2019 Fastlane Summit - Announcement

[powderhound100]

That's quite unfortunate. I've actually moved in with people that I met at the summit, so it's definitely had a positive effect on me.

I have not been spending much time on the forum as I was through the end of last year/ beginning of this year. I do log on every few days though to check in on what's going on and keep up with the threads I've set alerts for.

I was slacking a bit on my progress thread, but just recently updated it and plan to continue to do so.

Hopefully, there will be a summit in the future and engagement improves. I would love to help others any way I can and have spoken to a few people about manufacturing etc. It's just not often I find threads where I feel like I can really add value, so I don't post much.

 

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[BlindSide]

I'm definitely a part of the problem in this case. I feel a lot like how WJS does (judging by his post above), but I hold myself back because of fear of things like student loan debt.

I'll become a part of the solution now.

 

[GlobalWealth]

The fact that this thread hasn't blown up overnight is evidence that this is a well reasoned, pragmatic and correct decision.

My first reaction when reading @MJ DeMarco's post was complete disagreement.

The event is something I look forward to every year. I've been to the meetup since it was just 20 people at the Days Inn and every year thereafter.

Nowadays people have dozens of distractions online from all the social sites to forums, etc.

After reading @Vigilante's response, I tend to agree (and yes, I actually vomited a little bit in my mouth)...

Engagement is down. The fact that so few people even commented on the cancellation notice proves the point.

Some comments, ideas, suggestions for @MJ DeMarco and all forum attendees.

Get to work. Hustle. Then pop back on the forum every once and awhile and inspire us. Or scare us. Or educate us with your lessons learned.

Stop posting complete and utter F*cking bullshit on the forum and asking questions a google search could answer for you. And for F*cks sake, don't ask if you should quit college....

With the huge success of MJ's books, it has brought a ton of new members. And this blows up the above mentioned bullshit on the forum. Not sure how to address this, but I'm sure MJ and moderators are open to suggestion.

Lastly, I disagree with MJ about getting off FB and other social sites. They cannot and will not be avoided. People are on FB, there's no ignoring this.

Let's find a way to use an official FB page or group to boost engagement. Post links to interesting threads on the forum. Get members engaged.

MJ's stated goal was to teach freedom through entrepreneurship. I'd say his books and this forum have done an epic job of meeting that goal.

Engagement outside the forum, if done properly, can only further that success.

 

[GlobalWealth]

I was going to throw my name in there, whether as a solo speaker, or part of a panel. However, when I saw some of the more successful contributors putting their names in, I figured they were more qualified than I am to speak.

I would have liked to hear you speak.

 

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[MJ DeMarco]

The fact that this thread hasn't blown up overnight is evidence that this is a well reasoned, pragmatic and correct decision.

I was trembling before I posted it and feared a 20 page thread in 48 hours.

I see I was wrong.

29 posts in a thread where the boss cancelled an event due to lack of engagement.
that pretty much tidies it up in a big red bow...

last year's meeting CHANGED LIVES! ..... only 29 posts about it

The fact that so few people even commented on the cancellation notice proves the point.

Pretty much sums it up. Last year 118 people attended. Of those 29 posts, 5 or 6 attended last year.

But yea, 29 posts (and that includes a couple of Dave's one liners) tells me I made the right decision.

The same good ol' boys, who don't participate here but use the annual meetups as their family reunion with their drinking buddies but offer very little value to the reason (forum) for the meetup create a dynamic where MJ just doesn't need to throw their annual party.

That's a little bit harsh, but the truth is, that's kinda what it feels like when I don't hear or see from people but once a year around ticket announcements/sales. If just a mere 20% of people who attended over the years still were active (few times per month) this forum would look and feel a lot different.

Every year I'm inspired by the event, the socializing, the faces behind the avatars and every year I'm hopeful that the long-term, net effect would be substantive and tangible. And every year the cycle just repeats ...

Hopefully, there will be a summit in the future and engagement improves.

I hope so as well, but if it does happen, things will have to change HERE, not at Facebook, not on a Slack Group, and not anywhere else.

Lastly, I disagree with MJ about getting off FB and other social sites.

