I'm Ness, the author!

Okay, here is another episode of Ness Notes. where I had the opportunity to do an audio interview with Jessica Fitzgibbons (Mrs. Jess).  Man, what can I say about her?!? She is a magnetic powerhouse, an amazing human, a great mom, a dynamic and empowering remodel/coach and such a genuine person!

Mrs. Jess was an Ice and Roller Hockey Champ! She played for US National titles and has also been involved in ice skating and martial arts! She has fought in the ring a few times and is a BEAST in competition!!!

She is a huge CrossFit Competitor and an amazing Coach! A woman that is uplifting and a role model for all those around her, man she is such a joy to be around. Her story is an awesome tale of a woman that has a drive and a fire in her spirit that is unmatched! Her ability to focus and overcome any challenge is awe inspiring and I hope that y’all take the amazing motivation and fun loving energy that she has to offer us!

Her journey is a great example of staying true to oneself and to following your passions. Her life has fallen into place via her zest for life and because she listened to her gut! One of the hardest things to do at times is trust your instincts and follow your bliss, along the way you’ll have many that say you are wrong or that it you are on the wring path.

Stay true to you and keep on YOUR path! Remember that “Tough times NEVER last but Tough People ALWAYS do!”

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Mrs. Jess Summary

Here is a rundown of the things that really struck me about Mrs. Jess.

1. Her infectious positive energy and drive to move forward, learn, grow and try new things
2. Her tenacious and persistent spirit, never allowing anything to stop her
3. Her passion for Life is a driving force, she follows her bliss
4. She loves to push others; she gets kick out of helping people learn how strong they can be.
5. Focused on mentoring others, being a role model and being part of the community
6. Her competitive spirit, whether it is CrossFit, Muay Thai, Running or Life!

And if you want more details, here’s a full bio of Mrs. Jess from the CrossFit website:

Jessica is a lifelong athlete, who started out as a competitive ice skater as a child. As an adult, Jessica has played competitive Ice/Roller Hockey and has won multiple US National Titles. Jessica has been involved in the Martial Arts for years having studied Escrima, Krav Maga, Boxing and Muaythai. Jessica is a certified Krav Maga Instructor with the Krav Maga Alliance, certified Boxing Coach with USA Boxing and is undefeated as a Muaythai Fighter.

Jessica is an avid CrossFitter who has competed in multiple CrossFit competitions including the 2011 Reebok CrossFit Games (Nor-Cal Regionals).  Jessica is also a competitive Power Lifter having competed in the 2011 SPF Womens Pro/AM Powerlifting Competition Series taking 1st place in the Womens RAW Division. Jessica also finished in the Top 10 at the 1st Annual OPT “Optathon” in San Diego and took 1st Place/Gold in the 2011 Hercules “CrossFit Challenge”.

Jessica holds multiple CrossFit and Strength Certifications including:

• USA Weightlifting (USAW): Sports Performance Coach Level 1
• Starting Strength Trainers Certification (Mark Rippetoe)
• CrossFit Level 1 Trainers Certification
• CrossFit Level 2 Coaches Prep Course
• CrossFit Olympic Lifting Trainers Certification
• CrossFit Power Lifting Trainers Certification
• CrossFit Football Trainers Certification
• CrossFit Endurance Trainers Certification
• CrossFit Mobility Trainers Certification
• CrossFit Strongman Trainers Certification
• CrossFit Gymnastics Trainers Certification

Here is the audio  (raw, unedited) of my interview with Mrs. Jess.  Just about 30 minutes in length, it starts with how she almost (ALMOST!) became dental hygienist, but tracked into roller hockey 5-times a week (try anything!).  Which led to ice hockey where she’d travel for hours to play at night, and then go to work the next day.  She played hockey up to the birth of her first child and picked back up two weeks after the birth of Chase.

Enjoy!

DW_A0016

If the idea of a tricked out F150 came to mind, erase it. The story was a grand example of the adjacent possible: from food truck to “boutique-on-wheels” fashion truck. Interesting, eh?

I thought so. Extremely clever too. Bringing fashion to time constrained people and to those who don’t want to deal with the hassle of driving and parking in SF is… brilliant.

