"I've Got a Golden Ticket!"

These last few weeks have been really tough for me.  I miss being in a relationship, spending time with girlfriends, traveling. I’ve given up just about every ounce of personal life I’ve had over the last decade for the freedom of being an entrepreneur.

Truly there is nothing more rewarding than knowing I have the power to turn a dream, a speckle of a thought, into an oasis. There is so much magic in seeing my dreams come to fruition. And the fact that my teammates get to see their dreams come true in tandem with mine.

With that being said it leaves me little time to, well, be me. The me that’s hidden behind my company. Light hearted. Adventurous. Romantic. Vulnerable. Scared.

In being a part of the LA tech community I have not only found new friends who (like my childhood friends) accept the sacrifices I make, but these new friendships can empathize as well. They are risk takers and business owners themselves.  They know what it is like to have your employees be dependent on you, to have  everything on the line from leveraging real estate and lines of credit, to spending all your savings,  to have pressures from venture capitalists and the complexities of legal contracts. They know what it is to hire and fire. To strategize knowing failure is no option.  They know what it is to lose friendships and have family question your life. They know what it is to feel alone just the same as they know the joy it is to have your company featured in a periodical or TV show. They know what it is to close a major deal. They know what it is to be Magic.

I have the blessing of having all these wonderful people in my “neighborhood” to see at any time… I just want to say thank you.

For a little LA Tech smiles and gossip check out Lalawag and for some of the most down to earth and informative business upstart videos go to Mixergy.

LA Tech community at SXSW in Austin, Texas

Photo by http://www.flickr.com/photos/jdlasica

Ahhh the thrills of being a business owner. Thank you Zappos, Snoop Dogg, Start Ups Live and most importantly my team for all the inspiration.

Nothing like a little snoop dog

I am absolutely exhilarated to to be visiting the Zappos headquarters tomorrow in Vegas. My company team has been vigorously studying the phenomenal Zappos culture which we do our best to emulate each day. I have personally been a fan of Zappos since about 2002 after discovering the site was the fastest loading site on the web. Being the geek that I am I was fascinated and had to know how they did it. I think their upload time was under 3 seconds and with a homepage full of graphics. Completely impressive.

Zappos.com is all about their WOW effect “delivering ‘WOW’ through service”. From their lightening speed delivery times, Monopoly Game, Culture Book, sending flowers to a grieving customer, 100% satisfaction guarantee free return policy, upload times, in house Life Coach – Dr Vik! and now Zappos Insights helping businesses achieve “The Road to a Billion and Beyond.”… Zappos WOWs me.

A little something from their Monopoly “Wow” cards:

“Take a leap of faith on a new venture, pay each player $50″

“Take a step outside of your comfort zone, collect $150″

“Reap the reward of taking a risk, collect $50″

"The Road to a Billion and Beyond"

Future Billionaire Girl in the making!

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uo_sBQGiRLc]

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??

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!!!

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?)

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!!!!