I just finished the Melbourne Leg of the Coming Home world tour and I had a blast.

Amazing what can happen when you can get genuine talent, an eager clever crowd and Sphynx Cats (Google it..).

The first Awesome thing.

The Ladies.

Seriously, let’s face it, Internet Marketing conferences are sausagefests. This one wasn’t and it made my heart sing.

Fortunately, I’m not quiet so self-deluded to suggest that it’s my raw sex appeal making this happen.

No.

The Thirty Day Challenge community is the reason.

You’re the reason.

You Care, and we are all about helping each other. It’s a caring community with the MAJORITY of it’s success stories being women.

I’m very proud of this.

VERY.

The Melbourne Leg of Coming Home was a perfect fifty/fifty split of the sexes. I can’t wait to see if the phenom continues when the final leg of the tour winds up in the USA this summer.

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ONE PAGE - ONE JOB
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Without question, the star sessions of the Coming Home experience are the HOT SEATS. It’s part Gordon Ramsey’s Kitchen Nightmares, part Saturday Night Live and 100% learning.

I so admire the people who put up their sites (and if your coming to the US Edition of Coming Home - You would be PSYHCO not to) - it takes an act of genuine courage to do it and I guarantee - they get a huge amount out of it.

If there was a theme (apart from the Butt-Ugly Sphynx Cats and the magnificent animated GIF highland dancer “Scottie”) it was this.

Every page on your site SHOULD have ONE job!!!

Time after time we saw sites that tried to get the visitor arriving to the site to choose between a dozen things inducing a mental epileptic fit and when someone is confused.

They say no.

Do the following exercise.

Call up someones website.

As soon as it pops up.

Ask Yourself.

What do they want me to do?

With a good site (like www.flippa.com for example)

It’s obvious.

With a lot of the sites we looked at this weekend, you needed Dora The Explorer’s magic Map….

“You climb over the butt-ugly pop-up, walk past the gnarly menu structure and fly over the vomit of “free reports” and PDF’s”

Seriously, by this point you’re begging for Swiper to steal your cookies!!!

This issue disturbed me so much (and is so widespread) I’m catching up with Nez and Guru Bob this afternoon to call an audible on 30dc plus content to make sure 30dc plus members are all over this.

We also saw the launch of a major new piece of software, attendees will be beta testing. Not to mention Brent Hodgsons cat like reflexes saving my laptop on stage.

Another star - flippa.com and more importantly we heard story after story of how Thirty Day Challengers have done so well selling their sites.

It was an extraordinary three days.

A huge thank you to all that attended and the awesome team who pulled it all together.

Next Stop - The USA

I guarantee you will have never seen an Internet Conference like this (Don’t take my word for it search the twitter #30dchome)

Ed

What’s it About?

We ALL have to get better at this.

I’m writing this to anyone who’s read about a cool program or course and genuinely could not afford it.

I’ve received a few emails as a result of offering mentoring for the first time.

YouTube - Is Ed Dale Finally Doing A Mentor Program?

Admit it, your reaction will sit on a spectrum of zen like acceptance to “Rage against the machine”

But before I get into this.

A little bit about location.

I’m writing this on a Macbook Air (don’t get fixated on the machine, a netbook would do…) in the waiting room at learningland, at 11 o’clock (that’s cool Jack Bauer location speak , not time) Annabelle is belting out the Annie Apple song.

At 10.00 o’clock some of the kids who have “older” siblings in the class are trying to recreate the epic 1987 WWF cagematch between a returning Hulk Hogan and a young up and comer.

Bless their little cotton socks.

My Chair is “Mommy Bear” soft and it’s bloody hot.

BUT

I’m still typing.

Trust me - I still struggle at this every day. EVERY DAY!

However, the difference between people who are a success in their on-line business and those that fail is, for somewhere between 30 mins and two hours each day, they sit on their ass in a chair and type (or write, or record, or photograph etc, etc, etc)

If by some miracle you’re still here, dear reader who can’t afford that rocking course, the past paragraph contains the key to success.

Now, let’s go back in time, to the dawn of the nineties. A near bankrupt and paying back to the people he owed money to, Ed Dale, had managed to scrape together 90 bucks to spend a day with this new motivational speaker on the scene.

A guy called Tony Robbins.

