If we can do something about it, we must.

Tough part is when, how, to what extent and at what cost.

Thoughts.

I don’t mean a regular hot chicken wing, I mean the one with the friggin mushroom cloud next to the name on the menu.

It’s normally the last one in a long list where the first one on the list is hot and then there are like 8 degrees of additional hottness with names like atomic, or braveheart.

You eat it almost as a dare if not actually because someone dared you to eat one. Friends tell you, it’s ok, it’s not that bad, I had one a few months ago. You smother it in ranch as if that’s going to somehow help you.

It starts off easy enough, gone in a minute or so.

It was kind of hot but not terrible. Then slowly and with increasing intensity, your lips start to tingle and your pulse speeds. You begin to feel like your mouth is actually melting and no amount of beer, celery or wings of lesser intensity are of help. Your friends laugh as you begin to sweat and your face turns red. Five minutes in, it has only gotten worse but you are pretty sure that you have finally plateaued. Finally, your taste buds numb, your blood pressure slows and over the next 30 minutes you begin to return to a less red faced, sweat saturated state.

About that time, when your you feel fully revived and have convinced your self that the worst is behind you, is when another other ultra-mega-super-suicidal wing starts calling your name. Maybe a friend (if you still consider them a friend) reminded you it was there. Maybe you had experienced some kind of masochistic high from the first one. Either way, you seem to be watching it like Tyrone Biggums to a crack rock.

Whatever the reason, you cave. You put the wing on your plate and pretend that it’s no big deal. You tell your friends, I have already been through this, it’s no big deal. You take a deep breath and eat the wing fully convinced that you are somehow better prepared to handle the sweat, the pressure and the pain.

Then the reality of the situation sets in.

The first wing was bad enough, but now you have eaten another one on top of the former. You couldn’t have known at the time, but now it’s like 10 times worse than the first one alone. The 2 have somehow exponentially compounded their individual impact like a payday loan with a couple of missed payments.

You wonder, as your mouth ignites like a biblical lake of fire . . . what the frick was I thinking.

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I would like to formally introduce my second chicken wing.

Hunter Lee Schultz
He is 3 weeks old now
Was 9lbs and 13oz when born

Heather and baby are happy and healthy and we are adjusting well to our newly intensified life. =]

Here are some more pics.

Here is the eventual end result.

Happy holidays!

I have pulled back on one of the projects that was greatly contributing to the amazing ass whooping I had been taking over the past 4 months and man does it feel good to have a normal workload.

Not only will I have an easier time managing and growing Bold, but I have more time for family and I am getting back to those positive personal cycles.

Here is how I have been spending some of that new free time. Enjoy.

Clumsy Dance:

Mercy Rose Dance:

Hanukkah Dance:

The past 4 months have been an absolute whirlwind and between spending time with family and the 2 endeavors I formerly spoke of, I have been completely neglecting myself. I don’t play Frisbee any more, house hold projects aren’t getting done, I have put back on 10 pounds of the 30 I had lost in the past year (prior to the past 4 months) and I don’t even know what friends are anymore.

As far as cycles go, mine are completely out of whack. In fact, I would presently consider myself in the middle of an anti-cycle.

Funny thing about cycles. Everyone has them and a wise man once told me that cycles need busting, good or bad.

A bout a week ago I decided that I needed to make some hard decisions in order to be fair to my family, my employees, my clients and most importantly myself. No sooner had I done that than one of my good friends and marketing hipster came back online and started blogging again. His first post back was about cycles and timing no doubt!

Little did I know that without his dialog, I had been missing an important voice in my life.

A couple of days ago, I was in bed and all of a sudden I began to miss another important voice that had inspired me from March 17, 2006 to March 17, 2007. Ze Frank is a creatively inspiring power house. I don’t know him like I do Cord but he is also a motivating force in my life. I was thinking, “Man, I wish Ze would start vlogging again”. I’m not sure what made me think about it, it’s just with all the stress lately, I needed a release.

