute’s proposed plan.

Read the original article on Thrilling Heroics here: Drastic Evolutions in Sustainable Development