Carl Blake - No Ordinary Pig Farmer

We met an incredible number of fascinating people on our #IM48 road trip. But I have to say that few are quite as unique and memorable as my friend Carl Blake - the pig farmer who's place we stayed at for the better part of a week. He recently was featured on Andrew Zimmern's bizarre foods and now the New York Times wrote a fascinating profile on him. 

Go Carl. I am really proud of you. 

going to the movies

These last few weeks have been pretty reflective for me. As part of that, I went and watched three different movies in theatres - Lincoln, Argo and Silver Linings Playbook. They were all excellent. Go see them while they're still in theatre.

Actually, I highly recommend you go see lots of movies in theatre - period. Not on a date, but by yourself. 

There is a certain magic to watching a good film in theatre. A good film oftentimes tells a story about a very specific yet interesting part of our lives or history. Beautiful and important stories are everywhere, not just in the movies but in real life. 

I find that watching a good film in theatre reminds to pay attention to those stories. 

 

Back to Montana

This is news. Probably surprising news in many ways. It surprised me. 

Here it is. 

I am moving back to Montana next year. 

So is IdeaMensch.

And so is Otto. 

It's not quite decided yet in what function, but one thing that is for certain is that I'll be teaching at the University. There are other opportunities that will uncover themselves in the coming months. And of course, we will continue to grow IdeaMensch out of our Missoula headquarters. 

Here is the backstory. 

I came to America as a sixteen year old kid. I thought I'd be surfing on a beach, yet instead I ended up moving pipes on a ranch. In a small town. In Montana. 

And I fell in love with the state. Its mountains, its rivers but mostly its people. I've never met more friendly, more down-to-earth people than Montanans. They made me feel so welcomed, I decided to extend what was supposed to be one year of high school exchange and try to stay in America for good - much to the unliking of my mother.

I went to college in Missoula, which only confirmed my sentiments about the place. 

Unfortunately upon graduation there weren't too many opportunities for me to continue growing. So I left. 

Seattle, LA, Portland, LA, Europe and LA again were my stops. I did a lot of wandering. I spent ten amazing years in Advertising. With the exception of my time in Portland, I always sort of felt out of place. In my mind it was a sacrifice I needed to make in order to grow professionally. To this day I believe that to be true. 

My time at WONGDOODY and R2C Group helped me develop an actual skill set other than my broken accent and ridiculously good looks. I couldn't be more grateful for Ben, Pat, Tim and Michelle for believing in me and for giving me the opportunities I had. 

It was an amazing ride, yet I was never quite satisfied with the impact I was making. Nor did I ever grow accustomed to LA. Which is what led me to IdeaMensch and which is what led me to this crazy road trip. 

This spring, I stopped being successful and started making a real impact.

It has been the most rewarding journey of my life. 

Now I am at the tail end of a 48-state road trip. At the end of this sucker, I will have been to every state with the exception of Alaska.

I have a pretty good idea of what's out there now. 

After having seen all that, I happen to believe there to be two places that are made for me.

Montana and Oregon. 

And if you had asked me three months ago, I would have told you that I'd probably be moving to Portland next year, especially since I already have a condo there, great friends and my red scooter (which I promise to pick up on the way Ryan). I love Portland, always will and probably will come back at some point. 

But Montana called me. 

There are various reasons.

Various situations where I can make a real impact on a place that I love - surrounding both the University and the local startup scene.

It just feels right. 

So I am going to do it. What the heck. 

There are many things to do before I leave. 

I need to find someone to rent my room in Santa Monica. 

I need to talk Otto into separating from Spencer. 

I need to find someone who will help Gregory. 

I will have to say goodbye (which by the way is always just temporary) to the many amazing friends I made in LA. 

But I am going back to the place I fell in love with when I first came to America. 

Back to Montana. 

Get your waders on. 

tired

I was going to write a post about this yesterday, but I didn't. Too tired. 

When we got home (aka our hotel room) after our Milwaukee event, I felt really tired. We have traveled for 45 days now, 20 states, 19 cities, three events per week, huge ups, and downs. Adam and Will are doing great, the chemistry is amazing. There have been arguments, but the air was cleared after every one of them. There is no negative energy. We've pretty much shared beds and floors for the last month and a half yet every day we get up excited - ready to work our butts off and go to bat for people with ideas. 

I know I need to write more and I need to pick up the camera more often, but right now the goal is just to get through the day, every day and put on as many awesome events as possible. Everything else is secondary. 

I am tired. This feels like really hard work. But I bet I'll look back someday having to pinch myself that we did this. 

the problem with every day being different

Eleven years ago, I distinctively remember telling one of my professors in college that I was looking for a career where every day is completely different. When I worked in advertising I told people that what I loved was how every day was different. Well, turns out - I was lying. Now every day is different. Quite literally. I sleep in a different bed/on a different floor every second day. I pretty much eat something completely different every day and every meal of the day. It's usually not healthy. Every day I am surrounded by three of the same people and fifty to a hundred new ones. And i guess my work is different every day, even though it's hard for me to quantify that. But it must be, because every day I am worried about something completely different. Right now, I am worried about our speaker lineup in Minneapolis. Normally it's easy to find speakers and hard to sell tickets. In Minneapolis it's the other way around. We're selling tickets even though we have no speakers. Oh, and I am slightly worried about our new passenger who we're dropping of in Des Moines before heading to Carl Blake's pig farm. Because turns out, the Element only has four seats. And now there are five of us 

So I guess I'll take that back that I want every day to be completely different. I don't want to be bored with what I do, but it will be nice to have a steady bed (maybe even to myself), a kitchen to make healthy food in and a time every day to work out.  That will be nice. 

Be careful what you wish for Mario. 

on trying

Some day I or someone else will look back on my life, and I or they might or might not think that I lived an interesting life.  But I am pretty certain that it will be rather clear that I tried very hard. And I guess that's what it's all about. You're either trying something or you're not. That applies to living an interesting life, losing weight, getting faster, being nicer, eating healthier or making a bunch of money. 

There is no guarantee in life that you'll succeed at anything. 

But you can always try.