I LOVE that most people don’t work on weekends.

Less people emailing, calling, texting, Skyping, Tweeting, and swinging by my office (Starbucks) usually leads to far greater productivity.

My weekends are usually spent in education & contemplation. Reading, planning, envisioning.

Right-brained tasks, rather than left-brained tasks. Working ON the business, rather than IN the business.

Without distraction, the mind of an entrepreneur is free to see it’s pursuits from 30,000 feet. To recognize strengths, weakness, opportunities, & threats that are obscure from a narrower perspective.

But it got me thinking,

Why does it have to be this way?

Why do emails, calls, and other channels of distraction have to be SO distracting from Monday to Friday (or ever)?

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Posted on Saturday, 1st August 2009 in Business, Life | Comments (6)

Working intimately with so many entrepreneurs, I’ve heard a lot of horror stories about virtual assistants.

Tales of mis-hiring, terrible work quality, overbilling, identity theft…

I even heard one story about a new VA taking off to Central America never to be heard from again.

(Okay, that one actually happened to ME!)

I’ve been through it all — good & bad — but I’ve actually worked with the same incredible VA, Christiana, for almost 18 months now. And honestly, having her has changed my life.

VERY few entrepreneurs can grow their businesses & thrive as lone rangers.

There’s a point where you simply HAVE to start exercising only your strengths & outsourcing all your weaknesses if you want to grow.

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Posted on Saturday, 27th June 2009 in Business | Comments (5)

What makes an NFL football dynasty?

In other words, what makes a team a perennial Superbowl champion?

In the last few days, I’ve been thinking about this & drawing a lot of parallels to my business.

One of the fundamental keys, I’ve realized, is simply architecting the right team.

In his book “Good to Great,” Jim Collins discusses the commonalities shared by all “great companies” (a great company being one that produced cumulative stock returns of at least 3x the general market over a 15-year period… there were only 11 U.S. companies that met this strict criteria between 1965-1995.)

One of the foundational commonalities between these 11 companies was this:

Before ever deciding which direction to take their “bus,” the great companies focused on (1) getting the right people ON the bus, (2) getting the wrong people OFF the bus, and (3) getting the right people in the right seats.

So many companies (and teams) do this backwards.

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Posted on Sunday, 10th May 2009 in Business | Comments (7)

Day 5 :: Black Sand Beach :: Strategic Byproducts

Posted on Thursday, 9th April 2009 in Business | Comments (4)

Day 4 :: Kalalau Valley :: Speed of Implementation

“Whoever watches the wind will not plant; whoever looks at the clouds will not reap.” - Ecclesiastes 11:4

If you wait for perfect conditions, you’ll never get anything done.

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Posted on Wednesday, 8th April 2009 in Business | Comments (2)

Day 3 :: Waimea Canyon :: USP’ing Your List

“I have made more than 40 sea voyages & numerous land trips, & have gone clear around the globe once… I made all those journeys because I could not help myself–made them with rebellion in my heart, & bitterness. Human life is maliciously planned with one principal object in view: to make you do all the different kinds of things you particularly don’t want to do.” – Mark Twain in 1909

Here’s a phenomenal article by Jay Abraham on creating your USP…

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Posted on Wednesday, 8th April 2009 in Business | Comments (0)

Day 2 :: Shipwrecks :: Outsourcing

Immediately after this video I tackled the lady in the pink shirt that walked behind me.

Just kidding. Maybe.

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Posted on Wednesday, 8th April 2009 in Business | Comments (0)

Day 1 :: Spouting Horn :: Mastering Your Inner Game

There is a blowhole behind me in this video, believe it or not. (No jokes about me being the “blowhole”).

An interesting concept I learned from the great business mind, Ken Glickman, is that 24-hour days are for losers.

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Posted on Sunday, 5th April 2009 in Business | Comments (7)

I recently had one of the best surf sessions I’ve had in a LONG time.  By “best” I mean most satisfying… stoke-inducing… I don’t know.  If you haven’t surfed, it’s hard to translate the feeling.

Just think of what activity turns you on the most & think of the BEST session you’ve ever had of that activity.  A time that, when you think about it 2 weeks later, still has you excited.

(I realize where you may be headed with the above exercise, but let’s move on. Perv.)

As I’ve processed what it was about this session that made it so special, I realized there are 2 lessons that can be applied to life & business.

1) Big steps of faith reap big rewards

This day was big. Big enough to make an experienced surfer’s heart race.

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Posted on Monday, 30th March 2009 in Business, Faith, Life | Comments (15)

I’m popping in quickly from Tampa, Florida and Dan Stojadinovic’s 4th Hype-Free “Internet Marketing and Joint Ventures Bootcamp.”

Dan is President of the Tampa Bay real estate investors’ association, and I’m blessed to know him and have the opportunity to speak regularly at his events.

Teaching real estate investors how to add a profit stream through internet marketing has become Dan’s passion. And in an economy where seminar-holders are SERIOUSLY struggling to fill rooms, Dan has again pulled off a tremendously successful seminar.

I consider this an extreme testiment to the credo that:

Your biggest asset is your list (.. of prospects, buyers, etc) and the real opportunity is in your relationship with that list.

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Posted on Saturday, 21st February 2009 in Business, Life, Real Estate | Comments (5)