1500 Days to Freedom

Think different and escape the rat race.

Amazing PopUp People

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I just attended an amazing event called PopUp Business School:

Alan delivering the goods

I first learned of PopUp at the Ecuador Chautauqua where I met one of its founder, Alan Donegan. Alan is the most incredible public speaker I’ve ever seen. He could talk for an hour about paper clips and completely captivate the audience. He’s that good. Plus, he’s a great guy. I’m honored to call Alan a friend.

When I heard that Alan was coming to my neck of the woods to run PopUp, I knew that I had to see what it was about firsthand. Here are some quick facts about the school:

  • Alan and his team teach how to start a business over the course of two weeks.
  • The emphasis is launching in the most lightweight way possible (minimal money, quick and efficient). There are no 100 page business plans. The goal is to start making money in 2 weeks, not 2 years.
  • The course is completely free. There are no up-sells of any sort. The class is funded through sponsors.

Attending PopUp was an amazing experience. Alan and his team (including Simon, Jack and Henry) taught marketing, sales, website building, SEO, networking, and confidence (I need this one). I’m a better person for having attended.

As amazing as the class was, the crowd was just as awesome. And I shouldn’t have been surprised.

 

Amazing People

I’m fortunate to have met some amazing people through various financial independence pursuits and events:

Mr. Money Mustache Tractor Beam: I live in Boulder County, home to MMM himself. The MMM Effect/Tractor Beam attracts like-minded folks to the area. They come out of the woodwork here in the same way I do for offers of free beer.

Gatherings: Building on the above, we have great, local meetups. Folks frequently open up their backyards, BBQ grills and beer supplies to random strangers. We have an awesome little community here in Northern Colorado. (shout out to Michael and the Fort Collins Meetup group [NoCo FI/RE Fighters]))

Ecuador: I met amazing people at the shindig that Jim Collins puts together. Many of these folks have become good friends.

And the PopUp Business School was no different.

During the day, Alan and his team taught efficient business. During breaks and in the evenings, we discussed anything and everything including:

Note: Pay special attention to the items in bold and the corresponding links. Most of those sites did not exist before PopUp. They were created in class. How cool is that?

  • Bicycles:

  • Sports: Support your favorite sports team with a crazy wig!
  • Table tennis:

  • Tacos
  • Tiny homes
  • Travel arbitrage
  • VOIP consulting services: VOIP Service Guide
  • Website tools

Oh yeah, we talked business too. During the first week, someone made a random comment that caused my business partner and I to change the direction of our project. We’re more excited than ever and will launch before end of year. When I’m not working on the blog or breaking up fights between the children, I’m thinking about use cases, Ruby on Rails and designing the database. But I digress…

 

Your Tribe?

Amazing things happen when folks in our community get together. I know that the PopUp Business School will become an inflection point for many of the attendees. I’ll let you know in a year if it was for me too.

And you don’t have to go to conferences or Ecuador or PopUp to discover your tribe. If you haven’t found your people yet, seek them out. The MMM Meetups forum is a great way to start building your own community.

Don’t be afraid to reach out. If an introverted weirdo like me can manage to find a couple of friends, you can too.

Join the 10s who have signed up already!

Subscribing will improve your life in incredible ways*.

*Only if your life is pretty bad to begin with.

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Comments

  1. Sounds awesome. Lucky location. Will give a try to the forums (don’t know why I didn’t do this sooner), but as I see on the map my location is pretty empty yet. 🙁 Maybe I should consider a move? 😀 I’m curious about your projects. Ruby on Rails is not so common here, so haven’t worked with it yet, but I heard good things about.

  5. Thanks for including me here and it was great to meet you! What a FUN and SMART group of people we got to hang out with for two weeks! MMM was a fabulous host and I can totally see why you ended up in Longmont. It’s a great place and definitely has people who seek what many in FIRE want. The PopUP team was outstanding. True teachers – and so incredibly energetic and giving. I’ve already made changes to my blog and already had a comment that people didn’t realize I did coaching. Well… I never put that out clearly on the blog – so how would they know! Just one little thing I learned!
    Vicki@MakeSmarterDecisions recently posted…Where Mustaches, Memories, and Making Money Meet – Part 1My Profile

  11. That’s pretty awesome. Was this at the new MMM HQ space?

    And I’m so curious about this secret project of yours!

  14. Man, now you tell me that I don’t have to go to Ecuador in order to find my tribe. Darn, well I’m already here. Guess I’ll give this Chautauqua thing a try. Heard good things about it! I’ll let you know how it goes…