Thanks Dan! Following along with how you live as an entrepreneur has been really instructive, I’m glad we’re growing up at the same time. Thanks for sharing this, I’ll give the webinars and videos a try! Always appreciate seeing you on your trips to San Francisco.

Haha yes, we would be hard pressed to burn through it in 2 years! It’s great to be thinking more long term

I’ve actually made the same decision, but a few with a twist.

No speaking

Yep, same here BUT I started doing webinars instead. I realized there was 1000x more leverage to offer a free webinar, promoted to a friends audience that I can conduct from my office in an hour then travel, loose a full day at a conference to give a talk to a couple hundred people. Also, It’s recorded and I use to quickly respond to emails when someone ask me for help on a topic I’ve given already.

I’ve even taken it a bit further and started doing YouTube videos :). The secret is to write down all the things you want to blog/write about and then spend 4 hours x 2 days shooting 8-10 videos. Then I release one per week. You can see them here: http://www.youtube.com/danvmartell

No drinking

Most people don’t know this, but 2.5 years ago, when I found out Renee was pregnant, I decided I would never drink again. My mother was an alcoholic and the risks were too high for me. I also never loved the productivity hits on being hungover, or the hiccup to my workout routine. So totally on board with you on this… I’ve come to learn that A LOT of people don’t drink now, they just don’t talk about and still live a super fun life. Personally, nothings changed on my end.. I still go out, stay up late, I just don’t loose a day on the other end.

Travelling

On this topic, it’s been challenging. Building Clarity from Canada and having 2 little kids meant I needed to get smarter about it… so here’s what I’ve done. Every 7 weeks (5 times a year) I do a 5 day trip. NYC -> SF -> Vancouver or Toronto. Forcing all my business meetings to fit into that schedule means I’m WAY more productive, I still get to see the people I need to connect with, and I get way more leverage. Ex: every day I’m on the road I host breakfast, lunch and dinner meals with 4-8 friends. Doing less with more.

Hope that helps think through your commitments because I think as we grow up, especially for us extroverts :)… we need to find a smarter way to work to still get our “fix” but requires less time.

P.S. Re: speaking, another tip is to ALWAYS give the same talk (do that for a 1-1.5 years). I learned this from Mr. McClurre… how many times did you see him do his Pirate Metrics talk? Saved me SO MUCH time, and way less stress + did the audience a favor by giving them a better and better talk.

my2cents.

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