Whrrl-wind

This is the stuff road warriors are made of. I spoke on a panel at the Social Fresh conference in Nashville, took an evening flight to Columbus for a client meeting and then on to Scottsdale for some collaboration discussions with MARS sister company eMarketing CEO Tim Welch.

I was able to spend a great Saturday with the Marys and our close friends the Palfreemans and Brawners sprinkled with some great sports watching (damn no-shooting Duke) and a BBQ that went late into the evening. On Sunday we home-churched as Shannon and I both had presentations to complete and I left for XNA late that afternoon.

Living up to our community first mantra at Collective Bias, we asked members of our community to join us at Social Fresh, so I was able to meet Buck Rogers, Debba Haupert and Jerri Ann Reason for dinner at the Maxwell House Millennium. Jason Keath did a wonderful job of making Social Fresh, well, fresh and not a repeat of the same social media conference I feel like I’ve been to during the past year (social media is important and you better not ignore it yadda, yadda)

Finally, I ended up in Scottsdale for meetings with eMarketing. The company is a fabulous digital development house and is doing some amazing things in the promotion and game space.

The big realization for me this week is that too much travel can leave you woefully out of touch with your family, friends and business. Balance is key and so hard to achieve. Mostly, I feel very bad for Shannon. She has a big job and balance in her life is extra hard because of my travel. Thank-you for all you do, I owe you!

Global Warming? Trip 1

I’m not naive enough to believe that a record setting cold winter disproves global warming (not to start a political row, but I don’t believe in the 4+ billion year of global history that anyone could actually know what is really happening with the environment one way or another). I do know that when I got to Cincinnati on Thursday it was in full scale get your Winter on. That’s part of the travel deal, if you don’t like it, just stay home (oh wait, it’s 9 degrees in Arkansas).

This is my first trip of the 2010 season and I’m in town for a day to visit a couple of our clients and to catch up with Debba Haupert of Girlfriendology, one of Collective Bias Social Media Influencer consultants. Pre-warned by Debba of the impending snow storm, I switched to an all wheel drive rental which turned out to be a very capable Hyundai. I drove the 25 miles from CVG to my hotel at Courtyard by Marriott in West Chester. I had a quick 5k run (my running shoes are well traveled but *ahem* sometimes don’t make it out of the suitcase) and met MARS partner Bill Haveron for some dinner and strategy planning.

We chose to walk across the street in the 6 inches of snow to Jag’s Restaurant and settled in for the BCS national championship game. Pretty slick planning if I do say so. This was my second time meeting Bill and it was good to break some bread. We had a great dinner accompanied by a piano player. It’s amazing how some face time can totally build a relationship, Bill and I have now spoken daily about various projects.

Moral of this trip, drop the email (and all the other hyper-ingrained technology) and go see people. It matters, even if you need a coat.

Up In The Air?

I haven’t seen Up In The Air yet but I’m really looking forward to it. In a weird way though, I may have unconsciously been avoiding it as I’m sure it will cause me to be somewhat introspective. As many of you know, I helped to start a new company last year called Collective Bias. Not really a planned event, just the right opportunity at the right time and paraphrasing words of Whrrl CEO Jeff Holden, “I am downsiding future regret risks associated with never taking a shot at my own gig.”

I knew there would be some additional travel associated with a startup; however, becoming intimate with the configuration and layout of every type of aircraft in American’s fleet was something I hadn’t counted on (the exit row on an Embraer 145 is 13). I am also living location based marketing as a walking test lab. As the year progressed and we signed our first partnership deal with Whrrl to build shopper functionality, I became a dedicated Whrrl user and pretty much broadcast my whereabouts at all times (to which an informal “Where’s John” game has been created by Jerri Anne Reason).

My original thought was 2010 would chill out a bit as our little company has now grown to 10 people (so some other folks can do the XNA shuffle). Ha! What I thought would start out as a travel free week is going to end with a quick trip to CVG (Cincinnati if you don’t always refer to airports to their code). No worries, I’m learning to consolidate travel and schedule to make the most out of every trip. I’m meeting two clients, spending some valuable time with Collective Bias member and consultant Debba Haupert from Girlfriendology.com and also breaking some bread with one of my MARS counterparts.

So for 2010, I’ve decided to transform my lifestream blog into a composite of personal and business experiences as that’s probably how we really live our lives. I’m going to cover the interaction of my trips and family time in an effort to find that true balance that many might be seeking.

Your input and criticism would be invaluable. Thanks for reading.