A lot of people have been asking me to write a post about what daily life is like as Pat  – someone who has a family, works from home, and earns a passive income, but is also actively creating new income streams at the same time.

Maybe you’re just curious, maybe you’re looking for some time saving strategies, or maybe you’re trying to figure out how to balance family life and work life – I don’t know, but I hope that as I go through my daily routine I can give you some tips based on my experience.

A couple of things:

First, my life is not always 100% balanced. There are times when I do feel overwhelmed with work projects, a one year old throwing a tantrum and grass to mow (in the front and back of the house), all at the same time. There are other times, however, when I feel like everything is working out just perfectly and life couldn’t get any better. Either way, I feel very fortunate to be living the lifestyle that I am living, and although it’s not for everyone, it’s exactly how I want to live.

Secondly, it’s hard for me to share a “typical day” because after having a kid (and you’ll know this if you’re a parent), there is no such thing as a “typical day”. Ever since the birth of our son, our schedule has been based around him. When he naps, that’s when we get stuff done. When he’s up, he gets our full attention.

So, as I go through my schedule and how I accomplish things, note that it’s not always like this, and the times may vary, but generally this is how I live.

7:00am – Wake up. My alarm is my son calling for mommy from the other room, which usually happens around 7:00am. I get up, take him out of the crib, change a diaper and take him downstairs for breakfast. I let my wife sleep in until about 10am. She definitely deserves the extra sleep, especially since the first 10 to 12 months of our son’s life was her waking up in the middle of the night to feed him while I lay still in deep sleep.

7:15am – Breakfast. It has been a lot easier now that our son is eating solid foods and can feed himself. I usually set him up with some delicious blueberries or raspberries, a couple handfuls of cheerios, and a sippy cup of milk. While he’s eating, we’re listening to toddler tunes, and I’m cooking my breakfast at the same time. It’s always the same thing, in a bowl: 2 beaten eggs, a 1/2 cup of blackbeans, a fistful of spinach – microwaved for 4 minutes on high, then eaten with some Tabasco sauce and chunky salsa (a la 4-Hour Body style, so this means no juice either. General rule of thumb is “don’t drink your calories”.) Then, I eat and clean up, which is just a simple washing of the one bowl. Super easy.

7:45am – Playtime! With two full bellies, my son and I go to the dining room, which we’ve converted into a play room (who uses their dining room anyways? Hehe!). We’ll play with instruments, play basketball (he just learned how to dunk on his little hoop), or read a little bit. Sometimes he’ll climb on my back and I do pushups at the same time. It’s really fun, and I really cherish these couple of hours in the morning when it’s just me and him.

10:00am – Wake up Mommy!

10:15am – More play time. Sometimes he likes to play on this own, and I use this time to check my email or respond to comments and questions on the blog or on Facebook & Twitter. I don’t usually get more than 15 minutes though. Work time comes later.

11:00am – The little one gets lunch. The menu varies, and we’ll sometimes try to introduce him to new foods at this time. The latest thing he’s into is cheese filled Raviolis. During lunch, he’s either enjoying some toddler tunes or kids songs I pull up on YouTube, or a “Baby Can Read” DVD. They do work – it’s amazing. I’m very proud to say he knows about 50 words in his vocabulary. Not bad for a 16 month old!

11:30am – Nap time. As you can see, our schedules are very based around our son, like I said. At 11:30, I put him to sleep for about an hour. Quiet time in the house, at last.

Noon – I make my wife and I some lunch, or sometimes I’ll go out and grab something (healthy) nearby. I usually have a protein shake or other supplemental drink at this time as well. While we eat, my wife and I chat a little, or sometimes catch an episode of Saved By The Bell on TeenNick, or Family Feud (the ones hosted by Steve Harvey).

After lunch – Whenever lunch ends, I grab a coffee (Keurig style), head into my office and shut the door. Shutting the door is very important because it tells me that I’m in work mode, in my own little space disconnected from the rest of the house, and at the same time it tells the family that I should only be interrupted if there’s an emergency.

