Hey gang, I’m coming to you live from the Mandalay Bay hotel on the strip in Las Vegas. I’m here all this week for BlogWorld, a new media/blogging expo – otherwise known as an excuse for a bunch of nerds and geeks to gather in Las Vegas (couldn’t turn that down!).
Our hotel room looks out over the airport, which at first I thought was kind of lame. But this morning, I woke early to get a peek of planes landing and taking off as the sun rose up over the mountains in the background. It was an soothing and inspiring sight – much better than looking out over the flashing lights of the Strip itself.
Walking around with people I’ve noticed a couple trends in this city. First, almost every casino has motorized walkways into the gambling areas, but make you climb stairs manually to get out. There are almost no exits signs and certainly no clocks. People are trading in money for “chips” which they immediately detach the value from.
Walking through any one of the casinos down here, you can’t help but think of them as a greater metaphor for consumerism in general. A million external forces luring you in – and you have to be persistent as hell when you are wandering around trying to find an exit.
Maybe I should loosen up a bit… but it’s a bit depressing, ya know? 🙂
Alright… enough of that. This week is going to be a slow week around here as I take off to meet old friends and make new ones here. I did, however, want to share a couple videos (that I’m in) and a quick survey.
Quick 2-minute Survey…
Last week, I sent out a quick 2-min survey (4 questions total) to Twitter and Facebook followers. About 100 of you took the time to answer them for me and the results were freakin’ awesome.
Note: If you have a community, office, team, or employees… SURVEY them. I swear every time I do this it provides awesome information.
So awesome that I’m going to relink it here on the blog. Right now:
https://spreadsheets0.google.com/viewform?hl=en&formkey=dEVtWTlqdk5zMGRrdm1fR2pRRHpLR2c6MQ#gid=0
Clicking the above link will take you to the survey. It’s 100% anonymous and I appreciate your honesty and help. The first 100 responses have led directly to several changes AND two new articles which will appear next week. 🙂
The Ren Men Show…
Last weekend, Courtney, Milli, and I packed up and drove over to Ohio to spend time with The Ren Men boys and their families. We absolutely love spending time with those guys and their families at Grant’s cottage in the woods. It’s always a blast.
They carved out a little bit of time to do a short interview (of me), before challenging me to a “Best of 3” challenge. In the video below, you can see me FAIL ROPE CLIMBING MISERABLY, race them in chugging a bottle of water, and then step up big time in redneck frisbee golf.
[Can’t view this video? Click here to view it in your browser.]
Seriously, though, you should watch the video above if only for the editing and production quality. These guys (and MCE) are absolutely amazing at what they do. It’s the highest quality show I’ve ever been a part of or watched!
More info at RenMenShow.com
Get Out Of Debt Guy…
I was also interviewed this week (over Skype) by Steve Rhode from GetOutOfDebt.org. Steve and I have known each other for almost two years now (he’s been answering debt-based reader questions for YEARS), but finally were able to catch up on Skype.
The interview was for his own site, but Steve graciously gave the o.k. to post it here as well! Honestly, Steve was one of the best interviewers I’ve ever talked to. He is clear, to the point (unlike me), and you can tell he’s got years of experience helping people. It was really fun:
[Can’t view this video? Click here to view it in your browser.]
You can find Steve answering questions over at GetOutOfDebt.org.
*****
Please enjoy the videos and if you have a couple minutes click over and take the survey.
I’ll try to stay sane while aimlessly wandering around the flashing lights of Vegas and be back on Monday with some stuff that’ll blow your mind. 😉
Xoxoxo,
-Baker
Baker,
Enjoy your time at the BlogWorld Expo. I definitely wish I were there.
Vegas is an interesting city for sure, just another opportunity to learn more about the world and more about what a persons priorities are.
If you meet anyone from FKQ Advertising + Marketing (they have reps at the expo), look for Lisa Faller and tell her Alan Mason says “HI!” They are an incredible marketing company!
Be safe and God Bless!
Yeah, Alan… I just got back, but you observation about learning priorities was right on! 🙂
I didn’t bump into anyone from FKQ, but I hope to see you at the next one!
Nice work on the Ren-lympics Baker! Always gets me pumped to see multiple leaders I follow on the screen at the same time. Have fun at Blog World!
– Josh
Haha, nice. They sprung those “olympics” on me, but I held my own. 🙂
That is what we do! Get you looking one way and they spring “olympics” on you from the other direction…
Amazing editing on that video. Wow.
I’m here are Blogworld and just got cash from the ATM. The amounts you can get say:
$200, $400, $600, $1000, $2000 and Other.
Then I realized it has a $5 ATM fee. Geesh!
🙂
Everything is double in Vegas! 🙂 It was awesome meeting you Jamie.
I love to visit Vegas as well, but you are totally on point about the consumerism part of it. By the time you hit the airport, you are ready to leave hopefully with more money than what you arrived with 🙂
Yeah, the stimulation is definitely in overwhelm mode. It’s all you can do just not to get overwhelmed walking the streets. 🙂
When I went to Vegas my first clue of the consumerism was the slot machines in the airport. Then in the 7-11’s and everywhere else. Vegas is the HQ of consumerism.
No doubt. I had been before, so I knew these were there… but yeah… what a great symbol of the city to have them 10 feet after you walk off the plane!
Baker, you know all the casino air is pumped with relaxation fumes right? Take a deep breathe! Free way to get high!
Enjoy!
Haha, nice.
I’m in Las Vegas now also hope to get a chance to meet you!
Sorry we didn’t get to meet SA. If you chance the “Debt Solutions” part of you name up there, I’d publish more of your comments! 🙂 I want to know *you*.
Adam,
Very astute observation in Vegas about how it’s easy to get in but hard to get out. What a perfect metaphor for debt.
The winners of the future take care of their customers AFTER they’ve converted them. It’s not just about the sale or access to the slot machine.
Awesome video interview. It’s great you’re at blog world. It’s so important what you do “off-line” in addition to your online efforts.
Awesome comment, Chris. I appreciate it and am right there with you line for line! 🙂
Whenever The Ren Men make it out to Indy, we’ll go through the “MVD Olympics”
We’ll let you fill in the rest…
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Hey Baker! Couple things,
First, thank you for the response to the personal email of me introducing myself… Second – love the post along with the interview with with GetOutOfDebt.org.
Lastly,
I’m hoping to work towards making my blog and site a full time gig and would love to share you and your readers some of our savings/spending habits…
I’ll post some more soon -!
Best Regards,
Steve
Damn another great person to meet at BlogWorld that I missed – next time Adam.
I so enjoyed my first BlogWorld and more for the connections than anything else, so many great people – the superstars to the up and coming.
I’ll also happily take your survey – I think getting feedback is critical. Ironically I just posted one on Monday to my community and it’s been overwhelming the responses I received.
Yay for our blogging communities and their support.
Have a good one.
Natalie
Steve is a very generous guy, too. When I wrote about DonorsChoose.org and my wife’s music classroom, he ponied up a couple hundred bucks to finish her funding so she could buy some cool drums for her elementary students.
100% class. Love it.
Adam,
I didn’t see any mention in your blog (or I missed it) of you being featured on CNNMoney.com’s Debt Busters: http://money.cnn.com/galleries/2010/pf/1010/gallery.debt_busters/6.html
Just thought I’d mention it, although I’m sure you are fully aware 😉
I really liked the interviews of the vids as well. top notch stuff.
Dwight Anthony
Financially Elite Blog dot Com