For the past 9 weeks or so I’ve been working my butt off in getting the Digital Heaven Boot Camp organized for this December 22nd and 23rd 2006.
I didn’t originally plan for a Boot Camp for this year or the next as I was doing what I have always enjoyed doing for the past 2 1/2 years - running my multiple Internet Businesses, mostly on my own, in my Pajamas.
But when I finished my 12th Digital Product in 10 minutes flat - I turned around and saw my son who’s quite a charmer.
He’ll be turning 1 this Christmas Day. Where would my wife and I celebrate his birthday with him?
Now I don’t really like to travel much as I do have a fear of flying (this is another story) - so I normally find places that I can drive to.
And one of those spots is the award-winning world-class resort located at 6,000 feet above seal level - Genting Highlands, Malaysia.
Just thinking about this resort brought back fond memories of the few mega-Boot Camps I’ve held there, and also the very successful Internet Businesses the Boot Camps have spawned.
And so I thought - why not celebrate my son’s birthday and have fun with a new group of like-minded people up in Genting Highlands, one of my favorite places to be in?
And so the Digital Heaven Boot Camp was born.
It’s meant to be a full 2-day event with TONS of great stuff and materials, many of which have never been revealed by anyone anywhere before, kick-starting my 6-month Digital Heaven coaching program.
The highlight of the event would be the very quick creation of downloadable digital products in 60 minutes or less - usually within MINUTES.
And I’m not talking about creating e-books or private label rights books or resell rights books or anything of the sort either.
One of the best examples would be a one-page digital product that you can sell for hundreds of dollars or more. It isn’t software, it isn’t an e-book - it’s a one-page digital product. If you can’t write a few sentences to save your skin, this could be a good alternative for you - if you qualify to create such a product.
There are many other examples, and you’ll see them all. Not only will they make your heart skip a beat or two in their breathtaking simplicity, they’re very quick to create as long as you are “qualified” to do them.
And part of the fun is in discovering how “qualified” you are.
And if you’re not qualified, you’re bound to know of someone who is.
And because the product creation methods are so quick and so easy, that someone will be able to help you create that product for you without any complaints.
So if you can have a one-page downloadable digital product that sells for say $500 or more, that you can create within minutes - how many will you create?
This is the basis for my ad-hoc Boot Camp that was conjured up on that fateful day.
And so I started doing all the things necessary to get this Boot Camp ready.
And because I don’t run seminars as a business, I don’t normally have a logistics team to do the administrative tasks for me.
This isn’t an issue since I have lots of time on my own as most of my Internet Businesses run on auto-pilot.
However, I forgot there’s one thing working against me.
I had a deadline to meet.
It’s been some time since I last had to deal with a deadline.
And this deadline has to be at least 8 weeks or more before the actual event happens for things to take their course.
Remember, I started this project only about 9 weeks ago - thinking that 2 - 3 weeks was all that I needed to get things done the way I wanted them done. I could live with that, I thought.
And so I took on the many roles single-handedly forgetting that event management really isn’t a one-person show.
I decided on the dates, then checked out the convention center and hotel rooms, tasted the food, liaised with the sales and banquet departments, negotiated the rates, did the costing on Excel spreadsheets and packaged them in a way that would make sense - and the product was created in 18 different packages (yes, there were that many, even though you see only 5 at the end, for simplicity).
I then wrote my long sales letter (there are 2 versions, depending on who the Prospects are), created the graphics, created the different order forms, booked the domain name, got the hosting, created my web site from scratch using Dreamweaver (there were about 12 pages even though you only see 4) and integrated it with an Affiliate Program software which I bought and had someone install for me.
This Affiliate Program software was also integrated with 2 different credit card payment processors - one of which is for high-ticket packages like a Boot Camp package, the other for downloadable digital products.
It was also integrated with my Mailing List/Autoresponder software.
I then tested the Affiliate Program very carefully, wrote the promotional materials, lined up the JV partners (this was for a small Boot Camp so I did it with a limited number of them), checked the reporting stats (very important!), modified the e-mail templates whenever an Affiliate signs up or does something (there were I think 20 different e-mail templates).
And all this, before a single word was even written for the Boot Camp in the form of the Boot Camp materials - which I still have to do! Boot Camp materials are in at least 2 different forms:
1. The PowerPoint presentation
2. Participants’ binders and materials.
Both may not necessarily be the same with the PowerPoint presentation providing the basic education with the binder materials providing more details.
However, most of my materials are already written so puttings together isn’t that big an issue.
But the above is only half the story. There are many other aspects to it, but I’ll spare you the details.
So I did every single thing on my own except integrating the Affiliate Program Software with my Mailing List software.
E-v-e-r-y single thing.
Because of the deadline, this resulted in a 7-day working week with me sleeping only 5 hours a night.
I have never done this since the days I was practising as a lawyer.
But I did it.
And I crashed out twice on different days as a result, with me having a very bad headache and just wanting to sleep.
But when I woke up, I kept on going.
I was “on flow” and nothing could stop me.
As a result I became totally exhausted. I said this in my previous Blog posts and I’m saying it again now.
Thus if I continued to push for the Boot Camp this December, I would be wearing myself out.
This isn’t fair to my wife and kid as I have not been spending the time I used to spend with them.
It isn’t healthy for my body and mind either.
Most of all, it isn’t fair to YOU if you’ve signed up and I’m just too tired to do a good job at the Boot Camp.
And so I made a decision, just half a day after the launch took place.
I would either postpone this Boot Camp or replace it with something else.
I had taken on too much, with quite a few issues that cropped up unexpectedly that took a few days to resolve further compounding the problem.
I do feel that this is the right thing to do, before the promotion got any deeper.
The question I think you’ll probably ask me is this - why didn’t I outsource some of the tasks?
I should have done so, but with a tight deadline to meet, and with my ability to do just about 100% of the things required to be done (except the programming aspect), plus my usual team of outsourcers tied up with other projects - I made a decision to do it alone.
It wasn’t the right decision. It was one driven purely by the joy of interacting with like-minded individuals all over again.
It was meant to be a holiday, with “work” furthest from my mind.
It turned out to be otherwise - if only because of one thing.
A deadline.
Notice the word “dead” in it? 
Truth be told, I almost pulled it off - but I needed 3-4 weeks more.
If the deadline isn’t that tight, things would still be very manageable and the Boot Camp would have gone ahead.
If you’re one of those who have signed up, I sincerely apologize for this latest development. You’ll soon be receiving an e-mail from me on your options.
You will lose nothing, rest assured.
On the brighter side - there’s NOTHING I can’t do on my own right now. I’m a more complete Internet Entrepreneur now than I ever was - which is a good thing if you’re in my coaching program.
You’re probably asking me now - is it THAT difficult to set up an Internet Business?
No, if you can have others doing over 90% of the work FOR you, like I normally do - even though I use them to do only 50% of my work. This is due to choice because I DO enjoy doing the “work” but most people aren’t like me.
And I do have a system in progress that will do many things FOR you - leaving you to focus on quick and easy product creation and marketing.
This will be unveiled next year.
In the meantime, I’ll be taking a good break from what I’m been consumed with the past 9 weeks or so.
It’s been quite a ride…
Talk to you soon.
Warm Regards,
Sen Ze