During work mode, I’m very focused, and even if it’s only an interruption that lasts a minute or two, I find that it can sometimes take an extra 15 to 30 minutes to get back to where I was.

This is why…

• I shut the door to my office.
• I turn off my phone (unless I need to make a call).
• I turn off Twitter & Facebook (Tweetdeck).
• I turn off Skype (unless I have a scheduled call or chat).
• I keep my email on because I use it quite a bit during this time, however I don’t enable any sound notifications because again – it’s a distraction.

So what do I work on during this time?

I do not write blog posts…I save that for the night if I have a blog post scheduled the next day. I do this because I find that for me (and this is different for everybody), I write much better and more creatively at night – my peak hours being around the 11pm to 1am hours.

I do do the following:

• I use my “physical folder method” (as described in Session 12 of the SPI podcast) to see what projects I currently have on my plate (there are always more than one going on at a time, which means there are multiple folders in front of me), and what to-dos are next to check off on each of those respective lists. The tasks vary each and every day, which keeps it exciting and new for me, and they range from things like submitting a newly finished iPhone application to the App Store, to telling my VAs exactly what to do (I have one full-time programmer, and one part-time VA that helps with this Backlinking Strategy for niche sites). I may also brainstorm new ideas on my white board or shoot a video for YouTube at this time as well. Like I said, it could be a number of things. All I know is that with each and every task that I do, I make sure to complete it first before moving on to the next, whether in the same project, or in another one. This is how I complete multiple tasks at the “same time”.
• I brainstorm using my wall-sized whiteboards in my office – either how to improve existing projects or mind-mapping new ideas that I may or may not create new folders for and execute.
• I hold any client calls or online meetings at this time.
• Clean the office, if it’s messy. I can’t work in a messy office!

Here’s a good shot of my office so you can get an idea of the kind of environment I’m working in.

During the afternoon work hours, my wife is obviously watching our son (once he wakes up from his nap), and this is the agreement we’ve made together. I get him in the mornings while she sleeps, and she gets him in the afternoon while I work. We both get our alone time with him, which is important, but at the same time I’m able to accomplish what I need to accomplish, which provides for the family and allows me to grow my business.

The most important lesson here is communication. What one person may think works out the best may not be so good for the other – and it was only through trial and error that we’ve found this to be the best time management solution for us. It will probably change in the future as our son grows and his needs change, and when that time comes you can be sure my wife and I will determine how we can best utilize our time once again.

It’s going to be weird when he’s gone half the day at school…

Variables:

Earning a passive income – not having to actually trade my time for an income since it was already invested up front – allows me to include a few variables here during the afternoon hours that I would typically work.

For example, if it’s a nice day and I don’t have anything crucial planned for the afternoon, as a family we might head to Sea World or go to the beach. Or, we may all together go to Target to stock up on supplies or head to the grocery store. This is especially nice because there is never a crowd wherever we go, so parking is easy, and checkouts are fast.

My schedule isn’t set in stone, which is the nice part that allows me to do these kinds of things, however it’s important that it is still there so I don’t waste time if there isn’t anything else to do. I’ve tried just “working when I need to”, and I find that I am much less focused when I just work randomly here and there.

5:00pm – Hang out as a family. If I continue to work until 5 (sometimes I finish up early if the rest of my tasks are too big or take up too much time to complete), I’ll come downstairs usually to a hyper child and an exhausted wife in the playroom. 5 hours with the little one can definitely be an energy drainer! We’ll all hang out and play together until dinner time.

6:00pm – Dinner. I love to cook, so I usually take the chef’s hat and prepare a dinner. Since we’re both on a “diet” while we’re going through the Insanity home fitness program, it’s usually just some kind of protein (Chicken, Turkey, Beef, Tofu), with various vegetables (Corn, Snow Peas, Green Beans, Carrots, Peas, Bell Peppers, etc.). I prepare these foods a different way each night (spices and sauces are my friend!), just so it doesn’t get boring. My breakfast is the same each day, so I should at least have some variety at night. It’s all worth it though, because Saturday is “cheat day”, and I definitely go all out. A couple Saturdays ago, I had 8 buffalo wings, half a pizza, chips and dip, breadsticks, and a doughnut…and that was just for dinner. Again – a la 4-Hour Body.

