For Seth Godin’s Live event, called “Pick Yourself,” I’m wearing a Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle t-shirt.

This post will serve as a guidepost for those that I’d like to meet! If you see a small-ish asian guy walking around with this shirt on then you know it’s me.

Why TMNT? Because I doubt that I’ll have any copycats today (but if I do I’ll probably LOL and then I’ll have to take a photo for posterity’s sake).

Please say “Hi!” (yes, you can yell in my face or across the room) and we’ll connect and we’ll have crazy-awesome conversations about whatever we’ll talk about (I have no idea what we’ll chat about but that doesn’t matter!)!

I find my choice of attire exceptionally fitting (pun intended) since the conference is here in New York City and for those that don’t know (how could you not know?!?) TMNT live in the sewers under NYC.

Duh. Isn’t that where all mutant turtles live? Sheesh!

In all seriousness I can’t wait to meet you and I hope I can provide some value to you, your business, your venture, or even give you a little push in the right direction to build a bit of momentum (you have to forgive me as that’s just the professional coach inside of me).
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I’m firming up a number of other speaking engagements this year (and even have a few slots open, email me!) and there’s one that I’m both extremely excited about but also anxious about: The Influence Conference.

Now, many of us have attended conferences where “influence” was one of the catchphrases, themes, or even the titles of many of the keynotes and breakouts. But not as many of us have been to an all-women’s conference… and even less still have ever spoken at an all-women’s conference.

Like me. I haven’t ever been to that type of conference so when Hayley Morgan, Jessi Connolly, and Casey Wiegand reached out to me and asked me to consider it I had to pause, touch base with a few folks I trust the most (especially my wife), and ask them if this was a good idea.

All of them said “Yes!” – and their excitement got me even more excited! So I told them that I’d be honored and humbled and put it on my calendar.

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One of the last places that I had on my list of Atlanta Coworking spots was Bean Work Play Cafe, a neat (and very different) coworking spot that is both traditional productivity venue plus childcare for working parents.

Located right in Decatur [Google Maps] you have access to a number of great spots to eat as well!

Talk about a win-win-win (childcare, productivity, food) in that regard!

I instantly felt very comfortable as the founder, Adela, greeted me and quickly showed me around the place – the front area (accessible from the rear) being childcare with very neat facilities for 1 to 6 years old and then in the back where you can hold meetings (various conference rooms available) and the coworking area with simple (and clean!) kitchen with individual rooms for even greater productivity.

Take a look at some of these images, as well as an interview with the founder, that give a general idea of the overall experience:

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I had the pleasure of visiting another Atlanta Coworking spot up here in the Duluth area called The BizLynks Center, right off of Club Drive south of Pleasant Hill [Google Maps].

What’s really neat is that I once (many years ago) lived right across the street from this location in the apartments after I first got married to my beautiful bride! Memories…!

The space is large and has a bunch of options from meeting rooms, coworking environments, and even a full meeting/training area for presentations and the like! FedEx Kinkos is next door as well as Publix and some other decent places to eat.

They’ve even got a small studio where they do video interviews for their tenants and a live stream!

The environment was very well lit (one of the best of all the coworking spots I’ve visited) and felt very open and spacey. It’s not going to have that “industrial” feel like some of the other spots downtown but that’s just fine for a lot of the tenants that are coming back month after month!

In fact, they’ve been around for almost a year now! Here are some images of the space as well as a video interview with the founder:

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Michelle, one of the founders of Hub Atlanta

As I continue to search out and experience the best coworking spots in Atlanta I spent some time today in Hub Atlanta - a great spot in The Jane, which is also the same area as another spot, Experience Rethink.

Unfortunately Hub Atlanta is in the middle of a transition to a much larger space, opening sometime in August (if all goes according to plan). So I got a small snapshot of their current temp-space instead.

But what is very apparent is the culture that they’ve got going on and their involvement in entrepreneurship, social entrepreneurship, and the general startup community. It seems like a great bunch of people and definitely worth a look if you’re in this area – especially if you’re looking for an incredible spot later this year.

A few shots of their temp space for now – I’ll be back later this year to check out the new digs, for sure!

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One of the neat things that I’ve decided to do this year is to get into cycling, which is 1,000 times better on my knees than simply running.

I picked up running as one of those New Years Resolutions but the thing is that I haven’t been one of the 99% that fail to keep their resolutions for more than a week – I’ve loved it and it’s gotten me in some great shape.

Although I haven’t lost much weight to date that was never the point – I needed to keep my blood flowing and feel like I wasn’t wasting away in front of my desk every single day. Mission accomplished.

But after years of playing very competitive soccer I needed to give my knees and other joints a serious break. After being told a billion-and-one times that I needed to jump on a bike instead I finally pulled the trigger when I purchased my daughter’s bike.

It’s been two weeks and I love it - but what’s more interesting for me is that I’ve refrained from writing much about it here on my blog.

You could say that I’ve taken a little of my own medicine here and I’m proud to have mentioned it very little on Twitter as well.

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I’m so excited to announce that I’ve already got our next local Meetup scheduled and on the map: Blogging & Online Publishing Essentials, Must-Haves for a WordPress Theme!

We’ll be hanging out at the one-and-only The Work Spot in historic Duluth, one of the best coworking spots in Atlanta and we’ll be walking through a number of neat things related to blogging, WordPress Themes, and more!

Official Description:

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[Click for larger version! Images via Kevin Campbell.]

Last night we had an incredible combination of a meetup plus a wine tasting at Total Wine in the Perimeter! I had a blast leading our group through the three main types of transitions from a blog into a business and I appreciate immensely the grace under pressure as I realized that I had forgotten to get access to the wifi!

As a result, we went analogue for the night and I swapped up my presentation a bit on the fly to adjust – I still believe we had a great time and some of the comments and reviews seem to be very positive! Love our small group that we’ve created and the opportunity to network and learn from each other!

And, of course, I learned a lot about wine last night as well! I’m totally green when it comes to wine tasting – I didn’t even know about the “4 S’s” of wine tasting!

1. Swirl
2. Smell
3. Sip
4. Spit (or Swallow)

Apparently a lot of our group decided to swallow instead of spit!

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Nice glasses.

I’ll be headed to New York in a few weeks for Seth Godin’s Live event on May 16th – I can’t wait!

I’m not even sure what to completely expect except I know that I’ll be seriously challenged to do what I do even better as well as meet up with some very talented and resourceful individuals, not to mention learning from Seth in an intimate environment.

I’d love to serve you guys though as well as I head up there too, so please comment below about some questions that you’d love for me to ask.

Go for it – I’ll be your messenger and I’ll try to get some of the answered while I’m there! All I can guarantee is that I’ll make the effort to ask them, by the way – I don’t want to be “that” guy who has all the random questions (which means that you should suggest really good ones).

Also, I’m not sure of my travel plans yet but if anyone wants to meet up (or even lend me a couch in the area) that would be sweet!

The weather should be pretty nice in mid-May, right?

Excited!

I had the opportunity to spend some time at one of the coolest Atlanta coworking spots, right in downtown off of Peachtree Street, in the old Macy’s building.

Man, what a neat spot! 200 Office, at 200 Peachtree Street [Google Maps] has embedded itself right in the old Macy’s building and has some really neat amenities including a Rising Roll inside, large office space and meeting areas for groups, and even larger space to hold an event. Comfortable seats to boot, you’ve got pretty much anything you need to get up, running, and productive.

But first, you really have to appreciate the location. There aren’t many shots that I could find in Google but here are a few images of the Old Macy’s:

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