inspiration
How I Became a Movie Star (and How You Can too)
Okay. Me becoming a movie star might be a bit of an exaggeration but I did make it into a full length student film as a leading character. It was an awesome experience. I met some cool new people, got to live out a dream of acting in a comedy movie, and literally had to push all the girls off me. Okay, the last part isn’t true but everything else is.
And it all started by pushing my boundaries and stepping outside my comfort zone.
I’ve always had an interest in acting, probably due to being a Leo who likes the spotlight, but haven’t really given it much attention besides acting as an extra in some productions a few years back. Then one day I found myself looking through “Acting” ads on kijiji. Most were garbage but I stumbled across one that was asking for a lead actor in a full length student movie. I immediately began to imagine what a great experience this would be. It was a chance to have a lot of lines in a movie and gain some experience.
There was one problem though. I needed to audition. I had never auditioned before and it made me nervous to go into a room with people and act out lines from a script with no acting experience behind me. I knew it wasn’t going to be as “hard-core” with students as it would be with a professional shoot but I still didn’t want to look stupid.
I told myself I had to do it. What were my chances of ever seeing an opportunity like this again. It could be my last chance. I had spoke in front of 50 people before. I had jumped out of a plane and leaped off a bridge. I managed to travel 5 months solo throughout Australia and Indonesia.
I had to do it. I sent them an email and told them I would come audition. Next thing you know, I’m “Alex” in the movie “Kankered”.
Despite some mishaps (like continuously losing actors who weren’t taking it seriously), it took about a month (30 days of acting) to get all the shots done before it moved on to the voiceover and editing phases. We had a blast taking outdoor shots while trying to avoid the police, spending a day in the woods with werewolves and ninjas, partying at fake parties, breaking into a house, and joining a hot tub party where a friend was kidnapped by a hot girl who wanted his baby.
The director, Nick, is now in Vancouver Film School having “Kankered” edited and ready for film festivals. Despite its lack of budget, it came out looking really good. It’s got a ton of coarse language and immature sexual innuendoes so it’s only for those who like “R” rated Superbad-type movies, which means grandmothers may not approve.
Check out the trailer below. [Read more…] about How I Became a Movie Star (and How You Can too)
New Series – The Most Important Word in the World
I’m so excited for this series to start.
It all began with a post I wrote a few weeks back about a time when I said “hello” to strangers in Indonesia and ended up having a great adventure with them. Lots of people said that they loved that post and I started to think of all the times I’ve had adventures from simply greeting other travelers. I wanted to inspire people to open themselves up to meeting new people and forming new relationships and potential adventures. Then I thought, how cool would it be to gather stories from other bloggers and travelers who have experienced this as well.
I wanted to hear all the amazing stories that people have from when they stepped out of the box and met some new friends.
I reached out to 7 awesome people to get the ball rolling. Each of them enthusiastically agreed to participate and thought it was a great idea.
The series was born. It starts this friday!
Each blogger will post their story on their blog at certain times over the next week or two. Each story will be about a time when they said “hello” to a stranger which then turned into an awesome adventure or a great friendship.
If you want to read these inspiring stories, just follow along by watching the “series page” or following me on twitter. Each time someone posts their story, I will link to it on the series page and tweet it over twitter. You can also like A World of Inspiration on Facebook and watch the wall, or subscribe to A World of Inspiration so you can stay updated all the time.
The following bloggers are part of this series:
Earl Baron of Wandering Earl
Matt Koenig of 1 Year Sabbatical
Rob Nights of Beyond Norms
Amy Scott of Nomadtopia
Niall Doherty of Disrupting the Rabblement
Robyn James of The Dropout Diaries
Steve Bloom of Do Something Cool
and of course, yours truly.
I can’t wait to read these great stories. Thanks to everyone involved and I hope you all feel the inspiration from the amazing stories we’re sure to read.
Do you have a great story of a time when you said “hello” to a stranger and it turned into a wicked adventure or a great friendship?
How to Make Money while Traveling the World – An Interview with Wandering Earl
Okay, his name is not Wandering Earl, it’s Earl Baron, and he has a sweet blog titled wanderingearl.com. Earl has also been traveling the world for over 10 years, hence the name of his site. He has no plans of ending his journey and is currently living in Mexico. I started talking to Earl during the early days of my blog and immediately felt how cool of a guy he is. Not only has he been very supportive in my own online journey, but he has also helped tremendously with my girlfriend and I applying for a job on a cruise ship. That’s right, Earl spent a large part of his travels working on cruise ships having a blast, traveling the world, and saving up lots of money. Since my girlfriend is from Mexico, he recommended that both of us go work on a cruise ship so we can be together, save money, and have the time of our lives. So pretty soon, I’ll be writing this blog from sea. Earl has been such an inspiration over the last few months that I thought I’d interview him so his inspiration can pass on to you. At the bottom of the interview will be a link to Earl’s awesome “cruise ship” ebook that is a MUST for those wanting to give this adventure a try.
