Importance of Fellowship

One of my favorite things about being self employed is getting to fellowship with friends in the morning over coffee. This morning I got hang with DJ at his SWEET pad in Santa Barbara. This place is seriously amazing because it has a view that is unique even in Santa Barbara. You can see Ventura and north Goleta practically. DJ and I were going to meet at Whales Tail downtown but we decided to have breakfast at the Freedom House instead. Crystal cooked us an amazing breakfast of French toast coated with corn flakes and almonds. It was 5-star style eating, plus we ate on the patio (which DJ had never done!) and had an amazing view to go with the amazing meal. Thanks Crystal! We also had mimosas with Dom Perignon that was left over from a get together the previous night...livin' the high life!DJ and I talked about how much fun it was to be able to just hang out in the morning to do what we felt was important (which may be to work, read, or fellowship) versus rush to be at work at 8:00 am. I really feel so blessed to have the freedom to do this and have friends like DJ to hang with and enjoy time together.

The view from DJ's patio as displayed by my iPhone!

Reunions Are Awesome and The Great Experience

This past Saturday my friends Ryan and Chase got married. I love weddings because marriage is awesome (I may be partial since I'm married to an awesome woman) and because when good friends get married it generally means a reunion with lots of friends.

My best friends in the world were at the wedding and we had such a great time. I should have taken more pictures but we were having such a great time hanging out. Our little house was packed out with DocRoc and Weir sleeping on the couch, and the Wold family in the upstairs bedroom. Paul and family also spent most of the day time hours with us so it was a blast. I feel so blessed to have such good friends that will always be there for me if I need them.

The wedding was also fun because we had such a great time with the wedding photographer. I know some pretty awesome wedding photographers and Josh Gruetzmacher was awesome because he helped personalize the experience for the guests as well as the bride and groom. Most weddings I've been to have a photographer that stays behind the scenes to do their job. Well Josh was going far above and beyond by trying to hook Weir (a guest) up with the table of single girls. He put it best when said it was "a land of milk and honeys" over there. If you can quote scripture, make it so the person saying it and receipient was the same name as the guy who first saw the land of milk and honey, and create an innuendo all at the same time you have creating a memorable experience to an art form.

Josh (the wedding photographer one) is awesome and for someone so young could teach a lot of seasoned photographers what it means to create a remarkable experience. I'd recommend him now and that really is the point isn't it?

I did get some pretty good random shots through.

Andy's GQ advertisement (I think Lisa may have actually taken this picture).
The evening sky was a perfect shot with these cool Japanese lanterns
There was a beautiful sunset that night.












They had really great all white table settings.

Care Enough to be Different

A couple weeks ago an old coworker, Kelly Oshiro, contacted me through LinkedIn, which is just rad because we had not talked since she left Santa Barbara. The world being so connected is really wonderful. Kelly and her boyfriend Sam just moved back to Santa Barbara and Sam was looking for a job. Kelly wanted to know if I could possibly provide any guidance. On Tuesday I met with Sam and it was awesome to meet someone so passionate about what he wants. He is a natural product evangelist and I know will be supremely successful.

We talked about what kind of job he wanted, the type of company he wanted to work for, and what was important. He knew what he wanted, but was making one of the biggest mistakes I see when people are looking for a job. His resume was normal, totally normal. Normal equals boring and unmemorable and when applying for a job you want to be remembered. Here was the basic format of Sam's resume.

Sam's resume looked like 99% of the resumes I've seen. He was using one of the common formats, which means his resume was not unique or rememberable because almost everyone is using those formats. If you want to

If you are putting together a resume there are a few big DOs and DON'Ts to keep in mind.

• DON'T copy the exact format of the sample resume you are using. DO care enough to personalize the style of the resume making it different. Different gets remembered.

• DON'T list bullets of what you were responsible for at each job. Frankly I don't care what you did, I care what you accomplished. Accomplishments should be measurable and show you you improved the company in some way. Here is a good example from Resume-Resource.

• DON'T send 20 resumes that are generic to 20 companies. DO want a job bad enough that you spend time customizing the resume for the job you are applying for.

• DON'T list your GPA unless you had a 4.0 and just graduated, and DON'T put it at the top of the resume.n DO list all education and certifications that are applicable to the job you are applying for.

• DON'T list “Proficient in Word and Excel” if you're applying for a job that assumes you are. For most jobs it is already a requirement to know these applications. DO list applications that you are proficient in that are unique (i.e. Perl or Java) and make you remembered.

• DON'T list an “Objective” that says something like, “To get a job and an exciting company in the IT related field.” DO create a “Professional Summary” that is basically your elevator pitch on why someone should hire you.

• DON'T make it one page and hard to read because of information overload. DO instead increase it to two pages so it's easy to read, but put all the stuff you really want them to see on the first page.

• DON'T write a cover letter to “Whom It May Concern”. DO enough research to find out the name of the hiring manager or recruiter in HR and direct your resume to them.

• DON'T ever not apply for a job because you think you're under-qualified. DO take a chance and try to get a job that may be your next big move.

I could probably go on and on, but that seems to be good enough for now. Happy resume writing!

Vegas Baby!

I was out of town for a couple of days and wasn’t able to blog. I actually missed doing it because I’m beginning to find it fun. I really need to get on being able to blog from my phone. I’ve got things all setup, just haven’t done it.

I spent Thursday through Saturday in Las Vegas, both for work and for a bachelor party. My buddy Ryan is getting married in a couple of months, so he decided to have a get together with friends for the weekend. It’s funny when I tell people I went to Las Vegas for a bachelor party, it automatically comes with all these assumptions. But we are really a pretty tame bunch so the weekend consisted of poker, blackjack, a round of golf (when it was 110 degrees!), and eating.

We also did a bit of beer drinking as well, but nothing excessive. We stayed at Monte Carlo and ate every meal at Monte Carlo Brew Pub because they had good food and awesome beer pitchers…it’s a huge tap!

I also played real poker for the first time…meaning with real money. I have played poker, but only goofing around with chips and friends…no money. I played “two-four” hold ‘em because I’m way too cheap to play “no limit”. I ended up winning about $25 on the first day and losing about $25 on the second, so I felt pretty good about things. I can’t say the same for my luck with blackjack…

We gave Ryan this crazy shirt that listed a bunch of things he had to do…but I had to leave before he could do them…bummer!

Snow Day

For President's Day weekend Chrystal, Brody, and I went on our annual ski trip to Utah. My college buddy David has family in Salt Lake City that we stay with - which is great because it means we don't have to pay for a hotel. His father-in-law Frank also feeds us like kings every night, which is pretty awesome. The last night we had elk loin, which was so good. I'd never had elk before, and it very tender and flavourful.


We had another dream ski day this year with fresh powder. The white stuff fell all day long, so the snow stayed fresh the entire day. Check out the video of us shredding it up. The order of shredders is David Wold, Jeremy Wold, and then me. David turns into a "super-shredder" when the video camera shows up, and I turn into a wanna-be super-shredder. I had a few slide outs on this run, but had a great time. If you watch closely you can also see Jeremy's friend Lucas take a little jump off the side of the screen. The video was taken by Matt Miller, which means he didn't get on camera...which is a shame because he's a bad boy on the double planks.

Of the four of us, I'm definitely in the worst shape and the least talented skier. But, the three of them are nice enough to wait around for me when needed and tolerate my incecent "holy crap my thighs are burning" comments. Every time we go skiing it makes me wish that we lived closer to the mountains so I could do more skiing. It's one of those sports that I really do love, but only get to do it once a year...maybe twice at most. Some day I hope to ski 20 to 25 days per year...one can dream!