I knew 2006 was going to be a hard year to follow. I didn't even try to come up with a goal as big as "to kick ass" for 2007, because I thought there was no way I could even come close. Instead 2007 was the year of 007- double triangle - the Jesus Year.
My goals were to 1) find my reason for existence; 2) pimp and promote; 3) simplify; and 4) create. At the bottom of list in my 2007 guidebook I found this in my own handwriting: "Rally myself into an unstoppable brand." I find that humorous. My only specific goal was to spend 40 days in the desert, because hey - it's the Jesus year, right? I didn't hit that one. I just couldn't take myself away from my projects for 40 days. So how did I do? Pretty awesome actually. Specifics after the jump.
Reason of Existence
1) This has been eluding me for-ever. I've always wanted to be one of
those people who knew exactly what they wanted to do and then went out
and kicked ass at it. Like a doctor or I want to have a family or I'm
an artist/writer or ____________.
What I have realized about myself is that I am not limited to a specific role. My art is my life. I am an enabler. I serve. I observe. I'm a charismatic level 5 nagual (and I feel egotistical writing that). I exist to bring people together, catalyze and inspire them to do great. I'm the glue.
Pimping and Promoting
2) I've always felt strange pimping my stuff. But if you don't pimp
your own stuff, no one else will, and then how will people know about
it? That was my challenge with #2. I wouldn't say I'm over those feelings, but I put them aside to pimp my friends and activities (including my co-conspirator's first feature film!) and the LA Tech community. Anyone following the LA geek scene knows that it's exploded. I
like to think my pimping and promoting had something to do with this. I also promoted my company and clients at SXSWi, eTech, Geek Dinners and various Barcamps.
Simplify
3) I sold the future (my house), simplified my financial expenses and started to live simply. I stopped blogging for daily mantra and blogging.la and focused on my own blog. I collected my professional activities and launched The Purple Tornado - my professional brand.
Create
4) It was a fecund year!
- I wrote hundreds of blog posts on daily mantra, blogging.la and here.
- I organized monthly geek dinners.
- I co-organized BarcampLA3, StartupLA, helped promote Twiistup (and then hosted the 2nd one), helped kick off MobileBarcampLA, Lunch 2.0 and She's Geeky.
- I produced three live performances: Immaterial Mousketters, Hollaback Zombies in SF and Goth Gwen and the Industrial Bananas.
- I did some culture jamming by bringing the pillowfight to LA (yes, that was me) and helping coordinate LASantarchy.
- I co-hosted PPT Karaoke (after being inspired by TV's hosting of it at Barcamp2).
- I competed in the Grilled Cheese Invitational and got 9th place.
- I built and burned several unicorns for Burning Man.
- I created a video series how-to about GTD.
- Presented personal branding online at Web2Open.
Inspiration
I also spoke/inspired Dave Viner to do StartupLA (which I later helped co-ordinate); Kirk to do community buildrs; Andrew Warner of Mixergy to do an LA Tech Demo meeting and later helped him out with Lunch 2.0 here in LA. (He's continued to go on to bring a bunch of events to LA - if you want to be part of the LA tech party scene, get in touch with him). I also called the LA Tech community to arms and constantly evangelized Los Angeles at tech events: SXSWi, eTech, Web2Open, Fus7n, Internet Identity Workshop, WordCamp, She'sGeeky, MobileBarcampLA, Launch Party with a Twist, The Winnies and _________.
Cool stuff I want to remember
Snake Jagger! - My first commission
Romeo - my first dog (with S)
Stuntcar School!
My Love affair with the car-b-que
Meeting Robyn Hitchcock
Worldview Creation
Fireside chat with Jason Calacanis
Professionally it was a mixed bag. I finished up my work (product strategy, roadmap development, private beta launch & management, evanglism, etc.) with oovoo - a video product I think has a lot of potential. I finished up with Daily Mantra (concept, design, launched, edited, managed writers and contributed on a daily basis for the last 1.5 years). I had several clients that I started working with, but funding issues happened and we never got to finish the projects. :( I met Dame Darcy and together we developed a game that we've been trying to get built most of this year! We're finally making some good progress. I've been working with Jonathan Shaw - a tattoo innovator on audience development and online marketing. And of course, I've spend a lot of time refining the methodology, branding and positioning for The Purple Tornado. I seem to think I had more clients this last year, but maybe I didn't.
Jeeze, that's a lot. Are you tired just reading it?
Looking back at previous years / Themes:
2004 (spider) | 2005 (tiger) | 2006 (Kick Ass) | 2007 (PnP)
And looking forward to 2008, what are you all about? So far, this is what I am meditating about:
- Yes, and
- The courage to be level 5
- Target Practice
- Pimping the Bell curve
- Taking it mainstream
- Fame (dare I write it)
- I also want to tap into the innocence and wonder in my first year or two on this blog.
- Second try for 40 days
- 3.14159
Anything and everything I do in 2008 is going to go big. The butane has been sizzling in the car-b-que long enough. It's time for the boom.
How do you like ooVoo? I'm doing some work with them as well. We're helping promote it online. Here you can see what's going on:
http://oovoomac.smnr.us/
Any success stories? What are your thoughts?
Jonathan
Posted by: Jonathan Trenn | December 27, 2007 at 11:11 AM