Pebblestorm

The Unique Genius Superheroes Interview Series is about ordinary people who have created businesses they love around their purpose. They’ve found ways to combine enjoyment, money and meaning in their work!

If you think all the productivity & life direction advice sounds the same out there (except for mine, of course), meet Jonathan Mead, founder of Illuminated Mind & Body (or just “Illuminated Mind”).

Jon’s a really interesting guy who has fun turning “success/life advice” on its head with attention-grabbing blog posts such as “If It’s A Good Idea, Don’t Do It“, “The Best Way To Solve A Problem: Give Up“, and “The Lie Of The Four Hour Workweek“.

Jon’s a precocious 24-year old entrepreneur, author, blogger, martial artist, general seeker adventure and husband who bailed on his 9-5 job in 2009 once he could support himself on his Illuminated Mind business. It’s not yet making him rich – it’s under six figures (for now) – but he supports himself on it and he’s living and working his purpose. And the money will keep coming & growing as he keeps this up.  He’s “got it”.

Jonathan started simply – as a part-time blogger  – and his unique take on topics and no-nonsense writing style…if you’re turned off by the terms ‘ass-kicking’ & ‘kicking ass’, stay away 🙂

Here are some of the topics we covered…

• How Jon juggled creating Illuminated Mind while working full time and being married
• What Jon sacrificed to start and grow Illuminated Mind
• How he got to making about $4k per month working part time (before he quit his job)
• Two methods Jon uses to be hyper-productive
• The REAL value of blogging (it’s not all about building an audience)
• How to make success or a goal “inevitable”
• An unforeseen challenges of being his own boss

And more, of course!

Listen To Or Download The Interview

Want to download the interview?
Click here to download…

More About Jonathan Mead

• www.IlluminatedMind.net
• Bodyweight Renegade
• Follow Jon on Twitter

Here is the Steve Pavlina post that he refers to in the interview: 10 Reasons To Not Get A Job

More About Unique Genius

There’s a process to discovering your purpose and turning it into a business you love. Find out the latest at www.UniqueGenius.com.

What Was Your Favorite Part Of The Interview?

Please leave a comment!

Do you hold other people up on pedestals?  Do you think you should always be clear and happy, and feel guilty when you aren’t?  Everyone is human, and perfect in their imperfections.

I can feel confused. I can be overwhelmed.  I get anxious.  I feel all the same stuff you do. The fear comes up…but I don’t let it stop me from moving forward, even if ‘forward’ is a babystep.

Babysteps, no matter how small, are one of my main “get unstuck” practices. I LOVE babysteps!

Here’s a two minute video of me sharing about what I did when I was feeling totally overwhelmed last week:

What I Created

In the video I share the next step that gave me a real sense of relief.  Below is the landing page I drafted in Powerpoint.

If you haven’t done one before, or anything like it, it might look like a lot of work.  It wasn’t – I’d already written much of this content up in different places, or in my Unique Genius webinars and invitations.  For me, the challenge was removing content to leave behind the least, best stuff (click on it to enlarge it):

Related Posts

• Using Rocks & Babysteps To Overcome The Fear
• Fear is Natural – Just Get Started

Do you worry about being transparent with clients and friends? It’s much easier to be this way and BE YOURSELF…rather than putting on a mask of perfection.

What Do You Do When You Feel Like This?

Please leave a comment, I and others would love to hear from you and get your advice!

The Unique Genius Superheroes Interview Series is about ordinary people who have created businesses they love around their purpose. They’ve found ways to combine enjoyment, money and meaning in their work.

Interested in learning more about someone who wants to “infect 1 billion people with the possibility virus”? Meet Michael Bungay Stanier.

Michael is the founder of Box of Crayons, a company that works with organizations around the world to help them “do less Good Work and more Great Work”. Michael was the 2006 Canadian Coach of the Year & is the author of Do More Great Work.

I found him last year, after he released the viral video “The Eight Irresistible Principles of Fun” and loved his work and the style he brings to it!  Michael’s “Do More Great Work” has a lot in common with my own Unique Genius work.

