2016 Fastlane Summit, Official Event Thread

[Vigilante]

Alright Folks! It's me, Your Friendly Neighborhood Conscience posting today to say....

It's been FIVE WEEKS since the Meetup.

You have ~11 months left to accomplish something noteworthy. An idea, an implementation, a BIG FAT GOAL that you can Hold In Your Hands (@Kung Fu Steve).

Where are you today? What ONE THING are you doing TODAY to make that reality happen?

Did you sleep in?
Did you say, "Ahhh, I'll do that tomorrow....."
Did you play Xbox/Playstation/Surf the Net when you could have been accomplishing that ONE THING?

Have you looked at @LightHouse's Golden incredible thread on making yourself more productive?

Have you rid yourself of a limiting belief?

Are you paying into your own health and fitness?

Are you either strengthening those important core relationships? Or else ridding yourself of the toxic negative ones?

Are you building the habits of DISCIPLINE that are the foundation for SUCCESS?

Are you strengthening your SOUL? Or letting it waste into nothingness and despair?

11 Months, folks. Tick tock. Tick tock.....

Are you DABBLING? (c) 2016 @LightHouse , all rights reserved.

 

Dislike ads? Remove them and support the forum: Subscribe to Fastlane Insiders.

[Iwokeup]

Are you DABBLING? (c) 2016 @LightHouse , all rights reserved.

Hell NO.

We haven't chatted in a while. But definitely NOT dabbling.....

 

[Bigguns50]

Started by Adam Genest, who left his 6-figure Washington, DC speechwriting job to grow the business, and Okan Scott, an Army officer with 2 combat tours in Iraq and Afghanistan.

The experienced people are always saying "tell a story". I think this .... people will love.

 

[Kung Fu Steve]

Alright Folks! It's me, Your Friendly Neighborhood Conscience posting today to say....

It's been FIVE WEEKS since the Meetup.

You have ~11 months left to accomplish something noteworthy. An idea, an implementation, a BIG FAT GOAL that you can Hold In Your Hands (@Kung Fu Steve).

Where are you today? What ONE THING are you doing TODAY to make that reality happen?

Did you sleep in?
Did you say, "Ahhh, I'll do that tomorrow....."
Did you play Xbox/Playstation/Surf the Net when you could have been accomplishing that ONE THING?

Have you looked at @LightHouse's Golden incredible thread on making yourself more productive?

Have you rid yourself of a limiting belief?

Are you paying into your own health and fitness?

Are you either strengthening those important core relationships? Or else ridding yourself of the toxic negative ones?

Are you building the habits of DISCIPLINE that are the foundation for SUCCESS?

Are you strengthening your SOUL? Or letting it waste into nothingness and despair?

11 Months, folks. Tick tock. Tick tock.....

A quick note about the ultimate success formula for those of us doers.

1. Know what you want (a clear outcome)
2. Take massive ACTION
3. Notice what you're getting
4. Modify your approach if necessary

The last two weeks I doubled down on my actions which led to LESS results and more frustration. I noticed 'what I was getting' and changed my approach. Now results are coming again and I'm back on track to reach my BIG FAT GOAL!

Get on it, team!

 

Dislike ads? Remove them and support the forum: Subscribe to Fastlane Insiders.

[Iwokeup]

he last two weeks I doubled down on my actions which led to LESS results and more frustration. I noticed 'what I was getting' and changed my approach.

Mind clarifying?

 

[GPM]

I love reading this thread. Keep on posting what everyone has been through since the summit!

Wow 5 weeks already? It feels like 2.

I have accomplished more in the last 5 weeks than I literally did in all of 2015 combined. But seeing that 5 week number STILL makes me feel a little sad, like I have not done enough.

Being away with my *job* a little more than half the time is definitely hurting me. I am physically away half the time. I am not at the point yet where I can leave, but it is close. So close it is making it hard to stay at this job at all. It is literally down to months and I will know if I can go all in or not!

 

[Iwokeup]

I love reading this thread. Keep on posting what everyone has been through since the summit!

Wow 5 weeks already? It feels like 2.

I have accomplished more in the last 5 weeks than I literally did in all of 2015 combined. But seeing that 5 week number STILL makes me feel a little sad, like I have not done enough.

