Six months ago I wrote a blog post about what apps I use on a daily basis. For fun, let’s take a look at what apps I’m using on a daily basis these days. I now have an iPad so I’ll note which apps I use on my iPhone and which ones I use on my iPad.

[Sorry, I'm too lazy to link all the apps today.]

Multiple Opens “Just Because”

Facebook – Facebook still has my balls in a vice. I open this app about 5-10 times a day. Ugh.

Instagram – I’ve increased my usage of IG from 3-4 opens a day to about 10. I’m pretty obsessed.

Foursquare – I have more connections on Foursquare now, which has increased my daily use of Foursquare. I open it about 5 times a day.

Twitter – My mobile use of Twitter has decreased to once a day. I’m attributing this to a long overdue bout of Twitter fatigue.

Path – I still use this app 1-2 times a day, but very few of my friends have adopted this social app.

Pinterest – My use of Pinterest is primarily on my iPad late at night. It’s a calming 10 minutes of mindless picture viewing.

Flipboard – I had Flipboard on my iPhone, but it’a much better experience on my iPad. That’s why it’s now a daily “just because” app.

High Utility Apps

Quora – Quora dropped from a “just because” app to high utility because I just use it for research now.

NPR – I love this iPad app. You can stream your local NPR channel or get all the archived stories. It’s great for my morning routine.

Kindle – I love this iPad app. It’s so easy to download new books and I really like reading the iPad on my couch.

Fitbit – I just bought a Fitbit so the app coincides with the device. I’ll write a full review later.

Stupid Fun (These often change)

Logo Quiz – I wrote a full post on this app for the Demeter blog.

Skeeball – I love real life skeeball. This iPad app is lots of fun. You can manipulate the iPad angle to change the direction of the ball while it’s in the air. My high score 4,860. Can you beat that?

Have you ever walked into a party without the proper dress code? Everyone is in formal, pressed garb, while you’re standing there without a tie and a collared shirt? You stick out, you’re different, and even though there’s nothing wrong with what you’re wearing, you feel weird and out of place. Well, I’ve felt like that my entire life.

This out of place feeling is easy to blame on being an adopted Asian kid in the predominantly white area of Wisconsin. That actually never bothered me. But growing up I always felt inexplicably different. I never really fell into place with the pre-set tracks that schools laid out for students. It wasn’t just elementary school and high school either. This was evident all through college, where I had no idea what I wanted to do, let alone pick a major that might pre-determine my fate (i.e. Business, Political Science, Biology). So I battled through the societal norms to get to post college adulthood. There I met another set of “rules” that didn’t feel right.

The Divisions of Labor, made famous by Adam Smith states that production is more efficient with people specializing in one area instead of everyone producing everything from A-Z. Again, society tries to label us, put us in a box, so it’s easy to differentiate people. I don’t belong in a box. I don’t function well in that kind of myopic setting. That’s why I became an entrepreneur. I make my own rules and do as I see fit. When I started my own company, it was one of the first times in my life I started to feel “in place.”

What does all this have to do with living in Hollywood? Well, in my opinion, Hollywood is a collective of people who feel just like me. That’s why many people refer to it as Hollyweird. People from all walks of life, different interests, extremely outside the box fashion and behaviors congregate in the surrounding areas of Hollywood. So instead of feeling out of place where everyone acts the same, I feel in place because I’m one of many “out of place” individuals. We all come together in our own unique and funky way, and enjoy this feeling of calm and belonging.  I’ve lived in three countries, four states, ten cities, and made dozens of moves within these areas, and I’ve never quite felt at home as I have in Hollywood. It’s weird because I loved living in Santa Monica, an area where I would think I belong. But truth be told, I’m really enjoying my Hollywood life.

The point of this post isn’t to convince everyone who feels out of place to move to Hollywood. No, I want to encourage people to find their niche, their comfort zone, that place that they feel like they belong. It’s a really important part of life. Stop trying to fit into everyone else’s idea of normal. Do what’s best for you, make yourself feel at ease, and other problems in your life will sort themselves out. It’s ok to be crazy and different. 

