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I left my life behind for 30 days and this is what I learned

I am writing this from London. It’s been just 30 days since I left my old life and apparently this trip will be cut short by a couple of days.

My time away has made me sit down and reflect on my life, the past month and where I’m going from here.

I feel blessed that I even have the ability to leave everything behind for a while and go find myself and the next step. Before I keep going, I need to thank my team at Streetwise, my agency. We do outsourced marketing services for major clients in different industries and I can’t thank them enough for stepping up. The last month has proven we have room to grow and a team to grow with.

Finding myself didn’t include 2 weeks of nature or silence or yoga sessions. I just needed to get out of my routine, be alone, think, write and read (or listen to as much audio content as I could).

Life takes its toll on all of us. Without even noticing, we pick up habits, big and small. Look at the week ahead you have planned for yourself, and you’ll see that we have ways of passing the time, the week, the year. All we need to do is fill up our calendar with things to do and we are good to go.

I love my morning habits – waking up, going to my favorite specialty coffee spot and enjoying some good conversations. Then there are morning meetings with clients, lunch and, look at that, the week is already over. Sometimes it’s busy and most days are like a rat race. The weekend is slower, habits are different but still a routine. I want to live my life on my time and my schedule. I want to own my time.

In order to do that, I felt I needed to go away and dream it all up again

An excuse

I needed one, and I found two good ones. The catalyst for this trip came from EO, the Entrepreneurs’ Organization, of which I am a member and sit on the regional council. After almost 2 years, 50 of us decided to meet in Lisbon to work on our European strategy, and it was epic in so many ways.

Staying for WebSummit after was also a good idea, but my main reason for going away was an idea I’ve had for a while: to write a new book.

It all started with a book title I came up with a few months back. I have already written two novels and have been thinking of ideas for a business/self-help book for a few years. For me, the writing process starts with a good title and some ideas.

The title was “Fuck the Slides.” I know, good huh?

The idea for the book was to develop my technique and help entrepreneurs build a pitch that would help them raise money. The second step of my process is taking notes on my phone and then drafting a short layout. Once that is done, I can start writing.

All I needed was time, so it just seemed fit to keep traveling after Lisbon. Since landing in London, I have walked about 600,000 steps, listened to 5 audio books, heard countless podcasts and signed new clients from Germany, South Africa, London and New-York (one from London is still not signed), but most importantly, I have written over 30,000 words and made some life-altering decisions.

I thought I would share some of my key insights from this month, and hope you manage to adopt at least one for yourself.

Check your habits

I love coffee. Like, really love coffee. Or should I say, I’m more addicted to the ritual of visiting my favorite coffee place everyday at 7am, reading the newspaper, talking to people and maybe having a second cup of coffee. But in the last few months, I noticed it was starting to feel like an exhausting ritual. I had to switch things up.

It’s your time

Sometimes it seems like my time is just not mine anymore. I react too often, rather than planning and creating a schedule. Even while in London, I noticed something scary. You see, when I landed in London, I only had one thing on my calendar for the whole month, and guess what? Things got crazy busy in no time. I started to feel stressed and the pressure was continuous. Saying no is something I still struggle with, but life is about learning, right? I need to learn how to manage my time. I am going back home determined to give my time first priority on the calendar and assign specific times for everything else.

The world can wait

We are too responsive, too fast, too often. Nothing bad will happen if we just disappear and fall off the grid for a few hours. Manage expectations and tell people you are not available. During my first week in London, I cancelled my cell phone package. That meant while I was roaming the streets, I was not available. It was so wonderful walking around, knowing there is no point in taking my phone out of my pocket because nothing will have changed. And nothing changed. Just let the world know when you will be back.

Finish before you start

It was early in the morning and still dark. Wake up, boil water, wash my face, brush my teeth, get coffee and open my laptop. I started writing before anything else, getting one piece of content or one chapter done, anything. I started the day with a win. The last few days have been great, as I pick an idea I jotted down the day before and just start writing. The same routine can be established for your morning fitness habits (my next goal is 100, 250 and 1,000 push-ups straight). Just do it first thing in the morning or set aside a specific block of time for it.

I love running in the evenings rather than in the morning because then my work day is done and I love getting out to shake off the day and clear my head for the evening.

You need a destination

I walked for hours every day, just roaming the streets, shops, gardens and museums, thinking, walking, listening. I needed to experience something else than what I was used to seeing. But I also needed to know what direction I’m headed in and what I’m trying to accomplish: a new book, new projects, new life? Moving to Lisbon? I set some guidelines and boundaries, and from these walks and thoughts, I found my destination and the road to getting there. Part of it was also sharing my journey with you here.

