Don Kowalewski
Writer. Ad Sales and Marketing. Social Media Content Creator. Aeropress Coffee. Makes the best salsa in the world.
Things I’m Doing: Traveling and Selling
So I guess it’s time I just admit it …I’m a traveling salesman. I pack a suit case, hop a flight, stay at random hotels, rent cars, and sometimes I forget which floor I’m on and what my room number is. In the past 5 weeks, I’ve spent 14 nights in hotels. And in the evening, so far, I’ve resisted the urge to head to the lobby in my khaki pants and button down dress shirt and have a glass of Merlot while chatting up my fellow traveling salesmen and sales women. But …I can see why they do it. It gets a little lonely out here on the road.
Speaking of lonely …when you’re traveling on business and missing your family like crazy, you do not want to hear these three songs and especially in this order, and especially after getting a report from your son’s baseball game you missed that he went 1-4 and struck out three times.
“Cats in the Cradle,” by Harry Chapin.
“Through the Years,” by Kenny Rogers.
“Wildfire,” by Michael Martin Murphy.
I’ve never really been sad while listening to “Wildfire,” but today I might’ve looked out a rainy window into the distance, contemplated my current place in the universe, and let out a heavy (I mean very heavy) sigh.
Things I Think: This Show Looks Good
Pardon the randomness of this post, but here’s a show I’m definitely going to be watching. And I’m going to be writing about it at spunkybean. And I’m really, really looking forward to this show. But I can’t tell you why. But if you were my friend in college, you might also want to watch this show.
The show is going to be on HGTV and is called Brother v. Brother, which features those two Property Brothers dudes, Jonathan and Drew Scott, and they’re leading two teams who’ll go head to head (under their leadership) to fix up some houses or something and then someone will win and someone will lose. What do they call those shows? Oh …yes …reality shows. I love those things.
But I can’t say why I particularly wanna watch this show. I covered that, right?
I just can’t say. So stop asking.
Oh, and if you were one particular friend of mine from college, and you are letting me help you with your social media and Facebook and stuff, here’s what I’d post if I was running your blog…
Write something like, “Hmmmmm …this show looks really interesting to me and I can’t wait to see who all those blurry people are in the background.”
Then I’d link to this article.
Then I’d embed the clip (which I’m actually having some difficulty with). Then I’d make a fist and punch the air …because I’m awesome. Well, you’re awesome.
Here’s the preview: http://www.hgtv.com/video/brother-vs-brother-on-hgtv-video/index.html
Is anyone picking up what I’m throwing down? Good luck, you (and “you” know who “you” are).
Brother v. Brother premiers on July 21st. Set your DVRs and Tivo and mark your calendar.
Follow me at @donkowalewski.
Things I Have: A Blog, A New Job, Thoughts, and a Snuggie
I’ve mentioned it here a few times, and a few times on Facebook, but I’ll mention it again. I have a new job. I left my media sales career of 16 years to get involved with a start-up. A start-up doing something so cutting-edge, I felt like I couldn’t let the opportunity pass without getting involved and seeing if I could be a reason it blows up and takes off. Yes, I went from a job with flexible hours, pretty good benefits, 4-weeks of vacation, and a certain amount of predicability to a job where pretty much everything is unknown and whatever it becomes is up to me.
I imagine everyone hopes to be a part of something like that. I think I am. So far, so great. I’m in my ninth week …and the training wheels are definitely off.
The job comes with a ton of travel. Which is the hardest part, because I’m a simple homebody. But, I keep saying to myself, traveling during the week only robs me of a couple of hours per day of time I’d normally spend with my kids, and usually the early morning 40-minutes is spent scarfing down breakfast, scurrying around the house making sure everyone’s hair is brushed and backpacks are packed. Not exactly “quality time.” And then in the evenings, when there’s not baseball, soccer, or dance, and I don’t have bowling, I get to make sure they’re doing their homework, or I’m mowing the lawn, or (sadly) looking at my iPhone and texting with people (I really need to stop doing that). So, yes, I’m justifying it, right or wrong. On a “good day”, I have 3 1/2 hours with my kids when I’m not traveling. A 1/2-hour in the morning, and 3 interrupted hours in the evening. So …as long as I’m home on Fridays, Saturdays, and Sundays and maximize that time, and work so hard that my boss doesn’t mind when I take real, long, quality vacations …I think everything will turn out all right.
Why this long blog entry? Partly, to put my thoughts on paper (although, not paper) and organize my emotions. Partly to see if my adventure of being a part of something like this might be worthy of an e-book or lecture series. And partly, because I think those who read my blog (mostly family and friends) might be interested.
