Every day I wake up to a warm embrace and a wet nose from my youngest pup Jaz. She sits quietly next to my side of the bed first to see if I’ll wake up and when I don’t she jumps up to say good morning. This happens at four am every day.

This has been going on for at least a year now and I’ve grown used to it. Sometimes I even wake up moments before she does and I’ll grab and hug her when she says hello. It has shifted my night time routine to going to bed earlier than I ever use to so that I still get roughly seven hours of sleep every night.

Rising, I feed the animals, pour my first cup of coffee and sit down in the silence of my living room to do my morning surf. While I know plenty of productivity experts would hate this, for me it works. I quickly know if anything pressing arose overnight and I catch up on what my friends are doing around the globe. Then I read through the New York Times and Apple News to be sure I’m updated on the day’s headlines.

Lately, I’ve been thinking I should use the quiet time that follows more productively though. Perhaps I should go downstairs and throw a sandbag around or ruck a few miles on the treadmill. Maybe I should break out the laptop and work on my next book that has been boiling up to the surface over the last couple of weeks. The usual is to watch a documentary or whatever series I’m currently binging. (Loved the new Jack Ryan show by the way.)

The more I thought about it this morning, the more I realized that I needed the quiet morning hours of nothing in my recent past to balance out everything else that was going on in my life.

Today, things are more stable, prepared and organized. The chaos of last semester with new classes, lectures and day-to-day figuring things out at a new school have settled down into a new semester that has a solid foundation and I can build on top of rather than trying to clear the land and build at the same time. It feels good. It feels inspiring.

Mentally, I feel comfortable spending time and brain cycles on my art. Those things that give me deep seeded satisfaction, but might not give my family immediate support. Writing, photography and other creative outlets have long since been put on a shelf and only allowed out to play from time to time. Now, I want to take them down, dust them off and let my imagination run wild.

Stability is a new thing in my world and while we never know how long we’ll have it for it is simply refreshing to have it at all.

My quiet moments are evolving. I like that.

This summer was busier and more rewarding than I ever imagined it would be. The hours spent teaching, mentoring and managing the Wheaton Innovates (WiN) Team of students challenged my mind and filled my heart.

If you’ve been following along with my weekly posts, thanks for reading. If not, to catch you up I was given the reigns of the partnership between Wheaton College and MassChallenge. The ask was to choose a group of student and turn them into a successful consulting team that would work with some of the most promising new startups in New England.

We spent several weeks in the classroom learning the basics. I already know that there were some lessons I didn’t teach and must be part of the curriculum in the future. The time on site at MassChallenge was inspiring and full of meetings, laughs, and excellent work.

In the end, we had 31 different companies request our services and projects completed for 17 of them. Our work included developing marketing strategy plans, producing videos, taking headshots, creating social media content and developing a website.

Not bad for a brand new team over six weeks is it?

For some of the students, this was their first work experience. Many of them were working with technology and on projects that they had never thought of doing before. It was fun to watch them choose to shadow on projects where they didn’t yet feel comfortable to contribute but wanting to learn.

They learned how you never know during a requirements gathering meeting if the client is going to be a joy or difficult to work with and that no matter how cool a project sounds if a client can’t get the logistics worked out on their side it doesn’t happen.

Thank you to everyone at MassChallenge for making us feel welcomed and to the startups who we will be rooting for even now that our work together is complete.

I’ve not mentioned the team members by name up until now because I wanted to wait until the end of our time together to share more about them. If you are looking to hire the next great junior member of your team, you should click through and hire one of these marvelous students.

Angel Bird, Alex Stomberg, Jules Bibonimana, Zhuo Chen, Alvaro Guerra Rodriguez, Christina Smith and Keegan Dougless are all going to do amazing things in this world and whoever is smart enough to hire them is going to be happy they did.

Thank you WiN Team for a great summer and working hard throughout. I hope you had as much fun as I did.

My long business career has included managing a variety of people. My shorter teaching career has included teaching a variety of students.

This summer, as I manage seven students in a classroom and an office, has been a challenging and rewarding experience for me.

When you are a professor, the goal is to manage the knowledge that the students learn and try to help them earn the best grade possible. The focus is on them directly.

As a manager, the goal is to deliver the best result for the business you are working for. While independent development and growth of the individual employee is essential, you have to look out for the greater good of the client and business first sometimes.

But, where are the lines when your employees are also your students? That has shown itself to be a fascinating relationship.

This past week the work continued. We held our usual status meeting, and each member of the team was instructed to come with a detailed update of where each of their projects stood, any obstacles from successful completion of those projects and any help they needed from the team.

During this meeting, a member of the team broke one of my few rules for the summer when they shared that they had delivered a completed project to the client without me seeing it and approving it first. This went from being irritating to infuriating when after the meeting I looked at the work, and it was less than stellar. 

The mistake wasn’t going to cause a stock price to plummet or even a reaction from the client (thankfully), but I am not one for pushing out less than excellent work, and this didn’t fit that criteria.

I worked with the student/employee to make sure things were fixed, and everything worked out fine.

Today, though I needed to sit down and talk through the whole situation with them. The key for me is that we all make mistakes and we are always learning. I want to make sure that they never do this again in and to make them as successful as possible in whatever career path they walk down.

It wasn’t a comfortable meeting. The important ones rarely are. 

In the end, it was worth it and in my heart, I know that this student will make a great employee for their future managers. We laughed as I mentioned to them someday in the future they’d need to have a talk like this with an employee and they’d look back and laugh as they remembered. 

The more I think about, and the more I reflect, this is precisely why Wheaton College puts such an emphasis on experiential learning. Why we push the students beyond the assignments in the classroom and out in the real world where memorizing facts alone does little for your success.

This summer the WiN Team has spent time in the classroom and the trenches learning. Nothing ever goes wholly smooth, and while there have been a few hiccups this summer, there has been nothing that has dampened how proud I am of the team and the work they’ve done.

The line between professor and manager may be a wiggly one, but I’m glad I got to navigate it this summer. 

One of the most exciting aspects of being a manager is watching your employees grow and prosper.

The hard part is that when you hire someone, you only guess how they are going to perform. You wouldn’t hire them in the first place if you didn’t believe they’d be able to deliver. But, it isn’t until they start working that you find out if they live up to your expectations or not.

As talented and dedicated all the Wheaton College students on the WiN Team are, this past week began to show me how different each member of the team is. They bring different work ethics, approaches to projects and personalities.

It is crunch time for all of us with only two weeks left in the program and numerous projects are being worked on. While these students have completed plenty of group projects in school, none of them have been part of so many different project teams at one time.

Some have handled it well. Carving out blocks of time to focus on a single deliverable. Others jump back and forth hoping to cover all the bases. A few learned how much I despise the statement of, “I have nothing to work on at the moment.”

This week, the team focusing on Kushae by BK Naturals put their heads down and did nothing but create social media content for them one day. This may sound like a simple undertaking, but some of that time was spent learning Photoshop and Canva so that everyone could contribute to the image creations.

There was a big smile on my face as I reviewed the images and messages they developed. I was a little worried when they first signed the contract because of how much work needed to be done, but they stepped up and delivered. It’ll be fun to see the clients reaction to them all and even better when they start going live across their accounts.

We also had a big win this week with the delivery of a promotional video for the findSisterhood app.

This company was one that the team identified they’d like to work with earlier in the summer, so going from that desire all the way to a satisfied client was an excellent experience for all involved.

Founder, Ana Pompa Alarcón Rawls had this to say about our work:

“The WiN Team was amazing. When we worked together, they had the best attitude and were very professional. The result of their work is incredible. I’d immediately hire them for my own team. I especially want to point out how extremely friendly every single team member is, it makes all the difference.”

On top of this work, there is a lot of brainstorming and strategizing going on for a variety of clients. We took some time to hole up in a conference room and focus specifically on the differences in the B2B world because three documents are being written for startups in this arena.

There is also research being done for an Influencer Marketing campaign and reviewing of financial documents to help a client do better. While not the focus of our work, our team caught a mistake in a client’s financial calculations that hopefully will help them in the future.

There is plenty of work still to be done in our final days. I know a lot of my time will be spent reviewing deliverables before turning them over to our clients.

From the beginning, my hope for this team was that they’d all learn new skills that would help them in their future careers and it feels like that is precisely what is happening.

Most of my day was spent reading and finishing Creative Quest. A must-read for anyone who knows in their bones that they are creative.

We had the rug in our living room cleaned so that isolated us to our sunroom and my office.

Pausing, I looked around my office. The dog beds were in here, so Jaz was fast asleep on hers. I laughed as I composed the photo and still am not sure how she sleeps this way.

The photo switched me into observer mode. The variety of books, photography and outdoor gear, my choice of art on the wall and the randomness of the souvenirs that could be seen.

A friend from college on Facebook mentioned that all of these things had been part of my life as long as she had known me. That made me smile, but also made me realize how right she is.

Looking around the rest of my office, on my desk around my fingers as I type this and in any backpack, I have with me on any given day there is the same variety.

Books – They feed my soul. My Kindle has a never-ending library of books that I want to read. Having that library with me at all times makes me feel good. The stack of books to read and ones available to flip though make me happy. I’ve had friends who decided to get rid of all their books because of the space they take up, and that baffles me. While I appreciate downsizing and the minimalism lifestyle it isn’t for me.

Any time I need a jolt, I can slide a book off the shelf and get what I need. There are photography books, travel memoirs, cookbooks and a few comic books. When I need a reminder that I am creating things of value, I only need look at my shelf of the books I’ve written that have been translated to other languages and it helps balance my mood back out.

Gear – My name is C.C., and I’m a gear lover. It doesn’t matter if it is for camping, photography, video or anything else. I love gear.

I’m always trying to find the best gear to use in every situation. That is why you’ll see a GORUCK GR1 sitting next to my Evergoods CP24L and my Eagle Creek suitcase still sitting here from my recent trip to London. My Canon camera is laying next to an old Samsung one and a Google Pixel. My Benchmade folder is laying next to my Serepick kit.

To put down my coffee cup this morning, I had to relocate the new microphones that arrived last week from Shure and R0DE to test out and review. There is an endless sea of cables and connectors. No matter how much I prune down and focus in on the best gear for me, there will always be plenty around me to choose from.

Art – Hanging on my office walls are a couple of Chank Diesels and a bunch of Hugh MacLeods. There are also a few of my photographs, my prized signed Dogma poster and a poem my Great-Grandfather wrote. Part of me thinks I should change out the art from time to time, but each was hung for a reason, so it keeps me from changing them. But, I need to have creativity hanging around me to help inspire me. It adds a layer of comfort and a blanket of inspiration.

Walk through our house, and you’ll find a different variety of art. Paintings from Laura’s Great-Grandfather, a painting we bought on a trip to New Orleans and a couple of special photographs from friends. Everyone has different tastes and styles, but art is something to be appreciated, and I’m always interested in looking at more.

Souvenirs – These are not the shot glasses and t-shirts you find in every airport, but more personal mementos from my travels over the years. The crystal Coke bottle from one of my favorite client projects, a hand-turned mug from Fargo, the challenge coin given to me by a loving fan, the rug I bought in Istanbul and my iron buffalo from speaking in South Dakota. While they all may appear random and without thought, each of them is on display for a particular reason, and I can tell you the story behind every one of them.

Sure, they get dusty and take up space, but they also give me an instant smile. One look at the top of my desk and I’m instantly transported back to Ghana, Amsterdam or my fifth-grade performance of The Lorax.

Why do I tell you these things? Why not?

I write to get the words out of my head and into the soul of a few that might read them. Perhaps a bit of it is because as I looked around, I realized how badly I need to clean my office, and while I know this has to be done, I know that piles of new things will appear in the coming weeks and months.

Having a home office and studio is a true blessing for me. It empowers me to do the work I need to do in an environment that benefits my soul. Being surrounded by that which makes me happy is the icing on the cake.

What do you surround yourself with? Take a few minutes to think about it. If nothing else, I hope it makes you smile.

Watching a new team come together, gel and start delivering results feels excellent.

Throughout my career, I’ve been lucky to be a manager or mentor for younger staff multiple times, and I’ve always found it rewarding.

In previous posts, I’ve shared how unique our Wheaton Innovates (WiN) Team is. These seven students are majoring in a variety of topics from economics to creative writing. Before this summer, most of them might not have considered a career in any type of consulting and yet this summer that is the type of work they are doing.