I am going back home with the reminder that I come first, and the person to tell that to is me, no one else. It’s up to you to take care of yourself.

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Stop to move forward

Want to grow your business? This is the one thing you must do now

If you want to grow your business, you need to stop everything and take a break. Not a vacation, a break, just so you have time to think about these 3 things.

I love working, and I always have. For years, I worked long hours, learning, meeting, writing, taking on more and more clients and projects, and my business kept growing and improving.

But the real kicker was once each year when I did the opposite. I just stopped everything and did nothing. So, here is what I can share with you from my experience of doing something so completely against my nature.

Sure, we all need a vacation or a break every once in a while, but I’m talking about stopping entirely. For years, I would fly to Berlin, Germany for 10-14 days and take some time off work. I would only do emergency stuff when my team needed my help, but everything else was personal. I would write my novels (I’ve had the pleasure of publishing 2) or listen to audio books and podcasts while roaming the streets.

Those days of wonder around the old buildings of berlin gave me time to think and build a strategy, a long-term idea of what I wanted to do, how my life could look and how I could structure my future.

When 2020 came around, we were all forced to stop for a while, but most did not think enough. We are probably living in the best time in our lifetimes to make some changes and live the life we want. Here are some things I have learned that might help you understand that taking a break is probably the best thing you could do for yourself and your work.

There is a saying that your business will grow when you start working on the business and not in the business. Most of us simply say, “That is so true,” and keep going.

Team

In order to actually make this saying a reality, I had to learn how to structure my company. We focused on finding the right people to help support the company. The main goal was to free myself from day-to-day operations while offering better service in my agency.

Time vs. pricing

The next step was to look at my schedule and the hours I work, and increase the rates for my time while reducing the number of hours I allocate to clients and consulting. Today I do very little consulting, and that for only a few very specific startups. 

Time is key when you are looking to take the next step for your business. It was more than just meetings. We started to improve internal meetings, cut them short and ask clients to do as many online as possible instead of meeting face-to-face.

Clients

How much is enough? What type of clients and work do you want to do? I believe you can divide most of your work into 3 types:

  1. Time consuming – you know the work and you took it because you need the money, but the profit margins are not as good as you had hoped and these projects suck up your or your team’s time.
  2. The money – these are the clients you like. They help your business grow and pay the bills. You wish you had more of these (if you only had time for more business development or sales). They require attention, but you also need more like them.
  3. Your future – sadly, you are probably not investing enough time in this since it’s usually hard work, pays less or has potential in the distant, rather than the immediate, future. You wish you could spend more time on projects like this, but you lack one of your two most precious resources: time or money.

While taking a break, ask yourself how many n.1’s you have. Can you drop one or two? What will this mean for your team? How can you replace them with another n.2? 

We all have dreams of making it big, but we might make all the wrong choices when it comes to clients from n3. You see, I used to take the idea, the story, and fall in love. These days, we only focus on one project at a time.

You need to stop. Now.

You need to step away, become your own consultant and take a good hard look at where you are now and where you plan on being next year when you take another break. Create your own path and stop letting life happen to you. You got this.

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Time to change your life

What if this is your only chance? Would you take it?

This might just be the right time for you to change your life – to switch jobs or lose that weight. Now, during the worst pandemic and economic crisis in decades, you just might find your shining star. That’s because that star is not out there in the sky or in your next job, it is literally inside you.

Just like anyone else might, I decided to look for that star inside of myself. I get closer and closer one step at a time, and it feels good. It started like most oaths to exercise, with the idea that I should do more.

Life is what happens to you while you’re busy making other plans

Last year was simultaneously a particularly good and awfully bad year. My podcast was alive and kicking with over 30 episodes. My agency was growing with an amazing staff and we launched new services focused on branding for small businesses. It was all set up to be an awesome year: working hard from 8a.m. till 8p.m. every day. From there I’d go home, eat, shower and go out for a beer… or two… or three. I loved finishing the day with a few beers, maybe a couple of cigarettes and some friends. The fact that I am a partner in two bars wasn’t helping my drinking habit, but it was so much fun.

The months have a tendency to pass quickly when you’re busy, so I would work hard, play hard and knew that whatever I didn’t get done could wait for tomorrow. Funny thing about tomorrow though, is that we always delay the most important things, right?

