Play with Legos = Plan Tampa Bay's future!

Anyone who knew me in the preteen years can testify that Legos were the lifeblood of my childhood. Anyone who know me today knows that quality of life in Tampa Bay is a top priority for me.

Today the Tampa Tribune made me aware that someone had decided to combine the two for me!

Citizens Can Help Plan Lay Of Land
http://www.tbo.com/news/metro/MGBKSFEL6YE.html

Here's a short description of the exercise from the Realty Check Tampa Bay website (http://www.realitychecktampabay.org).

"The tabletop exercises are designed to increase awareness and to educate about the interrelationships among regional land use, transportation systems, and natural resources. Participants, led by trained facilitators, join 10-person groups to use a detailed map to plan future growth by placing Lego® building blocks to represent additional homes and jobs. These individuals are asked to determine where new residents will live and new employment will locate. "

Best High School American Government Class

I have followed the high school "Ought to be a Law" contest the last three years and was very pleased to see that it had grown to be a countywide. This program started at my Alma mater, Gaither High School by my neighborhood's State Representative, Kevin Ambler and personal friend Senator Victor Crist as a lesson in civics for students.

The concept of allowing students to actually introduce a real bill with the potential to become law seems so simple it is amazing it is not actually part of the curriculum. What better way to engage students in the process then letting them watch it happen.

I remember my American Government classes pretty well and even though I enoyed the subject personaly I still remember the whole "how a bill becomes a law" lession being ambiguous in nature since its a concept that even many adults don't quite get.

Here's a link to the complete St Pete Times article:
Students compete to turn bills into laws By ELISABETH DYER Published February 9, 2007
http://www.sptimes.com/2007/02/09/Citytimes/Students_compete__to_.shtml.

Julie Brown, Young Professional & Candidate

I recently launched a website for Julie Brown who is running for Tampa City Council, District 4 in the upcoming election on March 6, 2007.

In addition to working on her campaign website I have also begun volunteering on Saturday mornings by walking for her in the neighborhoods of South Tampa.

It has proven to be a great experience and an opportunity to get to know a wonderful person who will make a great leader for the city.

Julie is mother, wife, active citizen and attorney but most importantly to me; at 31 Julie is a young professional living in Tampa Bay. She is in tune with what we as young professionals are looking for in a city where we are establishing careers and deciding to settle down, grow some roots and start families.

As a candidate she is approachable, energetic, optimistic and level headed. She is someone that you can feel comfortable with quickly and is sincere when you talk with her.

I have only known her a couple months but am certainly glad I have had that chance and hope you will take the time to get to know her as well.

Her campaign website is, http://www.juliebrownforcitycouncil.com.

Florida Animal Friend MySpace Page

I've launched the MySpace profile for Florida Animal Friend. Hoping that as this grows we can use it as a volunteer recruitment tool as well as a way to increase sales and awareness of the license plate.

You can check it out here, http://www.myspace.com/floridaanimalfriend, and if you have a MySpace page of your own, please add us as a friend.

Client Profile: SunBelt Contruction Services

We recently launched newly designed materials including brochures, postcards, and a website for SunBelt Construction Services based in Tampa Fla. Please take some time to look over the materials as well as this clients exceptional services in Timber Bridge Construction.

SunBelt is a full service Design/Build Timber Construction Company with several years of successful experience in Florida and Southeastern USA. Our customer base includes Municipalities, Residential, Commercial, Resort and Golf Course Developers.

SunBelt's predominate construction sites are located in environmental sensitive areas including seaside beach locations that require protecting sand dunes and wetland property where structures must be “built from the top”. A key capability for SunBelt versus competition is the ability to construct a 6-foot boardwalk from the deck saving the client project funds by eliminating the need to build wider structures; however, SunBelt has the capability to build any size structure to meet client specifications.

A Friend's N.Y. Deli in Wesley Chapel

I was able to stop by my friend Bob Conigliaro's new restaurant/deli concept, the N.Y. Minute Del-Eatery. Located at SR 56 and Bruce B. Downs Blvd. just north of Hillsborough County it is a great location as the area is in great need of variety when it comes to dining and is growing quickly.

The food we ordered; sausage and pepper sandwich, matzo ball soup and BLT... and cheese cake was all excellent and certainly worth the trip. The service excellent and the concept is extremely cool.

If you would like some more info, this Tampa Tribune article gives great background info.
http://www.tbo.com/pasco/MGBJUOZ7UVE.html

Reflecting on Career Choice

One of the most frequent questions I am asked and that I still often ask myself is, "why/how did you decide to go into business for yourself?".

My usual response is something like "I fell into it" and refers to starting the Dynamic Creations in December of 1998 as a side business while working full time. The side business eventually landed two large clients and became the full time gig.

However the complete answer is not that simple, especially when you consider how difficult it has been for me to sustain, support and stabilize this business over the last eight years. In actuality running my own business has been a desire throughout my life. An article this morning on Inc.com (www.inc.com) prompted me to expand on this answer.

The article, Are Entrepreneurs Born or Made?, highlights a survey that seems to really show that entrepreneurs are born and not made through education or upbringing, which I certainly feel personally is very true.

From the fourth grade in elementary school when a friend and I envisioned a leave raking business through high school when I worked for my uncles' business during the summers I was always interested in being a "business man" when I grew up.

My first job after highschool lasted a year and a half before my uncle put me at the helm of a restaurant as manager. The venture did not last but six months; but the experience had sunk in deep.

It would be under two years before the "side business" of Dynamic Creations was born and exactly 30 months before I was "self employed" independently for the first time in my life at the age of 22 in November 1999.

So does this explain that it is a born in trait?

Not really; at that point I had literally "fallen into" the business in many ways. I was 22 with fear of failure, the Internet bubble was still expanding and the web design industry was so new that it would be easy to be successful.

I rode a nice wave from that point forward until 2001 when a failed personal relationship, the dot com bust and September 11th all combined with my complete inexperience forced me by the end of 2002 to reconsider what I was doing.

For the first half of 2003 I worked at a Bernini in Ybor City and finally completed my associates degree. For the later half I sold TV advertising for WMOR TV 32.

It was at WMOR that I realized the strength of my desire to be an entrepreneur. After only a few months I began to realize that if I was going to do direct sales that I would prefer it was for my own services. As much as I tried to justify the fact that this would be more stable and could potential earn me as much money I just could not replace the feeling I had previously of owning a business.

So in January 2004 I took the plunge again.

Three years later I am still going and while I have had some very difficult periods I have become very aware of how important this venture's success is to my future. I have had a few very serious employment offers that would pay me very well, provide great benefits and even a pension, but could not bring myself to take them.

It has taken great deal of heartache and I am by no means where I want to be yet, but this business of being in business is my life and where I need to be to be happy.