An Apple Store would bring a ton of new traffic to Coconut Grove. It would be a destination, or an anchor so to speak in an otherwise flailing retail environment. Apple would be able to do whatever they want with the space, no architectural boards would stand in their way like in Lincoln Road on South Beach. The closest existing Apple store is in Dadeland mall which is roughly 5.5 miles away.

The only reason I can see Apple not wanting to invest in this geographic area is if they already have plans to put a store in the new City Centre mall being developed in Brickell, which is aiming at high end luxury shoppers. However, that won’t be ready for 2 more years, this location is available now.

Now I obviously know this is fantasy, and even though I’d love to see it, I am not holding my breath. Coconut Grove as a neighborhood has been largely reluctant to embrace change and adapt in the face of its growing municipal competition. So if the landlords and the business owners don’t want to change to embrace 21st century tastes, what can I do? I guess all I can do is dream.

The post Please bring Apple to the Grove appeared first on Brian Breslin's Blog.

So I’ve decided I am going to start making small improvements in my daily routine in order to optimize my life. Often I find myself still sitting at my desk after 10-12 hours of work, and realize I’ve only accomplished maybe 3-4 hours of productivity. So clearly continuous stretches of working don’t work well for me. Here are my ideas for optimizing my days to be more efficient. Now my plan isn’t to maintain these schedules obsessively, but hopefully the idea is if I stick to some of these new things, my mind, body, and general quality of life will all improve.

1. Daily jolt of energy: start each day with exercise.
By running a modest 2 miles each morning with my dog TJ in tow, I can knock out a quick sub-30 minute exercise regimen and jumpstart my daily metabolism. Also will help when I tackle the ING 2014 Miami marathon again. I’ll end up doing 8-10 miles during the week + another 8-10miler on saturdays or sundays.

2. Find inspiration every morning
Most mornings I make myself a simple breakfast consisting of eggs, protein, and veggies. So from now on I’m going to also watch something mind-opening every morning. Be it a new TED talk every day, or some documentary on netflix while I cook and eat my breakfast. Hopefully this will get my creative juices flowing and translate to my work-day.

3. Diversify my mental activity
Every morning, and afternoon, take 30 minutes each time to read. 30 uninterrupted minutes of reading in the morning and afternoon will hopefully help me plow through this pile of books in record time. Perhaps even adding 15-30 minutes of reading before going to bed, however that might be replaced with a cool-down activity.

The idea behind this being that if I can set a regular pattern, it becomes second nature, and thus easier to maintain.

Do you have any simple life hacks you do to optimize your day?

The post Setting new habits for personal optimization appeared first on Brian Breslin's Blog.

So my starting weight on April 1, 2013 was 168lbs, my BMI is somewhere around 15-16%. My target weight for October 1, 2013 is going to be 155lbs and hopefully in the 10-12% BMI range.

So what am I going to do to achieve this goal and how can you join me in this quest?

I’ll be adopting a strict hybrid Slow-Carb diet/Paleo/”Clean” eating schedule. So I’m reducing my cheat days to just half a cheat day on saturdays. So no breads/pastas/rice/simple-carbs most days.

From an exercise standpoint I’ll be continuing cross-training at EliteU fitness (3x-4x a week 1hr), but targeting a slightly modified regimen of lifting and high intensity interval training. In addition to that I’m going to start running regularly again (10-12 miles per week max, probably 400 miles by year end), adding in some more regular biking (15-25miles per week max, likely 1x saturdays), and weekly swim (25x50meter 1-2x a week).  So the goal of this regimen is also not to wear down too much, but to effectively hit the “minimum effective dose” of each exercise type.

I’ll do my best to post updates on or near the first of each month.

All of this is part of my plan to run another marathon in 2014, and beat my last time by at least 30 minutes.

The post Fitness goals for 2013 appeared first on Brian Breslin's Blog.

