This past week, I went to two very well done events that I was impressed with.  GeekWire had their launch party this past week at the SoDo Showbox - congratulations to the founders John and Todd.  Founder Olivier Wevers of Whim W'Him had an awesome 40th birthday celebration in the beautiful courtyard of the Intiman Theatre.  Brilliance.  From the welcome, the attention to detail, the plethora of energy (for those like myself with ADD), and the super fun experiences I had at each of these events - reminded me of a training seminar I gave a few months back on "Event Marketing 101" to the event board for PWAP: Party with a Purpose.  BTW - all of the above have Facebook pages, so "Like" them to find out about future events/shows.  GeekWire | Whim W'Him | PWAP

I've been planning and organizing event experiences for about 15 years since my days in college where I'd bring the campus together under the flag of "Diversity" for various events: plays and musical events to most recently under the name of "Socially Conscious BarNights" where I'd host regular nights for young professionals in the area to get together for a socially conscious cause (United Way, Big Brothers and Sisters, Children's Hospital, Giving Real Options to Women, NW Parkinson's Foundation, Marriage Equality, SCIDpda...).  I retired officially from that around 2008/9 - I still host events here and there, but no longer regularly (difficult to with my day and night jobs).  It is something I still love doing events for fun and helping others with their events.

Planning an event/experience is broken down into 4 basic elements: Guest, Body, Ego, and the Heart.  I'll explain what I mean by those 4 elements in just a sec.  This framework should be used whether  you're planning a party, a nonprofit fundraiser, a charity dinner, a house party, a professional networking event, or even a meeting at work.  Unless these 4 elements are addressed - it's pretty difficult for a person to open their minds or hearts to whatever you are seeking from them (money, attention, relaxation, ...).

Guest is about making sure the event logistics are intuitive and taken care of: who's the host, greeting the guest, having a central hub to go to, location, and giving proper goodbye's/thank you's at the end to give closure to your guests.  This is about making sure the administrative/logistics take care of your guest.

Body is about nourishment.  Will you serve food - will people have access to it if not?  Will you serve alcohol - do you have enough bartenders (**very key)?  Will you require payment - cash or credit card?  Will your guests be able to get cash if they don't have any?  What about age requirements?  Is there enough variety to account for different requirements (vegetarian, meat, ...)?  Note: like weddings, people will only remember really bad or really awesome experiences. 

Ego is making sure that this is an event/experience a person would want to go to.  Are you having it at a venue people want to go to or be seen at?  Is the location accessible or exclusive?  Will you have photographers?  Do whatever you can to help your guest feel special, wanted and welcome.  Remember, flattery will get you everywhere.

Heart is where if the above three are taken care of, the heart opens up to hearing the message you are trying to send, the charity you are trying to raise money for, or the feelings you are hoping your guest will experience at your event.  This is where the extra touches to help your guest feel good about being present or involved will happen - the "Yay!" --> hugs to welcome your guest, remembering something special about your guest as you introduce him/her to another guest, the thoughtful gestures/words that will go a zillion miles.

Feel free to contact me w event questions.  Love to hear your thoughts.  Happy to go into further detail if you're interested in learning more about the above.  I do still plan events occasionally, serve on boards when I can around events, and even some consulting, too.  :)

xo,
Arry

The above is my 2004 Honda 599 Hornet (matte black, 600 cc, naked sport bike - all stock, which I sold last year right before the summer in 2010 to the super duper excited present owner of the bike named Sammy.  I remember him calling me and emailing me telling me that he almost had enough money, and that he almost had the ride to come pick it up, and boy, when he came to finally pick it up, there was no doubt in my mind that the Hornet had found a good new owner.  Wow.  I'm still the proud owner of my 2004 PIaggio LT50 in pearlescent white - bought her off Craigslist - which is how I met my beloved business partner, Mina.  Isn't life just so interesting?

Past couple of weeks, the idea for this post came to me as I spent a lot of time on the road commuting back-and-forth to-and-from my clients - and while driving in my car, I thought about how much learning how to drive my two wheeled vehicles have really helped me in learning to drive better.  ... and then I thought, those same rules for driving my motorcycle or scooter, also apply to business (and relationships).  And, tah dah!

1. Wear the proper gear.  In motorcycle language, the most important of course, is the helmet.  (BTW - I never let my helmet out of my sight, ever.  I don't let the hostess take it for me, I know exactly how it's been handled - always.)The other items are just as important - the road can take off fingers and feet - so wear the gloves, the jackets, boots, etc... no matter what.  In business, that means dress appropriately for the occasion.  Your attire speaks about your brand and how much you care/respect your employer/client/etc... 
   
2. Do your own homework.  In the world of motorcycles, that means making sure your bike is in proper riding condition before you go out and ride it.  Don't ASSUME.  In business, that means even if you inherit a project or a process, always do your own homework to understand why a project is being run the way it is, or is in the situation it is, or why a process was created.  Do take the time to make that new project/process that you own, truly your own.
   
