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Wednesday, August 7, 2013

New York City Meetup and Other Updates

Here are a number of updates regarding upcoming events that may interest you.

First off, I’m heading to New York City on July 24th, and I’ll be there until July 30th. I haven’t been there since 2007, so it’s been a while.

On the weekend I’ll be speaking at Sasha’s Direct Dating Summit. If this type of event interests you — it’s for men looking to improve their dating and social skills — I encourage you to attend. It’s a lot of fun, and as you might expect based on the title, the speakers will help teach you to be direct and honest in your communication instead of being wishy washy, indirect, or phony. That may sound simple, but it’s an area where many people need help. I think the room is nearly filled to capacity already, but there may be a few seats left.

Outside of the conference hours, I intend to host a free NYC meet-up for any growth-oriented people who’d like to attend. Our last NYC meetup was in 2007, and we had 40 people attend, so it wouldn’t surprise me if we had 50+ this time. I’ve received many enthusiastic RSVPs already after mentioning this on social media.

At some of our meet-ups, people can be a little shy warming up to each other. Not so with the New Yorkers though. They dove right in and began talking like they were old friends. That’s one thing I love about New Yorkers — they really know how to talk! :)

Most likely we’ll have the meetup on Friday evening (around 7pm) or on Saturday morning (around 9am). And the most likely location will be somewhere in Central Park, possibly in Sheep Meadow. I’ve also received some suggestions for meet-up spots near Battery Park. I’ll scout out locations early in my trip.

I have to rule out indoor locations like a cafe because we’d most likely swamp the place with too many people. It’s best to have a location where people can move around and mingle and jump in and out of small groups easily.

These meetups are very informal. If you happen to like my work (or even just some parts of it), there’s a good chance you’ll meet plenty of people there that you have a lot in common with.

Usually what happens with the larger meetups is that people split into small groups and mingle through whichever groups interest them. I always find at least one group talking about subjective reality, another group talking about how to make a living without a job, and other people talking about veganism or raw food diets or yoga. Travel is a common topic too. Chances are that whatever topics interest you from my blog, there will be others there who are delighted to discuss those same subjects.

Even if you’re fairly introverted, I don’t think you’ll have a problem. The people who come to these meetups are usually very friendly and welcoming — and huggy!

Speaking of hugs… please do greet each other — and me — with hugs at our meetups unless you have any personal objection to doing so. It helps us create a nice warm and open vibe and makes people feel welcome. Plus it feels good!

I’ll post the specific meetup details to my blog as soon as I have them worked out. With an outdoor meetup I have to watch the weather, which looks like it’s been a bit stormy there this week but will hopefully pass in time for the meetup.

If you’re worried about missing the meetup details post, drop me an email with a request to email you a reminder about the NYC meetup as soon as the details are known (if you haven’t already done so). I’ll try to give as much advance notice as I can, but normally it’s in the 24-48 hours range.

During this trip I’ll be staying in an AirBnB apartment in Williamsburg (in Brooklyn) with some of the other speakers for the summit. The summit itself is in Midtown. I’ll probably be spending most of my waking time in the city.

Last time I was in NYC I didn’t get to see the Met museum, so this time I’m not going to miss it. I already bought a ticket to go see it while I’m in town. I saw MoMa last time I was there.

I’ll only be speaking at the conference for 2-3 hours, so the rest of the time I’ll be going out, connecting with old friends, and making new ones. No doubt this will be a very social trip. :)

In other news, Learning Strategies is running a free PhotoReading Mindfest starting next week. They’ll be streaming their ever popular PhotoReading program over the Internet, so you can listen to it for free on your computer, tablet, or cell phone. I expect they’ll probably offer the recorded version at a discount for anyone who wants a copy to keep.

As part of this Mindfest, you’ll be guided through the process of PhotoReading two complete books, so you won’t just be learning about it — you’ll be applying it too.

This is a nice chance to try PhotoReading for yourself if you haven’t already done so. If you want the details, go to the PhotoReading Mindfest website to sign up.

I’ll also be traveling to Minneapolis August 4-11. This will be my first time in Minnesota. On the weekdays Rachelle and I will be attending Learning Strategies’ Ultimate You Retreat, and then in the evenings we’ll be out fringing at the Minnesota Fringe Festival. Rachelle isn’t performing in any Fringe festivals this year. We’re just going for fun. Last year I saw almost 60 plays at the Winnipeg and Edmonton Fringes, so I’m quite the veteran fringer now. :)

This will be a pretty active trip for us already, but if we can swing it, we’ll try to host a meetup in Minneapolis too. I’ll post details to my blog as soon as they’re known.

Later in August I’m heading to Oslo, Norway to speak at the Morten Hake Summit. This will be my second time speaking there. This conference covers social and relationship skills as well as general personal growth topics, and it’s intended for men and women alike.