Online press is always fun, especially when you’re not used to it. This year I’ve had the good fortune of having some articles mention me. Just the other day my first one on one interview was published. (You can read the full interview here) But my interview didn’t go without a few rookie mistakes. So here are the two lessons I learned from my first online interview.

Supply the Writer with Lots of Photos

Writers are busy people, they don’t have time to peruse the internet for your best looking photos. Therefore, you must take it upon yourself to supply the writer with plenty of photos. I made the mistake of only sending one photo (It wasn’t even that great of a photo). When I took at look at the magazine spread, I was mortified to see some of the photos the writer used to fill the pages of the story. Be proactive and don’t get caught with your pants down…or an iPhone mustache.

Share Your Contact Info 

I failed to capitalize on this extra exposure in the press by making sure my contact information was shared with readers. It would have been a wise choice to share my Twitter handle and to direct readers to my blog . But in my excitement to answer the questions in the interview, I left out this crucial information. Whoops! Lesson learned. Give all the information the writer needs upfront.

In the end, I can’t really complain. I had a nice article published about me and my company. It’s flattering and good PR. I’m sure (or I hope) there will be more opportunities for online PR in the future. I’ll be sure to rectify the mistakes I made this time around. I hope you don’t make the same mistakes I have.

In 2006, my last year of college, my mom sent me a letter containing a section of Jodie Foster’s commencement speech from Penn (See below for specific excerpt). Ms. Foster’s words articulated exactly what I was going through at that point in my life, and I think my mom sent me this text so I knew that it was ok and I wasn’t the only one. Since then, each year during college graduation season, I enjoy reading or watching the speeches by distinguished commencement speakers. Like Jodie Foster’s speech, they often can communicate personal stories of struggle and hardship, that eventually lead to their success. This yearly, cathartic exercise reminds me that success is not easy and I’m not alone.

It’s no secret that my favorite commencement speech is Steve Job’s 2005 commencement speech at Stanford University. I’ve embedded that video several times in this blog, the most recent being the April 19 post, ”Enjoy the Journey.” And aside from Jodie Foster’s 2006 Penn speech, another  favorite of mine is Ellen DeGeneres’ 2009 speech to the graduates of Tulane. Her 10 minute speech was humorous and genuine. She shared low points in her life, her highlights, more low points, and the current success in her life.  Her message reverberated with everyone who saw it, which is why it was an amazing speech. Few speeches are remembered years later, from people who didn’t graduate from that school.

I hope that one day, I become successful enough, that I can speak at a graduation and impart knowledge to a graduating class. Until that day, I’ll leave you with the words of Jodie Foster and the story of Ellen DeGeneres.

 ”All of that fine and delicious matter has a way of becoming the material of your life. You pick up bits and pieces of treasure and trash, pain and pleasure, passions and disappointments and you start stuffing them in your bag…your big bag of experience. You do some dumb things that don’t work out at all. You stumble excitedly on little gems that you never saw coming. And you stuff them all in your bag. You pursue the things you love and believe in. You cast off the images of yourself that don’t fit. And suddenly you look behind you and a pattern emerges. You look in front of you and the path makes sense. There is nothing more beautiful than finding your course as you believe you bob aimlessly in the current. Wouldn’t you know that your path was there all along, waiting for you to knock, waiting for you to become. This path does not belong to your parents, your teachers, your leaders, or your lovers. Your path is your character defining itself more and more everyday like a photograph coming into focus, like a color that becomes more vivid in contrast with its surroundings.”

- Jodie Foster, Penn Commencement Ceremony 2006

Ellen DeGeneres, Tulane Commencement Ceremony 2009

Click here to view the embedded video.

Business is business and not everything turns out the way you hope. I recently ended my first business partnership after approximately 19 months. Not quite the 10-year ride I was expecting. But it’s for the best. It was an experience and as long as I learn from it, I won’t regret it. So, here is what I learned from my first business partnership.

