Everything from the best costume on Amazon, massage balls, cat scratchers, and NYC advice. This is a guest post by one of my best friends, Danielle Strle. She presented this list at my Birthday Conference Party 2018.
Danielle Strle and Nick Gray at my Birthday Conference 2018
Slides from Danielle Strle’s keynote at the Nick Gray Birthday Conference 2018
Wim Hof yells a lot.
We are supposed to start our Wim Hof Experience at 9:30am.
But Wim can’t hold himself back from a ready audience. And at 9:17am he jumps out on stage. He cheers the crowd, runs around, and yells. The crowd cheers back.
As a public speaker, Wim Hof is incredible.
Not so much because of his perfect cadence or beautifully crafted narratives. In fact, his English is not perfect. And he is prone to losing this train of thought.
Wim Hof is an incredible public speaker because he speaks from his heart. He projects so passionately, and with more energy than most, that you think he just might self-combust one day and turn into a star.
He is just as likely to launch into a scientific diatribe about cholesterol as he is to pick up a guitar and lead the crowd in song.
We did both of those things. And we also sat in an ice bath for two minutes straight, much longer than I thought was possible.
Afterwards, I felt incredible.
These are my notes from the Wim Hof Experience, also called the Wim Hof Method Weekend, that took place in Brooklyn, New York on Sunday, 18 Nov 2018.
Are you laser-focused on success metrics?
Do you know what your life goals and business objectives are?
Measure What Matters by John Doerr helped me realize that maybe I don’t know what my goals are, and maybe I’m not ready for an intense OKR process just yet.
Notes and discussion topics from our book club about Measure What Matters
Our Business Book Club read this and met about it in October 2018.
Last week I helped facilitate an all-day business meeting – a mastermind – of large Amazon and e-commerce brands.
Me at the Amazon brands and e-commerce sellers mastermind in NYC
My friend Chad Rubin asked me to support him in organizing the schedule and in keeping energy levels high.
Chad has sold tens of millions of dollars of vacuum filters on Amazon.
He’s famous in the e-commerce world for his blunt communication style mixed with specific, tactical advice. He’s a “Do this, don’t do that” kind of guy.
This mastermind day was part of a conference he founded called Skubana Accelerate. Forty attendees each paid $1,500 to attend the full-day VIP workshop the day after the main conference was over.
Last night I attended the first performance of The Ear, a new concept in New York City to attract new audiences to classical music.
It was excellent, and I highly recommend it. Their next show is Friday, 16 Nov 2018.
Musicians assemble on stage between short performances.
In the words of its creator, The Ear is:
like ‘The Voice’ for composers, but way rowdier. Nuttier. Irreverent. Cheering in the middle of the music. Heckling the emcee. Drinking. Voting for the pieces you want to hear again.
Many of us “have no idea how our behavior is coming across to the people who matter.”
Our business book club read What Got You Here Won’t Get You There by Marshall Goldsmith.
The book cover, with a picture of the author.
The author is an executive coach with lots of blue chip performance experience.
This book inspired a lot of self-reflection and follow-up discussion. We talked about our entrepreneurial triggers, our weaknesses, and things we can improve in our communication styles. We recommend this book.
My favorites:
Warsaw is an uncrowded, clean, gentle Eastern European capital city.
It made an excellent first stop on my family’s Eastern European trip in August 2018.
These are my tips and favorites from a short visit.
To find these places, I used local tour guides, Foursquare city reviews, and guidebooks.
Big cities attract sharp, smart, entrepreneurial people.
Exactly the kind of people I like to meet.
On the night of 30th August 2018, I hosted a New Friends Cocktails and Icebreakers Party at Thompson’s Gallery in Marylebone, London.
Lots of sharp, smart, and entrepreneurial friends were made!
Enjoying one of my favorite activities – making new friends! At an art gallery in London
This is a money and policy museum located in the City of London. I went and I got to hold a super heavy solid gold bar. Here’s what I learned.
Me holding a solid gold bar. It is kept securely locked inside of a surprisingly well-done case which allows you to lift the bar, but there’s no way it could be stolen. Also gold is hella heavy.
“Netflix was playing to win, versus playing to not lose.”
How do we all lose faster, so that we can win overall?
Our business book club enjoyed Netflixed: The Epic Battle for America’s Eyeballs by Gina Keating.
Netflixed hardcover. Derek Halpern picked this book. He always buys the physical copy.
The book includes anecdotes and depth about the very early days of Netflix. We get to ride along as Marc Randolph and Reed Hastings created an online DVD store, basically before DVDs were even for sale.