I actively promote the forum on Twitter, Instagram, and YouTube.

I avoid Facebook because I'm sick and tired of Zuckerf*ck's extortion and political meddling - posts on my FB page (150K+ likes) is throttled and in order for people to see it, Zuckerf*ck wants money to "promote this post!". No Zuckerf*ck, you aren't getting jack from me.

 

[CareCPA]

I would have liked to hear you speak.

Thanks, I appreciate the sentiment.
Hindsight being 20/20, and all that...

 

[MTEE1985]

I also 100% agree with the decision based on all of the factors mentioned in the OP.

Having only been a forum member for a few months now I was looking forward to attending a summit, especially now that we are back in AZ. I look forward to seeing a snowball effect in the demand for a 2020 summit.

Stop posting complete and utter f*cking bullshit on the forum and asking questions a google search could answer for you. And for f*cks sake, don't ask if you should quit college....

I’m glad this was said more directly than I would have. It’s sad when you see click bait thread titles with 5X more engagement in 2 days than this thread which is the most important thread of 2018 currently has. And please take it easy on the YouTube video and external links (I.e. things that can be googled as mentioned above)

I was trembling before I posted it and feared a 20 page thread in 48 hours

I wish it had been, I would’ve read every page. Thank you again to @MJ DeMarco @Vigilante @Andy Black @Fox @AllenCrawley for all you do, and @Kak who’s INSIDERS thread led me to an INSIDERS subscription.

Everybody who is afraid or shy about posting, don’t be. If just 1 person out of 100 gets value out of what you add then it is a worthwhile contribution. You ALL know something that nobody else here knows, even if you don’t know it.

 

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[GlobalWealth]

Every year I'm inspired by the event, the socializing, the faces behind the avatars and every year I'm hopeful that the long-term, net effect would be substantive and tangible. And every year the cycle just repeats ...

I'm not sure what you mean by the "cycle repeats".

For me, the meetup has created some very rewarding and long term relationships.

I currently am doing an accountability call with one meetup member. I have had member as a business partner and even a roommate for awhile.

I have visited several meetup attendees in my travels and have many even visit me in Europe.

I literally don't go a week without talking to at least one person I personally met at the meetup. Sometimes it's just bullshit calls, but oftentimes these calls are to bounce ideas around, get advice from each other, or ask for help with an issue.

I joined the forum because I was looking for a community of like minded people. I stay on the forum because of the personal relationships I've developed at the meetups.

 

[MJ DeMarco]

@CareCPA -- would have loved to have met and thanked you for all your accounting expertise shared here since joining. I hope that effort has helped you secured some good clients from it.

I'm not sure what you mean by the "cycle repeats".

The cycle of ... show up to get a ticket, disappear until February, post during the event and a few weeks after, and then disappear until next ticket sales are announced. It's been like that every year, but I feel this year was even worse.

I would expect summit people to be slightly more engaged than the general forum populous. That's not the case.

While I won't deny the event has a beneficial impact on personal relationships, it's NOT having an beneficial impact on the forum. And that's the cycle that repeats and that's why it has been canceled.

 

[Jhon Valencia]

I wasn’t sure how to address this but decided transparency and honesty would be the best approach.

With that said, it is with great disappointment (and some frustration) that I must officially announce that the upcoming 2019 Fastlane Summit has been canceled.

Yes, canceled.

I realize this will upset many (as it upsets me that I have to do it considering last year's event ROCKED) but here is the reality as see it.

As you may know, the event was also canceled in 2017 due to some health challenges I was having. However this year’s cancellation has nothing to do with my health, but due to a combination of reasons, all of which paint a bigger picture.

First, in THIS THREAD, I made a preliminary call out (probe) for potential speakers. In the past, the event has always featured forum regulars who were gracious enough to offer their time and expertise. Having a nice pool of speakers to choose from was never a problem. For those who responded in that thread to speak, I thank you for your generosity in offering your wisdom.

In this thread, a total of 16 people offered to potentially speak (as of last Friday, several volunteered others to speak but that does not count.) Now when someone offers to speak, usually you can count on slightly LESS THAN HALF to actually do so -- this is because of a person’s schedule, their financial situation (flights, hotels, etc.) and various other reasons. This means as of now using this conservative formula, 7-8 people would speak.

