The Shocking Magic Of Just Hanging Out

Wednesday, 3:03am
St. Pete, Florida
“There ain’t been no peace in the barnyard, since my little red rooster been gone.” (Howlin’ Wolf)

Howdy…

I’m waiting for my Uber to take me to the Tampa airport at this ungodly hour because when booking my flight home, I obviously was hallucinating or drunk.

New rule for travel: Never, ever, ever book a 6 am flight. Cuz it requires getting up before the roosters, and that is almost never a good idea.

Regardless…

I’ve just spent a week in the Florida panhandle, first visiting my longtime friend Dean Jackson (he of the More Cheese, Less Whiskers podcast)…

… and then attending my colleague Kevin Rogers’ “Copy Chief Live” event.

Where there were raucous times with my other colleagues (like David Deutsch and Lori Haller and Parris Lampopolous and Mike Morgan and many others)…

… plus, as I fully expected and prepared for…

… a TON of fresh insight to living well and happily.

Because that’s what always happens you hang out at rowdy seminars like this. The speakers fill your head with lofty ideas, and your pals re-juice your brain with verve and stories and the sizzling secrets that fuel the best careers out there.

I had a few topics in mind that I wanted to bring up during private conversations, and that’s all the ammo I needed to get things rolling.

In two successive afternoons, for example, apropos of nothing, separate conversations with Dean Jackson and then Aussie James Schramko (who both also spoke at the event)…

… helped me solve two of the biggest problems now facing me in my little biz here.

No, you don’t need to know the particulars. I’ll be writing about them in further posts later on, as things progress beyond the “Holy cow, that’s a great idea!” stage and I start implementing them.

Stay tuned, here in the blog.

But I can assure they are both life-changing.

Cuz that’s what the guys at the top of the food chain in this little niche of the marketing world.

The thing I want to share with you is much more vital to YOUR jouney through life and biz.

Here it is:

Many of the greatest breakthroughs you have will concern “sticking points” that are hampering you reaching the Next Step of your career…

… whatever that Next Step might be.

And I’ve learned over the 40 sometimes-gruesome years of my own career that these sticking points are often…

… just blind spots that you can’t get a bead on.

And yet, just talking about them out loud with your colleagues can jigger loose the solutions.

I always prefer simple, elegant and easy solutions myself…

… and that’s exactly what I often get from hanging out with savvy colleagues.

The simple solutions that zoom me past the sticking points, and get me cooking on high heat again.

I’ve seen entire careers and once-thriving businesses collapse…

… because of problems that were actually easy to solve.

But the owners couldn’t  get away from the ruts they’d dug for themselves to see those solutions.

They needed help, and didn’t get it in time.

Unfortunately, this is way too common. So many entrepreneurs and freelancers become too isolated to get the kind of input, advice and brainstorming that are crucial to quickly blowing through trouble.

For me, going to an event is rarely about the actual event.

No. Not by a long shot.

What I’m going for is the pleasure… and the breakthroughs… that come with simply hanging out with colleagues and the fresh wave of new brainiacs that they introduce me to during the event.

That’s the magic, my friend.

Other minds, with all the experience and tactics and breakthroughs they’ve been gathering for their entire careers.

It will blow your mind.

This is why so many top-of-the-game experts still haunt the halls of regular seminars and masterminds.

To get that good stuff that ONLY comes with hanging out with like-minded folks. Away from the bustle and distractions of “normal” biz life.

I just solved two of the biggest sticking points I’ve had for over a year… all in the space of two random conversations with colleagues I trust.

Who were happy to help.

Because I’ve helped them in the past the very same way.

Your network is your greatest resource, and always will be.

Never forget this.

Stay frosty,

John

P.S. The next upcoming Platinum mastermind I’ve hosted for over ten years is sold out, I believe. (Each meeting is limited to just a dozen or so people, because we spend so much time brainstorming and solving the problems for EACH attendee during the two-day event.)

However, you may still be able to squeeze into the following meeting, coming up next spring.

If you want to get a taste of what’s in store for you when you make it to one of these breakthrough-triggering meetings, just pop over here.

No obligation, of course, just for looking.

But you may want to check it out quickly, since spots fill up.