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Saturday March 20th
I’m on the Gold Coast relaxing and preparing for tonight’s big Red Party for my partners birthday.
I have a 3 and half hour speaking engagement at 21st Century’ Internet and Business Seminar being held at the Gold Coast Convention Centre.
I always enjoy speaking at this event as being an entrepreneur at heart I love to teach all the valuable lessons I’ve learnt in my business career and others from role models such as Richard Branson.
The seminar goes well.
I get a chance to chat to some 21st Century Members and everyone is excited about what they’re learning.
We have 10 different speakers who have flown in to teach how they make millions online including a brand new eBay speaker.
Actually this event is nearly all new speakers and a new 2 day format so attendees who have been before comment how much better the format is.
After finishing speaking I take my Ferrari 360 Sypder to the car wash and then head home to have a siesta before the big party.
The theme is Red for the party and nearly all guests come in theme. Including a mate who shows up in red underwear only.
Some of the waiters are topless male waiters so my partner’s girlfriends are happy with the eye candy.
I complain to my partner that it’s not fair she gets topless male waiters yet us boys don’t get topless female waiters. Such a sexist world I joke.
The house is ideal for parties.
Overlooking the canals of the Gold Coast the house has huge glass doors two storeys high that open up the whole house.
We have a DJ and also an artist who draws guests faces as caricatures within 6 mins each.
I’ve organised a video montage of my partner as celebration for her birthday which we screen up on an internal wall of the house.
Thanks to Kaliyann who works in my graphics team and is a legend takes some photos and turns it into a mini movie based on the them.
“Confessions of a shopaholic”
Starring my partner
It turns out great and my partner thinks it’s funny…Lucky!
We also have Chinese lanterns & everyone lights and sets them off into the star lit night from the jetty in front of our house.
If there were any UFO sightings reported tonight it was probably our lanterns floating into the midnight sky.
Party goes to a little after 3am and everyone has a great time.
Monday March 16th
I’ve just been delivering my “4 Day Education For Life” Seminar on the Friday and Saturday Sunday I don’t speak so I have a day off or sometimes catch up with Speakers who have flown in to speak at the event. I used to speak late Sunday night of the seminar but decided to change to the Monday night being the end of the 4 day seminar to finish the seminar off.
We then have drinks for all attendees and a chance for participants to network and ask one- on-one questions with speakers and get their photos taken.
Then later that night we always throw a party for speakers and the 21st Century Team who have put a huge effort in over the 4 days and often surviving on little sleep.
This is a chance to reward the team and allow them to let their hair down.
We generally hold the parties at one of my homes or apartments. If in Melbourne or Sydney or in other places like Queenstown etc the home I’m generally leasing for the week is the designated party house.
We hire a DJ and caterers and good looking waiters & waitresses to serve drinks.
And parties usually go to 3am or often 6am.
I usually sneak off by 2pm and let the team party on, considering the effort they’ve put in support the 4 Day event, they deserve it.
We also do the Academy awards for speakers and team which is always hilarious and is always a highlight of the night.
So the Melbourne Party this time didn’t start till after 10.30pm and was held in a luxury penthouse in Docklands over looking Melbourne and opposite 21st Century Head Offices in Lorimer Street Melbourne.
Generally Team Parties start by 9pm however the seminar had run later than expected and the team had to pack up the entire event before the party due to AV equipment which needs to be shipped for an upcoming Internet and Business Event being held the following weekend on the Gold Coast.
The party was a blast as usual and I snuck off to bed by 2am where others partied to the sun come up.
This event we decided to invite several VIP clients to the event and they had a great time hanging out with the team and chatting to some of the 21st Century Speakers.
So the team suggest we should allow 21st Century VIP Members attend future team parties which will be considered.
After arriving into Sydney yesterday morning we change our flight that was booked straight to Melbourne to fly to the Gold Coast instead where I live most of the time and the remainder of the time in Melbourne.
After 11 days of parties and holidays, I feel I need at least one day to rest and relax at home on the Gold Coast, on the water is the most ideal place for that.