Last year, 16 speakers spoke.

I figured this number would change when the weekly forum mass email headlined this announcement. To my shock, it didn’t. This means in order for me to get to 16, I would need to go “off forum” and seek (plead / instigate / compel) speakers who aren’t regular forum visitors or contributors.

Second, holding this event is a HUGE financial risk for my company because it has always been an event that was NOT designed for PROFIT, but for COMMUNITY.

Ticket prices have been purposely kept low for this reason. Additionally, when you compare this event to other similar events, the average price is usually more than triple -- and those events don’t even bother to feed you. Additionally, the hotel makes me sign a guarantee for rooms and food -- and if they don’t sell -- I’m on the hook for 100+ nights plus the guarantee. This amount is nearly $50,000 that I have to sign my name to. This risk increases as the local attendance increases (they don’t book rooms).

While last year's event came out marginally in the green, it was a type of “bet” that I would NEVER make in the financial markets, in business, or otherwise. But I find myself doing it here. In order for me to accept the risk, the ticket prices would need to skyrocket, or significant services (food) would need to be cut.

Third, if the event isn’t beneficial financially or from a risk standpoint, surely it must be good for the community right? I mean, that’s the main reason I was doing it right?!

Unfortunately history (in recent years since the FB era) shows that the direct forum benefit for the event has been marginal and not sustainable -- limited to about 60 days, about 45 days during and after the event, and maybe 15 days around ticket sales. And then things return to a baseline whereas many attendees stop contributing, or worse, stop visiting, only to return next November when the Summit discussion returns.

To verify this, I actually looked at the user attendance history of the last 2 years of meetings and was woefully shocked to discover that a majority of attendees do not contribute content to the forum. And by content, I mean a periodic post every few weeks, not something daily.

While I don’t deny that the incredible energy, camaraderie, and singularity of purpose of the event is awesomely breath-taking, it appears that this “energy” doesn’t stay on the forum, but goes elsewhere into personal networks, Facebook groups, Discord, etc. It’s disheartening for me to see the FB group that represents this event is actually more engaged than forum it represents. In the past, I even created a separate forum for attendees to gab and post in order to sustain the energy, but the result was the same.

While user registrations are higher as are active users at the forum, deep communal engagement is not at a level where I feel comfortable holding this event. This may also explains why the response to speak was somewhat lackluster.

Fourth, I have a lot of irons in the fire, from writing 2 more books (Unscripted Book 2 and 3) to other business dealings, to starting the process on building a custom home in Sedona. And lets not forget, being an active, daily contributor to this forum to help other people live the dream that is made possible through Unscripted Entrepreneurship.

All of these concerns become more evident when I recently read Essentialism, a book which is a treatise into learning how to say NO! to things that aren’t benefiting your personal mission and the things most important to you.

As many know, I have zero interest in being a guru, public speaking, or having seminars. While I appreciate meeting readers face to face, socializing with cigars and liquor, and hearing accolades and kudos about my writing, as an introvert and someone who enjoys deep solitude, the event is very stressful for me.

Reading Essentialism forced me to face the truth in the matter -- I don’t do this event for me -- I do it for the community -- additionally, it is extremely nerve-wracking, it is not a profit maker (giving me a decent return on my time to compensate for stress/risk) and most important, it doesn’t appear to be helping the community long-term.

At last year’s event I thought things would change when Chris W (Lighthouse) made a plea to all attendees to start a progress thread and update as the weeks and months went by. I also tried to reiterate the importance of the forum as it related to the event.

To be specific, the EVENT exists because of the FORUM, the FORUM does NOT exist because of the EVENT.

Think about that dichotomy.

The event happens because of the forum and it’s standing as a community, not the reverse.

So this year’s event, I’m sorry to say, will not happen.

However, is this the END of the event?

No more parties at Talking Stick Resort?

I hope that isn’t the case.