Here are some of the topics we covered…

• The 3 things you need to do more great work (and less good work)
• How Michael secured a part-time contract to support himself for a whole year while he got started
• How long it took him to “stumble along” to get clarity on his own Great Work (Unique Genius)
• Michael’s “portfolio approach” of having a mix of paying projects + visionary projects
• How his “8 principles of fun” movie helped him skyrocket him (after nobody cared for it)
• How Michael organizes his environment & days to maximize his Great Work
• Michael’s support systems he’s established to help him succeed & get through rough spots

And more, of course 🙂

Listen To Or Download The Interview

Want to download the interview?
Click here to download…

More About Michael Bungay Stanier

* You can buy “Do More Great Work” Book On Amazon
* www.DoMoreGreatWork.com
* Box Of Crayons (His consulting company)

About Unique Genius

There’s a process to discovering your purpose and turning it into a business you love. Find out the latest at www.UniqueGenius.com.

What Was Your Favorite Part Of The Interview?

Please leave a comment!

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The Unique Genius Superheroes Interview Series is about ordinary people who have created businesses they love around their purpose.

Everyone has a purpose (or “calling”), and there are always ways to turn your purpose, any purpose, into a business you love. It’s easier to live your purpose daily when you do it for work!

Chip Conley is the founder & CEO of Joie de Vivre, the largest boutique hotel group in California. He’s also the bestselling author of “Peak: How Great Companies Get Their Mojo From Maslow”.

Chip’s found his calling twice in his life, and I was fascinated to find out if there were patterns between the two.

At 26, Chip left a highly successful career in commercial real estate to become a rebellious boutique hotel entrepreneur, and create a successful business through inspired employees.  In the past few years, Chip’s recent calling to teach companies & people how to become more successful is manifesting through his books and a PeakOrganizations.com seminars business.

One of the many things that I admire about Chip Conley is how he created a corporate culture of success at Joie de Vivre by focusing on his employees, and helping them find their own meaning at work. Chip believes that the success of a company depends highly on the emotional well being of the employees. Enjoyment at work creates happier employees, who create happier customers which leads to higher revenue growth & lower service costs!

Here’s some of what we covered in the interview:

• The differences between a job, career & calling
• How he’s found TWO callings in his life
• How, before Chip was famous, he convinced Richard Branson to write a foreword to one of his books
• How to create a corporate culture of recognition that juices employee morale & motivation
• And more!

Chip also gives us a couple of examples of the “Emotional Equations” that are the basis of an upcoming book.

Listen To Or Download The Interview

Want to download the interview?
Click here to download…

More About Chip Conley

• ChipConley.com
• PeakOrganizations.com “Transforming the Way Business Is Done”
• On Amazon: Chip’s “PEAK” book

About Unique Genius

There’s a process to discovering your purpose and turning it into a business. Find out the latest at www.UniqueGenius.com.

What Was Your Favorite Part Of The Interview?

Please leave a comment!

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The Unique Genius Superheroes Interview Series is about ordinary people who have created businesses they love around their purpose. I recently had the privilege of interviewing Marc Allen, an internationally renowned author and president and publisher of the multi-million dollar company New World Library.

I wanted to interview Marc for two reasons:

1) Marc Allen and I think almost exactly alike! In many ways his writings follow similar principles to PebbleStorm, including (“Visionary Business,” “The Millionaire Course,” and “The Type-Z Guide to Success: A Lazy Person’s Manifesto to Wealth and Fulfillment.”)

2) Marc loves writing books that have an impact in the world and change peoples lives, and part of his work includes guidance on helping people find their purpose.

While much of the interview delves into both how he found his purpose and it led him to financial independence, we covered a lot of related ground, including:

• What happened on the morning of his 30th bday that shifted the direction of his life 180 degrees.
• How his “Ideal Scene” practice works (it was his single most important tool he used to change his core beliefs around life, work and money).
• How he avoided bankruptcy at 35 and turned his finances around.
• Why, in creating and building his multi-million dollar company, he never worked at it more than 30 hours per week.
• His take on the three things a business needs to succeed.
• Why he shares 50% of his profits with employees (I’m going to have to do a follow up CEOFlow interview with him!)
• How being generous is the smart way to be selfish 🙂
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Listen To Or Download The Interview

Want to download the interview?
Click here to download the interview…

More About Marc

You can find out more about Marc at www.MarcAllen.com and www.NewWorldLibrary.com.

Thank you George Kao for the introduction to Marc!

