A few years back I did a little traveling. I climbed Kilimanjaro, took a boat ride to Antarctica, and was stung by a scorpion in Colombia. The two year journey opened me up to the power of living unconventionally--and to living in the moment. Right now I live in Manhattan, NYC--and spend a fair bit of time in L.A and San Fran.
Hey everyone, describing what my company- Branded Evolution–does can always be a bit challenging to people outside of the industry. College Humor did a hilarious parody of “Online Video Branded Entertainment” this week. Check it out and let me know what you think. They are brilliantly making fun of “What we do”…
If you got this post emailed to you click here to view the video:
I manage my life. There is not an exact formula or organized method that I use. I did not learn how to do it from a self help book. But there is definitely some serious life management going on. More than anything, I consistently set goals for myself. I also sporadically journal about anything and everything that comes into my mind involving major events in my life: Business events, relationships, travel, family.
Starting B.E has been one of the most rewarding challenges that I have embarked on thus far. I am 31–living in one of the biggest, fastest moving cities in the world, developing a business, and enjoying every second of this ride. My goal with regards to BE is ironically, to “be”. I need to make a million different decisions every day that could effect my future and the future of my partners. But instead of stressing about what “could happen” or “what might happen”, I am choosing to be present with what “is” happening. Not to say that we are not doing our best to forecast the future, or learn from our past mistakes–but you can still do this while “being” present.
Today was a beautiful day in New York. I woke up a fair bit hungover after seeing “Hysterical Psycho” (It was a hilarious horror film that will make millions of stoners around the world smile) at the Tribeca Film Festival last night. After shaking out the initial cobwebs this morning I walked out to 1st Avenue, got a cup of Dunkin Donuts coffee, and then walked to “the Oval”–the park in the middle of Stuyvesent Town–where I live. It was beautiful out and I sat there on a park bench for at least an hour. I watched the squirrels and wondered why they they do not eat out of the garbage cans more often. I watched hundreds of people pass by. I sat next to a guy that had a very long and detailed conversation with his dog (the dog actually looked interested). I also took in the fact that it is “FINALLY” spring.
I was truly present for that entire hour.
And guess what, it was and incredible experience even with a slight hangover. I take this same approach with my business. What use is worrying or stressing? It is simply not productive. It effects your sleep. Your friends and family can feel your stress. Its just all around “no bueno” for the mind, body, and the spirit.
I have made a conscious choice to be present through good times and hard times. The major life lesson that I learned from my “first” world trip (South America, North America, Africa in 2007 and 2008) was simply to live life in the moment. I lived in this manner for 2 straight years: I climbed mountains, and rode on terrible buses, and learned a new language, and scuba dived, and drank beers with people from every walk of life. I was in the moment for two years straight. I cannot go back to what it was like before that. Its not a possibility for me. My life has changed.
I personally do not feel that there is a need for stress. Putting pressure on yourself to accomplish your goals is healthy. But, worrying about a million scenarios that “might” happen is just the opposite. The human imagination can be a beautiful thing–but for many of us can be extremely destructive.
I think it all revolves around a choice. I can choose to enjoy the fact that I am typing on my Mac at 12:02am on a Saturday night listening to Radiohead. I can be present with my surroundings–and enjoy my giant glass of New York City tap water. Or, I can choose to think about how I haven’t wrote a blog post in almost a month, or that I am a total nerd for writing a blog posts on a Saturday night, or I can worry about a press release that we are sending out this week.
My “choice” is to enjoy every second of this crazy ride of a life as it is the only one I am going to get.
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My good friend David Romenelli and I have a very similar approach to life and he just happened to write a hilariously awesome book about it. I loved it and think you should check it out as well. Click here: Yeah Dave’s Guide to Living in the Moment.