I hope this is a ONE year kink in the road and next year, I will look at the forum and its engagement and say, “We NEED to have an event!“ Again, my main priority for this event since leading its charge was foremost COMMUNITY -- that headlines over profit, stress, and risk. Next year it would be nice to look at the forum and say, “Damn, I WANT to do this, and we NEED to do this!” I would welcome to be forced into a re-evaluation.

Ultimately I would love to blow it out and have 200, or even 300 people. I don’t think hitting those numbers would be a problem but this kind of ambition (much less 120 like last year) has to ORIGINATE and be grass-rooted at the forum, not elsewhere.

So if the forum and its message (and the event) is important to you, I would hope that you continue to make the forum a small piece of your life.

If this is your first time back in months and you’re reading this, I will just say thank you for visiting and hope you understand the decision.

Over ten years ago I started this forum to foster a message of freedom through entrepreneurship. The forum has gone through a variety of peaks and valleys, but still retains its fundamental purpose which is derived from my purpose to inspire people to live their best through business ownership.

If you believe in that message, I will kindly request what I request every year… visit the forum and contribute! Say hello. Tell us what you’re doing. Tell us what you learned, what you’ve failed, and what you’ve succeeded.

And to everyone who has done so and continues to do so, I thank you from the bottom of my heart …. thank you so much for sharing your journey.

I did not know about the summit, but I would love to be a part of it next time, Thanks

 

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[GlobalWealth]

While I won't deny the event has a beneficial impact on personal relationships, it's NOT having an beneficial impact on the forum. And that's the cycle that repeats and that's why it has been canceled.

What is the metric you use for "beneficial impact on the forum"?

 

[GlobalWealth]

I'd rather not see the meetup or the forum die from lack of engagement.

I'm not any sort of specialist here, but certainly there are some people on the forum who are more technical and understand the various platforms for engagement.

As I see it, the forum itself suffers from its own success. The book sales have pushed tons of new members to the forum which is exponentially increased the amount of nonsense posts.

This of course drives away the doers because they don't have time to sift through lots of nonsense posts.

Of course INSIDERS helps with this alot as it serves as a filter. So do the Notable and Gold threads.

But there must be some way to filter out the nonsense.

As I said before, I joined because I was looking for a community of like minded people, but I stay for the relationships built at the meetups.

I would suggest allowing non-sanctioned events to be promoted to further engage the community in a very personal way as well as doing 1-3 sanctioned events per year.

Just a thought.

 

[LightHouse]

What the FUUUUUUUUUUUUUU.....


I have been off the forum for a little bit..... (iron-knee?)


I have also been off of all social media for a while (surprise MJ!)


But it's because I’m getting down to business. @Vigilante wanted to ruin my day yesterday and call me with this news.


I want to say i get it, but I don't. And guess what, i'll shoot my shot and put out there why I think that.


Early on the meetup was self funded as a networking and sharing event to put faces to names. After a while when the meetup hit critical mass with the effort put in, it had to be rescued with a structure change. That was a big move and it worked out. But while the interest grew the subsequent speaker pool shrank.


There are a ton of people on here that could provide value, but can they do it on stage? What we have already found out is no, you have to have good content and be able to speak. Mainly because now, people are paying a good clip of money to come to the event and get value from it. Its no longer a distributed value sharing event, it's more akin to a traditional conference.


But let's look at the larger point here, engagement on the forum.


This forum is also in a turning period. Forums because the thing because they were and area to collect and share specific information with like minded individuals. Like the bulletin boards before them, they were a method of getting your opinions out to a group of people that wanted to hear it.


This forum itself was designed for an era that is long since passed the apex of its usefulness.


The reason people choose social or messenger over the forum these days is because it is more in line with what they are already doing. This forum needs to evolve, and I think It needs to evolve soon.


I know there is a massive sunk cost in its design MJ, but the reality is, it sucks on mobile and without collapsing replies, its cumbersome to get through content.


Look at all the major sites and services, they all have collected, threaded, and collapsible content and replies. Even gmail and outlook do this. People are becoming more and more efficient with technology and mobile pushed that in a huge way. One of the main reasons reddit won out over the others (besides the digg redesign disaster) was that you could consume a lot of content and fast. All the other platforms followed suit including facebook.

