Oct 20th, 2007
by Justin.
This post is overdue, but since I’ll be visiting Chicago for a few weeks it seems fitting to finally do it. So without further delay, here we go!
- Walking
I miss using my legs. Sure I get to use them when I go to the gym or play basketball, but to get from point A to point B there’s nothing as relaxing as walking – especially when you compare it to Southern California traffic!
- Seasons
Sure the winters are cold, but they can also be beautiful (especially since I worked from home 
). It’s true what they say about appreciating the good seasons once you’ve been through some bad weather. As a native Californian, the only seasons I knew were from television and when we went up to the mountains to go skiing.
- Independent Restaurants
In the land of suburbia, it seems like there’s only a handful of restaurants: Buca di beppo, Chilis, Red Robin, etc etc. It’s tiring and unoriginal. In Chicago it’s practically effortless to try someplace new with some character. I had my best memories in Chicago when I was eating.
- Public Transportation & Cabs
California public transportation sucks. In the SF bay area, the BART ends around midnight. How is that useful? I love being able to hop on the el or grab a cab from almost anywhere in the city. Great for those nights when you want to have that extra beer or bottle of wine.
- Diversity
In California, theres a lot of a few ethnic groups whereas in Chicago it feels like theres a few of a lot of ethnic groups (if that makes any sense). And while they’re pretty segregated by the neighborhoods, it at least makes them easy to find. It’s easy to go from a greek festival to swedish diner and grab some pearl milk to in Chinatown in a matter of minutes whereas I can probably go for days and only see two different colors in California.
- Architecture
The city of Chicago is beautiful. The attention to detail and city planning effort really shows and it really makes it a joy to live in and look at from a distance. It’s especially nice when it’s a holiday or special event and all the downtown buildings light up different colors and messages.
- Happy Hours
Chicago sure love to drink and often. That’s all.
- Summer Festivals
Did I mention they like to drink? If you like to eat unhealthy food while stumbling around outside with a beer, then summer in Chicago is for you since you can do this every single weekend. There are some classier events like the orchestra, jazz and movies in the park too.
- City Works (landscaping, cleanliness)
Walking through Grant Park or down the Magnificent Mile is always amazing. How much do they spend on flowers every year?
- People Interaction
When you drive around everywhere like in CA you almost forget how to interact with strangers. You get sucked into your own world and don’t think you need to talk to anyone you don’t know. People say Californians are snobby and I believe it. I feel like you can just walk down the street in Chicago and talk to almost anyone. That gives me a warm feeling inside.
Enough rambling. I’m heading to Chicago on Sunday for a few weeks. Email me or leave a comment if you want to meet up!
- Justin
Posted in: Chicago.
Oct 17th, 2007
by Justin.
I’m going to give you some great advice about how to get more customers and make your customers happy.
- Tell them what you’re going to give them. Don’t be bashful. You’ve got something good to offer them so just tell them outright what wonderful things they’ll be getting. I recently had to call Bank of America a few times regarding my credit card and the first thing the service agent said was “How can I provide you with world class service today?” How nice does that sound? It sounds like I’m going to get me some world class service – exciting!
- Give it. This only really works if you are going to deliver on the promise. However, with the customer all buttered up, you really only to have to deliver within the ballpark. What does “world class service” even mean? The service was very good, pleasant, and punctual on my BofA phone call and since they said it’s world class, I guess it was!
- Remind them. If you’ve already made them this feel good, make them feel even better afterwards. Reinforcement of their positive gains will help them remember the experience for next time or even share the experience with others. Car commercials typically serve dual roles of making people want to buy the car and making existing owners feel good about owning the car…when then leads them to tell others to buy the car.
It’s far too easy to hope that customers recognize the value you’re providing them. We make that mistake all the time. If you’re constantly saying to yourself “Why aren’t customers biting? Don’t they know what they’re missing?” , then the chances are they actually don’t know what they’re missing since you didn’t tell them.
Give my advice a try and you’ll have more customers, happier customers, and hopefully more money.
- Justin
Posted in: Marketing, advertising.
Sep 19th, 2007
by Justin.