Apparently fashion designers such as Alice+Olivia and Cynthia Rowley, Aether Apparel and Madewell have “jumped on the boutique-on-wheels bandwagon making pit stops in cities around the country in converted UPS trucks and kitted-out vintage Airstream trailers providing teeny replicas of their brick-and-mortar outposts.”

The article mentioned Topshelf Boutique (http://topshelfstyle.com/). Founded by Christina Ruiz, her fashion truck had its debut Urban Air Market in Hayes Valley.

According to the description on her Facebook page, TopShelf is San Francisco’s first boutique on wheels offering what mainstream retailers cannot: a handpicked inventory of women’s hip and unique pieces at affordable price points. It caters to fashion forward women who relish in creating their own personal style over wearing a mass produced brand name.

“I’ve always wanted to open my own store, but I couldn’t find a space I could afford. Every place was either too competitive or too expensive,” says the Fashion Institute of Design & Merchandising grad and former buyer for Macy’s West who spent several months on the hunt in the Mission before deciding to go the pop-up route a year and a half ago.

I love this idea (can’t you tell)!

Ms. Ruiz has a Facebook page set up.

And her website is pretty cool too.

I can already see this becoming the next big thing for a television reality series.

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Needless to say, it was an achievement that garnered tons of buzz (on sports channels, on the web, on Twitter, you name it).

Jim Rome had a “take” on Wednesday that included a video clip. I was looking forward to seeing for myself. Then this happened:

Oops!

Looks like the MLB police stepped in. If you want to see it, you have to honor their rights and expose yourself to the advertisers.

Here’s what I noticed on the MLB site…

Are you seeing what I am seeing? There are a lot of “title sponsors” for each segment of the website (i.e. ACE FastCast)

But if you missed seeing it for yourself, there’s only one source: MLB.com

Okay, I get why MLB Advanced Media wants to push you through their portal. But people like Jim Rome help elevate interest in the game itself. The “take down” police need to relax!

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BTW… Fair use has been in the news this week.
Fair use is made up of four different components:

> The purpose and character of the use, including whether such use is of commercial nature or is for nonprofit educational purposes
> The nature of the copyrighted work
> The amount and substantiality of the portion used in relation to the copyrighted work as a whole
> The effect of the use upon the potential market for, or value of, the copyrighted work

So I guess, “fair use” is only fair if you embed the video from MLB.com. All other sources are off limits.
I wish MLB would play nicer.

Schoolhouse Electric & Supply Co. has partnered with IBM to exclusively produce their iconic 1960s standard issue wall clock.

According to the description in their online catalog, the clock is a faithful reproduction of the classic IBM clocks found in offices, warehouses and schools during the mid-20th century.

>> Sounds so old school!!! <<

There is a video narrated by company founder & owner Brian Faherty, which delves into the intricacies of this hand assembled clock:

• Hand assembled in Schoolhouse Electric’s Portland, Oregon Factory
• Constructed with a USA made spun steel case, domed glass lens, and the original graphic hands and faceplate design.
• Operated by a Quartz movement with a red, continuous sweep second hand.

It runs $235 and it looks like there is a 3 week wait (thus the “sort of” reference in the title to this post).

Check out the video below.

And if you have time, check out the School House Electric website. Lots of retro goodies — in a Restoration Hardware sort of way.

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Got to hang in the Turf Club.

Was trackside for a the “Clive’s Birthday” race. Here he is with his wife Carol before the race.

Check out the lovely hat she’s sporting!

And here is the whole family with the winning jockey after the race.

Here are the results of the race, in case you were wondering.

We had a great time. Happy birthday, Clive!
Special thanks to Carol and the entire family for making this an awesome event.

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While this may be a shock to anyone who grew up singing the Fig Newton song (see below), it actually brings the cookie (cake) back to its roots.

When this “fig roll” was introduced in 1891, it was called the Newton. Production took place in a bakery in Cambridge, Massachusetts, near Boston. Newton is another town near Boston.

Reasons for the move to Newton include the number of line extensions Nabisco offers.

