Bryan Landaburu (aka Reno Bryan, Willie Vega, and Fuze) | Dont call me a blogger

Happiness, prosperity, woozals.

This week has sucked...and its Tuesday. I have been fighting a migraine for two days now and its lingering here like an unwanted house guest that waxed their Camaro with your good towels. I have been cursed with headaches all my life but i haven't had one in quite some time.  Something this week triggered it.  Not sure what, but i wish it gone.

Anyway, I have long been a believer in the concept of karma and the fact that what goes around, comes around.  Sometimes that's true, sometimes it isn't. Does everyone who deserves a bad turn get one? No. Does everyone that deserves happiness actually find it? No. Happiness is elusive...like the Woozals.

Life evolves and you either surf along or crash and burn. For me I became pessimistic about whats comin' down the pipe, what my outlook is for our economy, and what the likelihood of finding true contentment and balance in my life would be.  At times it all seems like a long shot, but there are strong elements of my life, both business and personal, that I try very hard to stay focused on because not everything is grim, doom & gloom.

Tonight i did a little roots revisit.  Had dinner at my mom & dads with my son. Like a big happy family of the 60's we ate our home cooked meal that only your mom makes, and watched President Obamas address to congress on the TV box. It feels good...that simplicity. So lucky I am to have the family I do.

I have to admit when i hear the president speak, I believe him. You can say what you want about hot air, fancy talk, democrat/republican, or whatever, but if someone doesn't inspire hope, then all the policies in the world wont bring a nation/world together. When you look at how he looks at his wife, it conveys a sense of family, and love, and togetherness. Those values arent laced to someone telling me about "their god", telling me how to live or what to believe, they are just core family values that got lost in the shuffle over the last decade or so. That sort of thing inspires me as much as any policy or stimulus package does. Simple values, real stories, real life...its motivating and grounding. I am not a political person but I thought it was a good speech, and I feel that someone with the power and charisma to evoke change, is leading our ship.

I strongly believe in positioning and establishing your true direction, now more than ever, is critical important.  We are doing this at Fuze as we shift directions for the company, narrow focus, expand our reach, cut costs, establish new partnerships and alliances, and implement new standards/procedures/platforms. This all will enable us to be more agile and service our clients better than ever before. Another big part of that is re-explaining to the clients we already have what it is we CAN do, well. There's a LOT longer version to this story, but just like the local/global economy, the Fuze universe was spun on its head in 2008. When that happens you have the option to huck in the towel, cry poor me, or alternatively to get off your ass, realize business isnt always easy, accept the challenge, and change the fundamental way you do business, approach clients, and affirm relationships.

We have some great project stories to share from small to large...companies ARE actually doing things. Bigger prosperity is someplace ahead and we fully intend to be around to capitalize when the shift happens. I will share the entire story of what we are doing here, soon.

Whats your point Bryan?
Ohhh fuckit, this post is going nowhere. I'm rambling and not getting to an end so I'm hitting EJECT.  Maybe I'll come back here and complete where i was going, or maybe I'll just let it sit here like a crappy outlined tattoo that needs finishwork.  I have 100 things to do tonight, time for 2, I need to get back to work.  Sorry my 10's of readers...more coming on the topics of Sparks City rebrand, Fuze rebuilding, partnering, what makes a good client, and a book I want to write...all in time.

Oh, before I go and please join me in supporting Nevada New Media Summit, and Ignite Reno.  These are both great events and great organizations for our community. Several Fuzians including myself are involved, and the content of both is good so if you can attend, or get involved, please do.

Ever forward...

B

PS to Clients:
This is how not to write a good blog post.  I give this a D...nay an F.

Where are you from, really?

When I feel the most overwhelmed with life and times I like to look back to where I've come from. I think there are many misconceptions about where people are from but it's our past that makes us who we are. I'm on a plane headed back to New York for Inman Real Estate Connect where the global gurus of real estate meet to hypothesize on the future of residential real estate and the modern ways to market your business, and brand you. I'm not flying with the usual excitement that I fly with when I head to one of the greatest cities in the world. I am on a strict and tight budget. Being in Manhattan is a $500/day decision so you must maximize the time. Still, it's worth the investment of time and money to "be about it" vs talk about it.

