Now familiarizing self with products again, and promotions for sakes of matching whatever the prospect is paying.  Some you’ll win, some you’ll lose.  Just keep quoting, I’ve learned.

Slowing pace.  Taking a breath, or dozen.  Not allowing too much elevation too quick and conversely not permitting drastic descent.

Readying to leave.  But then I’m hit with an idea… again, going outside the box, and maybe not a box but just the immediate expectancy of things.

More than a funnel I’m thinking of, but….. something. Geographies, business types, unexpected harmonies of businesses, collaborations but even more than that.

Slowing down, but only before I make another move…

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Literary lunch in breakroom.  Little bit of a lesson with me and receipts… keep them all, organize.  Don’t throw away a single thing.  There’s only clutter is there’s no organization, no system for processing.  Expenses today, only the latte.  Eating raisin bran in baggie I packed.  Seeing new things to try with my work, with speaking, with how I market myself and Sonic.  Just remembered, today is Day 1 of Month 4.  Am I content with where I am, progress-wise?  More or less.  Need to keep taking notes, keep learning.  Test self and abilities with prospecting, and investigation of new clients and new client-rich areas.

Need this break, honestly.  Regroup and assemble before heading to Montgomery Drive in Santa Rosa.  Bring some of the privacy protectors, something to give prospects so they don’t see me as someone in their office just selling something.

Class tonight.  What’s my plan.  None.  Same as my approach to this… don’t do your job so much.  Focus on self, what you want, what you see in the company, how you translate the message and reality of Sonic.

Make this all literary, and it is.  Doesn’t need be made so.  Every character, every department, every role in the department.  Learn from every word, every walk.  This never happened at the winery, any of them.  No bets, no hedging bets.  This is where I need to write, and write about.  Eager for day of no more winery and teaching, and I keep saying that but I need to remind self, re-staple and cement the sense of a business bloke.

Someone behind me getting coffee.  Only had the latte and I need a boost or bump in my propeller.  One cup won’t hurt.  Thought about getting a sparkling water, but no…. no spending from debit, nor cash.  Only use change from drawer.

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10/1/19

My favorite month starts with me riding the forward and creative storm of ideas from mixer last night in SF.  Writing my AE story, not so much a how-to but maybe inadvertently so. Meeting in Rohnert Park at 11.  Won’t make workout class, and I’m not sullen in such.

Reminding self to just speak, get to know the person and forget about the product and service.  Speaking from Sonic’s convictions and theses, yes, but from my own as well.  Aiming for today to be one of the best of the year so far, if not the single distinguishing and beaming, definitive, luminary print on my page.  Will be taking a break in a minute to write in other room, with people around me talking I’m trying to focus and shove self further into thought and I notice self straining excessively.  Not much, but not much IS excessive.

Everyone I met last night has their distinct thesis and aim, business and place, identity.  One of them complimenting me on my energy and Sonic-speak… reminded again I need to accelerate and amplify my act in the AE track.

Looking around desk, see Happiness Project Journal.  Write sentence, but not yes… don’t slow.  P-O-Z, Profuse Outlaw Zone.  YES!  Why didn’t I think of that yesterday.  What was yesterday’s acro’?  Can’t remember.  Don’t need to.   Said to Olivia last night that the aim of POZ is to do what Sonic is already doing but differently and with more amplification… using my background in wine and education.  So… what next.  Happiness sentence.  Done.

Not much till appt at 11.  Send emails, I tell self.  Hunt contacts.  I don’t necessarily agree with the intonation of “hunter mentality” but that’s what I’m putting myself in.  The model of POZ is very much centered around the real estate agent model and character, but minus certain specificities.  Nevermind that for now, I tell myself.  Aims for day…. 1, set one appointment, vendor or prospect.  2, Don’t leave office till SIX.  3, takeover bottledaux, turn it into more of a voice, more of a thing, a presence, a life, a climate…..  POST TEN TIMES.

Need to narrate more, get up earlier…. I know I know, how many times do I note that.  Last night over my quick dinner, and glass of AV Cabernet, reciting words to self on my business, an “elevator pitch” on ME.  Sales is part of it, but knowledge is as well.  What do you write, I asked self.  BUSINESS, I offered, declared, affirmed and re-affirmed.  That’s going to be the answer for the remainder of my narrative, and yes I’m thinking in those definite and finality, some would say grim terms.

First thing to being an AE, know YOU.  What you want for the client, their business.  What they want for themselves and their business.  Consultancy, hospitality….  So very Zen in this wee workspace of mine.  Heard one of the trainers mention writing a book, or list of “pro tips” as they described it for future hires.  I think.  Was listening in, but that’s how I interpreted it right or wrong, accurate or in’, and thought was a frenetic jolt of kind counsel.  Have my waterfall of suggestive jots in big journal, the Apache pages.  Warrior for this AE story and education.  First thing…. Keep conversations moving, write more letters, listen, ask the person about their life, their business, their visions.

