2019 was a good year :).

I spent the year trying to make the new business work and learned a TON. I made a lot of sales/timing mistakes… and I hopefully learned from them. I always forget how hard it is to boot up a new business (especially without a service aspect to use as a crutch). Let’s go exploring was a good theme for the year…

The Amazing
Lindsey and I have been married for 5 years! Adding a kid to the mix has definitely made marriage harder but I think we are on the road to finding our sea legs. Calico turned 3 a few days ago and watching him turn into even more of a little person has been a blast :). I love our little family!

The new business is in the midst of a pivot and I am finding our first 10 clients now to see if we are on the right track. Learning sales has been hard + rewarding. The meeting idea just wasn’t clicking and we are pivoting to helping engineers find their perfect engineering team. I am way more excited about helping people find a great place to work.

We moved to Valencia Spain for a few years :). We felt like the timing was right and living abroad was something we both wanted to try.

My back has been almost entirely pain-free this year (as long as I keep up with rehab 2x-3x a week). And, biking has been great for it as well and given me a physical outlet. I did not get to do a bike tour this year… partially because of work and partially just timing, but I am hopeful I can do one or two in 2020.

What fun stuff did we do this year?
– We did an awesome trip to Malta and Valencia Spain over 3 months in February, March, and April. We did an agri and food tour in Malta that was delicious and interesting. I visited an underground temple called the Hypogeum in Malta that dates back to 3300BC (insanely special place). And, we fell in love with Valencia Spain in so many ways. I bought an apartment in Valencia and we moved here at the end of the year (pictures coming soon). We are slowly getting settled here.
– We went on a 2-week road trip all over Spain and Portugal. It was so much fun! I got to see a ton of Roman ruins, eat some delicious pulpo, and enjoy Roman hot springs. It was one of my favorite family trips yet. I hope we get to do another road trip soon.
– Calico and I went to the pool over the summer and it was so much fun. He even went down the monster water slide :).
– A ton of great times with Lucas and Claire in Colorado. Either hiking, or biking, or just hanging out and talking. I miss them!
– A great summer in Colorado and a lot of trips to the Farmer’s market on Saturday mornings. We are usually out of town in the summer so it was nice to be home and enjoy it.
– We went to Munich for a week to explore the Christmas markets. Fun trip! I did a 3-hour walking tour of the 3rd Reich in Munich that was intense. Weird to see where Hitler did some water coloring and then where he unveiled the Nazi flag. Felt shivers down my spine several times hearing too many historic events that mirrored the news the last few years.
– I read a lot of good books this year!

The Challenges!

Komorebi!
2019 was a good year and I figured a ton out about how I want to spend the bulk of my day. The new business hasn’t clicked yet, but we are in the midst of a pivot and I am really excited about what we are trying to build with Shepherd. I am learning a shit ton about sales and we shall see how that goes over the next 90 days.

Marriage
It has been a year of learning when it comes to marriage :). Trying to boot up a new business while raising a 2-year-old while so many other things don’t make marriage any easier. We’ve had some good conversations lately and I am hopeful that 2020 is going to be the best year of our marriage for me/us. I think it took me five years to really fathom how different people are (sure you know it, but to really understand what that means is different). It is a good lesson to learn.

Health
I got sick a lot in 2019, ~5 times! That is really abnormal versus previous years where I hadn’t been sick in maybe 2 or 3 years. I think it is due to stress and energy management and it is something I am going to be paying close attention to for 2020. I tend to push myself pretty hard when maybe I should let off the gas by about 15%. Otherwise, my health has been good and my back great. I am stronger than I have ever been, and my cardio is slowly getting up there as I bike more. I did better in 2019 with prepping food for my diet and Lindsey helped by cooking big meals for me a few times each week.

How did I do on my goals for 2019?
The theme of the year was to go exploring. I feel really good about the path the new business is on and I am excited to see if I can sale “it” and find a product fit that resonates. Going back to work full time this year helped me to see more of where I want to go and why. Slightly cryptic but it is nice to gain some self gnosis around what drives you and how that has changed. I could have been a lot more patient with myself this year… and kinder. Still working on that.

