In 2010 my father & I founded Slepak Enterprises LLC with the intention of building a small portfolio of residential & mixed-use properties throughout the Allegheny Valley area just north of Pittsburgh. Our plan was to be an inch wide but a mile deep and really to focus on serving the underserved. Our units catered to the in-between, we offered safe and affordable no frills housing to those who could not qualify for housing assistance but were often struggling financially.

For many years we discussed shifting our focus towards short-term & vacation rentals but never made the move for one reason or another. One of the biggest factors was usually what we considered to be a marketable destination was usually too far from us to manage well and often times came with a steep price tag in a hyper-competitive market.

In mid March of 2020 just as the COVID-19 pandemic was really beginning to escalate we closed on the sale of our rental units with no immediate plans to reinvest in real estate. My wife & I were building a new home after recently relocating to the Cleveland, Ohio area and I was preoccupied with major projects at work. Rather than getting back into real estate we were beginning to have very real conversations about pivoting and focusing on investing in consumer packaged goods start-ups only since its a sector my father and I know exceptionally well.

In mid July, just six months after deciding we were likely out of the real estate game for awhile and well into a very active and serious pandemic we decided to go all in on short-term & vacation rentals and entered into contract to purchase our first.

Here are a few of the reasons the COVID-19 pandemic finally made me pivot to short-term and vacation rentals and how, where & why we are focusing our efforts:

• We are focusing exclusively on areas within an eight of drive of either Pittsburgh or Cleveland. This is important because not only do we intend to use these properties for our own enjoyment occasionally but we also want to be within driving distance until we get a better feel for managing the business. The most important reason behind our eight our drive rule is that we believe most families are going to be weary of air travel for quite some time and will seek getaways to which they can drive.
• Our first property is in Geneva-on-the-Lake, a well known and very affordable weekend getaway for many from the Cleveland, Pittsburgh & Youngstown areas. Our belief is that overall affordability is going to be a major factor as families forgo their lavish and expensive vacations in the wake of the economic contraction.
• With many shared and common spaces, hotels present some very difficult sanitary challenges in the COVID era. We believe that travelers will feel far more comfortable and safe in a private home where they can control guest access but also have the ability to sanitize above and beyond our procedures if they so desire.

These are just a few of the many reasons I believe now is the perfect time for Slepak Enterprises LLC to begin to focus on building a portfolio of short-term and vacation rentals.

-Chase Slepak

In my recent post Google Forms- Unappreciated & Underutilized I offered readers a brief overview of what I consider to be one of the most powerful tools available in G Suite. In addition to an overview of the basic functions I briefly shared how I utilize this powerful tool in my daily life for both personal and business applications, none of which have added more value to my life than my “AM” & “PM” forms!

I hope you’ve had a chance to read my piece Google Forms — AM Form as this won’t make a ton of sense to you if not.

In this piece I’ll be sharing how I setup my PM form. My goal isn’t for you to necessary replicate my forms & systems but for you to understand the power & versatility Google Forms offers and to implement it into your life however works best for you.

PM

Much like my AM Form I see my PM Form as the bookend to my day, its the last thing I do each night, often times from bed.

My PM form is far shorter and more simple than my AM form but just as important.

Page One
As I shared in my previous post I really believe in the power of having a written personal manifesto. A manifesto is simply just a statement of your core values, beliefs, ideals & intentions. A manifesto should not be confused with your goals but should rather guide your goals.

I know that with enough hard-work and action anything is possible. Success is my duty, obligation, and responsibility. The more successful I am the more value I can add to my family. I outwork my competitors, I am always a plow horse, never a show horse. Through creativity and tenacity I will overcome any obstacle. I do whatever it takes to be successful. I am disciplined, mission driven, and next action focused. I am a serving leader, leading by example I motivate, inspire, and help others. I give a hand up but never a handout. I know that wealth creates freedom and freedom creates happiness. It is my moral obligation to use my skills and talents to the best of my ability. I live my life in a way my family can be proud of. I know that service starts at home but I do what I can for my community. I worship and thank God but don’t believe going to church makes a person good, doing good things does. I never waste time and always act with a purpose. I dedicate myself to constantly learning, improving, and growing. I am proud of who I am but am always working toward becoming a better me.

