We Just Had Our Minds Blown At Tropical Think Tank In The Philippines.

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If you follow us on social media you would know that we’ve been busy travelling our little butts off… all in the name to learn learn learn as much as we can so we can create the things you want and need to live your healthiest, happiest life… EVER! Sound ok? Nah! Sounds AMAZING and we are so bloody excited at the things we have up our sleeve! Our mission is to make living your best life accessible and attainable… and of course, fun! Keep an eye on the blog for some changes and new things coming your way! All in the name to merrymake over this world.

Last week we were in the Philippines at Chris Ducker’s Tropical Think Tank. If you haven’t heard of Chris, he’s an amazing online entrepreneur. If you own a biz or are thinking about owning a biz, he has two amazing podcasts and an awesome blog that are definitely worth checking out!

What’s a think tank? It’s basically where likeminded people get in one room, brainstorm each other’s businesses and help one another out where they can, whether it be with ideas, contacts, support and more. Serious high vibe event! We heard from 11 amazing speakers who are all making their marks on the world, they shared their knowledge and expertise AND we got to hang out with them by the beachside which was pretty darn amazing.

It wasn’t just the speakers who were awesome though… ALL of the other delegates are, or are planning to, change the world in their own ways. Sending HUGE love to you guys.

For us, it’s in these sort of situations that we learn best. Yes we can learn by reading and listening and watching… but there’s something magical about feeling someone else’s energy, their presence and making real life eye contact! Sh1t gets real… you delve deep and you get massive breakthroughs!

The fact that the event was in the tropical Philippines was a HUGE bonus!
The fact that the event was in the tropical Philippines was a HUGE bonus!

We believe that when we learn something new, it’s our responsibility to pass it on! Because, what’s the point in keeping all the new info and ideas to ourselves… right? Our wish is for every. Single. One. Of you lovely merrymakers to find your bliss and follow the heck out of it. We’ve got our biggest takeaways from each of the epic speakers below and if you’re super serious about your bliss, then you’ll probably want to go and check out their websites in case there’s even more you can learn (correction: there is always more to learn… and this is exciting… not scary… let’s just all keep learning all the darn time… ok?!).

Here goes… in no real order except in the order our brains remember them…

Our biggest takeaways from Tropical Think Tank 2015!

John Lee Dumas  – The Fire Funnel: A Step by Step Guide to Igniting Massive Income Growth

“I refuse to live a life less than what I am capable of living.” John is from Entrepreneur On Fire, a daily podcast that features inspiring entrepreneurs, plus they’ve created a suite of products designed to help other online entrepreneurs succeed. Our biggest takeaway from John was the sales ‘fire’ funnel he shared. Prior to Tropical Think Tank we never really had any strategy to our products to make sure the most readers possible were able to access and know they were available. This sales funnel gave us structure for our next launch… which is going to be our hard copy book! Yes, it’s coming SOON! Next month soon!

Kate Lee Erickson – Partners in Both Business and in Life

“Don’t let ‘me time’ be the thing that gets pushed aside.” The lovely Kate is John’s business partner and lover 😉 (she runs the blog, among other things, she keeps it all in line!) and she is the sweetest ever! She spoke specifically about working together as a pair… which was great for us… as we work together every day! Our key takeaway was to drill down on our individual strengths and weaknesses, then assign tasks that match those. Aha! Right? Rather than everyone doing everything, delegate tasks and keep each other accountable. We are DEFINITELY going to implement this! Ooo, organised merrymakers coming at cha! If you work as an individual this exercise is still super important to work out where you might be able to outsource!

Lewis Howes – The 8 Lessons to Greatness that Lead to a Business and Life of Your Dreams

“I am blessed because…” Lewis Howes was the amazing closing keynote and if you don’t listen to his podcast The School of Greatness, then totally get on that! He spoke about mindset with a huge focus on meditation/visualization, which was right up our alley! From changing the ‘have to’s’ to the ‘choose to’s’ and again changing those to ‘I am blessed to’s…’ Here’s an example… “we are blessed to pay our mortgage because we live in a beautiful, safe, community.” Rather than being annoyed at another bill, a simple mindset switch has the power to change your whole entire life. Want to start meditating? Read more here!

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Carla’s first master mind sesh!

Dan Norris – How to Build a Content Machine to Fuel Business Growth (with any advertising!)