I just keep thinking about the guy who invented the Snuggie. I always imagine him telling all his family and friends about his idea for a blanket with sleeves and everyone likely rolled their eyes and thought, “who …who the hell is going to buy that?” Think about it …the guy was probably, like, “no, you don’t understand …it’s a total pain in the butt to have to wrestle your arm out of a blanket to talk on the phone or work the TV remote control.” And people probably said, “actually it’s not.” But the Snuggie inventor wouldn’t be deterred and …BAM …overnight millionaire.
The biggest difference with my new career …when I tell people at parties about it, they all say, “wow.” It’s very cool and very innovative, and it’s fun to tell the story about how this combinations of technology will change the industry I’m selling it to. Now I just have to tell that story loud and over and over again.
But I need to hop a plain and go places to do that.
So …I’m off. Wish me luck.
Follow me at @donkowalewski.
Things I Did: Renewed this Blog and Other Things
Yes …though I don’t post as much as I once did, it doesn’t mean I don’t still love writing and blogging. And though I don’t run and exercise as much as I have in the past, it doesn’t mean I’m not envious of everyone I see out running and listening to music on their iPods. And I don’t watch as much TV as I’d like. And I don’t work on my book as diligently as I used to, and I don’t …
Whoa! Have you ever been in this type of place? Yes, you can make a list of “things I’m not doing” and “things I don’t do anymore” and it can really bog you down …unless you make an equivalent list bragging about all the things your ARE doing.
I’ve replaced blogging HERE with blogging for two new writing clients and for my new employer. I’ve replaced long lunches and hours at work spent looking at Facebook with “trying” and “obsessing” over a start-up and “killer app” that I’m helping launch at my new job. I’m starting to exercise again, slowly. I’m eating much, much better and I’ve lost 10-pounds. I’m reading books about sales and Salesforce.com and about motivation and I’m talking with friends I haven’t talked to in forever and I’m nervous and excited for the future and …
See? It’s different, but I’ve thrust myself into a place where life isn’t just happening to me …I’m making life happen and life is changing and if everything goes well, I’m about to change my life.
Though I may not post as much as I once did, I’m the same random bunch of madness and I hope you are, too.
Follow me at @donkowalewski
Things I Don’t Do: Write Enough
Good blog entries have beginnings, middles, and endings. They also have a point. This blog entry has a “middle” and no point. Enjoy.
If you’d asked me at the beginning of 2012, “hey, Don, what will you be doing in 2013?” I would’ve said, “I’m going to be thinking about quitting my day job and being a writer full-time.”
Seriously, that was my goal. I daydreamed about the 50+ hours that I usually spend working for “the man”, instead, working for myself. And even though technically I knew my goal was to be a ghost-writer, which would mean I’d have a new “the man”, I still thought that’s what I’d be doing.
And here it is, 2013, and I’m still working for “the man.” Granted, it’s a new “the man” and I have a new job with a small company with an incredible product and it’s so cool and innovative in its industry, I feel like I’m involved in a “start-up” and I’m treating it like I am. Long hours. Obsessing about it at all times of the day. Losing sleep over it. Dreaming up new ways to market it and sell it. It’s thrilling and fun and I feel ALIVE. So that’s good.
And I want to write about it …and hopefully within the next few months I’ll be able to. I’ll be able to publicly brag about what I’m doing, what I’m discovering about the sales process, and selling in general, and this blog can be part advice, part motivation, and every now and again, it will be interesting.
And maybe I’ll really succeed at selling and I’ll be coached by my good friend Nick, and we’ll finally write our sales book, and because of all the writing networking I’ve done, when our book is done, I’ll actually have a platform where I can promote my book, talk about my book, and I’ll become a brand unto myself.
I’ll be that guy I read about in every sales and motivational book I’ve ever read who boasts how he was making six-figures (or more) and felt empty so he gave it all up to write a book and become a public speaker and life coach.
And there you have it …It’s April 1st and if you ask me what I’ll be doing in 2014, I’ll tell you …writing, selling, coaching, and motivating people.
Just …like …that. I wrote it. I’ve said it. I’ve visualized it. Bam! Next steps …fame …fortune.
Follow me @donkowalewski.
Things I’m Trying: WordPress Extension for Chrome
Has anyone else run into an issue with editing a WordPress blog entry in Safari on a Macbook? I’ve created many “Categories” over the years, but when I click in that box to pick a “Category”, it won’t scroll down. I’ve Google’d about the problem, but found nothing quickly …so maybe it’s not an epidemic.
