Top 5 – How to stay sharp while out on vacation – Day #5
Top 5 ways to stay sharp on vacation
#1 – GET PLENTY OF SLEEP
Common mistake many people make is to maximize their vacation by not sleeping and then spending the next work week recovering. I have found the perfect balance. The way I see it – you should get 8 hours a day, why does it have to be all during the night? Spread out your sleep during the slower times during the day. I had Mindy grab some pictures when she saw me sleeping to illustrate mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm (sorry – fell asleep, but that’s another few minutes of good sleep) my point:
Don't underestimate a good raft on a floating dock...
TV's watching the children - why should I have to?
No worries - We were going really slow anyways...
Note to self - "Buy a bigger raft that will fit three and check with doctor about Nathan sleeping with his tongue out."
I encourage family resting moments...
"Can't a man get a little privacy?"
OK - This wasn't the smartest time to grab a power nap, but don't worry - no one was seriously injured...
OK - after this final nap - I should be able to make it through the 2AM Sportscenter - Sweet...
Top 5 – How to stay sharp while out on vacation – Day #4
Top 5 ways to stay sharp on vacation
#2 – Roll Play to stay sharp.
One of the most important things I have to do every day is relate to my clients. Whether it’s during a meeting or business lunch, I need to let them know we are on the same page. Might be sitting with someone who likes seafood, whether I like it not, I will still eat it. I always feel it’s important to make sure to find that common ground with a client – current or future. Well vacation is the perfect time to work on these skills with a little roll play.
So I decided to take my daughter on a business lunch and make sure I can relate with her. Now she’s only one, so this is going to be a challenge – we don’t watch the same shows, we don’t like the same toys, and I doubt she will care about the Farve situation?
Isn't she cute? There was only one way to connect with her and meet on her level...
V
V
V
Get Messy with her…
And it worked... She wouldn't leave my side all night. Enjoyed a nice quiet evening on the porch watching the sun go down.
Top 5 – How to stay sharp while out on vacation – Day #3
Top 5 ways to stay sharp on vacation
#3 – Make sure to fit in some exercise.
Most people tend to not only take a vacation from their job, but from their personal health also. Trying to recover the 40 hours of lost work time is easy compared to losing an extra 10 pounds gained on vacation. After all you have worked hard to be healthy – why lose that momentum just because you aren’t punching a time clock that week.
My typical day on vacation –
6AM - Nothing like a few hundred sit-ups to get the day started right...
V
V
V
8AM - After the sit-ups, I get a chance to enjoy the outdoors and do another few hundred push-ups...
V
V
V
11AM - Right before lunch, what's better then a few pull-ups?
V
V
V
4PM - I like to get creative here. Today I thought - "The boat pulls us all day - maybe it's time I pulled it for a few laps?"
V
V
V
9PM (This picture uploaded by Mindy) I wanted to let you see the true Josh Exercise plan on Vacation.
Top 5 – How to stay sharp while out on vacation – Day #2
Top 5 ways to stay sharp on vacation
#4 – Take opportunities to get your mind off work.
Playing games is always a great way to get your mind off work...
Had our best day, weather wise, today. Where was I? Smart me, I did what most people do the weeks before vacation – commit to conference calls without looking at my calendar. Had two conference calls to fit in between pulling my boys on the tubes. Then after a great dinner, we did something that we do every vacation – played a game of Scrabble. What another great way to rejuvenate myself and keep my mind off work…
V
V
V
V
V
V
V
V
V
V
V
If I can just get a V to build off of...
At least I tried… Maybe tomorrow we can play Payday… Nothing better than playing a GAME where you get to try and earn enough money to pay off all your bills. Who invented that game?
Top 5 – How to stay sharp while out on vacation – Day #1
Vacations are necessary, but does anyone else feel like it’s harder today to actually just let everything go and truly relax?
Vacation? What does this word mean anyway? Merriam-Webster says:
1 : a respite or a time of respite from something : intermission
2: a period spent away from home or business in travel or recreation <had a restful vacation at the beach>
3: an act or an instance of vacating
But, you know what I think it means? A scheduled period of time away from your job where you feel obligated to check your email 10 times a day, a chance to lose any momentum you spent the last 9 months creating and a great time to stress about all the stuff your aren’t getting done. Then to make it worse, you then to get back and work 80 hours the next week to make up for the 40 you just missed.
I have over the years learned how to limit the impact my vacation has on my productivity and want to share some of these techniques with the world. So, the next 5 days I will reveal my Top 5 ways to stay sharp on vacation.