We’ll eat together as a family, which we feel is very important – especially in the early years of our son’s life. Now that he’s older, he usually has what we’re having, plus some kind of bread or carb of some kind, like pasta.

7:00pm – Relax as a family. At this time, we’re stuffed, our son has calmed down a bit, and we can actually all sit together on the couch and watch T.V. Some may argue that it’s a little too early for a 16 month old to be watching T.V., and we do have our concerns, but it’s really the only time during the day this happens, it’s always on Nick Jr., and we’re always talking and interacting with him during Ni Hao Kai-Lan or Yo Gabba Gabba (two kid shows, for those of you who don’t know).

We won’t watch the whole time, and will usually try to get some “active play” in (like running around and banging on instruments) so it’ll tire him out a bit. It makes it a lot easier to put him down to bed this way.

8:00pm – Prepare our son for sleep. This includes giving him a bath (my wife and I switch off), brushing his teeth (whoever is not giving him a bath that day brushes his teeth), and reading to him in bed for 10 to 15 minutes. We have a ritual of turning off the lights after the last book is read, which has always worked to get him to sleep almost instantly.

9:00pm – Work out. After our son is sound asleep, my wife and I get ready for the daily Insanity workout. It’s usually 40 – 60 minutes of non-stop cardio (jumping, squatting, pushup jacks, high-knees and those kinds of things) in our living room. I love it.

Afterwards, I have a protein shake and get cleaned up.

10:15pm – Depends. (No, not the adult diaper…)

If I have a blog post to write, I’ll usually spend the rest of the evening writing it in my office, or continuing a blog post that I had already started from a previous day.

If I don’t have a blog post or any deadlines coming up, my wife and I usually catch up on Dancing With the Stars or Modern Family on DVR, watch a DVD we’ve Netflix’d, play some games on the iPad, clean the house, or just sit and chat about random things.

2:00am – Sleep

We’re both night owls, but at the same time we feel it’s important to utilize the free time we do have when Keoni is asleep, because as you can tell, when he’s up, it’s all about him. That’s why we go to bed rather late.

I guess I’m pretty lucky because I can survive off of 5 to 6 hours of sleep with absolutely no issues. I think it’s a skill I picked up while attending College. Us architecture majors were always in studio, working late hours and hardly getting any sleep. I once stayed up for 72 hours straight (that’s 3 days!) for my final project my senior year. It worked out – I finished my project on time, however when I finally got to my apartment and fell asleep, I slept for nearly 24 hours and missed the University-wide graduation.

Not healthy at all.

Like I said, not all of the days are exactly the same, but this gives you a general idea of how I work, what’s important to me and how I utilize my time. Some days I run a coaching course with a group of students, another night I’ll have a date night with April, and other days there are appointments and random occurrences that you sometimes can’t plan for.

Again, if you haven’t listened to it already, I definitely recommend checking out session 12 of the SPI Podcast for some of my own productivity tips that help me utilize those precious moments of time that I do have to work.

Speaking of podcasts, I had to re-record an interview due to a corrupt file, so you should see the next session of the podcast (session #20), live this coming Friday. Thank you for your patience with that…

And thank you for reading this light-hearted post about my life today. I appreciate you and your time!

Do you have any productivity tips or work/family balance advice you’d like to share with the community?

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A Day in the Life of Pat
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In my last post, I had mentioned that I wanted to tell you what my favorite infomercial was and dissect it so we can all learn about why it’s successful. Well, I decided to change things up a bit because a few nights ago, my wife and I had what was probably one of the most important conversations ever, and it’s directly related to what I do online. This message that I want to share with you, which came as a result of our discussion, is more important than any infomercial tactic, blogging tip or online business strategy that I could possibly offer.

(And in case you are wondering, the infomercial was P90X.)