Welcome Earl.
How long have you been traveling and blogging for?
For the most part, I’ve been traveling, working or volunteering overseas ever since I left for my first backpacking trip back in 1999 but I only started blogging in January of 2010.
What inspired you to start blogging about your journey?
Over the years I received a great deal of phone calls and emails from friends, friends of friends and even strangers that heard about my travels, asking me for advice about the countries I’d visit as well as how to live a nomadic lifestyle of their own. I always offered whatever assistance I could but it wasn’t until I began reading blogs that I realized I could reach a much larger audience. And I figured that if there was even a remote possibility that I could use my own travels to inspire others to achieve their own travel goals, I wanted to be a part of that mission. So I started the blog a few months later and have been motivated to keep it growing ever since!
How have you been funding yourself for all your “traveling years?” [Read more…] about How to Make Money while Traveling the World – An Interview with Wandering Earl
Zero to 100: Healthy Doses of Creativity, Money, and Freedom
This is a quick introduction to a new project I’ve started working on.
It’s called zero to 100 and it’s about me challenging myself to go from zero income to $100,000 per year.
However, I don’t want to just aimlessly chase $100,000 a year. If the goal was simply to make $100K by any means necessary, I would just delete this post, go get a job at an oil company in my hometown, and start making $100K instantly.
The $100K I am aiming for is going to be from doing things I enjoy, feeding my entrepreneurial spirit, and making it through online sources so that it gives me the location independence thats needed for my big passion: travel.
This is both a very hard and intense goal considering I have never made that much money before and that I’m starting from scratch. Even though $100K is quite easy to earn where I am from, it’s not the type of job I would want to do for the rest of my life. Creating $100K on your own is much more difficult but much more rewarding. The actual goal with this project is to make a great amount of money doing things that I enjoy, finding and enhancing my strengths, and having the freedom and location independence to travel, have adventures, and spend time with friends and family.
Zero to 100 also stands for attaining 100% satisfaction with myself and everything I do. In other words, I want to be 100% happy with what I do in work and life. I want to be creative and develop my ideas into something special. I want to feel that my key strengths and passions are blended together to create something wonderful.
As time goes on, It may develop into a site of it’s own but for now I have decided to write about it on A World of Inspiration and let you decide if you like it and/or think it can blend in with AWOI.
At the beginning I will likely be focused on creating some passive income (at least enough to cover basic expenses), searching for strengths and passions, building relationships and mentorship opportunities, and also thinking about bigger legacy type projects that will really leave some lasting impressions on those involved. In fact, zero to 100 is a legacy project because it will literally teach you about all the things I mention above.
What makes zero to 100 cool for you?
- You can literally watch someone (me) go step-by-step from earning zero per month to earning lots of money per month. I am a beginner with very little experience which means if I can do it, so can you. My only online experience thus far is primarily with A World of Inspiration. I’m going to focus on making enough money to be comfortable but have given it a goal of $100K to be exciting and big enough to keep the motivation going for as long as this takes. I am also aligning the goal with the type of lifestyle I want and you should do the same. In my case, I want to enjoy what I do and have the freedom to travel as I please.
- You can learn from my many mistakes that I am sure to make and read my reviews/attempts of many different ways to make money online. You can see what tools, books, or different things I use to make things happen. I am also going to interview online entrepreneurs along the way and write about various ways to find or build upon your passions and hobbies. I won’t involve myself in all the ways of making money online or that would just get crazy.
- You can create your own zero to 100. As you follow along, you can pick and choose what you think works for you, try it out, and join a group of like-minded people who are trying to achieve the same thing. One big giant mastermind group.
What do you think of this new project?
Inspiring Interview: Mochan of Japan Wish Club (Plus Ebook Update)
This is an interview with Mochan of the Wish Club in Japan. I met Mochan in October 2010 while travelling across Japan. I emailed him through couchsurfing.org and ended up staying with him and some other travellers for 2 nights. What made this Couchsurfing experience different from other ones was that Mochan does this full-time and sometimes hosts up to 20 people at a time. Mochan also bought a bus and started the Wish Club to help travellers experience Japan in a unique way while also building a network of amazing people all over the world. When I stayed with Mochan, he also had a guy from Spain, a woman from Vietnam, and a couple of Japanese friends staying with him and all of us quickly became friends and joined Mochan for a couple of days of fun around Japan. He brought us to temples, a sake factory, Mt.Fuji, a traditional tea ceremony, a giant robot, fish markets, picnics by a lake, and we even spent a night at a friend’s cottage in Izu. I couldn’t help but be amazed by the thousands of gifts and postcards that travellers have given Mochan over the years. When I arrived back in Canada, I knew I had to interview Mochan one day and see what this was all about. Here is that interview. [Read more…] about Inspiring Interview: Mochan of Japan Wish Club (Plus Ebook Update)