I’d read “awaken the giant within” and it had really turned me around. I HAD NO IDEA that you could actually do courses outside of school to better yourself!!!

I know, IRONIC.

So I rock up to the Melbourne Entertainment centre with 4000 or so of my closest friends and do this one day training on Sales.

It was brilliant.

Then the thing before lunch happened…
Just as we were winding up the session, Tony launched into a brilliant presentation on this three day course - the Unlimited Power Weekend.

It  just sounded AWESOME!!!

But not two minutes into the pitch, my stomach started to knot, “unless this thing is free, I can’t go, It’s in Sydney and I’m worse than broke”

When (the magnificently price justified) amount of $397 was written out on the laminex projector with removable pen I was screwed.

It may as well have been a million dollars.
I didn’t have it, was not going to have it, it was not going to happen.

Now, if you’re expecting one of those “if you believe enough “secret” style, things happened” and I manifested the $397

You’re not at the right blog.

Check out www.disney.com - much more your style.

Nope, there was no happy ending. I tried to figure out a way (and I was pretty resourceful) but I was snookered.

“No, UPW for you.” said the Seminar Nazi.

BUT

I didn’t take it personally, it wasn’t Tony’s fault. I didn’t rage against the machine (Nowadays people can “socialmedia” their upset and bitterness and wallow with fellow rejectees)

I learn’t a lot from that day and I started to apply it, not with laser like precision, you wouldn’t see my work efforts over the 90’s featured in some action movie montage.

BUT

By the end of the decade, I’d achieved some success.

I did that by doing the bare minimum of work which actually creates something. BARE MINIMUM. If I was like, disciplined - who knows where I could go!!

I’m not.

The cool thing is, most of the super successful people I know are also in the “barely disciplined” category.

The difference is they spend 30 minutes to a couple of hours doing stuff that matters.

Every Day….

Well, at least five days a week…

With some Holidays…..

The difference between you and someone is the number of “stuff That Matters” hours they do compared to you.

Another cool thing.

It doesn’t cost money to do it, it’s not about the gear!

I still use a pen and a yellow legal pad (which has the side benefit of reminding me of Halbert every time I write P.T.O) to do my brainstorming and design.

Yes, I’m using a Macbook Air now and damn straight I’ll be using an iPad in 45 days from now.

But it would be no better (or worse depending on how well I edit this) if I wrote it on stolen photocopier paper from the church photocopier at nine o’clock and then walked down to the Moonee Ponds Library, typed it up and posted it on the blog - Using free google docs for storage.

(Please don’t steal from your church photocopier - I’m sure the pastor would not only give you the paper but probably throw in a pen as well just like that priest did in the opening scene of Les Miserable)

When your broke you have one valuable resource and decision. How you spend your time.

Most broke people confuse reading about cool techniques that make you money or make you a better photographer or a better dancer in the Touring Thai Man Boy troupe with DOING something.

And all affirmation bust-a-moving aside - that’s the difference between broke and not broke - we are talking NO MORE than a couple of PRODUCTIVE hours a day.

EASY FOR YOU TO SAY - YOU”VE MADE IT AND HAD THE ADVANTAGE OF STUNNING GOOD LOOKS TO GET YOU THROUGH.

It’s true, I’m totally beautiful.

BUT

Beauty is no substitute for a couple hours a day of regularly taking action on stuff that matters.

You can choose to be bitter about it - broke people still have the power of choice, you can “socialmedia” yourself into a frenzy of jealousy and blame.

Or.

You can sit on your but, “borrow” the paper from the church photocopier. Write something. Put it in your pocket. Take it out the next day. Correct the obvious stuff, walk down to the local library, type it into your free google docs account. Open a free posterous blog. Post your article and then spend twenty minutes, bookmarking it and participating in the forums.

Then you do it again the next day.

And the next.

Wax On

Wax Off

Or you can watch “Jersey Shore”

It’s YOUR choice.

Ed

www.macramelovers.com - Website for Sale: $368 Per Month, 0.00 Hours Work, ClickBank Site, Since 2005, FAST SALE! — Flippa

This is how you sell a site on Flippa. At the current bid it’s a steal.

Ed

PS Yes the seller is just slightly familiar to me and you to…

Miami Vice was such a cool show.