According to written reports, the shift came not only because the cookie has for decades been available with other fillings, including strawberry, but also because the fig may “lack the pizazz” of, say, the pomegranate for health-conscious consumers.

Now for your enjoyment, the Fig Newton dance:

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“I’ve lived here 40 years and I know every angle of that bridge, and I just wanted a chance to show it to people,” Silverstein told The Huffington Post. “The details of the bridge are gorgeous, but I didn’t want to do a cliche. The bridge is 75 years old and it’s still fresh today.”

Per Carly Schwartz, author of the post, Mr. Silverstein has long dedicated his time to advancing the causes of the bridge and San Francisco’s overarching parks community. His advertising agency, Goodby, Silverstein & Partners, has provided pro-bono services to the organization for decades.

Besides the post, if you live in or around San Francisco, you will be able to see banners showing these awesome pictures. Plus, they are available for purchase at the Golden Gate Bridge store with proceeds going to the Parks department.

Note: This post is a result of another serendipitous occurrence. Saw a reference in Facebook that I pursued.
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This afternoon, I had a “serendipity moment” that triggered a bit of surfing with a purpose. Fun times indeed.

It all started with a story I was reading that summarized activities that took place at the Food Marketing Institute (FMI) convention being held in Dallas, Texas. Kevin Coupe of Morning News Beat highlighted a talk given by Bert Jacobs.

The name may not be familiar, but I’ll bet you know the brand: Life is Good.

You’re smiling now, aren’t you?

What’s not to like? But I digress.

Mr. Jacobs gave a talk titled “Optimism can take you anywhere.” Mr. Coupe provided some highlights in his story:

Bert Jacobs, CEO (chief executive optimist) at Life Is Good, spoke about how his brother and he grew a t-shirt business from one that generated $87,000 the first year to more than $100 million annually today. Here are the most important things that Jacobs said:

“Consumers have taken over. We don’t make brands. Consumers create brands.”

“Consumers will build your brand with you if you will build community with them.”

“Optimists will take you somewhere that is not yet there. Realists ask to see the data … Optimism is the most important tool we have.”

Okay, they both got my attention. So I Googled “Bert Jones” to learn more. Apparently Mr. Jones is popular on the speaking circuit. This post came from someone who attended a “Mass Challenge”

It is a summary of the Life is Good (LIG) philosophy:

1. “Life was good” even when Jacobs and his brother (and co-founder) John were living out of a van for weeks at a time, hawking T-shirts on the road. That was in the early ‘90s. Life was good because they were pursuing their dream and believed in what they were doing, despite the hardships and not selling much.

2. “People will give you the answers if you listen.” The Jacobs brothers went with their signature stick-figure smiley “Jake” design (see image above) in 1994 after it resonated with a bunch of their friends. The design turned out to have incredibly broad commercial appeal. So listen to people, don’t just talk all the time, he said. The best ideas will usually come from other people.

3. “Do what’s in your heart.” That sounds obvious, but it can be hard when you’re worried about getting customers and making money every day. Jacobs found that organizing benefit events for children and worthy causes have come back to help his company a hundred-fold.

4. “All our culture needs is a little leadership and an opportunity.” Life Is Good exists in part to counteract what Jacobs sees as rampant negativity in popular culture and the media. He wants the brand to stand for all that is positive and optimistic in the world. And really, that’s why he is so inspiring to the startup community and especially to entrepreneurs, who must believe in their business against all odds.

5. “We do what we like, and we like what we do.” This is pretty much the motto of Life Is Good. The company has grown to $100 million in annual revenue and has no plans to go public or be acquired, Jacobs said. Rather, the firm is trying to go global, take risks in new product areas, and become a billion-dollar business.

Awesome, right?

I poked around a little more and found this HuffingtonPost.com interview.

In it, I learned a little more about the company’s background.

> Bert and John Jacobs invested $200 to make T-shirts in the late ’80s, they never would have guessed they were starting a $100 million business. John, finishing college, and Bert, delivering pizza and teaching skating, just figured selling T-shirts would be a good, cheap way to connect with people through their artwork.