Being away with my *job* a little more than half the time is definitely hurting me. I am physically away half the time. I am not at the point yet where I can leave, but it is close. So close it is making it hard to stay at this job at all. It is literally down to months and I will know if I can go all in or not!

Keep going. When you're away, can you still keep grinding? I know that I always bring 1-2 things to accomplish each away period. Couple that with @LightHouse's GSD/Trello system and that time can be more focused.....

 

Dislike ads? Remove them and support the forum: Subscribe to Fastlane Insiders.

[GPM]

Yes sir! I am getting a little burnt out but I am putting 12-15 hours a day into obligations up here, and up to 4 a day of my own. Plus studying Spanish every day, hitting the gym every day... Super productivity mode has been activated! Before I would struggle to do any of those things. My wife is not 100% on board, but I am starting to get her more interested.

I emailed her the post I wrote on here about how I now love Monday's. She just read it and sent me a text saying how motivating it was to her. That made me feel amazing. Being able to get my wife on board with all of this through a positive attitude and action is amazing. We still have a long way to go, but winning over her support will be a massive boost.

Seriously guys, this event has absolutely changed my life. And it will change the lives of those who I am close to. I am taking a 5 week trip, plus 2 weeks away up north on either end, so 7 weeks in total. My dad was recently laid off from his job, and at 63 he does not want to find another. He feels depressed about it, and while his days are busy he no longer feels fulfilled in the same way. I have been keeping him in the loop with everything I am doing and he is amazingly supportive, probably the most supportive person in my life right now (which is amazing for someone who was stuck in the system for so long).

During my away time I have a huge number of tasks which I will not be available to complete. My father is going to be the one looking after it all for me while I am gone. Not only will this keep me going, but it has already given him a huge boost in how he feels about his days. He is now getting first hand knowledge on how to be self sufficient, and is feeling that he is putting his time to good use, a huge boost in moral in a time that would normally cause depression. If not for me attending this event all I would have been able to offer him was a "wow that sucks, let me take you for dinner".

 

[throttleforward]

Yes sir! I am getting a little burnt out but I am putting 12-15 hours a day into obligations up here, and up to 4 a day of my own. Plus studying Spanish every day, hitting the gym every day... Super productivity mode has been activated! Before I would struggle to do any of those things. My wife is not 100% on board, but I am starting to get her more interested.

I emailed her the post I wrote on here about how I now love Monday's. She just read it and sent me a text saying how motivating it was to her. That made me feel amazing. Being able to get my wife on board with all of this through a positive attitude and action is amazing. We still have a long way to go, but winning over her support will be a massive boost.

Seriously guys, this event has absolutely changed my life. And it will change the lives of those who I am close to. I am taking a 5 week trip, plus 2 weeks away up north on either end, so 7 weeks in total. My dad was recently laid off from his job, and at 63 he does not want to find another. He feels depressed about it, and while his days are busy he no longer feels fulfilled in the same way. I have been keeping him in the loop with everything I am doing and he is amazingly supportive, probably the most supportive person in my life right now (which is amazing for someone who was stuck in the system for so long).

During my away time I have a huge number of tasks which I will not be available to complete. My father is going to be the one looking after it all for me while I am gone. Not only will this keep me going, but it has already given him a huge boost in how he feels about his days. He is now getting first hand knowledge on how to be self sufficient, and is feeling that he is putting his time to good use, a huge boost in moral in a time that would normally cause depression. If not for me attending this event all I would have been able to offer him was a "wow that sucks, let me take you for dinner".

Well done - I especially admire that you're still disciplined in making time for your health and for engaging your mind in something other than the grind (the Spanish).

 

[Iwokeup]

Well done - I especially admire that you're still disciplined in making time for your health and for engaging your mind in something other than the grind (the Spanish).

@blackkramer

I'm going to play contrarian here and I may get flamed but....


...do you NEED to study Spanish? Is it relaxing or otherwise serve as a mental break from everything else? If Yes, then carry on...but if not? Perhaps time to ditch...everyone only has so much bandwidth...

 

Dislike ads? Remove them and support the forum: Subscribe to Fastlane Insiders.

