My Month in Personal Growth – July 2018

by | Aug 18, 2018 | Gary Vee, Grant Cardone, Jeff Rose, Monthly Growth Updates

Two weeks and some change late.

No biggie.

This thang bout to get shipped though.

At the end of July, I took off to Arizona.  Predictably, it’s gotten me behind on few things.

These posts are basically useless to anyone who I’m not close with.  So it makes sense to keep them low on the priority list.

Eventually, this will no longer be true of the posts on this site.

For now though, we’re just making sure this streak makes it a full year.

Late is better than not at all.

In the off-chance you’re interested:

1. Health Ebbs and Flows

By this time last year, I had tallied at least 200 salads.

This year, I bet I’m under 50.

“Eat a salad everyday,” was one of my most successful New Years resolutions ever.   Maybe the most successful.

But that was 2017.  And it didn’t stick all the way.  Basically, I eat salads when I start to get back spasms.  Once they go away, I get back out of the habit.

Yea, you read that right:

Eating salads solves my back spasms.  If that doesn’t make sense to you, I’ll have the first version of health resources page done soon. 😉

I will dump 101 talks on this page.  Eventually, I’ll probably break it up.  For now though, this site is data dump.  Thus, I’ll maximize it for that purpose.  I’m finally back on my health grind (started in July and somehow able to do even better on my AZ trip).

Education is one of my strongest weapons against all detrimental habits.  But it’s especially potent when it comes to health.  After all, not taking care of your body results in a terrible quality of life down the line.

I want to be able to jump onto the roof of my car past 100 years old.  I won’t be able to at 35 or 40 if I don’t do the right things.

From here, I don’t plan on falling off the wagon again.

2. Running a Business

July was a serious month of leveling up as an entrepreneur.

I’m still resisting the whole office and employees thing.  But I’ve made major strides elsewhere.  And honestly, the whole shebang is starting to wear on me.

Regardless, being a “real boss” in a fancy office may be in the near future.  After all, Gary Vee and Marcus Lemonis are my heroes.  I might even rock a suit once in blue moon.  I look good in them anyway.

Areas of most notable expansion (as a consultant, at least):

Building Partnerships – Making the rules is one of the main reasons I work for myself.  But it’s hard to scale yourself.  There are definitely ways—creating courses and the like.  I simply haven’t gotten around to it.  I don’t know that I ever will.  However, I’m finally opening my mind to partnering with others.  Worthwhile partners have appeared.  That’s certainly helped.  But maybe they were always there.  I just needed to mature in my thinking.  Shoutout to Austin, Lauren, Norm, Alkali, Cuttlefish, AC Designs, and Ideamax.

Managing People & Projects – Speaking of the business homies, I’m realizing this is a real strength.  I make systems well.  It comes easily.  But as my businesses expand, I am constantly confronted with ways I need to improve.  Most of the improvements come down to how I deal with people.  That includes how I speak, how I listen, and how I train.  In order to live to my potential as a project manager, I’ve got to work on the people side.  Surely, there are automated systems I can use.  But I finally see that business is really about people.

Onboarding Clients – Digital marketing clients are SO stressful.  People will pay you $500/month and expect you to answer text messages after 12 AM.  Others keep you waiting for crucial info or login credentials for months then expect you to jump on their projects as soon as they provide the info.  Consistent follow up and reminders about your availability don’t matter.  It doesn’t stop there, but I will.  😉  Finally though, I’m mastering the art of setting expectations and boundaries.  I’ve turned down almost every single client the last three months.  The ones that have made it through know the rules (and still get results).

Negotiating with Everyone – If we’re being honest, I haven’t turned down any clients outright.  But I’ve turned down several proposals, said “No,” more times than I am used to, and slow-played almost everything.  That’s resulted in more interesting (and lucrative) proposals.  On the flip side, I’m also offering those I work with more.  Often more money.  But also more opportunities, training, and general advice.  Changing my onboarding processes has thus provided insight in dealing with my team and vice versa.

3. Business Growth Log

So I keep thinking that this section might get its own series.

It probably should.  At least, it doesn’t quite fit here.

But my priorities are still subject to major changes from week to week.  So I’ll continue to include it in this series for now.

With no further ado:

(Public) July Business Goals

  1. Know It All Copy – Launch brand.  Separate writing from GSP.  Dominate for current clients.
  2. MiterSawReviews.Biz – Publish new reviews.  Optimize network.  Review all cordless saws.
  3. Work From Home Junkie – Make public.  Complete 1st guide.  Complete intro post. Create resource pages.
  4. Greensboro SEO Pro – Service current clients.  Update site backend.  Optimize network.
  5. Personal Brand – Update site backend.  Optimize network.  July personal growth post +1 (or 2?).

