Founder, Designer, Developer, Surfer
I was messing around a few months ago clearing out old client accounts from my Media Temple account. I deleted a few databases that I didn’t think contained anything of importance — I was wrong. I realized a couple days later that I had deleted my old freelance portfolio site, Muku Studios; the Hawaii adventure blog, Discover Garden; and my parents business website…
My business partner, Jeff Milone, Maui social media man, Erik Blair, and myself are in the early stages of starting a coworking, workation, incubation, education space on Maui.
In case you’re in the dark about any of those things, I’ll provide some clarity:
Coworking is a style of work that involves a shared working environment, often an office, and independent activity. Unlike in a typical office environment, those coworking are usually not employed by the same organization. Typically it is attractive to work-at-home professionals, independent contractors, or people who travel frequently who end up working in relative isolation. —Wikipedia
Workations involve traveling to a vacation destination to partake in both work and play. It’s appealing as a tax write-off and work incentive for business owners, freelancers and independent contractors looking for a change of environment. Workations are becoming popular with smaller businesses in which the owners and/or employees work independently from different locations around the world.
Business incubators are programs designed to support the successful development of entrepreneurial companies through an array of business support resources and services, developed and orchestrated by incubator management and offered both in the incubator and through its network of contacts. —Wikipedia
Education would be offered in the form of paid workshops and coaching. The focus would be on tech related ways to build and promote your business — website development, branding, social media, marketing, etc.
So what’s wrong with starting a blog?
If you’re creating a blog for personal reasons — nothing.
If you’re creating a blog to get rich and famous — everything.
When I created my first blog I imagined it as a huge success. I envisioned tons of traffic, selling advertising space, hiring writers and then kicking back, soaking it up in a hot tub with my soul mate. Granted, it was a fun project, but the dream was to pay the bills. It didn’t. It never will. I’ve accepted that.
The fact is, almost all blogs fail. I’m referring to blogs created with the hope of generating income. If a blog is marketing a service or a business in the real world, it can be a useful tool. However, a blog generally costs more money and time than will ever be recouped. If you get over the hump of more than 50 visitors per day, you’re doing pretty damn good. But nowhere near good enough.
Owning a business or being self-employed has its advantages. However, losing yourself in the work is far too easy, because it never ends. How much you make is determined by your own time, efforts and innovations. Nobody is blowing the whistle at the end of the day, except maybe your wife.
My business requires me sitting in front of the computer staring in to that glowing screen for countless hours. When I’m trying to solve a problem, it’s impossible to pry myself away from the task at hand. If I didn’t have hobbies, live in a location with perfect weather or have the privilege of being able to take a couple hours to myself during the day, it’s likely I would end up like Cartman:
Continue Reading “The Importance Of Balancing Work And Play”
Every bike I have owned in my adulthood has been stolen — from my porch in Orlando, from a palm tree in Hawaii, and now from my garage in La Jolla. I might as well start a non-profit, supplying the homeless, junkies and punk-ass kids with bike transportation.
Last night I fell asleep on the couch, tired from packing the house for moving back to Maui, and I forgot to close the garage door. Obviously my fault, but it happens. I woke up this morning and decided to take my new SUP board for a spin at Windansea. While moving stuff out of the way to get to my board in the garage, I noticed my bike was missing. At first, I thought it was just misplaced. I soon realized it had been stolen — again. Nothing else in the garage was taken, just my bike.
It got me thinking, why do people steal my bikes!? I’ll tell you, because they’re stealing their own getaway vehicle! It’s a low risk theft. Bikes are generally worth a decent chunk of change, but not enough to warrant the police actually spending their time to find it.
Since it’s happened enough times, I’ve come to notice a trend in my demeanor. For at least a few weeks after my bike is stolen, every person on a bicycle is the enemy. I’m ready to pounce on any unlucky soul riding a bike similar to mine. God forbid I actually see somebody on my bike. I will run them over, no hesitation. I almost tackled our 94-year-old neighbor this afternoon. She rounded the corner of my driveway with her rolling walker. I saw her out of the corner of my eye, thought it was somebody back to steal something else, and I was ready to kill!