This week the first two projects were completed for our MassChallenge clients.

The first was a quick re-edit of an overview video for LuminDx who are hoping to help patients and physicians address challenging skin diseases using artificial intelligence.

The client had all the footage they needed but wanted it edited down to a short and fine-tuned overview video.

The second was for Candorful, who work with veterans to prepare for civilian job interviews.

They needed an original video that could play at the MassChallenge Showcase on their table. Something that could loop and give an overview of their services if the founders were busy talking to people.

Both of these projects had tight deadlines, and the students stepped up to make them happen. In both cases, the clients were delighted with the results and hoped to work with us again before the end of the summer.

While these projects were going on, our work request form kept pinging us with new requests. As a team, we decided it was time to pause requests until we delivered on the variety of projects that we had already agreed to take on.

Each member of the team is the project manager for several different companies and member of multiple other projects. While each student has individual strengths, they are all learning new skills as they apprentice under and shadow more experienced students.

It is fun to watch someone set up their first shot on a video camera or to brainstorm a social media strategy. They’ve all learned that one of the hardest tasks in consulting is managing clients and their expectations.

This morning we had a status meeting, and it was fun to see how comfortable the team has grown with each other. Joking and challenging each other. Not being afraid to share an “out there” idea, when a few weeks ago they might have hesitated.

With so many projects going on, I’m trying to help and mentor as much as possible while allowing each student to grow and learn by doing the work. So far, they’ve done great, and I have no doubt they will continue to do so.

=-=-=-=-=-=-=

London is a city full of art, culture and good times. After several visits, I can confidently say that it is always a good choice when looking for a great travel destination.

My daughter shares my never-ending wanderlust, and I’m glad it worked out that she could join me on this adventure. While the specifics changed numerous times, we knew that in the end, our Chapman DNA would empower us to roll with it all and make the most of the trip,

Virgin Atlantic designed this campaign to raise awareness for their three new ways to fly in their economy cabin. Based around their #BeChoosy hashtag, travelers can now choose between Light, Classic and Delight seat option. All of them include delicious food, entertainment, and irresistible personal service. In the graphic below you can see the different options clearly explained.

They designated me as the “Classic Influencer,” and as we took our seats, it was apparent they were new and improved. Gone were the standard headrests that many airlines have. Replaced with padded leather that felt good as I raised them a bit and laid back against them. There was the standard amount of leg room, and the only complaint I had was that the seat back pockets were rather small and tight so my headphones didn’t fit in them.

In a moment of pure marketing surprise and delight, a member of the cabin crew approached and told us to grab our bags. She walked us up to the Upperclass section of the plane and encouraged us to enjoy the flight.

My daughter has never flown this way and decided to fight off going to sleep to enjoy some of it. Her hot cocoa and cookies went perfectly with her late night movie choice. The in-flight entertainment options on Virgin Atlantic flights are numerous and free for all which was a nice perk on the flight home when I’d watch three different films.

Best perk for me was the Fastpass through customs we were given so that we didn’t have to wait in any of the lines. If flying Virgin Atlantic, look into how you can get one of these because as a frequent traveler this was a perfect way to start our morning in the United Kingdom.

On the ground, we connected with the team and headed to the Moxy Stratford to check in and drop our stuff. This hip hotel is part of the Marriott chain and looking at their Instagram feed showed me they liked to have a good time. While we didn’t find any crazy kangaroos or giant toothbrushes in our room, we were greeted with this fun message.

Stratford is far outside of downtown London and is currently under massive construction. I expect if I were to return in a few years it would be a bustling new area of London, but for now, outside of the Olympic Park, the train station and the shopping mall, there isn’t a whole lot going on. Must be why the Moxy’s 24-7 bar is so popular and always packed with patrons no matter the hour.

Our strategy was to stay awake and not waste any time in our hotel room except to sleep at night.

“If we are in London, don’t we have to see Buckingham Palace?” asked my daughter.

It wasn’t on my list of things to see, but my community had voted that we walk the city to take in the sights and over the next few days we’d put in just over 36 miles of walking according to my Apple Watch.

The Palace is always a site to see, but sadly Big Ben is under heavy construction. We got a good laugh at seeing that they left the clock face on one side exposed so that people could still tell the time and know that it was, in fact, the landmark under all the scaffolding.

Walking around London on the 4th of July made us smile. While there would be no fireworks or backyard barbecue, we figured the next best thing was to find a small pub and grab a plate of fish and chips. At The Liberty Bounds Tower Bridge, we enjoyed our dinner and discovered the deliciousness of curry sauce on fries. Who knew?

My daughter is a mixed media artist, so a lot of our trip was planned around creative inspiration. On my last trip to London, my friends had taken me around to see a lot of street art, and thus I knew if we walked up to the Shoreditch neighborhood of London we’d find plenty of inspiration, so that is where we headed.

This neighborhood is one of my favorites in all of London. A crazy mix of restaurants, shops, and art around every corner. We tried the most delicious Ghanaian chocolate, enjoyed perfect gelato under a park tree and found the most extraordinary variety of art.

Watching Emily find bits of inspiration, styles, and smiles among the art warmed my heart. As a father, you want your kids to discover their calling and anything I can do to help with that I will. Heck, I may have made the perfect photograph for her first exposition poster.

The next morning, Virgin Atlantic had scheduled us breakfast at Sketch. Part art gallery, part overly pink brunch spot.

Scooting into a corner booth, there was freshly squeezed juice, strong Kona coffee and tiny portioned yummy plates of food. It was an Instagrammer’s heaven, but not my type of preferred breakfast spot. Fun, but a bit too fancy for my tastes. If you ever do go, be sure to swing by their restrooms where you’ll experience a unique gender-neutral bathroom. Be aware though that while you are taking care of things, others will be there for the selfies.

With satisfied bellies, we took in the nearby shopping district. Emily was excited to pop into a Dr. Martins store and a variety of other little shops. If you enjoy shopping, London is a perfect city for you with everything from the major brands to the smallest of boutiques. Something for every budget and desire.

One of the benefits of this trip is we hoped to be able to sneak in a college visit.

Arriving at the Chelsea College of Arts, Emily instantly loved the neighborhood and vibe. What isn’t to like when it is located across the street from the Tate Britain Museum and a short walk to a park? While most of the staff was on vacation, we were lucky to meet a helpful support staff member who gave us a tour of the campus when no one else could be reached. Because of her helpful heart, it is safe to say that Emily will be applying this fall. Thank you, Tess.

Tate Britain was the first art museum I’ve ever been in with Emily since she began taking art classes. I learned so much as she talked me through art history and shared what made each period unique. I appreciated the decades painted on the floor as you entered each new room of paintings. We also both fell in love with the work of modern artist Lisa Brice who we look forward to learning more about.

After more walking and refueling at Nando’s, we arrived for our Thames Rockets adventure. They give boat tours of the Thames River and once outside of the London city borders can open up the engines for little high-speed fun on the water. The rush of fresh air mixed with the comedy of the hosts made for a great time. After walking around the city, it felt great to kick back on the water for an hour and not have to do anything but enjoy it.

Neither of us was ready to call it a night yet, so we found our way to the Seven Dials neighborhood and explored. Most of the shops were sadly closed by the time we arrived, but there is always something to see in London. It was fun to watch the theater crowds pour in and out of the pubs after taking in a show.

With our hotel being located far outside of downtown London, the Tube is easy enough to navigate that we had no problem getting home at the end of the nights. While the cabs didn’t know where The Moxy was, it is hard to miss the purple lights when you exit the train station.

In the morning, I grabbed some coffee in the quiet lobby of the hotel. While it is crazy and busy at night, once the early morning breakfast crowd is gone you can find yourself alone to grab one of their many books, a cup of coffee and your thoughts.

Virgin Atlantic has partnered with Patissier Eric Lanlard to bring his delicious Cake-Boy creations to select flights starting this fall. They will be serving a unique version of an afternoon tea service to entire flights. Not only were we going to meet Eric and try some of the treats that would be served, but he was going to teach us how to make a few of them personally.

My daughter loves to bake, while I prefer cooking. The science of baking is too precise for me and my preference for a little of this and a bit of that. But, when I need to, I can buckle down and bake, so I was excited to see what we were going to make.

Eric was down to earth and over the top friendly. We all instantly liked him.

Over the next few hours, we made savory macarons, pistachio financiers, and bee pollen scones. I have to say that the rock-hard lumpy triangles that pass as “scones” here in America have nothing to do with the moist circles of yum that we made and enjoyed here. I’m thinking that they will appear on a Chapman dinner table sometime in the future as a new style of biscuits.

After we finished baking, we were treated to a formal English Tea. This is something I’ve never done on previous visits to London, so it was fun to experience.

All enjoyed delicious sandwiches, champagne and a variety of sweets. It was fun to eat the items we had just learned how to make. Eric even had one final surprise for us with signed copies of his latest book Eric Lanlard’s Afternoon Tea to bring home. While I won’t be serving afternoon tea anytime soon, all of the recipes would make for great appetizers at any future gathering.

While we were eating a text message popped up on my phone. Emily said she was initially worried at the way I jumped upon reading the block of text on my screen, but then she saw my huge smile and wondered what was up.

It turned out that my two dear friends AJ & Melissa were in London for the weekend and they wondered if we’d have time to connect. These are two of my favorite humans on the planet, and they happened to be finishing up a meeting and going for a drink directly in our path. Once tea was finished, we headed for Shakespeare’s Globe, and when Emily wasn’t allowed into the cocktail bar, we moved into the lobby to catch up.

Watching AJ talk with Emily about her future, Melissa and I shared a knowing smile and nod. Here were four Misfits in London. No idea when or where in the world our paths would next cross but knowing that we’d always be there for each other. Genuine friendships are like this. Love you both and miss you already.

Since we were in the neighborhood and it was Emily’s top destination in London, we jumped on over to the Tate Modern. AJ had suggested we take in the Picasso exhibit and the special tasting menu in the restaurant. I’m glad we did both.

By the way, if you are between the ages of 16-25, there is a new program called the Tate Collective that is free to join, and members get £5 tickets to all exhibits. Emily signed up and now says she has to return to London to fully use her membership. Who knows, perhaps she’ll have a piece of her art one day hanging on the walls.

Days before we boarded for London, I learned that Pride in London would be taking place while we were in town. Emily had been bummed to miss Pride weekend in Boston, so there was no way she was going to miss this since we had no other plans.

It was amazing to see the pure love and happiness by the thousands upon thousands of people we saw during the festivities. We arrived early to get a good spot near the end of the parade at Trafalgar Square. The conversations with the people we met make me smile as I reflect on them. Never know who you are going to meet at an event like this.

Thank you Virgin Atlantic for being a sponsor of the parade. It was a pleasant surprise to learn and made me appreciate working with you on this trip even more.

Walking through the SoHo District during Pride was an experience. Mix into the fun that England was playing (and would win) their World Cup game and the energy level was as high as it could be. Turn any corner, and there was a celebration of one sort or another. What an amazing day!

Usually, a delayed flight home is the last thing any traveler wants, but thankfully we found out about our two-hour delay before leaving for the airport.

Not one to waste a gift of a few extra hours in a country, we checked out of our hotel room and headed to Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park which was in the neighborhood. We knew it was near since the ArcelorMittal Orbit can be seen from everywhere in Stratford.

It is a beautiful park that sadly was lacking in pigeons, and the ones that we found were scared of the bread that Emily wanted to feed them. I’m not one to go looking for pigeons, but Emily wanted to feed them, and they had nothing to do with it. You can’t begin to appreciate how much this bugged her.

After a quick lunch and scoring Emily her dream pair of Dr. Martin’s we grabbed our luggage and headed to the airport.

As our car weaved through the streets of London, it gave me time to reflect on the few days we had just spent in this inspiring city.

London has all the culture and excitement of New York without the hurry and hustle. It is a city, I’ve grown to love and appreciate and that I wish more people got to know beyond the landmarks and the fun accent.

Virgin Atlantic asked me to #BeChoosy and go on an adventure with them, and there was no way I could say no. Thank you to all involved in empowering me to take my daughter along with me. We created memories that will never be forgotten.

Plus, if she ends up going to college there, I might be flying from Boston to London a lot more.

You can never know someone’s work ethic before you dive into the trenches with them.

