Sorry folks, I was asked to take down the logo until MLB gets sign off. Still Washington Nationals new advertising agency of record White & Partners campaign creative for the 2007 season is fantastic!

I love the tie-in to American past time/national pride. Simply brilliant. And the Pledge Your Allegiance tag is awesome. It’s about time one of the local sports teams gave us a real campaign with some soul.

Look for this coming to you soon!

Part of my very restful holiday break was a visualization exercise that included a collage of images. Not only am I seeing where the company will be, but also how success will embody itself in my personal life. To help me, I’ve captured a collection of photos and images to really see this success in my personal life, which I’ve included below Monday’s quotes.

Reflecting on the past seven months, I must say that they’ve been great. I’m very excited and bullish on the future. December will be our busiest month yet, and we are building a serious client base for 2007. Our winter will not be a barren one.

As we take the necessary steps to build the company from bootstrap to a start-up readying itself for year two (weighing office locations, staffing possibilities, etc.), I am reminded that the only thing that can stop me from attaining these successes is me. There are no real barriers.

It’s Monday, but it’s also the first Monday after Thanksgiving, the beginning of the stretch run into 2007. Go and be courageous in whatever your daily endeavors might be. Here are Monday’s quotes for you:

“Throughout the centuries there were men who took first steps, down new roads, armed with nothing but their own vision.�
-Ayn Rand

“Cherish your visions and your dreams, as they are the children of your soul, the blueprints of your ultimate achievements.�
- Napoleon Hill

“There is more to us than we know. If we can be made to see it, perhaps for the rest of our lives we will be unwilling to settle for less.�
-Kurt Hahn

My collage images from 1 to 6: A corporate mascot, offices in Del Ray, a continued commitment to support the arts, the ultimate toy, trips to be had, and last but not least, a new home in Old Town, close enough to King Street for casual walks, but far enough away for general relaxation.

Short week this week, and that’s a good thing. The forced rest will be welcomed. Though, I did rest this weekend a bit.

The masthead photo for this entry was a snap shot after an a.m. meeting in DC on Friday. Welcome to the circus called entrepreneurial endeavors (sorry, I could not resist, that’s really how it is sometimes). I’ve taken to keeping my camera with me, just in case. It’s a fun thing.

Held my rescheduled board meeting on Friday afternoon. That was great. It really helped me pop my head out and above the day-to-day rat race to get a strategic view of the business.

In many ways, if used correctly, a board can provide a great inventory of your company – good and bad. For the first time the road to my vision is extremely clear. I understand what’s stopping me from getting there, and for the most part it’s that guy in the mirror who’s thinking too small.

Secondly, I have my old sales VP and another senior statesman on my board that helped me work out some pipeline mechanics. There’s a problem with an inverted pipe. That means the bulk of my new business opportunities are in the next 45 days, and afterwards I have an empty pipe. The next 30 days will see me throwing leads into my long-term pipe from a few sources (sorry dear competitors, no tips as to where I am getting my traction).

The other thing is getting the immediate leads closed. Good suggestions from the board here, too. For the first time in a while, I think I am going to pull out some pretty unique tactics to bring these clients on. The primary objection seems to be the newness of the firm, but there are ways to counter it.

Couple of things to note. We’ve done a great job launching a company’s new product. They have no referable major clients of note yet, but because of a ton of blog traffic and interest from the web 2.0 community, we were able to surpass objections from key reporters. We just sent reporters to our favorite blog search tool, and had them type in the company name. Top trades and major national newspaper are writing the product up. Nov. 27 is going to be a good day.

Other notable: I got invited to join the board of an arts organization downtown. This has been a year-long objective of mine, and finally it’s come to fruition.