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Saturday morning. No winery, no winery event to work.

Just time with the babies, my latte.  May go for a run later, but legs are still sore from the workout Thursday.  Headed to winery for sure, Katie’s, in a few hours.  Thinking, what can I do for the agency, my P-O-Z project.  Can I prospect today, at all?  Thinking yes, in Kenwood, and…. Downtown a couple places, just stop in and say hi.  That’s it.  So not really prospecting, but building that community.  Writing more this morning and telling self not to obsess over any to-do’s.  Should have woke earlier.  Can do tomorrow, I tell myself but then wonder if that’ll happen.  Making today about wine, the world of wineries I’m from, having that part of the P-O-Z.

This past week actually writing and outline a definition for the Agency.  Recruitment, conversation, creativity of course, blogging, a real estate/real estate agent approach (which also demands definition).  This coming week, need follow up on appointment invitations.  Have to call Berkeley prospect today at some point, may do from St. Francis.  May do some POZ work there.  No more hyphenating, I just decided.  If you know me you know I hate punctuation.  Punctuation is all about rules, and POZ is about whim and kindness and communicative impulse.

Kids asking me to bring them water, I do, and without any forecast or sight I have a business hot–  Just get people what they want.  Never say no, offer alternative.  I’ve thought that before, so nothing terribly significant, but I had to write it.  My AE story separates from the AE insinuation and progression, and even Sonic, and wheels a proliferation of sovereignty.  I remember one day in the morning, 2008 at Sonoma State before one of my morning Composition.  All stemming from my observations at Sonic which constitute a certain hegemony, steering my ideas and lens perceptively in the business world and beat of things.

Sonic instructs much more than wine’s flimsy industry ever did or could do, and instills an echoing reiteration of simplicity, spontaneity, to be a dumbsaint and constant scribbler, seer, poetic architecture and holy contour of business.. This AE act, which isn’t an act I use that word with literary purposing and intonation, shows me business is not business as people estimate and define.  IT’s more connotative and deno’.  Think about it, they hired a wine writer and blogger for a supervisory position.  In Field Sales, no less.  This not only edifies and adduces their business philosophy and welcoming consistencies with everything.  Sonic teaches me about business, not the wine industry. And writing, how to write with more precision and moment-to-moment beat-like beat and likeness.

Was told ten years ago that I should blog about wine, and I have been since then on and off and then again loudly on, you could say.  But now, I write and blog about work.  About business, and how NO ONE should have to hold a job they don’t LOVE.  Yes, love.  There will be projects you are less excited about, but the character you are, and the story you’re in where you work was decided by you.  SO, there should only be love.

9:15am, and the babies continue to enjoy a lazy Saturday morning of cartoons while I let the caffeine in these 4 shots of espresso type away.  The contour of my AE spree, where is it taking me.  To my own office, yes, but to more realizations of life and business, the desk I sit at everyday, the meetings like yesterday.

Making the Sonic calendar my master and only calendar.  For everything.  Putting winery visit and light canvassing on today’s square, for noon.  Two other spots I want to visit, say hi.  Palooza, maybe Ty Caton, and then …. OH, a couple breweries.  One spot downtown.  If anything else, more community assembly. 

Why does one want their own business.  Somewhat a question that answers itself, with the words THEIR OWN.  It’s theirs.  This morning, feeling’s though I’m at Sonic, at my desk, walking around my building and the other like yesterday saying hello to friends in other departments.

Kids’ cartoon starting to distract me.  Can only write in short paragraph, quasi-HST form. With attention wandering.  Caffeine starts to control and fly me like a barely-built vessel.  In my office, like the office I’ve studied and seen online, with a tech/startup/chic library/wine bar feel.  Will there be wine in the office, yes.  No drinking during creating hours.  Not “work” hours, crEATive.  Hours are 7-5.  For me of course much longer, as with my partners in the same suite as me.  Not a “C suite”, or management cove.  Just my fellow or other deciders.  Like the coLAB downtown, I want colors and shine, encouragement to create, isolation rooms and studios.  Everything to elevate moods and impetus to ink a story.

Message from my real estate friend of 20+ years, suggesting I use social media more.  Funny, thought the same while driving to Danville yesterday, taking a picture of the cover of the Sonic folder I gave the IT consultant focusing on Sonic logo and font.  Will post when done with this… this morning entry supplementing and augmenting, further facilitating my definition and defining of business.

All in the office should be not only kind and inviting, but tireless curious, suggestive and workshop-like.  Share entries and ideas, blend them together.  Have to snicker while typing this, recollecting moments years ago, right around ’08 when in my car jotting those musings on autonomy and sovereignty, where I wished for a great consolidation.  And I don’t think I’ll have it considered an office, but a colony, a creative colony, island, like Sonic.  Somewhere that values whim, privacy and openness, conversation, enjoyment and love of life like no other workplace.  Where you’re told you’re a genius of your own genius and genus.  You are the only you, this morning and all–  Where you’re not excited to be at work but dreading leaving at day’s close even before you sit down and start typing to your coffee or latte, mocha or chai.  My office, room, space will continue to explore business and define and redefine it—deconstruct and further construct agreeable and embracing edges of its drive.  Of its Road.

