Snoop Dogg and Boddingtons Pub Ale – Nothing like a way to start an entrepreneur’s day

So I stayed up all night researching Twitter tools after attending So Cal Action Sports event with big wigs in tech like Chris Brogan and in Action Sports, Oakley, Sheckler, Draven and then after a morning cat nap I cooked up some delicious food and decided on a beer. Boddingtons Pub Ale it was. The team was already at my office which is only a block away since I moved so I thought why not hang with them while I eat and take the beer to go. I foregoed paper bagging it and hoped no cop would harass me for walking around with an open bottle. It looks like it could be a Monster Energy drink anyway right?! I thought Ah Ha! Why don’t I cut through the alley and dodge any truly public areas making for a drama free afternoon. I saw this building across the street from my office and thought maybe they have a door that I can cut through to the other side. Boddingtons in hand on the right with my cabbage hamburger concoction on the left I ask the reception if she’d mind. I say “Who doesn’t like a beer with their meal. Just don’t wanna get busted you know.” And then as I make my way to the pearly white gates Snoop Dogg says “What’s going on”. Ha! Not kidding. And I nod, freak in my head and say whats up back. So cool. And was I excited to share with my awesome team.

PS Thanks @Valerotti for leaving the beer in my fridge!

Snoop Dogg's Twizzle - Fo Shizzle

This could be a Monster Energy drink, couldn't it?? 🙂

Ian Sanders “JUGGLE! Rethink Work Reclaim Life” is an entreprenuers bible

There is so much I want to say about Ian’s book “JUGGLE! Rethink Work Reclaim Life” but I am in the middle of juggling so I am limited on time 🙂 This book taught me how to clearly see my core competency and even better how to capitalize off of it. We are all very hectic in our social media injected, family loved,  professionally swamped lives. How do we swim through it all? Ian teaches us that …

1. Remember we are an athlete; Make ME time, drink plenty of water, eat well and get proper sleep.
   • I think just about the first thing I sacrificed when becoming a business owner was food, showers and sleep. Ha!
2. Keep lists and break them down into projects in order to increase efficiency.
   • All I have to say is JOTT, http://jott.com. Best list system I have found to date.  My 3 computers are in sync and I have everything broken down by project.  They also have a cool iPhone app. Sadly I don’t use iPhone but I do text in notes sometimes. Just today I signed up to have my voicemails transribed into email/texts.
3. Most important – become a Juggler. Define your passion which does need to be in line with what you are best at.
   • For me it’s connecting people.  Most introductions I make the people connected end up capitalizing off projects together.

So with that I have already reorganized my list broken them down into specific projects, worked out this morning, ate my vegetables, showered 😉 and I think I’ll change my business card to “Connector”.

Listphile

Any professionals BIBLE! Buy It!!!

2473 Emails! and counting… How do I effectively get through them all?!?!

Ahhhh Attack of the Emails!

Okay so this week at South by Southwest I went to “Getting Things Done the Simple Way” taught by John Zeratsky. I was not going to miss it. I rolled out of bed forgoed brushing my teeth or an awesome Austin shower to rush to the panel in order to achieve the treasure hunt of eliminating my email count and all my “contacters” feeling victory in receiving attention to their email. I mean if Tony Hsieh, CEO of the greatest customer service company ever Zappos.com and one of the most attentive entrepreneurs I’ve meet Gary Vaynerchuk can resend to 1000 plus emails a day, well then so can I! So I will keep you posted on what system I figure out works for me so I can “put a little Zappos in my day,” BUT in the meanwhile watch this. A little treat from Gary Vee and my tech crush Kevin Rose. (Who doesn’t crush on Kevin Rose?)