I remain personally overwhelmed with all that's going on these days. Yesterday was my only day in the office for the week. I am coming off 3 nights getting to bed at 4am (wish it was because I was out partying). Trying to get year end billing done, organize finances, be a good leader, keep up with email, maintain my relationship, be a good dad...all these are important and time consuming. All are necessary and all worth doing. The hours do tick off quick, and I know I need rest, but the night shift is really the only place I can even attempt to focus on my tasks at hand. A single day in the office for someone like me is a curse in a way. It's impossible to get it all done which creates stress. Reflection and "plane time" help me crave the bright spots in my life, my grounding, my focus. It also makes me liken back to a time when life was so, so simple...childhood.

Where did I come from?
I was born a poor white kid, raised in Sparks, Nevada. And, while I have maintained second homes in other cities, Reno has always been my true home. It is a bit hard for many to understand that the Fuze offices are a mere couple blocks away from where I grew up. My childhood home was 309 K Street in Sparks, Nevada, USA (see photo). As I drove in to the office Monday I decided to detour by my childhood home. If you haven't done that, you should (if you can). K street is where I lived from 0-15 years of age. Our home was 1000 square feet, 2 bedrooms, 1 bath. We had a 1-car garage. I shared a room with by brother Todd until I started high school. I've driven down my childhood street many times. The neighborhood seemed so much bigger when I was a kid. I look at the little house we had and I am amazed. When I was little, the yard seemed giant. The space between the houses seemed to be like a football pitch. My trees seemed to reach to heaven. When I look at it now I realize that it was all, in reality, tiny. Yet, when I was there...I never felt alone, or deprived of anything. In fact, I always felt like we lived in the center of the world. What we lacked in amenities, we had in family, friendships, and love. Trite as that may seem, we figured out how to make things fun. Life was just simple.

As a father, I struggle with being a good mentor, provider and to give my son everything in life he could ever desire. But, the complexity of that cause periods of overwhelm. Our current economic times have many folks thinking back to simplicity, core, value, importance. It's good for us, all. So much excess and nothing that matters. As a for instance, u could fit 4 of my childhood homes inside the home my son and I live in now. I have a commercial kitchen in my home that rarely ever cook in. One of my cars cost 5 times what my dad paid for 309 K in 1970. I am not bragging. I work my ass off. You want it, go get it. But, there's a trade...and I'm realizing it now more than ever as I work on cutting expenses. Think about how you live as an adult vs. how you lived as a kid. As someone who was born with a Raley's freebie spoon in my mouth vs the silver variety, I feel like refocusing, something I speak about often (like here, and here, etc.) is a constant goal of mine. Stick to what's important. Love those who love you, without condition. Without exception. In them you find your core, who you are. And, really, shit else matters. I teach my son to be a good person first and to never feel like he is better than any other person in spite of what privileges he may enjoy. He shouldn't necessarily follow in my footsteps. There are simpler ways to live.

Well, we are about to land here. 36 kevin dee-grees. Cold. Ok, I'm ready to turn on my game face, shake hands and make it rain. If you care to share, I'd be interested in hearing other peoples stories on how they grew up and how they live now. Are you living like you did as a kid or have you stretched it out like me?

Updates from the city to come. Won't be any fine dining at Del Friscos, or Cipriani for me this week. I'm goin on the cheap. That's just fine with me...it's still New York.

Live swell.

B

PS
I punched this out on my iPhone in the typepad app. Sorry for the typos.

Fortune Small Business: Anxiety, Fear, Good? (I am "Sherman")

If you own a small business and don't read Fortune Small Business, you are missing out on a great publication. As i have stated before, I get more publication/article/blog/rss/email/twitter/facebook/linkedin/plaxo/everydamnsocialmediasiteontheplanet/etc., overloaded every hour, day, week, month, year. Part is a craving to be in the know, part is insanity, part is morbid curiosity. Whatever it is, i still have literal boxes of magazines (dating back to my original post) that I have not read. I dont have time. I do, however, read Fortune Small Business, for some reason, the day it shows up. I read it because I find the publication real, and speaking directly to me, and frankly more than ever before with this article on Entrepreneurs and Fear/Anxiety.

Article Link: What entrepreneurs are feeling: Fear
by Alexander Stein

In this article, I am the "Sherman" which the author refers to. I am him. Read the article and you will understand.  I realized that I have become him, within the last year. There is one particularly telling paragraph in this article:

"Business owners may be particularly susceptible to the corrosive effects of fear and anxiety because they're professionally more isolated than most, having no peers or superiors, only employees, clients and competitors. Especially in high-stress situations, having a trusted confidant can make all the difference..."