> They started hawking their apparel on the streets of Boston and then moved up to selling door-to-door in college dorms, sleeping in the back of their van to save money. Just as they were debating whether they should get real jobs, a philosophical discussion on a road trip changed their lives. That discussion sparked the idea for The Life is good Company, which now sells a variety of apparel, pet products, a stationery line and footballs, frisbees and other recreational products in about 30 countries and 5,000 retailers in the United States, including 100 dedicated Life is good stores.

> For five years, the brothers lived out of a an old used van (t really wasn’t. It was like a Plymouth Voyager — a soccer mom van.) peddling their wares up and down the East Coast.

> Students were in intrigued to hear stories from the road trips.

> After working the dorm crowd, they advanced to selling T-shirts to retailers. It was this move that really helped them flesh out Jake (the stick guy from the shirts).

> The first retailer we sold to was a mom-and-pop store — they asked if Jake likes to eat ice cream. And we said, “He will if you put in an order.”

> Retailers kept calling and asking, “Does Jake fish? Does Jake ride a bike?” That led to an expansion of the product line.

Thus, the point made above about the best ideas coming from other people.

So my serendipity side-trip got me thinking, which is probably the best thing of all since sometimes day-to-day matters of consequence can seem to extinguish any desire to engage, ponder, share and ponder some more.

Staying open to possibilities is something we all need to work on.

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Entrepreneur Spotlight
Name: Bert and John Jacobs
Company: The Life is good Company
Ages: 47, 43
Location: Boston
Founded: 1994
Employees: Approximately 250
2012 Projected Revenue: $100 million
Website: www.lifeisgood.com/

Source: ExperienceLife.com

The Wall Street Journal’s Ellen Gamerman wrote a cover story for the Friday Journal section that talked about Edvard Munch’s “The Scream.”

This familiar looking piece of modern art is coming up for auction with a screaming’ valuation of approximately $80 million.

The story talked about how the imagery resonated (“It hit a cord.”).
Did you know there are two interpretations?

>> One has the character covering its ears to block out screams.

>> Often times, it is thought to be an actual scream.

Munch scholar, Sue Prideaux, provided some backstory:

When Munch created the first version of the “The Scream,” the alcoholic and chain-smoking artist was in a state of despair: He was turning 30, had no money, was reeling from a disastrous love affair and was terrified that he would succumb to the mental illness that ran in his family.

The artist placed his amoeba-like figure at a popular suicide spot on Oslo’s U-shaped bay where passersby could hear screams from a nearby slaughterhouse and insane asylum (Munch’s sister, diagnosed with schizophrenia, was housed in that asylum).

>> Another take is that “The Scream” is Munch’s reaction to Impressionism, which seemed to bore him.

Check out the video (below) that came with the Journal story online. In it there is talk about how Munch wisely “marketed” the image by creating black-and-white lithographs so the image could be printed in European magazines and sold individually.

Apparently, in a move that James Joyce would have approved of, Munch refused to explain the work — adding to the intrigue / speculation of the public.

For sure, the sun, moon and stars aligned for Munch. Too bad the work is more famous than the artist. It wasn’t until this story that I knew the name behind the image. Thank you WSJ for enlightening us!

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Ready to sink your teeth into NYC-style bagels (boiled, not steamed) without leaving the West Coast?

Keep your eyes out for Schmendricks. Founded by a partner at Menlo Park’s Trinity Ventures, Dan Scholnick, his wife and another couple, Schmendricks aims to create bagels inspired by Bagel Hole in Brooklyn with classic New York toppings, including sesame seed, poppy seed, salt, and plain.

What’s awesome it that they are building the business more like an Internet start-up than a food company:

• keeping up-front costs to a minimum.
• reaching customers through services like Twitter.
• collecting data on consumer preferences.

They don’t have a physical store and are subleasing kitchen space at Asana, the San Francisco start-up led by Facebook co-founder Dustin Moskovitz.

Their model is to sell bagels through pre-ordered pickups, deliveries and at weekend pop-ups, where the team sets up outside a local cafe or shop. If you go to their website, you can sign up to be notified when they have a storefront. You can also follow them on Twitter (@schmendricks).

Definitely a company to watch on a number of levels.

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