I did well on my goals for the year, although I missed two big ones. The first was that I really wanted to do a bike tour and didn’t. The second was that I had hoped to make a little more progress on our family vision, but I will attribute that to it just being a slow process and my lack of patience.

2020…

New decade!!!!! Exciting :)

I’ll make a longer post in 2020… some pics from my wip theme for 2020…

I don’t drink much anymore, but I am really liking Port if I do have a treat. I really like this 20-year-old Tawney Taylor Fladgate Port I got last year. I got some other bottles for Christmas that I am slowly trying too.

I bought this rugby shirt a few years into college and I always loved it, I am finally getting rid of it after ~18 years! Goodbye awesome shirt! Props to Canterbury for building an indestructible and super awesome shirt.

So is “fucknuts” one word, two words or hyphenated?

I am so fucking tired of people who talk about the government taking “their” money and how government should be run like a business. I hope this last shutdown has shown them some of the value of government so they can stop being such fucknuts.

Taxes are civilization.

They are you paying your debt to society for the framework it provides that creates the environment we all want.

Do you like drinking clean water?
Do you like driving on bridges that don’t collapse?
Do you like roads?
Do you like buying “olive oil” and it actually being olive oil?
Do you like ads that don’t make false claims?
Do you like cars that don’t randomly explode?
Do you like knowing if someone commits a crime they go to jail?

Civilization doesn’t magically happen. It takes money, skilled people to keep it running, and a society that RESPECTS the people who serve this country. The level of debate we are having in this country is so remedial it is sad.

Second, Government is not business, it CAN be very efficient but it many cases it should not be because it is providing a service to all of society in a way that private business would never do. Private business would watch your injured ass bleed to death if you don’t have money. That isn’t what we want as a society. Government is a platform, it is a platform that is meant to deliver results for its members. I wish we would stop having a debate over this and start respecting the people who work in OUR Government and the amazing work they do.

I tried a method I ripped out of this book and it worked! I wanted to get in touch with a very cool CEO (Shopify) so I created a 3 foot by 2-foot poster with a story pulled from internal culture about him. Here it is…

We exchanged a few emails so it seemed to help get some attention. Fun stuff :)

My theme of the year is Let’s go exploring!

You can view the full cartoon here…

Big 3 for the year?

1. Figure out Execution.com! We are trying to find our sea legs :).

2. Private goal.

3. Put together our family vision. Lindsey and I have been working on this for a while and want to get further. Basically a rough sketch of how we want to live, why, and a lot about how we want to parent.

I’ve got some smaller goals too… but mostly around habits, workouts, reading, etc. Anyway, onward to 2019! Nine is my lucky number so hopefully, that bodes well :)

2018 was a good year. I got time to rest, play, and figure out what I want to do next. At times I felt very lost, but I feel good about where I am heading.

The Amazing
Lindsey and I have been married 4 years, which is awesome! She is my P.I.C. and we had a lot of fun this year :). Calico was so much fun this year! It was amazing to watch him start talking, running, and just becoming an amazing little person. We had a blast with him in France/Malta, to the beach, on a boat, and a lot of little adventures.

My back has been great! Despite tweaking something in May that was really painful and took 3 or 4 weeks to resolve I have felt amazing. This is the first time I’ve felt normal and I attribute that to biking and a ton of rehab.

Boulder feels more and more like a home. After our extra long summer trip, it was good to be “home”. I’ve made some friends and that is always a plus. I am excited about shifting our annual trip to winter so that we are home over the Colorado summer.

I started a new business (along with a co-founder)! Our official start date was September 17th and the business is Execution.com. We got our first paying beta client and I am excited to see what 2019 brings.

