Journal Entry-Catching Up

I climbed my first official mountain (Mt. Rose) two weeks ago with two friends. It was part of my training and preparation to climb Mt. Shasta next month. My closest friend and action junkie,Micah and I  were really unprepared. Our planned route was supposed to be a class 1 climb- the equivalent of a nice uphill hike. So Micah and I thought, spring weather, sun and fun in Tahoe. We wore cargo pants but had the sense to bring snow shoes and weatherproof jackets. The ACTUAL route we ended up taking, the steepest part approach up the mountain, was a class 3-4. Our experienced Sherpa, Micah’s Bro, stopped half-way up, leaving us to face the steeper and colder half alone. I am still the same tenacious and determined individual I was long ago and it still gets me into trouble from time to time, and this was to be no exception. 3/4 the way up, we had to ditch our snow shoes and climb up through rocks and brush. Then we had to remove our gloves and climb the 20-30 feet granite faces to continue. We did all of this, against my better judgment, with no climbing gear and no helmets.

On top of all of that I left the photography-(which I am quite good at) to Micah (who is an engineer) and the little photographic evidence we escaped with was not meant for the picture frame. It was fun glaciating down the mountain-(french for sliding on your ass)but extremely harsh on the backside when wearing cotton pants. Micah nicked his chin almost cutting his throat with his ice axe when he went from a back to belly slide. He managed to escape death twice with that axe and we made it down safely. I looked back and could see the scarred imprints all the way down the mountain side and felt guilty like I just tagged a wall with graffiti. Soaking wet, with frost-bite setting in, we crossed a snow bridge over a stream and up a hill back to the truck. All in all it was an epic trip full of laughs, extreme danger, and all the other male bonding rituals. Leave it to me to transform what mountaineers would call a day in the woods into a perilous adventure. I had fun at least.

I just got back from a trip to the Mojave Desert and Ridge Crest, with Micah, his GF, and my 70lb, on the lap the whole way, half-lab, half Dane pup Trooper. I’ll post some photos soon (nabbed some good ones with my SLR). After a few days of craziness on the quads, I learned how to ride a dirt bike on the trails-which is completely different from the street bikes. I guess there are 3x as many Mojave greens this year-(one of the world’s most deadliest snakes), so we had to be more careful than the last time but that didn’t stop Micah from leading us on a night ride where we all got lost on a forgotten, overgrown, trail. Quite the adventure and I loved it.

I think the strangest thing in the desert is not being able to go outside because it is too windy. The sun is out. The temperature is nice but the wind is blasting @ 70mph! How strange. The sand and dust flying around make it bad for your eyes and worse for your hair. My hair was long until recently and the windblown look made me feel like a mad scientist.

I plan on going sailing on Saturday if the weather permits, we’ll see fingers crossed.

As for the more business and community side of the adventure My new year’s resolutions were to shift more to the creative side of technology and to help 10 companies with community  and super culture, and I ended up creating a company focused community and social media.

I partnered with an engineer, a programmer and a designer to form a  new company, Heroik IT Solutions (www.getheroik.com) (Get Heroik- get it) Our tag line is Community is our Calling and Technology, Our Super Power. It is cheesy, funny, catchy and easy to market. I am well on my way to meeting my goal and resolution. The site isn’t up yet but it’s all in the works. I designed the logo and all the blogs and what not. One of the revelations I try to share with any professional I know is the overwhelming importance of the ability of a professional of any sort to communicate visually.

We are focused on leveraging social media for business. We are bidding on an iPhone app for Green Owl Records, designing and managing the social presence, twitter campaigns and a zillion other things for a musician and helping him market his custom built guitars, an Ocean Grown Distributor (a chemical free nutrient dense agricultural product) as well as several less interesting clients like lobbyists and PR firms.

Ocean Grown is kind of a cool product that does great things for farms, saves the farmers a ton of cash, and keeps the chemicals and crap out of our food and environment. My musician client, is a friend of mine who I write songs with, he comes up with the music. His wife and I finally pressured him into turning his guitar making hobby into a business. By sheer luck, I got to personally meet, get to know and spend time with a popular, known, but still up and coming band (Dead Confederate) and their manager. The band is from Georgia, they have great manners, cool accents a few long beards, and a good sound. They were eager to talk and we spoke all night and even after their performance. Surprisingly good people for a rock band. The lead guitarist also makes his own guitars and will be Kynan’s first customer.

I guess the coolest thing about my job is the “green” and cool clients we get to work with and the fact that we build communities, rally the troops and offer affordable solutions that can help or even save struggling businesses.

I sold my first batch of workshops on a stick- DLAK Digital Liquidity Awareness Kit- part of the digital liquidity project- which I revisited, refined re-designed and re-wrote. @ $20 a pop, they are helping me pay down my debt. I am working on 2 new books/workshops/ digital products, and am still fighting to get the first 2 published.

Today, my proposal  was approved by the board of a non-profit Extreme Finances (helps educate and empower people with basic financial skills and debt management resources). We will be building them a web community and training their staff to manage their staff to leverage their social presence and to pool existing media resources to reach and assist more people in need.

I am struggling to schedule cafe computer clinics for students who can’t afford costly repairs and what not. Hopefully I’ll put a few dates on the calendar. The new gig makes it more challenging and more important to offer services and solutions to those most in need who don’t have the means to pay for our premium products and services. It is a love/hate issue with my partners but was made a clear principle of the company and an integral part of our professional identity.

I am focused on automating and outsourcing my obligations and hope to train a replacement and sell the company. While doing all this I still apply for other gigs with start ups, advise a few, most recently FreePath (google it, I can get it to you for free) That’s kinda it in a nutshell. To answer question- No, I’ve not seen that show but I’ve heard of it and will probably finish half a season in the time it takes you to read this message. lol.

Anyway, I am always on the look out for portfolio projects, brand evangelists, and those in need. So if you kno anyone who could use some free help in social media to grow business, and they are good at talking up a good company. Send them my way.

Honestly, I couldn’t and probably wouldn’t have done half of this stuff if I never met you. Thanks for always being an inspiration. I hope all is well, shiny, fun, exciting and mysterious in your life too.