The Issue

The subject of our discussion was my work schedule. The problem was: I didn’t have one.

As someone who has been somewhat successful online thus far earning a passive income, I do have the ability to work less hours, and if I really wanted to, not work at all. However, having this freedom to work whenever I want has put negative thoughts in my head about adhering to an actual schedule.

Why would I want to “force” myself to a schedule and work during specific hours of the day, when I have the freedom to work whenever I want?

I now know the answer.

The Problems

There were a few problems with the lifestyle I was living prior to this life-changing conversation:

1. It was hard to decipher when I was working, and when I was not.

Because I wasn’t on a schedule, it was often hard for my wife to know exactly when I was busy, and when I was not. Sometimes I’d be in my office doing work related things, and sometimes I’d be in my office doing non-work related things. If she wanted to talk about something, or needed some help with the baby, sometimes I’d be in the middle of something important, and sometimes I wouldn’t. It was tough for both of us.

2. Work was never “done” for the day.

As I’ve mentioned in the past, working from home is tough. It takes a lot of discipline to really clear your head of work-related items when you’re not working, because those work-related items can so easily be done at any time of the day.

Although my current income streams only require just a few hours of work per week, I spend a lot of my extra/free time working on new projects to diversify and expand my passive income portfolio. Because of this, I feel like I could always do more work. And that’s exactly what I ended up doing.

I compare it to a piece of artwork, or a painting – how do you ever know when it’s finished? It just seems like there’s always more you can do to make it better.

Not having a schedule made it really hard for me to stop.

3. Randomness.

Not adhering to a schedule = total randomness.

This is a tough one, because a lot of us want to break free from that 9 to 5 schedule where it seems like everyday is exactly the same (I was there not too long ago). But at the same time, it’s that schedule that keeps a lot of our lives sane and less chaotic.

With a different schedule every day of the month, you can imagine how hard it was for my family and friends to understand when I was available, or when it was okay to plan certain things that may involve me one way or another. Now, especially with a baby in the house, sticking to a schedule is more important than ever.

The Solution

My wife and I (civilly) came up with a solution for this dilemma. It’s basically a two part solution:

1. Create a schedule
2. Separate work stuff from non-work stuff

Creating a Schedule

It was obvious that I needed to create a schedule, again not only for my wife’s sake, but for my own as well. Both she and I would then have a clear understanding of when I am working and unavailable (except for Emergencies, obviously), and not working.

Before creating a schedule, I gave myself some guidelines:

• I didn’t want a straight 9 to 5 schedule.
• I wanted a long lunch.
• I wanted to allocate time on Sunday, Tuesday and Thursday night to write blog posts for SPI, since I know that’s when I write my best material.
• I want the schedule to be flexible, meaning I could trade time here and there throughout the week.

The nice thing is that if I don’t have anything to work on, I could really easily just scrap those hours for the day and not worry about it. However, if I do have work to do, we all know exactly when that work is supposed to happen.

Separating Work Stuff from Non-Work Stuff

How many times during the day are you actually working when you’re supposed to? Probably not as much as you should.

I wasn’t.

In fact, after literally keeping track of everything I did during a normal day, I noticed some rather disturbing issues, especially when it came to checking my emails, checking website stats, opening my Facebook account (personal, not the fan page), and reading the news.

Basically, I did a lot of non-work related things when I was supposed to be working. On the flip side, I was working (or thinking about work), when I probably shouldn’t have been.

So, how did we solve this problem?

It may sound a little odd to you, but I purchased a new MacBook Pro laptop computer.

Here’s why (and no, it wasn’t because I wanted a new laptop. That wasn’t even on my mind until this came up):

The computer in my office (an iMac) is where I did everything, including all of those personal things. It was hard for me personally to keep those things totally separate. By buying a laptop that is specifically just for personal, non-work related items, I can more easily focus on work when I’m supposed to work, and not be tempted to work when I’m doing personal stuff.

Furthermore, because the laptop is portable, I can literally separate work from non-work stuff by keeping the office and the computer in it off limits during non-work hours.