We postpone working on our dreams, spending time with our family or improving our lives by exercising, cooking, etc. Whatever it is, we are too tired to do it. “I will run tomorrow,” I said, “I will stop smoking after this weekend.” Writing? Maybe next week. I promised myself I would film a couple of YouTube videos as soon as I had a few hours. But time is tricky – it never comes back and it’s always elusive, giving us that feeling that it will never run out.

And as the days passed, I noticed I just wasn’t having fun anymore. I had become a CEO, but didn’t get to participate in any of the fun bits that come with running a business. I stopped doing the creative stuff like writing and focused instead on employee issues, taking care of financial things and working hard, but feeling stuck. I wasn’t entirely aware of it, but despite all my plans, life was telling me I needed a change.

It will take as much time as it takes

What I needed was a vacation, and the holiday season was just around the corner. I had always dreamed of seeing Japan; it was time. When I was there, I was overwhelmed by the difference in culture (I am from Israel, the opposite of Japan in every way imaginable).

It was mind blowing – like being in outer space. In my environment, everyone wants everything faster, focusing on quick tactics and results rather than strategy. Honestly, it had worn me out, and I wasn’t sure if this way of doing things had gotten me where I wanted to be. In Japan, time is based on patience. Things take time because they need to take time. How much time? As much as it takes. And after 3 weeks, I came back ready to make some changes to the business and my lifestyle.

But making changes and decisions is not easy, especially when my business has played such a big role in my life for almost a decade. When you have employees and clients, you can’t just drop it all and go traveling again (trust me, I thought about it every day). I prepared a plan and included everything I needed to change in my business: fewer employees, fewer clients, bigger clients, more focus on work and making an impact. Everything started to seem better. It definitely felt better. Our tasks weren’t easy, but step by step, I started down this new path. Going into 2020, I felt I was on the right track. Looking back at it now, I see that I was basically on the track to making the same mistakes I had made before.

I kept finding excuses not to write, vlog or push my brand. Something wasn’t right, I just couldn’t put my finger on it. I decided to exercise and start reading more. So, I sold my motorcycle and started walking 30 mins every day back and forth to the office. It was fun. Winter days here in Tel-Aviv are great and Audible books kept me company. A few months later, still feeling I could do more but unsure where to start, I was in Berlin for the weekend to have some meetings and see some friends. I made sure I kept walking while I was there. Right after I returned to Israel, the news hit us: we had to quarantine for 14 days.

Free falling

We have all the time in the world…until something like this happens. Understanding that all hell was about to break loose, I did what most people would do: I hung on to what I knew instead of taking a huge breath and diving into the deep end. Back and forth, I walked in my apartment, worrying. How was I going to pay salaries? What might happen to me, my family, my company?

It was around 2a.m. when I decided I needed to let go. There was simply no point in feeling stressed. I couldn’t control most of what was happening. I needed to look at this situation from a different angle. “How much time do I have every day and how could I utilize it to make the most out of it?” I asked myself.  What things I want to fill my days with? How would I like to feel at the end of every day when night comes?

Then I stopped. The panic stopped. The smoking at the window as if the weight of the world was on my shoulders was over. For the first time in about 10 days locked up at home, my mind felt clear. It would take me just a few hours to make a list of all the things I could control.

The next day, I spoke to my accountant. We made some important decisions together, and a few days later the whole country was ordered to stay home. Out of quarantine and into lockdown. I still couldn’t leave the house. Time, which everyone always complained was lacking, suddenly felt abundant again, but I knew better this time. Now it was time to move forward. I believe we can choose how we look at things. For me it was either fall into depression or make the best of a bad situation and start making my dreams my job again.

Personal brand

As time progressed, I figured things were not going back to normal and we might need to rethink the definition of normal altogether. If so, I knew I would have no option but to make the best of a bad situation. I made a to-do list and got to work. Ok, I didn’t actually make a physical list, but more like sat in front of my computer screen for about 17 hours a day and worked… or created work… or had fun… well, you get the point, I hope.

I have already been working on my personal brand for years. I have my own logo for my surname and a cool title on my card and E-mail signature: Chief of Happiness. For years, people meet me at events around the world and all they can remember is my title – I love it.

I felt it was time to take the next step. I scouted the net for cool sites of famous people, mainly speakers and marketing gurus. I wrote down all the things I loved and got a good friend to help me build a new website for my lectures, consulting and workshops. It took time, but writing and the little bit of design we did on WordPress wasn’t too difficult for us (ok, for him more than me).

