Firearms Friday: Selling More?

Well, that's a decent goal. 

There have been so many unexpected expenses that my wife and I have incurred over the past couple of months and many more that we are anticipating over the next months that the time has come for me to start culling some of the firearms from the safe. I hate having to do this again but it is sometimes what needs to be done. Besides there isn’t anything that I own that isn’t replaceable and the benefits are at the point when they significantly outweigh the desire to hang on to what I have. And that is what I have to remind myself of during this process… I’m not getting rid of everything and what I do sell I can find again in the future.

Of course, now is the difficult part of making the decision of what stay and what has to go. This also may require an investment of my time in completing a few basic builds to flip. On the positive side of things this will force me to finally get my work space organized and free up some of the clutter that has continued to plague me. This also means that I have to find the time somewhere in my schedule to head over to the local (actually not so local) gun shop in order to hopefully add some much needed funds to our account.

At the same time, I hope that this process pushes me to finally complete the other projects that I plan on keeping. They have been on the shelf (in the safe actually) for far too long and I am missing the cathartic benefits of working with my hands to actually build something. There are also a few parts that have to be installed and some customizations that have to be made… maybe there will be time to get these done once I get back into the rhythm of building. And, having cleared some extra space, there will undoubtedly be some extra room to store all of these new creations.

This is what I have to keep telling myself as I am definitely not the only one that dislikes having to sell off on item without immediately replacing it with another. That being said, this is a common ebb and flow of the sport and I am certain that I am not the only one that keeps going through this annoying cycle. But, again, we do this for our family as there are more ways than one with which we can protect them.

Firearms Friday: Turning Down Range Time

Having been so busy lately with work and a few unavoidable occurrences, I have spent some time over the last week trying to reconnect with a few people and return some calls that simply came in at the wrong time. A few of these correspondences that ended with the desire to get together in the near future to catch up with a couple people having a specific idea as to where we should meet… at the range. Each time I reflected on my lack of practice and tried to recall the last time that I was able to relax on the line. Safe to say that it has been far too long.

While I cannot recall a specific date when I last grabbed my range bag and headed out the door, I still recall both the frustration with myself and the relaxation afterward. It is one of those interesting dichotomies that comes with the passion for a particular sport or hobby. It really makes me curious as to what state I will find my skills in when I am finally able to return to my happy place… not sure if I want others to see the results of my overly busy schedule.

I would like to get out but there are just too many things that need to get done and any time that I have to dedicate to this hobby that might come up in the near future has to be dedicated to building and maintenance as that too has been lacking. At least this will give me a few more items to test when I can commit the time and everything else will have been looked over and cleaned recently. It will also give me a few more things to talk about when I can join them on the lane.

Unfortunately, things don’t seem like they will be changing any time soon. My schedule is still full and I am actually still trying to make up for lost time from the past month of chaos. I had no other choice than to turn down the offer of this particular meeting place with the hope to meet this time around somewhere that is more agreeable to the confines of my calendar. Maybe we can follow up this next meeting with some range time.

I know that I have to find the time to practice… this is a perishable skill after all. And I know that it will be good for me to shut out the rest of the world for just a few minutes but the reality of life won’t allow me to do that at the moment. But the hope it still there that we can make this happen soon… maybe sooner than I think. However, for now I am just going to try and catch up on my work.

Passing One Thousand!

Last month I was able to mark the 500^th post on this blog. Today I was able to mark a slightly different but very similar occasion in that, between this blog and Getting Your Phil, I have published one thousand blogs since this all started in late May of 2013 (of course, there were a few blogs before that point as well). Obviously, the Phillies-centric blog came a little later and there were a few days missed here and there.

It’s interesting to think about all the different things that have been said, statements that have been made, and questions that have been posed throughout that plethora of posts. While there have been many occasions when I have repeated myself and even the entire subject matter of the post but there have been a wide variety of things that have been said. Some have been good, some bad, but they are all out there just for the heck of it.

Tonight I ran into the new guy working at the front desk of our apartment building and over the natural course of introducing ourselves we found that we had the common interest of blogging. However, it was interesting to hear the different perspectives that we each had for doing this. While I write this largely rambling posts for the sake of writing and attempting to maintain my creativity, limited as it may now be, he has diverged into the for profit model.

It was this shift in his perspective that has caused him to lose the passion he once had for sharing his art and perspective to his community. The graphic arts, like writing, requires a passion for the practice rather than a desire to get paid. If the money follows that is just a bonus, but it cannot be the motivating factor that keeps you posting blog posts day after day.

I really hate when I see this same thing happen to creative people over and over again. The money gets in the way of the passion leaving them grasping for anything that they can get a hold of and doing all they can to maintain an ember burning. All too often, I have seen heat within them completely extinguished. We must maintain our passions and focus our energy on the creative process not the possibilities of monetary gain.