Then I thought, hey, I’ll install Chrome on my Macbook and use the web editor there, instead, and I discovered that Chrome has a WordPress extension. It’s cool, I guess. I’m writing this entry within that editor and lo and behold, it doesn’t show any of my categories.
So, the Chrome extension is good for a quick and dirty blog entry, but still lacks a few bells and whistles. Well, maybe I’m only missing my “Categories” now that I think about it.
Oh, and I can’t insert a photo from a URL. Bummer.
Follow me @donkowalewski.
Things I Have: Bronchiectasis and How I’ve Been Doing it All Wrong
When my Mom was alive, she was one step shy of being a medical doctor – and that “one step” was 6 short years of medical school and training. Other than that, she was our family doctor …well, a nurse practitioner, at least. If she was still around, I’d know way more about my lung condition, Bronchiectasis, than I know because she’d probably spend a million hours trying to help me.
Luckily, my wife does a lot of that and keeps an eye on me – much better than I keep and eye on myself. And also, my sister helps me as well.
So my sister sends me an article about eating with a lung condition and I’ve kinda messed things up these past few months. I’ve been eating mostly a “mucus free diet”, but I’d also been cutting out fruits and that’s probably what’s been messing me up.
I need to make a conscious effort to add back in citrus (I love grapefruit) and apples, and so what if apples aren’t tasty in the winter (and expensive). Those are big additions for a guy like me with lung problems. Oh, and exercise …despite how it makes me raspy and tired, and does serious damage to my ego when I realize a 30-minute brisk walk at my local church (where 70-year-old ladies race by me) can lead to a restless night sleep …I need to do it.
Anyway, this is a “thank you” blog to my two nurses, and a “hey, read this” to the few Bronchiectasis sufferers who’ve found my blog and for others who might still find me.
Here’s two really good articles.
12 Ways to Keep Your Lungs Strong and Healthy
and
13 Best and Worst Foods for Your Lungs
Things I Wonder: Is This Haiku Presentation App Any Good?
I’m trying to make a great little presentation on my iPad and this Haiku Deck looks pretty cool …for FREE. And it says you can embed your presentation on a blog. If you can see the presentation below, the developer wasn’t lying.
Created with Haiku Deck, the free presentation app for iPad
Or did this work?
http://www.haikudeck.com/p/DKotJfHJwH/resolutions-that-stick
Well, neither worked from my iPad, but that’s not vital.
Things I Did: Quit My Job and Got a New Job
The IKEA Effect: “We don’t put effort into things because we love them. We love them because we put effort into them.”
If you see someone walking down the street looking like a guy with alot on his mind, well, that guy might be me. See, about a month ago I heard about this really amazing product and cutting edge technology and I thought to myself, “wow, someone’s going to learn about this and how to sell it and they’re gonna write articles about that guy and how he was part of a revolutionary moment in that field.” And I had lunch with the guy that invented it and has been perfecting it the last three years, all while running two other divisions of his business at the same time. And, a friend of mine I’ve known since childhood thought of me when he saw this idea and had similar thoughts as me, so he arranged that lunch and said great things about me and we were all caught up in a whirlwind of enthusiasm and positivity and lo’ and behold, I quit my job and took a new job selling this amazing product (I plan to tell/blog about it in the future once I get my sea legs).
Seriously, that was five weeks ago. In that span of time, I accepted an offer, gave a resignation, and then spent a marvelous 10 days in Maui relaxing with my family while I was out of work and celebrating a new chapter in my life. Now, my challenge is to make sure this isn’t one of those short chapters in a book …ya know, those 4-page chapters where nothing happens except some character is introduced doing something odd and disconnected from the rest of the book like, say, working in his basement on his computer hacking into mainframes and then he sees an irregularity in a sequence of data and makes a note in his journal and then …bam …new chapter and we rejoin our main characters. The book eventually will get back to that character, but sometimes not. Sometimes we just learn that what he discovered was relevant to the over-archging story, but his character wasn’t relevant. That’s what this is …someway and somehow, this awesome cool thing is going to succeed and I don’t plan on being a nameless, faceless character used briefly to advance the story.
Anyway, what I’m alluding to is …I want to think I’ve written a final chapter in one book (aka my former career of 16 years) and started a new chapter in my new book (aka my new job …you’re all getting my analogy, right?).
