Human Touch Goes A Long Way

Too often we underestimate the power of one of the oldest form of communication, a handwritten letter. I am the type of person who would typically opt to deal with a customer service issue through live chat or email vs. picking up the phone and talking to an actual human. When most of consumer interaction with brands is made over the internet, we forget how impactful a little old fashion human touch is. It's the little things. PF Candle Co., thank you - you won me over with this short handwritten note. 

Should brands be focusing their marketing budgets on initiatives that encourage more human touch and interaction? I think so. Emotional connection over convenience. 

Apparently lululemon is on board with this philosophy, because just yesterday they announced a partnership with Felt - an iPad app that allows you to send handwritten cards from your iPad. Same goes with Nike Women. Just a few weeks ago I received a surprise package in the mail from them that also included a handwritten note. Winning. 

When is the last time you sent a loved one a handwritten note? I encourage you to go old school and send one rather than firing off a text or an email. 

My new Digital Royalty blog post.

Keep On Shredding

I’ve always dreamt about becoming an expert skier since I was a little one. I grew up with a dad that spent most of his life on the slopes, and a grandma that traveled the world skiing with her girlfriends until she was in her eighties. What a women.

30 years later I am not quite there and still striving to be that expert skier. I recently went on a ski trip to Beaver Creek, Colorado, with some friends, who don’t have to strive to be experts, because they are experts. This is what an expert looks like incase you're wondering --> Go Megan! 

Going on a weekend trip with eight expert boarders and skiers pushes your skill level to the max. And when I say max, I mean to the grey area where I asked myself a few times, “the sign doesn’t even have a black diamond it only says “expert run” - should I really be headed in this direction?” Hell, you only live once. Where did that leave me? Sliding down a cliff and losing both my skis at the top. But I got up, dusted the powder off and hiked to the top to retrieve my skis. Best workout ever. I then spent a few minutes to reflect on what just happened (and catching my breath). I took note on what I clearly did incorrectly and got up and continued my way down. What other option did I have?

You can’t evolve unless you’re pushed into your uncomfortable zone and surround yourself with people that help you do that on a regular basis. I’m fortunate to be surrounded by a crew (work & personal) that continues to push my limits, whether it's to head down a double black diamond, push me to agree to a speaking engagement, run a relay race, to cook a fancy meal that I never thought I'd master (thx Justin!) or go all in on anything I do (go get em' Leah).

Cheers to all you shredders! 

Throughout life you’re presented with several unchartered paths, you pick one and you blaze down it. Often times, midway through, you may learn that you may have picked the wrong path to venture down altogether. But how would you have known that unless you took the risk and the unconventional path? The next run, you make adjustments based on your leanings and you don’t make the same mistake again. Success doesn't come on first attempts or even second, it comes with calculated risk, perseverance and practice. 

My key takeaways from my ski trip that I strive to inject into everyday life: Take risks, scare yourself and keep evolving. Most importantly, celebrate those victories! #Cheers. 

Remotely Fun

Since my company relocated to Las Vegas nearly two years ago, I've been working remotely from my home. Since I've started working for the company I have traveled frequently for work and learned how to work from pretty much anywhere. Airport floors, crowded restaurants, sports stadiums, you name it - all I need is a pair of headphones and some good music blasting and I can crush through any project, regardless of the outside distractions. 

Call it a habit or human nature, but now I actually prefer to work in bustling places with good energy and lots of people. Working from a quiet home can actually become less productive for me. There's even studies that prove that noise and distraction can actually improve productivity. Case in point.

So to say the least in the last two years I've become a professional squatter at coffee houses all over city and world for that matter.

My mission is to scope out the best places based on the following criteria:

I've struck gold with many locations and failed miserably with some. To make it easier (and more productive) for you, my good friend and co-worker, Megan Porteous, whom also works remotely from San Diego, she and I will be scoping out the coolest coffee shops to work from and posting a series of reviews. Follow the hashtag #RemotelyFun on both of our Instagram and Tumblr pages for upcoming reviews. 