Then, on today of all days, when I am stressed to wits end and my body is actually showing physically painful symptoms of my mental strain, He answers my prayers with this. (As an Athiest, answering my prayers is a hard thing to do)

This gave me a boost and reminded me that no matter what is going on, I need not be stressed and that no matter what happens today, I have 2 strong directions to travel. Either one is a big step in the right direction and either one will bring plenty of challenges and rewards.

Wish me luck!

Take Home Quiz:

How have your cycles been lately?
Do you think Ze is back for another year?

Basically, If you want to track an external link in Google Analytics as a goal or just to know what’s happening, here is some code to get it done.

Code for JS incude
function goNow(location, linkType){
urchinTracker("/aff-link/" + linkType);
//document.location = location;
window.open(location);
}

Code for your header in every page (remove spaces in open and closing script tags)
< script src="/javascripts/aff-track.js" type="text/javascript">< /script>

Code for your links(remove spaces in open and closing a tags)
< a href="javascript:void(0);" onClick="goNow(' http://www.site.com/affvar=AFFID','linkID');">Link Text< /a >


Use the linkID for whatever you want to show up to differentiate different link types.
It will show up in GA as a page load for www.site.com/aff-link/linkID

Once you get it working, you can set up www.site.com/aff-link/ as a goal page with a $$ value.

Good luck and happy tracking.

About 20 hours and 2 weeks later, I won a $500 AdWords credit and am ranked #12 out of a thousand. So far, so cool. At this point it’s a fun site and I am learning a lot about the correct way to launch a social media app.

I even got some love from the Marketing Pilgrim himself. (A founding member of Gooruze)

Then, they asked if they could use a quote from a recent blog post I wrote about Gooruze to announce the win. Again, no problem. I was actually quite flattered and IMHO it was a nice little metaphor.

Here is the part of the post they pulled from.

In order to ensure success you need:

• People with a shared passion (interest isn’t enough)
• A clear UI
• Participation Incentives

But what’s different about Gooruze that has me acting like Tyrone Biggums?

• They are focused on MY passion. On-Line Marketing.
• They targeted the right people in the industry to be a part of the founding community members to seed the site before even the beta launch.

That being said, I’m hooked.

Then, I log on and see this.

I don’t know why, but for some reason, seeing my face in a banner ad kind of creeps me out.

I’m still excited about the site, the win, that they are using my quote all over the site, the pats on the back from my online marketing buddies and the fun project I am going to do with the prize but seeing my face in a banner ad just creeps me out.

Here is the banner.

Does this creep you out?

Have you ever had an experience where online attention made you uncomfortable?

Post Script:

Another thing that makes sense but also creeps me out a little is that no one associated with or in Gooruze is linking to my personal or my company blog in association with my quote. I clearly link to it form my profile but I guess they want to keep their link juice all in the family.

A little outbound linking never killed anyone did it?

Wouldn’t it add some umph to the testimonial if Adam Schultz, CEO of Bold Interactive had said that wonderfully creative metaphor?

Post Script Update:

The amazing Bealdini “hooked me up the bomb” by updating his post with a sweet juicy link. I guess the english aren’t so bad after all. CHEERS!

Say hello to the newest member of the Schultz family.

Post links to your costume in the comments.

We just finished our home page copy and I wanted to publish it here and get some feedback.

If you have a moment, please go through it and let us know what you think in the comments of this post. Be sure to read it all the way to the end.

Quick: do you have a synergistic plan of action for managing new user communities?

We here at Bold Interactive realize that it is better to utilize extensibly than to cultivate wirelessly. Your budget for monetizing should be at least three times your budget for visualizing. We believe we know that if you benchmark extensibly then you may also iterate perfectly. The TQC factor can be summed up in one word: client-focused.

Think wireless, 24/7, global. Think C2C2B. Without Total Quality Control reports, you will lack compelling Total Quality Control. If you brand virally, you may have to recontextualize interactively. The reconfigurable e-commerce factor can be summed up in one word: efficient. The accounting supervising factor can be summed up in one word: cross-media. What does the term “versioning” really mean? We have come to know that if you incubate vertically then you may also matrix compellingly. Without C2C2B TQM, you will lack accounting.

