Online Brand Building & Social Media Training | Living With Freedom, Purpose & Vitality

I am writing this at 10:15pm Tuesday evening and I have not slept since I was in Pheonix, Arizona on Sunday night. My journey from Sunday til today took me from San Jose, CA to Pheonix., AZ to San Diego, CA to Vancouver, BC to Heathrow, London to home in Devon! Between missing my flights, lots of different times zones and hot and cold temperatures, as well as the lack of sleep, my body is completely out of kilter,  so this will probably be short and concise, to give you an idea of the key things I experienced and learnt…Boy am I tired! (Note to self: Detox starts tomorrow lol).

So I had a pretty amazing time on this working holiday I went on. I left 3 weeks ago, firstly to attend Armand Morin Live in Westminster, London for 3 days. This was an excellent event held by one of the long-time heavyweights in the internet marketing and publishing business. Met up with some of my fellow London internet marketing mates, Julia & Amir, Faz, David and was really inspired, once again by what Armand had to say about internet business, moving into 2012.

Key Learning From Armand Morin:

Simplicity is the key to success. Armand has made in excess of $70 million via his relatively small online business, he keeps things simple. I should do the same. One of my favourite quotes is ‘simplicity is the ultimate sophistication’. I told Armand this and that he has it to a T in my view, he liked it

Next I headed out to San Diego in Southern California – I had planned to spend the bulk of my holiday here – 2 weeks, with a bit of work, a lot of surf and sun and exploring and hanging out with my friend Trent, who lives in Pacific Beach.

I stayed in a nice hotel in La Jolla, right by the beach, which was beautiful! La Jolla is a pretty swanky part of SD, home to many celebs, as well as many of the Forbes 400 Richest Americans and top IM and motivational gurus such as Frank Kern, Tony Robbins and Deepak Chopra. We’re talking many $20million+ homes here, it’s pretty nice!

Whilst in La Jolla, I hung out at the beach watching the surfers, went and saw the seals and sea lions and pelicans at La Jolla cove – there were hundreds of these animals, it was AMAZING to see them roaming free in real life, not in a zoo!! I was totally awed by the wonder of nature here!

My friend Trent lives in Pacific Beach, about 3 miles from where I was staying, so most days I donned my running trainers and ran down the coast to where he was, or strolled, being inspired by the gorgeous houses and coastline along the way.

I have been learning to surf in Cornwall over the last few months, so naturally I was keen to do some surfing whilst in California – the Mecca right? Well, Trent and I hired body boards on my third day in San Diego and headed to Mission Beach (which, incidentally, I had put on my vision board as a place I’d like to visit or live at the beginning of this year ).

We were having great fun in the water but then after only 20 mins or so in the sea, the life guard came over to us on his jet ski and said that there had been a shark sighting and that we should get out! Who’d have thought?! I knew that Great Whites had been spotted on this beach but the last one was a few years ago! So that was kind of annoying but fun to think I could have been swimming near a Great White!

One of the things that really struck me about La Jolla and Pacific Beach was that people there looked soooo healthy and fit – all day every day there were people running/cycling/skating/blading up and down the boardwalk – all ages, all ethnicities and they looked happy and fit and free and chilled out. I loved that, so different from the majority of English people and certainly a stark contrast from my commutes on the London Underground the week before – blank, pasty faces, dead eyes, zoned out lol. Like me, the people here made health and freedom a priority and were not willing to compromise on it, I felt more at home in a place like this I think in some ways.

Key Learning From Hanging Out in San Diego:

Life should be free and easy and happy and healthy. If the rich (and a lot of people who live in San Diego are pretty wealthy) make health and fitness a supreme priority then we all should – it should never be at the expense of work or other stuff. Again, simple things make us happy – the sound of the sea, watching seals play together on the rocks, gorgeous sunsets. We should heed this consistently.

Anyway, coincidentally, on the first Wednesday I was in SD, there was the annual (I think) Internet Marketing Party and Trent had bought us tickets to go! I was really pleased because firstly a lot of my online frineds and inspirations, who I had yet to meet in person, were going to be going and secondly, this was a great networking and fun opportunity!

Now, it’s getting late and am getting pretty sleepy, so I’ll tell the rest of my IM party and holiday adventures, musings and learning in a new post in the next few days. For now, goodnight

Laura

 Holiday Magic Memories…

Mission Beach was on my dream board last year and I went! …Laughing and hanging out at Hard Rock Hotel Penthouse with Brian Bagnall…Track racing in the desert with Trent Dyrsmid in his Lotus Exige…Trader Joe’s sublime food…Bomb Rolls at YoYo Sushi…Ride in LAPD officer’s Corvette…Being asked out by the most persistent man in the world! Cactussy resort in Pheonix…Wonderful new friend Merrily and her wise words… Bodyboarding and shark sightings…Running down Pacific Beach boardwalk…Bugatti Veyrons in La Jolla car place…Brendon Burchard’s phenomenal High Performance Academy Seminar…Being whisked off my feet by the gorgeous Carson…Playing pool in San Jose in a local ‘championship’…Seals and sea lions and pelicans at La Jolla caves – amazing…Lunch at the Hotel Del Coronado…Timothy Tailor ale…Hanging out with Silicon Valley Bank employees…Greg Jacobs giggling…Seeing a lady set her hair on fire with a candle in the toilet by accident, I couldn’t help laughing, she was fine lol…Huge hotel beds…Produced a new video sales letter…Flight and airport boredom…No gym for 3 weeks!…Getting totally lost in Jolla Mesa in the pitch black and being in ecstacy listening to my music and smelling some Jasmin I picked…Arguments, laughter, inspiration, fun, IM Party, green card?

What are your thoughts? I'd love to hear your views and questions on this - leave your comment below and I'll respond.

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