I read this article in the LA Times about Lights Out SF, an event started by Nick Tyler to build energy convservation awareness. From the website:
Lights Out San Francisco is a citywide energy conservation event on Oct. 20, 2007. On this night, we invite the entire city of San Francisco to install one compact fluorescent light bulb (CFL) and turn off all non-essential lighting for one hour.
It’s a San Francisco initiative, but there’s no reason why everyone can’t participate. Put it in your calendars, take a break from work, and go for an evening stroll. Nick Tyler sums it up best with this quote:
“If we don’t do something, by 2050, all the polar bears will be gone. That’s where Santa Claus lives, man. That’s a bummer.”
- Justin
Posted in: Break, Energy Conservation.
Aug 29th, 2007
by Justin.
Mike Maddaloni tagged me so I’m supposed to give some random things about myself and then tag some more people. Here’s a post about the whole tagging game. For my post, in addition to my 5 things, I’ll give you a bonus of almost 30 of my habits.
- I’m a large asian man and I’m becoming obsessed with CrossFit. If you see me doing squats for no reason at all, that’s why.
- When I was 5, I broke my femur falling from a ladder. I had to have a body cast that went from chest to toe and I had to be flipped on my side to use the bathroom. Ouch!
- I love traveling. The few years I had a working wage, I went to Italy (twice), France (twice), the Czech Republic, Spain and China. My wife and I love traveling so much it was the theme of our wedding in July.
- I enjoy the taste of bloody meat. Nothing quite satisfies me like knawing away on a juicy steak. No seasoning please.
- You can read me like a book. You can tell if I’m nervous. You can tell if I’m happy. You can tell if I’m unhappy. I’ll tell you if I’m hungry.
- Here are my almost 30 publicly admitted good and bad habits. What are your habits?
I thought about helping to stop the tag train by not tagging others, but what would be the fun in that? After all, unlike email forward spam, the tag game gives people free links to help SEO and who doesn’t want more links? So here we go….tag you’re all it! (Justin runs away waving his arms like a child on a playground.)
- Justin
Posted in: About.
Aug 28th, 2007
by Justin.
Do you remember when you were a kid and couldn’t sleep the night before christmas because you wanted to wake up and open presents? That feeling of anticipation that lying there is just too boring. Is that the kind of feeling you have about your business?
All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy
It’s ok if your answer is ‘no’, or ‘not as much as before’. There’s no way you can keep that kind of excitement and energy going for a long period of time. The lower your energy and excitement drop, the less efficient you get. If your mind is engrossed with the same thing for every waking hour of every day, there’s no way around it. Your senses can get dulled.
So what can you do about it?
Mix it up
You’re an entrepreneur. You started your company because you had an idea and it probably isn’t the only idea you’ve had.
- Pick a small idea that you’ve been excited about but haven’t had the time to think about. It doesn’t matter if it’s related to your current business. In fact, it might be better if it’s not.
- Take a day or two off and just run with it full steam. I bet it’ll be an extremely productive couple days.
- After a few days of exploration, you’ll have a better sense of whether the new idea has any legs. If it does, that’s awesome! Or if the idea was really simple, you might even be done and launched after a few days, which is even more awesome!
- Now you can ratchet back your effort to maybe an hour or two a day.
Finish your dinner before you can go play
There’s lots of reasons why diversions are helpful.
- Sometimes you need a little excitement and reward at the end of the day. Make that your other little pet project and only work on it after you’ve finished all your “real” work. A little pot of gold at the end of every day can make your day’s go by more quickly and efficiently. You’ll wake up early in the morning excited about working on your new idea and power through “work”.
- Dividing up your time puts more constraints on you and that’s a good thing. Try to do what used to take you 12 hours in 10 so you have 2 hours to work on your new idea. Knowing that your time is more boxed can make you use your time more efficiently. When you know you have all day to work on something, your mind can have a tendency to be a little lazy (at least mine does ).
- When you have a mental block or a difficult issue with your business, sometimes it helps to just think about something else. Business is business and by taking time each day to think about a different business that’s at a different stage, you’re keeping your mind fresh and flexible.
Google has a well documented 20% free time policy where people get to work on their own ideas a day a week. New ideas spawn new business and improve current ones while making life a little more exciting. What’s your new idea?
- Justin
Posted in: Entrepreneur, Motivation, Productivity, Startup.