What fun stuff did we do this year?
– I went on an awesome 660 mile solo bike ride through Burgundy France. It was a blast and I am looking forward to doing more of these down the road. It was nice to have some quiet time where you have nothing to think about but where you are biking too next. Next time I want to do a little more training too.
– Lindsey, Calico and I spent a big chunk of our summer in Dijon France. We had a great time and learned some things about traveling with an 18-month old… It was extra fun as my mom and step-dad visited, plus Nick and Isadora. We ate some amazing food, drank some great wine, and generally enjoyed getting out of our normal routine.
– We also added on an extra 3 weeks in Malta at the end too! Calico loved the beach and it was a blast to watch him in the water or playing in the sand. Malta was hot but fun! We were happy to get home to Boulder and in the future, we are going to do our trip to miss part of winter.
– I saw this amazing project in France to build a 13th-century castle using the same tools available at the time. I am looking forward to seeing it in another 5 or 10 years and taking Calico.
– I read a ton this year, I was at 100 books by July and hit an all-time record by the end of the year. Not working full-time helps there.
– I went on a ton of fun hikes with Graham this year! For a while, we were going every week.
– I went on a ton of fun mountain bike rides with Lucas and it is great to have a new friend! I went on a ton of solo rides too, plus a lot of bike training for the tour in July.
– General fun stuff with Lindsey and Calico in Boulder. A lot of trips to the Farmer’s Market in Boulder and a few hikes.
– I celebrated 10 years of blogging! That is pretty awesome and this blog has been a great way to journal both publicly and privately about what is going on in my life.
– I launched a few sites to play with some stuff in my head, those being Healthy Business Partnerships, Entrepreneur Life, and Help! I Married An Entrepreneur. They are just slow projects and we shall see where they go. It is a hard space to build a new site in.

The Challenges!

Komorebi:
I started the year by doing a ton of customer dev interviews on an idea I had and the idea just hit a wall… I still want to do a version of it for myself and friends but for now it is on hold. It was an idea around an online community for entrepreneurs to give them a place to connect and ask questions and support each other (among other things). Like an online version of EO/Vistage but with a better network.

Komorebi + Life + Family:
Booting up a new business while balancing my family and my life is really hard! I started the new business in mid-September and it has been really hard to figure out how to balance launching a new business with: time alone with Lindsey, time with Calico, grocery shopping, errands, workouts, cooking my special diet, and time alone to recharge.

Health:
My health has been good but it has been a real struggle to stay on the strict Paleo AIP diet. And, with going back to work full-time it has been really hard. It takes a lot of time to do meal prep and I have struggled with the new setup :(. Lindsey has been helping the last month and we are trying to figure out how to make it all work. I am hopeful we will figure it out! I am going to be trying to do more meal prep on the weekend for the entire week.

Marriage:
Lindsey and I hit some big bumps this year. We finished the year in a much stronger place with better communication and a better understanding of each other. But boy did we have some rough moments this year. We’ve been married for 4 years which is awesome! I am hopeful that 2019 will be better than 2018 as we’ve hopefully gained a lot of wisdom.

USA / Faith In People:
We are living in interesting times… we shall see if the USA can survive this test, not to mention the rest of the world. I’ve come to a good place of acceptance over this year and I’ve had a few moments of epiphany around how much people are in their own heads and focused on their small worlds.

How did I do on my goals for 2018?
I did really well, it was a rough start but the big 3 were done by month 9.

The theme of the year was figuring out my new beginning. I did a good job of giving myself the time and space to figure out what I wanted to do, and despite getting lost a few times I am happy with the path I am on. More importantly, I am energized and not so burned out, it took a while to shake off the last couple of years and recharge.

My big 3 priorities for the year were to figure out what is next for me and why, to explore how I could help other entrepreneurs with a business, and to spend a ton of time mountain biking and bike touring.

2019…
I am looking forward to 2019! I always liked the number 9 and hopefully, it brings me some good fortune this year :). More to come in a separate 2019 post!

When I was around 16 or 17 I had a website that was making pretty decent money for a “kid” (still in high school). With that money, I was able to buy some crazy fun stuff. I bought some Vietnam era night vision goggles for fun. They were not fancy gen 2 or gen 3 models, but they were pretty fun and amplified the existing light pretty well. They were also super heavy and ate batteries like there was no tomorrow.

