Day 360 – Make a resolution and keep it.

So one of the rituals of this week of holiday purgatory is to decide on a New Years Resolution.

In 2012 at least 45% of all American committed to some kind of resolution. The top 10 resolutions are :

1) lose weight

2) getting organized

3) spend less, save more

4) enjoy life to the fullest

5) staying fit and healthy

6) learn something exciting

7) quit smoking

8) help others in their dreams

9) fall in love and

10) spend more time with family.

The University of Scranton did a study that showed surprisingly, that 75% of all resolutions make it through the first week. Only 46% make it past the six month mark. Oddly the study also revealed that 39% of people in their 20’s will actually achieve their goals this year as compared to only 14% of people over 50 will achieve what they set out to do.

Making a resolution is not hard and there is no secret to it. The latter is also true for sticking to them and actually achieving your resolutions.

Make your resolution tangible – make sure your resolution is something that you can see and measure. Things that are ambiguous like being happier need an anchor to give you some stick of measurability to see if you are on track.

Be specific – it is not enough to simply say I am going to lose weight. Be bold and choose a number! It is hard to hit your target when you really do not know what it is.

Come up with a plan – break your goal down into manageable steps. 50 lbs of weight loss may seem like a huge number but it really is only 1lb a week. One pound is equivalent to 3500 more calories burned than consumed. 3500 calories a week is only 500 calories a day which can be easily done by walking half an hour and not going back for seconds one meal a day.

Write it down –  I cannot express how important this one is. There is something magical about writing down your goal. Write it down and put it somewhere you will see it every day. I suggest the bathroom mirror, Every morning and every night you will see what you have written down and there is some cool stuff that will go to work in your sub conscious. Do not skip this step.

Share your resolution –  this is where accountability comes in. If you do not tell anyone what your resolution is it is easy to let something slide and then it just disappears with echos of, “I will try again next year” or some other kind of negative talk.

If you have never embarked on this journey of a New Years resolution I encourage you to do so. None of our lives are so perfect that we cannot find an area to improve in. Follow these simple steps and look back as one of the proud in a year and be grateful for how much better your life is. Share your resolutions with me and lets make 2015 awesome together!

Day 303 – Less time equals more.

You know how you always imagine if you had more time you could get so much done?

I have found recently just the opposite to be true. It seems when I have less time I actually get more done. I am more efficient and deliberate with how I prioritize and do things.

I shared a few days ago that I need to get a job. My worry has been that I will not be able to really do what I need to get done. The fact that is starting to emerge is that I think it will be fine. I will be smart with the little time I have and I will do more of the right things when it comes to business. It is not always about doing. If just doing were the key to success, more Americans would be millionaires.

No one needs to tell Americans to work harder. We work more than almost any country on the planet. Our problem is that we just “do”. We are like a rat in a maze frantically searching for food. Constantly busy constantly working but, are we really doing the right things? Guys like Donald Trump and Tony Hawk are so much farther ahead of where I am at because they do more of the right thing. Successful people have figured out what do do. They have identified the right things to do and they spend all of their time focused on those things.

When my back is against the wall and I have very little time I find myself the most productive because I am focused on the big pushes. The things that will get the most results in a short period of time.

I think that by getting a job to just survive and pay bills until all of this can work is going to be good because of the obvious but, also because I will have more days like today where I spend time doing the right things. The things that matter, the big things.

Too much time for me is not necessarily a good thing. Lets see how this new chapter plays out.

Day 300 – Bottling day!

I love days at the distillery!

I wish it was not a two hour drive though. Thus morning Cort and I loaded up the car and picked up Peter a friend from church and headed east to Cashmere. We got there later than I had planned and Colin and Carol were already working bottling Apple Pie!

We also had a surprise helper. A customer who came into the distillery yesterday on a Groupon was somehow wrangled into a day of  stuffing cinnamon sticks in bottles and capping. Colin was on the fill station, Carol was the eagle eye on the measuring station and Cort was a rockstar on the label machine which is normally a pain in the arse but, Cort had the magic touch for almost 1100 bottles.

We stll hand bottle and the hold up is usually on the heat wrapping station. Each bottle gets a shrink wrap seal and has to be done with a heat gun. Today because we had Peter were able to keep two guns going at all times which was amazing. Even with the second degree burn on my hand (yes, blister and all) we cranked out a total 88 cases today in just over 4 hours.

We had to bottle 64  cases for orders that were placed and we bottle another 24 just for on hand inventory and today’s little bottling event was a great success.

We have product in the warehouse, Orders coming in and shipping out and every batch has been bigger than the rest. I would say that is pretty good for a company that is just coming up on it’s 1 year anniversary.

Day 292 – Get up early and eat that frog!

Alright!

So I totally meant to get up at 600am when I first woke up. I close my eyes for just a second and it was 700!

Okay so when I did get up I tried to get back into my old habits. No email, made the bed and read for a bit with a warm cup of coffee. I made breakfast, showered and was working by just before 8am.