It didn’t take long to start getting work and I am happy to say this entire situation has become a life-changing experience for me. I’m actually writing content about my work/hobby and being invited to teach about these things – it’s absolutely amazing. I have been planning to do this for over 2 years, but now, I had time, I did it and it’s working. Here’s what I’ve been doing:

  1. Writing

I always loved writing. Hell, I wrote two books and I’ve been messing around with my third book about a marketing concept for a while now. Something about the idea of asking my students to read chapter 4 in my book for the next class always made me laugh. But sometime a few years ago, my writing went from novels and long social posts to tweets, short comments, quick blog posts, nothing to write home about. Now I’ve relaunched my Medium, started writing on my website and returned to pursuing long stories on my laptop – just writing. I am now at the point where I think I know how to continue my 3rd book and maybe even a new novel or a TV script.

  1. Interviews

In 2019 I decided I had to get better at interviews. I wasn’t even sure why, but I had to. Many people around me already liked my podcast concept, so I went with video interviews and fell in love. Being a creative person, the decision to improvise all my interviews seemed natural to me, and after the first 3 or 4, they got pretty good. Some episodes were excellent even. And I had a plan for 2020: to interview and speak in as many countries as possible. I even made a video about it. Now, at home, I wrote some people and started the 100 interviews project, where I interview people from different countries. If I am not mistaken, episode 10 should be just around the corner. The concept of conducting interviews gives me the opportunity to just randomly introduce myself and ask someone to join me for a quick session. If you or someone you know might be interested, mail me. I need more countries and good people.

  1. Filming

When I was younger, I think there were about 12 years when I barely had any pictures taken of me. Things were different when film was used and it was easy to avoid being photographed. Now I run two YouTube channels, go live, teach in 2 colleges and I love it. But to this day, I change the moment I see the red record icon and it takes me some time to warm up to the camera. But as a marketeer and someone looking to build a personal brand, I needed to face this fear.

I ordered a Canon M50 and started filming myself every day during quarantine to get used to the camera. It was the only way to get over that fear and embrace it.

I now film somewhere between 2-4 videos a week for my YouTube channels and Patreon.com supporters. I need to keep practicing and remember I will never get over that fear completely, it will only keep getting smaller. Embrace your fears.

  1. Editing

I do not want to feed the negative feelings I have about editing so let’s just say I don’t feel I’m very good at it. For years, I had help – some of the best! But now at home, I decided again that I need to own it. Even though I found out I was better at doing one shot to save time, I had to learn some editing. Now, I spend about 10 hours a week and during the weekends improving my techniques.

For me, it is crucial these days to go back to doing everything by myself. I believe that amazing all-around players will be the ones who thrive and survive. If you can afford an editor, great. If you can’t, learn. When you have the money, you will remember the early days and know the jargon so you can communicate better with your editor. Don’t give up because you do not know how to edit.

  1. Live sessions

I can’t sing or act and I don’t think I have ever been good looking enough to be a model, even when I was young. So, teaching is my way of being a rock star, standing on stage, giving that show and holding the room. When I first started teaching at college, people told me kids are terrible and college students even worse. They won’t listen, and don’t care. But I believe if my talk is interesting, people will stay, listen and engage.

I owe a lot to my students for helping me improve, and sitting at home, anything suddenly became a great excuse to take action, so I jumped on the idea and started offering free live sessions on Zoom anywhere possible. Thanks to the time differences, I could always find another accelerator or hub to engage with somewhere.

This became a great way to test new material, meet 25-30 people at once and even get leads, paid gigs and consulting work. Giving my time for free paid off in so many ways. So, to everyone who asked why I do this for free, I say it makes me feel good and reminds me we can impact someone on the other side of the world with words. It is a long game and I never know who these people might become in a few years or if they will remember me at all, but it actually pays the bills if you are patient.

  1. Marketing

I LOVE MARKETING!!! My passion has never run out. To this day I keep reading, learning and meeting new people. Quarantine was an awesome chance to revisit all the things we did over the past couple of years and improve them. We went back to content strategy and produced more videos and articles, refined our messages and made changes to our target audience. All this is based on our core values and it has been fun. It’s also producing results faster than ever.

I found a few clients who get what I’m doing. We can work on long term strategies, gamification and YouTube content together. Creating more, learning more – feels like I am just starting again.

  1. Catan

Well, to be honest, why not? The online version has some bugs, but I was willing to overlook those and have fun with my friends over zoom. I always had a thing for strategy games but Catan takes the cake and most of the time, so do I. This game reminded me that the hand you currently hold says nothing about the larger game. Even if you roll a 7 and have to let go of half of it, this means nothing, you can still win. When your opponents are doing well, remember, they can still lose if you focus on playing smart, negotiating hard and having fun.