Coming Soon…

There’s a process to discovering your purpose. Register for a sneak peak of it at www.UniqueGenius.com.

Of course, once you find purpose, how do you turn it into a business you love?  That’s what the upcoming “Feed Your Freedom Mastermind” will be about, a six-month group coaching program that will be announced soon.  Click here for more details.

What Did You Learn From This Interview?

Please leave a comment!

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If I could share only one thing with you to make the biggest impact on your success, it would be to have you look closely at the people you spend your time with. You are a reflection of them and their attitudes and values – for good, numbness or toxicity – rub off on you!

After spending time with friends, family or coworkers – do you feel energized, powerful and inspired – or drained and exhausted?

The people you spend time with are like the soil to the dreams, business and life seeds you’re planting.

Optimistic, supportive, accepting people will help your Unique Genius bloom (along with your income, enjoyment and freedom).

Pessimistic, discouraging and judgmental people (including the ones we love) will crush your dreams, energy and success – or at least make it feel like you’re moving through molasses.

Valerie Young left a particularly insightful comment on why the people we love can be so discouraging: “The people who are least likely to support our dreams are the people who love us the most. Why? Because they love us. And taking chances like following a dream is scary to them and they want you to be safe.”

So:

• Which of your close friends, coworkers or family members are energy vampires that leave you drained? How can you limit your exposure to toxic or discouraging energy?
• Which of them are inspirational and encouraging, and how can you spend more time with them?

It’s important to know this, because it has an enormouse affect on your own chances of enjoyment and success.

Don’t let people kill your dreams!!  Spend time with people that will support you, no matter how crazy you want to be 🙂

Dear Parents…

Parents are usually the first dream killers people experience in life (luckily, mine weren’t).

Did your parents support your aspirations, or discourage you from dreaming?  Please encourage your children’s dreams of what they want to be or do – even if those dreams aren’t ‘practical’.

A Quick PebbleStorm People Exercise

Here’s a simple worksheet (a sample from more upcoming www.UniqueGenius.com materials) you can look through and print:

PebbleStorm People Exercise

Do You Agree? What’s Worked For You?

Has changing who you spend time with affected your business?

Sometimes it’s hard cutting off or limiting energy vampires – what’s succeeded for you?

Please leave a comment!

The Unique Genius Superheroes Interview Series is about ordinary people who have created businesses they love around their purpose. Tricia McEntee didn’t create Esalen, but after she found her own purpose, she was promoted to the CEO role there.

Esalen Institute is an amazing retreat spot on the California coast, in Big Sur. It’s gorgeous and a place that holds all kinds of personal development workshops. If you’re from California, you’ve likely heard of it and how influential it’s been in the development of new ideas.  If you haven’t heard of Esalen, chances are you will in the coming years!

When I met Tricia McEntee, she was kind enough to share her story on camera (<5 minutes) about how she found her purpose in 2009:

Tricia’s Steps To Finding Clarity

1. She was frustrated with work and wanted to make a bigger difference, creating a strong desire to find more of herself to give.
2. She played, opening herself up.
3. She spent time questioning, studying purpose and inspirational leadership at a workshop.
4. She had a ‘trigger event’ to activate her purpose: a serious conversation with the chairman of the Esalen board about her future was scheduled.
5. In preparing for the meeting, she was inspired over a weekend to create a collage of her passions and interests (activating it)…and as she completed it, her purpose came to her in about a minute!

How Did Finding Her Purpose Help Her Succeed?

1) She felt clarity in life and in how she could contribute in a bigger way to her own and Esalen’s future.
2) Four months later they promoted her from CFO to it to CEO when the position suddenly became available.

I’d bet that if Tricia hadn’t found this clarity of purpose it’s unlikely the CEO role wouldn’t have been offered to her…or at least that quickly.

Coming Soon…

There’s a process to discovering your purpose. Register for a sneak peak of it at www.UniqueGenius.com.

Of course, once you find purpose, how do you turn it into a business you love?  That’s what the upcoming “Feed Your Freedom Mastermind” will be about, a six-month group coaching program that will be announced soon.  Click here for more details.

How Did You Find Your Purpose?

Leave a Comment!

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The My 10-Step Personal Success Routine post has been one of my most popular.  This post builds on it with the idea of designing your week.

