Page 124 - The $100 Startup_ Reinvent the Way You Make a Living, Do What You Love

Empire Building Kit that eventually formed the basis for this book. For months I
conducted interviews and research, capturing lessons from unconventional
entrepreneurs and extracting the secrets of their success. As I prepared to make it
available, though, I felt stuck—something wasn’t coming together, and I kept
procrastinating on the launch date.

While planning a trip to Europe and West Africa, I had a flight booked that
eventually would take me to Chicago but no onward ticket to my home in
Portland. On a whim I checked the Amtrak schedule, thinking there was no way
I’d want to take a train halfway across the country but I might as well take a
look. To my surprise, the name of the Amtrak train from Chicago to Portland
was the Empire Builder. Hmmm. I began to get an idea, but initially thought it
was too crazy to implement. That same evening, the doorbell rang and the UPS
guy dropped off a package. When I opened the box, I discovered a free
messenger bag sent by some new friends at Tom Bihn’s company (profiled in
Chapter 13). The name of the bag was … Empire Builder.

I’m not sure if God, the universe, or Tom Bihn’s company was sending me the
message, but I decided to follow the idea where it led. I made plans to go to West
Africa then fly home via Chicago and launch the Empire Building Kit on a
single day, live from the Empire Builder train. Oh, and it also happened to be my
birthday—so I made that part of the story as well.

I asked my friend J. D. Roth to come along with me, so he and I met up in
Chicago and prepared for the journey. Upon embarking on the train, we set up a
“blogger’s lounge” in the Amtrak viewing car complete with various Apple
products—amusing the other passengers, many of whom were elderly sightseers.
In the weeks before the big day, I had been telling my community about the plan
with a mixture of excitement and dread; I was excited to launch the new course
but scared that I wouldn’t be able to finish it in time. With so much riding on the
story, there was no flexibility on the date and no backup plan if things didn’t
work out.

Thankfully, everything worked as it should. I finished the final copyedits on
my Lufthansa flight to Chicago. Two days later, we launched the Empire
Building Kit to hundreds of eager buyers, many of whom had been waiting for it
since the pre-launch campaign. The launch cleared over $100,000 in sales before
I turned it off exactly twenty-four hours later as our train rolled through
Washington State and down into Oregon. The message had a good story and
built-in timeliness: Once we hit Portland, the deal was over.

My favorite part was receiving emails from people who said they weren’t
interested in the course but had been enjoying the story of the train ride. I don’t
always get it right, but this time everything fell into place.