My first of many is inspired by a place I stumbled across yesterday that is one of my new favorite neighborhood places to work from. It's only two miles from my house - Sip Coffee & Beer House. This place is everything I look for in a remote work environment for the following reasons: 

For those non-working hours they even have a complete craft beer menu ($3 pints) featuring local brews, beer flights and wine on tap. What more do you need from a local coffee and beer house?

Will I be returning? Absolutely. 

Winter Pow Pow trip to Colorado. 

Song: The Life by Antoine Allain 

  "I think that relationships, experiences and getting wild (in moderation?) are what’s important in this life, and why everyone needs to find what makes them come alive." - Joel

A Common Bond

Since I was little, I have always been obsessed with the olympics. My face glued to the television, dreaming that one day I’d be one of those athletes representing my country and standing on the medal podium. Throughout my youth and teen years I played competitive softball, volleyball (shorty), soccer and dabbled in swimming. I grew up idolizing athletes like Gabby Reece, Mia Hamm and Julie Foudy. I watched Nadia on repeat for the better half of my childhood. My sister can attest to this and she actually recently hunted down a VHS copy of Nadia for me.

For the last three years I’ve had my eye on the espnW Women’s + Sports Summit and made it a goal to eventually attend. Organized workouts, power sessions with athletes - all hosted oceanside in Dana Point. Heaven.

Thanks to work, this year I was able to make it happen because Digital Royalty and Amy spoke and hosted a panel on personal branding. Lets just say I was beyond pumped and grateful to attend.

Most conferences I attended involve an excessive amount of painful small talk and “networking” - which I admit, isn’t my strong suite. It was so refreshing to have the exact opposite experience at this Summit. I met so many rad chicks and re-connected with friends, that are just crushing it in their careers/sports & the conversation flowed organically.

It got me thinking, what makes this “conference” different than the others? Besides the fact that workout clothes are the appropriate session attire, I believe it comes down to the fact that regardless of the company we work for, the position we hold or whether we are a professional athlete or not, we all shared one common bond - sports. In one way or another sports has made a positive impact on all of our lives.

It’s not often I get starstruck, but when I had the opportunity to run with (or chase rather) Julie Foudy and Summer Sanders during the group running session - I won’t lie, I had a “pinch me” moment. Although my olympic goals didn’t happened as planned, working out alongside my childhood role models was a good consolation prize. Side note, Summer Sanders who didn’t break a sweat during our four mile run - is currently training for her sixth full-marathon (New York City Marathon). She’s a machine in and out of the pool.

Following a killer social media panel hosted by Amy, I had opportunity to help facilitate a breakout session and share the same stage with Julie Foudy as we used her personal brand as a positive example for the session exercise. Not a bad day at the office. Major job love.

After a call with the Paralympic Committee a few months ago, I started following Paralympic athlete, Alana Nichols on Twitter. Besides having a kick ass name (although pronounced differently), Alana is a Paralympic wheelchair basketball player and alpine skier. 13 years ago while snowboarding she over-rotated in a backflip and landed on a rock, causing her to be paralyzed from the waist down. Just like that, life can change in a blink of an eye. That didn’t stop Alana from overcoming that and becoming the first women to win a medal in both the winter and summer Paralympic games and is headed to Sochi in 2014. Grateful to have met her in real-life and practice yoga with her today - the world needs more people like her. A truly inspiring human being.

20 years later, I still have many of the same role models, but for different factors. I now look up to these women for the impact they are making with their post-atheletic careers. They are using their influence to create legacies through their foundations and leadership/advocacy. Listening to their stories has inspired me to find a way to get involved with empowering youth through sports.

As I reflect on the past few days, this Summit was a reminder of how powerful sports truly are. Sports have shaped me into the person I am today and 31 years later, they continue to make a positive impact and shape the person I’ve yet to become.