I deleted all of my personal email accounts from my mail client on my work computer. I imported all of my personal bookmarks and files into the laptop, and deleted them from the iMac. All of my instant messaging and chat software (excluding Skype, which I use for business only), has been transferred as well.

In the past couple days, living with this new setup, I’ve begun to notice major changes in my life, both in how much work I’m actually able to get done, as well as how I feel when work is “done” for the day. I’m more able to enjoy time I spend not working, and life just seems that much better now.

My Final Thoughts

I’m really glad my wife and I had this discussion, and I think it’s one that everyone should have because it’s really easy for work-related things to get out of hand, making us forget sometimes why we’re really working in the first place.

And even if you’re single, it’s important to understand these principles too. Especially when it comes to knowing when work is done, so you can really enjoy your time to play.

If you do any kind of work from home, do you work on a schedule? How do you make sure you keep business and non-business related things separate?

Thanks you so much for your support, and I hope you found this post valuable as a blogger, entrepreneur, employee, husband, wife, or person.

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The Most Important Conversation I’ve Had About My Business Ever
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It’s amazing what a new workspace can do for motivation and getting things done. In the last 3 days that I’ve been working from my new home office, I’ve gotten so much done and I even have a new startup in the works, but I’ll talk more about that later. That’s not to say that if you don’t have a nice workspace, you can’t get things done. Below is the picture of my old workspace, which was pretty much just a little niche area in the kitchen. Here’s a video of my old workspace too if you’re interested.

I was planning on shooting a video tour of the new office, but the battery on our camcorder needs to be recharged. I guess our newborn is taking up all of the camera time as of late.

So, here are some photos, along with some descriptions of what you’re looking at. It’s not completely finished, as I’d like to add some trim around the white boards on the wall, some framed pictures, curtains, and some plant life too.

Below, you’ll see my desk, which is a black glass, “L” shaped workspace. That’s my iMac in the corner, along with my tablet and pen and a notepad to jot any quick notes down as I work. The corkboard on the wall will be used for motivational pictures and quotes, like my favorite one: “The harder you work, the luckier you become.”

The red color is actually called “Library Red”, from Behr. I love it!

Here’s a closer up view of my iMac, along with my iPhone and a small cube thing that holds pictures of my family. My printer is right below the iMac, and I like to use it as a foot rest…lol.

These are the sliding doors to the closet, but what I did was use “Dry-Erase Paint” (thanks to those of you who suggested it!) on the entire door, and now I have two ceiling-height dry erase boards that I can use for brainstorming! It sort of reminds me of those whiteboards that my teachers and college professors used that slid in and out of each other.

I didn’t use the dry-erase paint on the walls because the walls have to be perfectly smooth, and I wasn’t about to spend 8 hours sanding the textured wall down. The doors were originally an off-white color, which you can still kind of see through the dry erase paint. It doesn’t effect the use of the door as a whiteboard though.

And lastly, on the wall behind my desk, I installed the white boards that I bought from Home Depot for $11.74 each. I had them cut down each board to 6′-8″ in height, which matches the height of the door opening. Again, I’ll be adding trim around the boards so it looks more congruent with the door trim.

And that’s it!

Whenever you see a new post on this blog, this is where I wrote it. Hopefully some awesome, profitable businesses will be born in this room too. I’ve got a lot of whiteboard to work with, and I can tell you that at this very moment, 3 are already full of information, ideas and outlines.

Anyways, thanks for taking the time to join me today. Have a happy, safe and healthy weekend, and I’ll see you again on Monday.

Cheers!

p.s. I was originally going to call this room the Idea Room, but someone suggested that I call it the “Pat Cave”. I dunno…LOL!

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Snapshots Of My New Office
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As the popularity and traffic of the Smart Passive Income Blog grows, so does the number of emails I get in my inbox – and that’s totally cool. I love reading emails and helping people out as much as I can, and thanks to those of you who shoot me a message just to say thanks. I really appreciate that.

Sometimes, however, there’s a turd or two in the pool of emails that I receive. That’s right…

A turd.

