Time for an update..

I really need to be better about blogging more often.

Anyway, I’m still in San Francisco and leaving this afternoon for Reno. I’m going to pick up Brian McElroy from his friend’s house, and we’re heading to John Carlton’s Copywriting Sweatshop for the weekend.

That’s going to be AMAZING. Carlton has always been a bit of an “untouchable” to me… so to work with him, Brian, and only EIGHT OTHER PEOPLE is going to be RIDICULOUS.

After that, I’m headed to Las Vegas to celebrate my 25th birthday (on September 25)! I’m really pumped because I’ve just invited random people that I’ve met throughout my travels, and two of my three favorite people from the trip will be there!

Jaime’s going to be there (she’s the amazing girl that I met in L.A.) as well as Max (a great guy that I met at the hostel in San Diego… he’s from England). It’s going to be a great time!

(If anyone feels like coming, let me know! The more, the merrier. :))

So, what else has been happening…

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My business partner Brian McElroy lived in Haiti for a year after college, where he taught at a university. Ever since, he’s been passionate about helping raise money for young people to get into the nation’s first (and only) university.

In trying to spread the word, he (and two other guys) made this great film that they’re submitting to Sundance next week. I went to the “unofficial viewing/last minute feedback session” last night, and it was AWESOME.

The film is really, really good. I kind of expected it to be a “Feed The Children” type format, but it had so much more depth than that. One of my favorite lines was from a woman in the film, and she said something like “Everybody loves to depict Haiti as a poor country. Yes, we are poor people, but we’re so much more than that.” The Haitians talked about how they don’t just want people to throw money at them… but they want to learn what to do (you know the slogan, “Give me a fish, I eat for a day… teach me how to fish, I eat for a lifetime.”)

And here’s an incredible fact: When Haitian women try to get business loans, they have to pay an interest rate of 49%. Ridiculous, eh? But listen to this… 98% of the women are able to pay it back completely! All they need is access to a little bit of capital.

It’s really quite astonishing.

There were 14 of us watching the movie and for the entire 35 minute duration, everyone was completely transfixed There was no fidgeting at all.

If anyone wants a copy, leave a comment. I have 2 extras on me, and I’m sure Brian will mail out more if I ask. I strongly recommend it, and consider it an honor to work with Brian!

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I’m getting used to those San Francisco hills! Not only can I drive them with no problem now, but I was singing and taking pictures as I went on the steepest ones yesterday. :)

San Francisco’s a pretty amazing town. It took a little bit to grow on me, but I do like it. The people here are great, the energy’s incredible, and there’s a lot of health conscious places.

I still prefer L.A. and San Diego (better weather), but I’m glad I came to San Fran.

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I went to World Internet Main Event over the weekend. Unfortunately I had a lot of work to accomplish, so I didn’t get to talk to people as much as I should’ve or could… but the people that I met were incredible!

First, Brian and I met with Joyce Jackson, a #1 bestselling author. She gave us some tips on how to get to #1, and really motivated me to go ahead and get started with my book. I was going to originally write a book for small businesses that wanted to get involved with Internet Marketing, but I decided to change my mind and write a book about calorie cycling. That’ll be great lead generation as well as establish me as an expert.

Joyce is a wonderful person. She just kept saying, “If I can do anything to help, I want you to let me know.”

I already bought my recorder and plan on writing the book by the end of October. :)

I also met a great guy named Scott Tousignant (the “Fit Bastard”). We’re going to work together and do interviews for our respective blogs, which’ll be great. He’s a very positive and fun guy, so I’m ecstatic to have met him.

Nikhil Parekh was another great guy. He’s a ridiculously nice super-affiliate from Australia. I think we’ll be working together soon. :)

I also met two and interviewed two new copy clients. One of them, Jeff Wellman (yes… Keith’s dad) was great to talk to. He’s just so genuine and such a nice guy… it’s going to be awesome to write copy for him.

Anyway, as I said… there were a lot of great people there… those were just some of the highlights.

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Woman’s World contacted me, and apparently I’m not going to be on the cover any more. :( I’m still going to be on the inside and it’s still going to be a cover STORY… but apparently the editor in chief decided that she didn’t like the way the pictures came out and there wasn’t enough time for a reshoot.

I asked if there was something that I could do, but they said no.

I’m kind of disappointed, but I’m going to look at it as positively as possible…

1. It’s still a cover STORY in the 50th busiest publication in United States.

2. I hopefully inspire people to do calorie cycling.

3. I’ll get tons of business leads from it.

4. My photo shoot pictures will still be in there.

5. If I hadn’t heard about the cover, I would’ve been ecstatic about just being in the magazine. Besides, this is just the beginning of many new opportunities!

6. All of this gave me a newfound energy to really get the site going in a super-quick way.

I decided to work with a great programming team to really make my site an amazing one. We’ve had a few phone calls already, and I’m very excited about how the site’s going to come out. :) The team has some great ideas and they’re really proficient. I can’t wait!

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Okay, I have to answer some emails and start making the outline for this book! Next time I write, it’ll be from Nevada!