Wherever I go, there I work (and play)

The awesome folks at XShot recently sent me one of their “XShot 2.0″ hand-held video/photo accessories. It allows you to place a smaller camera or flip-style camcorder on the end and extend it out a few feet in front of you, thus eliminating the need to hold your arm out when trying to do a self portrait. It actually extends further than your arm would allow (unless you’re Manute Bol), thus allowing for a very natural shot.

In today’s video, I take it out for a test session. This thing is going to be great for upcoming AnywhereMan vids, not to mention outings with my wife when we want to snap a pic of the two of us together.

For another review of the XShot, check out Phil Montero’s video on TheAnywhereOffice.com. He gives a nice description of how the XShot functions.

If you’re interested in buying one, just visit the XShot website and you can purchase it directly from them.

“It’s not a pink slip. It’s a blank page”

Last night I finally sat down and watched “Lemonade,” a documentary about several different advertising professionals who were laid off by their respective agencies and used the opportunity to focus on turning their passions into careers. The 35-minute film itself was produced by one of the professionals in the film.

If you have any entrepreneurial spirit whatsoever (which I think many of you do), you need to see this film. Whether or not you have a job with an employer, the spirit and passion that these people used to turn a seemingly negative situation into motivation to succeed at their own venture is incredibly inspirational.

It’s a quick film (35 minutes), but it packs a lot of punch. It’s almost like watching a film version of Gary Vaynerchuk’s “Crush It,” which is a short book but really pumps you up to chase your passions. I think there are so many different stories in the film that you’re bound to relate to at least one of the featured individuals. The guy who created the film itself started a blog/job board for laid-off advertising pros called Please Feed the Animals, and I found myself really relating to him. Now, I haven’t been laid off before, but I am passionate about blogging and video.

My Response

One thing my wife and I discussed after viewing this: People with a marketing background definitely have a leg-up when it comes to starting their own venture and making it known to the world. Many of them are web-savy and know how people respond to various approaches of advertising. Many times the business ideas are the easy part. It’s getting the ideas/products out to the general public that takes the most creative muscle.

With that in mind, one of the things I’ve recently started doing in my spare time is starting “mini-businesses.” These are basically products/services for which I can create an entire web presence in a day or less. I’m also looking at offering this type of service to clients (especially startups like the folks in this film, but not necessarily advertising pros) through yet another mini-business.

I’ve been doing some video documentation on this process, so be sure to come back soon for details on how I’ve been starting these mini-businesses in a rapid deployment manner. I’m a big proponent of throwing ideas at the wall and seeing what sticks. This is my attempt at forcing myself to do it on a regular basis.

Two Thumbs Up

I definitely recommend seeing this short film. In fact, you can watch in right now, right here! Here’s an embed of the full-film from Hulu:

Take the time to watch this film, be inspired, and then report back with your thoughts. If you’ve seen it already, what did you think?

SPOILER ALERT: One featured individual used his layoff as an opportunity to turn himself into a woman, but I’m guessing most of you won’t go down that path.

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• Lemonade: a short film about creative unemployment (core77.com)

Yeah, that’s me at age 20 or 21 living the rock and roll lifestyle. I’m not sure if anybody actually attended that show.

In my previous post I mentioned a book I’ve been reading by Tina Seelig called “What I Wish I Knew When I Was 20.” Tina, who has a Ph. D. in neuroscience, is the executive director of the Stanford Technology Ventures Program. She teaches courses on entrepreneurship and innovation.

Today I want to give you a little more info on that book since I really enjoyed it and took a lot of good knowledge from it. I think a lot of the topics it covers are incredibly relevant to us who are running our own freelance businesses.

The underlying theme I took from this book was the idea of challenging assumptions. Why do we do the things we do? Why not try something outside of the box? If you pay attention to successful entrepreneurs, you’ll notice a tendency to look at things from different angles and often trying different approaches to various problems. Throughout the book she gives some really creative examples of this type of approach in action.

Other notable themes: Failure is okay. Be fabulous. Be thankful. And more…I don’t want to give away the whole book because it’s definitely worth your time to read it. It’s a quick read and Tina did a great job conveying innovative ways to approach both your life and career.

As an additional teaser, here is an excellent video of Tina talking about some of the central ideas in her book:

More book reviews coming in the near future. I’ve been reading some good stuff lately!

It’s been a quiet year so far here on AnywhereMan. Quiet on the blog, not-so-quiet in real life; it’s been downright busy. Hence, no time for blogging but lots of time to put into practice the concept I talked about in my last video: “Today I’m going to ____.”

In fact, it’s become “Today I’m going to ____. Tomorrow I’m going to ____. And the day after that…” It’s been really crazy.

Last month Seth Godin talked about a simple, free, and awesome web-based to-do list application called TeuxDeux.  I’ve been using it a ton, and while I don’t keep my entire life’s tasks on there, it’s been great for making sure I get every little project update and client request taken care of. If I happen to not get everything done today, it pushes overdue tasks to the next day and marks them in red. There’s even a space for “someday”/big picture tasks.

It’s actually been a total lifesaver.

So when you get up each morning and tell yourself what you need to get done, add it to your TeuxDeux list and get it off your mind.

Do you already have a daily task management app that you use? Tell us about it!

A little while back I posted a video from Jason Sadler of IWearYourShirt.com where he talks about (and wears a shirt for) FlexJobs.com.  Sara Sutton Fell, the CEO of FlexJobs, contacted me recently about doing an extended review of her site on AnywhereMan.  She gave me access to the site and today’s video gives a little insight into what I found.

I finished reading Crush It a few weeks ago and am finally getting around to doing a review. If you’re building a business of any sort, read Crush It! There are some great tips in this book and it was well-worth the read.

Example: I uploaded today’s video to Viddler, Vimeo, and YouTube using TubeMogul, a little trick I learned in this book.

NOTE: Sorry for the lack of true HD in today’s video. Waiting on a new cable for my Canon HV30.