This message is for those people who send me spammy emails who try to cover the fact that they just want to benefit from this blog and it’s traffic.

——-

Dear Turd,

My name is Pat.

Not “smartpassiveincome.com”. Not “webmaster”. Not “blog owner”.

PAT.

It’s always nice to call someone by their name. Hence, turd.

I’ve worked hard to get where I’m at today, and guess what? I’ve never had to ask for a link exchange or anyone to write a blog post about me. People do that voluntarily because I believe I write good content that’s worth talking about and linking to.

What do you have to offer me? Oh cool…a product that helps people lower their credit score. And you say that’s related to what my blog is about? Well, I wouldn’t expect you to know what my blog is about, since you don’t even know my name.

Do you think it’s cool to go up to someone you’ve never met before and say: “Hello human, would you like to try this new candybar?”

We’re all taught as children to never take candy from strangers, so your method is not going to work.

Try getting to know me first. Make me want to know exactly what you do and what you have to offer. Show me you’re a real person and not a stranger trying to get something out of me. Become my friend.

Do that, and I will no longer call you a turd.

Until then, I will ignore you and your silly emails.

/Rant

——–

Thanks to those of you who have contacted me with legit emails. I have the best audience in the world, and none of you deserve any kinds of offers from people like this.

Have a great weekend everyone!

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This is For All the Turds Who Send Me Emails
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If you’ve read my January Monthly Income Report, you’ll know that I’m in the middle of a move. I’m actually going to try and keep this post short because I have to go to our old apartment and re-paint some of the walls back to their original color.

Bah!

Anyways, as stressful as the move has been so far, one of the things that is driving me forward is that in our new place, I get my own office! It has always been my dream to have my own home office where I can close the doors at times and really CRUSH IT.

Don’t get me wrong – I was able to make things happen in my existing workspace (which is equivalent to the size of a port-a-potty), but my new 9′ x 12′ space will definitely be conducive to making loads of progress on my existing businesses, this blog, and all of the future projects I have in store.

The Idea Room

About a month ago, when I was watching Teen Cribs on MTV (yeah, I’ll admit that…), I saw this huge house which was owned by an internet marketer who I had never heard of before. One particular room had “white markerboard” covering every inch of every single wall, and they called it the “Idea Room”. In it, the internet marketer and his teen son draw on the walls and brainstorm new business ideas and strategies.

Um, awesome!

So, I’m going to install some white markerboard in my office too, probably on at least one entire wall, maybe two. As much as I love brainstorming with online tools such as MindMeister, there’s just something about writing ideas on a wall where I can see them every time I go in the office. It will make me want to follow through and implement. Furthermore, if I ever end up doing video courses for whatever reason, I’ll already have a board behind me that I can write on.

So how much does white markerboard cost?

Not as much as you probably think.

An entire 4 foot by 8 foot sheet will only cost you $13 at Home Depot. Definitely a small price to pay for the amount of progress that could be made as a result of installing these bad boys, in my opinion. Plus, it might be fun to take Keoni into the office and help him with his math homework too.

I’ll definitely keep you updated. You can be sure that once the office is finished, I’ll do a quick video tour for you to check out. Until then, here’s to your online success!

Have a wonderful weekend!

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The Idea Room – White Markerboard Wall Plan
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Happy New Year to each and every one of you.

With the recent arrival of our new baby boy, my wife and I decided it would be a neat idea to keep a newspaper from his date of birth, and some magazines about the era in which he was born. As I was looking through a stack of magazines lying around the house, I came across the latest Time. On the cover, it boldly read: The Decade From Hell.

Do I really want my son to know he was born in the decade from hell?

I know…a lot of devastating things have happened in the past 10 years. The media has been really helpful in pointing those things out and bringing back the memories of those terrible events in magazines and articles such as this. My heart and prayers go out to all of those who were affected by these events.

But what about all of the good things that have happened? What about all of the opportunities that have been made available to us within the past 10 years? What about all of the people who have been able to speak their voice and change lives, including their own, in ways that were never possible until now? For those people, the people who’ve taken advantage of those opportunities and have taken action – the past 10 years may have been the best decade ever, not the worst.