Southwest has Wi-Fi! “JUGGLE” by Ian Sanders is a must and SXSW is the go to conference of the year

All I have to say is WOW. Today has been magic.  I started my day not worrying about my flight time knowing on Southwest if you get to the airport within a reasonable hour from your original time of departure they’ll do their best to put you on the next flight. So I casually wake up at 9:30am for my 10:55am flight. And how could I not experience the lush Austin water hit my skin one last time in the shower. Around 10:15 I accept nope not gonna make that 10:55, but it will be fine.  And boy I wasn’t kidding. First Ian Sanders, author of “JUGGLE! Rethink Your Work, Reclaim Your Life” went out of his way to leave me a copy of this book which the Radisson kindly delivered to me. I am really excited to read it on this flight. Not only am I in desperate need of balance as my leaning tower is consistently tilting toward work but it has a fabulous book cover and endorsement by the “It” ad agency Saatchi & Saatchi. Next I go downstairs to hail a cab to the airport and I ask this women if she would like to share the ride. She says she has a car and offers me a lift. Turns out she’s in charge of customer relations for one of my favorite companies, NetFlix. Talk about customer service 😉 So we shared a fun conversation about when luck meets opportunity in business. And if you just persevere lucky will eventually strike. Then as if things weren’t already going perfect Southwest said no problem to getting on their 11:15 flight as I stood at the check in at 11am! Lastly and the reason I am able to right this now – um hello. SOUTHWEST LAUNCHED WI-FI > today!   Can you believe it.  I believe it’s all because I started my day with a positive attitude and just “let go” and let fate happen.  To add a cherry on top this wonderful loving couple offered me a window sit on the packed flight so that they could sit next to one another. All I have to say is WOW. If there is only one conference you go to make it South by Southwest.

Oh and PS LOVE my MAC Book – wait have I already mentioned that. 🙂

PPS Thank you @Garyvee from www.winelibrary.com for the insane amount of traffic you’ve sent to this blog.

A Must Read

Wi Fi on Southwest Airlines!!!!

Web Marketing Therapy. Stop “shoulding” yourself and start taking candy pills

Lorrie Thomas from Web Marketing Therapy is GREAT! Met her tonight at a SMARTYS event held at my favorite place Blank Spaces. Tonight Lorrie prescribed me her “Chill Pills” AWESOME. You see the bottle is empty so those delicious teeny chocolates definitely got me in the sweetest direction once again. It is a breath of fresh air when a marketing “expert” these days is actually INNOVATIVE. Ha!

Prescription for an Internet Entrepreneur

OMG Blackberry efficiency, Thank G-d for forums! Plus voice activated email.

So I love my Blackberry.  Well it’s a love hate relationship really. I wish we didn’t have cell phones at all. But since we do and land lines are becoming a thing of the past why not have the most effective tool. Some of you prefer iPhones. I prefer Blackberry. But I must admit when it come to simplicity of use iPhones take the lead. I just can’t stand the touch screen. Anyway for you Crackberries out there here are a couple tricks that took me all night to find.

How to STOP receiving SENT messages in your email – argh!: Click here for the solution. (Insert Huge Happy Face)

and… to respond to my monstrosity of emails overtaking my inbox with my voice – JOTT, (www.jott.com) . So affordable and so great! (Thank you Jerome at BlankSpaces for recommending this life saving software) And sure its not perfect. A typo here. A typo there. But hey at least I tended to that contact and have extra time for beach volley ball. I mean do we really want to spend all our hours behind some form of technology rather than living?

Voice activated emails

For you Google App users like me you can only use Jott through the Blackberry mail system so you will need to configure your account onto your phone but that’s when the tip above comes in handy.

And for TMobile fans. T Mobile just launched the Unlimited Loyalty Plan lowering your bill to $50 bucks.

Lastly, Google updated their mobile apps to include a tracking system on the map app. Yup now if you really want to stir up some drama in your life with that ex you just “can’t seem to get rid of “ just add him/her on your map app 😉

Google Updated Mobile Apps

Now for a big sad face. I didn’t realize new google sync syncs your email address book with your phone. I wasn’t prepared for this and now I have all this junk in my phone book. SUCKS. 😦  Anyone know how to undo? And no I was not clever enough to back up my phone before I started playing with all the new additions. Where is the “Time Machine” like they have on MACs.

