You have to try this exercise. I'm leaving Chiang Mai—Building in Public ep04

It's been 2 and a half months. This is my last week in Chiang Mai. I'm about to leave to Vietnam. This is Building in Public, episode number 4. Ready? Let's start. Hello everyone. Welcome back to my channel. My name is Nir Zavaro, and this is the last week. I've been in Chiang Mai for almost 10 weeks, and this is episode number 4 in Building in Public. And I can't tell you how sad I am to be leaving this place. Today I'm recording at the Alt by the River. It's a great co-living place. I just had another great session with, uh, John, the founder. It's always interesting to talk to him and learn a little bit more about the, the digital community to learn a little bit about the perception of what Chiang Mai could be, what it should be as a hub. In today's episode, I want to create a recap and kind of like what's been going on. So what are the projects, what I'm working on, what are the struggles, the trials and tribulations? And I want to teach you one thing that's called start, stop, continue, and I hope it will help you in every project or actually everything you want to do in life from now on. It is also a great exercise to do with some of your friends. The idea of building in public started because I wanted more accountability and I wanted to share some of the work and some of the things with you. The first thing I want to talk to you about is the book, The Business Catcher. Where are we now? I've been hard at work on the big picture chapter. This chapter is supposed to be like the foundation for everything. And it's supposed to explain everything that's been done wrong, prove why, and then offer a method to fix it. Usually I would create an outline, maybe a rough draft, 2,500 words, maybe 3,000, and send it and see how people think. This week I decided to focus on creating a chapter that I can actually put in the book. No, it's not as easy as I thought, but I think I'm almost there. I'm now crafting somewhere between 3,500 and 4,000 words, going back and forth. I think it's getting there. A lot of work. I'm really happy. More than that, I think this book is going to be epic. The second project I'm working on, which is very important, dear to my heart, and I will need your help. So please listen carefully. I'm taking Fuck the Slides to 100 universities around the world. I've hired an employee, a VA, to help me structure a list, a huge list of universities and colleges all over the world. And the plan is to start reaching out and getting the book into libraries. It's very common to have 2 copies in every library. I'm also trying to get them into classes, curriculums, and stuff like that. So if you know anyone in a university close to where you live, where you studied, a connection, please, I am interested in talking. I think that if I can get it into 100 universities, everything will look different. Imagine the landing page. These are all the places that this book exists, where people can actually pick it up and learn. I have to get this done. The plan is to get 100 locations by the end of 2025. The third thing I'm working on, which I am enjoying, not easy, are these videos. How do I create 2 videos a week? If you remember, and if you're new to the channel, this is how it goes. Monday is Building in Public. How do I structure these things? What I'm working on, sharing the behind the scenes of everything. And Thursdays is what I like to call Educational Thursdays. The plan and the idea is very simple. I want to give you something. I want to teach something. It enables me to practice my speaking in front of the camera tricks, but also helps me define what I want to teach. The subjects would usually vary around marketing, branding, sales, and a bit about storytelling. It's been fun. It's not as easy as I would have expected. I have to admit that using the tech stack that I've had, so recording this Insta Camera, which I'll put in the links if you guys want, the free OBS Opus, Premium, which has been great in terms of cutting and uploading. CapCut Premium, which has some unbelievable features that I didn't even know existed. Wait a minute, who are you? One of the things I've decided is every time I edit a video, I need to fix one thing, improve one thing, learn. I'm getting better. It's still not there, but I am getting Imagine how good it would be in 30 or 40 or 50. For some of you who are wondering, one of my biggest struggles in building in public is actually these. There's a huge gap between what I am when I go on stage and who I am now when I'm stumbling. I'm not exactly sure where I want to take this, and I'm doing this on camera because it makes me better. This is the way I need to improve. So long form. Finding my words, improvising more, understanding who I want to be in front of the camera. Not easy, but that's my task. Everything about Chiang Mai has been about being uncomfortable, being outside of my comfort zone. Where I work, how many hours I work, what are the things I want to work on, how do I go to the gym, why am I even going to the gym, traveling outside of the city, taking long vacations. Everything has been things I'm not used to. I say I don't like. What is he doing? He's beginning to believe. Another important aspect, the words we want to use. So part of my building in public is also about using words like, I don't like, using words like, I hate things. How do we create those into actionable things? So if I hate going to the gym, if I'll go for 2 months, I will be able, right? I'll have the privilege to say, no, no, I tried. I don't like it. If you don't like cold plunges, have you tried? If not, try it and then tell me how it goes. But stop using words that are not intentional. And I think for a long time I've used those words to kind of like dissolve things. Ah, not relevant. Not relevant. It's helping me again be a little bit more intentional. During a talk I did in the Hague 2 weeks ago, one of the things that I was asked is, how do I improve certain things? I gave them this trick. There's an exercise I love. It's called start, stop, continue. You can do it also with your friends or your