So, when my son is old enough to ask about what was going on in the world at this time, this is what I’m going to say:

“Son, the first 10 years of the year 2000 were tough for many people. A lot of terrible things happened, things that people had no control over. But a lot of good things happened too. This was the time when I was able to start my own business, right from the very house I was living in. This was the time when I was able to be heard all around the world, just from writing words on a blog. This was the time when I learned that if you put in the hard work now, good things will happen to you later. That’s how I was able to marry someone as beautiful as your mom, which resulted in the best thing that has ever happened to me in my life. You.”

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The Worst Decade Ever?
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I’m writing this blog post on my iPhone, using the WordPress 2 iPhone app. Isn’t technology amazing? If this post doesn’t come out right or you see a superfluous amount of spelling errors, you’ll know why.

The reason I’m on my iPhone is because I’m at the hospital with my wife. Our baby boy decided he wanted to come out a month early and join us for Christmas this year! I am proud to announce the healthy birth of our son, Keoni, at 4:15am this Christmas Eve!

Because it was a month early, we were definitely surprised, and caught off guard a bit when signs for a delivery came about. Luckily we had everything prepared for the trip to the hospital already, but I have to admit, I freaked out a bit. I couldn’t find my keys and wallet, and I forgot how to put my shorts on.

We finally arrived at the hospital, and they took great care of us. In about 16 hours after checking in, our tiny 5lbs. 2oz. baby boy was born.

I’m the happiest person in the world. He’s so beautiful, and it just amazes me how life starts out in such a tiny package. It definitely puts things into perspective.

Before I leave you all to your holiday celebrations, I just wanted to say thank you to my wife, April. I’m so proud of her. She never complained during the entire process, and she showed me just how strong of a person she really is. A lot stronger than me, that’s for sure. She’s a wonderful wife, and I’m sure she’ll be an even better mother. I love you April!

Posting a blog post from my iPhone is pretty cool, but typing it sucks…

Happy holidays, Merry Christmas, and I wish you and your families all the best. Thank you for allowing me to share this brand new, amazing and beautiful part of my life with you.

Pat

p.s. I can’t embed a photo into the blog post, but I can attach one, I think. The link SHOULD be below if you’d like to get a glimpse of Keoni in his first hours of life.

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The Best Christmas Gift Ever
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Every once and a while, I like to post something about me and my family here to keep you updated on what’s been going on lately. Not only is it a nice break from a long string of hardcore blog posts about online marketing and blogging, but I just like to get personal and show you a little of what I’m about sometimes beyond what I do online.

If you don’t know already, my wife and I are having a baby boy in January. This weekend is our baby shower, and we’re totally excited! It might sound crazy to you, but there should be around 80 to 90 people attending. We’re a Filipino family (my wife is full, and I am half), and there are two things to understand about the Filipino culture:

1. Any type of celebration, including birthdays, graduations, weddings, showers, etc., become these huge events with TONS of food, lots of family and friends, and lots of good times. About 85% of the time, karaoke is involved.
2. For these celebrations, you’ll get into trouble if you do not invite someone that knows someone else who is going.

So, that’s why there are so many people coming. It’ll be lots of fun and I’ll make sure to post some pictures on my Facebook Page later next week. The Pacquiao vs. Cotto fight is on the night of our shower, so we’ll probably end up watching that too.

I have some killer blog posts lined up for next week and into the Thanksgiving Holiday, so please make sure to check back for those.

Lastly, I just wanted to say thanks to everyone who has sent me a message or emailed me to congratulate me and my wife on our new arrival. If any of you have any more parenting tips, articles, recommendations, whatever – please feel free to leave a comment below for us.

Thank you, and please have a wonderful weekend!

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Our Baby Shower! He’s coming!!!
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I’m so excited to announce that on Friday, August 28th, we found out our baby is going to be a BOY! Woohoo!