You can now watch many of the Morten Hake Summit videos from prior years at MHSummit.com, including (I’ve been told) my full 2-hour talk from last year. In the promo video on the first page, that’s actually me hugging Morten on stage at 1:02 into the video. :)

I probably won’t host a separate Oslo meetup since so many people from the area who are into personal growth will be going to the summit anyway, so that’s already an amazing social opportunity in itself. Last year there were around 150 attendees, and I think this year they’re expecting even more. It’s a great way to meet other growth-oriented people.

This program is still in the works and coming along slowly but beautiful. With all this upcoming travel, I must put it on hold for a while and continue working on it when I can.

In general, whenever I give you a time estimate for when it will actually be done, don’t believe me. :)

But on the other hand, I’ve also leaked out some early material from certain parts of the program in a couple recent articles about goals and personality.

Lately I’ve been feeling strong intuitive pings that it’s time to start booking some new workshops of my own. I’d really love to do them in a variety of cities, but this is a bit too much for me to handle logistically on my own right now.

So I’m putting out the intention of finding someone who’d enjoy working with me as a meeting planner and logistics coordinator. I wouldn’t call it a job per se — I’d label it as more of an adventure for the right type of person — but you’ll be paid for your work of course.

Basically I need someone who can help me schedule, book, and execute more workshops in different cities. I’d prefer to stick with the USA initially, but once we’re up to speed, I’m open to branching out to other continents.

When it comes to delivering live workshops, I’m a stickler for good organization and preparation. So I’d want to work with someone who also has a strong love of good order and solid execution. This means getting things handled in the right order and early. If you’re the kind of person who waits till the last minute to handle critical details, you’d just drive me nuts, and I’d never want to work with you. I always follow a 4-5 page checklist to make sure every detail is attended to in the proper order, so that checklist would be your starting point to use and then to improve upon.

Fortunately this is not likely to be a high pressure situation. Since I normally book workshops at least 3 months before they’re delivered, there’s plenty of time to attend to all the details properly.

I’ve already done nine 3-day workshops, and all of them have gone smoothly. I can train someone on all the specific skills they’d need to know, but it would really help to have someone who brings additional experience and expertise to the table, such as prior experience with event planning, booking venues, negotiating meeting agreements, people skills, etc. Some event marketing experience would be helpful too, but marketing isn’t as big of a concern for me as it is for others in this field. Strong demand for new workshops has never been a problem.

Much of the work could be done from anywhere, such as by using the Internet to research potential venues. But I also want someone who has the freedom to travel and who can be physically present at the workshops to help execute them. If we book workshops in 10 different cities, it means you’ll be going to those 10 cities with me. So this definitely isn’t a virtual assistant position that could be done entirely from one location. If you can’t or won’t travel, don’t bother inquiring.

This wouldn’t be a good fit for someone who’s socially timid. During a live event, minor problems occasionally arise, and I need someone who can interface with the venue staff and advocate for our needs. So if it’s too hot or cold in our meeting room, for instance, I need a proactive person who can get that handled ASAP.

Ultimately I’d like to find someone who could eventually manage nearly all of the details of putting on a workshop other than creating and delivering the content. So I could say, “Let’s do workshops in these cities this year,” and the planner would select appropriate dates, find suitable venues, negotiate the details, book the dates with the venues, post the workshop details to my website, set up the event in the shopping cart, handle questions from attendees, secure an audio tech and rent equipment if necessary, print the badges, pack up everything we need for the trip, book our travel and accommodations, travel with me to the venue when it’s time to deliver the workshop, make sure the room is set up properly, manage the registration table, and help out during the workshop itself.

It may sound like a lot of work for one person, but it’s really not bad if you follow an organized approach. Once you’ve been through the process a few times, it gets faster and easier to repeat it. For some workshops I’ve done all of these tasks myself — in addition to creating and delivering the content — and it was very manageable. I actually enjoy this kind of work too.

If this interests you, let me know. Tell me about yourself, your relevant interests, your work experience, and anything else you’d like to share. If you seem like a potential fit, we can schedule a video-Skype call to talk about it in more detail. Just be aware that with my upcoming trips, I may not be very quick at following up right away, especially if there’s a lot of interest.

Depending on your experience, we might start with something simple, like doing another Vegas workshop first. That wouldn’t require special travel arrangements for me, and I already have contacts at some venues here, so it would be an easy way to begin and see how you’re able to handle it. If that goes well, then we can gradually ramp it up with events in other cities. But with someone who doesn’t require much training (or who impresses me with their organizational skills fairly quickly), I imagine we could turn this into a full-time arrangement from the beginning.

One of the benefits of such work is that you’ll definitely meet a lot of very growth-oriented people, and you’ll surely take part in many transformational experiences on this path.


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