Going back to re-work a few things and re-organize a bit, but we’re getting really excited.

Block Out The Noise: And Take Back Your Life will be done soon.  This book focuses on showing you how to recognize and eliminate the subliminal noise that bombards us daily and controls our lives.  It is especially appropriate in this recession.

I am also working on (though a little slower) on turning our seminar series from a few years ago into a follow-up book in the series, Block Out The Noise: Building Your Ideal Life.  We’ve had such great feedback throughout the years that we’re really anxious to see it in written form.

Time for some kid-time with a trip to the park or maybe the fair, but then back to writing for me.

Let’s see if we can change that.  Hard to remember that, at one point, this lil blog had 30,000 reads a month at one time and my content was being picked up and re-blogged by users all over the world.

Our “Building Your Ideal Life” slideshow once had 20,000 viewers and was one of the top viewed slides at Slideshare.

But then came facebook and LinkedIn and of course, kids, family, businesses and a trip around the sun.  Lots of growth, lots of learning, lots of posting, but very little blogging.

So I don’t know if we’ll see 30,000 again but I’m going to take the first step and kick the dust off.  I am working on my first book in a series for Block Out The Noise so I will be talking about that a lot and my thoughts may be incoherent as I get back into Freud, Maslow, Skinner, et al.

Let’s see how it goes.

Which reminds me, only 10 weeks left to save on Disney annual resident passes which are being extended to 15 month passes.  Our car tax savings will pay for half the cost of Disney for our family for over a year.

A win-win as we inject that money directly back into the economy (the intention of the stimulus) and our family gets much needed time together at discounted prices at a place we really enjoy.

First up, vehicle diagnostics email from GM.  Both right side tires are 2lbs low - gotcha.  Next gas trip, I’m on it.

Next up, quick link to BaseCamp reports for time sheets - tomorrow is payday and these new reports allowed Julie and I to quickly review everyone’s time and get everybody paid in less time/effort.

Finally, Kohl’s statement alert - this is a big one folks because we just opened our first ‘charge’ account in, I don’t know, 10 years??  You know how every store clerk asks the obligatory, ‘would you like to save 10% today?’?  Well, I usually respond with ‘what, so you can try to hook me for 30% tomorrow?  (I smile when I say it, I think it’s cute but maybe it’s not.) Well, I was ‘in the mood’ at Kohl’s last month.  See, I don’t shop and we’re pretty low key when it comes to shopping and I don’t give a squat about social norms.  We buy what we need when we need it (like NFL Sunday Ticket) and we pay cash.  BUT - Kohl’s offers really exceptional, ongoing deals to credit clients sooooooo, we did it.

So why did I really appreciate that email alert today?  Because it was our first one and it quickly dawned on me, whoa, it’s been about 5 weeks since we opened that and, whoa, their automated system used our old driver’s license address (we moved 6 weeks ago) and we had to call to have them cancel/resend new cards and, WHOA, I’ll bet those bastards hit me for 30%!!!

Yep, payment turns out was due last week and we weren’t in the system for last month’s notice.  Well to Kohls’ “credit”, they quickly reversed those charges and I promptly paid the account online ‘in full’ - no finance or late charges.  Whew - that was a close one.

So, email alerts, because you this week we will get our team paid with a record minimal effort, improve the safety, fuel efficiency and wear/tear on the suburban and we won’t get jacked up by ridiculous finance/late charges.  I love you man.

As for the future, your task is not to foresee, but to enable. ~Antoine de Saint Exupéry

So you may sleep as well as I do tonight:

The word ‘lo’ as used in this phrase is a shortening of ‘look’. So, lo and behold! has the meaning of look! - behold!.

As so elegantly put in The Princess Bride when the hero Wesley knocks out Fezzik (Andre the Giant who was 7 feet, 500 lbs) - now we can all ‘rest well and dream of large women!’

Ha!  Well, I haven’t abandoned it, but our business has had 3 record months in a row and that has consumed my time, thoughts and energy.

So just a quick thought for now - you can grow a business in a recession.  In fact, it’s the perfect time to grow.  And with a better available work force, we’ve worked hard to grow our team to 7 now - from all corners of the globe - well, nobody at the poles yet.  Do they have internet there?

So have a great journey today and this weekend.  I promise to start dumping my brain and experience here more often.

Kind of reminds me of my Buckeyes playing (very loose interpretation) the Gators for the national title a few years ago - on my birthday no less.  Olivia (2 at the time) walked around the next stay shouting “Damnit!” in a very aggravated tone.  Still aggravated, I didn’t mind.

Which is also reminiscent of the story my mother loves to tell about the time we were rough-housing in the back of a parked pickup truck.  I went over the gate backwards and upon landing bit my tongue in half.  My mother lost sight of me for a moment while signing me out and rushed to find me.  As she turned the corner, she heard the policeman ask me, “That’s horrible!  What are you going to do to Joey when you get home?” to which I replied with my tongue taped/glued together “I’m going to go home and kick his ath.”

Front of Card:

“I don’t know how we’d ever get along around here without you…”

Inside:

“But starting Monday, we’re going to try.”