TRANSLATE THIS WEBSITE

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Is your website a source of frustration or enjoyment for you?

Dare I say you can ENJOY (re)building a site??  I do dare!

Websites are big sources of uncertainty, stress and excuses for not moving forward – but they don’t have to be. With a little help and guidance, you can actually have fun building a great one in a weekend…without spending as much time, money or energy as you think it takes…and without worrying about all the technical stuff.  That’s right – even if you’re a techno-phobe 🙂

I and Simon Carstensen have a new PebbleStorm teleclass next Wednesday on how to “Build Your Website in a Weekend”.  In it Simon (the brains of this website operation stuff) will explain how to enjoy building your website without having to:

  • Spend lots of time figuring out how to set it up
  • Spend $3000-5000 to have someone do it for you
  • Struggle to attract customers once it’s up

So if you need a new website or need to redo one, this teleclass is one you don’t want to miss.

How To Register

http://simoncarstensen.com/weekendwebsite

In addition to sharing the steps of how to do this on your own, the call will give you a sense of how Simon’s upcoming group program will work if you want a) a Simon’s personal help and b) the support of a bunch of other people (like me) who are doing the upcoming weekend program together.

I And My Mom Are In The Boat With Ya

That’s right – I will be doing this call and his weekend course with you, as I update my janky 5-year old www.BuildASalesMachine.com site in preparation for an upcoming sales book launch 🙂

My mom’s signed up as well, so she can finally turn www.MardeRoss.com into a site about her passions.

Your Horror Stories – Leave A Comment

We’d love to hear from you if you have any horror stories about spending way too much time or money on your site. Please leave a comment about it!  Or, what worked really well for you?


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Everyone who reads this blog (this means YOU) wants to help others or make a difference in some way – whether it’s before, during or after you make a pile of money.  There’s greatness & happiness in you.  So is your current work exposing that greatness and happiness, or discouraging it?  Does your work make you “more of who you really are” or “less of who you really are”?  Take five minutes for this handy-dandy sanity check.

FIRST: Your Positive (Light) Side. How Often Does Work Bring Out Your Best?

How do you see yourself?  What are your values?  How do you want to feel and move through life?

STEP ONE (1 Minute)

Write down five values or feelings or ways of being that you are, such as Creative, Appreciative, Happy, Growing, Healing, Supportive, Patient, Fun, Accepting, Gracious, Wealthy, Valuable, Trusting, Inspiring, Making A Difference, etc. The don’t need to be your perfect top five, just write down five that come to mind.  This should not take you more than 30 seconds.

Here are five that just came to my mind – though I have thought about this quite a bit over the past 1-2 years 🙂 :

  1. Playful
  2. Adventurous
  3. Loving
  4. Patient
  5. Trusting

STEP TWO (1 Minute)

Now stop and reflect – does your work help you be more of these values each day?  Does it make you, for example, more playful, more adventurous, more loving, more patient, more trusting?  (If you’re not sure, the answer is no.)

For me, the answer in general is yes-yes-yes-yes-yes…though it ebbs and flows day by day or week by week.  I am always working on being/feeling more of these values more of the time each day.  Although I have my ups and downs some hours/days/weeks/etc, overall I clearly live my life along those values much more now than I did a couple of years ago, B.P. (Before PebbleStorm).

SECOND: Your Negative (Dark) Side. How Often Does Work Bring Out Your Worst?

STEP ONE (1 Minute)

Write down five negative patterns / feelings / ways of being that you see in yourself that you don’t like. Being honest with yourself, what negative aspects of you come out in your work – can you be fearful? Stressed? Mean? Inconsiderate? Busy? Abrupt? Forgetful? Late? Dream killing? Discouraging? Selfish? Jealous? Unhealthy?

This should not take you more than 30 seconds.  You are allowed to ask coworkers and spouses for their suggestions…though you may not be able to stop them at five, heh!