Money is not the means by which to measure the creative process. If we lose focus on that which we are creating we can no longer truly commit ourselves to our art (regardless of media or genre). One thousand blogs and that remains my motivation… that and providing proof that yes I did exist. But you already read about my true motivation in keeping this daily blog.

That Didn’t Last Long…

Moments after I posted my last blog the routine workday was cast aside for the scrambling that all too often occupies my work days. It is one of those frustrating cogs that may slow the progress but nothing that can’t be cleared with some hard work and, in this case, putting forth the effort to keep the opportunity alive. This, among other things, is what occupied my day… a day that was anything but routine but one that, in the end, balanced out. After all, the goal is to maintain balance.

In this instance, a customer decided to back out of a story with a large publication due to the potential exposure that comes with a high profile feature. On one hand I completely understand, on the other I am left with a ‘what the heck’ feeling as it is an opportunity that came about after considerable effort. Many would even say “I would definitely do it if given the opportunity” but that is not what I do. I can recommend from a strategic standpoint and highlight all of the benefits of such an opportunity but it is ultimately not my decision.

We work on behalf of our clients and, in this case, their customers. Our job is to balance the media opportunities with their goals, find the best matches, and pursue them until they happen. At the same time, there is a tremendous amount of trust that companies put in us to do what is in their best interest and that is what we do, not what we aim to do, this is what we do on a daily basis. Routine or chaos this is always the underlying current to the work that is done on any given day.

While many may see this as a somewhat restrictive position to find yourself in, it is anything but that and, in fact, there is great freedom in the work that I do. Both the strategy and creativity that we employ are limitless and has led to complete shifts in both perspective and approach of certain topic internally and, more importantly, in the media. How else are you going to keep it interesting when you speak to the same industry publications time and again about the same company?

You need to bring strategy, creativity, and energy to the process. All feed off of one another and being in an open work environment and with clients that understand, or attempt to understand, our role, support our process, and value our expertise. When you step back and look at the job, routine has nothing to do with schedules. Routine, in the best sense of the word, is bringing those three drivers with you to work, into meetings, and convey over the phone every day because those three things equate to passion. Passion is what you need to work in PR because passion is what gets results.

Shifting Priorities

When a door closes pick another one to open!

Yesterday was a hectic day at the office. Really nothing earth shattering in that statement. That pretty much sums up every day at work for me. But yesterday was a little different than most as it left me scrambling to adjust my list of priorities for the foreseeable future. Every PR firm has clients come and go. It is the nature of the business and something that is to be expected. While I prefer the former, the latter can sometimes free up some much needed time to ramp up other projects for other clients.

However, I absolutely hate seeing a client go especially when the business/product is something unique that is certainly going to continue to be a huge success. While there seems to be specific reasons for every client departure they vary greatly from company to company. The only thing we can do is make sure that things are taken care of on our end so that if the company does move on we can look at the decision as something that is out of our control.

I have seen and heard all different kinds of ‘reasons’. Sometimes it is a shift into a new direction, sometimes is a personal connection/contact they have with another firm, sometimes it is a matter of style. It all comes down to the fact that while from the outside PR can seem like an industry that is impersonal and monotonous or, more precisely described to me, “a business of repetitive acts both in form and practice” that really doesn’t come close to what we really do. Some have even said that it is easy.

For those that have any experience in the industry know just how personal this business can be if you truly invest in your work. Most days it is a one on one discussion during which you get to know the person on the other end of the phone, table, or computer screen. At the same time you are trying to bring them along on the story you are trying to tell. If you believe in your clients, you enjoy talking to people, and you respect the publications you are reaching out to this can be a very personal process.

A certain amount of pride and appreciation is experienced with every placement not because your name is anywhere in the text (as a PR professional you don’t want your name anywhere near the text) but because you have done your job and got the story out into the world. You do it for the client. The same can be said when you produce content for a client and you craft the messaging in such a way that grabs someone’s interest while hitting all the points that need to be addressed.

I guess this is why the creative side of me enjoys this field as much as it does. While there are undoubtedly routines in my day (like any industry or occupation) there is a tremendous amount of creative freedom and personality that, when applied properly, can produce exceptional results. And it is because this is such a personal profession for me I hate the few times I have experienced when a client has left. But when that does happen, as it just has, it does allow me to share that passion with another company and gives me the excuse to get to know a completely new group of people. So I guess you could say that it is both a really good and really bad situation but I am going to do my best to focus on the positive.

Back To Normal

The baseball season is winding down and things seemed to have returned to normal. Like in my formative years, the Phillies are near the bottom of the division and the Braves are playoff bound. Another year and another losing season.

However, given the recent success of the organization, this season has a certain sting to it. I am not one of those people who can just flick the switch and start watching football like the summer never happened. Baseball has always been and will always be my favorite sport so a bad season doesn’t sit well with me and will continue to fester until spring.