The first step of completing my PM form is to read my personal manifesto.

Page Two
This is just a simple summary of how my day went and what I can do to improve on the next day.

“How would you rate your day?”

For this first question I have a 1–5 selection scale setup with 1 being “terrible” and 5 being “great”. I don’t try to quantify it, just a simple selection reflecting my general feeling of how my day went.

The following are setup as yes or no questions.

“Did you complete all of your MITs?”
“Did you complete all of your scheduled tasks?”
“Did you live today according to your manifesto?”

The following are setup to allow for open ended paragraph inputs.

“What is on your mind?”

This is simply just a place for me to work through any nagging thoughts. Occasionally the answer is simply, “nothing” or “I’m beat”.

The final question is arguable the most important question in my PM Form.

“What will you do differently to make tomorrow better than today?”

I sincerely hope that this has both given you a better understanding of the power of Forms and has inspired you to find ways to leverage the tool for your own personal development.

-Chase Slepak

In my recent post Google Forms- Unappreciated & Underutilized I offered readers a brief overview of what I consider to be one of the most powerful tools available in G Suite. In addition to an overview of the basic functions I briefly shared how I utilize this powerful tool in my daily life for both personal and business applications, none of which have added more value to my life than my “AM” & “PM” forms!

In this piece I’ll be sharing how I setup my AM form and the thoughts behind it. My intention isn’t for you to necessary replicate my forms & systems but for you to understand the power & versatility Google Forms offers and to implement it into your life however works best for you.

Many of the questions, habits & practices I use in my “AM” & “PM” forms will likely sound familiar if you’ve studied self-development to any extent as they are a culmination of thingsI’ve learned from a wide range of experts and resources.

AM

This is the first thing I do each morning wherever I am, this is how I start my day with intentionality, focus & clarity. I have the link to complete the form saved to the home screen of my iPhone for quick access. The form is broken into five simple pages.

Page One
I really believe in the power of having a written personal manifesto. A manifesto is simply just a statement of your core values, beliefs, ideals & intentions. A manifesto should not be confused with your goals but should rather guide your goals.

I know that with enough hard-work and action anything is possible. Success is my duty, obligation, and responsibility. The more successful I am the more value I can add to my family. I outwork my competitors, I am always a plow horse, never a show horse. Through creativity and tenacity I will overcome any obstacle. I do whatever it takes to be successful. I am disciplined, mission driven, and next action focused. I am a serving leader, leading by example I motivate, inspire, and help others. I give a hand up but never a handout. I know that wealth creates freedom and freedom creates happiness. It is my moral obligation to use my skills and talents to the best of my ability. I live my life in a way my family can be proud of. I know that service starts at home but I do what I can for my community. I worship and thank God but don’t believe going to church makes a person good, doing good things does. I never waste time and always act with a purpose. I dedicate myself to constantly learning, improving, and growing. I am proud of who I am but am always working toward becoming a better me.

The first step of completing my AM form is to read my personal manifesto as a reminder of my greater purpose, values & beliefs before starting my day.

Page Two
This process is about a perfect balance of detail & simplicity for me. Page two is by far the most simple, I ask myself two very simple questions here.

“How do you feel today?”

“Whats on your mind?”

The fields for response to these questions are setup to accept entire paragraphs. There are no right or wrong answers here, its simply a prompt to get me thinking and gives me a chance to get clear with myself for the day.

Page Three
Page three is probably the most important page of the AM form for me. This is where I remind myself of my goals and outline what actions I intend to take today to move me closer to each of these goals.

I always maintain three primary short-term (six months), mid-term (twelve months) and long-term (five years) goals. I reevaluate and restructure these goals every six months.

In the backend of Forms each of these time periods are separated into different sections and the respective goals are listed out in the details of the section as they are static.

Each section and goal outline is followed by a question, (What will you do today to move you closer to each of the above goals?). The input is setup as a paragraph.

My response to the above is always something very specific and actionable!

