This past week, I’ve spent liquidating my mother’s affairs. A very surreal and emotional experience as I tripped involuntarily down memory lane. Working through a parent’s life brings it’s own surprises, and is accompanied by fits of laughter and tears, with bouts of disbelief thrown in for good measure. As I finish the solemn job she entrusted me with when she passed just a few months ago, it is now Mother’s day. This year it falls on my birthday….
As I settle into my new HOME, I unpack lovingly all the things I’ve collected that invoke memories or feelings that make me feel loved, connected, passionate, just plain… HAPPY. Tonight, it is my camera collection. Of all my possessions, this collection brings back the most of all of the above. I feel immeasurable joy and grounding when I click the shutters of these mechanical beauties – all from a time when taking photos meant having a sense of timing,…
I set out this afternoon to find a new mountain to run. I am exploring the many mountain trails in Phoenix area before the summer heat sets in. I discovered what looked to be a nice, sloping trail, with enough of a grade to make it interesting. Now when I first hit a trail it takes about 15 minutes for my brain to quiet down, being afflicted/blessed with an entrepreneur’s active brain. I got half way up the mountain, and…
As turkey and stuffing gorging dies down, it’s time to share my Thanksgiving Day 2010 reality check with you, my valued friends and family. I awake to a beautiful Arizona morning, complete with wind storm and weather change, producing a level 7 migraine. Not the most glorious start to this day of giving thanks, but I soldier on, and lay in bed with ice packs on my head and silently inventoried the wonderful people in my life, past and present…
Ok, that’s the story I’m going with. It beats telling people I tripped and fell on my face while hiking the Grand Canyon! After hiking back to civilization, I found a cute Ranger to take me to the Canyon’s clinic where they put a few stitches in my knee, and bandaged of various extremities. Xrays showed I also broke my nose (nice shiners, huh?) How, you may ask, am I going to tie this into a business lesson… well, I’ve…
I live in beautiful arizona where in the summer, it is common to have temeratures in the low 100s.It is also equally common to hear people complain about the heat, which is starting to annoy me to no end.So for those of you complaining about the weather, wherever you live, I offer you a fresh perspective:When I CHOSE to move to Arizona, I was well aware that it got hot in the summer. So during my house hunting trips in…
I know it’s a strange title for a newsletter issue… but let’s talk reality here. Do you ever have days when you just want to strangle your significant other, business partner, best friend, colleague, etc? Go ahead, you can admit it… we’re all friends here. We all have a gripe:“My spouse is getting under my skin today.”“My business partner just doesn’t understand what I need.” Sometimes, the relationships in our life cause us more grief than we think they’re worth….
Living in Arizona has it’s own flavor, and constant surprises. I’ll tell you what awakened me in a moment, but first, let me tell you a story of holiday grace and class. I went holiday lights looking in a trolley full of 20 of my new Arizona friends this week. While the trolley drove around for 3 hours, stopping to let us spill off the bus to oohh and ahhh at the decorations, we drank wine, ate caramel popcorn and…
My first day in Arizona involved driving a 15 ft truck laden with my earthly belongings head first into a monsoon. Apparently August is “monsoon season” in Phoenix, (a fact that no one bothered to mention to me before I decided to move there.) A monsoon is a collection of strong dust storms, incredible lightning shows, and blinding rain. Beautiful to watch from a distance, but terrifying to drive into, which is exactly what I did driving the last stretch…
I learned through a friend and colleague in the Internet Marketing community today that one of the industry’s leaders died in a car crash yesterday. Corey Rudl, just 34 years old, was brilliant young man who made life-changing contributions to our industry. After I heard the news, I called and emailed some mutual friends to ask them about their experiences with Corey… how they met, and how he enhanced their lives.The consensus was that Corey left this world LIVING it…