This past week, my team of Wheaton College Students went from the safety of our campus to the reality of the Boston start-up scene at MassChallenge.

As I sat in the creeping traffic, I wondered how they would all do. Some people need their own space. Others crave stability in their schedules. Not everyone can handle last-minute meetings, shuffling schedules and demanding clients. I had faith in my team, but now it was time to go to work.

Before the students arrived, I went up to check out the space and make sure things were ready for our arrival. On the elevator ride, I said good morning to the woman riding to the same floor as I was. As soon as I finished telling her about the team she said, “We have to work together.” and in a moment we had our first client.

It is a good lesson for everyone. Say hi to people. Introduce yourself. You never know who is waiting in line for coffee with you, riding an elevator with or sitting next to on a plane. A simple “good morning” can lead to amazing things, but you’ll never know if you don’t say it.

Once everyone arrived, we were given a tour of the MassChallenge office. It is a sweeping, open floor environment. Long community tables, brightly colored conference rooms, a maker space, kitchen full of goodies and an event space complete with a garage door to close it off when needed.

I had fun watching the students react to everything and later as I talked to them about their first day I heard everything from “wow, this is huge” to “I thought there would be more suits.” For some of them, this was their first day ever at work.

Once we got settled in, the team broke up into pairs and began going around and introducing themselves, the team and our services. We had created a flyer that explained in detail what we were about and how long we would be available to work on projects. The founders were told that to request our services all they had to do was fill out an online form we had set up.

Selling yourself is never an easy task. I’m horrible at it. Some of the students were naturals at sales, and I made a point to mention that to them. It is a skill that not everyone possesses, and it is a critical tool towards being successful in whatever career you choose.

By lunchtime, I broke the news to the team that we already had five companies requesting our services. By the end of the day, it would be up to eleven. As I type this, it is up to twenty-three in total.

We divided up the projects based on who was interested and assigned a project lead to each of them. This student’s role would include being the point of contact for the client and to run the requirements gathering meeting.

Our plan was to have meetings with all potential clients and then at the end of the week to sit down and go through all of them to determine which ones we had the time, skills and desire to work with.

I’m personally excited to share that one of the companies I hoped we would get a chance to work with, Collettey’s Cookies, filled out our form.

A few weeks back, I had seen a news story about Collette Divitto, who after years of not being hired because of her Down Syndrome decided to start her own company. Now, she is taking meetings around the world and making not just tasty cookies, but job opportunities.

She is an inspiring young woman CEO, and I’m proud that we will be working with her and her company this summer. Oh, and if you are curious about her cookies, they live up to their name. The whole team agreed they are amazing cookies.  

Remember that woman on the elevator? Her name is Pat, and she is the Co-Founder of Candorful, who are working to teach interview skills to veterans.

They were the first client meeting we had and the work they hoped to have done had a very tight timeline. They were a perfect teaching example for the team and we talked a lot about how the meeting went, how hard it can be to say no and how to proceed.

I’m proud to say the students have already filmed, edited and delivered a rough cut of their needed overview video. That is exciting!

To celebrate the work kickoff, I took the team out to dinner. We laughed, shared stories and enjoyed some great seafood. It was nice to spend time outside of the office and classroom with these students and see them more relaxed.

As a team, they’ve come together nicely. At the end of the week, the project leads briefed the team on their meetings. As a group, we decided which projects we were going to move forward with and which ones we would have to pass on.

The students are going to be working on a variety of projects including branding and marketing strategies, creating video and photography marketing elements, creative brainstorming, web site development and content creation. If this isn’t experiential learning, I don’t know what is.

This week we are off for the 4th of July holiday, but I know several students are still working on setting up meetings and learning new skills on their own to prepare for the client work.

When we all return, the month of hard work begins. Hope the team is as excited as I am.

There comes a time with every team when you have to stop coaching, teaching or drilling and kick them out of the safety of the nest and see if they can fly. As I write this, that is where we are with the Wheaton Innovates (WiN) Team.

I’m sitting outside of the Innovation and Design Building in Boston waiting for them to arrive. To see how well they planned out their morning commute. I’ll always believe that “early is on time and on time is late” so we will see if they took that to heart when I taught it to them.

The month of instructional time on campus has come to an end and the final week was a fun one.

We started it off with my friend Sarah Francomano coming in and teaching them a crash course in media training.

Her years of experience was shared in an open conversation with the students and several of them were excited to connect with her afterward for possible future work and guidance.

Having only taught at Wheaton College for a single semester, there is still a number of faculty and staff I have yet to meet.

Patrick Johnson is an Assistant Professor of FIlmmaking and offered to give us access to the school’s filmmaking gear and to specifically walk us through using the Orah 4i camera and how we might use it to shoot 360-degree videos.

It was fun to watch the students who had not ever used this sort of gear before getting full of excitement and wanting to learn more. My mind was a bit shook when I had to show one how to use a zoom on a standard DSLR camera as they had only taken photos on their phone before.

We decided that the next lesson to learn was the art of shooting interviews. A student member of the team took the lead and walked us through setting up lights, how to focus properly and the basics of shooting these kinds of videos.

To put into practice what they learned, we went out on campus and filmed a few interviews with members of the team. They quickly learned the “fun” of trying to film videos on a busy campus with landscapers, campers and other distractions causing the starting and stopping of videos.

The team was eager to do a proof of concept video for Wheaton’s marketing team for a virtual tour of the campus. They decided that the library lobby would be the optimal place to see what could be done and we quickly learned that this new media format comes with a set of challenges all it’s own.

We were all excited by the possibilities that this sort of medium opens and had a good conversation about where and when we might be able to use it for our MassChallenge clients.

The team has arrived, so I should wrap up this post.

Today, I get to see how they perform as a team and selling our services. I believe I’ve taught them well, but now the work begins and I’ll find out for sure.

Creative Quest is inspiring my mind, Luke Cage: Season 2 opening my eyes and Post Traumatic thumping my ears.

Yesterday, my team of Wheaton students finished up their classroom time and next week we roll down to MassChallenge with a drive and purpose. They’ve come together and I hope I’ve prepared them appropriately.

Is the proof always in the pudding?

The days begin to get shorter today and as the sun sets and the moon rises I’m faced with the question of what am I doing.

I’m teaching and parenting. Living and loving.

All of it is soul satisfying and yet the urge to do more is always scratching at the edges looking for a loose thread to play with.

I watched in awe last week as the guys from Studio Fresh Boston took my photographs and incorporated them into beautiful pieces of art. I had hoped to be able to hang this one at home, but there were other plans for them. I’m ok with where they are headed. Knowing something I created is a piece of something that will be seen every day makes me smile.

The gates are open for me and yet I let the ugly doubt monsters roar in my ear when I know they are wrong and only there to challenge me to push past.

The idea book is overflowing. The creation bucket is suffering a drought.

Never expected Quest Love to be the human who would give me the kick I needed, but I’m thankful he did.

Let’s do this!

No matter what course I’m teaching, I always try to mix in life and career advice into my lessons.

You won’t see me highlight these on the whiteboard with a call out, but I tend to mix them in where appropriate. Caring for my students beyond their test scores is in my DNA, and thus I hope each of them works hard and achieves their goals in life.

That is how I’m approaching this summer with the WiN Team at Wheaton College.

We might only have this summer together, but I’m working hard to build a foundation in each of these students that will help them throughout their careers. They may not realize why I’m teaching them some of the topics and lessons that I am, but the hope is at some point down the road they are going to have a lightbulb moment and think, “Ahhh…So that is why Professor Chapman taught us that!”

Our week began focusing on our LinkedIn profiles.

Each student had one in various states of completion. The goal was to accurately illustrate what they were doing this summer on their profiles and to make sure they knew how to utilize the network to find jobs and network with other people. We also covered some of my best practices including my advice to act like a human and not use their automation tools.

Also, since I love taking portraits and another member of the team loves photography, we went out on campus to make sure that each student had a professional headshot. I loved that my style and the students were completely different so now each student has several options to choose from.

Plus, we knew that we needed a team photo for our marketing materials. We decided to take a “professional” one and then a more fun one. Which do you like better?

I decided to use one of my lectures from the Managerial Communications course I taught at Bentley University on writing for business and updated it for the team.

To put into practice what they had learned, I had them split up into teams of two. The goal was for each group to write ten different tweets for DropZone For Veterans and then we would mix them all and edit/critique them as a team.

The students quickly learned that while tweeting is not hard, writing multiple tweets for a company without saying the same thing over and over is harder than it sounds.

I was proud to see that they took into consideration the audience they were trying to reach, sharing things they hoped would be retweeted and pulling quotes from the company founder Courtney Wilson who also happens to be the Entrepreneur in Residence at Wheaton College. Be sure to follow @DropZoneForVets on Twitter to see their work and find out more about this needed company.

Our team has come together and gelled nicely. You never know when you bring together such a diverse group of students how it is going to go, but these seven have genuinely impressed me.

To test the team further, I decided to give them their first project without me.

The assignment was to create a two-sided, full-color flyer to advertise the team and our services to everyone at MassChallenge. They also needed to come up with 2-3 short paragraphs that could go into an email to market ourselves.

I told them that I was reachable by phone or email, but they were to figure this out and deliver to me when they felt good about it. While the final product isn’t complete yet (lots of little tweaks here and there), the first few drafts were well done and showcased to me that their writing, marketing, and communication skills are exceptional. Plus, I loved how they used the photographs we took earlier in the week and incorporated them in the flyer.

One more week on campus and then we head down to MassChallenge.

There is a wide range of emotions flowing through me right now, but in the end, it will be nothing more than another first day of work. This is such a fantastic opportunity for the students, and I’m having a great time being part of it.

Hope you’ve enjoyed following along with my posts.

Managing the MassChallenge partnership for Wheaton College is a challenging one. I purposely chose students from a variety of majors. Each of them brings different pieces of experience to the table and part of my job is figuring out how to put all of them together into a finished puzzle.

I chose to start the week with an exercise I do in any marketing course I teach to help me gauge the student’s knowledge of the digital marketing landscape.

The students choose a consumer product that we are going to sell, and then we step through all the things we need to create and manage to be successful. This time on the merry-go-round they decided that we were going to be making and selling “sustainable silly string.”

On our whiteboard, we walked through our needs for a website, social media accounts, and a successful supply chain. The talk quickly switched to tactics, stunts and other ways we were going to create content to help raise awareness and market our product.

As I hoped, there were many detours into specific topics during this exercise. Discussions happened around if we were going to manufacture overseas or find a way to make it “American-Made.” They loved the idea of showing off the product at farmer’s markets and other events, but I forced them to come up with ways that we’d sell our product with these stunts.

The purpose of this exercise is two-fold. First, it gets the students active and engaged. A perfect way to start off the day and wake their minds up. Second, it highlights areas that they need to learn. A big revelation is that none of them knew how press releases worked and why they can be helpful. This will undoubtedly be an upcoming lesson.

On top of learning from me, the intern team from the WiN Hub across campus joined us so that one of them could give a presentation on HubSpot and what inbound marketing is all about. Students sharing knowledge with other students is always beneficial when it can happen.

The other major topics of the week focused on content marketing and influencer engagement. Two items I know a lot about from years of experience.

It is refreshing to take topics that I know so well and expose new minds to them. The questions that arise and the discussions that follow. Me teaching the students, but them also opening my eyes to new creators/influencers/brands that I have never heard of.

To put into practice what they learned, I split the group into two teams and gave them a couple of hours to go away and brainstorm what kind of influencer campaign we might be able to do for the Mexico Tourism Board. They had to come up with five individuals that they’d want to approach to take part in the campaign and to justify their choices.

They came back with a variety of ideas and individuals. I smiled as I watched them take what they had learned moments ago and showed me that they were listening and learning. We even received a helpful reply from the tourism board on Twitter.

To end our week, we had a guest lecture. Gene Begin is the Vice President of Marketing & Communications at Wheaton College and an old friend of mine.

He shared the process his team uses when working with clients to take their ideas and make them a reality. I want these students to hear from other people out in the field doing the work. Understanding how a department at Wheaton College requests a new brochure, video or other creative asset and the steps that Gene and his team take to ensure that everyone is happy will be beneficial when the team begins working with clients at MassChallenge.

Thank you, Gene, for taking time out of your busy schedule to share your expert knowledge with the team (and bringing some fun branded schwag for them and me too).