While baseball may have always been my sport of choice it doesn’t mean that I was any good at it. I did not have the athletic gene passed down to me. But it is a game that I have studied my whole life, mostly when I was younger, and I have a deeper understanding of the details of the game than most. Basically, I can tell you more than just a player stinks; I can explain why a player stinks.

With that said my passion for the game has wavered some over the last decade. While most fans were enthralled with the homerun records and the strikeout pitchers I was watching as the game I treasured was changing before my eyes and not for the better. The grittiness of the game was beginning to disappear, the strategy became more black and white, and the norms of the game began to morph into a sport focused on entertainment rather than athleticism.

This year I began to see things revert to some of the old ways which got me to pay a little more attention even though the Phillies looked like they should be playing in Williamsport rather than South Philadelphia (I even started posting blogs during the second half of the season). While pitchers still can pitch inside without being tossed, they seemed to be relying on pitching rather than striking batters out. And not just pitching, pitching to the situations and not being afraid to put a ball just beyond the black.

We are still a long way from what the game used to be just a couple decades ago but that will hopefully change in the near future. Maybe the league will realize that pitching inside is part of the game. Maybe the strike zone will once again be larger than a thimble. Maybe coaches will abandon the absurdity of the pitch count. Maybe we can go back to reality.

Some things have changed in the batter’s box too. Homeruns seem to be a natural occurrence again. Hitters seem to realize that there are two sides to the field not just the pull side. And players seem to be taking pride in base running again.

These players also have a lot to work on. It used to be a shameful feat to strikeout more than 100 times in a season yet not countless players pass that mark without flinching. Running out a routine ground ball should be a given not a surprise as it is today. These are pervasive on the field and I don’t know if these will change.

So, just a weekend series to go before I start thinking about spring training. I don’t know if I will be able to root for anyone in the playoffs but I will certainly be paying attention to what happens. Do I think the Phillies will return to the winning ways of the last decade? I doubt it but I can still hope (remember 1993?). But even if they lose, and lose badly, it will always remind me of my childhood and something that can do that for you can’t be all that bad.   

Teaching Zen On The Tennis Court

For most of us, no matter how much we enjoy our job we look forward to leaving our work at the office and forgetting about all the ins and outs of our weekly tasks as soon as we get home (or as soon as you walk into the next room for those of you who work at home). Of course, there are some people who are lucky enough to have found a job that really isn’t work. They are driven people who enjoy every day and live their passion.

This is the life of Carlos Girola who developed his passion growing up in Argentina and now serves as the Tennis Director at the Llanerch Country Club in Havertown, Pennsylvania. Carlos doesn’t work; he lives his passion and gets paid for it. At yesterday’s Rotary meeting we had the pleasure of hearing him speak with such admiration, respect, and passion for how he makes a living that I couldn’t help but be impressed with his lifelong pursuit of the sport and desire to impart the love of the game in others.

According to Carlos, some of his greatest and most satisfying professional accomplishments include earning his USPTA Pro 1 certification, teaching wheelchair tennis for three years, building a tennis center in South Africa in1991, and introducing tennis as recreational therapy for mentally ill patients. He started teaching tennis in 1981 at age 17 when his coach offered him a position at a club in Argentina. “I became a teaching pro because I love tennis and I make people of all ages happy by teaching and promoting the game,” he says.

Carlos enjoys every day on the court with his students. No matter what the age, ability, background, or build he believes that everyone can experience the almost transcendental state that all tennis players experience whether they are professionals, amateurs, or novices. All it takes is some basic abilities and techniques, all of which can be taught, in order for someone to experience the Zen of a long rally.

It is this perspective and appreciation of the sport and how it applies to everyone, not just the enthusiasts, which differentiates Carlos from many other teachers that I have come across in various sports. Not everyone has the talent, drive, and unwillingness to lose that the greats of the game have (he mentioned Bjorn Borg, Roger Federer, and Pete Sampras as prime examples of this) and you don’t need them. All it takes is an interest and a basic understanding of the game in order to develop a lifelong enthusiasm for the court.

Unlike many athletic endeavors, tennis is one that is adaptable to the time in someone’s life. Whether age, injury, or simply a lack of time, these can all be taken into account so that the sport remains ever present in life. Carlos is able to break down the basics of the game and the needs of the player (contrary to the wants that we all have) in order to maintain a level that will satisfy the need to play and keep the enthusiasm for the sport in their heart.

Professionals like Carlos are the reason why the US Open is the highest drawing annual sporting event in the country. As is the case with many sports there are many knowledgeable professional with which you can speak and learn about the game. However, there aren’t nearly as many great teachers who can impart that knowledge and enthusiasm in others in a way that can be applied to the court. It is teachers like Carlos Girola who are truly advancing the sport and serving as the catalyst for the passion that tennis needs to thrive in this county.