The big thing I needed to get done today was a contract I have been working on (putting off) for a while. Today was the day that I needed to eat the frog and get it done! If you are not familiar with eating the frog let me explain.

The frog is the task that you don’t want to do but really need to do. The frog task is the ugly distasteful one that you do not want to do for whatever reason. You are not motivated to do it, leaving it victim to procrastination. Frog tasks need structure around them to get done. You need to create motivation to make them happen by transforming them into something else desirable or by making them subordinate to a strong habit. For example you could make a habit out of eating your frog at the beginning of the day, leaving you free to do the things you really want to do later in the day. This habit creates an inherent reward. Rewards for eating the frog are good, otherwise they will just sit there looking at you croaking.

The Contract was my frog because I cannot type worth a crap. O have an advanced hunt and peck method. I have to be looking at the keyboard while I type so when I am transcribing something as technical as a contract it takes time. So much punctuation and proper Queen’s English I can only go about 3-4 words at a time. When I am typing a 10 page contract, you can see how that is not very desirable.

Anyway, cheers to me! I got it done and just in time. I was able to reward myself with a nice little 20 minute catnap and visiting with Amy watching a show late this afternoon.

It is Thursday so of course its family dinner! Tonight was one of the special ones as it was pumpkin carving night! We get pretty competitive around here and I am not gonna lie, there was some secret squirrel shit going on this week leading up to tonight.

So we had a few inside joke pumpkins but I have to say I was a fan of Emily’s. She carved out her pumpkin, added a tap and poured beer into it to make a pumpkin keg! Man my life just suck doesn’t it!?

Anyway getting my blog done early so I can get to bed early again tonight. I have an appointment at 900am already.

Cheers!

Day 281 – My green thumb.

Most of this blog will cover what I am sure is most of my audiences least favorite subject but it is what my day was about.

I have a few plants that I have been growing out doors this summer to experiment with and try to understand the cycle under natural conditions. It is good to know when I am growing indoors in an artificial environment  just what it is that I am trying to duplicate. It has been a mostly positive experience as we have had a good summer. Since we are into Fall officially and we have had some rain I have experienced some mold. It seems with the cooler days and the rain that the plant is not able to completely dry out during the day and mold is created. This is generally not a problem indoors as the plants are fed directly to the soil and not over the plant like in nature. Since the outdoor plants are not completely done I have built a shelter for them to allow them to get the light necessary but also will protect them from the rain. I will take on more of a indoor feeding regiment and see how it works out. The outdoor crop has really been more of an experiment and I am not into it a whole lot of money. Regardless, it has been a good experience. I have been able to see hoe the plants react to light and temperature swing and I can understand why farmers love what they do.

It is immensely satisfying to see something planted to grow and reach maturity. Plants become like dependents.   Without the care and attention of the farmer they will simply die. Of course some will survive as most plants do but, I have been able to keep them all alive.

Later tonight I had to go to the warehouse and spend about 5 hours with those plants. I needed to cull the dead vegetation, feed and stake several of them as some of them are almost 6 feet tall!

After I was done i could not help but step back and again enjoy the vision of what I have done. I have learned a lot in the last year. Before then I had never taken care of so much as a house plant nor had any concept of what was needed outside of my vague recollection of Junior High science class.

In any case I am going to bed feeling pretty accomplished!

 

Day 274 – Sometimes you just have to pivot.

Well I had a lot to do this week and I was making good headway.I have eluded to a monkey wrench being thrown into the mix but I am not sure if it really is a wrench or not yet.

In either case it has slowed my roll a bit but only operational. Nothing that will affect the big picture so that is good. I will share more when I know I can and we have made more definite decisions. Like I said yesterday, the goal is the same but the path seems to be changing.

This is what I was taking to Mark Cuban about when I was in the Tank. A business owner has to be able to pivot. A Pivot is a change in strategy without a change in vision. It may not feel good and it may not be easy. We like to get emotional about plans we make but, if you get too emotional your judgment will get clouded. You have to be able to separate yourself and take a step back to see the big picture and be able to adapt and pivot. To make changes that make business sense.

I may not even know how to make the pivot work sometimes but, when it is the only correct course of action the answer will present itself. It just does. I cannot stress about it too much just be diligent and keep this thing moving.

Day 272 – New relationships and Family Dinner

Waking up every day I have no idea what the day will bring or who I will meet.

Today I had several things to do around the office but I was looking forward to a meeting I was trying to set up with a BHO (Butane Hash Oil) processor.

Yes this post will mostly be about my Marijuana operation.

I have sold most of the useful product we have from the first harvest that was of a Medical grade level. All that is left is the trimmings and some plants that, due to my lack of experience have over-flowered and cannot be sold as medicine in their current state. I have been experimenting with several different concentrates such as butter for cooking and Dry Ice Hash and I have been looking for someone to partner with to make BHO.

It should go without saying that most of the people in this business are not like me. I am a business man first and professional. It is difficult to find trustworthy professional people in this business to partner with and it is a real struggle.