Sitting here with my coffee looking back at the week, we accomplished a ton. It feels good to see the team coming together and their confidence building.

The team’s homework for the weekend is to make sure that their LinkedIn profiles are up to date. We are going to be taking new headshots and diving into each of them to make improvements. Mine certainly needs a refresh, so I’m looking forward to their suggestions.

I may have thrown them into the deep end of the pool, but I have confidence that they’ll be swimming laps in no time.

Life is too short, not to try the things that scare you the most.

So, when I was asked what I thought about the idea of taking a handful of Wheaton College students and turning them into a strategic consulting team that would work with the 2018 Boston cohort of MassChallenge startups over the course of this summer I jumped at the opportunity.

Wheaton College in Norton, Massachusetts consists of 1700 liberal arts and science students creating innovative solutions to big challenges and acting on them.

I joined Wheaton this past semester as a visiting instructor for the business and management program. The program was added in 2013 and has since grown to be one of the most popular majors. Students can choose from more than 100 majors, and minors at Wheaton and the rigorous academic learning is accompanied by experiential opportunities outside the classroom.

One such example is this partnership with MassChallenge that is entering its third year.

Opportunities like this did not exist for me as a college student, and more schools need to take the learning beyond their classrooms to stay relevant and needed for future generations of students. Higher education administrators please take note.

Wheaton College has committed to innovation and social entrepreneurship. This was one of their biggest strength that got my attention when I was first approached about teaching a class there.

With a recent $10M gift to build out the program even further, I’m excited to be a small part of the excitement that is going on with the school and their Wheaton Innovates Now (WIN) program.

This week we kicked off the training portion of the program with a focus on the team getting to know one another. Their first assignment after I taught them how to conduct interviews for requirements gathering was to team up with someone they did not know and interview them.

Then they each built a quick presentation and gave it to the group so that we could all learn new things about one another. I felt it was a perfect way to teach a skill and then put it into practice immediately.

When picking the team, I took special care to ensure that it was diverse in every way possible. That way the ideas would be sure to flow from all directions. We have students from as far away as Guatemala, China and the Democratic Republic of the Congo. There are creative writing, economics, film and business majors. I am very happy with the team of seven that has been assembled.

I plan to write up a weekly post sharing the process. Both as a tool to help others, but also to support me so that I can look back at the end and think about ways it could be improved. You can also follow along on Twitter or Instagram if you crave more.

Yesterday, the goal was to teach them the definitions of common business and marketing terminology. Explaining what a “call to action” is and why it is important to content that companies create. The difference between a “pay per click” advertisement and a “cost per impression.”

What I thought would take a couple of hours, sprouted a variety of conversations and rabbit holes that we went down and we didn’t get to my planned second topic for the day.

Some of the topics that came up and we dove into discussing included:

• How someone registers a domain name and why I have so many of them?
• An excellent explanation video on dark patterns that a member of the team thought we’d benefit from.
• If Solo or Deadpool 2 lived up to our expectations?
• The importance of disclosure when it comes to sharing anything a company gives you.
• Who is Casey Neistat?
• How translation rights work for books.

Stay tuned as the team comes together and begins to take what I teach in the classroom and put it into practice with a variety of different clients. We’ve only got a few weeks together in a classroom, so there is plenty of work to do.  

We’ve all been wronged.

No one goes through life without being scarred by someone deciding to do something wrong towards them.

But, where is the line that when crossed there is no forgiveness?

Some would say that the line doesn’t exist. Others would argue that it depends on the offense. Some might say it depends on the person committing the wrong and how close they are to the victim.

As with most aspects of our lives, there is no easy answer.

Rather, an endless stream of contemplations and wonderings that we each must decide on.

My heart always wants to forgive. To acknowledge that we all make mistakes and to move forward in a positive direction. My heart never forgets, but it tries to forgive.

Balancing this out is the angry soul that wants there to be retribution. Pain on the other side to balance out mine.

That isn’t right. It isn’t wrong. It is just what it is.

Diners are my happy spot.

The coffee is never great. The eggs always a gamble.

But, I’ll take an order of homemade hash and eggs over a five-star tasting menu any day.

This morning the conversation was about prom, work and our plans for the weekend.

There was grilled cornbread, crispy bacon and overheard local gossip around a disgraced teacher.

Diners are where a community comes together.

Whenever I travel, I love to sit quietly in a corner and take it all in. Listen to the voices of the locals and what is on their mind.

My dream book to write is a travel story of my wife and I driving around the country and visiting diners and talking to the locals. The stories I’d find and the yumminess I’d devour I believe would make for good reading.

This idea was the spark of my NaNoWriMo idea last year. It evolved into something different, but that is how it started.

I could write forever about my love of diners, but it is time to head out the door and watch Solo: A Star Wars Story.

Make it a great day.

Sometimes all you need is to get offline and binge watch a full season of that show you’ve been meaning to check out.

Sometimes all you need is a close-knit group of friends that you know are out there and you can text anytime you need to.

Sometimes all you need is the realization that as bad as things are, you aren’t dead so keep on living.

Sometimes all you need is a good laugh.

Sometimes all you need is a good scream.

Sometimes all you need is the realization that you and your problems are only a grain of sand in the enormity of the universe around us.

Sometimes all you need is a thank you from a student who you made a difference to.

Sometimes all you need is a good book in the warm afternoon sun.

Sometimes all you need is to lay down on the floor and cuddle with your dog.

Sometimes all you need is the patience that it will get better.

Sometimes all you need is to get the words out of your head to make room for other ones.

Spring semester at Wheaton College is officially over.

It was an eye-opening semester for me in multiple positive ways.

I was hired to teach Marketing, and while I’ve spent most of my career in the space, it was fun to go back to a textbook and the fundamentals. At the last moment, I was asked to teach a second class, and that was where a lot of the surprises came from.

The Business and Management major is one of the newest ones at the school, and it has quickly become a popular one. Many students who are majoring in other things realize that having a minor in business is a smart idea in today’s world.

My second class was Business Fundamentals, and it was filled with a variety of students testing the waters of business. I had an absolute blast teaching it.

I wasn’t prepared for how different it would be teaching courses at a liberal arts school compared to when I’m teaching at Bentley University which is one of the top business schools in the country.

The students are different. Their questions from all corners. It was challenging but in the best possible way.

Plus, my mind has always been wired more towards the liberal arts side. I was a theater kid at a business school. I’ll always use my creative side more than my analytical.

While I’m sure some professors don’t enjoy teaching the 101 level courses, I hope I get a chance to teach Business Fundamentals again. Setting a foundation for how a business of any kind is run was a damn good feeling. Plus, I had several friends come in and guest lecture with the goal of exposing the students to a variety of different types of businesses.

What I wasn’t prepared to find when I started this semester was such a welcoming community at Wheaton. I’ve gotten to know so many different people around campus and love the direction that they are going. Attending my first faculty meetings, I felt like I was pulling back the curtain on a piece of the Higher Education puzzle that I didn’t know about yet and I have an infinite list of thoughts.

Wheaton College is evolving as any school should always be striving to do. With such a deep-rooted history and a bright, innovative future, I can’t wait to see what happens. I hope I can be part of it.

Thank you to all of my students who I know are going to do amazing things in the world. Future dentists, cosmetic packaging designers, music marketing professionals, artificial intelligence developers and a list of jobs we can’t even imagine yet.

Being an Adjunct Professor means you never know what the next semester is going to hold. Maybe I’ll be teaching at Wheaton? Maybe I’ll be at Bentley? Might not be at either. Right now I have no idea.

This semester did cement for me that I want my future to be in a classroom. For a long time the signs have been pointing me in that direction, but I believe that the next phase of my career is that of a teacher and I need to figure out how to make it a fulltime part of my life so that I can concentrate 100% on the students and not be struggling to find work while trying to do best by them.

The search for a college that will allow me to be a full-time member of their community continues.

Six years ago today I was standing inside of Princess Marie Louise Hospital in Ghana holding the hand of a young girl named Mercy.

Days later I would board a plane home. Weeks later she would die.

When I share this story, it is followed by the notion that when I returned home I determined that I “wanted to use my powers for good.”

Today, as I look back at what I’ve done since that day I find myself smiling.

The artist and entrepreneur in me will never be satisfied. It is the curse of the creative that you always strive to be better than the last thing you did. To leave a mark.

I’ve tasted the sour of failure over and over again. Been burned and thrown away like trash by people I trusted and loved. Starting things that never grew into what I hoped they would.

You know what though? I am using my knowledge and power for good.

I’ve taught and inspired. I’m helping the next generation learn and grow into the working adults I think we need in the world.

The work I have done mattered. I passed on things that didn’t fit into the parameters I was hoping for.

Those who know me, know that I’m an optimist, but tend to be very critical of myself and my work.

A grin crossed my face as I looked out into the woods this morning and realized that while I don’t know what the longer-term future holds, the immediate is pretty damn special.

The truth is that looking out too far is dangerous for me. The worry and fear that comes with it simply aren’t worth it. Focusing on the now and the immediate time ahead of me is much healthier in all forms.

What am I doing this fall? I don’t know yet.

This summer? I’m in charge of an amazing partnership and internship program that I can’t wait to kick off. That should be enough for me to focus on and work towards doing my best at.

I crave more stability because it would make everything easier.

My reality though is that things haven’t been “stable” as long as I’ve walked the earth. Perhaps the idea of stability is a myth that we all crave and endlessly search for?

I’ve done good. I feel good. I’ll continue to work hard and do more good.

How are you feeling today? Try to do some good in your immediate vicinity today.

Earlier this week, tens of thousands of students around the country walked out of school to protest for changes in our country’s gun laws as part of the #NationalSchoolWalkout on the one month anniversary of the attack in Parkland, Florida.

Many schools recognized student’s rights to a peaceful protest. Our school provided a designated area to gather, and while they didn’t openly support it, they warned students that their teachers would decide on if to discipline them or not for leaving class.

Our school was closed due to the latest blizzard in New England, but we had already told our daughter that we supported her taking part and if she were punished at school, she would not be punished at home.

There has been plenty of chatter angry at schools for punishing students. I understand not being happy about it, but at the same time, I’m okay with it.

Students (and all people) need to realize that while their rights are protected to peacefully protest and say what they want, that doesn’t mean you are free from consequences.

This reality has been lost in our society lately. We should not be able to tweet, scream, post or say anything and then be angry if people react negatively to it.

Words have consequences. Actions create reactions.

If a school has a rule about walking out of class and they choose to enforce it when students do this, I’m okay with it. Sure, I would prefer them looking the other way and understanding what was going on, but the students taking part shouldn’t have assumed they’d get a pass for deciding to protest.

They don’t have the same worries that individuals who chose to sit down at a segregated lunch counter or to march into a crowd of armed police had, but they should be ready for consequences if they believe in what they are protesting.

Change has never come without consequences and walking out of school for seventeen minutes is easy. I hope that every one of those students who received a detention or suspension uses the time to continue their protest. I look forward to a detention room photo of students all in orange or #ENOUGH duct taped across their shirts.

This fight for change is far from over, and while the wave is powerful at the moment, I’ve seen it crash on the beach too often to be overly hopeful. Yet as people, #MarchForOurLives and another #NationalSchoolWalkout is being planned I’m trying to be optimistic.

I do know that there will be another wave if this one doesn’t continue, but eventually, I hope the tides of change arrive.

These past seven days have followed a similar pattern that plays over and over. Outrage, anger, call for changes, finger pointing and then silence as something else grabs attention and pulls people away.

Ban this! Shut up snowflakes! Lock it all down! We demand change!

The technology we love has made it too easy to scream and thus harder to discuss.

When you are more inclined to only use your thumb to reflect your emotions, you can’t use your brain and heart.

I have some very strong beliefs about guns, our kids, teachers, and schools. But, those are not what I want to talk about today.

Do you only have friends who share your exact view?

The problem is that too many of us stay isolated behind our screens. Even as we sit down to dinner or a catch up with our friends, we stare into the black mirror hoping for something more.

Humans like to surround themselves with their tribe. It is how we’ve found comfort and safety since we took our first steps.

The problem as I see it though is that too many have decided to go down the path of only caring about their tribe. If thoughts or people are different than that tribe than they must be wrong. We can’t listen to others because they are not the same as us.

One of my recent lectures was on protectionism and how it affects business. Watch the masterpiece Black Panther and you’ll see it debated on the big screen.

