Moments of Clarity

Blogging For Business Class: If interested, fill out the form below

Please forward this post, reblog/repost if you know people who would like a solid foundational course in "Blogging for Business." 

Hi there:  If you're contemplating taking my Blogging for Business Class in WDM or DSM, please add your information into the form below.  That way, I'll be able to notify you when the registration book/ class catalog comes out.  Of course it's not online "yet" but you know...government agencies are slower to adopt these things. This is NOT actual course registration just a pre-gathered interest list.

Usually, the catalog comes inside the newspaper and is strategically placed around the DSM metro I guess.  I'd love to have you and I think you'll get your money's worth (it's about $50 I think for 4 weeks, 8 hours total).

If you're an expert blogger of course, you're welcome to pay to support our schools, boost my numbers,  and heckle me from the back.  Just be prepared to get a laser pointer burn to your retina.

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Run for you life!

I can only guess it was mosquito spraying here in Clive.  My family and I had just arrived home after a 750 mile drive from Ohio.  We were just about done unpacking when a truck making a sound like a large generator came around the corner emitting a FOG CLOUD.  As we tried to figure out what it was the smell was chemically finding its way into our nostrils.

It was a scene from a horror movie as we heard the truck head our way...COME OOOOONNNNNNNN...GET INSIIIIIIIDDDDDE!!!  (Say it in the Arnold voice and it will make you laugh)

My wife bolted in and I shut the garage door just as the evil truck bolted past the house.  Phewwwww.  Just made it. 

I haven't seen that kind of spraying since I was a boy in CA.  Back then it was done via helicopter for Mediterranean Fruit Flies.

Calling All Iowa Angel Investors

I'm getting closer to pulling the trigger on www.CentralIowaAngels.com.  I've been casually surveying and vetting the concept of an organized Angel network that provides:

1. Frequent pitch meetings with qualified angel investors on a regular schedule.
2. Angels that understand not every idea is worthy of funding...but recognizes ideas that don't fit this group's profile may have application elsewhere. 
3. Angels that understand the value in people even if their ideas are deemed unfundable.  Perhaps someone pitching a tech idea as a CEO would be a perfect fit as a technologist somewhere else.
4. Angels that bring connections and expertise to the table since this is typically the most important factor in the funding equation.  Writing a check is easy.  How to spend the money isn't.
5. Angels that understand and embrace the concept of risk capital not as guaranteed as humanly possible forcing the nascent firm to jump through myriad hoops to get governmental grants, incubation, and other string laden funding...capital.
6. Angels looking to fund small prototyping/proof of concept deals ranging from $25k-$100k to quickly inject life into ideas here in Iowa that end up funded as $3.5 million deals in larger cities 12 months later, in addition to larger deals.
7. Angels that understand that Iowa's startup climate is tremendously under served.  There are countless entrepreneurs toiling over solutions that are fundable and profitable business models waiting to emerge...if only...

Do you have more items you'd like to add to this list?  Please either add them in comments or email me personally. If you're interested in helping me put this together, please contact me via email at doug AT mitchgroup.com. 

Also, please forward this onto perspective Angels and companies seeking funding if you don't mind.  I'd like the input.

**UPDATE**.  Wow.  The flood of interest and new twitter followers is amazing.  This is further reinforcement that this idea is sound.  More to come.

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Cardinal Hatching Caught on Video

Having grown up in Southern California, unless we went to the mountains camping, our exposure to "nature" was pretty slim.  Well here in Iowa, we "foreigners" are still pretty amazed at things that may be common to Midwest natives.

I was using the hedge trimmer a few weeks ago and as I buzzed up in a straight line, I exposed a small bird nest with 3 eggs inside.  Thankfully I didn't disturb it.  As I examined the nest it became clear why I'd begun to see a male cardinal posting up on my car and in the trees around my house. Shortly afterwards a little Internet research made me realize that the female had also been nearby for a while.

We started watching the nest as its only about 4 feet off the ground and just outside our garage door.  A couple of days ago, my wife happened to be taking a few pictures...and noticed that one egg had hatched.  Then, as if on cue a few days later, she went to take another picture and actually caught the last of the eggs hatching! Wow.  We're still pretty stunned.  Happy to say so far that all three seem to be doubling in size daily and now have fuzz on them :)

Here's the video in case you can't see it below.

After a 60 degree day...3 inches of snow hurts

It felt like Spring yesterday.  We saw people we haven't seen in months doing "outside things".  There was visible skin from shorted legs and t-shirted arms.  The large piles of snow 4 feet tall at the end of the driveway were almost completely gone.  Grass was visible.

Then...

We had a quick storm come in and rain, then sleet, then lay down 3 inches of snow.  With the blowing winds and plows, it piled up to over a foot at the end of my driveway.  It took about an hour to remove it all by shovel.

Birds are chirping, squirrels are spotted, and trees have buds on them.  Hopefully that was the last of the snow for the season.  It's been a longer than usual winter and I'd like to start cutting the grass 2x per week again please (wait a minute..:)

I will get the streaming web cameras (new ones) up and running again this Spring to share the best time of year with you all.  Hopefully, it's just around the corner!

From Flyover to Tech Hotspot: How Global Warming Has Shifted the Where of Cool

Let's assume for a moment that global warming is happening on some scale, man-made or otherwise. 