Trust Your Business Partner

In February  I wrote a post about what to look for in a business partner. Trust was one of my main arguments. I will reiterate that lesson right now. There must be unconditional trust that your business partner will be willing to work things out with you and be there for the long haul. Business is hard and things will get volatile. If you’re worried that your partner will take the first available opportunity when things get tough, don’t partner with that person. I knew my business partner for a VERY short amount of time before deciding to partner with her. I attribute that to my fear to start a business alone. But, I’ll never make that mistake again. If I ever team up with a business partner again, I have a very clear scenario in my mind, as to whether or not I can trust them. If my (currently unborn) child were to be falling off a cliff, would I trust that my business partner would risk their life to save my child? Yes, it’s a outlandish, non-business related scenario, but that’s what it’s going to take for me to partner with anyone again.

Sweat the Small Stuff

Asking the difficult questions in the beginning of a partnership can be awkward, especially for first time entrepreneurs. You don’t want to “prepare for failure” by creating an operating agreement with a divorce clause. Naturally you’re going to assume that your business is going to be flourish and one day be worth a billion dollars. You’ll probably think to yourself, “If anyone were to leave this company prematurely, it wouldn’t be me.” But starting a business, more often than not, ends with failure. That’s why it’s imperative that you create an iron clad operating agreement that both parties agree to and signed off on. Getting these details out of the way in the beginning will make your life easier down the road. If you don’t have these things clearly written out, if the time to part ways occurs, things will get really messy.

Outline Roles and Responsibilities 

A trusted advisor told me this as soon as I started my company: Outline your roles and responsibilities very clearly. I didn’t follow his advice. Partly because I was scared to broach the topic with my partner (red flag anyone?) and because I figured, it was a new company, we’d end up doing everything. Well, companies grow and roles become more defined. It’s infinitely helpful if people know what their roles and responsibilities are. Know who is responsibly for things like partnerships, client services, sales/marketing, accounting, etc. Even though a young company will have people wearing multiple hats, it’s always good to have  outlined roles keeps everyone on the same page and it will save you a lot of headache in the long run.

The moral of my story is to ask the hard questions. Set expectations right away so there are no questions when times get tough. There is a lot of uncertainty with business, but one thing you can be certain of is there will be difficult times. That’s when trust and communication will be key and get you through to the success. My first business partnership failed, but that doesn’t mean yours has to.

Let me be blunt…I’m out of shape. I can point to a myriad of reasons why this happened (which I’ll document below) but the bottom line is I need to start taking better care of myself. I’m not 18 anymore. I can’t eat whatever I want. I must take control of my health. A mentor of mine told me, “Take care of your health, and the rest of your life will fall in line.” Well, now’s the time for me to turn my health around.

How did this happen to me? I used to be an athlete with a  muscular physique. I had stamina, flexibility, and strength. Now, I’m breathing hard after  three jumping jacks. There are three distinct reasons why I gained all this weight (I’m too embarrassed to share the exact number). Lack of physical exercise, too many processed foods, and late night eating. The combination of these three things, plus stress, has taken a tremendous toll on my body. Since gaining all this weight, I hate how clothes fit me and how I feel all day. Imagine wearing four sweatshirts and being covered in mud. Yep, that’s how I feel. Gross. But here’s how I’m going to change all this and get back into shape.

Daily Exercise

I’m slowly starting to exercise again. Two years ago I could run 13 miles in 2 hours, now I’m done after 10 minutes. But I still try to be that guy who can run 2 hours at a time. So when I start working out

I miss this body.

again, I go hard one day, and then I’m so sore I don’t work out for another 5 days. No consistency. No good. That’s why I’m doing two things differently. First, I’m working out first thing in the morning. I like working out at night, but something always comes up and I don’t work out. The morning is always there. This week I’ve started each day with a workout. Secondly, I’m starting slow. I’ve written out a workout plan that consists of light lifting each day and light cardio. It’s not intense. My walk to the gym, my workout, and my walk back takes me an hour (I live 5 minutes from the gym). The lifting is to get my metabolism going again and burn calories during the day, and the light cardio is to get my body used to physical activity again. I’ll slowly up the intensity of the workouts as the weeks go by.

