In the Interest of Time

Posted by Pinky on Dec 12, 2011 in Blog | 5 comments

I really don’t know how time slips away the way it does, but it did, and suddenly it’s December 12th 2011.  The adventure of moving to Portland this year is beginning to feel something like normal, and plans for 2012, presumably our last on the planet, are in full swing.

This isn’t one of those heavy, “How to be a better person” posts that I seem to gravitate toward, but a simple reflection on a new life in a grand new place.

This year has been one for the record books.  In addition to the big move, I assumed a new position, heading west coast operations for a super duper company called BubbleUp Interactive, who I used to compete with, ironically.  (If ya can’t beat ‘em, take their money and head West, I say.)  I’m having a BLAST working for clients like Margaritaville and BB Kings Blues Clubs, Rodgers and Hammerstein, Alan Jackson, Terrry Fator and a truckload of others.  I am also honored to be called a mentor at the Portland Incubator Experiment (PIE), and I’ve made a few new friends with folks like Mitch Daugherty and Linda Weston, who have been tremendously helpful in plugging me in with the local movers & shakers.

On the personal hobby front, I have learned to brew my own beer from scratch, fish for salmon and steelhead in the mighty (and minor) rivers of the Pacific Northwest, and just this week, I got to spend a few solid days with my dog, Mattie.  You see, my dear bride took a visit to Nashville without us, so it was “dad and dog time” for the two of us.  She even got a bath.

The year has not been without its misadventures.  I busted a finger breaking the rules out at Scottco, a farm my buddy Scott Graves & his pal Pickle run out in West Tennessee.  I bailed on my bike in downtown Portland and learned first hand why the Tri-Met tracks are to be avoided at all costs. And I’ll be darned if I didn’t destroy the side-view mirror on our new CR-V, backing out to take Laura to the airport at 4:45am.  Just a really great way to start the day in general.

Life is good, dear friends.  (And random people I don’t know that somehow find this website through a myriad of random search terms.)

2012 should be a good year.  I have an idea for a book that is tentatively titled Raising Icarus.  I hope to get back to Nashville at least a few times to hang out with my buddies down South, and I think that this might just be the year that I win the lottery.  I’ve heard that you can’t win if you don’t play, so I can only assume that when I do, I will. #flawlesslogic

I hope it’s been a solid year for you too, good readers from the Internet. Thanks for stopping by and have a very merry new year!

Read More

How To Find Your Muse

Posted by Pinky on Sep 15, 2011 in Blog | 0 comments

If there’s one thing I love about working with entrepreneurs, it’s that there is never a shortage of passion. Especially in the context of PIE, Jumpstart Foundry and the clients I am privileged to serve through BubbleUp Interactive,  these are individuals that have taken an idea far enough to jump off the cliff and give it a real try, but are often early enough in the process that every little success is a major accomplishment.

I want to take it back a step today and focus on readers that may not know what they want to create but know that they can be something more than what they are.

Roll Call

How many of you know someone that hates their day job? (Har! har!) There’s not a human alive that doesn’t know someone that hates their current career circumstance, and in many cases, that includes their own.  Ironically, this also applies to people that may have seen a great deal of success in the past but are challenged by what to do next. Believe it or not, these folks may be just as depressed as those that have never seen those thrilling heights.

I have two things for you to work on if you find yourself in either one of these camps.

Step One: Do This

If you know you’re destined for something greater than your current life condition but have no idea how to find it, lend a hand to someone else. I don’t care if you’re in the 6th grade, you know something about life that a 3rd grader hasn’t even considered.  We ALL know something that someone else may find useful. I have written many times about the power of sharing coffee, a meal or a beer with your peers to develop your own professional abilities, but I haven’t said enough about the impact it has on the person sharing the information itself.

How do you find these people in need?  There are a million ways, but some of the easy ones are at local networking events, from Chamber of Commerce groups to more specific things like technology, marketing or other meet-ups.  Don’t think of those things as just a way to find someone that can help YOU out, think of them too as a way to find people you can help, with or without a profit-motive in mind.