**FOR IMMEDIATE FICTITIOUS RELEASE** February 15, 2008

Global warming today has been credited with making the Midwest "cool".    Now that the Western half of the U.S. and the Northeast are plagued with the inability to reliably produce electricity and severe drought...places like Iowa have become highly desirable.  An unnamed Iowa legislator said under the condition of anonymity that, "It's about time that global calamity worked in our favor.  I'm not sure if global warming is real or not...but for now, I'm loving it."

It's been almost a year now since Google (GOOG) announced that it was building a data center in Council Bluffs, Iowa.  Now we  find that Microsoft (MSFT) is getting close to deciding on an Iowa location for a similar data center operation. Local and state governing bodies are scrambling to put together incentive packages that sweeten the deal.  It seems that Iowa has become cool.  Or more accurately, Iowa is hot.

Iowa's Paris Hilton "hot" stems from its abundant water and ability to produce massive amounts of electricity.   "Look, we know that the public thinks that we're bending over for Microsoft, and we are," said a confidential city source.  "But look, we have rain, snow, and land free of aging hippies so we can build more electrical plants.  Those few key elements put us in a great position  to get on the news...and that's what we need to do.  Hi mom."

So it seems that for now, Global Warming has turned Iowa into the technology and biofuel capital of the world.  For these humble Midwesterners, used to news coverage only every 4 years, time are a changin'.  Now everyone seems to want a little piece of their globally warmed pie. 

**

Blogging can help you OWN a search term: Geographic Arbitrage

When you have passion for something, and blog about it, you just may author a definitive post defining that topic. 

Just recently, GOOGLE search results for "Geographic Arbitrage" have yielded me 1st and 6th place results.  The milestone that makes me most proud, is that I've surpassed the links from FORBES magazine, who's publisher...and author Rich Karlgaard, gave me the term in the first place in his book, Life2.0:  Finding the Where of Your Happiness. This book played a major part in my decision to execute geographic arbitrage in 2005.

In the last month, I've been linked to in various articles by some great writers.  This morning, I noticed traffic coming from this piece by uber author and blogger Anya Kamenetz

Her site and book are called Generation Debt

What's even more amazing to me is that I've been linked right next to author Tim Ferriss (The 4-Hour Work Week) one of my favorite works.  Ferriss is a big advocate of Geographic Arbitrage...or Taking a position of monetary power like cashing in a coastal house and moving to a more affordable area, working remotely with your larger coastal income while living somewhere inexpensive, or using currency differences to live like a king in foreign lands, etc.

Takeaway
Let this be an example to all business bloggers out there just getting started.  Are you ready to offer the world the defining post or two on a topic that you're passionate about?  Writing with regularity and passion may grant you "Pole Position"...and along with it, many more unique visitors, potential new customers, and implied authority that propel your business to its next level.

730 days in Iowa...Geographic Arbitrage Success

We've just eclipsed the 2 year mark here in this beautiful state.  During that time, I've been blessed with wonderful opportunities and met a fantastic group of people that have helped me shape the next chapter of my life. 

Executing my geographic arbitrage (moving from the high priced CA coast to the Midwest) has afforded me the option to explore what really matters, define what it takes to build a new infrastructure (both personally and professionally), and to dive into my "personal brand" and make some clear distinctions about it.

I cannot think of a better place than Des Moines, Iowa to live out the desire to have few hassles, no or low commute miles/minutes, no traffic, and just about everything a family could want to live and thrive. 

Thanks Iowa for a great first 2 years.

Energy Rage

I was recently in a group in which a majority lambasted Ethanol because:

1. It ruins the water supply
2. It's subsidized and that's not fair
3. It will ruin the land for the future
4. It pollutes

Interesting points.  However, the same arguments were used to vilify oil and gas companies (still going on of course).  Has the govt not subsidized oil production / refinery manufacturing through the years?  Haven't our own tax dollars been redistributed to a bazillion cockamamie things other than gaining a foothold on energy independence?  Yes.  There is economic realignment happening and yes...there will be some fallout.  Most radical change does this.  Are wind and solar the answer?  Will they happen over time? Yes.  Can they run our cars now? No.  Done.  Chavez bad. Ethanol good.

Next issue:  Nuclear Power. Here's a CNET piece on the looming comeback of Nuclear Energy.
How many people have been helped by Nuclear energy vs. those who've perished?  How many people wouldn't have died and had a more fruitful life and opportunity from this method of power generation?  There's new focus on what to do and how to effectively reuse the by-products of production (nuclear waste). The benefits outweigh the dangers.  Yes I'm OK with one in my back yard.  YIMBY.

Can you feel it?

The grass is lush...buoyed by warm days...and cooler moist nights to reduce stress.  A few leaves are falling here or there.  The air is rich with the smell of cut grass. People are talking quite a bit about "the heat we had this summer".  Windows are open again.  The lawn has been aerated and over seeded this year.  Plants seemed to have absolutely exploded with growth in the last 30 days.

You see..Fall is approaching in the Midwest, and folks around here are starting to think of cool nights, fires, football, and Thanksgiving plans.  Fall is a magical time around these parts.  Food seems to taste better and families seem to be "settled" earlier each night allowing for less hectic nights together playing games and practicing their weekly bible verse for pre-school. 

The summer is a magical time of long nights and hectic schedules...but fall is something you only read about...unless you live it...here in the beautiful state of Iowa.