Clean as a wet dog on a cold day

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!

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?

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.

It’s really easy… move some dirt from one part of the ground over to another, and voila… a ditch!  So now you can dig your own ditches any time you want, free of charge.  You’re welcome.

I was having lunch with my new Portland pals Rick Turoczy and Jason Glaspey this afternoon, discussing the nature of client expectations, among other things. I regaled them with a story of a prior client of mine that was loathe to pay anyone for marketing, or anything else they felt they could do themselves. And it makes perfect sense! If you believe that the hardest part of marketing is in knowing what to do in the first place, why not just read a few blogs, maybe spring for a $20 book, and do the work yourself?

For the same reason you shouldn’t always dig your own ditches.

There is a time and a place for everything, of course, but too often we make the mistake of discounting the value of services we think we can do ourselves. The next time you snicker when someone describes themselves as a “social media expert,” ask yourself the question, do YOU really want to spend hours a day responding to stupid Facebook posts and entertaining the anonymous masses, or is that something you can put into the hands of a competent professional? Or to put it another way, what is your time worth? Is there anything else you could be doing right now that would be of greater value to your bottom line?

If not… dig a ditch.
If so, hire a ditch-digger.  And pat yourself on the back for having the wisdom to do so.

What happens when the Ad Agency of the Year teams-up with Coca Cola, Target and Nike to nurture and support local entrepreneurs in Portland, OR?

PIE happens. And who doesn’t love PIE? The Portland Incubator Experiment is a concept based on the success of such well-known accelerator funds as Y Combinator, Tech Stars and Nashville’s own Jumpstart Foundry. It is a combination of cash, mentorship and direct opportunities to pitch ideas to some of the world’s biggest brands and major investors, and I am proud to be joining them this week as a bonafide mentor.

PIE is a collaborative center where brands, tech, and culture meet to explore and redefine brand experiences. If you or someone you know has a great idea in need of a launchpad and wouldn’t mind spending the summer in the spectacular Pacific Northwest, it’s free and simple to apply. Head on over to PIEPDX.com, and tell ‘em Pinky sent ya.

Happy entrepreneuring!

I have attended 11 “strategy” meetings in the past 7 days. The topics have ranged from sales and business development to product and personnel, but there has been a common theme through every single one.

Presence matters.

I learned this lesson during my time with echomusic but am amazed at how relevant it still is during these trying times.

In our prime, we had nearly 300 clients, some of which you’ve heard of and some of which you never will. But as we began to grow, many of our early clients began to feel that the service they had come to expect was falling short. We were no longer reaching out with new ideas or suggestions. We were no longer giving our smaller clients the attention they really needed. They felt abandoned. In some cases they felt betrayed. And worst of all, they began expressing their discontent with others. “Others” including big-time accounts that we may well have missed out on as a result. This is a very.small.town.

Reputation is all that matters in this business or any other. Apple can charge more for its products because we believe in the brand. Luxury cars, clothing… even medication cost more based solely on the expectation their customers have for the name.

We are who we employ

At their core, all of those meetings revolved around gaining or keeping new customers. There is an active discussion about whether or not companies outside of Nashville should have someone representing them here in town. In Portland, it’s about what to do with “legacy” accounts – those that don’t pay as well as new customers on a more efficient platform. In all cases, it boils down to how these decisions will affect the way these companies are perceived.  My recommendations are these:

1. DO hire someone that knows the local market as you expand into new areas. It’s much easier for a potential client to trust a business they “know.” If they know your staff, they know your business.
2. Build an “internal outreach” program into your sales efforts. If your current clients don’t know about new services or products, they certainly won’t be buying them, but you should be in contact with them long before you’re shaking them down for more money.
3. Sometimes it’s appropriate to part ways with past clients, but doing so with grace and dignity is the name of the game.  CALL THEM. Then send an email. Give them time to make alternative plans, and suggest other service providers. Nobody likes a break-up, but new relationships can be just what the doctor ordered, on both sides.

Above all, be PRESENT for your clients. Make them feel important. Hire people with more than money on their minds. Be kind and considerate. And do good work.

Sometimes the most obvious advice is the easiest to miss.

Spoiler alert! LinkedIn.com didn’t actually change my life. I changed my life, using LinkedIn. This is the story of how I moved 2,200 miles across the country without missing a beat.

As I mentioned in this post back in January, my wife and I decided to move from Nashville, TN to Portland, OR to be closer to family by this Summer. That’s all well and good, but the practical realities of moving across the country are daunting, to say the least. It takes a lot of patience and tenacity just to deal with housing choices, let alone transportation and the logistics of getting from Point A to Point B. But as many people can attest, those are merely details to work through as long as you know that you’ll be gainfully employed once you get there. And THAT is where most people stumble. Without a guaranteed source of income on the other side, most people can’t afford to move in the first place. And landing a job in a city 2,000 miles away can seem like an impossible task. Thanks to LinkedIn, that was actually the easiest part of the entire process for me, and I’m going to tell you how.

Know Your Industry

It may go without saying, but unless you know what you’re looking for, it can be awfully difficult to find it. In my case, I went in search of small-to-mid-sized businesses with an entrepreneurial flare, programming, creative and marketing services to compliment my skillset, and the courage to hire a Southern transplant with a stupid name like “Pinky Gonzales” to top it all off. Portland is full of web design shops, major ad agencies and boasts one of the highest percentages of entrepreneurs per capita in the Nation.  But those are just stats. Connecting with real people in those places is the name of the game. So where did I find them?