Top 5 ways to stay sharp on vacation
#5 – Utilize drive time to brainstorm/Reflect.
Man, this driving thing is easy - Why are Nathan and Caleb waving like that?
Whether you are in a car or on a boat – this is a brainless activity – you hardly need to pay attention – so use the time to think of the next thing that will revolutionize your job position or a unique way to land that next big client. (Make sure to interact with your family every once in a while to let them think you are paying attention to them)
V
V
V
V
V
V
V
V
V
V
V
OK - Maybe pay a little more attention!! Who put that dock there...
Our new favorite color is…
Our new RED ONE arrived today! This camera is a game changer – next level. Need to know more click here and for more here.
Get A Pair.
There are moments of clarity in life. Those are the times when you say to yourself, “Even though its an odd niché, I am good at [insert work related item of obscurity here].” Options may include all or some of the following: making sausage, building miniature Civil War replica paraphernalia, developing numeric algorithms (which make contests legitimately “random”), etc. … and the list goes on.
For us, such a moment occurred this year. We have realized that we have the collective mindset of a 16-year-old and can completely relate to young adults on a retail level due to an utter lack of maturity on our parts. I am kidding … kind of. But we have realized that retail marketing/design is one of the things we do very well. For the past 7 years, we have done projects for retailers such as The Body Shop, Mexx/Liz Claiborne and several footwear retailers, including our friends at Foot Locker. So this summer when we got the opportunity to develop the “Back to School” campaign for Champs Sports, we (A.) Got very, very excited, (B.) Re-entered adolescents via a time warp (Think more Uncle Rico and less Super Mario Brothers 3—that time warp takes you to directly to the final level).
As you can see, the journey was successful. The in-store campaign and ads land nationally this month through the end of August. Proof that sometimes it really does pay not to think like a grown up.
Firsts
Out of curiosity (and a recent conversation at a company picnic) I asked my co-workers what his or her first job was. Wouldn’t YOU be curious to see where your boss started out? Some of their responses were surprising…and some not so much. For example, did you know the President of Prototype, Joshua Oppenheimer, started out washing dishes? Or that our Senior Account Executive, David Norcross, carried bricks for $1 and hour?!? (What a rip off by the way!) One of the most surprising (and a little creepy) was probably Mikael Blido’s job at a graveyard. [see the picture below for a visual]
Here are a few more examples…(feel free to pass judgement)
“I was a character escort at King’s Dominion at the age of 15. My basic job description included: making sure the characters don’t speak or take their heads off while on the park grounds, especially in front of kids (apparently this can be traumatic for them, make sure the characters don’t overheat and pass out, which is no small feat on 100 degree days in the summer, and keep characters away from obnoxious high school/college boys who might want to maul or beat them up. Scooby Doo was always a target of harassment for some reason. All this fun came at $5.25/hour. It was glorious.” – Johanna Calfee, Managing Editor
“My first job, I was 15 years old and I was trimming Christmas trees in the middle of summer. I was supposed to get paid 25 cents a tree, after 2 days of sweating, getting covered in sap and stung by bees (bees love Christmas tress in the middle of summer, they are like piney bee hotels) I was “let go” because he said I was “killing his trees” and I only got $15 even though I cut probably a million trees. 6 Years Later I needed a Christmas tree and knew of a field of them. I went back under the cover of darkness and found the perfect tree. Oddly enough none of the ones I had trimmed 6 years ago were dead. I think old man winters just wanted his trees trimmed on the cheap. ” – Todd Hacker
I was 14 when I got my first job. It was summer work at CVCC, duplicating educational tapes in the A/V department. Take a tape, place it in the duplicator. Take a blank tape, place it in the duplicator. Press COPY. Stand and watch. I can’t even remember how many tapes I copied. That was about all I did for 8 hours a day. Next year my summer job was even better. I got to work as a manual laborer for the construction company CL Lewis. This was also at CVCC, and CL Lewis was the construction company building the new Merritt Hall. I leveled dirt, brushed water off the floor, and hauled cement – the first wheelbarrow was filled too much and I couldn’t move it up the ramp onto the first floor – it fell off the ramp. They didn’t let me move cement anymore. My dad got me both jobs.” – Keith Poole, Graphic Designer
“I was 13 and I cut bamboo and cattails with a scythe in a marsh for the summer… in Hampton… for somebody that wasn’t family….who probably violated some child labor laws… but he had cash. Next job was when I was 15 and I illustrated a half dozen pages and the cover for a book about the CCC camps and the use of child labor. Odd isn’t it.” – Todd Allen, Owner