Protecting what you know and love makes sense. It is important.

But, what I keep seeing people forget is that America is one country full of different beliefs.

What I fear is that too many of us are not going beyond our front porches.

Instead of yelling from the extreme edges, wouldn’t it be more productive to sit down and talk with those who have different opinions than you?

My life has exposed me to all sort of people. I’ve visited all but seven States and in each, I’ve had the pleasure of sitting down and getting to know people from all walks of life.

I often laugh and shake my head scrolling through my Facebook feed as I wonder what it would be like to connect some of my friends there who are polar opposites. Not connect them on Facebook, but over some steak and bourbon at my house.

To sit down and while the time ticked away actually talk about the things we scream about.

Not enough of us, know our own country. We assume to know everything we need to know and that is utter bullshit.

I watched last year as a friend in Texas helped the police patrol and rescue people after the hurricane hit Houston. He and his friends on their own dime brought a boat there and were saving people. They also all were strapped with “assault rifles” and were ready to use them if they needed.

How many of you were full of emotions at the beginning of that story and then turned to anger? That is the problem.

On the flipside, I was told at the end of an event I attended a few years ago, that my presence had worried a bunch of attendees because I was “a liberal writer from New England” and they assumed we wouldn’t get along and that I’d be against everything they believed.

Unless we are talking about brownies, the edges suck without the middle.

So many issues in this great country of ours could start making progress towards meaningful change if more Americans got away from their screens and got out to meet people around them. Move beyond your fenced yard and get to know your neighbors. When you travel, say hi to the people around you and listen to the conversations around you at the local diner.

We need to understand that just because someone looks, acts or believe in different things it does not automatically make someone a bad person.

Being different is celebrated in so many ways and in others, it is ridiculed.

As you bitch and scream about the latest debate online, I encourage you to find someone with different beliefs than you and have an actual conversation. Preferably one that does not involve text, but voices and eye contact.

We are divided as a Country and nothing online is going to help bring us back together.

America, get out there and meet your fellow Americans. We’ve always been about a unique blend of beliefs and people. It is what makes us great.

Start today with one person. One conversation. If enough Americans got to know other Americans who are different than them, I believe we’d start moving in a better direction.

Emotions are raw and hearts are heavy.

Another school day in America ended with screams, blood, and gunfire.

Since our paid-off government isn’t doing anything about updating our gun laws and I wasn’t in the mood to have those kinds of conversations today I decided to focus on a different issue that doesn’t get talked about enough.

I wondered aloud if people I knew were prepared to deal with and survive an incident that involved injuries around them.

Doesn’t matter if it is a car accident, a natural disaster or an attack. Do you have the skills, equipment, and mindset to help save yourself and those around you until professional help arrives?

In my head, I suspected that the answer from most would be no. In my heart, I hoped that it would spark some to realize that they should know these things and to go out and start making changes.

I firmly believe that everyone reading this should know the basics of first aid and CPR with a first aid kit in your house and in your car.

Go to https://www.redcross.org/take-a-class and you can quickly search for classes in your area. You and your kids should take them.

Want to learn more? Search for “field medicine” or “tactical first aid” classes near you. Many outdoor retailers will also know where to find these classes and some offer them.

Personally, I also carry a mini trauma kit with me almost all the time. In it are the usual band-aids, wipes and other “boo-boo” type of treatments. But, there is also a compression bandage, QuickClot sponge, and tourniquet.

Want to just buy a kit and have everything at once? My buddies at ITS offer a variety of options. The one shown here is what I keep in my car.

The key is that I know how to use all of these products in addition to having them with me. Surviving and helping others is more about having the proper mindset and knowledge than anything else.

My kids have called me paranoid more than once, but I prefer to believe I’m just being prepared.

We talk openly about what to do in a variety of stressful situations in the hopes that if they ever have to go through it that they’ll know what to do and remember those conversations.

I know there are a million things to worry about every minute of the day, but knowing how to help and save others is worth the time.

I’m glad I asked this question earlier today because it has sparked a lot of conversations with friends asking for more information and thanking me for lighting a fire under them. That outweighs any of the other frustrations that came from me asking a simple question.

I’m here to help whenever possible. That is always my motivation even if others don’t realize it.

Stay safe out there.

Before the sun rose this morning, A Futile And Stupid Gesture was playing on the television.

The coffee was strong, the dogs were sleeping and the weather people had completely botched the forecast of “a dusting at most” with the arrival of several inches of fresh powder.

Laura packed up and headed to work and as we hugged, I blurted out, “movies like this remind me that I’m not a complete fuck up.”

We shared a laugh and she left for the day. Schools are delayed by two hours since the guessers with radar were wrong.

Lately, there has been plenty to watch and reflect on. To consume and then ponder.

With a man baby bully in power and the entire population in a seemingly endless bad mood, it is hard to be an optimist.

To survive online, you’ve got to learn to laugh at the insanity and scroll on past the lunatics. The issues arise when your friends and people you respect choose to share or react to things that baffle you that things become harder.

Every day it seems that someone new feels compelled to expound about how others should act. I’ve run out of fingers to count the number of ways I’m living life wrong according to them.

Being back in a classroom means less time in front of a screen looking at feeds. In a few short days that his proven to be a needed and welcomed change in my life.

Having something to focus on, in this case teaching the next generation, is the change I needed to start this year off on the right foot.

Looking forward rather than around feels like the best approach lately.

The snow is continuing to fall outside and at this point, I have no idea what the hours ahead hold, but I’ll hunker down, plan my lectures for the rest of the week and make the most of what matters in life.

Technology is rapidly improving around us, all the while breaking us as humans.

A century from now, historians and scientists will look back at these years and write volumes on how technology evolved society in a negative way.

I’m not going Amish on you anytime soon, but as much as I love my gadgets and technology all around me I do hate watching how it is eroding a lot of what makes humans great.

When a celebrity decides to film, make jokes and then publish a video to their millions of fans of a dead body hanging from a tree, there is a problem.

When a spoiled, rich, simpleton is given ultimate power and chooses to spend his time throwing tantrums with my dick is bigger than your dick hates to the world, there is a problem.

When people repeatedly share, react to and celebrate something they saw online without taking even a moment to verify if it is true or for thinking for themselves, there is a problem.

Take a scroll through your network of choice and you’ll see what I mean. People pimping the latest pyramid scheme, sharing red or blue propaganda or someone butting in with their opinion when no one asked for it.

Sadly, a large chunk of humanity has given over the power of their thoughts to the hive mind fishbowl they’ve created around themselves. By only seeing, hearing and watching views similar to their own they now believe and share all that is thrown at them.

Remember when the rule was that you never talked about sex, money or politics with friends? Now, no topics are off limits with people thirst trapping for attention at every possible corner. Sure, it isn’t always about the abs and boobs, but the cry for attention and validation is certainly there.

Every morning I look at my “On This Day” link in Facebook to see status updates from years past. When I see what some people post every day, I can’t imagine what it is going to feel like to look back at those a year, five years or more from now. How sad and emotionally draining will that be? What will their empty anger or blind following shares trigger in them at that point?

It seems that in today’s world everything has to be at the extremes. Having a constructive disagreement about anything is nearly impossible. Look at any issue you believe in and try to find content and conversation around it that is more than a version of this side is wrong and this side is right. We have to find middle ground if changes are ever going to be made.

I’m convinced part of this is our brains have been trained that we must either like/love/click on something or not. Our emotions have to fit into a single emoji when we read it on Facebook. Ever had that ping of “crap, my reaction to this doesn’t fit one of these by themselves” and then do nothing? I know I have.

We are never going to give up our phones and screens. I enjoy having so much power and connectivity in my hand. We all enjoy the dopamine hit we get when someone reacts positively to something we created and shared.

Many of my friends are beginning to pull away from the big networks. Private groups, group text chats, and one-on-one conversations are becoming more common.

People are starting to realize that Black Mirror isn’t a simple television show, but one-hour warning commentaries on our human sacrifices to technology.

The world is powered by technology, but it will be destroyed by humans.

Use and love technology, but don’t become a slave to it.

Have your own thoughts and don’t be afraid to share them.

Talk to people. Interact with your fellow humans beyond a screen.

Cook a meal that doesn’t come out of a box. Sit down around the table with friends so you can hear what is really going on in their lives rather than only what they are choosing to share online.

Take the time to research and find out an answer beyond asking your listening device of choice for the shortcut.

Think of others before yourself. Get your personal priorities straight and so much else will fall by the wayside.

Assholes will always exist and technology has allowed them to self-identify themselves to the world. Don’t give them the attention they crave.

We can’t let the algorithms and robots win. Be a good human.

The final hours of another year.

The ball will drop, people will kiss and tomorrow everyone tries to start over.

I pondered making a video wearing my Casey Neistat “Work Harder” hoodie while drinking from my Chuck Wendig “Art Harder Mother Fucker” coffee mug to motivate everyone to do more in 2018.

Those of you who know me just giggled because you know I could never do that with a straight face and that sentence was dripping with sarcastic honey.

The reality is, every December I look back and wished I accomplished more. The truth is, every year I accomplish plenty and if I ever look back and am completely satisfied I know I’m dead.

I wrote 30,000 words of my first novel, did a solid job as an Interim CMO for five months for an organization I love and taught another group of great students.

My son graduated high school and we drove across the country to take him to college.

My daughter is a confident and creative young woman who jumped at the opportunity to drive to Mexico and have lunch.

My wife loves me and makes me laugh on a daily basis.

We have a roof over our head, food on the table and no one we love is extremely sick.

I’m choosing to focus on the positive rather than dwelling on the negative.

So, what am I focusing on in the coming year? Those who know me, know I always go through the 3 Word Exercise to help me focus.

This year I’m choosing:

STEADY

Dan Rather is to thank for this one. He talked a lot about the importance of this word to him in What Unites Us: Reflections on Patriotism which I read earlier this week. It is to remind me that no matter how crazy things get around me that if I hold steady that I’ll make it through. If I remember that our country, my life, and the world has been through an infinite number of rough times before and to this point survived that we can all do it again.

MOVE

Far too much of my life is spent in a stationary position. For a variety of reasons, this needs to change. I want to get away from the social networks and see my friends in person. I want to go for walks, summit mountains and see more of the world. I know that nature recharges my batteries and yet I’m not out in it often enough.

DO

There is a novel that needs to be finished, another book I want to write and a third that I’m revising right now. There are videos I want to make, stories I want to tell and speeches I need to give. There is a classroom of new students waiting for me to begin them on their marketing journey and strangers that I hope my words inspire. Photos to take on the ground and in the air. Cookbooks full of recipes yet to be tried. Books to read. Hugs to give. An infinite list of things that I want to do and rather than thinking about them all and reflecting in twelve months that I didn’t get them done, I’d prefer to DO.

2017 was a rollercoaster of a year and while some things won’t change, plenty will.

If you are reading this, I hope our paths cross in the new year. We’ve all become too comfortable with keeping in touch with friends based solely on what they choose to post and share.

A few months back I sent out a newsletter and asked people to hit reply and let me know what was going on. Not a single person I would call a really close friend did so. It was mostly acquaintances that hit reply and we started chatting. That felt truly strange to me and I’m still processing it.

Let’s grab a coffee, bourbon or a home-cooked meal. My door is always open.

Happy New Year!

December is my most reflective month. The end of the year. Another trip around the sun for me. The first flakes of snow and bitter cold in the lungs.

Life quiets down and speeds up at the same time. The mayhem of the holidays mixed with cuddling in front of a fire with those you love.

You want to look to the future. To plan for the next year. Determine your three words, say all the things you are going to do, promise to make the next twelve months better than the last.

The only thing I know about 2018 is that the first months will be spent as a Visiting Professor at Wheaton College. Earlier this week I met with one of my students and I’m excited to be in the classroom again.

I also have a writing deadline at the end of February which is clearly in focus at the moment.

But, after that, there is nothing on the calendar. No major milestones. No contracts of work to do. A blank canvas.

That scares me. The lizard brain screams about impending doom. Then calmer instincts roll in and remind me that this is the path I walk. This is no different than past Decembers when I try to keep the two wolves balanced out and not let either of them feast.

Next week I’ll receive the best birthday gift when my son returns from his first semester of college. I’m proud of the work he has put in this semester so far from home. The challenges he has faced and his own wolves that have howled at him as he grows into the man he wants to become.