Page Four
If you have studied any of David Allen’s “Getting Things Done” this page will be very familiar to you. This is where I outline my three MITs (most important things) for the day. MITs to me are the non-negotiable tasks I must complete for the day. I may have a much longer list of tasks for the day, but these are the non-negotiable, the musts! I’m an avid user of Apple Reminders, I user the “flag” feature in Reminders to tag my MITs each day so that they standout among the other tasks.

This page is simple but very powerful, they are setup as three separate questions with a paragraph text input for response.

“What is MIT#1 and how will you accomplish it?”

Page Five
The final page of my AM Form is just a simple reminder of things I want to be cognizant and aware of. These are not tasks but rather simple reminders.

These are setup as sections without any questions and do not require a response or input. Here are a few of mine, they are static but I add to them often.

Drink water

Be mindful of your ego

Help others

While I see this practice and process more as an exercise to start my day rather than something to look back on the results are saved in Sheets and available to reference anytime.

I sincerely hope that this has both given you a better understanding of the power of Forms and has inspired you to find ways to leverage the tool for your own personal development.

-Chase Slepak

Its likely that you, like me, are one of Google’s 2,000,000,000 G Suite users worldwide. While most of us rely on G Suite primarily for email and calendar there are myriad of lesser known but super valuable tools and services available in G Suite. In my opinion none of these tools is more unappreciated and underutilized than Forms!

I’ve been utilizing forms both in business and my personal life for a few years and I’m still shocked at how few people really understand the value and versatile of this simple but powerful tool.

Google does a really good job of explaining the tool on their page here.

Simply put Forms makes creating forms of any type really easy to do.

With a few clicks you can create really dynamic forms complete with a wide variety of question types that will solicit varying types of responses such as paragraphs, dates, numbers, check boxes, multiple choice answers, rating scales and even file uploads.

Once you’ve completed your form you can share it by creating a link for respondents to access the form in their web browser of choice both on a computer and from their mobile. I’m continually blown away by how user friendly Forms is for respondents especially from a mobile browser.

What good is a form if you can’t manage the response data?
Forms allows you to setup a few preferences for how responses are handled. You can enable email notifications to alert you each time a response is received. You can also export all response data into Sheets or download the file to use in your spreadsheet system of choice.

They’ve also built out a really great summary portal that empowers you with some great charts & graphs to help analyze your responses.

I have found so many great uses for Forms in both my personal life and business.

In business I use Forms to manage internal processes such as investment requests, daily activity logs, PTO requests, new customer and vendor setups and many more. I’ve used Forms externally for surveys, proposals, work order requests and even order taking in our distribution business.

Where I have found Forms to be surprisingly useful though is in my personal life and mostly as a journal. Forms can be a really powerful tool for archiving data and info on yourself for yourself. I have an “AM” and a “PM” form setup that I complete each day. I also have forms setup for when I complete a book and to track my workouts.

If you haven’t given Forms a look, I highly encourage you to jump in and play around I think you’ll be surprised how many processes you find you’ll be able to streamline with this simple but powerful tool.

I’ll be sure to share some more on how I use Forms in my personal life soon.

-Chase Slepak

Remain Accessible
There are a ton of rules you can setup for the days & times people can book you and while Calendly is certainly helpful in guarding your time its important to remain accessible. My default availability is Monday through Friday 8a-6p but I also allow for a few evening & weekend time slots.

Meeting Types
One of my favorite Calendly functions is the ability to build varying event types. I have face-to-face meetings, zoom meetings & phone call events of varying durations setup on my public Calendly page. I also have very specific events setup with private links such as podcast interviews and account review meetings. I share the links to these private and very specific event types when necessary. The great thing about being able to build such specific event types is the scheduling rules that you can apply to them, for instance, I only record podcasts on Saturday & Sunday so that link will only show my availability on those days.

Calendly & Clients
I’m a sales guy, the last thing I want to do is offend a potential customer or make scheduling with me seem difficult. I’ve been on the receiving end of many poorly worded & often times autogenerated “schedule some time on my calendar here” emails. These types of emails can strike me as arrogant and also often make me feel like I’m not a priority. While I encourage everyone to utilize Calendly to schedule time with me, its all about delivery. Rather than “schedule some time on my calendar here” I prefer “Please let me know a time that works best for you or feel free to follow the link in my signature to visit my hassle free scheduling page.” I have found that majority of the time they will go directly to my Calendly page and schedule almost immediately.

