Change is never easy...

...but it is inevitable

With that said, I think it is time that I say goodbye to dear old Blogspot. Fear not, I am not giving up on blogging (though it seems that way from post infrequency sometimes) but I am beginning the search and transition to a new 'home' for my blog. If you have read a post a little while back, there are a wide range of things that I will blog about (at least TWO ok?) and it seems disjointed to have them in the same place without a way to delineate them so a reader doesn't get stuck in something they are not overly interested in. I am also intrigued around the concept of building 'personal brands' and developing my own. i don't want to run multiple blogs for this reason, so I am looking at some 'tabbed' type of format which will allow the reader to view blogposts by category. For a great resource on a true 'Personal Brand', thanks to hard work and the Internet, you should GOOGLE Gary Vaynerchuck and pick up is book "Crush It".

So with that said, I am looking at Wordpress as a new potential home. Now, I like to think I am fairly tech savvy. Really, I know my way around social media and networks and really isn't that the ONLY thing technology is about these days? But when it came to researching a new home for my blog I came to realize just how much I have to learn and as I poured through document after document just how smart you really have to be to get all this stuff right. Just trying to figure out how to transfer 200+ blog posts seems to be a Herculean feat right about now. On top of that I want my URL to be without the 'name of blogging company' inserted in it, so I have to buy a URL and make sure all the pointing stuff works, plus as I plan to disable this one I need to point you all over somewhere else, etc...

Needless to say it's making my head spin a bit, but the reality is that it's a great exercise for me and helps build my credibility in 'living a digital life' which is at the core of my Employer's, Definition 6, philosophy.

As I do all these things, I have also been attending a lot of conferences in the past few weeks. Whether directly or indirectly everyone of them has made their focal point around Social Media. It's incredible how dominant the topic has been and I absolutely LOVE it! One of my favorite concepts is that of being 'hyper local'. The basic idea is that thanks to smartphones, social media and some pretty cool technologies marketing can be extremely targeted and highly localized. I agree 110% BUT I am concerned with how a local business will actually capitalize on this opportunity and as Gary V. says, "Crush It". For enterprise clients and even mid size firms they have the bandwidth to hire both internal experts as well as outside consulting groups and agencies. But how does the local pizza parlor do it, or your neighborhood bookstore or chiropractor? They need help, the landscape is forever changing. Working in the small business world I know the two greatest challenges - TIME and MONEY. They never have enough time or the money to throw at such a bold effort in the same manner as say Coca Cola. What they do have is desire and intention. I feel there is a whole niche market here that needs these services and can do great things with them but doesn't have anyone 'servicing' them. I have some really great ideas around that, and I digressed a bit, but it came to mind while struggling with my own limitations.

Anyway, not sure when I will finish the transition or if I will have any more posts here before then...you just never know ;-)

Fantasy

Google the word - you get 246,000,000 hits in .15 seconds. Wow, either my MAC is screaming or a lot of people like things with the word 'fantasy' in them. Interestingly enough the first hit I got was for the Wikipedia definition of fantasy. I checked it out. Guess what? It ONLY referred to 'fantasy' in terms of magic and that genre. This really surprised me. From there I went to Webster's online and get the OFFICIAL definition. Low and behold there is more!

Main Entry: 1fan·ta·sy
Variant(s): also phan·ta·sy \ˈfan-tə-sē, -zē\
Function: noun
Inflected Form(s): plural fan·ta·sies
Etymology: Middle English fantasie — more at fancy
Date: 14th century
1 obsolete : hallucination
2 : fancy; especially : the free play of creative imagination
3 : a creation of the imaginative faculty whether expressed or merely conceived: as a : a fanciful design or invention b : a chimerical or fantastic notion c : fantasia 1 d : imaginative fiction featuring especially strange settings and grotesque characters —called also fantasy fiction
4 : caprice
5 : the power or process of creating especially unrealistic or improbable mental images in response to psychological need ; also : a mental image or a series of mental images (as a daydream) so created
6 : a coin usually not intended for circulation as currency and often issued by a dubious authority (as a government-in-exile)

For the purposes of this post I am definitions 3 and 5, though I am intrigued by #6. As I read the definitions, in particular #5 I get the feeling that the word 'fantasy' is a negative term, or at the least one that has very little reality attached to it. Again, I was surprised.

Lately, when I think about fantasy it is usually in relation to NFL Football and my side pursuit of Fantasy Football. What I love about Fantasy Football is that it allows the 'average man' to be in control of a sports 'franchise'. As a guy and a sports lover this is one of our fundamental desires. Many of us grow up playing the games we love and dream about playing at higher and higher levels. Eventually reality comes crashing down on us. Conversely, as we watch sports and follow our favorite teams we know in our hearts we could do a better job in managing the franchise. Of course, economically, the likelihood of us actually owning a Major sports franchise is far less likely than actually playing for one, so once again our dreams get crushed. In steps Fantasy Sports which may be created in a 'fictional world' clearly exists in REALITY. We use real players and real games. We just manipulate that reality to our own rules.

