#TDCHome Recap & First Ever Blog!
posted: December 4th, 2009
What better day to do my first blog post than the week after the totally awesome Thirty Day Challenge Coming Home Seminar in Manchester! Hashed as #TDCHome on Twitter!
The dust is settling and our good friends from down under are back in the sunshine leaving a wet & cold Manchester behind.
It was a monumental weekend for me and although I spent a lot of it absolutely crapping myself about having to properly present for the first time on the Sunday I was able to take in some juicy nuggets throughout.
It wasn’t just a weekend of information though. It was a weekend of meeting and bonding with some fantastic people and a weekend I will remember for the rest of my life.
The event started on the Friday morning with Ed Dale warming up the audience nicely with some home truths about building & launching products. The theme – “don’t wait to produce the perfect product before getting it out of the door, just get on with it and stop p*ssing around!” – rang out loud in lot’s of ears whilst Donal, Nathan and I were caught sheepishly glancing at each other throughout. Hence me setting up this blog this week!
He did however stress that although you shouldn’t be hanging around procrastinating you shouldn’t be doing a half assed job either.! Mr Perfect (AKA Nathan Ridley) breathed a sigh of relief!
Ed doesn’t pull any punches and is able to deliver in a way that humbles even the feistiest of souls.
I felt totally reassured when he confessed he wasn’t a natural copywriter because I feel exactly the same. I now realise I just have to get on with it & practice if I’m to get any better.
The ultra bright Eugene Ware blew us away with a stunning presentation on Market Samurai. Wow! I thought I was utilising it well until I saw this! I didn’t realise it had so many great features.
I saw smoke coming from his keyboard as he typed like a robot on speed. It was worth coming to the event just to see this! He was mobbed like a superstar at lunch and the crowd was still 4 deep when I got back from lunch.
I was lucky enough to corner him for information in the evening.
Saturday saw the genius Dan Raine who didn’t let us down with his formidable strategies on PPC, Google local, dominating Ezine articles, silos, super cool WordPress plugins developed by his lab in Manchester and all of this mixed with his uniquely colourful RaineMeister language.
Dan also kept us entertained in the evenings and could always be found lining up shots at the bar!
Saturday night produced a fitful 3-hour sleep for me after a strong curry and the thought of presenting to an expectant audience first thing.
When I arrived to meet Donal and Nathan, I was later told I looked a lighter shade of grey.
Donal reassured me by saying, “don’t worry mate the whole weekend only hinges on your presentation so no pressure”
I was pleased to see Jon Dean & Dan Raine were missing in action when I arrived – I don’t know whether I could have managed their heavy p*ss taking at this delicate stage of the morning .
Nez and Dom were both there to give me some reassuring words of wisdom though.
The rest was a blur apart from the wonderful Flaming Lacer providing me with rescue remedy and giving me a big hug before I went on stage. I think this may have been the difference that took me from a jibbering wreck to fairly calm in the space of 5 minutes. Are you sure it was just rescue remedy?
My presentation started a little shaky but wasn’t noticed by the crowd (apparently) and before I knew it, I had hit halfway where the master developer Nathan Ridley hit the stage to give a non-pitch sneak preview of our new (still in early development stages) domain software. This went down very well and I was soon into the Q and A session.
Dan Raine and Jon Dean did the walk of shame at about 1.30pm and Ed came back on stage at 2pm staying with the ‘buying and selling web properties’ theme taking us on a detailed tour of Flippa. He was on a roll and had us falling around laughing with his running commentary on peoples ‘handy copywriting skills’. He also spotted some fantastic buys and I’m sure a few people in the room scooped them up as soon as they got home.
The hot seats every evening were shear class as it allowed more Q & A but more importantly allowed peoples sites and businesses to be dissected by the world’s elite and instead of scurrying off diva style afterwards all of the presenters stayed and mingled throughout.
That’s one of the things people love about Ed, Dan & crew – their down to earth attitude as they present themselves as peers NOT superiors.
