Sidewalk Life

New Badge

After three years living the life of a freelancer, I took a new full time job as Planning Director at McGarry Bowen.  It's a very grown up agency of about 150 very nice people, blue chip clients and a few lonely planners.  Which means I'll be hiring more planners as soon as I figure out what our needs are. 

While my day to day activities will be changing quite dramatically (e.g no walking the dog at noon anymore), l intend to maintain this blog and my friendship with OIA.

Pictures of the office below.

I'm a Non-Conflicted Consumer

I don't really know what it means to be a non-conflicted consumer, but according to this survey on how people spend money, I'm not the tightwad I consider myself. 

Looking through the demographics, the study seems skewed to well-educated, highly employed and highly paid Caucasians, so it's not really a reflection of all Americans. Nevertheless, there were some  interesting findings.

People seem to have some guilt about spending too much on beverages.

They think they give too much to waiters and not enough to charity.

They seem to accept the high cost of cable television

They think they don't spend enough on cell phone features...

...or investments...

...or on pampering themselves.

And oddly enough, one out of three of them don't like sushi.

I've attached a  pdf of the survey results so far. 

Download tightwad_results2.pdf

Signs of Improvement

I finally won a prize in a triathlon over the weekend. 

On the one year anniversary of my involvement in the sport, I took 3rd place in the  "Clydesdale" division.  That's the not-so-flattering name they give men over 200 pounds. 

Having a physical prize, as modest as it is, somehow validates all the time and effort put into training. 

And just so you know the generic plaque actually belongs to me, I've attached a link to the race results.

In grad school, I interned with IMG in London. I thought I wanted to be a sports agent. But I felt too self-conscious shouting "show me the money!"

After school, I took a job in Phoenix.

Joined lots of orgnaizations. Tried to learn everything I could about advertising, brands, planning...

We won this huge anti-tobacco account managed by the Arizona Department of Health Service (ADHS) and things started picking up steam.

Then I thought it was time I got certified.

Took a trip to the Atlanta Games. I actually met someone there who, a year later, would be my client at Nike.

Got in to see the international television broadcast studio for all the networks around the world.