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From my new apartment in Stuyvesant town in the East Village/Union Square area of Manhattan–I have a view of the Empire State Building. For me this is way up there on the list of life goals. I have always wanted to live in New York City– and now my life is centered in the heart of the beast. Now, don’t get me wrong, I loved my last 11 months in Park Slope. Running and BBQ-ing in Prospect Park, living-partying-meditating with Pat and Wendy, and reviving my extremely poor Spanish with all of the shop keepers in the neighborhood made living in Brooklyn fantastic. I am so glad I lived there.
But living in Manhattan is a whole new ballgame. I mean, this is one of the most important if not the most important city in the entire world, right?
So, Stuyvesant town–where I live–has 25,000 other people living in the same complex. From the outside the red brick buildings look like a cross between a college campus and “the projects”. However, the places are nicely renovated and insanely spacious for Manhattan. The complex was built in the early 1950’s to house veterans returning from World War 2. Some of the initial tenants still live here. The are very, very ancient and living under very, very rent controlled terms.
The Empire State Building came into play yet again last weekend when returning home from the bars I decided to check out the view from our roof. This did not go down quite like I planned when the doors locked behind me and left me stranded–albeit with a beautiful view–12 floors up at 2:30 AM in the morning. Thank God I had my cell phone and that my roommate/business partner Mike is a light sleeper.
In 2006, this entire complex was sold for 5.4 Billion dollars and was the biggest real estate deal in the history of the United States. The new owners, Tishman-Speyer planted hundreds of trees and completely renovated most of the apartments. They also put in a boatload of amenities including a health club, lounge, library, and daycare. Unfortunately for Tishman-Speyer, 2006 was not exactly the best year to buy real estate. We ended up getting our place for a steal compared to what they were getting this time last year.
The owners have not had much good will from the former tenants as they have been campaigning to kick out many of the rent controlled people that live here. In fact, they just lost a major lawsuit and its making large waves in NYC.
The New York City real estate market is hurt up in a really bad way. When we were looking for places there were literally deals around every corner. Many of the companies and brokers we talked to were offering 1-2 months free rent. Thousands of jobs in finance, real estate, and advertising have been lost in NYC in the last 6 months. Unfortunately, many of the people that have lost their jobs have been forced to up and move out of the city.
Yes, we are living in wild and scary times. But, somehow I feel very confident and extremely at ease.
Mike, the rest of the crew (there are 7 of us in total), and I are working all the time–but loving where we are and what we are doing. Yes, it is a crazy time to start a business. But, I have a really positive feeling about everything we are up to and getting into. I feel very strongly that we are in the right place–at the right time. We launch our first Branded Entertainment campaign under the B.E name this week.
I am now going to walk over to my window and stare blankly at the Empire State Building–and think a bit more about how glad I am I didn’t get stuck on the roof that night.
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Note before reading: I do actually have some semblance of how the English language works. The following post is my attempt to write my to-do-list in a slow, deliberate, sing-songy Southern accent.
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Got to write those contracts. Got to run that six miles with John Wynn around Prospect Park. Need to put that application in for the New York Marathon–its a lottery to get in you know and 26.2 miles long.
Got to go that fancy gym and work out with Gino: Maybe we’ll see Aaron Neville pumping iron or John Legend singing while he’s on the treadmill or Sean Lennon on the elliptical. Need to firm up those employee contracts–now that there are 6 of us we better get official-like. Need to get Pat and Wendy to take me to the Park Slope food co-op so we can buy that delicious produce. The cupboard is bare and we need those blueberries.
Need to finally finalize that logo. Need to buy those desks, and a table, and some white boards. Need to get those clients RETAINED. Got to fuel my addiction to Madmen and finish off season 2. Website copy–oh I hate website copy, but need to finish writing that stat.
Need to plan that launch party, and a weekend in those woods. Need to suck it on up, and call that TAXXMAN and get those taxes done. Need to start writing that Branded Evolution blog–all about that new media stuff and this online video thing and that funny Branded Entertainment business. Need to tell people about the way advertising is going to work from now on in this world. Have to secure that guest blogging spot on that fine internet publication to boost that credibility and share a little insight from the trenches.