Right now 3D printing is getting a lot of hype, TONS of hype, perhaps more than it needs. However, I think 3D printing is poised to revolutionize manufacturing, just not in the way you are thinking. I don’t see 3D printing eliminating more jobs. I see it creating more jobs.  3D printing is going to usher in a new generation of “makers” who are fabricating things, prototyping things, and building more specialized products than ever before.  This will in turn translate to more products on our shelves.

3D printing isn’t going to eliminate factory jobs, because 3D printing isn’t suitable for mass production of anything yet. 3D printing’s sweet spot is in helping people design and manufacture their prototypes at a fraction of the cost and time that it used to. Being able to go from idea to prototype in hours or days instead of weeks or months is HUGE. Having the ability to show a factory the sample of what you want (that you’ve already iterated on) is an incredible time saver. The modern factory will still be cranking out tons of product, they will just need to be more nimble in order to compete and crank out tons of different items.

By reducing the cost of building an initial version, 3D printing could in fact drive demand for mass quantities of product, something that American factories can definitely help facilitate. The future factory workers of america will have to be versed in running more dynamic types of machinery; perhaps the repetitive nature of the factory of yesteryear is gone, but the factories themselves still are very much in demand.

It boils down to the fact that 3D printing is democratizing creation/manufacturing on the small scale and helping people’s ideas come to life. That is why I love 3D printing and am super bullish on it.

The post My latest obsession – 3D printing appeared first on Brian Breslin's Blog.

So first things first, SXSW is indeed like spring break for geeks. It can be either a total shit show for you, or very productive. Its a matter of taking into consideration all the things going on and deciding how you want to attack it. SXSW is about strategy.

For a huge number of the people rolling into Austin for the interactive portion, they are coming from areas which aren’t as exciting as the weeklong party that Austin becomes. I’m from Miami, so it takes a pretty effing awesome party to impress me.

So here are the tips in bullet format, since I’m already too tired to write any more (I’ve been here 8 hours…).

1. Pace yourself
2. There will always be more free booze, you don’t need to drink everything you see right now.
3. Chill the eff out. Everyone else is just as excited as you to be there, but just be calm about it. No one is passing out million dollar bills anywhere, so you don’t have to worry about missing anything amazing.
4. Focus on the conversations. Don’t try to exchange business cards with 500 people. Focus on the 50-100 people who you can engage in meaningful conversations with.
5. Pack light, and remember, if your clothes get dirty, there is always a thousand free t-shirts to be had tomorrow.
6. If the line is an hour long to get in to a party, there is almost certainly another party going on without a line, which will be way more fun.
7. Hydrate. Trust me this will help you avoid any hangovers or other disasters.

So try to enjoy yourself. If you find yourself trying to hit every panel, every party, every tweetup/meetup, you’re going to burn out. So pace yourselves.

The post SXSW pro-tips (or how to actually enjoy yourself) appeared first on Brian Breslin's Blog.

This scared me.

You see that week I was responsible for co-organizing two events that spanned 3 days and would attract hundreds of people. I never considered myself an event planner, but I guess I have definitely been thrust into that role. However I don’t make any money doing it. That’s not why I do this though. Yet money isn’t really what this blog post was meant to be about.

A zero sum game is one that is defined in economic theory as one whereby the winner’s gains are balanced out by the loser’s losses.

I think the idea I want to bring to the table is that community building should not be considered a zero sum game for the organizers and organizations. If my group is successful, that does not mean your group will be inherently unsuccessful now as a result. If my group is able to raise funds and get sponsorship dollars, that doesn’t mean yours can’t, and definitely does not mean we are taking money out of your coffers in doing so. The more success any community driven organization receives the more the community as a whole benefits from it.

A rising tide floats all boats. That saying is entirely relevant in the community building goal. More small and individual successes in any community lead to larger awareness of the community as a whole.

The momentum we are currently experiencing in Miami’s tech community is exciting, and should be seen like a train barrelling forward. This train should be seen as a means to transport us all, not one you should fear being pushed in front of.

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So here are the races I am going to run, and if you want to join me, great! Ones in bold I have already registered for. Others I’m tentatively going to signup for. Feel free to leave other suggestions in the comments.