Monday’s quotes are:

“Once you’ve taken inventory, you can start to make sense of your runway. But then comes a second challenge: finding the time to do what you need to do.â€?
-David Allen

“That which we persist in doing becomes easier, not that the task itself has become easier, but that our ability to perform it has improved.�
- Ralph Waldo Emerson

“To state the facts frankly is not to despair the future nor indict the past. The prudent heir takes careful inventory of his legacies and gives a faithful accounting to those whom he owes an obligation of trust.�
John F. Kennedy

P.S. A comment about #1 was posted recently. I am not #1, actually. My first full-time employee is dubbed “#1� for the sake of anonymity. Think Start Trek. Again, it’s never good to give your competition an opportunity to cherry pick employees, prospects or clients.

P.S.S. This is the last entry for the week. Have a great holiday.

One of my mid-week blog entries usually features marketing blogs of interest. Here’s this week’s:

The Advertising for Success blog researches advertising trends before they become buzz worthy

Ad Jab discusses advertising news, most recently the demise of ad guy.

Business update
I had a reader ask my wife how it’s really going. Is the blog accurate? Well, I’m an optimist. If I kvetched about nagging start-up problems then I’d be no good to anyone, and my bad attitude would carry over into my business. So I try to focus on the glass as half full. Plus it’s PR, who would read this blog and hire me if I was whining all the time? Please. That’s not good flacking.

For the record, I will tell you that starting a company is rough. My body is currently revolting against the workload. Yesterday, I woke up with a bloody nose, then at the gym that evening I enjoyed some heart palpitations. Today it’s been sinus passage aches, sour stomach, etc.

If you don’t like working extra hours – every week – then forget about it. You will fail.

Why so much time? It’s just marketing, right? Wrong. Add in the financial management constraints and worries, new business development (a primary activity, by the way), the need to scale, the management of contractors and staff, etc. Oh yeah, you learn all sorts of new things.

And why work hard to the point of physical pain? The slow season is coming. In the words of Wizards coach Eddie Jordan, “You gotta harvest [those] nuts right now.� And if you can’t take the pain, starting a company isn’t for you. It’s the price of freedom. And I like my freedom. But I must admit, thank goodness, the holidays and my slow season are coming up. It makes things easier to bear.

In that spirit, we’re harvesting. The good news is that we’re also closing the office the Friday after Thanksgiving, and for the week between Christmas and New Years. In essence, we will be taking advantage of the slow period. Owning the business has its benefits.

Geoff Livingston’s Remarks on November 9, 2006 to the CXO Forum on Business Blogging

Traditionally, generating buzz has been a function of public relations. The value of public relations is its ability to generate credibility for a corporation’s brand through third party vehicles (i.e. press, films, speaking engagements and now
blogs). The dot com crash and the advent of new web 2.0 technologies is revolutionizing media and marketing, affecting every part of these disciplines.

Consumers and buyers no longer trust the newspaper/magazines/media in full. The truth of the matter is that people are savvy to news reporting and its strengths and weaknesses. That’s why independent verification of product usage through third party users is an increasing must. And blogs are filling that void. That’s why most businesses want a piece of the blogosphere.

A blog strategy can do great wonders for a company. Examples include FortiusOne, Google, GM’s Fastlane. Blogs may not work for all businesses. The key is whether the blog serves as a mundane propaganda mechanism, or if it has real value and experience for its readership. GM’s Fastlane works because it’s all about building hot cars and auto technology, and experiencing these innovations.

Here’s a tongue in cheek Five Musts of Generating Buzz, which directly apply to creating valuable blogs.

1. Companies must Get Out of Themselves and pay attention to their target audience’s interests to succeed.
2. Companies must build value for these target audiences and disseminate the information in ways that are viral.
3. The value that companies build needs to be related to their product: Starbucks = coffee, but buzz = relaxing, hip ambience while you have coffee.
4. Companies must inspire their target audiences to believe in the company, to talk about the company, to serve as its advocates.
5. Companies must commit to regular, consistent communications. A flash in the pan does nothing to help the company long term.

If your company starts to wrack up negative blog posts, hire a professional. Engaging with negative bloggers is dangerous thing, and requires crisis communications skills. Act quickly, too, and make sure you have your factual version of the story posted on your site in a press statement.

Most importantly, no matter your take on the situation be 100% honest and factual. There’s no recovery from being caught in an untruth.