Google just added Streetview for several more cities including my home town of Big-D. I simply love this thing…it’s so compelling. But, all you Dallas folks need to spend the evening ensuring that the Google cams didn’t catch you picking your nose or something like that. 
Here’s a neat shot of my office and my church (well, the south campus).
Next week I’m headed to Las Vegas for PubCon, the year’s most anticipated search engine marketing conference. I’m really getting excited about this, as I haven’t been to a search marketing conference in several years. I’ve also never been to Vegas, so it should be fun to see the city and take lots of pictures. I’m not really a gambler, but I might try my hand at blackjack once or twice if I can round up some loose change.
Me and two co-workers are staying at the New York-New York, which looks really sweet (rollercoaster and everything). Gotta give credit to NMG for investing some money into my team and rewarding our guys for some hard work these last few months. Out of the three of us who are going, I’m the only one who’s ever been to something similar, so I’m really excited for Zach and Brent cause I know they’ll learn a ton.
Look for a post-conference report next week!
I’ve finally decided to move my email from POP to IMAP, now that I have two computers. Well, I thought this would be a great time to cleanup my inbox so the migration would be quicker and cleaner. Man…I need help. Over 2500 emails in my inbox with no particular organization at all. What a beating!
Am I the only one who doesn’t file emails effectively? How many emails are in your inbox?
For all my career (after college), I’ve worked at online marketing agencies – two to be precise. And most of the time, agency life is just screwy. I was reminded of this again last night while attending DFWSEM and seeing some co-workers and collegues from the past. It’s always interesting to me how fast things change and how temporary our jobs really are, even if they seem permanent at the time. Most of my co-workers have been through multiple transitions in the past year or two, and some are even trying to make it own their own. That’s great…I hope they all succeed.
Then I arrive at work to hear about more unexpected changes. Nothing ultra bad or super good, just different and unexpected. I wonder, where will our little agency be in two years? I suppose I never could have predicted what happened last time, so I won’t try this time. One thing I’m sure of is that it will be different. Sure, we may have this same office space on the 16th floor, but I’m guessing things will be quite a bit different. Folks will have moved on, others joined, the focus will change, new services offered, old products forgotten.
I think about the conversation I had last night with a collegue discussing the different business models companies use, and how many times the result is often the same. Of course anyone who owns or runs a business will naturally consider that business to be great, and on target to do this or explode to that. In reality, I’m starting to think two things happen. One, our view of “successful business” gets skewed because of the likes of Google, or YouTube, or Facebook ($15 billion!!??). Two, we don’t hear of all the similar businesses that crash and burn. I really think to pioneer something, or become famous (or infamous) with a company, you really just have to be lucky. I mean, so many things have to work in favor, it just becomes very unlikely.
Anyways…I’m not sure what the point of this post was, other than to just put in words some of my recent work thoughts. I still like my job and what I do. It’s just…you know…kinda messed up sometimes.
I was just scanning through stations this morning on the way to work, and I happened upon a Tony Dungee interview. If you don’t know who Tony Dungee is, check out the bio at Wikipedia. Now, this is one guy I really admire. Down to earth, humble, family man, impeccable values and well-respected by everyone. You really can’t dislike Tony Dungee.
Anyways…he was talking about some of the family-focused organizations he was involved in, and the satisfaction he got with working to better families. Then he was asked his favorite Bible verse, and here was his answer…
“Well, you know, for a long time it was Proverbs 16:3: Commit to the Lord whatever you do, and your plans will succeed. But here lately in the past couple of years…”
OK, this is when I start to assume which verse he likes now. In the past couple of years, Dungee has had his oldest son commit suicide, and he has also won the Super Bowl. Surely, I thought, this was going to be a verse like Isaiah 40, Philippians 4:13, or Romans 8:38. All good choices, mind you. Nope…way off!
“…it’s been Matthew 16:26: What good will it be for a man if he gains the whole world, yet forfeits his soul?”
Dude…. Here’s a guy who’s seemingly on top of the world, revered by fans everywhere, Super Bowl bling on his hand, and he’s grounded like a rock with the understanding that none of it really matters. Thank you, Tony.