• February
  • February 24 – Spartan Race Miami (day 2 probably 10am, as I’m busy on day 1)
• March
  • March 2 – Tough Mudder (join my RefreshMiami team here) 12 Miler Obstacles
  • March 30 – The Challenge Race 5 Miler Obstacles
• April
  • April 21 - Down2Earth Trail 10k
  • April 27 – Mud Mingle 5k  maybe, not sure about this
• May
  • May 5 – Merrell Down n Dirty 10k
  • May 11 – ALS Recovery 10K
• June
  • June 9 – Key Biscayne Triathlon – Sprint Distance
• July
  • July 21 – Key Biscayne Triathlon – Sprint Distance
  • July 27 – Down2Earth Trail Half Marathon
• August
• September
  • September 29 – Publix Escape from Miami Triathlon – Sprint/Olympic (not sure which distance yet)
• October
  • October 13 – Chicago Marathon – nope, sold out before i could register
  • October 26 – Miami Beach Halloween Half Marathon
• November
  • Mid November – Miami Beach rock n roll half marathon
  • November 28 – Turkey Trot 10k
• December
• January
• February
  • February 2 2014 – ING Miami Full Marathon

So if you want to race with me, or have suggestions for other races/obstacle races, etc. Let me know. I’m always looking for a challenge.

The post Run with me in 2013 (and 2014!) appeared first on Brian Breslin's Blog.

Add your response in the comments section. If the answer is reasonable (I determine this), I will do my best to make it happen.

The post Making 2013 better for you appeared first on Brian Breslin's Blog.

Why we do what we do, and how we go about getting things done varies immensely from person to person. I see many of my friends who are intensely driven and focused seemingly working themselves to the bone. I often ask myself, is that sustainable, dont they need balance? Many of these people I don’t think they can slow down, but that’s when I realize that balance is different for everyone. I might not be able to be productive 40 hours a week, but maybe my 25 hrs a week of work is more productive than someone else’s 60? Maybe those 15extra hours I am expected to work on a normal schedule make my first 25 less effective and thus reducing my overall productivity?

So how am I going to figure out this balance? I’m going to measure and track everything and run experiments. My first experiment is going to be not working Fridays starting January 1. By compressing my “work” to 9-5 Monday-Thursday maybe the procrastinator in me will be driven to produce more high quality work (excluding emergencies I’ll prevent myself from working outside this window). What am I going to do with my extra day? Menial stuff that otherwise would have distracted me during the week or interfered with my workflow. Come the end of January ill let you know if my 4 day week was worth it.

How do you find balance? Perhaps work-life harmony is a better description?

The post In search of balance appeared first on Brian Breslin's Blog.

As I sit here in this flight that is criss crossing our continent, I’ve begun to reflect on what it means to be an entrepreneur. My whole life I’ve thought of myself as an entrepreneur, but never stopped to think about what that actually meant. I fancied myself a budding captain of industry, a thought leader, and a businessman through and through. However I’ve recently come to the realization that I haven’t taken risks like I should have. I have been coasting along and getting easily distracted by ideas or small wins and not aiming for the huge wins.

I see a distinct difference between an entrepreneur and an Entrepreneur with a capital E. Some people might call the former a wantrepreneur, but I have a slightly different take on that title.

Sure I have a company that generates a healthy cash flow building web based logistics solutions, but that is relatively easy, and is only touching the surface of the market it’s in. I haven’t been swinging for the fences, perhaps too afraid of striking out. All that changes now.

2013 is the year for taking risks, for becoming an Entrepreneur, and for listening to my own advice that I’ve been dishing out for years. I see countless Entrepreneurs who have no advantage over me from a technical or business standpoint scoring runs left and right, while I’m sitting here bunting like a wuss (yeah I know bunting has strategic value in baseball). As part of this awakening I’m going to have to prioritize things in my life, some commitments will have to go, and others I’ll be devoting more time to.

I know what has been holding me back, and its not longer acceptable to use these excuses. What’s holding you back?

The post Entrepreneur vs entrepreneur appeared first on Brian Breslin's Blog.