I'll add to the list above: vendors, contractors, and the government (local & federal). This isolation is absolutely the feeling I have every day I go to work so I rely on my confidants as well. Mine are a mix of mentors, friends, like minded colleagues...people who understand me on the levels that I let them. They help talk me off the ledge, metaphorically of course (Fuze occupies the second floor so a ledge-leap, is nothing more than a faster route than taking the stairs). Still, this feeling of incredible isolation does come into play from time to time, and with the current state of economy and business, I feel these feelings more than i used to.

The article continues and i arrive at these paragraphs that describe why "Sherman/I" think and behave the way I do:

"As a group, entrepreneurs are more likely than not to feel comfortable in crisis situations...that's fine, as long as being an adrenaline junkie works for you...

What's not working for Sherman is his unconscious confusion of the past and the present. Emotionally, he's convinced that his business isn't temporarily faltering in a recession environment but failing altogether because he didn't heed his father's dire warnings about financial overextension. He identifies late-paying clients with his domineering, unappreciative mother. Frustrating business transactions become recurrences of traumatic rejection. No wonder he's anxious."

In these dramatic examples the article hit home for me. I am riddled with anxiety and fear from time to time, but in the same respect, I thrive in the face of chaos. I cannot think of a single presentation/pitch that i didn't wrap up seconds before jumping in the car, on a plane, or in the case of my last presentation to a group at Artown, I was updating the slides as we were setting up. Not to say I don't research, pine over, and prepare, but when I put my thoughts down and decide what to present, its always at the last minute. I think its because i know my propensity to be distracted by shiny objects.  When you have no time, you cant accept distraction. This is how I work best, the greater the pressure, the more I focus. The more challenging the situation, the more I shine. It works for me, and its how I do MY best work. This doesn't work for everyone.

I often joke here on my blog and in person about the joy/curse of owning your own business and running your own show. There is no safety net, no gov'ment cheese, and you have many, many peoples lives in your hands. The Fuze family is over 30 peolpe, when you take into account our kids, spouses, significant others, etc. That's a lot of responsibility...and we're the small guys. This is my balance act and something that I feel causes me the greatest anxiety: one day, will my race to the finish come up short on the face of the landing and will i let down all these people around me who see me as the leader, friend, partner to which they've hitched their wagon. More[most] importantly, what example do I set for my own son if I fail? There, friends, is the source of all my stress/anxiety/fear.

I encourage any would-be or current small business owners to read this column, and to pick up FSB. The article here wont solve your problems, but it may help you understand some things about yourself as you relate the words to you. Ive got a late night here tonight...with 20oz of wonderful Americano by my side, i will plow through some bills, organize tomorrow, and keep looking forward to the future.

Have a happy Thanksgiving all. 

B

PS
I think we are launching a new website(s) next week...that's the rumor is anyway. We're actually doing ours a little different than most. You'll get to watch us do the whole thing. Riveting.

Now here's a novel concept, anyone remember Sears LAYAWAY?

Back in the 70's I used to look through the JC Penny, Spiegel, Sears, etc, catalogs about this time and pick out the hero toy of the season.  To afford said toy for my brother and I my not-rich parents would use something called LAYAWAY to acquire the toy for us before Santa Day.  For those of you that haven't ever heard of this, its a concept where you actually pay for something BEFORE you take it from the store. This little known concept went the way of the dodo during the decades of decadence that happened from the 90's to present. Credit cards and home equity made Christmas' quite bright all over the US in the last decade, but here we sit all broken hearted and this year retail will be a different scene.  To address this, while JT was bringin sexy back, Sears is bringin Layaway back:

Is this a sign of true change? Why do i comment on Sears email so much?  I dont know the answer of either, i just know that this is an email you would have never seen 2 years ago.

Lemme put a lil sumthin' on it...

BL

My day...

