Today we had our monthly team huddle where I presented on our company principles. In preparation, I created an outline of how I was going to present each principle but didn’t plan how to open up the discussion to the group for further input. My lack of structure for brainstorming led to a rather scattered and unproductive brainstorm for the first 15 minutes at which time I realized it needed to be more structured. If I were to do it over, I’d set up a framework for both the presentation and the brainstorming. Wondering what type of brainstorming frameworks there are out there…

While speaking at UMSL, I got the chance to hear another speaking go after me. He spoke on Ethics, Character, and Integrity. He did a wonderful job at weaving stories throughout his speech to make each point and keep the audience engaged the full 90 minutes. (Side Note – I want to keep getting better at story telling as it's such an amazing tool to be good at.)

One story he shared was about how Lacrosse players will dive head first when a ball goes out of bounds because the rule is the stick closest to the ball gets to bring it back in. He then asked the room to think about when was the last time you dove head first for something you wanted? Most people had to think pretty far back in life, even all the way back to childhood. It got me thinking about my answer to the question and I would say my two times were falling in love with Annie (literally saying "I Love You" on New Years in Berlin, Germany with fireworks falling all around us), and giving my all to Red Rover (while speaking under Swift Kick was a surefire income).

I tend to be a level headed person, so the idea of diving head first into something goes against my logic, but so far in life, when I've given my all to something, I've come away happier than before. 

The Entrepreneurs Roundtable brings together one guest speaker who talks for a few minutes and then opens the mic to four startups to pitch their idea and receive feedback from both the guest speaker and the audience. This was my third time attending. I always gain value from the guest speaker and critiquing the various pitches, but the real value for me actually comes during the networking time before and after the scheduled events. I find myself honing in, and getting more comfortable, at pitching who we are, what we do, how we do it, and why we do it. It's surprisingly not easy to give a compelling elevator pitch. For us it probably stems from a mix of the complexity of the problem we set out to solve and our vague marketing strategy. I'm far from a home run pitch. It's more like a single right now because at least within a few sentences, I can get the other person interested enough to want to talk more. 

It's funny how I still get nervous though. After speaking so many times to audiences around the country, and even the world, you'd think I would be a master of coming up with something amazing on the spot and be great at delivery. Not true. The more experience points I have under my belt, the better I get at something though. Three down, plenty more to go…

Side Note – The guest speaker, John Frankel of ff Asset Management, talked about his excitement for a company they funded called Mogotix. Funny thing about Mogotix is its co-founder is Scott Thorpe, who was our main Red Rover developer for several years. Great to see good fortune come his way and John singing his praises all the way on the other side of the county.

Having only one day "in the office" before I head out again tomorrow automatically sets up some challenges as to what to focus on. The fires in the kitchen tend to need the most immediate attention. So I plowed through my emails/tasks and knocked out everything marked with "high priority, high urgency." This is a common pattern after a few days of traveling, stuff just builds up. Good news, I was quickly able to bring my inbox back down to zero in minimal time.

With a growing team, I opted to spend the rest of my time focused on them. I set Megan up with taking on the larger role of customer care by defining a map of what our current customer care looks like with some open questions for her to figure out.

Megan and I then met to talk about renewing her contract and reviewing her role within Red Rover. She's a wonderful asset to us and so much of it was verbally acknowledging the great work she is doing as well as giving her a little pay bump.

We also turned the tables by asking her to give us a review of the company. Specifically we asked her to define what she thinks the principles of the company are, what we are doing that she likes, and what we can improve on. Having the newest members of a team review the company gives as close to an outside objective observer on the inner workings of the company as you can get.

I ended my day with a trip to Pivotal Labs in Tri Beca to meet the new programmers working on Red Rover as well as have dinner with Kevin to talk about several things. Every time Kevin and I meet, we have a fairly long list of topics to cover, but time never seems to be our friend as we plow through several pieces quickly to keep time integrity with other appointments. We both know the importance of prioritizing the "high priority, low urgency" tasks, but haven't put it into practice lately. We'll get better.

Lastly, on a totally unrelated note, my brother (Daniel) called last night to announce that he and his girlfriend (Andrea) were getting married today! It's kinda sorta a 9 year in the making non-pregnancy related shotgun wedding. It makes total sense for health and financial reasons, so Annie and I popped out the shot glasses and toasted them with some VeeV. It sounds like there will probably be a more official gathering soon to celebrate their nuptials, so I'll hold my emotional congrats till then. But for now, CHEERS!

And so ends 08/26/10

I'm flying somewhere 35K feet above Nebraska on my way back to NYC after an extended weekend visiting my brother (Robin), sister-in-law (Suruchi), and nephew (Milan). Milan is almost 1 1/2 years old and due to geographic distances (NYC vs San Francisco) and work schedules, this is the first time I've been able to really spend some good quality time with him.

Many would consider me a fairly analytical person, but It was amazing how quickly I emotionally connected to Milan while we rolled around on the floor playing with his trucks, building blocks, and more trucks. I, just like his parents, found myself joyously smiling at the little things he would do like pucker his lips to kiss me good bye, or make the noise of a fire truck from his crib the first second he woke up, or wave his hands to let me know we shouldn't climb on the kitchen chairs.

This was also the first time I've been able to spend quality time with Robin and Suruchi since the birth of Milan. Every night after they put Milan to bed, Suruchi would prepare a wonderful meal and we'd sit around the kitchen table and talk for a few hours over some beer, wine, and dark chocolate. The nightly conversations were a combination of comparing habits between the Krieglstein brothers and lessons in fatherhood (which is not too far off).

In some ways, I feel like this trip was a bit of a self-journey for me on my way to fatherhood. Much like when I visited them for a week during college by myself. Something about "going west" adds a layer of magic.

As great as the trip was, my bruised (broken?) rib was a perpetual pain in my side the whole time and didn't let me play with Milan as much as I'd liked. It's still shooting a pain as I sit here writing.

I'm thankful to have such an amazing oldest brother and sister-in-law who created the cutest little boy who warmed my heart this weekend. I'm also thankful to come home to Annie who knows how to make me feel special every time I walk in the door.

And so ends 8/25/10