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Forgot running shoes at home. Broke fast.  Two losses for day but small losses.  Not even losses.  Will take lunch in break room and write and create, blog the shit out of everything.  Still have to grade papers for 1B class.  Interesting day where I felt tired then now after a small coffee dose I’m moving everywhere and with everything.

Aims for lunch…. 5 posts, over multiple blogs and other channels.  Then re-post on other what I posted on others.  Getting more mad with my methods, while driving back from meeting thinking I need sell both self and Sonic, in tandem.  Take more time with emails.  Today, a lesson.  A bright and bravado-told lesson.

Put Cheerios away, now just coffee.  Deciding to write a book on prospecting for new business, and not just new business but connections, alliances, new people in your business sight.  Have it be more than a funnel.  Just had another idea…. Bless this coffee, I’ll just say.  Still a bit bitter about forgetting running sneaks at home, but I have to move past it. 

Note on prospecting, ‘Keep talking with kindness and honesty.  Have it all feel heartfelt.  Don’t force the topic of your product.’

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4:38pm.

Getting ready for tech event, tomorrow.  Definitely done with coffee for the day.  Still feel self shake from the cold brew I earlier bought.  Bed early tonight, early wake.  Setting clothes out when home.  Long days, the next 3.  Write it all.  I’m finding the most effective way to not stress is to avoid nothing, think about nothing, and just keep the motion more constant than anything you can think of.

Have to walk up the block, get company car and park back here in lot.  Had to move earlier as I took someone’s spot accidentally.  He told me, the spot’s resident, for me not to worry and that it happens all the time.  I laughed but thought about it, about planning better.  I don’t know, that’s where my head went..

Going to move it now.

Back from moving car, thinking about conversation with CTO earlier.  He urged a downplay of the tech and more of the narrative of Sonic and what we are, who we seek to be in community.  MY ideas go everywhere again.  Someone could ask me, “Why Sonic?” and before  denouncing what other companies do, which I wouldn’t, I talk about what’s in the office, what’s here…. The brainstorming hasn’t stopped since that meeting, then after a later meeting with Sales Engineer, I guess you could call him, I have more I’m out to do.  My business plan here in this department has considerably been re-written.  The Agency aspect to what I do…. Amplified.  Researching and noting on all Sonic lit, all its messaging.  Doors open.  I’m seeing like with Kerouac my life here is a telling picture and promise to Mike Madigan that he can do whatever he wants, this wine writer in a tech office, at an internet company.

‘Nother note to self:  300 Sonic words per day.  Something I did when I first started, but left as a project.  The 300 words aren’t so much a sales pitch, but extended and ceaseless definition and defining of the company.

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2:13pm

Moving around with no order then total order of compliment to my aims.

Need to make a call I don’t want to, in bit.  Putting it off when I know I shouldn’t.  Calling Sears regarding the bullshit fridge they delivered to our house. Talk about not just “bad business”, but just dumb business.

Sipping what’s left of the coffee, cold.  Found another target.  Feeling autopilot—or no, the Agency, MY Agency, getting closer.  More than close.

Found event in SF, that could be rich with not just potential but immediate propulsion to discussion and something bigger than what I can immediately see.  Being this writer at a tech/internet company is only sequencing in more revelation and growth.  Anything can be created in this world, this office, this technology-tied ride, something—a whole industry and profession—I used to dismiss, even after becoming a blogger.  Today tallies knowledge, humility, growth, curiosity and non-forecasted landings.

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project

9/10/19

Same energy as yesterday.  Quick, elevated, hungry and fucking fearless.  Got a parking ticket downtown while at meeting at SR Chamber.  Totally my fault.  Was suggested I make Sonic pay for, but no.  I’m owning it as lesson to self.

Found company I very much want to know better, work with.  Just gave info to reception, and who knows if that’ll ever get to where it’s intended.  Not a shot at the lady that answered, that’s just how it goes.  Keeping my movement with a bright blaze that strays all ways.

Looking at another company, now.  And I’ve found to prospecting when you’re too diagnostic and not enough curious and conversational, human, then you’ve detracted from your potential to achieve whatever it is you want.

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Back from event.  Answering emails and sending new ones.  Adding to list of businesses to contact, in a minute.  Goal is to have two “funnels”.  They will be similar, but one with different information about the contacts.  I’ve always known I have “contacts”, and people I can call on to refer clients to, but never did the examining, or read the list, or forwarded a conversation.

Just today’s event taught me more than a lot or enough about business and how to speak your business.  I go on and on about this, but at my age I need repeat some of it not so much for retention but to be always at ready.  To do what?  Just that.. speak the narrative.

See myself in my eventual shop.  How I open, how I close, how I prospect, how I shop, how I everything.

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