Event Questionnaire
When you setup an event time in Calendly you can setup a questionnaire with countless questions and required fields. This is a great way to help you prepare for the event but I caution against having too many questions. I have a few very basic fields such as name, phone & email, nature of the event and please share anything that may help me prepare for our time together.

Cancellation & Reminders
In my opinion one of the coolest features of Calendly is the ability to setup and automate reminders for your attendees. You can set the rules for reminders by event type. Calendly will offer your attendees the option to receive a text and/or email reminding them about your upcoming event. You can customize how far in advance these reminders are sent. You can also customize the reminder itself and include cancellation & rescheduling policies. Rather than a cancellation policy my reminders include “If this time is no longer convenient for you please feel free to reschedule here.” and Calendly will handle rescheduling.

These are just a few of Calendly rules to live by.
These best practices help me control my chaos without seeming arrogant and inaccessible and I hope they do the same for you.

Like many other busy people I’m always looking for the next tool or hack to help me squeeze all I can out of every single day. With a hectic schedule both at home, real work, side hustle, family business & passion projects I LIVE in my calendar app. A quick glance at my calendar and you’ll find no less than four different unique calendars setup and between 5–15 different scheduled events on any given day. These events are all over including meetings, FYI events from my wife, flights, workouts, dinners, calls, staff time-off notifications, relaxation time and even fifteen minutes to meditate.

My calendar is the epitome of organized chaos!

After years of constantly overbooking & double booking myself I decided I would pick one calendar to be my primary and would share that calendar with my team at work, family, and other key people in my life. I tried to train everyone to check my calendar for availability and then ask or just send an invite… it helped but it wasn’t perfect. With a few different hats comes a few different email addresses so often times I would receive an invite for a meeting to an email address that wasn’t tied to the aforementioned “primary calendar” and I’d inevitably end up double booked or miss the meeting all together.

After deciding that my organized chaos was spiraling further from organized and closer to just plain chaos I went on the hunt for a better answer an ultimately I found Calendly.com.

Calendly has changed the way I operate entirely — I’m no longer double booked, I don’t miss meetings and most importantly I’m able to block off some downtime, guilt-free!

Calendly connects to all of my email addresses and is smart enough that it only presents common availability to the person attempting to schedule time with yours truly. It also helps manage my sanity with more than a handful of different rule types such as day of the week & general time blocks but I can also set event buffers (minimum time between events) and maximum meetings per day.

Those seeking your time can access your calendly by visiting your general link such as calendly.com/chaseslepak where they can access all of the different meeting types you’ve setup. I have a few very general meeting types setup such as 30/60 minute phone calls and a few very specific meeting types for things such as podcast interviews. When setting up different meeting types you can create questions, setup notification/cancellation settings and even require a credit card payment before booking if you’d like.

Once your meeting types are setup and live its as easy as sharing a link, something else Calendly has managed to simplify with their app & Calendly Click for OS.

Upon booking, Calendly will send you and whoever booked it an invite and will even include your Zoom meeting info if you’d like.

Calendly has brought control to my chaos and for that I’m grateful, but as with everything I think its important to be smart. We’ve all been on the receiving end of what seems like an arrogant although often timesaving “my assistant will book a time with you”.

I’ll be sure to share some of my Calendly best practices soon!

In episode three of The Purvey Podcast, Chase Slepak the host and co-founder of Purvey CPG welcomes Nik Agharkar back to the show for part three of the Courtroom to Co-Packer series.

Chase & Nik were introduced by a mutual friend when Nik expressed he may be interested in leaving law to try his hand at business, specifically consumer packaged goods.

In this episode Chase & Nik begin to discuss the brand identity for Nik’s Indian inspired ready-to-drink tea brand. Nik shares his brand story ultimately leading them to land on True Nature Tea Company as a brand name. Chase explains to Nik that the next major milestone should be to put together a brand overview deck and begin to solidify the brand concept and identity in preparation for meetings with vendors and investors.

