The Next Thing: Groundhogs (Plus The Whole Story)

The other day, we turned the microphone back on.

We already explained what happened, but here’s a little background on why we started this in the first place.

The Morning Adam™ was conceived in the summer of 2016 as a way for me to, for lack of a better word, figure out what I wanted to be when I grow up.

There was no set audience avatar, no customer or acquisition goal, or even a specific topic to convey.

I just created the cool little cartoon pic, put up the site, and started writing.

(Yeah, yeah, yeah… I know.)

Really, it was a platform for me to rant about whatever was grinding my gears – and in doing so, allow the question of “what’s next” to answer itself.

And yes, I researched sexy felons.

By January, I Had A Pretty Good Idea.

Also by then, I had sort of burned out writing new stuff every morning, so I dropped it for a while.

Not to mention, I joined the ranks of international Amazon best-sellers and had my interview featured as bonus content in the #1 book on growing your business through podcasting.

And I’ve been along for the ride with stuff some good friends of mine are doing about boats and boating.

(I also had created an entire series of articles on political civility related to the Presidential election, but we have a new President now, due to a lot of changes, so I’m done with it, though I advise you to go back and read it.)

So now that I knew what to do, it was time to get to work – quietly developing new things based on my discoveries, building case studies, and honing the method and the message.

The Answer Will Be Revealed In A Moment – But First, A Little Backstory.

Back in 2002, I completed my MBA from Duquesne University with a concentration in Human Resource Management and the goal of becoming a Training and Development Director for a Fortune 100 Company.

I did the networking.

I did the interviews.

I got two job offers – tantalizing opportunities from small companies that weren’t officially hiring, but loved the cut of my jib (and my large MBA portfolio) and offered to create a position just for me.

I turned them down.

Around the same time, I reconnected with an earlier mentor, who by this time owned a training and development firm. So, in addition to holding down my day job (and getting promoted there) I did some contract work for him – compiling and analyzing employee feedback data, reading and summarizing books he didn’t have time to read, and creating research for the book he was writing and the powerpoints for his keynote speeches.

I caught the entrepreneurial bug, and formed an LLC on October 28, 2003.

Since then I’ve owned and operated three businesses – a web development firm (closed in 2010), a website conversion consulting company (closed in 2015, but we still use the domain for our emails), and the current company, The Business Creators’ Institute™ (BCI), that consults and coaches on a range of organizational, technology-implementation, and marketing topics.

The Morning Adam™ was created, as I said, to help me figure out what to do with the BCI in 2017, 2018, and beyond.

Now I Have The Answer: Groundhogs.

Yes, groundhogs.

Studying the behavior and lifestyle of groundhogs finally answered, for me, the question of how to get back to the training and development stuff I’ve always kept my yen for, while preserving the fun part of the 14-year interlude of me falling into becoming a “marketing guy” that all started with a chance meeting at a seminar.

Over the past 14 years, I’ve made a lot of interesting discoveries and helped a select group of companies come a long way.

Now, I want to share it with you – gratis.

Here’s What Happens Now

Now that I took that important step of drawing a line under whatever caused me to drop this project, I’m back at it. (Though, I might not hop on EVERY morning, because that was my mistake.)

And the sharing part:

I invite you to join me for a series of live online events (the next 5 Wednesdays) where I’ll spell out the Groundhog Principles and give you some stuff you can roll with immediately.

The ultimate step will take place on Groundhog Day, 2018.

The first step is for you to join us for the live trainings, which will be fun and full of entertaining stories.

So, I’ll see you here – and there.

Onward!