“My story (as I am sure many of you will be surprised) is not all that interesting. I got my first job at 18 working as a telemarketing operator at J. Crew. That’s right, I was the guy you yelled at because your order was wrong — well actually, not at first – believe it or not, that was a “step up” into the customer service department. I started just keying in orders. It was a nice gig for a 18 year old in college. I went to school during the day and then worked from 6pm-1am every night. I did get to talk to Cher and Joan Rivers who both called in to place orders – and yes, I had access to their home address. The nights were filled with much boredom but an opportunity to do school work and get “paid” to do it. The wage was good for it was – $9.50/hour if I recall correctly. I would bring home about $250/week. My car payment at the time was $365/mo. You do the math — I worked for a week and a half just to OWN my car. That doesn’t include gas or maintenance. My job basically got me around and bought me some nasty fast food to eat. I’ll never forget my scariest moment there. I had keyed in a huge $2000+ order, about 40 items and in order to do that you had to split the order into 2 separate orders for the computer to take the order. Well, I forgot to split it so the order bombed out. I acted quickly and made up some shipping prices like any scared teenager would do and then of course ensured the customer the order would ship out promptly. ——- I spent the next 2 hours sorting through that mess with beads of sweat on my brow the entire time. Luckily, I fixed it and everything shipped as planned (albeit with a considerably higher shipping price than the one I made up). Now, 15 years later, I can still remember the script. “Thank you for calling J. Crew, this is Klint how may I help you? Can I start by getting your customer number from the yellow box on the back of your catalog please? Thank you, I’m ready for your first item number… so that’s the Mens V-Neck Tee in Grey Heather, size Medium for $24.99 – I’m ready for your next item.” – Klint Holland, Senior Web Developer
“When I was 14 I started my first job at a jewelry store. I sold jewelry, cleaned jewelry, wrapped packages, kept the store spotless and, most importantly, got an awesome discount. I stayed there for four years, all through highschool…I even ended up outselling some of the full-timers one Christmas. Bonus: they still let me go behind the counters and pick out whatever jewelry I want.” – Megan Norcross, Director of Business Development
I was 11. After school each day my Mom would drop me off at a staffing office where my Aunt worked. I would wash cups, plates and clean up the kitchen for $5 a day. At the end of the week they would give me $25. That year I bought alot of baseball cards – which leads me to the best part of the story…I bought a single pack of Fleer cards. In the pack I got a Gold leafed Jose Conseco ELITE card. This was the equivalent of a WONKA’S golden ticket. It was worth at the time $250. I immediately sold it for $225 to an adult who collected cards. To date it is the best return on investment I have ever seen.I immediately took the money and bought a motorcycle.” – Daryl Calfee, Owner of Prototype Media
“The first ‘job’ i ever had was a part time gig. I was acting like a wounded kid for an emergency response class taken by new firefighters and EMS. I was kind of a big deal really (ok, not really). The coordinator slapped some really terrible looking black and purple face paint on me to make it look like a bruise. Basically, I had to lay there and act like I was wounded, sick or better yet unconscious (that one was my favorite). Hard work I know… and I am sure my performance was outstanding. Oh yea, I was about 12 years old, and it paid $100 for the day. Ka-ching! And I am sure I spent it on something ridiculous instead of saving it. And there ya go…” – Derek Bennion, Graphic/Web Designer
rainy days & mondays
It was a gloomy, rainy Monday here at the office so Andrea and I decided to cheer everyone up with a little campfire treat! One of my good friends surprised me with a s’mores maker in the mail last week so I knew right away I had to put it to good use. What better time than a day like today? In a matter of only 30 seconds, we had s’mores. No fire. No burnt marshmallows. Just sheer gooey chocolate mallow graham cracker bliss. Here is a picture of the contraption:
I think the s’mores were well received by our staff. What do you think?
how much is that doggie in the window?
Whenever we are brainstorming for ideas here at PT (specifically fund-raising events) Johanna always suggests a “puppy pen” – a pen full of puppies that everyone can play with at any time. And by golly, if she isn’t on to something! Who doesn’t love puppies? According to WebMD (a very reliable source, I know) dogs are good for your health! They help improve mood and stress-levels which makes it perfectly acceptable for us to have them here in the office. Enter Klint’s new puppy, Turbo…
All I have to say is, “can I PLEASE be next?!?”