It’s an odd thing changing a career at 39 years old when you consider I had spent 16 years doing the exact same thing, albeit for 3 different companies. I certainly had entered a “comfort zone” of sorts. I don’t know if that’s good or bad. In the old days …like 30 or 40 years ago, that’s exactly what people wanted to find …a “comfort zone” with benefits, a pension, and a place they could happily work for 25 or 35 years and then retire, knowing their job would always be there and each year would carry with it a cost-of-living increase and maybe a promotion here or there.
I also think most people like to think that, hey, if they were to see something amazing they’d know exactly what they would do when said amazing thing presented itself to them. I like to think I know exactly what to do, too, and I think I know what I’m doing. But …I’m wondering …does everyone who leaves “comfortable” feel “uneasy” at first as they start writing their new chapter?
What’s the point of this blog entry? Is it to tell you I have a new job? Is it to brag that I’m a “risk taker”? Or is it just some attempt at communal bonding with other people who changed jobs-slash-careers? It’s probably a little of all three. And a fourth point …to share some great quotes my wife sent me during my first week (oh …just for the record, I’m exactly 6 days into the job) and these quotes couldn’t be more perfect. I hope you enjoy them as much as I do. And, I also thank you for reading …I need to blog more and that motivation comes courtesy of my sister who started her own blog and she’s been a blogging MACHINE and it’s impressive, humbling, and inspiring. My family and friends have come to know me as the “blogger” in the family and while it’s perfectly OK for a family to have two bloggers, I just don’t want to someday be referred to as “the guy who used to blog about stuff.”
Again …read and bookmark my sisters blog. Thanks for reading mine. And here’s those awesome quotes.
“Don’t be afraid of your fears. They’re not there to scare you. They’re there to let you know that something is worth it.” ―C. JoyBell C.
“Believe you can and you’re halfway there.” –Theodore Roosevelt
“Somehow I can’t believe that there are any heights that can’t be scaled by a man who knows the secrets of making dreams come true. This special secret, it seems to me, can be summarized in four Cs. They are curiosity, confidence, courage, and constancy, and the greatest of all is confidence. When you believe in a thing, believe in it all the way, implicitly and unquestionable.” -The Walt Disney Company
“It takes courage to grow up and become who you really are.” -E.E. Cummings
Things I Think: Surround Yourself with Inspiring, Motivated, and Good People and Try to Be Like Them
I’m flattered when people say things to me like, “I really liked that blog post,” or, “you’re toast was really funny,” and it truly humbles me. Because what they don’t realize is it’s not me, it’s them. Maybe I’ve been lucky all my life, or maybe I just have a good judge of character, but I’ve managed to have lived a life surrounded by some pretty amazing people. Despite how amazing some of these people are, I sure tried like hell to screw things up on more than one occasion and act like, well, some kinda monster.
But luckily, even when I was doing stupid stuff (mostly from the age of 16 to 23), good people were still impacting me and even though it took a few years, the good stuff they did rubbed off on me.
Lately, I’ve been thinking alot about all the good people I’ve tricked into being my friend, tricked into hiring me, tricked into training me, and, oh, let’s say tricked into marrying me , and I’m starting to think if I take all the little bits of greatness from each of them, and try and add it to my own personality resume, I could really make something outta myself. Lessons from my father, my grandfather, and uncles …mixed with wisdom of my mother, patience of my grandmother, steadiness of my brother and sister, and brains of my wife, not to mention the countless friends and all their talents and coolness …well, if I could mix these all into a pomegranate flavored smoothie of influence, just think of the person I could be.
Hint: I’d be an awesome person.
Now, imagine I stop living life with simple conversations of, “what’s up,” and, “hey” when walking the hallways of my office, or meeting with people and discussing the weather, and instead I tried to figure out what makes them awesome and learn from them. What if I just started meeting people and immediately finding the very best things about them without looking for the worst or for a reason I shouldn’t trust them …and if I kept adding that into my character?
Great googly moogly, you’d be talking about a really good dude.
So, where will I, and where will you, find these great people? If you watch the news or listen to talk radio (or read Facebook everyday), you start to think the world is full of arrogant, judgmental, hypocritical, loud-mouth blow-hards …and you’re right …if that’s who you’re looking to surround yourself with. If you do, you’ll become an arrogant, judgmental, hypocritical, loud-mouth blow-hard who thinks you need to repeat the same old tired lines and arguments about the same old issues and themes.
Erase those people from your consciousness and insert, instead, motivating people doing great things who say nice things and are helpful and it’ll rub off on you …and me. I did that today, in fact, and I was humbled. Everyone made “nice” and “friendly” look effortless. I want to be like that. And …from now on, I will.
So …basically, what I’m saying, if you’re an awesome person and you have incredible qualities, let’s hang out.
Don Kowalewski 