But that’s probably making this process more complex than it even needs to be.  Look through your list of contacts, for goodness sake!  Start with people you know.  Look through your inbox.  Look around your immediate sphere of influence, however “minor” you may think it is.  This isn’t some bigtime board meeting we’re talking about here.  This is an hour or two with someone you’d like to learn more about, plain and simple.

And a final note on this point – this isn’t a one-time deal, folks.  This could be a daily exercise if you want it to be.  I try to book happy hour meetings Monday – Thursday (my beautiful bride gets my Fridays & weekends). If you’re on a budget, mid-morning coffee meetings are great. It’s rarely even necessary to pick up more than your own drink. A house coffee will cost you a buck or two. The relationships these meetings lead to could be worth millions in time, and I mean literally.

Step Two: Answer These

I don’t remember where I got this list a couple of years ago (Godin, maybe?), but taking the time to honestly answer each of the following 25 questions can be a great way to get to the heart of your true passions and professional desires. Share your answers with others or keep them completely to yourself, but DO write them down. I did this back in 2008 and was almost shocked to see how similar my answers are today, even in a profoundly different place in my personal and professional life.

25 Passion-Inspiring Questions

1. If you could do just one thing all day long and get paid well for doing it, what would you do?

2. If you could only give one speech, for one hour, for one million people, what ONE WORD would that speech be about?

3. If you could only have one section of the bookstore to visit, which section would it be?

4. If you could only subscribe to ONE publication for the rest of your life, what would it be?

5. If you could only work 2 days a week, what would you do?

6. If you could only work 2 hours a week, what would you do?

7. If you could take a sabbatical for one year, where would you go and what would you do?

8. If you didn’t have to work, what would you do all day long?

9. If you were the last human on Earth, what would you still do every day?

10. What activity always makes you lose track of time?

11. What activity gives you the most energy?

12. What brings you to life?

13. What could you talk about forever?

14. What things are you able to do, without even trying?

15. What do you like to do, just for the fun of it?

16. What do you love to do that (you can’t believe) people actually pay you money to do?

17. What do you love to talk about?

18. What do you most enjoy making?

19. What have you always found to be easy?

20. What is the one thing that people couldn’t pay you NOT to do?

21. What pictures from your phone do you show people the most?

22. What questions do you look forward to be asked?

23. When you don’t know what to do, what do you find yourself doing to find your way?

24. Why do you admire the people you admire?

25. You, yourself, are at your best when you’re acting HOW?

Read More

Artist Soul, Business Mind

Posted by Pinky on Sep 8, 2011 in Blog | 0 comments

You know what’s sad about so many entrepreneurs? They’re quick to sell-out. They’re in it for the money, and are in a constant get-rich-quick state-of-mind. Pump and dump. Create a perception of success, sell it to someone with deep pockets and watch from afar as it flounders and fails, smugly blaming its demise on “big business that didn’t know what they had when they bought it.” I know, because I have been one of them.

You know who hasn’t? Sam Calagione, the founder of Dogfish Head Craft Brewery. His deeply imaginative and exotic recipes, his hand-painted labels, his slogans, brand names and philosophy are all from the heart of a true artist. An artisan.

But it is his business savvy that completes the equation. His ability to grow controllably, to manage distribution and the supply chain, to attend to vendors and to speak articulately about the method of his success as well as its madness, that truly makes him a star. And that is what makes it possible for him to laugh at multimillion dollar offers for small pieces of his business. He doesn’t want it. He doesn’t need it. Because he has captured the essence of true entrepreneurship.

It’s about the journey.

Any professional investor will ask you about your “exit strategy.” It is literally by-design that companies are built with the intention of trading hands. It is supposedly this very process that keeps our economy moving forward. The creators create and the business guys figure out a way to make it profitable. Or shut it down and move on to the next big thing.

I’m humbled by Calagione’s approach. There is no destination in his plan. Only great recipes, great people and great experiences. And it earns him $52 million a year.

Interested in hearing more? Enjoy this Bloomberg feature on the man behind the fastest-growing craft brewery, 5 years running.

 

Read More