Also….. Voting. Most major sites have adopted voting systems or algorithms that handle it based on engagement. Why? Because it is efficient. As it sits with all the thread tag clutter, In order to find threads I’m interested in that have decent conversation, I have to sift through a ton of thread titles with a variety of tags in order to start, then sift through replies 10 at a time scrolling forever on tons of wasted space and user tags, in order to see if the discussion is decent or if someone has brought up the point I wanted to make. You know what, most people skip it and post “ I didn’t read but”


I know there is not much that is going to change your mind MJ, and I’m certainly not trying to shit all over this forum, you, your brand, or anything else like that, my point is simply … this forum NEEDS to evolve.


It HAS to evolve. You can’t alienate the services that have more adoption and expect that it will turn people back to the old way.

The funny part is, I feel like I originally learned that lesson either from you @MJ DeMarco or here on the forum. Things evolve and if you don’t adapt you die.

I have been in this community since inception and seen the world evolve around it with marginal fundamental updates to how it works. This site is a community, that community can exist in a newer house and thrive.

Either way, I am sure none of this is new to you and you may have heard it before. I think it points to an interesting discussion overall and I hope you don’t feel offended by it. I don’t want to lose this community at all, it’s the reason I am here and its responsible for a lot of good things in my life so I have a vested interest in seeing it thrive. I think it is just time to trade in the ol Pinto for one of those new Tesla’s!


P.S. I still owe you a backrub. I made you this voucher.

 

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[ZCP]

@LightHouse gives good backrubs.

 

[ApeRunner]

Meetup or no meetup, I see this forum as a kind of home where I touch base with people more intelligent and talented than me.

I was honored to be present at the last summit. I also even got deeper in debt just to know who are those people at the other side of the screen. And I was reassured of the quality of persons that this forum is made of.

I understand the reasons for the next summit cancelation and am 100% OK with them. Because the forum is the really important place. I love it and hope it will be active forever.

The reason people choose social or messenger over the forum these days is because it is more in line with what they are already doing. This forum needs to evolve, and I think It needs to evolve soon.

Social apps and text chats provide instant gratification. They are also easier to learn and use than a forum. But conversations there tend to be more superficial. In a forum, you can go deep. And deepness has a lot more value than instant responses. I recommend the book Deep Work on more about that.

I know there is a massive sunk cost in its design MJ, but the reality is, it sucks on mobile and without collapsing replies, its cumbersome to get through content.

@MJ DeMarco I can help you with CSS and PHP to help the forum be more mobile friendly. I even already have some suggestions for it. Of course at no charge at all. And thank you for the Summit Attendee badge!

.

 

[ZCP]

ban hammer for @LightHouse ?

 

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[LightHouse]

ban hammer for @LightHouse ?

No one is reading this thread to vote!

 

[ZCP]

@MJ DeMarco at some point, could we get you to accept that to 'not be a guru', you will need to become a guru?

hand that forum shit off and do what is important! write, teach, mentor. change lives!

you don't owe us shit. in your soul you want to help others. you even thinking about whether the forum needs to update or whether there needs to be a summit based on numbers can be handed off to others.

we need you leading, boss!

 

[ZCP]

No one is reading this thread to vote!

Just me and you at this point. I'm not on mobile at the moment.

 

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[Ravens_Shadow]

I think that @LightHouse has brought up very good points. I just about only post in my thread, because there is so much garbage to sift through. Even the inside is getting crammed with things that I personally think should be on the outside. A way to filter by most recent + likes or most recent + respected member, whatever.

The forum is an excellent source to learn from, but there's so much noise that I'd rather go do something else than sift through it.

 

[MJ DeMarco]

I think it points to an interesting discussion overall and I hope you don’t feel offended by it.

It HAS to evolve.

Thanks for the analysis Chris, but you're preaching to the choir. (No offense)

It's old news.

I've been wanting to evolve it for 4 years, waiting for the right software system to move with the times. But it hasn't happened, and I'm not about to engineer my own forum software service.

In other words, the forum hasn't "evolved" because the software that supports forums hasn't either.