[GPM]

...do you NEED to study Spanish? Is it relaxing or otherwise serve as a mental break from everything else? If Yes, then carry on...but if not? Perhaps time to ditch...everyone only has so much bandwidth...

Good question.

My wife is Mexican and this is something that I have been putting off for way too long. I seriously started to learn at the end of December. I am flying to Mexico to meet her family in less than 3 weeks so I need to be at a conversational level by that time. To say the least, it is a very high priority in my life

 

[MJ DeMarco]

Seriously guys, this event has absolutely changed my life.

Music to my ears!

 

[Kung Fu Steve]

Mind clarifying?

Coming into the new market I was overly confident and missed out on some details in my scripts and presentations.

I thought my enthusiasm and work ethic would overwhelm that but the truth is I'm just not outstanding at what I do yet. I'm a fantastic speaker and trainer but to call up businesses and get them to book? A different ball park for me since I've always hired people to do it for me.

So the past two weeks when 50 calls/day wasn't working, I bumped up to 100 calls. When 100 wasn't working there were 3 days in a row I was hitting almost 200 calls -- and I was booking LESS. Needless to say I was frustrated that more effort didn't equal more results.

But when you motivate and idiot all you have now is a motivated idiot!

So last night I spent many hours revising my scripts, going back over them, and noticing HUGE things that I was leaving out building value for our product and creating scarcity for it.

I've got a few lazy team members right now who aren't willing to go knock on doors so part of my process now after so many calls/emails is to go see them in person... they can't say no to me in person

 

Dislike ads? Remove them and support the forum: Subscribe to Fastlane Insiders.

[LightHouse]

Let's see... Progress.... Well I won't dive info the personal stuff here, even though I know it could be valuable.

On the business side I've stepped up productivity to new levels.

Working on my first major licensing deal thanks to @Vigilante ala his overnight brand preso

In talks with USPS to potentially roll out nationwide, on every mail carrier. (They employ 500k+ people )

Working on getting a list together of other massive single point clients to pitch to in succession.

Sales are ramping up, cash flow always an issue, and new products rolling out soon.

Selling the business I bought last year, mtg potential buyer tomorrow night. This will mark 3rd biz sold for me over my "career".

Helping and connecting with other fastlaners everyday as usual but being more effective now. It's usually 1-2 calls a day, but I'm pushing people and they are pushing me. This is the most valuable part of my day, no contest.

I mention it every meetup, but ill mention it here again...

Every day you should be expanding and/or compounding your existing network in meaningful ways. Don't make it a business transaction, make good friends. The meetup isn't for business contacts, its to make lifelong friends who are on the same path as you.

This is so I can think of at the moment, I'll add more when something noteable happens. This sharing publically thing is new to me!

 

[jaykla]

I can't believe it's been 5 weeks already, but a lot has happened for me as well.
I was just "launching" during the meeting and sales we better than I thought. I remember sitting down at Top Golf with a couple guys and they said that I would run out of inventory I was like "nah, I should be good for a while, and I got a handle on this". Well, I must have done a better job than I give myself credit for because my products started moving rather quickly and at this time I'm sold out with a new order arriving next week. It's been such a thrill to see all the months of hard work, late nights, frustration, etc finally start to pay off. It's even better after a long day with patients to come home and see that there is a light at the end of the tunnel.
Just like many of you have mentioned, I try to do AT LEAST one task/day that will further advance me to my goal. It's like climbing a mountain and you can't just jump to the top...but each little step gets you closer.
Still lot's of challenges but this whole experience has given me a new perspective to life and what I need to be doing vs. what I want to be doing.
Cheers!

 

[GPM]

So I picked up my first prototype today. The climb is not over, and I still have a ton to do. But I now have a 100% original and unique product that is leaps and bounds better than anything I could find on the market. Having it in my hand and I can't stop smiling (that's what she said). This really is great.

Made locally, supporting local manufacturers who are hurting for work due to the oil downtown in my town.

I have even more reason to succeed now, keep local businesses running!

On a side note, I love my mother, but this is what she thinks of this. She thinks I am taking advantage of people and that it is wrong to try and make a profit from selling something that people don't *need*. This is why the fastlaneforum is so important. I love my mother like crazy, but I absolutely can not even talk about this because that is what happens. You guys give me the strength I need.

