Another great day in 989 history.

Even though I am not a professional photographer, part of my work with the Saginaw Spirit involves me taking photos from time to time. A few weeks ago I was shooting at the OHL All-Star game and got to get up close and personal with the Stanley Cup. Last night, the team asked me to stick close to Gordie Howe for the evening and take photos of him signing autographs and interacting with fans. I've been a Gordie Howe fan for as long as I can remember, so this was a dream assignment. I spent four hours within a few feet of the greatest hockey player to ever lace up a pair of skates. At the end of the evening I had a chance to talk with him for a minute and have him sign a puck for me. One of the other photographers took this photo while Gordie was signing my puck.

Fat Tuesday.

The website is coming together a little more slowly than I had hoped. It's not the fault of the guys building the site, though; the blame rests squarely on my shoulders. Part of the problem is that there just don't seem to be enough hours in the day to get everything done. The other part is that I'm having a hard time writing the site.

At this point I think I need to just let go and write something--anything--just to get a fully functional site up. If I can have the site complete and online by the end of the month, I'll feel pretty good about it. And then I can start making improvements. What I've been doing is giving my guy direction and then making a series of tweaks to it. By no means am I a perfectionist, but I keep monkeying around with this site. It's time to bite the bullet and get the deal done.

I am getting 5-10 web hits a day and have nothing to show for it. Just imagine what kind of traffic and interest I could generate if I actually had something there for people to look at?

Outside of trying to get the site up, the past week has been all sports, all of the time. I just wrapped up a couple of small projects for the Saginaw Spirit and have begun work on pieces for next season. At the same time I am plugging away at work for the Great Lakes Loons. Two big jobs--the season ticket brochure and the season pocket schedule--both went to the printer today. There is a stack of work a mile high behind those projects, but it still feels pretty great to get them out the door.

Speaking of that mile-high stack of work, I suppose I should get back to it. Happy Paczki Day, everybody.

The Price of Publicity

Things continue to go very well with the studio. My work for the OHL All-Star Classic was the subject of a front-page article and photo in The Saginaw News about two weeks ago. It was pretty strange being on the other side of the lens and having a reporter ask me all sorts of questions. And then when I saw that I was on the front page? Very surreal, but a lot of fun. People attending the game recognized me and said hello and complimented my work. Not too shabby, right?

One day last week--long since the article had been forgotten by everyone except me--I bring in the mail and there is a handwritten envelope addressed to me. I figure it's another dumb mortgage offer (they love the handwritten envelopes because somewhere, somebody wrote that you get a better response to handwritten envelopes, no doubt), but when I open the envelope out falls a copy of the photo of me from the paper. There is also a handwritten note, written on a yellow legal pad in what seems to be an older woman's writing. It says:


Hi Shawn,

I saw this picture of you in the Saginaw News on 1-30-07.

I have one question to ask: Don't you think you are getting to old to have that long dirty looking hair? And that silly hair on your face, you sure could use a razor.

a Reader of the News


I almost fell off the couch laughing. The photo may not have driven prospective clients to my website, but it apparently drove somebody's grandmother to complain about my appearance. I guess you really can't please everyone, can you?

Actual progress.

I originally set this blog up thinking that I would have my web site up early last year. The thing is, though, I haven't had time to get the site up. Being really busy is a great problem to have, but it's still a problem. I spent so much time focusing on just treading water last year, that I didn't do enough long-term planning. That's going to be a big part of my focus this year--planning for where I want the business to be a year from now, five years from now, etc.

I had to laugh when I saw the date of the initial (and only previous) post here--February 5, 2006. 364 days ago I signed up on Blogger and made an entry. The blog sat untouched and unread for one year. My goal is to use this as a way to keep track of my progress on various projects related to the business. I'd even like to use it as a spot to write a monthly (bi-weekly?) column with marketing or advertising ideas that people can pick up and use.

Either way, this is the first entry now. Let's see if we can't get back here more often than once every 364 days.