As we sat down to enjoy the Christmas feast last year, my buddy Glen Plomchok said “Remember, it’s a marathon, not a sprint.” I laughed because we staring at a ridiculous buffet table, complete with 7 bone Rib Roast, Ham, Turkey and all the fixins. The phrase stuck with me and I’ve used it a lot this year. Life is a marathon, not a sprint. The holiday season is also a marathon, so don’t feel like you have to sprint to December 25th. #paceyourself I got away from the hustle and bustle last weekend, and attended the VCU game last Saturday and the Redskins game last Sunday. Both lost. #sheesh Special thanks to Marc Chimento at Hy Tech Property for hooking me and Will Shewmake up with a sweet suite at the Skins game. Normally at a Skins game I have to wait in line 20 minutes to go to the restroom. I was so excited to have a restroom all to myself that I took a selfie. Midlothian-based Hy Tech was founded in 1985 and fixes a whole bunch of stuff for companies. I wished Hy Tech could fix the Redskins’ Offensive Line.
Bathroom selfie.
Monday, December 8th – We re-named Monday to Molly-day, since she was in town and Monday’s are definitely better when VP of Operations Molly Whitfield is around. And while it was good having Molly in the building, I didn’t get to see her much because I spent most of the day in my office working on 2015 marketing plans. However, Molly, Lindsey and I tried out Dutch & Company Monday night and I think the Church Hill restaurant should seriously consider changing its name to “Delicious & Company,” which is what Durf called it in a tweet.
Tuesday, December 9th – We’re busy at this time of year. I know Accountants that are busy on April 15th and Lifeguards are busy on Memorial Day. December is that kind of busy in the marketing biz. And that’s the excuse I’m making for missing Rotary on Tuesday morning. That, and I had a client meeting at the office at 8 o’clock.
Wednesday, December 10th – On Wednesday I had a chance to debrief my fellow members of theVirginia Council of CEOs roundtable in the morning and met with one of my financial coaches Dan Davies from Tax and Business Solutions in the afternoon. His partner Dave had eye surgery last week and good news, I hear he’s on the mend.
Thursday, December 11th – Kara was in town on Thursday too, just in time for the par-tay. Amazing how she always shows up for Thirsty Thursdays. After presiding over the Lucy Corr FoundationBoard Meeting at 8:00AM, I made it back in time to meet with Kara and Molly and put the final touches on our own strategic plans for 2015. It’s a good plan. And they worked very hard on it. And I get to take credit for it.
They also worked hard on the Embrace Richmond marketing and PR plan that we delivered to the Richmond-based non-profit on Thursday afternoon. We learned a lot about Embrace over the last two months and I am very pleased that Madison+Main is now involved in their growth. It’s the holidays and you should be thinking about giving. You should also be thinking about giving to Embrace Richmond. They’re doing amazing work in neighborhoods right here in Richmond. You can learn how to volunteer or donate here.
THURSDAY NIGHT’S HOLIDAY PARTY WAS A BLAST!
Friday, December 12th – The place always “goes to the dogs” on Fridays. Because we let people bring their doggies into the office. Brie (Jessica’s Yorkie) and Ridgley (Casey’s Miniature Dachshund) spent most of the day at my feet. Steve Mullen from EndGame PR held a social media training session in our conference room this morning. It was good to see Steve and we were happy to let him use the space, but it took an army of hungover marketing people to clean up after last night’s Holiday Party.