 

Dislike ads? Remove them and support the forum: Subscribe to Fastlane Insiders.

[Iwokeup]

You are, there's this amazing opportunity that only a select few know about. But YOU can get in on the ground floor!

 

[Vigilante]

Hi MJ DeMarco, i am an italian guy i have read your book, and i have think a project with a sistems of fastlane, it's possible speak with you only five minutes for see this ? Many thanks for your book. Matteo

Matteo.

First, welcome to the forum. The forum exists for people like to to discover.

There are hundreds of entrepreneurs that visit here every day. Stay for a while, read, and learn what you can.

This thread is not a good place to have this discussion, but the more time you spend at the forum the more you will learn that.

MJ does not have the time to have a discussion with you, as he is in the process of writing his next book. The forum gets almost 500,000 visits a month and MJ doesn't have time to talk to most if any people individually. I will let you in on a little secret, though... there are hundreds of successful entrepreneurs here that you can connect with by posting in the forum itself.

However, the more you get to know other posters here at the forum, the more likely you are to find some information that will be helpful to you.

Please make a formal introduction here:
https://www.thefastlaneforum.com/community/forums/introductions-networking.16/

I will be deleting your post above as it has nothing to do with this thread. Thanks, and enjoy your time learning here at the Fast Lane Forum.

 

[GIlman]

Got my first sale yesterday for my software. Sold a 1 year contract for $4200.

I've had several back and forth emails with them. Apparently they shopped a lot of competitors and thought ours was by far the best.

Only one persons opinion but heck, my product finally feels validated. I must admit the last month and a half have been really dark and lots of doubt.

All I can say is keep pushing.

Only 10.75 month to next meetup. whoop.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

Dislike ads? Remove them and support the forum: Subscribe to Fastlane Insiders.

[Wisith]

Got my first sale yesterday for my software. Sold a 1 year contract for $4200.

I've had several back and forth emails with them. Apparently they shopped a lot of competitors and thought ours was by far the best.

Only one persons opinion but heck, my product finally feels validated. I must admit the last month and a half have been really dark and lots of doubt.

All I can say is keep pushing.

Only 10.75 month to next meetup. whoop.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

This is awesome, brother. Truly happy for you! Long live the hustle.

 

[Wisith]

So I picked up my first prototype today. The climb is not over, and I still have a ton to do. But I now have a 100% original and unique product that is leaps and bounds better than anything I could find on the market. Having it in my hand and I can't stop smiling (that's what she said). This really is great.

Made locally, supporting local manufacturers who are hurting for work due to the oil downtown in my town.

I have even more reason to succeed now, keep local businesses running!

On a side note, I love my mother, but this is what she thinks of this. She thinks I am taking advantage of people and that it is wrong to try and make a profit from selling something that people don't *need*. This is why the fastlaneforum is so important. I love my mother like crazy, but I absolutely can not even talk about this because that is what happens. You guys give me the strength I need.

My mom is the same way, man. She thinks I'm crazy for pursuing my project.

I also just got my samples last week. So amped. Ran into production issue already. My costs went up a lot. Not too happy about it but I can still make it work. Too bad I didn't get the chance to network with you much at the summit, man

Will definitely try to connect. It's unreal how supportive the folks on here are. I still keep in touch via phone calls and texts with the folks I met at the summit.

 

[MacApple]

Let's see... Progress.... Well I won't dive info the personal stuff here, even though I know it could be valuable.

On the business side I've stepped up productivity to new levels.

Working on my first major licensing deal thanks to @Vigilante ala his overnight brand preso

In talks with USPS to potentially roll out nationwide, on every mail carrier. (They employ 500k+ people )

Working on getting a list together of other massive single point clients to pitch to in succession.

Sales are ramping up, cash flow always an issue, and new products rolling out soon.

Selling the business I bought last year, mtg potential buyer tomorrow night. This will mark 3rd biz sold for me over my "career".

Helping and connecting with other fastlaners everyday as usual but being more effective now. It's usually 1-2 calls a day, but I'm pushing people and they are pushing me. This is the most valuable part of my day, no contest.

I mention it every meetup, but ill mention it here again...