Need to finish Anthony Bourdain’s book and buy that David Ogilvy biography. Need to move to Sty-town where all those 83 year old World War 2 vets live side by side with 25 year old Hipsters and 40 year old Yuppies. Need to get proposal after proposal after proposal out there and CLOSE EM. Have to plan another trip out to that oh-so-important left coast to meet those important people and tell them about what we do and how we can help them. And, post some good tweets. Got to post the tweets. Lots of em. And I need to make sure I answer all those comments from all those Facebook friends that I have been neglecting.
I need to figure out how to tell Pat that I sort of kind of ripped off one of his best poems to write this post.
But more than anything, I need to inspire my team to win bigger and dream bigger than they have ever have before. We need to grab that bull by the horns and own this new market in this new world of advertising. Need to make sure everyone knows the name Branded Evolution. Need to make sure those parents know just how much I appreciate and love them and could never do any of this without them. And I need to do that meditation. Everyday. For 10 minutes a day I need to breathe, stay in the moment, and remember how lucky I am to be alive–still traveling, on a different kind of journey.
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I spent 5 1/2 hours in the air today on Jet Blue flight 355 from JFK in New York to Burbank in L.A.
I am in L.A through the end of the month meeting with business partners, talent agencies, product placement firms, software companies, and other miscellaneous industry peeps. I could not have been more excited to trade the freezing cold northeast (5 degrees) for the amazingly temperate “City of Angels” (80 degrees).
The beginning of the flight was fairly textbook: I had an open seat next to me so I could stretch out, I finished my book, I watched a few episodes of Madmen on my laptop, I read the front page of the NY Times, and slept a bit. Aside from the fact that JetBlue does not serve meals and I was forced to eat 6 bags of Cheetos “munchy-mix” to avoid starvation, it was pretty much perfect.
About halfway through the trip I was flipping through the Direct TV channels and saw the footage of the US Air Flight 1549 crash in the Hudson River. I looked around and saw that a great deal of the passengers on my plane were already watching. Apparently I was the last to find out as prior to that I was hypnotized by Ravens-Steelers coverage on ESPN. At this point in time we must have been over Kansas or Missouri or Oklahoma or Indiana or Iowa or Nebraska…
TOTALLY SURREAL! We took off from the exact same city and in the exact same freezing cold weather as Flight 1549. There was a low whisper throughout the cabin, as I was talking to the woman next to me and the guy across the aisle. We were all flipping from CNN, to Fox News, to local channel 5, to MSNBC, looking for some sort of break in the news. We just wanted to find out if anyone got out of the plane alive. After about an hour of channel surfing, we heard that everyone on the flight miraculously survived the impact. We also found out that the probable cause of the crash was a flock of Canadian geese!
Sidenote: I loath Canadian geese–always have, always will. Hunters should have free reign to exterminate the species. They shit all over the golf course, hiss at you if you get too close, and apparently cause planes to crash into icy rivers.
But DAMN this sort of thing really makes you think.
I have lived my life over the past few years in a very “present” state. I have said on many occasions that, “I could walk out into the street tomorrow and get hit by a bus, so I am going to live it up today!”
When something like this happens–even though I was not directly involved–it really hammers that point home for me.
Those 155 people that smashed into the freezing cold Hudson River today have been given a miraculous gift. They are going to go home tonight and look at their loved ones, their lives, and their perceived problems in a whole new light. We bystanders can also take much from this experience…
Maybe it hit me a little harder because I was actually in the air–flying out of the same city when this happened. The truth of the matter is that life is impermanent, and personally, I think we should be living our lives with this in mind everyday. I am going to continue taking risks, living my life to its fullest, and dreaming big. Because, shit, tomorrow a flock of F-ing Canadian geese could fly out in front of my Boeing 747, and who knows if I will be as lucky as the passengers on US Air Flight 1549.
Thanks to all of my friends for the Facebook and Twitter messages when the plane went down.
If you have a thought, please comment below!
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Peace,
DF