As Halloween rolled around my friends and I decided to lay an ambush for the assholes that would steal and smash our pumpkins every year. We put on black/camo, put our pumpkins at the top of our driveway, and loaded up our paintball guns. Then we waited and waited and waited. Nobody came, but it was a fun night. I kinda wish they had.

Someone posted a cool post talking about the walk score they grew up with, versus the place they live now. The place I grew up has a walk score of 17, the place I live now has a walk score of 67. I wish it was even more walkable :).

I started this blog 10 years ago today on September 2nd 2008! That is kinda awesome :).

Why blog?
I journaled on and off before that but I am really happy I stuck with it on this blog. This blog has been really useful for helping me to develop ideas and think through things. I’ve got a lot of private posts that have helped me as well. All and all it is one of the best things I’ve stuck with.

What was going on in September 2008?

– I was 27 years old.
– I was back from Egypt and living in Fayetteville with Joel. Joel and I had sold our business the end of 2007 and I finished training the new company about halfway through 2008 I think. We were doing some SEO consulting for the UK2 Group and Just Eat in the UK (good exchange rate at the time).
– I was running a lot and I started to play ultimate again now that I was in the States. I was battling some injuries. By the end of the year, I ran my first half-marathon on my own.
– I had been thinking about getting my MBA but decided against it. I had taken the GMAT in Egypt and was about to take it again but decided to put that plan on hold.
– I had been planning to go to Australia for a year and had the visa… My plan was to stay there for a year and then travel through Asia while working a new project with Joel. But about the same time, the Site5 deal popped up and Joel and I decided to pursue that. We closed that deal around October 31st, 2008 and now owned a big hosting company. And, we moved to Denver and the rest is history. I got to go to Australia at a later time as well as a lot of traveling. Not as much to Asia as I wanted, but a good trip to Japan for a month and hopefully I get to go back soon.
– My personal life was a bit of a mess at the time. I was frustrated and had no idea what I wanted (i.e. 27). I was also dealing with selling my first big business and the emotional struggle that brought…

I bought a new bike today! A Salsa Marrakesh and it is very fun to ride :). My current bike is a Giant 29er from 2011, so any bike I try feels like a massive upgrade. I bought this one to start training so I can try bike touring… I’ve got a trip planned for July in France and I am going to follow one of the smaller Euro Velo routes. Plus, I want to get in better cardio shape.

I’ve been a big fan of 23andMe and tried it early on (and I’ve updated my results too). I wish they hadn’t pulled some of the medical studies due to the FDA, but oh well. Eventually, we will get them back as the data gets better.

Anyway… here is what they said about my ancestry on conservative.

And, here is one of my grandparents to 7th grandparents and where they were born (click to enlarge):

Pretty cool :)

After I finished biking I decided to do a forest road back to highway 287. So I turned off 126 onto Forest Road 550, then S Buffalo Creek Rd, then Wellington Lake Road until I hit 287. It was beautiful, a few ice patches but otherwise dry. Just nice dirt/gravel road in the middle of nowhere. I just got the truck so it was an extra fun drive :). I do not plan to do anything crazy with the truck beyond dirt/gravel roads, but I do enjoy that I can get further out on those to do some bike rides and feel confident knowing I can get back no matter the weather.

Avoid uDirect like the plague! I switched to them a while back but decided to go a different route and move the money to Vanguard. They made it incredibly hard and their customer service was the worst I have ever experienced. The day I finally got the money moved and account closed I said a silent prayer, I think the process took 6 months… And, from my point of view, uDirect did everything they could to make it hard to leave their services. Their online interface is a total joke too. Plenty of better companies out there.

I started meditating on a daily basis in 2015 to help on stress. It was very helpful but right now I need a break from the routine of it. I will definitely pick this back up down the road when I need it. Right now I just need a vacation from the routine I think :).