Diet

This is the biggest reason why I’m soft. I eat like shit. It was  a combination of laziness and limited funds. I couldn’t afford $75 of groceries at a time, so I ate a lot of cheap processed foods, and cheap take out. I ate a few large meals instead of many small ones. And I’d often eat late. Dinner might be at 10pm. Sometimes I’d go out drinking and then at eat at 2am. Not good habits. Now I’ve been consulting with my buddy Johnny Adamic on how to improve my eating habits. He works for the New York Health Department, fighting obesity. Now I’m consciously  eating less processed foods, in order to drastically reduce my sodium intake. My breakfast is greek yogurt with walnuts, Grade B maple syrup, and whole oats. My lunch and dinner options include lots of green veggies (arugula, spinach, broccoli), chicken, and brown rice. Snacks are almonds and fruit. It’s only been a few days, but I’m starting to feel less heavy after meals.

Health is one of those things you take for granted until you have poor health. Since I’m young, I’ve never really had to worry about it. Only now am I starting to see my poor habits result in a decline in health. I’ve just begun my health turnaround and I urge you to do the same. Don’t let your health slip, because it’s a steep climb back to where you want to be. Trust me. Make your health a priority, no matter how busy you are.

“You can’t connect the dots moving forward. You can only connect them looking back.” – Steve Jobs

This is a reminder to everyone. It doesn’t matter what you do for a living, how old you are, or what you’re trying to become; there will always be obstacles in your way. You’re going to have good days, crappy days, and seemingly apocalyptic days. Regardless, make sure you enjoy the journey. The crappy days are what make the good days feel great. Everything is connected and even those “the world is going to end” days can lead to great days. Like Steve Jobs said, “You can’t connect the dots moving forward. You can only connect them looking back.” Therefore, you should just enjoy the journey, and trust that it’s all going to work out.

Click here to view the embedded video.

I’m just full of obvious advice recently aren’t I? Well, this is important. I can’t stress this enough. Get contracts, written by lawyers, signed by clients before doing work. DO NOT ignore this step.

I know this seems really obvious and I’m embarrassed that I’m writing about this, but here’s the reality situation that I’ve experienced time and time again. You land a new client, you’re excited, and you want to make a good early impression. You want to start the relationship off right and start on good faith while their team signs the contract and pays you. Then you get caught up in the actual work for the client and the administrative works falls by the wayside. You like the client, they like you, and you have faith that it will all work out. But the reality is, you don’t have a signed contract. This is not a good situation to be in. Therefore, make sure you have all contracts signed before starting any work.

I recently found myself in an uncomfortable situation because I neglected to push for a signed contract. When I was asked to produce a contract months later, I was unable. I was shocked, scared, embarrassed, and upset. I had been working with the client for a year and everyone involved knew what the scenario was. But when I had to prove that we had a signed contract, I was not able to do so. Legally, I was very vulnerable. Fortunately for me, the moral compass of the client was high and we were able to work things out. But, for a brief moment, I realized how stupid I was. Don’t let clients’ busy schedules and demands for action get in the way of a signed contract. Make sure you have all your  paperwork in order before starting work. It will save you a headache down the road.

Getting contracts signed is fundamental to business. It may be hard to push for this when you’re first starting out, this isn’t something that you probably had to deal with if you worked at a large company. They had a department to take care of that. Now that you’ve started your own company, this responsibility falls on to you. Don’t neglect this and focus on the work first. Make sure your legal agreements are in order because I guarantee that clients will not pay on time, or sometimes at all, and you’ll need a contract to help recoup the money that is owed to you.

This is a quick and easy lesson. Don’t be a fool like me and mess this one up. Open up TWO business checking account when you start your company and make sure both accounts have money inside them at all times.

I would recommend opening one account with a small bank or credit union, usually their fees are lower and more enjoyable to work with. The other one  should  be a large corporate bank that has locations all over the country.  This will insulate your company from financial difficulties down the line. And by financial difficulties I mean, having one bank account frozen and still be able to access cash for short term operating costs. My accountant told this to me and I never listend to him. Now, I’m learning the hard way.

