Couple Days off (Week update Sept 12-18)

What Mike Michelini is up to Now – Sept 12-18, 2021

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FINALLY I’m taking a bit of a weekend off. Normally, I “grind” hard on mornings every single day (even Sundays like today). But Saturday (yesterday) and today I have been in Huizhou, a town about 2 hours drive from Shenzhen. Wendy’s friend has a place here we can stay. Finally, I can do some unplugging.

But still, I gotta at least squeeze in a morning writing session + a weekly update.

The quick list:

• Indigitus router big update – some news coming this week. Stay tuned on that for early this week. We’re also defining company values and culture, more.
• NamesCon + Flamingo handshake – Sept. 22-24. So this week is the final “full week” of preparation.
• HR manager and hiring more people – We’re expanding and still hunting for a good HR person to help as we grow at Shadstone
• GFA and acquisition – some deals coming closer now.

For those who want to hear the full week plan for Shadstone Limited, Mike’s company (removing sensitive info) – here it is:

Sept 12 – 18, 2021 Shadstone Week Plan

I’m finally taking a day or so off (well it is a weekend, but…ya, it is away a bit)! I feel a little guilty but already I can feel the improvement in my energy level and it is only 1 day. We all need to take a bit of a break.

So this Sunday morning I will not be doing as long of a week plan. But still, I want to keep the habit of writing at least something each week – regardless of a recharge or not:

The quick updates:

• HR manager hunt – still looking for the right HR manager fit. We don’t want to “Settle” and we want to find the right person for this role. Once we are comfortable with this person, we hope to hire more people for these expanding jobs and opportunities. But we want to have an HR person onboard to not overwhelm our management team + I with interviews, contracts and the ongoing HR tasks for a growing team. (FYI this will be the first time in our company to have someone dedicated to HR!)
• Flamingo Handshake / Namescon – It is coming up quick (Sept 22-24)- in a week and a half! So we need to start to confirm the auction names and speakers. Those on this project, expect it to get a bit crazy.
• NowShenzhen – massive SEO fixes to the core site. We thought the main issues were on the ShenzhenParty site. But after running more analysis, there were quite bits of issues with the current WordPress. Fixing broken links, menus, and a lot of optimization are underway. Also need to start a new form site as well as a new apartment site (to replace the Drupal as much as possible).
• GFA / Amazon acquisition work – having another meetup/ workshop on Thursday Sept 30 in Shenzhen – similar to the one in August. It will be a mix of workshop + meetup (workshop in afternoon, meetup in evening).
• Also for GFA, this week’s podcast is a BIG one – we took clips of Chinese Amazon sellers at the last GFA meetup and this time we worked HARD on translating it, and putting a voiceover. It is great we are utilizing our team and tools to do UNIQUE content. We want to keep GFA ahead of the curve with content as so many people can do podcasts now. I want to keep being on the cutting edge (in 2013 not many did podcasts).
• Indigitus – big update coming to the community. The software and hardware integration is a true challenge. We’re growing the flow and communication with the community, ambassadors, and partners.

Maybe I am missing the critical updates – we are doing tons of amazing things. If we can “hold on” a bit more, get some of these teams and systems in place, we have a strong empire with multiple income streams to ensure all of us have a great long-term future to support our working online and doing innovative and creative web projects.

This is the Shadstone dream – to “be the shadow and the stone” of amazing projects – as the web and content team. We are doing it and we are continuing to grow and improve and develop.

I have realized in life, one can never “be done”. There is no final destination, there will always be something to do, something to fix, someone to develop. So we just need to ensure we are enjoying the journey and developing ourselves and our skills in the way we want to.

Hope all on the team agree with this and are doing tasks that they enjoy and are improving themselves. If not, let me or someone on the team you are comfortable with know!