I would of been excited either way, but now that I know what exactly our baby is, all of the images and thoughts in my head of raising the baby and growing up with him are a little more real. The woman doing our ultrasound did a very good job of concealing the gender while running the standard tests on the baby. The whole time all I was thinking was “just get to the part where you tell us the gender!!!” She even typed it on the screen slowly to add some more suspense. It was such an awesome moment for me and April.

We already have a name picked out. We actually already had names picked out for both a boy and a girl a couple of years ago, and it’s cool to finally be able to start using the name when talking to her belly. Our boy’s name is: Keoni Mikah Flynn. Keoni is the Hawaiian name for John, which is my dad’s name, and we’re really big into Hawaiian culture and we also had our Honeymoon there, so Keoni seems appropriate for us. Definitely not a typical name, but we like that.

In other news…

The Smart Passive Income Blog has surpassed 1000 subscribed readers, and it took less than a year! It was my goal to have at least 1000 readers by January 1st, 2010 – so I just wanted to thank you all for making this happen much earlier for me. If you’re not subscribed and would like to help me get to 10k by 2011 (yeah, 10k – I think it can happen), please subscribe here.

Secondly, our new iPhone app, iCaption Mobile was finally approved and is available in the App Store! It’s only been 3 days, but its already had 1000 downloads, almost 100 registered users (to leave their own captions), and over 120 hilarious captions. I’ve highlighted one particular set of captions on iCaptionMobile.com just for fun – so check that out if you have time.

Lastly, I just wanted to let you know that today is my Fantasy Football league’s draft, and I’m going to OWN IT! I’m really big into fantasy football. It is a numbers game, and you know how I love numbers. Good luck to everyone else setting up their leagues too.

Many of you have already congratulated my wife and I, and we just wanted to say thank you from the bottom of our hearts. I’ll be posting my August income report soon, as well as some “breaking news”. Until then, cheers!

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It’s a BOY!
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That’s right! I’m looking for a publisher for an idea I have for a book, which I would love to turn into a series if all goes according to plan my dreams.

Although I’ve always stated that publishing an electronic book is the way to go (because of the fact that they are easy to create, easy to automate and very cost-effective), one of my life long goals is to see a book on the shelves of a major bookstore with my name on the front cover. With an idea in my head and my motivation levels high (as always), I think now is the time to start pursuing this goal.

I’m not going to tell you exactly what my idea is (I’m sorry!), but I can tell you it does involve the internet, social networking, and possibly you! Now I bet you’re really wondering what it is…but don’t worry, I will tell you eventually.

Right now, however, I will tell you about my trials and errors with this journey.

My First Task

After doing a bit of initial research, I found out that the first thing to do is find a publisher who is interested in working with me and my idea. All of this happens before I complete a manuscript because if I write the whole thing first and no publishers are interested, I will have wasted my time.

Now, I can’t just submit my idea to any publisher. Different publishers are interested in different topics, so I’m going to have to go to the bookstore into the section I hope my book will be placed someday, and check out the books there and find out who the publishers are. I already have a list of a few that I found via Amazon.com that I plan to submit a submission package to.

What’s in a Submission Package?

Let’s take one of the publishers I plan on submitting to, HCIBooks.com. Their submission package requires the following (directly from the HCI submission webpage):

• Target audience
• Market size, description and demographics
• How do you intend to promote the book?
• Book summary and purpose
• Book’s unique content and characteristic
• Competing titles and sales figures
• Specific information not provided by comparable titles

IV. SASE
Send a self-addressed, stamped (not metered) envelope of suitable size and with sufficient postage to return your proposal. Materials received without an appropriate SASE will not be returned.

That’s a lot of things, but I’m sure they only want serious inquiries and want to know as much about the person and his/her project as possible before even considering working with them. Definitely understandable.

No Matter What Happens…

I think this will be a great learning experience. It may be a lost cause, or it may be the greatest experience ever. I won’t know unless I give it a shot, and I believe I have the business experience and the motivation to make this happen for me.

More details coming soon…I gotta get my submission package in order. Wish me luck!

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My Journey to Find a Publisher Begins
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