The new Xenforo (launched nearly 1 year ago) sucks azz. Alternative forum software also sucks. NO forum software is mobile friendly which is part of the issue -- forums are primarily a desktop, deep-dive medium. No one wants to type a 200 word post on an iPhone.

None of this is news to forum admins, and it's common knowledge that forums are fighting a consumer shift on multiple battlefronts: We're fighting social media swipe syndrome complete with quick splashes of dopamine hits and superficial relationships built on memes and 2 sentence posts.

was that you could consume a lot of content and fast.

To which everyone would say, "OMG, there's too much noise."

Case in point...

The forum is an excellent source to learn from, but there's so much noise that I'd rather go do something else than sift through it.

To say that Reddit and Facebook allows you to consume content fast (but they aren't noisy) is intellectual dishonesty. It's all equally noisy.

 

[Ravens_Shadow]

To say that Reddit and Facebook allows you to consume content fast (but they aren't noisy) is intellectual dishonesty. It's all equally noisy.

I don't use reddit or facebook for business, or much else really besides a few private groups in discord that deal with my particular niche. I am 100% certain that these platforms face the same problems the forum does with noise levels, at an even worse rate. Forum software is a big limitation and I understand you don't want to do it from scratch. I wouldn't.

I just wish there was some sort of vetting system that we could filter out intros, random threads that users have voted have no relevance to most users, certain sub-forums, etc. There may already be something like this on the forum and I haven't seen it. This would allow us to consume content fast, while having it still provide the maximum bang for time spent reading. I don't have an answer on how to solve a lot of what we all wish could be improved. Also having a better way to search tags and having users tag their threads more often so that we can see when new and relevant threads pop up, say if I wanted to see everything that's new and related to software or SaaS.

 

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[MJ DeMarco]

I just wish there was some sort of vetting system that we could filter out intros, random threads that users have voted have no relevance to most users, certain sub-forums, etc. There may already be something like this on the forum and I haven't seen it. This would allow us to consume content fast, while having it still provide the maximum bang for time spent reading. I don't have an answer on how to solve a lot of what we all wish could be improved. Also having a better way to search tags and having users tag their threads more often so that we can see when new and relevant threads pop up, say if I wanted to see everything that's new and related to software or SaaS.

Content discovery has been a major problem for forums, specifically Xenforo. And they still haven't solved it, despite their *great* new version that they claim does everything but what you need it to do: 1) It's not Mobile friendly and 2) It still lacks content discovery. But thank god you can post an enhanced smiley eh? SMH.

I've analyzed other software options but they pose trade-offs as well, aka cutting off your thumb to gain an index finger.

 

[GPM]

I attended the summit in 2016, and again in 2018. Made some great friends. Went to Africa with some of the people I met on the forum, and again to LA with them. I still text many members on a regular basis and keep up with what is happening with them. In short, the event has led to a cascade of events that has forever changed my life, and by extension will also change the lives of my family.

The forum was a great eye opener for me, and going to the summit really solidified for me that this lifestyle can be real, and you can bring others into it with you.

I should probably post more, however, I try to keep my posts from clogging up the works with random BS.

I agree with the previous members who stated that your books success might also be a bit of the forums downfall. There seems to be so much social media fluff that needs to be waded through before the great content can be found. I love reading the gold posts, but lately even those have turned into like 70% BS that needs to be skipped to get to the gold.

I have never been on reddit or any of the other sites that people are mentioning, but sounds like they might be on to something with people able to down-vote the shit that just takes up space.

 

[kkoasdfawfqwe2]

I'm currently too drunk to say anything useful.

But for the sake of 'voting' I'd say that I'm very sad to hear about the news.

I have not been a forum member for long since the forum is half my age, but I was ready to buy some tickets, fly to the US and meet all of you amazing entrepreneurs & people!

This, you, everyone with their posts and threads are a big inspiration on my daily.

I read you guys for breakfast for gods sake!

Shit, I'm having to consider building a forum software designed for mobile from scratch to increase the chances of the fastlane summit happening again! Also it might be a very viable business opportunity.. Will reconsider when I sober up.

Either way, THANK YOU MJ, I will do my best to make sure that the fastlane summit will happen - I WANT to attend this in my life.