There is nothing quite like clearing your head on a cold winter day. To take deep, meaningful breaths of air that sting your lungs. To be blinded by the sunlight off the sparkling white snow in front of you. To enjoy the stillness as a pond ices over before your eyes and the only noise is the whisper of the wind through the trees.

These moments are the ones I cherish. I stood for a long time looking out over a lake earlier this week. My photography plans for the day sidelined by technology, but being a roll with the moment guy I decided to use it to center myself a bit. To balance out the swirl of voices in my head and remind myself that everything finds a way to work out in the end.

A grin is on my face as I ponder how this might come across as sad, but I know it isn’t. When I think back to several Decembers ago and the darkest days I’ve seen, I know this isn’t sad. In fact, I am in the most upbeat of spirits.

There are so many opportunities ahead for all of us. From the sea of hate and frustration, I have to believe that enough joy rebels, radical artists and passion hits will rise to turn the tide to something good.

Spending the month of November working on my first novel that I set in the not so distant future allowed me to paint the worse case scenario based on our current climate. It was dark, disturbing and at times was painful for me to create.

Yet, even in the midst of this world I created, there was hope and life went on.

Life is going on right now. Babies are being born. Art is being created. Work is being done.

The whirlpool of anger can suck all of us in and all we will do is scream at the social streams we swim in too often. Taking even a few hours away from the screens and living will remind you that we don’t need the constant guzzling of information.

Light snow falls outside my office window as the first light of morning arrives.

Today is another day.

We woke without power this morning. Thankfully we were prepared and it is back on now.

Of course, it made me realize a few things we should have done but didn’t. Also, had me thinking about all the Americans in Puerto Rico who are still without the power, water and attention they need to be receiving.

Both of these play a role in my immediate future which is why I’m writing about them.

In less than forty-eight hours I’ll begin taking part in National Novel Writing Month.

After interviewing the Executive Director, I couldn’t shake the idea of taking part out of my head. It is something I’ve been tempted with doing many years in the past, but this year it appears everything has aligned properly for me to give a full on go.

The family is all on board and since you have to have a working title to track in the system I lovingly (and a bit jokingly) titled mine “Corned Beef Hash With a Side of Bourbon.”

It is a road trip novel set in 2033. Just far enough in the future that I can take some liberties with technology and world events. Yet, keeping it close enough that I’ve had to take a long hard look at where I think things could go in the world.

I’ll be honest that the last part has been rather scary.

What could all the hate grow into? What happens when third and fourth political parties are formed and start winning? How does technology taint interactions, love, and humankind?

The exercise in thinking about where it might all lead and then deciding how much I want to include in the story is an interesting experience.

I wanted to outline what the world looked like so I knew as much as possible for where my characters were living and playing. It feels like it will help a lot.

My personal #NaNoWriMo2017 goal is to hit the 50,000 word goal and come out at the end with a solid first draft. While I don’t have a formal outline, I do know where I currently want to story to go, the main characters and enough to get started.

One special event tonight, Halloween tomorrow and then it is time to write.

Wish me luck!

The answers usually start with a giggle at the enormity of the question, but the answers all have a similar vibe to them. All around some version of having to do it because the urge/voices/need is there.

This certainly fits for me as well. I have to write. It isn’t a choice.

The voices in my head scream when I haven’t created in a while.

For me, there is a variety of writing I do.

My paper journal gets my most honest and open writing. No matter how much I strive to put my true self out to the world, we all censor ourselves. The darkest of dark winds up in my journal.

Blogging since 2002, my writing has evolved. I now only write when I have something to say or needing to get out of my head. Sometimes I cross-post to other sites and other times I keep it right here.

Amazing Things Will Happen and Content Rules both continue to sell copies and things are in motion to keep that going.

Being a published author changed my life. It opened doors, put me on stages and connected me with a vast variety of people around the globe.

Writing makes my world better. It allows me to collect my thoughts, tell stories and help others.

Earlier this summer we held memorial service for a dear friend and each of us was allowed to choose a stone with various words or phrases painted on them.

My father grabbed one for me. It is a simple white rock with black letters that read “Voice for the Voiceless.”

I hold that rock in my hand often and wonder if I’m doing enough of that with my words. Lately, there hasn’t been enough of that sort of writing and it is something I’m striving to do more of in the coming months.

Recently over dinner, my daughter challenged me that I wasn’t writing enough. She asked, “Whatever happened to your ‘fiction Fridays’ you were trying?”

I had nothing to say to her because the truth is I haven’t been writing as much as I should and want to do.

Next month that will change.

While chatting with Grant Faulkner I realized I have no excuse this year not to take part in National Novel Writing Month. It is something I’ve always wanted to do but never had a problem finding an excuse to keep me from doing it.

I  jokingly made up a title, but then the characters and story started to roll around in my brain. Like I said, I write to get the voices out of my head and these are screaming to be let loose.

Why do I write? I write because I love it and I respect the power that words hold.

I wish more people embraced and respected that power.

This space has always been treated as an online journal first and any other word you might choose to call it second.

I collect my thoughts and process the ones that I want to share with the world. The ones not for your eyes go down on paper in some sort of semi=regular schedule that is far from daily.

Last night as I walked the dark streets of Boston I reflected on friendship and how it works.

We use to call, write and touch base with those we cared about.

Today a thumbs up, like or retweet seems to pass for being a friend.

It is interesting that those that you don’t consider a close friend are the ones that will check in on you, invite you to dinner or reach out when you are least expecting it.

We tend to assume that what we see online is an accurate portrayal of how someone is doing when we all know only the extremes are shared.

Earlier in the night as I sat at the penny covered bar of Worden Hall, I read a 2012 commencement address from Neil Gaiman.

His words hit me directly in the soul. Reminders of things I knew but had not been following.

This morning I awoke from less sleep than I try for. The frosted flakes were needed and the coffee was assigned.

Today? Today I’m going to let my mind wander some more. To think about the art I’m not creating and the friendships I’m not making the most of.

How is your day going? What aren’t you doing that you should be?

Make the most of it.

Dylan started college earlier this month.

On the cross-country road trip, many stories were shared and advice given.

He has a few years before he has to worry about it, but I reminded him that the only person he can fully trust to care about his career is himself.

Recently, I was reminded of this fact and by now it is something I should know since more than once I’ve put my faith in others and then had it thrown away.

What it boils down to is that you need to be sure you are looking out for your best interests first. Yes, there are people who work in the Office of Career Services when you are in school and friends later in life who can and will help you. But, none of them has you as their top priority.

I tell my students that if they really want a job, they have to go out and find it. Make the contacts, reach out and say hello and then land it on their own. Everyone else can help and support, but in the end, you are the one that has to do it.

Over the course of the last five years, too much of my faith has been put in others. I’d commit my heart and soul to something too early and it would turn around and bite me.

Fool me once right? Dummy me didn’t learn. This last time did enough damage that I’ve learned my lesson. Never again.

The world is full of good people who want to help you. Yet, there is no one more dedicated to your success than yourself.

My beliefs are simple and set in stone. They’ve evolved over time as life experiences shape them like river rocks.

I don’t judge people based on the color of their skin, who they choose to worship or who they love.

I judge everyone based on their words and actions.

Your word is your bond.

Putting in the time, effort and work is the only way to get what you want.

Break my trust once and you’ll never earn it back fully.

I forgive as much as possible, but I never forget.

Protecting those I love comes before all else. If you choose to hurt anyone I love, I’ll do everything in my power to destroy your world.

Friendships mean the world to me. There is nothing I wouldn’t do to help a true Friend.

I have an optimistic heart, but a realist soul. While always looking for the silver lining, I know sometimes there are only storm clouds.

There are bad and evil people in the world. They need to be dealt with.

Any organization that deals with veterans, dogs or children get my attention and help.

There is no greater honor than to serve in the military to protect our country. Anyone who can meet the physical and mental standards should be allowed to serve.

Our country needs to do a much better job of helping Veterans when their service ends.

More people should have conversations with those they fear and don’t understand so that they could learn that different doesn’t have to scare you.

If you’re willing to eat meat, you should be comfortable with killing it.

Technology is an amazing thing, but if more people got away from it on a regular basis things would be better.

Not enough people think before they speak.

There is never a reason to have a phone in your hand while your foot is on the gas.

I try to put more positivity into the world than negativity.

These are mine and you don’t have to agree with them.

I love traveling the world because it opens me up to more experiences and reminds me that humans are the same and different everywhere you go.

Most just want to keep their family safe, make enough money to take care of their needs and live a happy life.

Make it a great day.

The concept is simple enough.

Ducks don’t care about the rain. They keep swimming around, doing duck things. They let the rain wash off of them because they realize there is nothing they can do about it directly so they focus on what they can do.

Today’s world is full of moments where I need to stop and remind myself to be a duck.

If you could hear the voices in my head you’d hear “Quack! Quack!” as they remind me of my own words.

Every day I’m presented with comments, situations, and events that force me to pause before proceeding.

My natural instinct is to fight anything I disagree with. To push back and have a discussion at a minimum.

This rarely helps the situation.

Every day under the current rule presents me with new things to scream about and that won’t help anyone.

So, I take a deep breath and move forward.

Ask yourself if what you are thinking of posting, saying or doing is going to have any positive impact on the situation. If the answer is most likely not, then quack and move on.

This is harder than it sounds, but the more you do it, the more you realize the ducks have it right.

Happy quacking!

As the designated Comms for the team, it is my job to stay on top of what other teams are doing and orders from on high.

“Blue teams, you have two minutes until hunting of red teams begins.”

I share the news with the team and we quickly scurry to our predetermined hiding spot.

We were assigned call sign Delta. Some of us know each other. Others are strangers. But, for the night we are together and everything from building fires to reading maps will only be successful if we work together as a team.

After a night in the darkness, the morning sun is arriving and her warmth feels good.

Throughout the night we’ve talked to locals to gather intel, carried fallen comrades on stretchers made from what we could find and stopped the bleeding on our two-liter friends who took a knife to the heart.

We weren’t sent out into the wild city of Boston without knowledge to help us survive the night or beyond.

Two Special Forces veterans shared what they learned in the mountains and deserts of Iraq and Afghanistan. They instructed us on the differences between bugging out in Idaho versus North Carolina. They did their best to instruct the eighty or so of us who had signed up to be part of this unique experience.

I had several rucks to choose from and opted for my trusty black GR1 and Dylan was using his gray wolf Rucker for the night. As the hours rolled on, I knew we had both overpacked, but there were no regrets for being prepared.

Taking cover next to a U-Haul, I quickly texted the rest of Team Delta. We had become split up since the last hunting season began and it was my job to ensure that everyone knew what was going on and where we needed to be.

Earlier in the night as Dylan and I had taken cover in decorative bushes in the middle of the street. Cars and pedestrians passed us by without any knowledge that we were there.

Nearby the rest of our team were under cars and in the shadows of entry ways as the Cadre hunted for us.

I’ll never forget those damn bushes. Might have something to do with my new “war paint” I was covered in from thorns ripping up my forehead while hiding. That and the man sitting on a bench nearby and what he must have thought as two dark figures rose out of the bushes in front of him and his look of shock as he let out a, “Whoa!” upon seeing us.

Most of Delta has regrouped.

We back into our hobbit hole and replace the pallet we’ve added as a bit of extra concealment. We hear approaching feet and recognize that it is the final member of our team. We fit him in and bunker down for the next wave.

My iPhone goes nuts again and again. The blue teams don’t seem to be able to tell time and are not sure if hunting has begun for them or not. We chuckle silently and wait.

Down the alley, we spot someone turn the corner. They look directly at us, do a double check and then leave.

We are one with the shadows. The alley was an obvious hiding spot, but we’ve taken it a step further. We are never found.

Returning to base, the doors to our HQ are closed. Rarely a good sign because you never know what dragons may pour forth as they roll up.

Our final dragons of the night are named Mike and John and they have an evil grin of delight on their faces as only GORUCK Cadre can flash.

Our improvised gas masks are needed. We line up as ordered. One final test for the night?

Mention of a new formation inside and no more teams moving forward, but one single unit.

Smells like citrus. Burns like being tattooed by the sun. Glad we learned how to make these masks earlier in the night.

We enter headquarters and see the patches. We are one unit now.

GORUCK Constellation #008

Now it is your turn. The hardest part is signing up.