I have been interviewing a couple local people for processing and today I met Pete. As soon as I saw him I knew he was not the typical person in this business. Very professional and clean. He drove a car in good repair and was not flashy. He was me. you guy next door just making a living and helping people. We instantly hit it off and I trusted him enough to leave him with 1.25lbs of my product.

That is a lot of trust!

We struck a deal and he is currently working on my stuff. It is important to use as much of the plant as possible minimizing waste and maximizing the usefulness of what we grow. I am looking forward to see what he will be able to produce and I am looking forward to establishing a long term relationship with Pete.

I came home to Thursday family dinner. Thursdays are always a highlight in my week. A chance to hang out and just be with my favorite people on the planet, my family. We laugh constantly and always have a great meal thanks to my most amazing wife and lover Amy.

All in all it was a very good day.

 

Day 271 – Highs and Lows

The morning started out pretty stressful.

I had to spend over an hour cleaning up my computer and restoring some things just to get it to connect to the internet. I really should take better care of my computer but, I get so busy that I forget to restart it and do the updates. The stress of a deadline that I have to get my blog submitted for my quiz on Tuesday night does not help. It literally came down to my deadline when I finally got it done and uploaded.

I did get some awesome news this morning in the heat of my repairs. Our Distributor in Minnesota has already re-ordered! Went through his first 14 cases faster than our Washington Distributor did and it I was not there to push sales. I wish all distributors were this great! And who would have thought Minnesota!?

Spent some time working on the Executive Summary for Eve’s Moonshine Co today as well. This will be the backbone of the business plan we will need to secure the funding we will need to start the location here in Snohomish and the one in Leavenworth. Lots of details to work out but it is a very exciting time.

I am also really looking forward to a meeting we have next week at the farm with the owners and Will from BB Ranch meats. There will be a lot of vision cast for what we will be able to do to create what we are calling a modern farm. Businesses on the farm using the products created on the same property. It is a super cool idea and there are some super ideas that have already been discussed.

The last thing I did today was to locate a guy that can help process all of the left over scraps from out first harvest at the warehouse into usable  product that can be sold. This process with the Washington State Liquor Control Board is really wearing on me. There were about 2700 people apply for the Producer – Processor license we applied for and they have only approved about 200 so far. We turned in our application on the last day so we are at the bottom of the list and I fear that we will still not be contacted for months. In the meantime we are still paying a lease and other bills with limited funds coming in from what we can grow under the current medical growing laws. Coupled with the fact that we do not have a real grower and I am having to muddle through it with an education of Hard Knocks and YouTube, it is difficult. I ma staying above water but even treading water gets tiring. I know I am going to make it but just like everything else I tackle this is a difficult process.

No self pity just sharing my struggle and it is real.

Day 270 – How secure is security?

Security is one of the basic human needs.

I think most of us live in a false sense of it in our daily lives. We were told when we were growing up that if we did well in school and went to college we would get a good job. That good job would take care of us until retirement.

We go to work every day under the impression that the building to the place of our employment will be standing and the doors open. How many stories have we heard in the last decade about people going to their secure job only to find out that it was all an illusion. In the blink of an eye their security blanket of a good job was snatched away from them, often without a notice.

Maybe it was downsizing. Maybe the owner sold the business to retire and the new owners just want to bring in their own people. or maybe the owners just lost their lease and have no money or no where to relocate and start over.

Being an employee you are totally at the will of someone else and have NO control over your future. You may have faith in your future and believe in security but it is really not there. As a business owner or entrepreneur we have a LITTLE control over these thing. We can purchase property, grow smart and even in slow times cut back on staff to support ourselves.  A little is more than none and still not total security. It is more stressful as a business owner but, at the end of the day I know that I have more control over my future and an owner than I would as an employee.

I have people ask me all of the time, “How do you do it? How do you go without having a guarantee of where your next dollar will come from?” I tell them that I am no different than them. They have no more guarantee than me and I am just taking a longer road than most that will take me to a potentially higher peak than most as well. The trail is hard to find and follow but for the brave it is worth it.

I find security in being in control of my own destiny and choices. Security is based on the results of my personal efforts and no one else’s. While it may seem a little less secure, in the long game I think it is the better choice.

 

Day 269 – Made a good start to the week.

I got a good start on my week.

Up early thanks to it being garbage day and I think we are the first street on the route! I did manage to get my desk cleared off and several things started.

I had to go to the warehouse and finish my tasks from last night but I am ahead of that now so I can focus on the things at hand with regards to the barn location and the new licenses for Eve’s.

It will be a race with the printer to get new labels printed so we can bottle that big batch of Apple Pie we made last week. We have to get that big order filled.

I will also be putting together a presentation schedule for restaurants and bars for Apple Pie. I would like to introduce them to their new featured fall drink. Apple Pie was meant for this time of year and it is time to hit it hard. This is the time of year where we can make big progress and get lots of bottle in the hands of new fans and old.

Still working on a tasting event out at the barn in December. Targeting December 12th so stick a note somewhere as a reminder. We will be sponsoring it and there will be several local spirits wineries and hopefully brewers!

Tomorrow is Tuesday and a long day so I will talk to you all tomorrow!