Best time is now

Who am I? How am I doing? What am I doing now? And why?

Expected reading time: 6 minutes

Hi, it’s Alex from naii.io. I’m an artist, voiceover friend, copywriter, and entrepreneur from Berlin, Germany.

I have defined 2020 as my dream year. I want to spend what it as close to my ideal as possible. This means that I’m doing these 2 things:

  1. Business & Tech. Working on my startup Studiolist, the a global search engine for voiceover actors to find recording studios. I traveled for 4 months (Feb-May 2019) to Morocco, Portugal, Spain, USA (6 weeks), and UK (3.5 weeks) to validate its market fit, and I verified close to 100 studios so far. There is a market. My goal is to make Studiolist.org the biggest search-engine of voiceover recording studios so that you don’t have to use Google/Google Maps anymore to find voiceover studios
  2. Art & Acting. I do artistic work by putting together „At the Hour of Annihilation“ a theater play about a coronavirus which shakes up a global party with people from all walks of life and reveals that everyone is living in their own phantasy.

I also have two small side-project:

  1. Stoic philosophy reads and voiceovers (currently on hold)
  2. This Podcast is Full of Ads - exciting stories told as a collection of commercials with a conversational tone

It’s also part of my dream year that I will be on the road business-wise. I’ll be in Orlando (March) and London (May) to attend voiceover / podcasting conferences. And if everything goes well, I’ll take the September off to see the area around India.

Living my dream year also means I take a week off every seventh week. Every year, I don’t have more than 180 business days so that I have half a year obligations and the other half no obligations at all.

I do all of this with my savings (12k) and with the support of my mom. I’m documenting how much cash I have left and everything through a weekly show on YouTube.

My superpower: Encouraging makers

I keep re-inventing myself. But something has been steady throughout the years: I’m best at encouraging and empowering people - in person, through writing and with the help of my voice. That’s my superpower. In other words: I’m a salesman (I was that wise 7 years ago. For some reason and from time to time, I still seem to be questioning my nature of being a salesman (connector).) .

However, I hope you’ll always evolve.

Why the /now page?

I’m documenting the „now“ status of my life because it’s an anchor that gives me directions or holds me back when I’m about to enter dangerous waters or grounds.

Where am I?

I’ve been back in Berlin, Germany since October 2019 after I had attended a copywriting conference in sunny St. Petersburg, Florida, and after I had been traveling for four months to different places in Morocco, Portugal, Spain, USA, and UK to meet recording studio owners for my search-engine startup.

My most important places in the web

naii.io - my central hub in the web

In the fediverse:

Mainstream social media / centralized web:

Niche social media:

I’m trying to build relationships with the indie maker scene through conversations at WIP.chat and on Indie Hackers.

Future vision

All my actions are geared towards building Paradise Island, an exotic island and luxury resort where people find their true self, their true nature, their core or what I call their „nucleus“. The first step for the island to become reality is my book PARADISE as well as freewritecamp.org, acting, artistry, and identity research.

Here comes the funny part now: Paradise Island certainly helps people to find their nucleus but with that space on the island and the time people spend there they discover that (for the purpose of self-discovery) it does not need an island or an exotic place. It only needs a calm place inside yourself, the courage to constantly discover the depths of yourself, and the willingness to learn from it — every day!

Making Paradise Island is, therefore, also the negation of Paradise Island just like the man that is burnt down when Burning Man is over. So, I’m building Paradise Island to make it obsolete in the future. Paradise Island is a planned obsolescence in its nature. Paradise Island is an unpainted vanitas still-life.

The presence

Coming back to the presence, this is what matters to me.

My 4-sided sacred circle of well-being

All 4 elements make sure I stay healthy and sane. Also, o² has two meanings: Breathing personally, for myself, so I stay grounded and calm (curing myself), and breathing in terms of business, so I have enough oxygen (fuel) for my projects to run and grow.

Mantras that accompany me

My permanent todo list:

My priorities in life:

Through my work on Studiolist I’m living these two priorities. It was a 19-year old young-blood from Wales who taught me in Cardiff that my priorities in life are movement (freedom) and mating. He told me that you can have four core motivations to reach and maintain clarity in your actions: Movement/Freedom, Mating, Material/Money, Mastery. Out of these four you have to pick two. Then you know what matters to you in life right now. It’s hard to decide but once you made the decision your actions will be much clearer targeted and executed with more conviction.

A reminder that I already have all the skills I need to make a million dollars:

And this guy in his 30s shows that.

I focus on the creation, not the money part of it. A thing makes money only when created, not the other way around.  Money makes no creation. You make creation. And I do because I have rebel artist and inner child inside me which allows me to:

  1. Make a body of work
  2. Take it (and yourself) seriously
  3. Share it with the world

I’m still working in making all three happen.

What also keeps me going

My father’s non-biological father died on March 9th, 2019. I had the chance to meet him last year (2018) when we talked about his wife (my grandma) who has been in a state of strong Alzheimer for years now - getting worse. I’m reminded that I want to meet people while they’re alive and live my life to the fullest while I still can.

The end

This update is from 09 February 2020. The previous update was on 30 June 2019.

The /now update is inspired by Derek Sivers who I met in person which was fantastic! Next to meeting Amber Rae it was my highlight of the year 2019.

I’m Alexander Kluge, born 36 years ago. I have no children or a wife but a 13-year old baby that makes me happy :) and will make me a fortune.