To a boy living in a trailer park in Beechworth, Victoria. It was as exotic as 12000 miles and Crockett’s pet alligator could get.

To me as a budding musician - the sound track was electrifying. I’ll always remember Crockett driving the keys in his convertible with “In The Air Tonight” blaring. As a synth keyboard player Axel F was a legend.

As a MEGA Phil Collins fan (No seriously, I had a Phil Collins shrine in my bedroom - made with blue tack and a belief that one day I would be out of this trailer park with it’s freezing terrifying walk to the toilets) when he guest starred in the first series, I thought I would die.

(Almost as profound as when Laura Branigan (RIP) guest stared twice with the Hoff in Night Rider)

Anywho

Cruising the waterways of Miami, pulling up at Shanty cafes, inhabited by Vogue cover girls and Milan Catwalk models may as well have been Mars.

Fast Forward 20 years.

I’m having my own Phil Collins on Miaimi Vice moment. I’m on a Boat! not with T-Pain but my real life hero - Gary Halbert. We’d just cruised the Miami Water ways and bugger me if I wasn’t pulling up the THE EXACT SAME shanty cafe  they used to go to in Miami Vice.

How did I get here…

I’d been teaching people you would not spontaneously combust if heaven forbid, you emailed or picked up the phone to your heros and offer to take them out to lunch. Let’s face it, it doesn’t often work, but if you’re smart about it, you never know your luck.

Hypocrite that I am - the one person I had not ever tried to call was Gary - He was a leviathan of copy (as he would happily tell anyone!) and I was a dot.bomb reject that had gotten lucky a couple of times.

So I find myself in a seminar in Atlanta, all revved up after a Dan Kennedy presentation (who incidentally worked for Gary years before) and I thought I’m going to dial the number on his web site.

I went to dial and then had this incredible urge to go to the toilet. Did my business , picked up the phone and thought I should just check my email. Checked my email, picked up the phone and thought my throat was a bit dry and I should get a refreshing beverage before I pick up the phone and speak to the great mans 2nd assistant. I then thought a coffee would be a good idea so I brewed a fresh cup of hotel Starbucks and picked up the phone again, then I saw this crazy article in USA Today about this new upcoming series that would never go anywhere called “American Idol”

I went on this pathetic avoidance (or resistance as I now know this ) for over an hour!

Pathetic.

I final got so angry with myself and my constant bedfellow hypocrisy  I finally, finally dialled.

I’ve rarely been as nervous.

And to think I was only going to speak to his wonder assistant Theresa, (a star in her own right) . But I was still so nervous.

And to think I had no idea that this phone call would change the direction of my entire life - then I would have been really, really terrified.

It’s RINGING

“Hello…”

IT WAS HIM. Gary FREAKING Halbert just answered the phone.

His voice was unmistakeable, I’d listened to it for hundreds hours of tapes and seminars.

It was him.

And he sounded…

Nice.

Fortunately, I had a sophisticated game-plan and script that was highly attuned to get Gary to agree to see me….

Yuh.

At least I didn’t say the worst ever words you can say when you get someone on the phone “How Are You Today?”

No, I had a vague control of bodily functions and had managed to blurt out  he had been a big influence and I was in the USA from Australia and if he had the time I would like to buy him lunch in Miami.

He Said…..

Sure! And something about crazy Australians. He gave me his address and we agreed to meet in a couple of days time.

I said something along the lines of “that’s awesome” (you can see my vocab has not really expanded over the years!) and hung up.

Put the phone down…

And let out a primal scream that was loud enough to earn a phone call from the front desk…

What happened next was even weirder…

This post is the first of a series on Mentors - to try and explain why I changed my mind and decided to start personally mentoring in a small way.

If this is something that would interest you. Watch this video…

I’m looking for people to Interview for the Awesome (I just love typing that!!)

I’m keen to speak to people that have done well with their sites…

BUT

There is a huge category of people who have used what they have learned in the Thirty Day Challenge - to get themselves better jobs, great PR for their community groups, get more people to their Gigs and even used it to make sure that the remake of the A-team movie was a done deal. (OK, the A-Team thing may not be true - but the A-Team is AWESOME)

So , How about it?

Shoot me an e-mail to eddale@mac.com

Ed “I love it when a plan comes together” Dale

Be an Idea Shipper.