Every day you should be expanding and/or compounding your existing network in meaningful ways. Don't make it a business transaction, make good friends. The meetup isn't for business contacts, its to make lifelong friends who are on the same path as you.

This is so I can think of at the moment, I'll add more when something noteable happens. This sharing publically thing is new to me!

Good looking and inspirational!!

I agree the meet up was great place to meet like-minded people and make some good friends. I wish we had more meet-ups to be honest. Sharing my thoughts on paper is super difficult for me. Blame it on the ADD and/or my horrible spelling. Because I feel like I'm terrible at communicating and articulating myself with writing, it definitely hinders my ability to keep/make new friends.

I really need to force myself to start posting more.

 

Dislike ads? Remove them and support the forum: Subscribe to Fastlane Insiders.

[LightHouse]

I really need to force myself to start posting more.

This is an equivalent to dabbling, if you really need to, just go for it. Put it on your schedule to post once a day. To note that though, I do not connect with folks via the forum day to day. It is usually through traditional means like rotary phone and carrier pigeon but my pigeons are on strike so I've been using the "what's app?"

The forum is a good place to start as is facebook and whatever else. If you are moving forward, you will start connecting and being of value with others that are on the same path/pace as you. Year over year the meetups are a great place to bond as well, and those of us that connect really well usually do other things throughout the year.

 

[MacApple]

Well, that didn't go well. I missed day # 2

I couldn't agree more. The FLM forum is great but the real value is connecting outside this platform. [HASHTAG]#actualreallife[/HASHTAG]

 

[Bigguns50]

So last night I spent many hours revising my scripts

Hey Steve....If you want practice, you can call me. Heck...I can talk to business owner friends and you can call them too. YES !

 

Dislike ads? Remove them and support the forum: Subscribe to Fastlane Insiders.

[StompingAcorns]

... it's just a matter of not telling yourself a bullshit story (e.g. "I'm not good enough, they would never want me, etc.") and simply sending a quick email

Congratulations! And an excellent reminder, thanks. And thanks for sharing the behind-the-scenes story with us.

 

[GPM]

Just throwing a quick update here for anyone who cares. This stuff is exciting.

I am getting a little stressed, but its a cool stress. It is a stress most people will never experience in their lives. It is the stress of road blocks when paving your own path.

Had my prototype made up, picked it up and decided on some final changes to it. Had the manufacturer change the CAD drawings to reflect them, new design will be made up and shipped to a powdercoater for next week. I pick up the item on Friday and will be taking some shots of it in it's element. I am running into some cost issues with packaging up here, may cost like $15 a unit for a box which is absolutely unacceptable. I am going to look in USA for boxing and have it done there if I can. I can buy U haul boxes and cut them up to size for cheaper than what I was quoted. Just got the quote late today so I will be calling them in the morning to see if there is something that I am not understanding.

Here are some hurtles I have experienced. There have been a lot more than this but here are some. They all boil down to "there are tons of times when things get easy to quit because of road blocks, but thats where everyone else actually quits as we keep moving forward"

• Went to the powdercoater and there was no way to do my item, so had to have a tool custom built to allow this to happen. They offered to do it for a super high price and I figured I would do it myself to save money. No idea what I am doing, but just kept fiddling. Problem solved, should find out how it works by next week
• I am away 50% of the time so I have to schedule my face to face time with my "people" very tightly. I am upfront about this and have been getting excellent service and have actually been having my stuff bumped to the front due to this. Feels good

 

[LateStarter]

Are you doing custom sized boxes? Or are these boxes rather big? We used to use custom boxes at my day job but I quickly switched staff over to off-the-shelf sizes from Uline and just had custom inserts made to give it some shock resistance. Saves us a ton of money.

 

Dislike ads? Remove them and support the forum: Subscribe to Fastlane Insiders.

[GPM]

Essentially I need just a specifically sized outer box with inserts inside, there is 0 reason it needs to cost as much as I was quoted. It is just a bunch of sheets of regular corrugated cardboard of a certain size.

 

[LightHouse]

If it is custom though, they probably do not have the set up to make them or the process, so they are adding in cost to see how bad you really need them. (this is theory)

I would certainly get other quotes though, there are lots and lots of packing options and vendors to gets bids from.

Good luck with it!