September 2017 was highlighted by my Productivity Virtual Summit where over 50 speakers shared their insights on boosting your productivity. At the same time, school started and took up more of my time.
Let’s dive right in…
The Usual Script
For some reason, I always find myself saying that I wish I had a more productive month regardless of what I accomplish. This month will be no exception. I tend to view what I didn’t do, and that sometimes results in me forgetting what I did or not taking what I did as seriously. This is an issue I’m striving to fix.
My Decision With Virtual Summits
As much as I love to provide a great experience for my attendees, I need to get smarter when hosting virtual summits.
I only gave myself three months of prep from the Content Marketing Success Summit to the Productivity Virtual Summit, and while I thought about running another virtual summit in March, I am currently holding off on that idea.
There are many moving parts when organizing a virtual summit, and it’s very difficult to run a virtual summit on your own. With the exception of three video editors, I ran the entire summit on my own.
I was an affiliate manager, web designer, interviewer (including prep), the guy responsible for outreach, swipe copy writer, email sender, and more all wrapped into one.
Instead of creating an entirely new summit, I’m going to strengthen CMSS for it’s second year in May 2018. I will have a team behind that launch because I don’t want to put all of the workload on myself anymore. I’d rather focus on doing the interviews and communicating with attendees.
I Am Really Close To Hiring A VA
September made me realize how much I need a VA. As you’ll see when I reveal the content I published this month, I didn’t have a solid plan in place to continue publishing content as the summit was running.
I published relatively little content, and I need to revamp my Publishing Calendar to reflect this month’s output.
I’ve mentioned hiring a VA before, but this time, I am very close. One of the speakers for the Productivity Virtual Summit specializes in finding the best VAs, and some VAs reading past Performance Reports directly contacted me.
In the end, I’m looking for someone who can accomplish the majority of tasks I need them to accomplish while being a weekly accountability partner via a Skype call.
A New Approach For Writing Blog Posts
I really need to give a shout out to Meera Kothand for this tip she shared in her book The One Hour Content Plan.
She said that instead of writing a blog post from start to finish, you can write several blog posts at the same time.
For instance, on Day 1, you write out the blog post topic and its outline. On Day 2, you write the introductions and conclusions for all five of those blog posts. On Day 3, you write the bodies of those blog posts. On Day 4 you polish those blog post bodies with some research and SEO juice, and on Day 5 you schedule all five of those blog posts.
I’m more than willing to give this a try, especially after this month’s performance from the blogging standpoint.
DATE REVEAL: Content Marketing Secrets
I have put several months of time, attention, and energy towards this book and the Productivity Virtual Summit. Now I can solely focus on the book, and I’m almost done with it.
I will publish the book on November 14, 2017. I know, just two months after the summit, but I have a nice break going into the holiday season and launching a book (in my opinion) isn’t as difficult as prepping for a virtual summit.
Several people have already agreed to provide advanced praise for the book which is really exciting, but there’s a special reason why I chose November 14th, and I need your help!
This book is the last book that I will ever publish as a teenager…
I turn 20 on January 3, 2018. I’ve always wanted a book of mine to land on a bestsellers list while I was a teen because that would help inspire other teens and let them see what’s possible for them. I’ve been putting my heart and soul to making Content Marketing Secrets a bestseller worthy book, but the marketing makes that status possible.
If you want to help me accomplish this goal for my last book in my teenage years, please email me with the subject line “Book Launch Team”
Books I Read
I initially started out on a cold streak due to prepping for the summit, but then I got on a hot streak. It turns out I decided to enroll into Kindle Unlimited which offers 1.4 million eBooks for just $9.99/mo.
Many of the top publishing companies don’t put their eBooks through Kindle Unlimited, but I’ve been reading more self-published books lately, and they’ve been amazing.
The Kindle Writing Bible by Tom Corson-Knowles
Schedule Your Success by Tom Corson-Knowles
Rules of the Rich by Tom Corson-Knowles
Instant Focus by Patrick King
The One Hour Content Plan by Meera Kothand
The Content Code by Mark Schaefer (first time audio, second time Kindle book)
Content That Converts by Laura Hanly
Productivity For Indie Authors by David Lee Martin
Million Dollar Habits by Stellan Moreira
Book Launch Formula by Justin Ledford
The Anti-Procrastination Habit by Steve Scott
September’s Blog Posts
How To Stay Organized On Your Computer
Case Study: How To Read 30 Books In 30 Days
September’s Podcast Episodes
E49: Building A 7-Figure Amazon FBA Empire With Ryan Grant
E50: Real Artists Don’t Starve With Jeff Goins
October 2017 Goals
For this month, I opted against reviewing my September 2017 goals because I’m still working on them. Here are my goals for October:
#1: Get At Least 100 People On The Book Team: I’ll send an email to my list about the book launch soon. I’ve already contacted some people within my network.
#2: Get Interviewed On At Least 10 Podcasts: I’m leveraging my network and expanding it to make this goal a reality.
#3: Finish The Final Draft Of The Book & Pre-Order Page: I’m making great strides in this area by waking up at 4:30 am every morning to write my book.
#4: Create 100 Videos: I might record videos in a different setting, but I’m looking to reduce the amount of steps it takes for me to go from idea to published video.
#5: Hire A VA: This has been a goal for a while, but I’m determined to make it happen.
#6: Write 15 Blog Posts: I only provided my audience with two blog posts this month which I’m not happy about. I’m making up for lost time.
#7: Read 30 Books: I’d set the goal much higher if my iPhone wasn’t messed up (the touch screen has a mind of its own. I only have to hold out a little longer until the iPhone X comes out). For now, I primarily read Kindle books on my computer.
In Conclusion
I wish I did so much more in September. The combination of a summit and school starting up again crunched up a lot of my extra time, but I ultimately let it happen.
With that said, I am in a position to get a lot done in October. We’ll have to see what happens.
Did you like this performance report? Have any big goals of your own? Do you have a question for me? Sound off in the comments section below.
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