A b2b sales consulting client of mine is FreedomSpeaks/CitySourced, and Kurt Daradics (“KurtyD”) is the CEO. KurtyD’s a great guy – he’s very purpose-driven and has a lot of character.  Not to mention he also does improv comedy 🙂

We recently sat down for a private session to help him make progress on building his sales machine.  Interestingly, one of the things that he took away wasn’t about sales process – but about how designing your week can be a huge help in staying focused, balanced and productive.

KurtyD’s suffering from success – CitySourced is getting great press, leads, attention, funding, etc…and he’s working on amping his own organizational game to keep up.

Here’s an excerpt from his post “Fight The Resistance“:

“Lord knows I’ve been busy, but even though we’re seeing traction, I still don’t feel like I’m really getting that much done, sorta spinning my wheels.  Even lately I’ve been feeling a bit paralyzed and at the end of the day my focus and concentration has been toast. I’m terribly behind on some personal correspondence and taking care of personal business. The start up has officially consumed my life.

I was starting to get a bit concerned and burned out, and regardless that my diet has been good, I’m getting enough sleep and exercise, I still wasn’t performing at my peak.  Also, I truly sense that we’re on the right about to break through and deliver some major game changing technology, and that little voice inside my head that tries to tell me I ‘don’t deserve it’ or that I ’should go back to bed” has been really trying to throw me under the bus. Seth Godin calls this voice “the resistance“. That little voice has been really confusing me lately, reminding me of all the things that need to be done, and it’s been causing me some anxiety and tempting me to work from a place of desperation rather than inspiration.

Today I had a cool breakthrough. My pal and coach Aaron Ross aka @MotoCeo really helped me break  some things down. Aaron has been helping us think through our sales process and we’re currently getting ready to launch our sales efforts using Salesforce.com, where Aaron used to be Sr. Director of Sales.

Aaron showed me how he manages his calendar and as cliche as this may sound, this was a big ‘aha’ for me, and something I’m implementing immediately.

• His Mondays are for planning and thinking about the “non-urgent & important”.
• Tues are for new clients calls and meetings.
• Weds are reserved for existing accounts and clients.
• Thurs is a ‘catch all’ day. [Aaron: I normally use these days for one-off coaching sessions/workshops]
  
• Friday is errands, bookkeeping and some ‘catch all’. [Aaron: clean the clutter, get organized for next week]
  

Aaron helped me focus on the fact that if I want my business to catch a fire that I really need to get the “magnifying glass” positioned in the right place and hold it steady so that it burns the leaf, that’s the spark that catches fire.

I have a strong sense that the calendar trick is to work really well for me. For example, the tools I need and documents I have open for new sales calls is much different that what I need for existing clients. By batching the work in a focused fashion I can dive deeper and batch all the work. Then I can deliver a list to my asst or project manager in a bunch, rather than piecemeal through out the week, which delivers better process and efficiency to my team and saves them time too.”

Thanks Kurt for sharing!

Other Tips & A Screenshot Of My Calendar

I block out time for my Personal Success Routine (“PSR”), meditation, exercise, etc. first, and then schedule work time around those blocks.  In the shot below, that time is all the aqua color.  You can see the morning blocks for my PSR.  (Side note: the 10-Step PSR I wrote about in 2009 has been mostly out the window for awhile, since I got into a serious relationship.  But – what’s cool is we are creating a new “Mutual/Couples PSR”. I promise to share it when it stops evolving.)

I use Google Calendar and have multiple calendars to color-code my work.  I don’t get too fancy/complicated. I use a few basics:

• Aqua is “personal time” like exercise, meditation.
• Purple is client time (prospective or current).
• Red is “get stuff done” – usually I’m on computer creating something.  ‘Pay the bills’ would also fit into this.
• Yellow is Team/Visioning time (with partners/employees).
• Green is travel (not on this screenshot).

(Click on the image to expand it)

If You Want An Exercise Routine That Makes It Easy To Get Your Butt Kicked

You see my Tuesday and Thursday mornings are blocked out for CrossFit / exercise.  If you’re looking for a badass exercise routine that will get you in shape without a huge amount of time, check out CrossFit.  I started a month ago and it’s awesome! I like that it’s done in small groups (this is key for me), there’s lots of variety, and it’s tough.

How Do You Design Your Week?

Leave a comment and share the wealth!