Heading to bed at 4:15am is rediculous. Hey wanna be entrepreneurs, want to know how my day goes? Heres a look at Monday:

• Wake 7am - read NY Times on iPhone, return emails from the weekend, request project updates from extended team.
• 7:30am - bathe, feed, dress Cole and get him ready to roll
• Out the door at 8:15am
• 8:30am standing conference call
• 9am - drop cole off while muting phone and carrying on call
• 10am - update job lists and print job reports
• 1030am - check email
• 11am - conference call - development partners MN
• Noon - errands, lunch, make someones day
• 2pm - rescue clients dead email servers, prep for con call, try to check email and return calls
• 3pm - interactive team production meeting
• 330pm - client meeting server migration plan
• 4pm - rescheduled all-hands Fuze production meeting. Introduce new time sheet policy and review all open projects, for all clients.
• 5pm - one last whack at email (30 still unanswered from monday)
• 530pm - pick up cole from nanny
• 6pm - arrive at YPN 20 under 40 awards social
• 7pm - Cole melts down at party, we leave
• 730pm - feed cole and get him ready for bed
• 830pm - fall asleep on the couch
• Midnight - wake up and realize that i have 3 proposals incomplete
• 1am - check social sites and reply to inbound (aka procrastination)
• 2:30am - realized I never ate dinner, cold cereal, vitamins, Chardonnay.
• 415am - proposals complete, thought about billing, but didnt get to any, mind racing, just replied to an email from a friend on CST who is already on his way to work (he and I have a meeting in 5 hrs)

Ever wanted to know what its like to be me? There ya go. Super glamorous isn't it? Gucci, confetti, lavish meals, bikinis and beaches, its really the life-o-riley.  I would say that 3 of 5 days a week my schedule resembles this.  Thinking of running your own show, welcome to the big time. Sometimes being a number has its privileges.

Goodnight/goodmorning...

B

What Happened to Our Economy by Xplane

I am one who feels that people should be allowed to hang themselves.  Meaning, that you are responsible for your own actions.  As our country (and the world) face serious economic crisis, it's this time that we need to rethink a lot in our lives. Politics aside, an administration didn't do this to America. I am not even going to state a side on the Presidential race because while McCain and Obamas version and solution for the economic issues are interesting to debate, this doesn't seem presidential related to me. The video below from Xplane gives a nice, short overview of exactly what happened to our world from 2000 to present.  This all has to do with greedy, dumb people.

Give it a watch and I really hope that my 5's of loyal readers who don't know what a sub-prime loan is, or how our lives will be forever changed by the last decade of decadence, hear the message. I know several friends who have had their homes foreclosed on, are losing their cars, and (hopefully) some dignity. These are good people but they have bad priorities and make dumb decisions. Personally, I have an expensive lifestyle, and things aren't always rosy in my world, but dammit, I made my own bed and I'm sleeping in it. I can't blame a bank for holding a gun to my head to buy a mortgage I can't afford only moments after I Visa'd up a new pair of True Religions. In my business, there would be no bail-out for Fuze making dumb ass business decisions.  We would just fail.  Like a wildfire in the forest, failure is a cleansing of society and this needs to happen.

Frankly, I am on a serious grandparent rant these days because days where true concepts of money, financing, and personal dignity have gone the way of the Dodo in favor of bigger rims and cooler boats. A lot can be learned from your grandparents if they're still with you...they have lived through this. What we face going forward, could actually be that bad.

Learn from the past. Rethink your life. Make smart decisions. Market yourself and your business and emerge a leader.

Ever forward,

Dr. Vega

Rethink, refocus, refreshing...reward.

Thinking I haven’t been posting much lately, maybe that’s because I haven’t been flying much. When I fly I tend to take some time to day dream and think. The idle time is nice. There are a myriad of personal reasons that I have been much more grounded on the west coast and home more than not. I’ve long pined about how much I want to reveal about my personal life but sometimes it just feels better to write and let things out than hold them inside. I may get some flames for this, or, people may actually learn more about who I am and who the person is that’s driving the business. Risks we take.

Today I am flying from Atlanta to Reno, and I am looking at an overwhelming pile of work ahead of me when I return. I’m mentally tired, and while I can honestly say that I feel happy today, there remains a shadow of discontent. As I fly, my grandmother is sitting in ICU, on life support, fighting pneumonia, fighting really hard. I need to visit her as soon as I can because who knows how much longer she will hold on. She’s a fighter but so very weak. She is a beautiful, crazy woman and I love her. All this reality of life, has me rethinking things, or at least reprioritizing. I’ll start with work and come back to me…

Our business has grown, we have an amazing client list, new partners, new people, new products, everyone is really working well together. We have, in the last quarter found that we have some clients that simply will not make next years roster. I feel like this year we made some big mistakes with our business, management of accounts, receivables management, and pursuit/selection of certain projects. These decisions are draining the business, and our excitement about working. That’s really bad. I want to get back to the excitement of new projects for our clients.