You might be like me and say that you don’t need a second bank. You don’t have anything to worry about because you do everything according to the book and there should be no reason for you to encounter such a situation. Yep. That’s probably true, but you know what? Banks suck and shit happens.

My business account if frozen because of reasons unknown to me. My account has two people who an access it. That way, if one member is unable, there is someone else who can (Another tactic attempting to insulate risk) access money. However, with our banks (Wells Fargo), if there is an issue with a personal account that is connected to your business account they will freeze all accounts associated with that person. Which means, even though I haven’t done anything wrong (and to be honest, neither has the other member) I don’t have access to my business account. And since banks suck, they’re not swift when it comes to rectifying the issue. So you can guess why I’m telling you to have a second bank account with money in it…so if you’re frozen out of one account, your normal operating expenses aren’t affected. Running a business with a frozen bank account is flipping hard. Just trust me on this one.

To beat a dead horse, let me say it again. Open two business checking accounts and make sure that both accounts have money. I would try to have at least one month of cash in the second account, if not more (I know that might be hard for some startups, but do your best to do this).  Don’t assume the bank will solve the issue quickly. People are never as quick to act as you’d like. As an entrepreneur, you’re always weighing the risks, this is no different. Open two business checking accounts just in case one of your accounts becomes inaccessible.

I started Demeter Interactive nearly two years ago. During this time, I’ve learned first hand what it takes when scaling a services company. There are two types of companies, a product company and a services company. Scaling each company is quite different and pose different types of challenges, but service companies are more difficult to scale because of its linear revenue to employee growth requirement. Demeter is a services company and I’ve encountered three main obstacles to building the size of Demeter; stable cashflow, size of the company, and custom solutions.

Stable Cashflow

Cash is king. It’s the lifeline of any company. Having a stable cashflow is what allows you to increase overhead and grow your company. I’ve experienced two major issues with cash flow. The first issue is the obvious lack of revenue. Getting initial business is not easy and until you get that first client to say “yes” and pay you, you’re working off savings (I had very little). Once you do get a few clients, you start to have hypothetical cashflow. Be careful when calculating your monthly fixed costs based on this figure. I made the mistake of increasing fixed costs based on expected revenue. This was a mistake because clients never pay on time. Believe it or not, paying vendors isn’t the highest priority for companies. Now there are tactics to get paid more promptly (I need to work on these) but only in a perfect will all the money you’re owed be paid on time each month. Therefore you must determine expected cashflow vs. perfect cashflow. This will help you create a better budget of fixed costs that doesn’t stress you out when one client doesn’t pay on time.

Size of Your Company vs. Size of Potential Client

Companies like to do business with companies that are the same size as them. Small companies make larger companies uneasy. There are questions about the quality of  your work and the long term stability of your company. Unless you’re an already successful entrepreneur and able to self finance or raise capital based on your previous record, most likely you’re going to have to bootstrap your services company. Which means, even if you have a few co-founders, you’re going to start as a small company. In order to combat this problem,there are two solutions. One is to have existing relationships with larger companies before starting your company. This eliminates the question of quality of work. The second is the good old fashioned method of “fake it until you make it.” Develop your company so it appears to be larger than it is. It’s a bit disingenuous, but there isn’t a company out there who hasn’t done it. (See the story of Larry Ellison launching Oracle 2, when in fact there was never an Oracle 1).

Custom Solutions

Unlike a product, services must be tailored for the client. There is no solution that will work for every company. If you try this, companies will be quick to figure this out. So the sales cycle of acquiring a new client is much longer than a product. It’s a different pitch each time, which requires careful consideration and creativity. Your ability to put in the ideal time and effort into custom pitches is difficult because your time is limited and you must prioritize time to current clients. There is a fine line balancing between the two.

Service companies are easier to start because there isn’t as much initial cost as a product company requires. However, products are able to scale quicker than a services company. If you’re building a services company or are considering it, please keep my talking points in mind. I guarantee you’ll encounter these problems and the more prepared you are to overcome these challenges, the quicker you’ll grow your business to the size you desire it to be.