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Kurt Daradics’ blog

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?

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…”

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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One of the keys to getting clear on your purpose and dream work is to be more selfish than you’ve ever been before – stop holding yourself back by playing small!  You can small in all kinds of ways, such as the amount of money you want to make, the freedom you can have, or in the impact you can make in the world.

I don’t mean be selfish in a negative or greedy way that harms from others.  I mean be selfish in a way that preserves and sustains you, so that you can live the way you want to…and thus have the energy and ideas to make a bigger difference to others.  Are you being unselfish, or are you actually self-sacrificing yourself and your dreams?

By living and working smaller than you deserve, you limit your ability to make a difference in the world and to others. It’s the same reason that airlines tell you to put the oxygen mask on first before you do it for a child.

The following coaching exercise is a favorite of mine, and only takes two or three minutes. Give it a shot, and please leave a comment below about what you think or learned!

The Unique Genius “Ego Indulgement Exercise”

• Get ready to be more selfish than you’ve ever been before…
• If you had more money than you could ever spend…
• And all the friends and love and houses and travel and stuff and family and ___ and ___ you ever wanted…
• There is nothing you want or need that you don’t have…
• Imagine spending a couple of years ‘on the beach’ just relaxing, until you then get bored and know it’s time to create something…
• You don’t need to work but want to do something meaningful…
• What do you do/create?

Ironically, it is the kind of work or business you create at that point in the end, when you don’t “need” anything or to work at all, that will create the possibility of you getting all the other goods (money, freedom, success, etc.) with ease.

Here’s why it works:

1) By first satisfying your ego‘s ‘needs and wants’, it lets your ego chill out while you get clear on what you authentically are meant to do.  When you feel needy and stressed (“I need more money, time…”), it blocks your creativity, intuition and self-awareness, and thus access to Unique Genius insights.

2) Being more selfish than you’ve ever been means taking care of yourself and inspiring yourself first, so that you can help even more people / make an even bigger difference. It means dream bigger.  How many non-profit workers do you know who are making a difference, but are totally drained in doing it?  Couldn’t they make a bigger difference if they found ways to truly take care of themselves at the same time?

Want More? Three More Unique Genius Questions…

1. What are you already doing for free to help people? (Or what would you do for free?)
2. If you could be successful at anything (beyond or in addition to your current career or being a parent), what would it be?
3. What’d you want to be when you were 8, and why?

With question #3, the “why” is the interesting part…what is behind it?  My personal example: I wanted to be a pilot – not because I wanted to fly planes, but because of the freedom.  So it’s no coincidence that freedom is so important to me today and to PebbleStorm!  Another example: a common answer for people who wanted to be doctors is because they wanted to be able to help people.

You don’t have to be a pilot to have freedom within your work, or a doctor to help people in your work.

How can you bring in those childhood desires or passions into what you’re doing today?

P.S.: Coming Soon

A 21-Day Unique Genius Self-Study Program – keep an eye out!

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The first five days of this 15-Day 100% Fruits & Veggies Cleanse were surprisingly easy – mostly because I and my amazing girlfriend Jessica are committed to supporting each other with the shopping, cooking and eating. It takes a lot of time to buy make all this food on your own! After the first couple days of no hunger cravings at all, I started to get a little hungrier – perhaps my body was getting used to the food shift.

How I’m Feeling: My Skin & Energy & Stuff

My girlfriend says the skin on my face is much clearer.  My body feels good –  about the same as before I began.  My energy is consistently high through the day, though I have noticed a few times when I got tired or yawned, which might be because I’m eating fewer calories.

It is partially because I’m running low on sleep the past couple of weeks, as I’m trying to do too much every day (both fun stuff and work stuff…our “Learn How To Create & Launch A Business In A Weekend Fun Immersion” is this coming Friday & weekend).

Exercise

I  worked out a couple of times (weights or yoga) in the first few days of the cleanse, and after a workout I would be starving. On the fifth day, after a weights workout, I cheated a bit and made my chocolate protein smoothie, which is pretty close to the cleanse diet (cacoa, flaxseed, banana, chia seeds, water, rice protein powder).

During the cleanse, I’ll continue to exercise, but will take it easier in each workout.  I’ll wait to push myself until at least after the 100% juice portion is done.