An example. ID Wholesaler/Plasco have been clients since the day I went into business for myself (some 8 years ago). We just worked with them on their biggest shows of the year and everything was a giant success. Their 2009 looks amazing and we are excited about what we’re going to be working on. This client is defending their leadership position with our help, that’s really cool. Another example. Dickson Realty, during the most down economy my memory, has chosen to partner with Fuze to launch an amazing new web experience, ground up. They need this to reposition their business and restate their leadership position. There are few details that can be shared other than there will simply be no web presence like this in our region, state, on par with the best of the best. A new client example, Clearstar. Naysayers say what you will about this small credit union. They have some fantastic ideas for the way they will approach the market and present their business in 2009. We are so proud to be part of this business effort. I bring up these clients in particular because these clients are my partners, my friends, our bread and butter and I value their business more than I can express. These sorts of relationships cannot be recreated with an order, or a fancy dinner, these are years in the making, customers for life.

The common thread in these relationships is the trust, collaboration, and mutual respect between our companies. I will bank my future on these companies success. We have skin in the game. So how do we cultivate new client relationships like these? How do we remain accountable to these relationships and provide creative vision and technical execution to new clients, new projects, new opportunities. I believe that several of our current clients have this direction as a possibility: The Entrust Group, Watt Companies, True Blue Gaming, Boyd Gaming, Artown, CLP, Legends Reno Tahoe Open, Education Collaborative, NNDA, Great Basin Wind, etc, etc. I don't mean to leave clients out, we have many more, and I don’t say this simply to restate our client list.  I say this to chart a course, a public course to our own destiny. Taking all orders is over, its diluted who we are, its made our people frustrated, its made the clients frustrated, and its made me frustrated. We veered a bit off course chasing shooting stars we have chosen to latch to. These projects have taken our focus away from our core capabilities and our core culture. We are changing this, now. Our clients must possess a drive to lead their markets, be pioneers, take some risks, push the limits, and trust, trust our abilities to the job they hired us to do.

We feel that better stating who we are up front may help us find our kindred souls. To this end, we embarked on the redesign of ifuze.com (or whatever our new website will reside on). In the next 3 months we will be building a new world for ourselves online and our direction will be very clear. Watch for that on the horizon.

2008 has been a wild year for me personally. With my wife and I deciding to split and share custody of our beautiful son, life has certainly changed. This roller coaster continues for me but things are getting to a point where we are rebuilding respect and friendship…we both love our son and eachother, just separately and in a different way than before. I finally feel good about this. As I look out of my cramped coach window seat, I stare out on the horizon and I can almost see the future (for myself). I will say that today, I am truly happy and excited, and that’s a feeling that has been missing for a while. I see a lot of new beginnings for me and for my company. With all this said, my head and heart sit with my grandma right now and I really hope she will pull through.

I don’t know how many company presidents would air out 100% of their thoughts and I frankly don’t care. When you choose a company to do business with, a company to put your hard earned money into, it requires a gigantic level of trust. Knowing where the ship is driving, and who is driving it, adds to the authenticity of the business. We force our clients to communicate authentically every day so I am just practicing what I preach, I guess. Comment, flame, yawn, or appreciate the sentiment. Sometimes you need to reinvent yourself, business and personal, to keep focus on what makes you happy, and stimulates your soul. I am not quite there. I see it, but I cant reach it, yet.

Airline musings. March edition.

Things are a little hectic around the Fuze camp. Primarily because I have been jetsetting like a madman. I just realized I am sitting across from David LaPlante from Twelve Horses on this flight. It was nice to catch up a bit since we've been trying for months to schedule a meal together. Anyway, I am heading out now on my 3rd venture to San Diego in 6 weeks. Lots going on down here. I am nearing speaking paralysis these days. I haven't done a slide count but I believe I have prepared about 200+ Powerpoint slides for various events in the last few weeks. I just wrapped up at SMX West and the Miva Developers conferences last week. This week is NFRA. See other posts for show wrapups.

