Tag: Hostels

  • The Undeniable Tour Update – Everything’s Coming Together

    This was the view from my hotel in San Francisco last weekend. I'm so glad it overlooked the water.
    This was the view from my hotel in San Francisco last weekend. I’m so glad it overlooked the water.

    It’s hard to believe that The Undeniable Tour is less than a month away. At this point I feel like all the pieces are starting to lock into place. I booked my flights and most of my lodging. I’m going to be staying in hostels and couchsurfing for most of my trip. I’m really excited to meet so many new people – law students, lawyers, other social media movers and shakers, and fellow travelers. I’m also looking forward to spending a lot of time near the ocean, which is something I only get to see and pictures since I live in the desert.

    This tour will give me the chance to connect and share ideas with others in the legal industry about what it means to be a lawyer and how we can better use social media to create professional opportunities for ourselves. I feel like I got a good primer in both of these areas this week by being a guest on the Human Social podcast hosted by fellow lawyer Mitch Jackson and at networking event for lawyers who work in eat-what-you-kill environments. The internet has provided the opportunity for the legal industry to break out of the stuffy ambulance-chaser stereotype and show prospective clients that there’s more than one way to be an effective lawyer.

    I feel lucky to be a lawyer who gets to travel and attend non-legal conferences as part of their job. I spent last weekend in San Francisco at the Dad 2.0 Summit – a conference for men who blog about fatherhood. (I was on hand to answer their legal questions related to their blogs.) Being out of the office for a few days and getting away from my everyday routine was refreshing. Meeting a new group of people and listening to some of the topics that were important to them (how men are depicted in the media, gender roles, and what it means to be a man and a father) got the wheels in my head turning in new and different ways. And these guys were the masters of fun. I’d never attended a conference before where I got to shoot Nerf guns and take a field trip to LucasFilm. It so important to periodically take a break from the norm to prevent falling into a rut. I got all that out of a 3-day trip. We’ll see what a difference of 14-day trip will make.

    I’m very excited to announce that I’ve added another speaking gig to the tour yesterday (just after I filmed this week’s video update. I will be speaking to the Solo and Small Practice Section of Washington (State) Bar Association via webinar on March 27th from Los Angeles. I think this will be the first time that I do a webinar that is strictly audio which will be a new challenge for me not to use visuals and to not have immediate feedback from the audience.

    Recently, I sent out the contracts to my sponsors and as soon as I have their commitments I will be announcing them on the site – hopefully next week!

    Planning this tour has been an exciting, stressful, and to be honest an exhausting endeavor. I’m so glad I’m doing it because it’s teaching me so much about myself and giving me the opportunity to connect with so many people. If you have any questions about the tour or if you live along the west coast and you want to meet with me during this trip, please connect with me via Twitter, Facebook, or send me an email.

  • The Undeniable Tour Update – Building my Schedule

    Fort Point by Tom Hilton from Flickr (Creative Commons License)
    Fort Point by Tom Hilton from Flickr (Creative Commons License)

    I’m starting to get really excited about The Undeniable Tour. I booked my flights and I’ve locked in five main speaking gigs, and talking with two groups about organizing two more. Now that I’ve locked in those speaking dates, I’m shifting my focus to what I want to do on the other days of the tour – I’m going to be on the road for two weeks total.

    Because my brain works in a very systematic way, I’m building my calendar day by day starting with my first day in San Diego and the last day I will plan will be my last day in Seattle. This trip is giving me the incredible opportunity to reach out to so many people I admire and either want to meet again or meet in person for the first time. I have a short list of people I really really want to meet and I’m wondering how many times I have to tweeted them or message them before they respond – if only to tell me to shut up. And when it comes to this trip, I’m going big. I’m trying not to be so intimidated by anyone that it causes me to not attempt to contact them. As my friend Jason Zook says, “You don’t get what you don’t ask for.” (If you haven’t read his book Creativity for Sale, go buy it immediately. It was because of his book and his course on How To Get Sponsorship For Anything that I was inspired to do The Undeniable Tour.)

    I’m getting close to solidifying my lodging for each night. When I said I was handpicking where I wanted to stay each night, I meant it and I only reached out to places where I really really wanted to stay. (What is with me and “really really” today?) I know a lot of these awesome hotels and B&Bs probably get a lot of solicitations like the ones I sent asking for a free or reduced fee night in exchange for giving them exposure. I know I get plenty of opportunities to speak and write for free and I generally turn most of them down because I just don’t have the time, so I’m not offended that a lot of the places have declined the opportunity to give me a free night as part of The Undeniable Tour. There are a few places that I like so much that I may pay full price and stay with them depending on my final budget, and for the other nights, I’m looking into more economical options like couchsurfing and hostels.

    I’ve never couchsurfed with strangers before and I’ve never stayed in a hostel. I’m using my upcoming trip to San Francisco to experience hostel life for the first time. I’m really curious to see what it’s like to stay in a dorm room with strangers with the communal bathroom down the hall. It may be the closest I get to camping, and if I like it, I can absolutely see myself traveling more often and using hostels instead of hotels. When I go on an adventure, I don’t really care about where I sleep as long as it’s warm, dry, and safe. Why pay $100-200/night plus a fee for Wi-Fi when you can stay in a hostel for $25/night or couchsurf for free?