“If you have a body, you are an athlete” – Bill Bowerman, co-founder of Nike.

Early mornings before everyone else is awake is my favorite part of the day. Clear mind, fresh perspective. Here's a video of those moments I've captured over the past year.

Clarity.

A day on the course with a GoPro.

Running From Regret

Regret is one of my biggest fears in life, so I try to avoid it at all costs. I’ve always had the mentality that when life throws me an opportunity, I just say “yes” and figure out the “how” later. Whether that has been to start a new job, go on a last minute trip, ski off a quickly approaching jump, or run a half marathon. Some may consider this approach to life borderline reckless, but it has yet to bite me in the ass (knock on wood), so I'm just rolling with it. Granted sometimes the landing isn’t as smooth as other times, but the true experience lies in what you learn and how you adapt to the challenge at hand. Fortunately, I have an amazing husband that's willing to "roll with it", with me and this weekend wasn’t any different.

A few months ago with some encouragement from a friend who works at lululemon (I heart you, friend), I signed up to run the lululemon SeaWheeze half marathon. I’m not going to lie, I wasn’t so into the actual run, but the opportunity to make a return visit to one of my favorite places on earth, Vancouver. Like every race I sign-up for I have full-intention of training “this time!” to prevent the pain of "last time!" One month prior to the race when my official lululemon race shorts arrived, I had yet to start training. Again. Pretty standard. Like anything, life goes on. Roll with it. 

I have to give props to lululemon for the epicness (is that a word?) of SeaWheeze. In true lululemon fashion, they had it locked and loaded down to the every last detail, including the Seawheeze training app (should have jumped on that bandwagon), the social media content/engagement, the packet pick-up party, the course, organized cheer stations, sunset yoga sessions and Sunset Festival with Passenger & Xaiver Rudd. I could go on for days. My favorite moment of the entire experience wasn’t the run, it was actually witnessing nearly 4,000 people practice yoga together lead by a local Vancouver yoga celebrity, Ryan Leier. I get goosebumps again even thinking about it.

Back to the run. I’ve never experienced a more beautiful course. About 8 of the miles were on Vancouver’s Seawall. Coming from the desert, the hot desert, running along the ocean on the Seawall at 70 degrees was a dream. On mile 10 I remember thinking to myself  “I’d rather be any place right now other than running this last three miles.” I then forced myself to look up and out into the ocean. It was an immediate boost of energy. Vancouver is magical. This 15 second video does a pretty good job at summing up the weekend.

In the past two years, I have my rad job and social media to credit for introducing me to some really cool people. Some of which have become really good friends, and even new co-workers. A few months ago, I was introduced on twitter to yet another rad chick who also works for lululemon. I was inspired by her blog post (suggest reading) and her love for food. I can relate. I was able to meet her in real life this past weekend and had the pleasure of running the race with her. To back-up a minute, Tess is training for the Chicago Marathon. With that said, the fact she hung back with me throughout the entire race vs. running circles around me – she instantly moved up several notches in my books. If it weren’t for Tess there to push me through the last half of that run and talk me out of drinking the ocean water during a time of thirst (ha), I could have easily added several minutes on to my finish time. Thank you, Tess for making me want to become a better runner. 

For the past several halfs I’ve always said that I wasn’t going to do another, yet I continue to sign-up for them and can’t figure out why I keep doing them. Today as I reflect back at yesterday’s race, I do it for the sense of accomplishment and the rush of adrenaline you experience at the start line. It's like a drug. Will I do race #7, #8 and #9 someday? There’s a good chance. Will I actually train like I should? Probably not. What’s important is that I’m now headed home ready to conquer life and feeling inspired and grateful for my experiences.

Say yes & roll with it. 

A new day, a new vinyl.

Saturday mornings are my favorite.

Summer Reads

Trying to become better at reading (and completing) more books, so I just posted on my facebook page asking for recommendations. Received a ton of great suggestions, so I thought I'd share them in one condensed list: 

Happy (summer) reading.