In case you didn’t know, I love my job. Last year I left the self-employment world and became a 9-5er. This wasn’t a last resort, mind you, it was a choice, a goal I had been working toward for some time and was one of the best decisions I’ve ever made.

New Chapters, Old Habits
The thing is, for 6+ years my livelihood depended upon ideas. Good ideas. The ideas that could be rapidly turned into revenue for either me or a client I was working with. As I transition to the life of a workin’ man these ideas keep coming.

I’m glad they are because some of the best have been for work. With the rest, however, my instinct wrestles with the reality that I no longer have to chase them. These projects aren’t about making it big, they simply keep me busy instead of the brain-drain of TV, help me hone and learn new skills, and are just plain fun to work on. So with my new work-lifestyle, I needed to lay down some rules for these evening efforts.

Rule #1 – No Personal Funds May be Used
In other words, all projects must be self sufficient individually or as a group. If a project requires funds to get started, I’d better have some coming in from another or it’s a no go. Period.

Rule #2 – No Projects During Work Hours
I am committed to my job. Not just looking forward but also in the present during every work day. They have hired me to do work for them, not for me. If the project doesn’t match my job description, it will have to wait. It’s just that simple. Luckily, my job rocks

Rule #3 – No Projects When There’s Chores to Do
Chores may be an old-fashioned way to refer to this, but it’s an accurate description. I’m specifically referring to things like a sink full of dirty dishes, a dishwasher full of clean ones, or a meal Kim is cooking alone. If the sink is full or dinner isn’t ready, my projects will have to wait.

The Bottom Line
So, I’ll keep poking around with my ideas and projects but hopefully these rules will keep things in perspective. Our society is addicted to passionately chasing the “next big thing” and sacrificing spouses, jobs, and friends to get there. Entrepreneurship is fun, but that is a road I never want to take.

At the Snowcial conference last week, I got the opportunity to share a quick, 5 minute presentation on whatever topic I chose. I got 20 slides, auto advancing every 15 seconds. Most people try to be funny with these sorts of things, but I warned David Laplante (the organizer) of my lack of stage humor and he assured me it was okay to share whatever I pleased. So, I did and was reminded how awesome my facial expressions are when I’m nervous and exaggerate my expressions :)

Recently, I had the chance to write an article about ski resorts and social media marketing for the NSAA Journal. What I didn’t realize is that it would be the cover story. Pretty dang cool.

I haven’t posted on here in a while so I thought I’d share this little infographic I whipped up last night. I originally had other content ready but the idea came and figured I’d just get it out now rather than later. Not my best work, but considering it was less than 2 hours start to finish (including data gathering), I’m pretty happy with it.

Original Post:
http://www.slopefillers.com/one-day-of-ski-resort-social-media-activity-infographic/

When Canyons Resort updated their logo last year I didn’t catch it at first because it reminded me so much of two other logos I had seen: Origin Design and Orange. Since then, they just keep popping up.