100% Juice For Five Days

Day 6 is the first day that is 100% juice, and we stick to this all week, Monday-Friday.  Here’s an example day:

• Morning: Green Lemonade: Kale, Cucumber, Celery, Green Apple, Lemon, Ginger
• Mid morning: Celery Cucumber Parsley Apple
• Early Afternoon: Carrot Romaine Hearts/OR Spinach (and Apple, when needed)
• Mid Afternoon: Coconut Water, fresh if possible
• Evening: Green Lemonade: Kale, Cucumber, Celery, Green Apple, Lemon, Ginger

On the first day, I’m surprised I’m not hungry or getting hunger cravings.  I’m not sure if this is because of the juicing itself, or because of the shift from eating to juicing, and in a few days my body / hunger will go back to what it was.

Juicing this much takes a LOT of time. Luckily, Jessica had a fancy-shmancy juicer already. We need about a gallon of juice per day per person – so for two people, if we did all the juicing ourselves, would be two gallons of juice per day. That would be hours of work in shopping, prep and juicing.  We just don’t have the time to do it all at home, so we’re buying about half of it fresh from the local Santa Monica co-op juice bar.

PebbleStorm “Learn How To Create & Launch A Business In A Weekend” Fun Immersion

I’m preparing this week for our upcoming PebbleStorm “Learn How To Create & Launch A Business In A Weekend” event, starting Friday (Jan 15). It’s actually two events: the first day is an open “learn how to do it”, and then for a smaller group of people, we’ll actually hold their hands in creating and launching businesses that weekend.  We still have a few open spots for the first day; the full 3-day event is sold out.

It’ll be interesting to see how the juicing affects, or doesn’t, my energy with the added work and mental load. Is this the optimal time to switch diet?  No, but when is anything ever the ‘perfect’ time?

[UPDATED] Some Questions & Answers

Q: What juicer do you use?

For this cleanse, we are using the Omega 8006.  I know nothing about juicers; it’s my girlfriend’s.  If I bought a new one for myself, I’ve heard Green Star is hard to beat.

If you’re going to buy either a blender or a juicer, I’d get a blender like a Vita-Mix or Blendtec.  I own a Vita-Mix TurboBlend 4500 (now they sell a VitaMix 5200), which I use to make my regular daily morning green smoothie (see point #10 on “My 10-Step Personal Success Routine“).  Juicing is much more labor intensive (in prep and cleanup) then just blending, so juicers often sit unused on the shelf.  I use my Vita-Mix every day.

Q: Where do you purchase your produce?

From the local, convenient grocery stores: Santa Monica Co-op, Whole Foods, and Albertsons.  We would/will purchase from farmers markets, but the timing hasn’t worked out yet.  We have been buying big batches of food at one time, and running into one big store is more convenient for long lists.

Q: Do you ever use  frozen fruit?

We aren’t using now during the current 15-day fruit and veggie cleanse, though I wouldn’t be opposed to it. I do use it frequently in my daily morning green smoothie (point #10 on “My 10-Step Personal Success Routine“).

Your Advice, Suggestions, Results, Questions?

Please leave a comment below on the post!

Coaching, Health & Making Money

Sustainable health is essential to your success and enjoyment.  While my business coaching focuses mostly on combining your passions with work to make money in ways that are meaningful to you, health always becomes a part of the conversation. You can get on my schedule for a no-cost trial coaching session at http://www.PebbleStorm.com/coaching.

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I just started a 15-day 100% fruit and vegetables cleanse with a group of friends. It’s not a pure juice cleanse – we eat the veggies ‘n’ froots as food for 10 out of the 15 days, and only five days in the middle of the program are all juice.

Why do it? Really, it’s just because they asked me to and it sounded interesting! I’ve often been a “eap and the net will appear” person, jumping into things because they sounded interesting before I fully understood what was required (like the Ironman and the 28-day surival course…)

I’ve always wanted to try something like this program, so when my friend emailed me about it I thought “Why not?” (Prior post: “The Power Of Why Not”)  How often do you avoid trying something adventurous – in work, love or eating – just because it’s different, unknown or outside your comfort zone?

Get The Junk Outta The Trunk!

I’ll use this program to clean up some junky eating habits of mine. Mainly, letting go of sugar and dairy (I love hot chocolate).