True to form, barely any of these actually got done:

(Public) June Business Production

  1. Greensboro SEO Pro – Dominated for current clients.  Qualified ongoing leads.  Developed team.
  2. MiterSawReviews.Biz – Reviewed all Makita miter saws.  Researched Bosch.  Optimized network.
  3. Personal Brand – Worked on +1 post “Heroes vs. Role Models”.  Completed this post (late AF).
  4. Goals 1 & 3 – Didn’t even touch.  Pushed to backburner.  Could have worked harder to make time.

July would been an extremely productive month if I would have made time for my own brands.  This is one of the most consistent problems I face as business owner.  My time is so often consumed by client accounts.  I struggle to keep my own brands updated and launch new ones.

For example, GreensboroSEOPro.com looks like booty hole.  On mobile, it looks like what booty hole leaves behind.  I’m 99.9% sure every website I’ve ever built for a client looks better than mine does.  I can’t believe it when people actually contact me through that site.  It is fugly as fnck.

I also have several other (much prettier) brand sites.  They are all half-done.  Some of them are bad ass.  But none of them are LIVE or PUBLIC so who cares?  And again, this month, I may not have time to change that.

Still, we can plan (hope).

(Public) August Business Goals

  1. Meet AZ Squad – Dominate trip.  Get writing done.  Make big pitch.  Test travelling work systems.
  2. Greensboro SEO Pro – Service current clients.  Update brand and marketing plan. (no changes)
  3. Mark’s Miter Saw Site – Review all Bosch miter saw reviews.  Simplify site backend and optimize.
  4. Other Brands – Launch something.  July growth post on ZB.com.  Organize and coordinate with partners.
  5. Soul Search – Figure out whether I really want to be an entrepreneur.  If so, what kind?

I like this list a lot.  I’m pretty sure I’ll make strides on most of this stuff.  Truth be told, I’m writing this on August 18th.  That makes it easier to predict the outcome.  Still, it’s realistic to the beginning of this month.

4. Crypto, Bitch

One of my daily affirmations is:

“I am becoming an educated investor”.

That’s why I follow Jeff Rose, Grant Cardone, Graham Stephen, and Project Life Mastery.  But it’s also why I follow Datadash, Coin Mastery TV, and Ivan on Tech.

Because of my age and goals, cryptocurrency is especially attractive right now.

As someone who has done the research and understands what is going on, there aren’t many opportunities as exciting in the short or long term.  I’m definitely interested in real estate, stocks, and other commodities.  But crypto is a completely different animal.  It’s more like the early Internet boom than anything else.  And yea, December to now has been a lot like the Internet bubble.

And still, cryptocurrency may have another major bubble or two over the next decade.

But as I said last month, $6K is an incredible buy price for BTC.  When I started this post two weeks ago, Bitcoin had just risen above $8K.  (If you follow me on SnapChat, you probably noticed me talking shit haha) My notes mention that it might break back below $7.2K and even test $6K again—which it is doing now.

Honestly, the support isn’t all that strong.  There is a real possibility of it breaking down to $5K or even $4K.

But long and short trades on margin have been trading between $20K and $30K consistently for months.  The banks and other huge investors know where the price is going.  After all, they’ll probably help prop the prices up when the time comes.

Below $8K, I will invest in BTC and other cryptocurrency projects I believe in with every invoice.  If it goes below $6K, I will increase the amount invested from 10% to 20%.  If you know and believe in your investment, you want to price to go down in the short term.  That’s where I am with crypto.

Above $8K, I’ll instead set my 10% aside and buy at strategic prices based on how the market moves.  That same 10% will also be ready for a stock market crash or commodities pump.  But either of those would have to be dramatic to divert my funds from crypto.  Potential 2x and 3x returns are extremely compelling and don’t come around often.

So while my investing education touches everything, must of my investment capital will continue to go to crypto (probably until BTC price finds support above $10K).

5. Growth Diary

This post is WAY too big, so let’s wrap things up.

This month I:

Other than that, I spent entirely too much time on the World Cup, FIFA, and MMA.

Speaking of wasted time…

Let’s wrap things up, shall we.

If you’ve made it through these 1800 words, you are a real trooper.  Or, you’re just a great friend.

Either way, thanks for reading.

Until next month.