Here are five that just came to my mind that I notice in myself (plus some extra notes about each for context):

  1. Impatience – While I am vastly more patient than I used to be, this pattern does come up. Impatience (as distinct from urgency) is a form of unhappiness. To me, impatience = arbitrary dissatisfaction with your present moment or situation when you can’t do anything about it except change your attitude…like a child in October who’s unhappy that Xmas is two months away.
  2. Workaholic-ism – I can easily slip back to the pattern of “more work creates more results”, which is only true in the short term (days, weeks, months).  Throwing more hours at something is a crutch for lacks of creativity, clarity or patience.
  3. Stress – Stress is the true enemy and a killer. The irony of my expanding self-awareness is that while I am less stressed than I used to be, I am more aware of when I have any stress at all.  The cleaner you make a room, the more any little dust ball stands out.
  4. Don’t listen – When I’m impatient, stressed, etc, I can stop listening to partners, clients, employees. Not good!
  5. Lack of clarity – Right now I am ‘focusing’ on just four active businesses/lines of thinking (PebbleStorm, CEOFlow, Build A Sales Machine, DataSalad), and it can be challenging creating and updating clear visions for each regular, both long-term visions and short-term plans.

In general I am not impatient, or stressed, or unfocused. But these are darkside patterns that I tend to slip back into if I get off track,  too busy or even when I travel (travel can throw my whole routine off) and I stop or slack on my 10-Step Morning Personal Success Routine.

Step TWO (1 Minute)

Take a minute to reflect: in your work now, today, this past week…how many and how much of these negative patterns came up?  Do you feel them every day, or infrequently?

Does your work bring up more of your positive attributes or more negative patterns?  What’s ‘winning’?

This exercise does not help if you lie to yourself about your work – and I’m not just talking here to the lawyers, investment bankers and bail bondsmen out there.  CEOs and executives can often more unhappy and stressed than say, a factory worker, because the responsibility and pressure gets to you over time without you realizing it. You don’t even notice it until you stop and look back in moments like now.

THIRD: Whatcha Gonna Do About It?

Whether your work sucks or you don’t love it – don’t quit your day job if you need income!  But at a minimum decide you deserve better, and that you will do something about it.  Create a plan for how and when you want to escape – even if it’s years away. Don’t let yourself look back five years from now and think, “how did five more years go by so fast?”

Here are three places to start to stir things up in your noggin (the “Make a list” step is the 5th minute of the “5 Minute Sanity Check”):

  1. Make a list (1 Minute): Quick! Brainstorm 10 things you can do tomorrow or next week to help work bring out more of the good stuff, and keep away more of the bad stuff?  Of the 10, pick out 2-3 are the best ideas you are going to try right away – and get a buddy to support each other in doing them!
  2. The Unique Genius Worksheet: To get some of your creative juices flowing, you can get (for the first time or re-download) our Unique Genius worksheet from: http://www.PebbleStorm.com/updates (On that same page, you can also download and listen to the “Invitation To Inspiration” call recording, to hear what being a part of an inspirational community feels like.)
  3. “14 Simple Ways To Inject Enjoyment Into Work”: No matter what your work is, you can ALWAYS find ways to make it more enjoyable right now: https://pebblestorm.com/2009/07/11/14-simple-ways-to-inject-enjoyment

FOUR: Leave A Comment Below And Share Some Wisdom

How did the sanity check work for you?  What are you going to do differently now?  Or what worked for you that you’d recommend to others? Please leave a comment!

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Can just three days with the PebbleStorm community, such as in the recent PebbleStorm Immersion, change your life?

In January we held an in-person event here in LA, the PebbleStorm “Learn, Create & Launch Your Business In A Weekend” Fun Immersion.  20 people attended the first day of the event (“Learn”), and 10 of us continued on through the entire three day Immersion “(Create & Launch”). The videos and stories here from three people are a small sample of the amazing energy, support and progress of the group.

Jared Krause, a social entrepreneur focused on directing group energy and action at direct solutions to global problems:

Jared wrote a blog post about the PebbleStorm Immersion three weeks after it ended:

“I went into the immersion not knowing what to expect. I’d gotten to know Aaron very briefly and frankly if I wasn’t at my wits end I probably wouldn’t have done it. I saw a video he did for a smaller event (that ended up attending and liking) and thought, what the hell. I remember thinking that Aaron seemed like he was actually enjoying his life. A guy who’d built a hundred million dollar per year sales team actually enjoying his life. Amazing.

My company has been death rattling for months and I’ve been looking for what’s next. It’s really hard letting go of something you give your all and believe in and I felt relatively fragile going in to something where I was going to not only think about next steps but really expose my situation to strangers. The fact that Aaron was so open and honest about having been through a failed startup, then a very successful traditional technology track and come out on the other side climbing mountains, riding motorcycles and meditating gave me enough confidence in him to give myself over his process.