  1. Running

During quarantine I did not run, just walked back and forth in my small apartment. Now, I run almost every day. That feeling you get that you can’t possibly run anymore, but stretch it just a little more anyway is key to me working now, at 1a.m. writing this. Keep moving no matter what, no matter where you are or how small (or bad) each step feels – just keep moving. Great things will come of your suffering.

It is up to you, always

I truly believe life is random and we can only control our decisions based on the knowledge we have in that particular moment and our gut feeling. Take these two, do the best you can and be happy you are where you are. Tomorrow, you might be on top of the world, but there is always a chance you might fall down. Be happy with what you have and keep moving forward.

When you look at things, try and be as positive as you can because it is the right thing to do. I love complaining in a cynical way, myself. It’s always funny and I find laughter makes everyone feel better. But sometimes, I too dwell on things and feel down, alone or miserable. It is totally ok in my mind to feel these things, but, and this is a big but, we are judged on what we do after those feeling take over.

You might have skimmed this article quickly, or maybe you scrolled straight to the conclusion. So, TLDR, here it goes: it’s up to you to make a change and stop looking at the past, my friends. What could have been is not relevant; it will never happen.
Time will pass, things will probably get worse before they get better and this might be a final call – an unmissable last chance to prepare and make sure your better is awesome.

It is time for each of us to take action and ensure we are doing our best in this new evolution. This might mean putting your head down and working more, following a dream, moving cities, starting a running routine or anything else that might help you get through these next 12-24 months.

For me, it was following my dreams.

Good luck

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Tough love and a fresh perspective

If you could get one tip, one piece of advice, that one small thing that makes a change, moves the needle, or helps you gain clarity, it was all worth it.

We were sitting on the edge of the cliff and the view was amazing, breathtaking. The combination of sun and wind on my face reminded me why getting out of the city is so important. Looking at the mountains before us, I told my friend I felt tired. I was exhausted from the urban race, running my company and the day in, day out hustle and grind from dusk till dawn – literally working my life away.

He looked at me and smiled. He had just turned 62 and had a successful consulting business helping CEOs of major companies improve the way they run their businesses, teams and how they make decisions.

And me? I was in my mid 30’s working hard at my digital marketing agency and feeling tired. It felt as if he was over those mountains and I hadn’t even begun the journey to cross them.

He smiled and said, “Can I tell you something?”

“Sure,” I replied eager to hear what he had to say.

“Can I give you what we call tough love? I will tell you the brutal truth, the way I see things but remember I’m saying this because I care and have your best interests at heart.”

“Please do. I won’t get offended or anything.”

I was certain he was about to share the secret to success – that trick we all hear about on social media, that one hack to rule them all. My eyes opened up, my ears attentive to his every breath, as the very next might carry a genius tip. He looked at the stone in his hand, passed his thumb over it and threw it far away. Then he looked at me and said in his assertive and soothing voice: “You’re too fat. You need to lose weight.”

Not sure what I had just heard, I decided to wait a moment before I spoke, absorbing this Mr. Miagi, karate kid, ‘wax on, wax off’ concept. What is this mind trick?

Well, I had been eating quite badly in the few months prior, and I was barely sleeping 4 hours each night. The most sporty thing I had done recently was to hold a pint of beer for a few hours at the local bar. Damn. I’m fat huh?

He stood up, reached out his hand to help me up and hugged me. I couldn’t believe it, one act of tough love, one sentence – what an impact.

All I needed was an outside perspective, someone telling me how they see things. But, one might ask, how is that connected to my business?

Sometimes we need to get that one tip, one piece of advice, that one small thing that makes a change, moves the needle, or helps you gain clarity, it was all worth it.

For me that resulted in leaving work every day at 6:30p.m. and going for a walk. Eventually this turned into a run, which then led to a change in my eating and sleeping habits, less beer drinking and being more positive in general. Setting a work schedule meant I needed to be more productive, choose what’s really important and focus more. These activities resulted in my business doubling over the following 12 months.

We all need a fresh perspective, sometimes from someone we do not know or who has a completely different background.

When you feel it’s time to make a change in your business, reach out. I will listen and see if I can share my experiences in marketing, sales and branding to help you improve your business or mindset. I promise to give you tough love when necessary and if you start exercising or changing the way you do things, I will know I have chosen my profession and passion well.