I only moved there from Sydney at Christmas. Time for a change to see if I’d like the slower pace.
I can say it’s been ten times better than expected and I think it will be hard to get me to leave the Gold Coast.
I’m fortunate enough to have a Tennis court at the house and being a tennis fan I have my friends over every Wednesday night for a big night of tennis which is always a blast and quite competitive.
One of my mates, after playing with us for a few weeks, we discover he used to be a professional tennis player and had been pretending not to be able to play that well, but always managing to beat us when it counts.
So now he has become a free tennis coach to many of us who are all trying to improve our game secretly to beat the others next time around.
I’ve managed to lose 5 kilos from playing tennis in last 2 months alone so it’s also great exercise.
I also have a salt water pool which I like to swim in regularly as swimming in the canal is out of the question without due to the aggressive bull sharks, and I have an outdoor Jacuzzi which is my place to relax and is a form of meditation for me.
I also have a great gym room, however it doesn’t get used nearly enough.
My typical day generally starts with going outside to the tennis court to collect the papers that are thrown over the fence earlier in the morning.
I’m an avid reader so I’ll generally start the day reading the Financial Review on my outside lounge overlooking the water while having breakfast.
And I also read the Australian Newspaper.
Plus I have the Sydney Telegraph delivered as well as I’m a mad rugby league fan and it’s the best paper for reading all the football action and following my beloved bulldogs.
It used to be a dream to one day be able to buy the Bulldogs football team, however after seeing how much Russell Crowe losses every year financially since buying Sth Sydney, and after Richard Branson shared how expensive it was when he owned a Rugby League team in London known as the London Broncos, I’ve decided remaining a supporter rather than an owner is a much better idea.
After breakfast I often go for a swim in the pool and then head into my home office to do some work.
I don’t use a computer whatsoever as I have all my emails come to my blackberry so often I’ll work on my deck lounge outside overlooking the water.
I don’t take phone calls whatsoever unless a special phone meeting is planned or my mum calls as I feel phone calls waste my day.
I’ve trained all my managers and business partners to email me as they will get a response much quicker than if they phone.
With email, I find it makes people think first what they need and allows others to get back to them when they can rather then play phone tag all day or to forward it on to others to deal with.
This year I’ve cut my workload back dramatically, and many days now I’ll deliberately do very little work and I’m learning to get over the guilt of not working all the time, which isn’t easy for high achievers who often feel like they must be doing something.
What I love about the Gold Coast is it’s great to jump in my Ferrari and drive down to the beach and go for a swim and just be present and content doing bugger all.
I can see why surfies are so into their lifestyle as its very fulfilling not that I can surf.
I am taking lessons though. So my days aren’t always typical.
For one week a month I’ll generally be in Melbourne at our Head office.
And one day every 5 to 6 weeks I spend with my managers doing management meeting.
I think we should film these meetings as it would make a great reality show.
The dramas and day to day challenges of running a group of companies is never boring and I’ve found managers meetings to be very productive.
Every manager gets their turn to present to all other managers what their division has accomplished since the last meeting, their targets for the month ahead and any challenges.
Then anyone can ask them questions and this is where the fun starts as its hard for a manager to BS a whole room. So if they are telling a story that others don’t buy, which most people do at times due to their limiting beliefs, then this becomes very apparent and gives some managers a quick reality check to see that maybe their reasons things can’t be done are not valid and it is possible to improve results.
It is also invaluable for managers to understand what’s happening in each department and company and how this all affects everyone and to get the team working as a team and not against each other.
Generally, one day is barely enough and meetings tend to go to 7pm and sometimes as late as 9pm.
Also every 6 weeks I’m generally doing a seminar so that takes a week out of my schedule, the time I arrive on the Wednesday or Thursday before and finish on the Monday.
We always have a team party on the Monday night of 4 day seminar, which are a total blast where the team can celebrate their 4 or so days of hard work and little sleep.
We generally have a DJ and caterers and the partying is still usually going by 3am in the morning.
The parties in Fiji and Queenstown are generally the wildest and the 21st Century team love to dance and party hard.
