"I see all these people who just keep going and going and going, and I just feel like, ‘Hey! You made it!’ But they get up every day and just keep going. You love the game, but the game for us? We just wanted to be in fourth place. We just wanted a good little company."

A cool quote from Andy Spade (Kate's husband) about their decision to sell their business with no plans for a huge second act. Nice to see someone achieve a goal, comprehend the feat, and then walk away on their own terms in order to enjoy life. (Also, yes, this means I'm trying to get back in the habit of posting here, even if just snippets like this). 

Here's the full article from New York Magazine in Feb. 2010.

There are just seven and a half hours left in 2010.  It has been a really great year for myself and New Media Campaigns.  Personally, I got to travel around the country to see friends, attend several weddings, make some great stories, achieve several personal goals, witness some awesome sporting events, have some inspiring conversations, read some great material, and plenty more.  Professionally, NMC worked on more than 100 projects, added a new team member, grew revenue by more than 30%, launched our first product, got some awesome press, and plenty more.

I'm a firm believer in New Year's Resolutions, as I think they're a great goal-setting mechanism and really inspire you to achieve.  For even more incentive, this year I'm going to make my top resolutions public on this blog.  Below are my top 5 resolutions I came up with over the past week, and I'll update everyone as I achieve them.  If I don't complete all of them, it won't be the end of the world, but I'm really going to make a concerted effort.

1. Travel Abroad - I haven't been abroad since I went to Italy in the summer of 2007.  That's just way too long in my opinion.  I've been able to see some awesome places around the US in the past three years, but I want to go abroad this year to be exposed to a different culture and a totally new place.  Right now, the leading contender is a winter trip to India.
2. Read 12 Books - I read a lot.  But not books.  I love reading the NY Times, the New Yorker, Vanity Fair, Inc., various blogs, and plenty more.  Most of these items are longer pieces that consume a good amount of my time (I'm a slow reader).  However, I often find myself reading quick little articles that I don't really care about too much and that I don't retain much info from.  This year, I want to focus on reading books that really dive into topics and give me a much better grasp of a subject than an article ever could.  I think one a month is an aggressive pace that will still allow me the time to read the articles I love.
3. Run 10 Miles in Under 76 Minutes -- This past year, largely thanks to my girlfriend, I got into running.  I ran a 10 miler in April and recorded a time around 82 minutes.  My goal had been 85 minutes and since I'd never run in a race longer than a 5k, I was really pleased with my results.  This year, I want to break the 8 minute mark and finish at around a 7:30 pace.  It's going to be tough, but I think I can do it.  My first shot will be at the same April 10 Miler, the Tar Heel 10 Miler.
4. Blog Every Two Weeks -- This one is self explanatory.  I suck at blogging consistently on this domain.  My time is usually consumed by blogging on the NMC site or doing other things.  This year, I'm going to blog at least twice a month and hopefully more often than that.  I've got a whole list of topics written down and I plan on going through them one by one.  Keep me honest on this one!
5. Cook More -- I eat out for just about every meal.  It's expensive and unhealthy.  This year, I want to learn to be a better cook and also focus on making more meals for myself.  I did a CSA for the last few months and that really forced me to cook, because I didn't want to waste the different items.  
6. Grow NMC and HiFi -- Considering that this blog is largely about entrepreneurship, this resolution shouldn't come as a surprise.  We had a great year at NMC.  We grew the company in a plethora of different ways.  However, one of the most dangerous things is to get complacent and just assume that growth naturally happens.  It doesn't.  It takes hard work, persistence, risks, trial and error, and some luck.  In 2011, I'm focused on helping our company taking the next step in our growth and really focused on helping our new product, HiFi CMS, become the success that we know it deserves to be.

Well, there you go.  That's what I'm shooting for in 2011.  I'll let you know how I fare.  Thanks again for helping make this such an awesome year and here's to 2011!

Every job/industry has a toolbox that is relevant to that profession.  In some professions, it’s quite literally a box of tools.  In most lives, it’s just a suite of tools that one uses nearlyevery day in order to get their job done well.

Within an industry, the toolboxes of each practitioner vary dramatically.  The skillset, experience, and focus of each person strongly influence which tools they lean on the most.  For example, the #1 tool in many accountants’ lives is likely a calculator.  However, others that have been in the game for awhile might rely more on mental math.

I work at a web design, marketing, and development firm, hence why my toolbox is of the digital variety.  So, that’s the broad toolbox I’m representing.  However, within the organization, my top priorities are marketing, business development, and client relations.  Furthermore, I was one of the company’s founders, meaning that I also spend a lot of time reading about entrepreneurship and helping run the actual business.  So, that greatly changes the tools I use from, say, the developers on our team.

Here are the top 5 tools I find myself most frequently using to help me do my job and run my life:

1. Gmail – It still baffles me that some people don’t use Gmail as their primary email client.  I use it for my business and personal accounts (synced to the same mailbox).

2. iPhone - I’ve been an iPhone user for a little over two years, now.  I hesitantly switched over from BlackBerry.  I was pretty intimidated by the touch keyboard and lack of email push capabilities.  However, I quickly learned that while it’s email wasn’t quite as good as BB’s, that wasn’t necessarily a bad thing.  I stopped checking my email every second and started doing some cooler things while mobile, whether it was using apps or just browsing on Safari.  Even with the bad AT&T service, I don’t anticipate switching anytime soon.  It helps me manage the business from the road when I’m traveling, catch up on reading no matter where I am, and to keep in good contact with friends.

3. 37signals Products – Our company relies heavily on 37Signals suite of collaboration tools.  Campfire serves as our company chat room, which we all interact in throughout the day.  Basecamp is our project management system that allows our small team of 8 people launch more than 100 websites each year.  Highrise is a CRM tool that I use on the marketing side, helping me keep track of leads and prospects.  Without these tools, we wouldn’t be able to be nearly as productive and organized.

4. Evernote – I tend to use this tool more in my personal life than work, but it still comes in handy at the office, too.  Evernote is a kind of digital memory system.  You can insert any type of media – articles, videos, audio, images – and it’s all categorized and searchable.  I really just use it for articles.  I love reading different magazines, newspapers, and blogs, and when I come across a good article that I know I’ll want to reference in the future (whether for work or for fun), I’ll put it into my Evernote.  There are tons of good usecases for the program, from saving business cards to wine labels.  I recommend you check it out — also, it’s free!

5. Pandora/Grooveshark/Hypem/iTunes – As you can tell, this one is kind of a blanket item for music.  I can’t work, write, or think in silence.  I always need some sort of background noise, and my preference is music.  Switching between these four allow me to get different music for my mood and also just new selections.  I think everyone is familiar with Pandora and iTunes.  However, if you’re not familiar with Grooveshark or Hypem, I strongly recommend you check them out.  Grooveshark lets you stream any artist, song, or album for free.  Just type it in there and click play.  Hypem is an awesome aggregator and voting system of music blogs.  It posts songs from thousands of blogs and then lets listeners “favorite” them, allowing you to build your own playlist of favorites and also aggregating a list of the most popular songs on the site.  Grooveshark has helped me find many new artists and songs (especially remixes!).

Well, that’s my digital toolbox.  These tools help me get through everyday in a productive and sane manner.  What would you put in your toolbox, if you really had to think about it?