Waiting in suspense…. Richard Branson mayday!!!! VAustralia here I come, but will the KIIS FM turbulence bring the plane down?

Branson please save the day!

Richard Branson is my hero. Everyone who knows me knows that. So you can imagine the volume of my screaming excitement when I won a trip to Australia on the inaugural Virgin Australia flight this Friday out of LAX. And on my birthday weekend! What better of a dream could have come true. Now KIIS is saying they made an error. “An Error!”

So they just called back and said opps our system messed up. Can you believe it!!!!! I go on saying how this is not how Virgin handles business. Why I love VIRGIN is their care for customer service and their code of ethics.  KIIS FM’s response QUOTE “This is the KIIS FM contest, we’re doing the contest, not VIRGIN” …  “WHAT!!!!!” I told them, “What am I supposed to think when I read a message that says …

From: 41027
Sent: Feb 25, 2009 12:40 AM
Subject: KIISFM: Congrts ur textr 102!

KIISFM: Congrts ur textr 102! You’ll b flyin VAustralia THIS FRI for a 4 day/3 nite trip 2 Sydney Australia. We’ll contact u @ this # soon”

Are you freaking kidding me!!!! And I grew up in LA so I trusted KIIS. Why would I think they would dupe me. Branson please make right of this strange situation and make my birthday dream come true.

Costume change to “I’ve Got a Golden Ticket”

Considering this blog was always intended to be a positive resource for business owners, aspiring entrepreneurs and just plain and simple geeks I’ve altered the title a bit. It was called “I’m Gonna Get Funded Damnit” as a satire to all those people who are overly concerned with raising money rather than making money. Lets forgo business models and focus on fundraising! – What! Hello, businesses are here to do two things;  Solve a problem and make money – Done.  So I changed the name to something a bit more mystical. Seeing that so many people search the term “golden ticket” maybe that’s what we’re all looking for. But don’t you see the Golden Ticket is within us all if we just forge ahead and trust our instinct. Sometimes it may be scary and other times exhilarating, but if we never try how will we know if we would have succeeded. Okay, enough with the Gandhi talk.  Hope you find the tips, tools and perspective you need from this blog and enjoy reading it as much as I enjoy writing it.

So the journey is the destination eh?

Yea it takes guts glory and perseverance to own a business. Do you have what it takes? I know I do. Remember when you are magic your world is magic. Negativity just promotes more darkness. If we all have a choice (even though it feels as though we don’t ) what would you choose? Each day I make a conscious effort to find the light. To embrace all opportunity.  There is always a way. But if you don’t look, you will never see the open door.

Door of opportunity

Realizing a Vision

So this weekend I ditched Halloween to get up perky Saturday and speak at Realizing a Vision at Vanguard University with incredible women like Latina Media Dynamo Nely Galan, (Donald Trump’s Celebrity Apprentice), who surpassed her reputation, former Entrepreneur Magazine editor Rieva Lesonsky, Tish & Snooky Bellomo founders of Manic Panic (which brings me back to my pink hair punk high school days), Style Network’s Finola Hughes and all sorts of other phenomenal business women. We got together to educate and inspire high school girls to go after their dreams and “realize their visions”.  It was an amazing experience and I am thankful.

The top lesson for me that stood out was to “go toward the light”, so to speak, rather than stay in the dark. For instance, we all keep people in our lives who waste our energy or stay stuck in situations that drain us. Why? Why not just choose to recognize, detach and go back to smiling.  I mean isn’t it really that easy when you just take a step back and examine with clarity rather than foggy “baggage” glasses. Anyway, that’s just my two cents. So I am making the change. I plan to be laughing a lot more and stressing a lot less.

Thank you to Tish and Snooky for your kick ass Venice Beach shop opening party that night. I love my green nails and pink hair extensions ! Your gift bags rocked and I am already wearing my new shirt.  What a great way to start off the new liberated me.

Inspiring tomorrow

Nely Galan and Espree Devora