The thing is, I’m not even a big bicyclist. I’m no Lance Armstrong (apparently he’s not either). I don’t wear the goofy spandex or have a hydration pack. I just like to cruise in to town, or to the beach from time to time. What really chaps my ass, is that I actually bought a decent bike this time around. A $400 Diamondback hybrid. You know, not amazing, but better than my previous beach cruisers from Target.
So I’m making a new vow. I don’t plan to spend more than $250 on a bike again. Because I’m probably buying it for somebody else.
Once upon a time, in 2009, we created a Facebook page for Organic Themes, and well… it’s gone practically untouched until now (3 years later). Check out the updated page. Give us a “like” or leave a comment. Our last comment was nice, a year ago:
“You may have given up on Facebook, but we know you haven’t given up on WP Themes! Thank-you all for making some of the best themes around!”
I guarantee the page will see much more activity in the future. I’ve done a bunch of integration thanks to the Ultimate Facebook plugin from WPMU Dev. Organic Themes tweets and blog posts will now post to the page. So if Facebook is your thing, you can stay up to date with what’s going on at Organic Themes.
I don’t travel the world in search of the perfect wave, but after living in Florida, Oahu, Maui and San Diego, I have surfed my fair share of breaks. I decided to list my favorite spots in order. Keeping in mind, my style of wave isn’t huge, powerful and gnarly. You won’t find Pipeline or Jaws on this list. I like clean, chest to head high rights — with preferably no crowd.
I grew up in Florida, I became a man in Hawaii, and California is new to me. There’s no rule book for having the freedom to live and work virtually anywhere in the world. It’s a relatively new concept, and while it should feel like complete freedom, sometimes it just feels like complete confusion. It’s a loss of your roots. However, in searching for my home I have come to some conclusions:
I got a GoPro camera for Christmas. I decided to brave the cold La Jolla waters near Bird Rock and give it a go — pun intended. Having a camera attached to your board is definitely a conversation piece. There’s a lot pressure to perform when everyone in the water is staring at you. I’m no pro surfer by any means, but I have as much as fun. I prefer to stick to my 4-6 foot waves. So here’s a couple rides from one of those days…
I’m a proud big brother, and slightly jealous. Within a couple weeks my brother managed to far surpass my own web presence — granted I’ve built a small portion of the internets. But he went from only 100 Twitter followers to over 5000 in 2 weeks! How did he accomplish such a feat you might ask? He’s 1 of 3 hosts on a popular new YouTube channel, SourceFed. While you may scoff at YouTube, this show is legit! It’s funded by Google, has real production value, and is actually very entertaining and informative. In fact, it’s probably how I get most of my news now — which may or may not be sad. Of course, I’m biased towards Elliott, but the other hosts are great too.
Get a taste of the show below and subscribe. You’ll probably like it.
It’s been 5 months since moving from Maui to San Diego. I’ve had fun exploring the area — hanging out downtown, visiting north county, surfing cold water, eating delicious Mexican food and much more. San Diego is an awesome place. It’s beautiful, diverse and there’s plenty to keep me busy. When it comes to living on the mainland, San Diego — Actually, Encinitas would be my town of choice.
However, there’s nothing anchoring me to San Diego. Hawaii still feels like home. My friends and lifestyle are primarily in Hawaii. The ease and enjoyment of life in the islands is unparalleled. Some days I love San Diego, but every day I love Hawaii. Constantly putting yourself out there to make new sets of friends gets exhausting when you’ve moved every year for 9 years. Ultimately though, San Diego is a place I could be happy living, without question.
Update: In hindsight, after 2 years of living in San Diego, I can say with confidence it was the best place I’ve ever lived for my personal lifestyle. I hope to move back someday.