Last week was one full of emotional swings.

It started on Sunday with Dylan graduating from high school. It wasn’t as emotional as I was expecting it to be. We are so proud of him and what comes next in his life.

It’ll hurt to see him go, but knowing that he is starting the next phase of his life excites me. Plus, that next phase starts with a cross-country road trip. I can’t wait for that!

The end of the week had me crashing into a wall of frustration thanks to the less-than-fine folks at Hootsuite. I’m not going to go into all the details since it is still not resolved, but long story short is that after years as a happy paying customer, they’ll never see another dime of my money again.

The perfect way to get rid of that stress arrived Friday night though when Dylan and I took part in GORUCK Constellation #008.

Nothing like spending a night learning about and putting into practice urban survival techniques to clear your head.

In the middle of all this, I continue to love the work I’m doing with the National Council of Teachers of English. They are a great team to work with and I love working on projects that matter to the greater good of our country rather than only be angered by the situation surrounding us.

Plus, I published the latest episode of the Why I Write podcast I produce for them. If you need a pick me up, I suggest you listen to this episode with Brad Montague of Kid President fame.

All in all, I have to say it was a good week. I’m vertical and not sick, so that is a good week in my book.

This week is starting off quieter than the last. Last days of the school year on deck for Emily and then it will officially be summertime around the Chapman household.

I’ve worked remotely for more years than I’ve commuted to an office.

If my Internet connection is slow or unstable, I can’t get the work done that I need to.

The moment Verizon Fios came into my neighborhood I immediately signed up. I had done some marketing work for them early on and knew how good they were. I raved about it to my neighbors and soon everyone was signing up.

Check to see if Fios is available in your neighborhood.

Today, the internet is more important than cable or telephone. Outside of sports and the local news, my DVR is more important than flipping through the channel guide.

The sun is barely up, my family is still asleep and still, FiOS is being used. Our security cameras are streaming to the cloud, a photo backup is running on my computer and my iPad is downloading app updates.

On any given workday this summer it will be put to the test.

My son will be playing on the XBox while streaming a podcast to his phone. My daughter’s room will be filled with her latest Apple Music playlist coming through her Sonos, while she kicks back on her laptop streaming Netflix.

All this will be going on while my wife sits in the sunroom taking an online class while listening to a Sonos there.

This will all be taking place and I’ll have no worries about the Zoom video conference call I need to have while running a photo backup to the cloud.

As you can see, Fios has become invisible but needed by my family.

Recently, for the first time in forever, there was an issue. I hadn’t noticed it yet, but the kids were both having a hard time streaming and my son kept complaining about lag in his League of Legends game.

“Reboot the router,” I explained to them.

The blank stares reminded me that it had been quite some time since we ran into any issue, so they were not sure what I was talking about.

Our Fios router sits in my office. Unplug it, wait 10 seconds and plug it back in. A couple of minutes later everything was back to blazing fast speeds.

Not sure what happened, but with a fix so easy I didn’t dwell on it long.

Today’s families are connected more than ever. As people begin to add Google Home and similar devices to their homes, the importance of reliable connections will become even more important.

I know that because of me, my family may be more connected than some, but we are far from the outliers that we use to be.

How important is your family’s home internet connection?

Disclosure – I am a member of a Verizon #BostonFios influencer team. We are compensated for our thoughts and shares in a variety of ways. All words and opinions are strictly my own. Those are never for sale (unless you’ve got a really big checkbook). If you have questions or concerns, let me know.  

My week began with an early morning viewing of the new show American Gods.

Last year, two trusted friends insisted that I read the book before the show came out. I do what I’m told (sometimes) and in this case am better for it.

Sipping my coffee, I savored every minute of the episode even though I knew it was going to end too soon and I’d have to wait a week to see where it goes.

Last weekend, I plopped down on the couch with a bowl of pistachios and a cold Sam Summer to start watching American Playboy. Four episodes later, my brain was full, and I decided to call it a night.

The on-demand generation is in full swing. We click a button and have what we desire.

Swing into a local big box, and they don’t have what you want? Your phone places the order, and it’ll be on your doorstep in two days.

Three hours to kill before you connecting flight leaves. Pull out your iPad and fall in love with a new show.

Yesterday, Dylan and I picked up his new suit and then headed to a local diner because he loves their milkshakes. Sitting at the counter, we ordered food because it felt like the right thing to do to balance out the flawlessly made shakes we were going to enjoy. We ate, barely chatted and hit the road.

A different vibe than sitting down at a white linen table and enjoy the chef menu course after course.

One is not wrong. One is not better. But, each their own.

Books are the same to me. I keep a hard copy of a book on my nightstand to read when I need a little something before bed. There is always more than one there, and sometimes I finish them.

Last week, I opened my Kindle as I took my seat on a plane to start and then finish a new book on my flight home. Being titled Thunderbird, I wonder if that is why I read it so fast?

We live in a world where I worry upcoming generations won’t understand the satisfaction that comes from savoring what they enjoy. They’ll rush into and through everything that they like.

Sure, it’ll feel good and there is nothing wrong with a quickie, but slowing down to take the time to enjoy something is great as well.

I enjoy having both options. The power to choose between which I want at any given moment in time.

To each their own. There are few absolute rights and wrongs in reality.

Time is flying by and while I refuse to start counting days, I know there are not many left.

Dylan begins college in the fall and the emotions that come with preparing for it have been hard and swinging.

We are a tight family. I hug and kiss my kids goodbye and good night every day. Our times together are generally full of laughs.

Laura asked that we go away together for her birthday. Booking a cabin for all of us to stay in the weekend before the college road trip begins brought the reality of it all home.

The life of a parent is full of phases and milestones and I’m proud that two of the big ones are about to descend upon us.

Dylan will graduate high school and begin college. Those are big ones. They hit you right in the feels and make you pause and remember all the ones that have already passed.

I’m excited that he is about to begin his life. I worry he isn’t ready. Perhaps we didn’t give him everything in his head that he needs. In my heart I know we did all we could.

Every minute of the coming days will be savored. That is how I approach life always, but this summer I know I’m going to be spending extra close attention.

It will be the last summer that we are all together under the same roof.

There will be laughs and plenty of tears.

Bring it on. I’m ready (sort of).

The moment you add an event to your calendar titled “Dylan & Dad’s College Road Trip” you know that emotions are going to be a bit messy.

Not as messy as last week when an entire week worth of Senior events was added including one titled “Dylan Graduates.”

We even had to go and buy him his first suit since he now has a date to his senior prom

Yes, my not so little boy is nearing the end of his mandatory education and headed into the next phase of his life.

He isn’t the only one growing up.

Emily went to the junior prom this week. My little girl is now a young woman. When did that happen?

As a parent, you live for milestones. They break your heart, but also make you smile.

We joke about the changes coming to our family, and for the most part, all I do is smile about them.

But, at the same time that I know this is a natural progression for a family, I know that it is going to hit me harder than I want it to.

I think back to the night I left my parents house to move to Virginia. I know how hard that was for me and now I’m beginning to understand how hard it must have been for them.

Funny how many things come into focus once you become a parent. A number of little things you took for granted that are now of vital importance.

While in my heart I’m mostly sad about the changes ahead, I’m also extremely excited by them.

Every day I’m reminded that Laura and I have done a good job raising these kids to be the adults we hoped they’d grow up to become.

Who knows what lies ahead for each of them, but I’m excited to see.

Words have been hard to come by lately.

No, that isn’t exactly true.

There have been plenty of words, but I’ve been writing them down elsewhere. Leaving this spot alone.

They’ve been anger fueled and tinged with a layer of neon orange slime.

Not the words I want to share. Not the energy I want to throw out into the universe.

Did you miss them? Did you miss me?

Lorde is screaming about tennis courts, ribs and bravado as I hit the keys to share with you.

There has been a lot of anger in my soul and I can feel the wolves battling it out to balance or go over the edge. I know which one has to win, but it is exciting to realize I let them both out to play from time to time.

Flipping the calendar this morning to March, I paused and thought about all that happened last month. The screams, laughs and head shakes were plentiful.

There were talks in Houston and Orlando. Consulting in Washington, DC.

There were brainstorms for things to come.

Decisions made. Garbage thrown out. Pruning of commitments.

No matter what burns around me, I’ve committed to do my part to focus on only what is most important to me.

Bring it on.

Around the globe this weekend, on all seven continents, millions of humans marched. Each who chose to show up did so for their own reasons.

My reasons were simple.

As a father, I marched to show my daughter that I support her. I wanted my son to see that a strong man is one who helps and supports others. As with everything, I lead by example.

As a male, I wanted all the women around me to know that I support them. That if men’s minds are not changed, nothing will change. I want my voice and actions to be part of the change.

As a photographer, I wanted to be there to capture and share the experience with others. To document what my eyes saw and my heart felt. To ensure that this day was preserved. (full album here)

As an American, I’m not happy that we have a bully in the White House. I want him and his staff to know that they’ve got a lot of work to do and need to start doing it. He is our President and should start acting like it.

The Women’s March to me was about awareness more than anything else. The variety of causes and concerns were all over the map.

The pussy hats and ovary signs get all the headlines. But, each person who marched brought their own causes they were passionate about.

One of the speakers encouraged the masses “To organize around the cause that means the most to you and be an ally to others.”

That advice is what the energy of the day felt like to me.

There was a special moment where everyone was encouraged to lock eyes with someone we didn’t know. Without words to tell them that you saw them, supported them and were there for them.

I happened to turn and lock eyes with a young black woman in an American flag hat. Earlier, she had made me smile when she screamed out to the Minister on stage “Girl, you’ve got groupies here!”

It was a quiet moment among the masses. A special moment.

Later, I noticed her lost and looking for her friends. We locked eyes again, I gave her a big smile and pointed beside me. It was a little thing, but we both knew we were there for each other even if we didn’t know each other.

The reports of the crowds being heavily white were true for here in Boston.

Emily and I discussed how weird that felt. I’ve been reading my friend’s thoughts on why they chose not to take part. Their words give me plenty to think about. I look forward to future marches where more feel included and choose to take part.

It also reminded me that I need to show up.

I need to march alongside those marching for Black Lives Matter, Standing Rock and any other marginalized group. Pink and white are only two colors in the big box of crayons and I want to support them all.

This march needs to be the beginning. Chanting, waving signs and marching raises awareness, but it doesn’t do anything.

You have to work, put in the hours, fight for what you want changed to make things happen.

Nothing changed in the last 48 hours except a whole lot of people feel energized. What you do with that energy is what matters and I hope people take that to heart and don’t go back and hide behind their screens.

Change is never easy. There will be yelling, hate and a roller coaster of emotions.

Change takes more than sharing memes, unfollowing people and complaining.

Change means you have to work with people who disagree with you. Have conversations with your mouth instead of your thumbs. Put in the hours of work for what you believe in.

I’m glad I went to the march. I’m glad my daughter was beside me the whole time.

The march wasn’t perfect, but it was another piece of the puzzle for change.

We need to move beyond our differences and figure out how to ensure our country stays as great as it already is and make it even better.

It is a proud moment in any parent’s lives when their child is accepted to college.

The moment our son received his acceptance letter to his first choice will never be forgotten. You get to check off another accomplishment proving that you did ok as parents.

Soon after the hugs and fist bumps were done the realization of the high price tag ahead got us thinking, “how are we going to pay for this?”

Back when our kids were born 529 college savings accounts were new.

While they sounded like a great idea, plenty of us had questions about how they would work when our kids needed them. The web was brand new and so were these programs so there was not much to go on besides trust.

Looking back with what we know now, we wish we had set aside something every week so that we never noticed that it was gone. It would have been slowly growing over the years and right now things would be easier.

I’m no financial expert, but my advice to you right now if you have kids of any age is to set up a college savings account. My friends at MEFA have tons of information on planning and saving for college.

We are now at the point where we are investigating our options to pay for college. Thankfully there are many different loans, scholarship and financial aid options out there.

Filling out our FAFSA application wasn’t the nightmare we had been warned it would be. We file our taxes electronically so it was only a few clicks to import all of our information. Every parent with a child going to college should fill this out as it is the only way to be considered for financial aid from most colleges.

We can’t go back and be smarter about this, but by sharing our story I hope it’ll help someone out there do better with their plans.

Disclosure: I have partnered with Fidelity & MEFA in support of the U.Fund Dreams Tour. As always, all thoughts, opinions and stories are my own.