Blogs

Anyone worth their salt in my space is an avid reader of blogs. TechCrunch is one of the more popular destinations, and most importantly, includes a comprehensive database of all of the companies they have ever mentioned, available online at CrunchBase.com. This was square-one in my search. Their “advanced search” feature allowed me sort and display only companies in the Portland area, which returned an initial list of about 90 companies. I widdled this list down to about 20 that fit my criteria, and then began researching each one in-depth.

Enter LinkedIn

It’s easy to get a sense of the size and vibe of a company by viewing founder and employee profiles on the site. Is there a long list of “former” employees? Too many “new hires?” Are the founders well-connected and actively updating their profiles? It doesn’t take long before the have’s and the have-not’s sort themselves out, and in the end I was left with about 10 that I felt were worth reaching out-to.

‘Add To Your Network’

Many people fail to use LinkedIn to its fullest potential because they think you need to be a “premium subscriber” to send messages to people you don’t know. While it’s true that paid members can do so, the real trick is to introduce yourself in a meaningful way while asking strangers to join your network. This is an example of the messages I sent to people that I was interested in meeting:

“Dear soandso,
My name is Pinky Gonzales and I found you in a round-about way through CrunchBase.com. I too am a brand marketing guy, and my wife and I will be relocating to Portland this Summer, so thought I would reach out and introduce myself. Hope you’re off to a great week!”

The thing about using this method is that your messages have to be brief – just 300 characters total. This forces you to get to the point while still being pleasant and inviting. If they accept your invite, you are then free to write them a long-form message, which I did. When the time was right, I would mention that I was looking for a great professional fit as I made plans to start this new life. Because I did not limit my search to “help wanted” ads, I had no idea if they were even hiring! But I figured that if they liked me enough, they could potentially open something just for me, or at least refer me to others that may be on the hunt.

And that’s exactly what happened. Of the 90 companies I started with, 20 looked pretty good, 10 looked great, and one of them was a direct hit. I will be making a formal announcement about my new position on July 1st, but it’s a good one, with a great group, and I couldn’t be more excited. What’s important to know is that they had no intention of hiring someone like me. It simply made sense once we all got together.

I did end up flying out to meet with them once during this process, which also gave me a chance to do some house-hunting and trip planning, but I hadn’t even purchased a plane ticket before there was a strong line of communication going and everyone felt that it would be a good use of the time and money.

I’ve got a few more LinkedIn tricks up my sleeve, but at 1,000 words, this post is already a lot to take in. The takeaways for today are these…

When moving to a new city:

• Search for companies that fit your needs first. You may find blogs, databases, “Best Places to Work in…” sites – you name it. Make a list.
• Find employees of those companies on LinkedIn and take note of the apparent culture. Big? Small? Fun? Corporate? The way an employee describes their position says a lot about the company itself.
• Reach out using the “Add To Your Network” button. Make your introduction friendly but brief, giving context to the invite itself.
• Once you’re connected, provide more detail about who you are and why you’re connecting. It’s ok to mention that you are seeking opportunities in the area, but approach it from a position of, “I would love your advice about local companies that may be interested in someone with my skillset,” rather than simply, “I want a job… Are you hiring… etc.”

And finally, stay at it until you land your dream job. Or at least your next job. It’s often said that job hunting IS a job, and I completely agree. I don’t know how many hours I spent on this endeavor, but it gave me a chance to learn about my new home town, and now I’m connected to a few dozen people that I have every intention of taking out for a beer, without any need or expectation for a job. We all share common interests and live in the same small city, so my professional network had already begun to expand before I even made the move.

Happy hunting!

The year was 2000. I was 23 at the time and had little idea where my life was headed, except to Nashville, TN.  What had begun in San Francisco had taken me through Los Angeles and on to Music City, where I hoped I would find my true place in this world.

And so I did. I worked hard. I took risks. I drank a lot of beer. (A LOT of beer.) And in time I developed some of the closest friendships I have ever had. I have built or been a part of building 9 businesses, invested-in, cheered-on and consulted-with many others, and have seen more highs and lows in the last eleven years than I can count.

And I am sad to be saying goodbye to the only place I have truly called “home” since I was a kid.

This past Christmas I got lost in the snow-covered mountains of Washington state. My mind was erased by towering redwoods, glacial rivers and the joy of spending quality time with my niece and four nephews. In a word, I remembered. This is what life is about.

My bride and I knew at the same time, while driving through Astoria, Oregon, that this was where we wanted to be. We had always talked about moving to the Pacific-Northwest someday, we just didn’t expect for someday to be “today.” It’s a bitter-sweet feeling to know that great adventure lies ahead, while the sadness of missing our friends has already crept in.

How lucky we are though, to live in a time when everyone’s online, seemingly all of the time. Heck, I’ve got quite a few “Nashville friends” that haven’t lived here for years! I’m glad to have a blog that will allow me to catalog the experience, and business partners that trust that they are still in good hands, even though it means working from afar.

This will surely be the first post of many, but know this, Nashville… These have been the best days of our lives and we’ll be back to visit often.

And LOOK OUT, Portland! A fresh blast of awesome is headed your way.

Hello good people of the Internets! I have just returned from a winter hiatus, achieved my goal of gaining 5 pounds over the holidays and got to catch up on some much-needed sleep. There are some major things in the works this year that I’m looking forward to being able to share publicly, but in the meantime, I just wanted to wish you all a happy new year! Thanks for stopping by and keep an eye on the site as I crawl out of hibernation mode. Hope you’re off to a fabulous 2011.

In today’s class we covered the fine art of email communication.  It’s easier, and harder, than it looks.

http://pinkygonzales.com/blog/written-communications-strategies/

Happy Thanksgiving, folks!

-Pinky