Other industry gems came to learn and mingle with the crowd. The famous Mindel Brothers from Wordtracker were there every day, Stompernet ‘s Super Affiliate David Wilkinson graced us with his 15 year old presence on the weekend (he was at school on the Friday!), the UK’s queen of Voice Over Lisa Hartwell and her Marketing guru friend Layo travelled the length of the country to be there, not to mention rock legend Phil Mason.
It was a weekend of pure education with no pitching. The presenters offered 1 on 1 advice and people didn’t leave with any unanswered questions
The Sunday evening finished with a few well deserved beers in the Marriot bar where I was honoured to be congratulated by Gury Bob for a good presentation. This meant a lot – I know he doesn’t hand these out willy nilly.
I was tucked up in bed feeling all warm and fuzzy inside before I knew it and now looking forward to the February Coming Home 2 session in Melbourne.
This looks like it will be even bigger than Manchester and I will be divulging info on this in the coming days/weeks.
Check out the mega line up here
Gareth Hanson
05.12.09
That was your first big presentation? I have done a few of them and you put me to shame! Very nice work Kenny.
Looking forward to seeing the slides again.
BTW, what did you use to create the animation at the end? Nice touch.
One more thing… I notice you’re a fellow snowboarder. Going anywhere this season?
Jon Dean
05.12.09
Walk of shame? Surely after a few days with me and Dan you should realise we have no shame :p
Jon.
admin
05.12.09
Thanks Gareth, #TDCHome2 conference in Australia has thrown a (nice) spanner in the works for my snow trip this year. The animation software is Xtranormal
admin
05.12.09
That’s about right buddy :-)
Donal
05.12.09
It was a great event. I’m begining to notice that Ed and Dan attract a good group of people (well for the most part). As for your presentation – When I say your pasty face on Sunday morning I was fully expecting you to need Mouth to Mouth Resusitaton (was hoping Lisa might step in) if you even made it onstage at all, but a bit disappointingly really, you absolutely smashed it.
David Leigh
05.12.09
I thought your presentation was great – I didn’t hear “shaky” at all. As soon as I got back to Barcelona I had a chance meeting with a web designer and talked about buying existing domains/sites for his clients which he loved. I wonder where I got that from? :)
What you say about PEERS not SUPERIORS is absolutely right and applied to every person I spoke to – no egos, no BS – and I can honestly say that I don’t think I’ve ever met a group of more generous people in terms of advice and simple encouragement.
Being able to grill Dan over lunch one day was brilliant as I did have some very specific situations that I’ve been unable to find an answer to; and I was also able to ask Ed directly about how he would approach selling on of my sites.
admin
05.12.09
I was faking it Donal, in the hope of that mouth to mouth resuscitation!
I was cool as a cucumber really (yeh right!)
flaminglacer
05.12.09
I said at the time, and have said to many people since, that your presentation was masterly, a tour de force. I can’t decide whether I was more impressed by the presentation itself or the content.
The ideas and concepts you put forward were very interesting and I’m looking forward to the tool that you and Nathan are developing.
The whole seminar was excellent, but your presentation was one of the highlights for me.
admin
05.12.09
Thank you
Ed
05.12.09
Well done mate.
In listening to the public and private back channels,
it’s clear that you did a bang up job.
Congrats on the blog, too!
Steve Williams
05.12.09
It was an “awesome” presentation to use one of Ed Dale’s words. I was the “Scouser” at the back who asked a question and I could not believe that only a few people brought expiring domains!
My jaw dropped as I watched you demonstrate your new beta software. That alone will save me hours of site switching and praying.
Thanks for demonstrating it and I am glad I am not the only person searching for great generic domain names.
Ross Kenny
29.12.09
Kenny,
Really enjoyed your presentation on the day and you didn’t show a ounce of shakeyness!!! I was on the front row as well (The young lad on your right 2nd from end..)
You should do more presentations now you’ve stepped out of your comfort zone… You were really good.. Really!!
Can’t wait for the software you previewed.. I awaiting in anticipation. Tell Nathan to get a move on.
Gonna keep my eye on this blog so hope you keep it evolving..
Take care,
Ross Kenny
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