STM Whistler, and STM London

Soaring thousands of miles above the ground as I write this on a business class flight from London to Madrid, I once again find myself thinking of the best way to summarize my recent travel experiences into a short, fun to read blog post. After ASW in Vegas, I joined a group of guys and gals for a meetup organized in whistler by STM for some snowboarding and networking. It was a blasty blast.

STM
STM Whistler

It’s a pity the snow gods were cruel, as it rained pretty heavily for 2 out of the 3 days creating a mash-potato mountain to board down, but we all made the most of it – especially Jason Akatiff. That man can out-party me any day. I love these events, they’re a great opportunity to network in a fun environment as well as find some leisure time too.

Post whistler, I flew over to Calgary for a week to see some close friends, meet up with a friend who I helped get into affiliate marketing and managed to sneak in a day of snowboarding before flying back over to San Diego. I made it out to the A4D/Charles Ngo meetup which was a short, but cool little networking event, and I also stopped off in Irvine for a short business meeting.

Dodge Charger in San Diego
Dodge Charger in San Diego

I had to play a lot of catch-up with work whilst in SD, so the downtime I was given was a godsend. For those who travel a lot like me, get yourself a portable USB monitor! Best thing since Quest Bars. I recommend the ASUS MB168B+ HD if you can get your hands on one. They were pretty hard to find when I was on the hunt for one.  Here’s a link to the one I’m referring to.

I stopped off in Miami for 4 days and hung out with an advertiser who’s in the process of doing a soft-launch of his diet offer and then I flew over to New York for a week prior to getting over to London. I got downgraded from First Class to Coach on this flight due to an equipment change, to which American Airlines compensated me with a $500 voucher. Needless to say I was pretty cranky as I didn’t get the frequent flyer miles or status points for a First Class flight, nor was I provided lunch… but I guess the $500 voucher softens the blow? #firstworldproblems

Once in NYC, I caught up with my buddy Andrew from Melbourne who happened to be in town. We went to Williamsburg and ate at Café Mogador which was a really sweet spot to grab brunch. Recommended!

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I also caught up with one of my Affiliate Managers who works for Leadonomics over in Northport and discussed what was doing well on the network. Solar and Mortgage Refinancing are solid niche’s to focus on from what I am told. I’m yet to verify said claims, but hey, give it a go on Display traffic, you might get rich.

Moving on to STM London… oh my – what an awesome meetup. Over 600 people attended this year, the capacity was a total blowout. On the first night myself and a few friends couldn’t even get in to the first set of speeches as the conference room had completely filled up. I enjoyed a handful of the speeches, but some others could use improvement.

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There were 2 nights of speeches/talks and 3 nights of partying/networking. A large group of us decided to go for dinner instead of heading out for drinks the first night, but attended the 2nd night’s shenanigans, which was hosted a bowling alley with foosball tables and a full-service bar. The party was sponsored by Adsimilis (thanks Sean!) and was a shitload of fun.

Bowling / Foosball Party
Bowling / Foosball Party

The next night there was a party at Core Bar which was hosted by Advidi – great fun, but a little too loud and inappropriate for networking. I did derive a lot of value from this meetup, namely the push to hire virtual assistants / employees and build a team as opposed to flying solo. I am truly at a stage where the only way I can scale up to new heights is to get the help.

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Staying Fit Whilst Traveling:

  • In Miami, I went to Crunch Fitness. I had a friend hook-up 3 free days for me luckily, but normally it’s incredibly expensive. Average sized gym, not a tonne of equipment.
  • In Northport I went to Gold’s Gym. I paid $40 USD for a week pass, which only used 3-4 times, as one of the days the gym was closed due to snow outside. Decent enough if for some strange reason you’re out in Northport for a week. No idea why you would be (good friend of mine lives there and I wanted to avoid Manhattan).
  • In London, I went to YMCA Central a few times (3-day trial pass available online), Soho Gyms in Soho (free day pass on the website, they ask for 5 pounds, but I didn’t have to pay) and easyGym (10 pound day pass, pain in the ass to get in and register). YMCA gym is a large complex with a small weights room and mediocre machines room. I didn’t like the layout of this place but I guess it was good enough to get something done. Soho gyms was a small gym too, it wasn’t too crowded when I went and I had a good session there. Their regular drop in rates is ridiculous though. easyGym, was a decent sized complex, but you can tell they cut corners where they could (I mean, it’s the same company that owns easyJet). If you’re going to be in town for a week or more, you can sign up for a month I believe for 24-25 pounds which is reasonable, but for a drop in day pass, it’s 10 pounds (at the time, $20 AUD) which isn’t the cheapest. Gotta do what you gotta do.

 

I’m now on a flight over to Madrid / Valencia to spend time hanging out with some affiliate friends for about a week and check out the Las Fella’s Festival where they burn a bunch of trippy statues!

 

Til next time!

 

-Andy

 

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Gym Review – Beach Fit Bondi Beach, Australia

Given one of my biggest passions in life currently (and has been for almost 13 years) is bodybuilding, I’ve decided it would make sense as part of my blog to incorporate reviews of Gym’s I use during my travels. In the past 3, going on 4 years, I’ve traveled quite a lot and always try to make an effort to get to a gym.

If this sort of information was available to me in places such as Japan, life would have been a helluva lot easier. My goal here is to help those who like to get in a few workouts on their trips, find a decent gym and know what to expect.

About Beach-Fit Bondi

This gym is quite compact yet close to the ocean making it a convenient spot for tourists to get a workout in before a swim in one of Australia’s most popular beaches. During my stay in Bondi, I hit this gym about 5 times, at different times of the day, with the gym having some odd hours due to the holiday season (right after Christmas and just before the new year). The staff are extremely friendly here, kudo’s to that – must be the location – I know I wouldn’t complain much! I noticed that this gym may or may not have a 7-day free trial but I can’t confirm that as I didn’t attempt to take advantage of it. I have a feeling they wouldn’t allow non-Bondi residents to take advantage of such an offer, otherwise there would be a flock of freeloading tourists inside.
There isn’t a lot of equipment here, it’s advised to try and hit the non-peak times that are typical with other places in the world if you don’t want to stand around waiting too much (it happened a couple times to me, but I managed to get most of my routines in).

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The short:

  • Drop in rate: $20 or $50 for a week. Given the holiday season, I was able to scoop up a ‘week’ pass for $35 (it was closed on the 1st, and closed earlier on certain days).
  • Heaviest dumbbell here is 57.5kg from what I saw – they have about two dumbbell racks – one with less weights however
  • Squat Rack — Yes
  • Bench Press — Yes
  • Leg Press — Yes
  • Kettle Bells —  Yes
  • Cable Machine —  Yes
  • Lockers? Yes – 4 Digit Pin, no padlock required
  • Food & shake bar? No, just a vending machine. However, lots of food around, as well as convenience stores. Nothing that really caters to getting a quick protein shake however.
  • For cardio, they have treadmills and Elliptical/Cross-Trainer machines as well as a row-machine from what I saw.

All in all,  a decent choice in Bondi, although I didn’t compare it to others in the area as this was the most convenient for me to visit from my AirBnb on Glenayr Avenue.

– Andy


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Can’t Decide on Tracking Software?

I’ve recently switched over to a new tracking platform called Thrive by the guys over at iPyxel which I love. It’s still in development, but is constantly improving and making strides, and the best part about it can be self-hosted. The offer a 30-day trial and it’s $99 a month thereafter which is well worth the investment.

Those on a smaller budget can still opt to go the CPVLab route, another favorite of mine but a little more outdated. It is, however, more suitable for PPV traffic if that’s your traffic of choice.

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