The hive is buzzin with things to do. I think Calder and I (mostly Calder) have done an excellent job of positioning ourselves within the ad space in northern nevada which is keeping him, dan and the other artists plenty busy. David is hangin tough on the interactive side and is really becoming loved by the clients. Our development crew's plate is pretty full for the remainder of the quarter and our pipeline also looks good. That seems to be common among my peers in the space as well. Things seem steady on the web side. We've expanded our relationships and service offering with our email marketing providers, commerce platforms, testing platforms, and our analytics providers, further strengthening a line up that was already pretty strong. My charter remains to continue to cart our course to a diverse client mix that is industry & geo balanced. So far so good. We have also revamped our client review and project management processes to be much more systematic. We have formalized all our internal procedures - many of which were just in need of evolution vs. revolution. So anna our agency coordinator has her work cut out in order to keep all of us on track. We have added media strategy and media buying to our business, out of necessity mainly, but Fong is very capably manning that ship. Finally we have extended our services even further by adding full-service Public Relations through our partnership with RKPR who are helping us win, and manage these great new, and existing accounts.

We added the following new clients in Q1:

• Clearstar Credit Union - agency of record
• Magiko Carson Valley - agency of record
• NNDA (the other white meat in the Econ.Dev space) - agency of record
• Reno Tahoe Blues Fest - agency of record
• Lazaro SoHo - for email marketing
• Food Bank of Northern Nevada - interactive agency
• Cashill Law - agency of record
• True Blue Gaming - agency of record
• The Gaming Standards Association - agency of record
• Legends Reno Tahoe Open - while not a new client, we have formalized our relationship with the tournament and will take on all interactive Agency tasks in 2008
• Titan Construction Supply - agency of record
• JP Menante Real Estate - interactive agency

We have completed site launches for:

• The Entrust Group
• University Health System
• Boyd Gaming
• You Name It Events
• Fennell and Associates
• those are off the top of my head...there are probably others.

If you're wondering how we get it all done? Its with a team of about 15 folks who are dedicated to their craft and making big shit happen. We are also getting ready for another round of hiring, though the positions are already spoken for (in our heads). There is a lot on the plan for the remainder of 2008. We WILL launch a new website(s) to better represnt who the hell we are. Its brewin'. Trust me its brewin'. But, as most are aware, we are not big on exploiting our work, so in the meantime you probably won't see things like:

"Fuze awarded a website job", or "Fuze chosen to build an ad" in the business journal, awards events, or the local fishwrap. Those items are hardly newsworthy.

We rather enjoy our underground status...it let's me write from the cuff, typos and all, and simply let the work speak for itself.

Thanks to all who have helped get our 2008 off to a great start. Come on baseball season...opening day countdown. T minus 4 weeks...

BL


(another treo post...sorry for the typos)

Talk about grass roots!

Ok, so why in the world would someone write one post, let alone two about a Gyro stand in NYC?  Because I am cool, and I am right thats why.  Way back when I wrote a post describing the best street-side Gyro stand in New York...well apparently I am not alone.  This weekend I was catching up on a pile of magazines from the last month [or two] and I was reading our June 25th New York Magazine with an interesting article on iGod Steve Jobs...but more interesting, this big-time weekly pub featured my little gyro stand as #17 of the Concrete Elite - a ranking of New York's twenty best food carts. 

In addition to this recognition, I found that the cart has a fan supported support website as well.

So, my story has been proven true, and my theory is correct that this the best in NYC. Take the challenge if you are ever in the city - just DON'T CUT IN LINE - its not good for your health.

White-sauce, hot-sauce please...

WBV

Su Lou Blue - SoHo NYC

While in NYC this spring, i was lucky enough to catch a show by Anna Palma - a photographer who'se images capture a spectacular vision of childhood and simplicity.  The show was held in SoHo.  Here is a link to some of my phone cam images.  I will try to load some better resolution images soon.  (FYI - I had permission to shoot these.)

Enjoy...

WBV

Chasing Childhood.

I think I finally figured out what it is that I strive for and what I desire to do with myself. I call it "chasing childhood".

Typical of all trips, the hassle getting from A to B is a challenge. We (I) lug pounds of computer bags, cabels, cameras, magazines, cd's and work I probably won't do, etc. Every trip I dream of a time I can leave the house with nothing but my ID in hand, get on a plane and go. No tether back to the office. No thoughts of what isn't getting done...just the overpowering thoughts of what ride to hit first at Disneyland, or does the hotel pool have a slide?

I am a kid at heart but its WAY down inside there these days. So until I catch up with my inner self, my pursuit will be to continue Chasing Childhood until I find it again.

WBV

5 minutes to myself.

 

Today I am in one of my very favorite cities again...San Francisco. I am enjoying what feels like the first 5 minutes to myself in some time. I am enjoying a glass of what the waitress referred to as 'earthy red'. I love my baby and my wife and miss them both but at this moment, simply staring out at the busy street is beyond therapeutic for me. A few minutes of clear thought.