3. Anticipate.  As a motorcyclist, that means take into account the traffic conditions, temperament of people around you, the weather, the road ahead, your bike, your energy level, etc... and anticipate what is coming up before it comes up.  In business, that can mean understanding your boss/client/customer - and proactively doing what needs to be done before it has to be done.  Proactive action will always kick a reaction's ass.  Always.
   
4. You go where you are looking.  This is one of the biggest lessons I learned from riding my sets of two-wheeled vehicles - if I look right, I go right.  If I look left, I go left.  If I look ahead, I move ahead.  The same rules apply to business/life - those that can picture or see where they are going, tend to get there.  Picture it, see it - then make it happen.
   
5. Assume no one can see you.  Ride like you're invincible - when I first heard that, it sort of made sense to me, but not really.  Having been riding for about 6 years now, that means it really is up to you, the rider, to keep yourself safe.  A motorcycle, a scooter is no match for a car or a truck or an SUV.  This rule means take ownership of your own life and safety - and place yourself on the road that best protects you, should the car/SUV next to you not notice you (which is likely).  In business, I'd say I take this to mean I am the owner of my career and life.  I am responsible for taking proactive action to be in the right place at the right time and to take advantage of opportunities.  Raise your hand and proactively take advantage of them - don't wait for someone to notice you.
   
6. When in doubt, slow down.  On a bike, this is self explanatory.  A lot about riding has to do with mind over matter - if your mind is not clear, breathe and slow down.  Same goes with business, life, and relationships - mind over matter.  When your adrenaline is pumping and your emotions are screaming and your mind is in chaos - breathe.  Take a step back out of the situation and slow down.
   
7. Learn from the mistakes of others - because you won't live long enough to make all of them yourself.  I say riding with or talking about riding with more experienced riders is always eye-opening.  Some of the crashes they've gone through - no one wants to go through.  I've crashed a couple of times - and boy does it hurt like HELL (which is why it's important to wear the proper gear).  Sames goes with business, life and relationships - take on mentors who'll be on your team coaching you towards success.  Mentors are not just for business and careers, but also for quality of life, personal goals, and relationships.  Despite how difficult it can be to accept advice from parents, most of the time, they are the best life/relationship coaches of all.
   
8. Keep looking around, there's always something you've missed.  In riding that means not only looking around for potential dangers and conditions as you anticipate - the greatest part about riding motorcycles or scooters is that you get to really absorb the world around you: the air, the smells, the sensations, the people, the scene, ...  It's a completely different experience than riding a car.  Riding my scooter downtown, I get hand waves, smiles, points, cameras ...  In business and in life - sometimes it means noticing the new haircut your special someone just got, the really fantastic view of Mt. Rainier outside the window, or noticing that your puppy really wants to play fetch.  Right now.  :)

Happy Father's Day for all of you with dads or that are dads out there.
For me, Happy Father's Day to all my pseudo dads in my life.  You made a difference in my life.

xo,
Arry

[Side note]: Yes - didn't post my patent pending table post - nor did I create the website last weekend.  I'm getting varied advice from people on it, and I'm a bit torn at what to do.  Share or not to share?  How much to share?  Where to share?  ... Is it safe to share on the web? ...  I need a little more time on what to do.

Anyways - I told you recently that my new employer of four months (FOUR months!!?!?), Logic20/20, invested in this leadership training for me called Pathwise.  Anyways - it's pretty powerful stuff.  Seriously powerful.  Our last class was on Transference was so amazing, I ran home, my brother came over and I regurgetated the things I had learned, and he did this interesting exercise, too.  The idea is that early in childhood, the brain naturally opens up and takes an impression of how life is at various points of development - and in doing so, creates neural pathways about situations, and automates reactions on perceptions, feelings, and how to react to them.  Now before it gets really interesting, I'd highly recommend drawing on a piece of paper, the diagram I drew up on the top left, "Exercise A". 

How the exercise works is that on the left hand column, you'll input 2-3 words to describe the first positive memories of the category, and on the right hand column, you'll input 2-3 words to describe the first negative impressions of that category.  Let's do the exercise first, write the first few things that come to mind.  No need for great detail - just enough to jog your memory - it goes like this:
--- Mom: On the left-hand column, input 2-3 words to describe the first positive memories with your mom as early as you can remember.  On the right-hand column, 2-3 words to describe the first negative memories.
--- Dad: Same as above.
--- Group: On the left-hand column, input 2-3 words to describe how you saw yourself in relation to your peer group between 3rd to 6th grade.  On the right-hand column, input 2-3 words to describe how you saw yourself in relation to your peer group between 6th and 8th grades.
--- Mate: On the left-hand column, input 2-3 words to describe your first real intimate relationship.  On the right-hand column, input 2-3 words to describe why that first real intimate relationship ended.
--- Project: On the left-hand column, describe the process of the first project you owned and completed.  What steps did you take to complete it?