Really, it could hardly have been better. What I’ve told people about him since is that Aaron’s totally excellent at figuring out not just what you’re great at, passionate about and excited to do, but also how to package that in a way that you can sell without feeling like you’re selling. And for a lot more money that at least I had imagined. He leveraged his skills and the collective experience and knowledge of the group to help me focus on what I could do to get started quickly, use the resources I had and really start to hone in on how to live the life of my dreams. That’s a big claim, but I feel more capable than I ever of have of getting there. I’ve been actively looking for that path for the last 4 years and in many ways I got more focus and direction out of the 3-day immersion than I had in the previous 4 years.

One of the biggest takeaways, perhaps the biggest, is the idea and practice of baby steps. Frankly, when I first heard him talk about it I was almost annoyed. I never take baby steps. I start running then move directly into flying before (often) falling and starting over. It’s not that my ideas aren’t strong or my ability to execute isn’t there, it’s that I didn’t realize that the way to actually go where I want to go is to break the huge task into little steps that I’m comfortable taking. And then to actually take them. One after another without skipping any.

Since the immersion I can’t say that I’ve conquered the world or made $1,000,000 (it’s been 3 weeks), but I can say that I’ve started to speak to people from the heart about what I care about and am getting tremendous response. In fact, as I’ve started to talk about it, I’ve started to attract clients quickly and easily. It’s not earth shattering, but within 3 weeks and with no more than 4 hours/week I’ve attracted a small handful of folks who are serious about paying me to do something I’ve dreamt of doing for years.

I’m having my first event tomorrow. It’s a gathering of 12 friends and partners getting together to talk about what we can do together. What’s happening in their lives and how we might work together to support each other and take focus on creating positive solutions to some major problems. I can say that I’ve been totally shocked by how many people not only said they wanted to come to the meeting, but were really, genuinely excited about it and wanted to bring people with them.

I’m looking forward to it and looking forward to keeping engaged with the PebbleStorm community. Aaron has attracted an absolutely amazing group of people. Dynamic, supportive, brilliant, passionate and engaged. Really, one of greatest advantages of the immersion was getting connected to such a fantastic group of folks. For anyone considering it, I would highly recommend it particularly if you’re looking for a real, practical and actionable way to start moving toward the life/work situation that you really want. Aaron is living proof that what he’s doing is working.

Thanks Aaron and thanks PebbleStorm!”

Onna Young, founder of Life After Debt: “A place for people to empower themselves financially, get debt free, and life a life they love and that inspires them”: “We’ve all created a business in a weekend, and it was nothing short of stunning and amazing and quite powerful experience for everyone in the room…”

Kim Santy, Founder of Soul Shui: “Balanced Living Through A Holistic Lifestyle“: “PebbleStorm as a community is extremely powerful…PebbleStorm has been instrumental in really helping me get to the next place in my life, helping me transform and become the kind of person I want to be…”

And Even After The Event Ends…

Jared: “…the further I get from the Immersion the more value it’s having to me.”

Phil Gascoyne, business coach & mentor: “4 weeks after the event when the hype is gone but the practical wisdom and community encouragement are just as powerful.   There hasn’t been a day gone by since the event that PebbleStorm hasn’t affected my life in some tangible way…and it is continuing to have even more impact as I take action on the ideas I have learned.   Thanks Aaron and the PebbleStorm Community.”

Thank you Phil for being such a positive and encouraging member of the group – I know people got as much help from you as you did from them.

It’s All About The Community

My vision for PebbleStorm has always (since July 2007) been to create a community of trusting people that have fun helping each other succeed. I was (and am) clear that my favorite part of work is creating things with people I trust and like – and I wanted to be able to do that all the time, and make money at it. What’s your favorite part of work?

Whether it’s in PebbleStorm or another group that more closely fits you – communities do exist that want to help you succeed and be happy. You don’t have to go it alone – and in fact, it’s a lot more fun and easier to succeed with a group of like-minded people. If you can’t find a group that you connect with, create one!

Next Up: A PebbleStorm Group Program/Mastermind

In the coming weeks we will be announcing the details of our next group program/Mastermind, which will be a group of people from around the world (including from LA, SF Bay Area, DC, NY, Dallas, Pennsylvania, Hawaii, Paris, Copenhagen, Buenos Aires, Australia, Brussels…) coming together to support each other in:

  1. Making as much money as you authentically want.
  2. Aligning your work with your life values and passions.
  3. Creating fulfilling work that makes a difference.
  4. Feeling powerful, valuable and capable of making an impact.
  5. Having the peace of mind & freedom that comes with having all the support you want from people that you trust and respect.

Don’t want to wait?

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