spouse. Start doing one thing, stop doing one thing, and continue doing things you like. For me, it was writing. Start, stop, continue. It's an amazing exercise. It's not complicated. And this is how it works. Make a list. One thing you want to start doing. What is it? How are you going to do it? When are you going to do it? And so on. One thing you should stop doing. Something you don't like about yourself. And one thing you should continue doing. Sounds easy, right? Great. By the way, great exercise to do with a group of friends. But one important thing: be sure to ask before you start if it's okay to give them some tough love. Because if you tell certain people to stop doing certain things, they might get angry. Some of them. Sometimes maybe good, sometimes maybe shit. It's up to you. You can decide. I love this exercise. So for me, start doing would be one-minute videos a day. Something I think I can post on social media. If that is done correctly, that will become a daily short on four or five platforms. That means about 150 pieces of content. Stop doing. I need to stop eating certain things. I don't know how I'm gonna do it. I've been pretty okay with the flat whites and losing the weight, but the past week wasn't good, and I told myself because a bit sick, it's okay. You're allowed to. Not good. So the next month I want to focus on eating less shit and understanding what that means. And I'm making a list. One thing I want to continue doing, I want to continue making 2 videos a week. Why? Because it's just very hard for me. And that's it. In terms of building in public, let's talk a little bit about flights. I am flying on Thursday. I'll go to Vietnam. I'll be spending some time in Da Nang, looking forward to that. And then early March, I'm flying to give a talk, a keynote at a conference in India at a place called Coimbatore. Sounds a bit Spanish. The talk is about, or the event is about, the event is about resilience. How do you get up again when things don't work out? And I know a little bit about it. My plan It's to do the 1-hour key special way. Look, it's a secret. I think I'll start recording this week a little bit about the plan, the idea, my whole working process, my Post-its and everything. I think you might enjoy it, but I'll be able to share it after the event because I don't want to give it away. But that's cool. I will be flying back to Vietnam, I think 13th or 14th of March. Still not sure if I'm gonna go back. I was thinking about maybe going to the Philippines or doing something else. April is going to be exciting. I'm going to go visit Tel Aviv. I'm going to go to Amsterdam. Might go to Spain, not sure. And then June, I am speaking at EO Ignite in South Africa. There are some talks about flying to Mexico in August. Now here's the thing. If we are flying, we're going to focus on 2 things. When I say we, some friends are supposed to join and the plan is To surf. Well, they will surf. I will learn how to surf. But the next, the most important thing, and the reason why we're going to fly to Mexico for 30 days, is to write the next book, which is going to be my personal thing. I'm thinking about writing it in Hebrew. I'm not sure yet. I'll keep you posted. Another great thing I want to share with you guys is the unbelievable amount of calls I've been going on and enjoying actually quite a lot of. I had a call with someone who's probably solved malaria. I had a call with a guy who's built the biggest connector website marketplace to connect people like you and I who need to reach a third party, a CEO somewhere, and they have those connectors. It's been so interesting and it's been amazing. I want to keep meeting people. I want to talk to more people. And yes, I'm slowly scaling my advisory board roles in different companies around the world and it's Gonna be very interesting. The last thing about the Business Catcher, I am starting a list of branding agencies. If you are a branding agency and you might be interested in learning how you can utilize this amazing methodology to scale your branding business, feel free to reach out. I'd be happy to talk to you. One more thing I'm focused on, I'm not sure how it's going to play out, is SEO. What? SEO in 2025? Yes, SEO. So I am now actively working on these following keywords about storytelling and business and sales and marketing and so on. The idea is to create that main piece of pillar content and then see if I can create a bit of interest. I want to get that to the first page in the next, what I believe could be 3 to 4 months. It's not as easy as I planned, but what's easy today? Life isn't easy. But if we do it together, trust me, we'll get there. I think the last thing we need to talk about in terms of building in public, or the last 2 things, is the talks and the workshops and maybe the podcasts. I've done 6 podcasts in the last 2 weeks. It's fun. It's great. I want to keep doing those. I think the main factor about all these podcasts is creating content. Struggling with taking those, putting them in the platform. The tech stack I have, as I said, I need to create a better timeline on how am I gonna improve my tech stack and how am I gonna improve the way I work. I wanna post more. So doing those podcasts helps me create content, but if I'm not uploading it. Talks and workshops, I've been booking talks and workshops online and offline. And at the moment, I think the next 2 locations I wanna focus on, are India and South Africa. I'm gonna start building this and reaching out and let's see how we turn those into something tangible. Israel has already, we have already booked 3 or 4 in Israel, so that's good. I think I would focus more on online speaking gigs wherever I can. And I think the pace now is about 50 or 60 this year, which isn't bad considering it's not my main focus. And I am enjoying doing these sessions. Guys, as always, thank you for being here. Follow, sign up, comment, do whatever you want. One last thing, do me a favor, send the newsletter to someone you like. And if you're not signed up, it's here in the description. If there's anything I can help you with, if you need anything, DM me, ping me, I'd be happy to help.