Why do I want to stop eating (almost all) dairy, as much as I love it? I’m not allergic to dairy, according to an allergy blood test, but when I have dairy I often get a bit of a runny nose – so something in my system reacts against it. But it tastes sooo good 🙂

The Big Difference I Felt On The First Day

Healthwise, I’ve been feeling really good the past couple of weeks. I’m also mostly vegetarian already, so it’s not a huge shift for me to spend 15 days just eating fruits and veggies.  I wasn’t expecting to feel any differences quickly.

However, I noticed one big difference today, this first day of the program: I wasn’t hungry between meals, and I didn’t have any sugar/junk food cravings at all.

We’ll see if this program keeps the hunger and junk food cravings away even as my body adapts to the regimen.

I’m Already Pretty Clean – No Alcohol, Coffee or Caffeine

I haven’t always been a healthy eater. But ever since my teens, I keep getting a littler better with my eating habits every year, and over the years it’s added up.

I had one single dramatic shift in my eating habits, which happened in late 2007. After working with an ayurvedic nutritionist, I learned that I am allergic to wheat gluten and soy. I also learned that while I’m not allergic to alcohol, coffee or caffeine, I should give them up because they aren’t good for my body type, my system. I immediately gave them up and felt MUCH better afterwards!

Alcohol was really easy to give up. Coffee has the been hardest to stay away from – I love it! But, it’s highly acidic. I never appreciated how hard it was on my body until I stopped drinking it and then went back and had it again. If I have some now, my whole body feels crappy and I’ll often get a light skin rash on my face.

Interestingly, after I gave up drinking I started to notice how omnipresent alcohol is in our lives, how many people depend on it in small and large ways in relationships, work, having fun and coping. You don’t notice it much because it’s so embedded into our culture.

The eating vices I still have had: excessive sugar, chocolate and dairy.

Why No Caffeine?

With diet (as with everything in life), there are no one-size-fits-all answers. Alcohol, wheat, soy, etc. don’t work for me and don’t work for many of you, but for some of you it might be an excellent and valuable part of your diet.

Why no caffeine? I’m an inherently energetic person, so stimulants like caffeine unbalance me, make me anxious, and I just don’t feel good.

When I used to drink coffee every day in the morning, I needed it to wake up (or feel like I was waking up). Coffee and caffeine became a crutch.

After I stopped drinking it, I stopped feeling like I needed it in the morning to wake up. My energy actually felt more even throughout the whole day, rather than spiky.

Are caffeine or coffee a crutch for you, or do they really enhance your performance? Do they make you feel better or worse? The only way to find out if it’s something that is good for you, or isn’t, is by experimenting. Try going without it for two weeks (or change what you drink or how much), and journal about the changes in your energy and how you feel.

Why Diets And Magic Business Solutions Don’t Work

Eating and health is a perfect analogy to business – there is no magic bullet or diet, and the only way to learn what works for you is to try different things and practice self-awareness. It doesn’t matter if a diet or business worked for your best friend – that’s them, not you. You have to figure out your system for yourself. You have to learn discernment and how to determine what works for you.

It’s worthwhile to try someone’s diet or business system, but don’t blindly follow it (even PebbleStorm’s upcoming “Learn, Build & Launch A Business In 3 Days Fun Immersion” in Los Angeles). Realize that you’ll need to tweak, customize and tailor anything to your own personality.

Should You Go Vegetarian, Vegan, Give Up Alchohol, or…?

Sure, go ahead and try something, such as giving up coffee, because someone you respect has done it.  But don’t blindly stick to it – pay attention to if it actually works for you or it doesn’t.  Only through your own personal experimentation and observation will you learn what works for you. This is true both in health and in business. This is why the second step of PebbleStorm is “Play”, which has two meanings: 1) to literally play and have fun and 2) to experiment.

The Power Of Community / If You Can Only Do One Thing…

Doing most anything is easier and more fun with other like-minded people. I know this cleanse will be much easier as part of a supportive group!

Likewise, designing, starting and evolving a business is much more enjoyable – and easier – with the support of others. That is the essence of PebbleStorm – a community of people having fun helping each other succeed.

Are the people around you supporting or draining you?  The best thing you can do for yourself is to stop spending time around energy vampires and dream killers, and spend as much time around people who accept, support and inspire you.

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