This is a long post and the mindset behind it was to show you what goes into my day to day right now. Why? Because I’m asked at least 15 times a day how I do all that I do, or what I focus on, or what makes up my universe of touches in a given day. I thought I’d show you the shape of my game.
While answering questions for some behind-the-scenes work, I started writing down what my day today was like. Most of my days are different in small ways, but this is an example of the current pace. There’s no real lesson to learn here. I just wanted to show you what it takes to keep my part of the game in play.
What I did yesterday:
3:24AM Go to sleep after working 3 hours to fix a problem with SMC Kuala Lumpur’s video upload.
7:00AM Wake up
7:10AM Call with Nashville event. Run-through of my work with them.
7:12AM Food arrives at my room. Gets cold. I drink the smoothie, leave the eggs.
7:40AM Dip into emails and stuff. Answer a few tweets. Comment on some blogs.
8:00AM Call with Lynne D Johnson on new project for November.
8:21AM Shower and groom
8:30AM Downstairs to meet Tim Hayden (didn’t get the mail he’d be late)
9:00AM Meet Hayden and Paul Walker (UT), and Cierra Savatgy-King for breakfast (fruit and grits).
10:25AM Walker leaves. Hayden and I talk business (love this man).
10:30AM Hayden lets me go.
10:31AM Get into Simon Salt’s car with Julien and Tessa
10:35AM Pick off a few emails while carrying on chatter with humans
11:19AM Arrive at venue
11:25AM Deep in the humans (what I love most)
11:28AM Take 1 quick personal call. Back to the humans.
11:45AM Put together an impromptu slide deck because they demand slides and Julien and I were doing a chat
12:00PM Present to Austin AMA marketing
1:06PM Finish presenting. Start signing books and shaking hands, hugging, posing for photos.
1:40PM Podcast interview with Fred for Struggling Entrepreneur show (check email a bit during)
1:55PM Eat chicken and rice (pretty delicious).
2:15PM In the car to the airport (check email a bit, friend back some folks on facebook).
2:50PM Arrive at the airport and check in/security screen.
3:20PM Plug in for power and flip open the Verizon air card. Download all my email for the day to my laptop for offline mode. Process another 9 emails.
4:00PM Jump in the plane. Get out another 7 emails.
4:26PM Crack open the laptop. Listen to Jay-Z The Blueprint 3 (amazon link) and answer emails in offline mode.
6:05PM Write two blog posts (still listening to The Blueprint 3).
I’ll arrive in New York pretty late, and will try to get some sleep before tomorrow. I’m going to be at the Writer’s Digest conference, but because I’m in New York, I also have a lot of other people to check in with, lots of meetings, and as much opportunity as I can squeeze into this crazy tour.
Days are packed with interview requests, emails, project requests, new connections, and lots and lots and lots of people asking me to look at their new whatever. You’re all important. I’m doing everything I can to answer things in between planes.
From New York, it’s Vegas, then Nashville, then Atlanta, then Orange County, California.
I won’t be in my own bed until sometime in October. This is okay. It was part of the plan. Kat and the family are okay with this. We’ll see each other in Orange County for a few days, and my kids will see Disneyland (Thanks, Cheril). This is what I signed on for.
Most people have one business, or two. I haven’t operated that way since 2005, but this is a bit mental, even for me. With that all in mind, I’ll tell you what’s working well:
* Great team with me at New Marketing Labs (announcement coming soon of our new guys, too).
* Great professional assistant (Diane Brogan, aka my Mom, who joined me last month).
* Outsourcing help (from Chel Pixie on a project for an upcoming book).
* Friends (a few behind-the-scenes bits of help from friends I didn’t get permission to name).
And what am I doing next? I’m building armies (the last of the six tenets of being a Trust Agent). I’m working on developing more people, raising up more talent, and expanding what we’re all doing in this space. What I believe and what I do is something that many great people are doing. I want to bring more of them into our fold as we grow more and more opportunities. As New Marketing Labs is helping big companies get more human and connect with these new tools, I’m confident that I’ve got a good company running, and I’m grateful that I’ve got Stephen Saber and Nick Saber as partners to guide me during our growth.
Outside of New Marketing Labs, I’m developing some new projects. Readers of my newsletter are getting insight into one of these projects. It’s not marketing. It’s about how human business works, and goes beyond social media. The other projects? I’ll keep them in stealth mode until they’re ready to launch, but just know that things are moving here at a blur pace.
This post isn’t intended as a way to talk about myself. Instead, I’m illustrating what goes into running business, what goes into hustling (as the kids say), what goes into moving my chips from one game to the next game, and how to keep the plates in the air in the interim. I’m changing my own game. I’m making new ones.
You? If you’re wondering where your big success is, it’s in work like this. It’s in grinding it out. You don’t have to do this to get by in life. I’m not in the “getting by” game. I’m out to win. For me, I’m going to build something to help as many people as I can before the spotlight goes off.
What’s your story?
(Oh, and I’m still listening to Jay-Z’s The Blueprint 3)