“Great content captures the attention of your audience and encourages them to engage and share.” We LOVED Dan’s presentation… all about blogging (he is also the creator of WP Curve). His advice for when you can’t find something online… MAKE IT! Genius, really? There have been many things we’ve googled and just haven’t found the answer we were after. Maybe that will help for your business idea! If you’re just starting out blogging and don’t know what to write about… then hijack what’s already being talked about by using cool apps like BuzzSumo that help you see what’s popular! Dan is also the author of the 7 Day Start Up (this is next on our to-read list!).

confession: we totally enjoyed some sugar free mojitos!
confession: we totally enjoyed some sugar free mojitos!

James Schramko – 3 Leverage Steps that Will Double Your Profit and Halve Your Work Hours in the Next Year

“You can’t steer a parked car.” What a title for a presentation, right?! Phoar! James definitely blew our minds more than a few times during the conference! But that simple quote absolutely resonated with us. ACTION is where the magic happens. Nothing happens when you do NOTHING. If you want to make an impact, to make a change (in your life or business) then take action! It can be small step after small step but the most important thing is that we’re all moving forward.

Nick Unsworth – How To Build and Market Your Movement

“What’s your story, stance and strategy?” Absolutely LOVED Nick’s presentation, check him out at Life On Fire. He has inspired us to look in to webinars and live events! Which makes us super excited, we love events! He also made us think more about the merrymaker movement and our mission to make the world a healthier, happier, more magic filled place. What’s your mission? What’s the movement you want to create?

Amy Schmittauer – Show Off Your Brand Personality in HD

“Do what you can, with what you have, where you are.” Amy is a gorgeous soul full of energy from Savvy Sexy Social! Yep, she could totally be a merrymaker! Amy taught us a HEAP of stuff on video, which got us super excited to start up our YouTube channel (properly), so the biggest takeaway from Amy was just to BEGIN! If you want to get in to video set an editorial plan and start filming. You don’t need pro equipment, your smart phone will do! If you have video requests… totally email us and let us know what you want to know more/learn about!

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Tropical think tank: where business meets pleasure (and fun parties!)

Matthew Kimberley – How to get More Clients Than You Can Handle Even if You Hate Marketing & Selling

“You cannot become truly magnetic unless you have a north and a south.” #howcanyoubemorelikebieber Seriously, Matthew made us laugh ALL WEEK LONG! We definitely love him and you can read more about his client finding techniques… he’s very clever! Biggest takeaway (and reminder): network! Network! Did we say network?! Yes! Network! Make it your goal to reach out to 3 people every day with a simple hello! Email. Just to remind them that you’re alive! Plus give them some compassion, knowledge or just share something that made you think of them.

Michael O’Neil – Why Your Brand Will ALWAYS Be Your Most Valuable Asset

“Your brand is what they say it is, not what YOU say it is.” Michael from The Solopreneur Hour (another awesome podcast) talked brand… has anyone else had a huge fascination with brands for their whole lives? Must be the commsy people coming out in us but we think they’re completely interesting. He shared 17 steps to a killer brand… now we’re not going to share all 17 (unless you really want them!) but our favourites: what is your vision? Who loves you? What do they call you? How do you spread your word?

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The EPIC closing White Party! Super classy!

Darren Rowse – 10 Things I Wish I’d Known About Blogging When I Started

“You can’t connect the dots looking forward, you can only connect them looking backwards.” Oh, good quote Darren! Everyone knows we frikin LOVE Darren Rowse… he is THE ProBlogger (anyone else going to the event this August? Make sure you say hi!) and he knows his stuff! Our biggest takeaway from Darren was to start thinking about our audience (that’s you guys!), where they are now (point A) and where we want to help them get to (point B!). All the in between stuff is what we should be sharing on our blog! It was a huge inspiration hit for us to continue to share quality content that’s really going to help you live your healthiest, happiest life… ever.

Chris Ducker

“At the core of every successful entrepreneur is an epic team.” Nice Chris! At the moment it’s just us two here in Merrymaker Land but going to this conference has really made us realise we need to start outsourcing the tasks that are repetitive and not adding value! We want to be able to focus on new products and content that are actually going to HELP. One of our first action items is to list every single task we do each week and to start deleting unnecessary tasks OR outsourcing them to better qualified people. It’s like we’re buying back time that can be better spent doing the stuff we love… to create stuff… the merrymaker stuff! The stuff that’s going to change the world! Yeah yeah!

Read Chris’ review here and watch the totally amazing video highlight reel. Looks fun doesn’t it?! YEP… epic kinds of fun!

FACT: it was VERY hot in the Philippines.
FACT: it was VERY hot in the Philippines.

We told you we were crazy inspired… woha… merrymakers on over drive! Let’s do this!

Got more questions about the event and what we learnt? Just leave us a comment below! <3

Always merrymaking,

Emma + Carla

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