Hard Work and Positive Energy (and influences)

October 20, 2014 By Tom

Now I’ve made a living out of shaking my ass
And if you offer me an office, I’d have to pass
But our jobs are all jobs, and sometimes they suck
I love what I do, and I’ve had pretty good luck

“Longer Than You’ve Been Alive”-Old 97’s

Yes, this is the same song I used for another blog recently, and I’ve got 2 or 3 more blogs based off of lyrics within it over the next week or two.  I needed a writing project to get me to think differently and this song has been ringing loudly in my ears so I might as well piecemeal it into a series of posts, right?

the bikes have been sitting idle, even though I have not been

I’m in week 2 of my non-programming weeks, which really just means I’m in non-stop meetings and bouncing around all over Indianapolis engaging individuals, asking for money dollars and trying to close deals. I’ve had a series of awesome meetings over the last week and continue to at times, stand in disbelief at the amount of support we’re getting in the community. Meetings take a huge amount of energy for me, and they’re not always my favorite thing to schedule…but they’re what make the world go round and bring cash into the company.

 I’ve realized recently as I write that before everything went down last year both personally and professionally–I had surrounded myself with so much negative energy.  I just got through writing a big chunk for one of my concepts about the negative energy and lack of work ethic that some of those I previously surrounded myself with had and the toll that really took on me.  Since the professional spin-off and the huge growth we’ve seen, I look back and realize just how much of an impact that negative energy had not only on me, but my organization.

Luckily, the complete spin-off was a fresh start and instead of being surrounded by negative energy, I now get to be surrounded by amazing people doing amazing things in my beloved city that constantly recharge me and make an impact on my life. I had a series of meetings and events last week that made me go, “there is no way I have this meeting with this person”, and that in itself signifies that all of the hard work is worth it. I was a +1 guest for Best and Brightest last Thursday night and it was amazing to see just how many people in that room are either friends, professional colleagues, involved with Nine13sports or first name acquaintances. The old adage of “the people you surround yourself with represents the person you are” and it really seemed to fit the description of the evening.

Larra and Lauren, board members to Nine13sports, good friends and two women who know when to put me in my place.

if this doesn’t say Speak Easy love, what does? Den and Marlin Jackson who both are great sounding boards for me no matter what is going on in the world

One other thing we’ve been working on is our filming project with 12 Stars and Candidio. I’m looking forward to getting that video done and released in conjunction with our Portland expansion, but until they’re done editing we’re just going to have to sit tight and wait. And really, if you know me, you know how well I sit around waiting…

yes, that’s a green screen on a laptop, stay tuned for the final edit

Stay tuned, I hope to have some awesome updates this week.

-th