Now we get to the REALLY interesting stuff.

--- Mom: The first impressions become our hard-wired way of perceiving and reacting to the world.  [Positive] First impressions with your mother impacts how a person perceives the world and how to react to it.  Is the world a safe place?  [Negative] When things get tough, how do you react/perceive it?
-- Dad:  Second phase of impression is about a child's interaction with authority outside of the mother.  It is usually the father - How a child experiences authority and reacts to it forst how they will view and react to authority all of their lives: both when things are good.... and when things get tough with the boss, for example.
-- Group: This is how a person is imprinted in how one first in groups.  Are you the leader, the follower, the outsider, ...?
-- Mate: This is your spouse/or future spouse. 
-- Project: This is how a person engages in projects that the person has control over.

For me and to share with you one of my answers, I give a lot of credit to my mother (my first impression and imprint).  When I did the exercise, on the left-hand column, I wrote "cooking/nurturing" - and on the right-hand column, I wrote "hardball/piano".  My mother babied me, kissed and coddled me when I was young - made delicious food often - these were my first memories in the positive sense with my mother.  I learned that the world is a generally safe place.  My mother also expected a lot from me - my first negative memories with my mother were staying up to the late hours of the night practicing piano until I got it right.  There was no "I can't do this" or "it's too hard" - she imprinted that hard work ethic into me and that when life gets hard, take it by the reins and make "it" happen for myself.  ...  I learned that when things get tough - hard work is the only answer and only I can get what I wan t from the world as no one is going to give me any freebies.

The rest of the exercise, was most definitely eye-opening and quite "on-the-ball" for me.  How about you?

Hugs,
Arry

The original plan for my blog this week was to put up a post last night on June 7th telling you about my thoughts on some aspect of the meaning of life/relationships/love/women and my status/progress with it.  I was going to tell you that I was working on building a website for my patent-pending table design, and today, on my birthday, June 8th, tell you all about it with a big happy "tah-dah!"...  it didn't happen.  I'm pretty bummed and sad at myself for not having done it yet - ... but that'll give you an idea of what's coming... 

How about I re-negotiate with you and ask for another week?  June 15?  For my patent-pending "Arry Table" launch?  Or...

Anyways, a status update for today on the "word of Arry".  Overall, I feel like life is going pretty darn well for me - lots and lots of balls in the air for me.  Yes.  Lots of balls in the air - and I am happily optimistic about life.  (Not in any particular order:)

• Me: I'm doing pretty well.  Health is back up.  Detoxed for about a month.  No alcohol/cocktails/beer for a few months now.  And as you saw in my last post, no more Diet Cokes.
• Family: Working on building strong relationships with my mother and brother.  Practicing patience and kindness - it's a struggle, because it's so easy to be careless in a way with those closest to you.  I struggle with sometimes taking their love for granted.  I'm lucky to have family that loves me no matter what - and I want to be appreciative with my actions and words...  anyways, this is something that I'm working on being better about.
• Work:  I am in my fourth month with Logic20/20 - and am really enjoying working with them.  I think we can safely say that I'm out of the honeymoon zone and the reality is, I really do like my job.  I like the people.  For sure, the job has been kicking my butt here and there - I'm sweating!  I see so much opportunity all around and it's quite intoxicating.
• Start-up:  Gave birth to our start-up baby (with co-founders, Mina and Michael).  All Things Wishful launched - and we are busy working on making weekly improvements.  We've been getting a lot of great feedback and we've been working our super best-est to provide awesome customer support.  We brought on our new developer, Darren, who's got quite an interesting story and a background in game development.  Cool, huh?  We're investing in marketing plans - got some tee shirts too!  Seriously, I absolutely love our company and product - and I hope you do too.  We're open to feedback - so definitely let us know your thoughts!  Remember - All Things Wishful is the ultimate gift registry for anything at all.  Baby (nanny services, crib, college savings fund), Wedding (the ultimate Dyson vacuum, plasma TV, house cleaning services, ...), Birthday (jewelry, gym membership, massage...), Personal Endeavors (turning 40, climbing Mt. Rainier, snow boarding competition), ...  
• Love: ...  I'm seeing someone.  :)  I try not to talk about current personal relationships, so I'll stop there.  (I reserve the right to change my mind on that though)
• Friends: I am so blessed and lucky to have so many awesome people in my life.  

So there's my update for today.  Blogging every week is a challenge - coming up with original interesting content, actually sitting down and writing it, ...  quite the challenge.  I've been struggling this past month - and need encouragement!  About to go have delicious dinner tonight - yes, Yelp review soon to follow!

Happy birthday to me!  (Link to my All Things Wishful registry)

xo,
Arry