the mario blog

Ok, this is my second bad flight experience in just a couple of weeks. Last week I was unhappy because Horizon Air ran out of beer on my flight from Portland to Santa Barbara.

This week, I am writing because I got stuck at the Philly airport for ten hours - thanks to the friendly folks at US Airways. Horizon’s Ginger Ale doesn’t sound so bad after all.

Here’s what happened.

After three days of late-nights, little sleep, flights across the country, preparing, scrambling and then delivering a major presentation; I was ready to head back to the West Coast for a weekend of sunshine and a wedding in Las Vegas. So after checking my bags and getting checked at security, I sat down at the gate, Philly Cheese Steak Sandwich in-hand, to relax for a couple of hours prior to my 6pm flight. Just as I took the last bite out of my sandwich, my flight departure got pushed to 8pm. Two hours of relaxation turned into four.

Then we boarded. Then we de-boarded an hour later because the intercom between the pilot’s cabin and the main cabin didn’t work so well. In the process of such, the guy next to me got picked up by airport security as he decided to de-board the plane rather quickly and ran over a flight attendant. Then the flight crew timed out and went home. So we had to wait another five hours before boarding the plane again.

I guess US Airways did what they could do. At some point, they even gave us $10 food vouchers to feed us while waiting. The only problem was that by the the time they finally decided to give out food vouchers, all stores and restaurants were closed. What a cost-savings initiative. Give people vouchers they can’t redeem.

We finally left the airport at 1am.

I want to take a moment to thank my “almost” seatmate, who’s arrest (or ban) allowed me to stretch out and sleep the whole way back to Vegas.

I’ve always struggled to stay on top of all my tasks and deliverables across multiple computer systems and dozens of paper to-do lists. I think I’ve finally found the solution. Toodledo.com is an easy to use, web-based to-do list. Keeping track of all your tasks will help you avoid disorganization, stay motivated and be more productive. Check it out. It’s really pretty cool.

This past week, I was able to extend job offers to two gentlemen who started as interns at our company just a few months ago. While this may not seem like a big deal to some, it is for me. I firmly believe that the best way to get your career started is to choose the right company in a field that truly interests you, and then do whatever it takes to your foot in the door. This is compared to just sending out a bunch of resumes and then accepting whatever job comes along first.

The single most important career decision I have made so far was to quit my dead-end job with an agency in Montana to become the (albeit unpaid) intern of a highly-renown ad agency president in Seattle. Hence, it comes as no surprise that half of my staff members actually started their careers as interns. Here’s too much success in years to come, Mike and Scott.

Also, congrats to my friend Kemble, who a few years ago, I was able to hook up with an internship with a famous ad agency in Los Angeles. Kemble just graduated college and was offered a full-time, permanent position with that very same agency. Congrats Kemble.

Below is a picture of myself and former intern colleague, Brian, at a bbq in Seattle. Here’s to being interns.

 

I’ve picked up my second cold since turning 26, which is downright ridiculous. This is because I travel too much and rest too little. I’m in town all of next week, so I’ll have plenty of time to get healthy.

However, the week after I will be traveling again to speak on a panel in New York City. If you’d like learn more about where DR meets Madison Avenue, you should stop by. I’ll have my hour of fame during the lunch panel.

I an going to be spending another day in Indianapolis as all flights out of here have been canceled due to severe weather conditions. Apparently, Indianapolis is about to be hit by the worst tornado and storm in many years. My TV stopped working right after it portrayed a public service message telling me to seek shelter in some sort of basement. Great. I’ll try and post some pictures.

That’s my flight schedule for this week. I just made it to Indianapolis where I am meeting with my favorite bank client. We came here through Atlanta which doesn’t make much sense. Tomorrow, I am going back to Portland through Cincinnati and then on Wednesday I am on the road back to Frankfurt, Germany. A dream week for a frequent flier.

As it turns out, Indianapolis seems like a pretty cool place. An old manufacturing town that’s starting to get its groove back on. I am staying in the Hilton downtown with a view of the monument circle, which is arguably the best business trip hotel room view I’ve had in a long time.

Battle Against Bald was featured on Donny Deutsch’s Big Idea tonight. It was very cool and showed a lot of the web and video segments that I worked on and filmed. Once the segment goes live on YouTube, I’ll post another entry. More coming.

I am off to Silicon Valley to meet with a company with an amazing stock price.

Otto is chilling next to me as I type. I love this cat.

Shoeflyer.com, one of the blogs that we manage at work was Typepad’s featured blog today. Shoeflyer is about the latest trends in shoes and fashion, with some very detailed shoe reviews for our mostly female readers. Regardless, I think you’ll enjoy my latest shoe review.

Coming back from the gym the other morning, I saw a guy drive with his Starbucks cup on the side of his car. In my eyes, he had obviously simply forgotten about such after opening his car door. So I run towards his car,while yelling and waving my mp3 player. He stops and pulls over. I tell him that he forgot his Starbucks cup on his car. He says: " I know. Thank you. Here’s a gift card from Starbucks. Merry Christmas."

Say what you want about big successful companies, but Starbucks simply gets it when it comes to delivering and marketing a quality product. Truth be told, the only reason I don’t go to Starbucks more often is that they don’t offer free Wireless Internet. That they don’t get.

Way to go Starbucks.

About a week ago, we launched a very interesting (and quite out-of-the-ordinary) campaign. It’s a blog called Battle Against Bald on which  our creative director Seth Garon documents his battle against hair loss, which he’s taking “head-on” (pun intended) by going through the Bosley Hair Restoration procedure. Daily blog entries, pictures and soon-to-come videos will let visitors partake in his journey.  And while his hair is growing, Seth writes about topics related to hair loss and hair restoration. It’s kind of like what Jared did for Subway, except it’s in real time. Plus, Seth is much more of a meatball sub guy. Anyway, check out this cool example of reality marketing and please tell all your friends, especially the bald(ing) ones.