I will be checking in everyday looking for that magic thread announcing the fastlane summit happening again

 

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[ZCP]

@MJ DeMarco = mule

summit in Feb is gone

show him it needs to happen in 2020!

 

[ZCP]

and how do you get a summit attendee badge?
do we get an 'offered to speak in 2019' badge?
i'd downvote the shit out of that!

 

[Andy Black]

Thank you MJ for saying No to what doesn’t work for you, and for being so honest with your thought process and reasoning.


I’ve not been as active recently, but I’ll keep posting. It seems I can’t not do.


I’ve been in and out of Facebook and Discord groups recently ... just getting my head round the different types of platforms.

I can’t stand them really. Too “message” like, and I can never find content again.

And I dispise Facebook and their efforts to distract me from my day. It’s an incredible tool for finding groups of people to study though. If it weren’t for that I’d just use it for keeping in touch with family and friends.

I have to say I find this forum far easier to read and post to using my mobile. The vast majority of my posts are via mobile.

Editing posts in Facebook groups on my mobile is super irritating and slow.

I use my newsfeed extensively in here and rarely look at the home page. I hadn’t noticed an influx of poorer content tbh... maybe that’s why?


I had no intention of attending the 2019 summit, although would love to meet all of you in person one day.

It’s just easier for me to post here than to travel to give a talk. I’ll make a concious effort to drop in a few video tutorials I’ve been meaning to, and to update my (lack of?) progress threads.

I don’t consider myself a big dog business wise in the forum. Plenty have bigger businesses. Yet I’m happy to show me starting new things from scratch, and show how I give myself permission to suck.

I’ve plenty of threads where I just start crap and keep charging forward till I’ve made some progress. I was hoping that might inspire a few others to allow give themselves permission to suck and to just start already and document as they go along.


Kudos to everyone who documents their progress and produces as well as consumes.


For those lurking... you’re trying to join team producer right? Get into the producer ways in the safe environment in this forum.

Sure, some folks will be eejits in their replies. Just consider that a lesson in dealing with eejits. You’re going to meet plenty in business and in life. At least in here we can set @Vigilante or @theag on them...

Oh, and just for the record... people like @jon.a have the knack of saying in a few words what takes me a few pages. One day I too will get to the point as quickly.


Anyway, thanks again for this forum @MJ DeMarco. I appreciate it and am here to help you in any way I can.

 

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[LightHouse]

Thanks for the analysis Chris, but you're preaching to the choir. (No offense)

No offense taken, like i said it's good discussion either way.

NO forum software is mobile friendly which is part of the issue -- forums are primarily a desktop, deep-dive medium. No one wants to type a 200 word post on an iPhone.

None of this is news to forum admins, and it's common knowledge that forums are fighting a consumer shift on multiple battlefronts: We're fighting social media swipe syndrome complete with quick splashes of dopamine hits and superficial relationships built on memes and 2 sentence posts.

But tapatalk has... Obviously it isn't the core forum, but tapatalk has figured out a good way to get forums core content that matters into a mobile format that cuts out all the clutter. The only thing it is missing is being able to collapse replies and it may even have that feature now.

To which everyone would say, "OMG, there's too much noise."

Case in point...

To say that Reddit and Facebook allows you to consume content fast (but they aren't noisy) is intellectual dishonesty. It's all equally noisy.

I disagree, before i got off both, both of mine were incredibly good at showing me great content. Both had easy ways to subscribe or ignore things to tune my "feed" to show me what i want to see and make good suggestions either by voting or by algorithm. Here, the structure is flat, everything is laid out and you have to look over everything to find something. Where as reddit, where i didn't frequent the new section, the junk and shit posts die as with the comments.

The downside to that is shaping, but i don't know that that would be a factor here really since it is all so specific to business.

I definitely get that you have wanted to change it, but maybe it's at the point where its worthwhile to lose some change to save a dollar.

Genuinely curious here @MJ DeMarco, What do you think this place will be or look like in 10 years from today?

 

[ZCP]

Genuinely curious here @MJ DeMarco, What do you think this place will be or look like in 10 years from today?

@LightHouse will be coming off his latest tapatalk 4.0 ban