It’s also a good time to recognise top achievers and speakers and we have the Academy Awards and prizes given out.
Some of the awards are very funny and it’s always hilarious.
It’s certainly not a typical corporate boring culture, but more of a family friendly culture which I think the team love as opposed to many jobs which are bland and boring.
Maintaining this culture though as the Group has grown to over 100 staff, has been more of a challenge though.
The day after the 4 days finish we always do a team day where we take the team out on a boat to a tropical island when say in Fiji and play beach volleyball and other activities.
Or in Queenstown we always do the Luge riding down the mountain which is always popular and highly competitive and sometimes quite dangerous.
Several years ago one of my NZ business partners had to be helicoptered off the mountain after breaking his hip and many other bones in his body.
If you go to Queenstown Luge ride you’ll see a whole section of the track shut off and that’s why since he crashed there.
We used to have team days the day before the seminar until this accident but now we find its best the day after.
We also often go Go Kart racing as many of the team and speakers love to do this.
And Tuesday night sometimes are card nights where, what’s left of the team before flying home, plays card games such as cheat or better known as “Bullshit”
Events like Fiji or Queenstown I generally stay a week or longer after the event and holiday and many of the team and speakers do as well which is always a lot of fun.
We also invite our volunteer team who are past participants at our 4 day programs to help out at the 4 day events and join us for Team Party and Team day.
It’s a great way also for them to network with speakers and many of them have become good friends and part of the 21st Century family over the years.
Sunday March 3rd
Enjoyed a sleep in after a huge night at the Playboy Mansion. It was certainly a party to remember with over 1200 guests, with a large majority of them women. Americans are very friendly towards Australians, especially as they just want to hear our accent.
The girls aren’t shy either. They willingly hand over their phone numbers for me to call them while I’m in LA. At this my point I have to highlight I’m in a relationship and introduce my beautiful partner, however I venture that I have plenty of Australian mates who I’m happy to pass their details on to. I take a lot of photos knowing my mates are going to want to see what the Playboy Mansion is like.It’s a huge, glamorous, castle like mansion on a large estate with its own animal zoo on the grounds.
Hugh Hefner was at the party and it was no surprise that he was surrounded by a lot of blonde girls very eager to have their photo taken with him. The guy is in his 80′s yet still seems to have plenty of stamina for parties among other things (I think).
Despite being amongst 1200 people I bump into several people who recognise me from doing seminars in Australia and New Zealand who are having a great time at the party and weren’t expecting to see me there. I explain that I wasn’t expecting to be at a Playboy Mansion party either but it’s been a great night and I’m glad I made it.
We meet an Australian girl who is client manager at Wynns Casino in Las Vegas where we are staying in a few days time so she offers to take good care of us when we arrive in Las Vegas. We arrive back to the hotel in the early hours of the morning after a fun night ready for a relaxing day ahead- Four big nights of partying in a row and I’m feeling ready for a holiday.
After a great sleep in we go to the House of Blues in West Hollywood for a brunch with Sir Richard Branson and fellow party goers. Sir Richard maintains a hectic schedule. He seems to be able to party hard, sleep three hours then be up and doing business amongst numerous PR interviews before he heads off to London as part of an eight-day tour around the world.
A few of us are off to the Celebrity Soccer challenge and being such a warm winters day in LA it’s great to be outdoors. I
get to see Anthony LaPaglia in action playing soccer, one the players for the Hollywood football club.
Then it’s a quick trip to shops as we’ve been invited by a friend in LA to attend the Playboy Mansion Party being held that night. I quickly talk my partner into coming and convince her it will be a great time – you don’t get many opportunities like this and as we have the night free let’s check it out.
She had her hear t set on going to Jlo’s club as apparently the word was Prince was making a guest appearance and singing tonight. It would have been great but Prince can’t compete with the Playboy party invite so I won and we were off to the playboy mansion!
I know my mates back home are going to be somewhat jealous that I’m attending a Playboy Mansion party without them but I’m sure I will get them an invite next time.
