For the last two months I’ve published monthly reports. No, I don’t go into how much money I make (I’ll leave that to my buddy, Pat Flynn!). What I focus on is the journey.
The entrepreneurial journey.
In my January report I talked about speaking at live events, hanging out with Gary Vaynerchuk and the launch of my book minisite.
In February I discussed how I was launching a new podcast to promote Virtual Freedom, a course on personal branding and the focus I had on getting ready to host my first big event, Tropical Think Tank. I want to make it clear that I don’t publish these reports to ‘show off’ in any way. There are lots of other entrepreneurs that are out there that are overall more successful than me. I publish them because they help ME stay on track, I know people love to be that fly on the wall, and because I simply love looking back on the month that just was!
This report is a little late, as I was focusing on the launch of the book, and then learning how to breathe again after the launch! 🙂
So, without further ado, let’s start breaking down the month of March, 2014.
Important Happenings This Month
This month was about two massive milestones in my life and career, as an entrepreneur.
First up – becoming a traditionally published author, a goal I have had for as long as I can remember. Secondly, hosting my first big event for entrepreneurs – right here in Cebu, Philippines.
Tropical Think Tank – Ever since having a conversation in Portland (while attending World Domination Summit – I’ll be there again this coming July, and throwing a BIG BOOK PARTY, too!) last year, I have been looking forward to this event. I was able to convince some of the biggest business brains in the online space to converge onto Cebu City, here in the Philippines for 5-days of entrepreneurial learning and masterminding.
It was life-changing for everyone. And I mean everyone… all 25 attendees and 8 speakers – myself included.
Here’s a video showing some of the highlights!
We had such amazing feedback from everyone that we’ve decided to do it again next year! Details are still sketchy, however, if you’d like to be notified when we finalize everything, just complete the form below:
Preparing for ‘Virtual Freedom’ Launch – The launch of my first book was supposed to be July, and Tropical Think Tank was strategically placed in the middle of the start of the year and this milestone as a nice ‘break from the norm’. Then my publisher decided to move the launch date of the book to April 1st.
So, I had my first big event to put on and then the launch of my book to prepare for – all within a few weeks! Fun times. Luckily I have great teams in place that helped me with both focuses this month and we did a remarkable job in pulling it, I tell ya!
Many of you participated in the launch of the book by purchasing one of the different bonus bundles I put together to help celebrate the launch, and I’m happy to say that I couldn’t have been any happier with it, as an overall event!
We put on a Google Hangout (with people shooting selfies of themselves at the computer, watching it and then tweeting ’em out – see above!) which was so much fun, and had plenty of other memorable activities throughout the course of the week, including pinning all of the brilliant ‘In the Wild’ photos that readers have been sending in – check them out – some are amazing!
I’ll be doing a full-on review of the launch, covering everything we did to build buzz, and some of the things that didn’t quite work out as well as we expected. However, overall it was a success with the book reaching the Top 150 Amazon Bestseller List and becoming a #1 Bestseller in THREE different business categories, too! 🙂
Thank you for your support.
Lessons Learned This Month
This is the section in which I will lay down some home-truths from the last month. Generally speaking they will be from lessons that I learned myself, through personal experiences, but from time to time, I might just share lessons I’ve heard from other people I admire, too.
Your Network Matters More Than You Know – last month I talked about the importance of deadlines and how they truly do matter in your business. This month my biggest lesson was learning, once again (I’m reminded regularly!) that your network matters, especially around launch time, more than anything else in your business. The peers, friends and colleagues I called on to help spread the word for the book came to my aid, and the result was nothing short of amazing.
Spinning Your Wheels Does Help… Sometimes – Not in a positive sense, however. There were a lot of things that I did throughout the course of March that, quite frankly, I shouldn’t have handled myself. I’ll talk more about this in a future post – however, its through spinning your wheels a little that you can learn such things and then move on and well above and beyond from them. Once again I’m reminded, even after 23-years in business and 10-years as an entrepreneur, that we all still have plenty of learning to do. And I love that fact!
The Support of Your Spouse is Needed More Than Anything in Life – If you’re running a business your focus will shift entirely to that business on a regular basis. Sometimes that focus will last an hour, or two. Sometimes a day, or two – sometimes longer. From the beginning of March, before Tropical Think Tank began, right through to the end of the first week of April my wife, Erz (pictured above with me), was there to help and support every single step of the way. She was amazing, as always. So, thank you, darling. Mwah!
Plans for Next Month
After one of the biggest, busiest months of my entire career I’m taking it a little easier in April, if that’s okay?!
London Town, Mate! – April marks the return to my birthplace for the first time in a year. I absolutely LOVE the City of London. I’m going to be in town for 2-weeks and will be doing nothing at all, but spending time with family, reading, eating fish and chips, enjoying a fine ale or two and… hang on – wait. I can’t go to London and do absolutely NOTHING business related… it’s just not my bag, baby! 🙂
Presenting at a special London, UK ‘Meetup’ 4-Hour Work Week Event – One of the biggest pivots I’ve made in my life has been my 2010 ‘Virtual CEO’ Goal, which I put in place after reading Tim Ferriss’ game-changer back in 2009.
And I’m super excited to announce that I was recently contacted by the organizers of the London ‘Meetup’ group under the same name (not officially affiliated with Tim, FYI) and will be presenting at a special ‘on-off’ event for them on April 28th in London. More info on the event can be found here, but please note – you need to be a member of this MeetUp.com group first – it’s free, so just hit the ‘Join Us!’ button and once approved, you’ll get access to all the event details.
London ‘New Business’ Mastermind Session – This will be my first private mastermind session of the year – I’m holding FIVE of these events this year – in five completely different cities around the world between now and the end of 2014. These events are among some of the most fun that I’m blessed to be part of throughout the year, as they allow me to get up close and personal with my online tribe and to genuinely help them build their business – one on one.
Overall Business Growth Planning for the rest of 2014 – I’m also using April to spend time re-setting myself a little bit, as an entrepreneur. The first quarter of the year has flown by, and the next three are going to be just as exciting and busy (lots of speaking gigs planned!) and I want to make sure that my goal of launching my own community based project, by the end of 2014 will happen.
So, when I’m in London I’ll be taking plenty of walks and enjoying many fine cups of coffee over some business and growth planning sessions. Anyone that knows me knows that when I zone-in like this… plenty of action is taken!!!
Now it’s Your Turn!
I’d like for you to tell me what you have planned for the coming month.
Writing it in the comment section below will make it way more likely to happen, and you’ll be holding yourself accountable in front of the rest of the ‘New Business Tribe’.
Remember, being a productive entrepreneur is about taking action. Start now by sharing your proposed next 30-days worth of business goals, and lets all cheer each other along towards achieving them!
Until next month…