Monday marks a new beginning for Fuze.  We are moving from our infancy into our adolescent phase with more people, more and nicer space, and a first quarter that stands to be our biggest ever. A superstitious person would probably say...don't jinx it, but I don't believe in superstition any more than I believe in Santa Claus. We're ready for this.

So raise a glass with me...take in some live music...eat plenty...this will be a monumental year for us and for our terrific clients.

Until then...

WBV

Madison Avenue...

It's a beautiful day here in NYC...supposed to be 65 degrees...in late November no less! Waking up today and looking out onto Madison Avenue is a creative inspiring thing.  In our industry...this is our Mecca and where it ALL goes down. Cole's happy to be here on his first of many visits to the city. Every time I get here i am energized with creativity and business ideas.  Design is everywhere here, and the pace of business is insane.  It's all ripe with opportunity. In spite of the 800 sq. ft. you get for $1.5mil, the expensive transportation, high crime, and New York attitudes, this place does it for me.

Like any time we are here...we will live as New Yorkers...walk over to the park, sip some coffee...and take some time with a clear head to be thankful for what we have that allows us to experience this. It is exciting to let my son experience this at such a young age.  While he won't remember this particular trip, I am hopeful he will grow to appreciate how much the Big Blue Marble has to offer him.

Simple post.  Simple day. 

Never forget...

WBV

Importance...(revised: Responsibility)

Disclaimer: Let me start by saying that this post is graphic, frank, rambles, ties two seemingly unrelated thoughts together, and has nothing to do with design, advertising, or business at all. it was typed on my Treo so there are likely typo's. Still with me? Read on humans...

The last few days/weeks I have been feeling a little overwhelmed by life. To start, I've been on the road for the better part of the last 8 weeks. Our business is exploding, our clients are growing, my baby is growing...all good things. Many times I hear the answer..."oh you know, just busy" uttered in response to the obligatory question "how'z things goin?". When I hear this, I often wonder to myself...do you have any idea what busy means? Inside ourselves, we make our lives and our problems more significant than the person next to us. This has become human nature. I am currently at a point where I am feeling pressure from all sides and it is making me claustrophobic. The problem...I bring all of it on myself.

Weekend
As I laid awake this weekend for the 2nd night in a row...7am rolled around and on queue, my baby Cole woke up in his usual happy mood...he is so excited that another day is here to learn and experience everything for the first time. It's hard not to set your mind aside and get lost in his. The simplicity of his existence and his needs. Just a little attention, love, food, and some clean drawers. That's all he needs to put an ear to ear grin on. It's beautiful. What, or where along the way, do our perspectives change?

Flight to Atlanta
I had another epiphany today on my flight to Atlanta. A young guy, maybe 20's is on my flight and he is sick...not sure what from or why, but he is ill...really ill. The attendant moved him from the back of the plane up to my row in Poor-man's first class (the exit row) because the middle seat opposite mine was open. Immediately I am watching the reactions of the people around this poor kid. They get uncomfortable...adjust their seats...request a seat change...yet, nobody's first reaction is compassion of any kind. I imagine how uncomfortable it must be to be plunked down between 2 strangers with a barf bag in your hand and no sign of relief, comfort, etc. in sight. It's really a sad moment. He is alone, clutching a bag of ice to his chest, and his hands are trembling. He's very well mannered, shy, polite, very simple appearing. Ask me on any given Monday what my reaction to someone throwing up next to me on a flight would be and I would probably say, disgusting, but today I don't feel this at all. Maybe I feel like, what if it was my little boy sick, or maybe I realize that this guy would certainly not choose to feel the way he does if given the option. I really feel for him.  All I know is that I am thankful it isnt me.

The Moral (so to speak) - and some business relevance...
After posting this, I came across this ad that not only caught my attention because it's great, but also illustrated exactly what I was feeling in at least part of my rambling scenario here. This is an excellent spot for Liberty Mutual - deveoped by Hill | Holiday:

This situation, like waking up to my son smiling and laughing in his crib snap things into focus for me. I don't know what it is that makes us lose sight of our childlike instincts, to be more carefree, but at the same time care for someone, or show them the respect/consideration to ask how they are. I don't know what drives us to the point of stress, illness, oblivion...for the sake of success. Of course by we/us, I mean me. So today I am going to make some life changes. Something every human has the right to do.

 WBV