Personally, this pursuit of my own sports fantasy is leading me further into a pursuit of a dream. Ever since I was a young kid I fell in love with sports. Not only did I love playing sports but I also loved talking about sports. Some of my earliest memories are of debating the Philadelphia sports teams of my youth. I had always thought I would make a pretty good Sports Broadcaster long before I knew what that was. Remember, I was a kid growing up before ESPN. Besides the local games on TV, my view of a Sports Broadcaster was the guy in the tie on the nightly news who got 3-4 minutes to give scores and local updates. As many of you know, this dormant dream has become more and more real over the last 3 years. Three years ago I was part of creating a concept for a Fantasy Football show that would be online and be no longer than 15 minutes long. At the time, even the big guys of Sports Broadcasting were not creating video content specifically for the web and we saw a niche in this growing market. Today, Fantasy Sports is a 3-4 BILLION DOLLAR Industry. We are now in our third year of The Fantasy Football Guru (www.thefflguru.com). With each season we have grown and become more comfortable with our content. We have also grown our audience and distribution channel. We now stand on the precipice of the 'tipping point' I believe. We now are integrated into Atlanta's #1 Sports Radio Station, 790 the Zone, www.790thezone.com. Our production team, The Raw Report (www.rawreport.com) are top notch and they are taking us into new markets as well. More recently, we have signed a deal with Yahoo! Our content is now available as a WIDGET on new Internet Ready TV's as well as a mobile app. What started with about 100 viewers is now available to 3.5 MILLION households. Where we go next I do not know, but what I do know is that something that started as pure FANTASY has become part of my REALITY. I am not just passionate about sports or my fantasy team, I am passionate about the process and the business. I see and feel opportunity around every corner.

So there is one story where fantasy is not the improbable that the definition seems to imply. The more I think about it, the more I hate that definition. Why is a fantasy nearly unattainable? Last week I witnessed TWO things I thought were improbable , nearly impossible but they happened. They happened because of hard work, determination and passion. The first is just a video I saw on YouTube. It like many videos on that site is of a 15 year old scoring a touchdown in their High School football game. What was improbable is that the kid has Downs Syndrome! I watched and I cried. I cried for joy and I cried for the human spirit, but mostly I cried as the Uncle of a 9 year old who has Downs. The second story I heard was that of a Make a Wish child. One of my friends has a grown child who was a Make a Wish recipient and now the family gives back through their own Foundation. Last week my friend put together a very personal, last minute Make a Wish for a local child. Within 4 hours of the 'Wish' being fulfilled the young child passed away. I once again found myself crying. At first I wept for the loss of a young child and then for the sadness my friend felt. Within a few minutes though my tears turned to joyful ones. What I realized was that in this child's final hours they were able to smile and feel special. For the briefest of moments there was no illness, no tubes, no fear, just love and happiness. For however short the life was, it went out the right way, with a full heart. Neither of these stories have anything to do with my fantasies or fantasy sports yet they are once again examples of turning a fantasy into reality.

Economically things are bleak, not just locally but globally. We seem to be divided more by politics and race more and more every day. Turn on any of the 'news' channels and you will find pundits trying to push their REALITY on us and stifle our creative energies to turn our fantasies into reality. This week, as a Jew, I am celebrating a New Year as well as paying respect to the year gone by and asking G-d and my family and friends to forgive me for the wrongs that I have done this year. I hope that I will not just be forgiven but also continue to be given the freedom to dream and fight for turning fantasy into reality. We might not always hit the mark but you can't ever get there if you don't try. It's very cliche but the journey of a 1,000 miles begins with the first step.

Here are my first steps in this New Year:

- lose the last 17 pounds to get me to 200 lbs. (I started at 247 in July of 2008 after knee reconstruction)
- complete an Olympic length Triathlon with my friends the 'Tri-Nuts'
- continue to grow my career and current company
- let The FFL Guru take me where it may
- re-engage with the Non Profits that I serve
- continue to be an engaged and active father to two of the most beautiful and precious young ladies I know
- be a better friend, sibling, son and partner to those that need me
- smile everyday and stop to be thankful for all that I am blessed with
- spend more time with YOU, my 'audience' if you will. Those of you that post, send me private emails or just spend time on my page are an inspiration.

Sorry for the long and rambling post, it's late and its been a while since I have blogged :)