Throughout the next few weeks Chase & Nik will be interviewing creative teams to help finalize the brand identity and create a brand overview deck. Check back soon to learn who Nik will be working with and follow the process of solidifying the brand identity.

Nik has offered to allow Chase & our listeners to follow him on this journey from concept to launch. In addition to regular interviews Nik will be active in our exclusive Purvey CPG FaceBook group where he will be looking for additional help, guidance and accountability along his journey and sharing what he learns with all of you.

Purvey CPG was created for folks like Nik. Purvey is not a business Purvey is the passion project of some industry veterans looking to give back and help out. Purvey CPG is a community and a resource for entrepreneurs & wantrepreneurs to learn from industry experts and connect with other Purveyors.

Follow us on FaceBook and learn more about our mission at PurveyCPG.com

In episode two of The Purvey Podcast, Chase Slepak the host and co-founder of Purvey CPG welcomes Nik Agharkar back to the show for part two of the Courtroom to Co-Packer series.

Chase & Nik were introduced by a mutual friend when Nik expressed he may be interested in leaving law to try his hand at business, specifically consumer packaged goods.

In this episode Chase & Nik begin to discuss and gain some clarity of the target customer for Nik’s idea for an Indian inspired ready-to-drink tea brand. They touch on target retail pricing, package size, retail channel opportunities and even start to shape a customer avatar.

Nik has offered to allow Chase & our listeners to follow him on this journey from concept to launch. In addition to regular interviews Nik will be active in our exclusive Purvey CPG FaceBook group where he will be looking for additional help, guidance and accountability along his journey and sharing what he learns with all of you.

Purvey CPG was created for folks like Nik. Purvey is not a business Purvey is the passion project of some industry veterans looking to give back and help out. Purvey CPG is a community and a resource for entrepreneurs & wantrepreneurs to learn from industry experts and connect with other Purveyors.

Listen to this exciting episode here or on Apple Podcasts, Stitcher or wherever you subscribe to podcasts.

We look forward to following Nik on his journey!

In episode one of The Purvey Podcast, Chase Slepak the host and co-founder of Purvey CPG welcomes Attorney Nik Agharkar to the show.

Chase & Nik were introduced by a mutual friend when Nik expressed he may be interested in leaving law to try his hand at business, specifically consumer packaged goods.

In this episode Chase & Nik start by discussing why Nik is interested in creating a CPG brand and they begin to workshop what type of product Nik would like to launch.

Nik has offered to allow Chase & our listeners to follow him on this journey from concept to launch. In addition to regular interviews Nik will be active in our exclusive Purvey CPG FaceBook group where he will be looking for additional help, guidance and accountability along his journey and sharing what he learns with all of you.

Purvey CPG was created for folks like Nik. Purvey is not a business Purvey is the passion project of some industry veterans looking to give back and help out. Purvey CPG is a community and a resource for entrepreneurs & wantrepreneurs to learn from industry experts and connect with other Purveyors.

Listen to this exciting episode here or on Apple Podcasts, Stitcher or wherever you subscribe to podcasts.

We look forward to following Nik on his journey!

Purvey CPG is a passion project and not a business.

We are creating Purvey CPG as a platform designed to support emerging food, snack and beverage brands.

Purvey CPG is an online community & podcast to serve the makers perfecting a recipe in their home kitchen, the entrepreneur slinging product on a Saturday.

The fact is there are a lot of great products out there that unfortunately will never become well-known brands. Perhaps they lack the knowledge or connections. We want to help change that!

OUR GOAL IS TO SUPPORT THESE PURVEYORS BY CREATING A COMMUNITY THAT THEY CAN TURN TO FOR COLLABORATION, RESOURCES, AND SUPPORT.

Purvey CPG is our way of helping good people turn their great products into amazing brands.

The Purvey Podcast is where we highlight brands, chat strategy with industry experts and answer your questions.

We look forward to working with you and growing together.

Originally published at https://www.chaseslepak.com on February 1, 2020.