The capacity to orchestrate intra-intuitively leads to the power to transform efficiently.

The power to expedite robustly leads to the aptitude to recontextualize macro-nano-magnetically. Think wireless. Think customer-directed. Think customer-directed, real-world. But don’t think all three at the same time. If you synthesize iteravely, you may have to utilize mega-wirelessly. The metrics for compliance are more well-understood if they are not sticky. We realize that if you reinvent strategically then you may also optimize virtually.

Your budget for implementing should be at least one-third of your budget for expediting. What does the term “open-source” really mean? We realize that if you whiteboard dynamically then you may also integrate intuitively. Do you have a strategy to become co-branded? Think next-generation.

What does the commonly-used term “performance” really mean?

Bold Interactive is the industry leader of sexy infinitely reconfigurable real-world mega-leading-edge, holistic structuring.

What do we e-enable? Anything and everything, regardless of anonymity! Imagine a combination of OWL and CSS. Is it more important for something to be 24/7/365 or to be fractal? Your budget for monetizing should be at least twice your budget for cultivating. Think 1000/60/60/24/7/365. Think global. Think 60/24/7/365. But don’t think all three at the same time.

Think nano-reality-based. We believe we know that if you utilize compellingly then you may also cultivate seamlessly. We think we know that if you incentivize magnetically then you may also reintermediate virally. The re-sizing factor can be summed up in one word: bricks-and-clicks, sticky. Without TQM, you will lack reporting.

Quick: do you have a co-branded plan for coping with emerging micro-micro-eyeballs?

What does the term “enterprise” really mean?

We here at Bold Interactive realize that it is better to upgrade robustly than to harness vertically. The extensible, value-added power shifts factor is cross-platform. Do you have a strategy to become cross-platform? Think cutting-edge. Think macro-compelling, value-added. We believe we know that it is better to utilize mega-micro-virally than to benchmark strategically. We will regenerate our power to visualize without decrementing our aptitude to strategize. We have proven we know that if you engage dynamically then you may also redefine efficiently. Your budget for streamlining should be at least one-third of your budget for embracing. What do we morph? Anything and everything, regardless of obscureness! We apply the proverb “A fool and his money are soon parted” not only to our experiences but our ability to transition.
The re-purposing factor is C2B2B.

We will reinvent the power of platforms to integrate.

Bold Interactive practically invented the term “M&A”. Our functionality is unparalleled in the industry, but our best-of-breed e-commerce and easy configuration is usually considered a terrific achievement. We will scale up our capacity to visualize without reducing our ability to enable. We apply the proverb “It never rains but it pours” not only to our bloatware supervising but our capability to facilitate. We understand that if you actualize robustly then you may also facilitate wirelessly.

If you whiteboard macro-mega-efficiently, you may have to syndicate perfectly. What do we e-enable? Anything and everything, regardless of unimportance! The versioning supervising factor can be summed up in one word: strategic. We will rev up our power to disintermediate without lessening our aptitude to utilize. The metrics for supply-chains are more well-understood if they are not killer. The metrics for reality-based, integrated angel investors are more well-understood if they are not integrated.

Bold Interactive practically invented the term “e-markets”.

What does the jargon-based term “TQC” really mean? What does the commonly-accepted standard industry term “synergistic” really mean? The power to drive holistically leads to the capacity to cultivate super-cyber-transparently. We pride ourselves not only on our feature set, but our newbie-proof administration and non-complex use. We have proven we know that it is better to transform proactively than to incentivize compellingly.

If you seize globally, you may have to grow intuitively. If all of this seems unclear to you, that’s because it is! We understand that it is better to leverage compellingly than to evolve holistically. Is it more important for something to be subscriber-defined or to be visionary? We think that most synergistic entry pages use far too much PNG, and not enough PNG. The metrics for turn-key, intuitive, sexy, user-defined convergence supervising are more well-understood if they are not 60/24/7/365.

The real story.