I’ve been outlining my keynote for next month’s IzeaFest and one of my scribbles reads “stop creating only to satisfy an algorithm.”

The more I pondered it and how I might represent it on a slide, the more I realized I wanted to write about this specific epidemic because it bothers me to my core.

There is a constant game being played for our attention. Dictator Orange Tinyhands is a master of making you look over here, while something you should be paying attention to what is happening in front of your face.

Last week, I watched as a friend shared that she received a pile of angry feedback for a recent video that had nothing to do with the thumbnail or title. She looked right into the camera and said that she had to name it something catchy or else no one would watch it.

I know how the game works. I know all about clickbait, listicles and SEO. I teach marketing and write books about it. I know how the game is played.

BUT, that doesn’t mean that you as a writer, photographer or artist in any form have to create in order to please our robotic overlords.

One look at this weeks “announcement” from Medium about looking for focus and you get the feeling that once again they only want to reward those who create to feed their beast.

I’m always on the outlook for great art. Earlier today, I watched this video in awe. Last week, I read this post and found inspiration.

Both were created because the person felt compelled to do so. Their creation satisfied a yearning to share their love with the world.

Both knew they might get attention. Both tagged, shared and everything else to feed the algorithms, but neither were created TO feed them.

Every day I see people writing posts, creating inspirational quote images and videos with no other reason than to get attention.

I’m a member of several private groups for a variety of topics and so many of them are nothing more than sharing ways to game the system. The type of content you should be creating if you want to gain attention.

Yes, again you should know these tactics, but I’m begging you not to have them be the only reason you create things.

What I mean is, when I take a photograph and post it to Instagram, I do it because I want to. There is a creative urge or feeling that as a photographer I need to satisfy.

Yes, I’ll add hashtags in the hopes that that photo is seen by more people and some of them choose to follow me, but I’m never driven by this when taking and posting a photo. If this is what drove me, all you would see is perfectly framed travel photos instead of a mix of family, work and fun all at the same time.

Create based on what compels and inspires you.

Know the game, understand the rules and bend them to your favor whenever possible.

Let the robots do their jobs, but don’t let them dictate your creations.

A fresh start and we don’t know if the car is going to crash over the cliff, handle all of the curves or keep on driving off into the sunset.

I’m full of worries for the world around me. Anyone with half of an open mind would realize there is a pot of turmoil and upheaval boiling on the stove and soon it is going to start making a mess.

The holidays were full of quiet time away from screens and memories being made with those I love.

There has been plenty of thought put into my 3 Words exercise and yet I haven’t settled on the ones I want to commit to. I’m trying to not make them fight, truth and balance. Those are all going to play a big part, but they can’t be the focus. Or should they? I’m still deciding.

The discussions happening behind the scenes give me hope. Catching up with friends via back channels rather than conversations in the open. Slowly seeing more people questioning decisions being made around them. Realizing that there is only so much one can prepare for when most of our reality is out of their control.

I find myself with a bit of a clean slate this year. Several relationships have gone away and while none of them held me back, they did dictate the paths I had to choose sometimes. The idea of open roads and shifting with the win excites me.

Someone asked me over break what my job description for 2017 might look like and as I pondered the question for a minute “Create and Inspire” is what I settled on.

Two words don’t make a job description, but as I pull together my syllabus for the two classes I’m teaching at Bentley this spring and think about the projects I want to finish this year, they work.

Two speaking gigs I have in February certainly fit into the inspire category. Brand new talks on back-to-back days in two difference states. I can’t wait.

Today new cameras will arrive for me to test out and I have a short film I’m  story boarding out with the plan of releasing it before spring.

2017 is going to be a rough year. So much turmoil and transition. Emotions are going to be on the razors edge at all times. People will click, scream and share without thinking. It is going to get worse before anything gets better.

That being said, I’m focusing on what I can control. What I can do. What I can make a difference with. So much that will happen in the days ahead I have zero control over and getting angry will do very little except make my life worse.

As angry as I might feel about something, does screaming into the Internet abyss help anyone? Does it do anything to curb my anger?

NO.

The rain is falling outside. None is hitting me because I’m inside of my house, typing away on my computer. I’m fortunate to be in this situation and will never take it for granted. So many people I know are hurting from a myriad of things and in the grand scheme of the universe I’m not. Every morning I wake up I try to remind myself of that.

I’m going to spend less time at this desk and more time moving, doing and helping.

The last book I was reading in 2016 was The Book of Joy: Lasting Happiness in a Changing World and it is the first book I’m reading in 2017. It is full of nuggets that I know I’ll be carrying with me over the coming months. Nuggets that I’ll take out, ponder and breath with when I need them. I highly recommend the book.

I hope 2017 brings you what you seek. Be prepared to work for it. Don’t expect anything to be given to you.

Always remember that you don’t have to scream to make a difference.

Go get it.

Typewriters hang on the wall and hold menus for you.

You are not in some hipster gin infused dream, but find yourself at The Press Hotel in Portland, Maine.

I awoke there recently and noticed that the desk chair had the familiar “The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog.” quote on the back of it. In the dark of night I had not noticed it. The first of the morning sun shined on it and the writer in me smiled.

Traveling the globe, a lot of my time is spent in hotels. Most don’t leave an impression beyond an overly friendly staff member checking me in and a luke warm buffet as I rush to speak or catch my next airplane.

In town to speak at the final Social Media Breakfast Maine of 2016, the organizer offered to find me a hotel room so I didn’t have to drive up first thing in the morning.

She gave me a wink as she coyly told me, “I think you are going to love where you are staying.”

Built in the building that housed the local newspaper for years, from the outside it looks like another cement box that can be found in any New England city. But, as soon as you valet check your car and enter, the words and hospitality hit you.

Throughout the hotel, the theme is writing and journalism. Everything from the decor to the do not disturb hangers include quotes about writing.

This could be seen as kitschy, but it isn’t. You can tell when they put this hotel together, they wanted it to be high class without the snobbery. Inspiring without being giggle worthy.

When you travel as much as I do, you develop your own set of travel rules. One of my most important ones is to “never eat your first meal in the hotel.” (inspired of course by the great Anthony Bourdain)

There would be two meals for me in Portland and I knew lunch after I spoke would be at Silly’s because it was suggested by two trusted friends who know what I like.

After reading about the in house, local first restaurant Union I decided to break my rule and give it a try.

As I waited for the hostess to appear, I noticed the Chef and asked him which of his dishes I needed to order.

He laughed and reminded me that I was asking him to pick from all of his children. But, he encouraged me to try the pasta dish because the rabbit in it was fresh and was the perfect comfort food for a cold night in Maine.

Pasta is rarely my first choice, but I’m not going to argue with Chef Josh Berry and the dish lived up to his hype.

The star of my meal was the homemade venison sausage that had a kick I wasn’t ready for. A special shoutout to the waitstaff who were attentive, but not hovering. True New Englanders throughout and I appreciated them all.

If you enjoy a great cocktail like I do, order a Katahdin (or two). The mix of walnut bourbon and scotch made for a delicious few moments.

Housing an art gallery in the basement, ample meeting spaces and a lobby that invites you to sit for a bit, I loved everything about The Press Hotel.

I hope they don’t mind, but I had to steal one of their coffee mugs because I don’t remember the last time I woke up in a hotel that had actual hotel mugs in it. Most are lucky to give you a paper cup to wake up with.

While I didn’t have the luxury of time to fully enjoy the hotel, the few hours I was there were well spent.

I hope to return. Maybe I should see if they have a special “book writing rate” so I could hole up there and work on my next book?

Next time you are in Portland and want to stay someplace within walking distance of the ocean, the shops and all the fun of Portland, give The Press Hotel a look.

Disclosure: The Press Hotel was a sponsor of the event I was speaking at and paid for my accommodations. They didn’t ask for a review, but I had such a great time there I decided to do one. Thoughts and photos are my own.

Scrolling through all of the photos I take and share brings back memories of the little things I forgot. The trips that blend together. The faces, places and meals shared.

These roundups are not of my “best” photos, but the ones that stand out to me for one reason or another. I share them equally for you to enjoy and for me to remember.

Of course this is best viewed on any screen bigger than your phone, but I’ll leave that up to you.

Happy Holidays and see you next year.

2016 started off with Clarence and I taking the train to New York City. We wanted to go take photos and discovered an empty and quiet New York that we had never seen before.

Louisville wanted me to speak at an event and the sponsors insured I had a good time while in town.

They set up a VIP tour of the Louisville Slugger Museum and bourbon country. I definitely need to return to see more of Kentucky because my camera would have a very good time with the beauty of the rolling hills.

Life is about little moments too.

Nadia laying in my office keeping an eye on things and coffee with Ann at her house.

St. Louis was a city I had never visited before, but keynoting a travel conference brought me there. Having local friends like Matt to show you around means you see places that you’d never randomly run into.

Victoria joined us from China for two weeks. She arrived scared of dogs and was sure that Nadia would bite her.

Before she left I took this photo. As you can see they became fast friends. It was adorable to hear her sing to Nadia. No idea what she was singing, but it was beautiful to see her get comfortable with a dog.

Tolkien use to get together with a band of other creatives and they were known as the Inklings. This little group is what I call “Inklings 2.0” and we don’t get together nearly as often as I’d like.

A walk in the woods. Rucks on back. Cameras in hand. Never a bad way to spend a few hours.

I decided that I was going to only bring my “new” film camera to SXSW and before heaving I had this custom leather strap made for it.

No matter how good and comfortable with photography you get, you’ll always make rookie mistakes.

This photo reminded me of that as I was shooting photos for a web feature and completely missed myself in the mirror while taking the photo. Whoops!

We set up the SocialGood.club storefront in Austin. It felt amazing and people enjoyed it. Sadly it is no more and I don’t know where or what is going on with it. One of those big question marks from the year that I have deep rooted, mixed emotions over.

Meeting a robot with the brains of IBM Watson was interesting, fun and scary all at the same time. Skynet is coming for sure.

Out of all the film photos I took in Austin, this is one of my favorites. It captures the randomness that is SXSW. Plus, the guys shirt to me is a sad statement about what so much has become.

Now that I have a drone, my photography goes beyond what I ever thought I could take. I now look for and think about whole new angles.

I’ve always wanted to capture the American Flag on this old stone church, but never had a way to do it until I flew my drone up over the reservoir and took this.

Dylan and I traveled to Philadelphia to visit a college and he had never had a real cheesesteak before. Needless to say, it changed his world.

During my drive to the University of Rochester to speak I paused to capture this at a rest area along the way. I stood there longer than I should have waiting to get the shot.

Fun to realize that Clarence appears so much in my 2016 memories. He is the first non-family member I’ve ever shared Echo Valley with and while it was only a single over night, it was the perfect escape from everything for both of us.

Without a doubt, this next photo is my favorite one I made this year. Everything about it clicks for me and it was a perfect moment out in nature where I’m most happy.

I consulted with Minute Man National Park and somehow had never been there before. Nadia and I went to scope it out before the work began.

Montreal had me attending a conference and thankfully a lot of the time there was spent with my buddy Mitch. Including jumping into a ball pit.

Social networks are fun, but they’ll never be as much fun as a ball pit in the middle of a conference.

A friend asked if I could bring my drone over and shoot some footage for a television show he was working on. How do you say no to that?

I learned a valuable lesson on this shoot though and that is that my drone makes enough wind that if you are flying inside of a half built tree house surrounded by other trees it might crash itself. Thankfully the drone survived.

While trips are fun and I love to travel, there are plenty of great memories close to home as well.

From a front porch concert to a father’s day brunch on top of a mountain. I love my neighborhood and the friends who live here.

How can I not mention the off road, in the desert trip we took to Yuma, Arizona with my in-laws to find a geocache.

We ended up WAY off road and while it wasn’t fun at the time it sure did make for great photos, laughs and memories.

Easily the saddest time of this past year was when our community lost a young woman to a horrible car accident. The pain the entire town felt was tough to go through.

Filed under “things I never thought I’d do” was being invited to London to attend a Star Wars Celebration.

The level of behind the scenes and exclusive access we were given was amazing and I’m thankful that Rogue One lived up to all of the hype.

This is another one of my favorite photos from the year. Seeing it makes me smile because I remember how excited the little girl was and for me this captures the variety and love of Star Wars fans.

While in London I was lucky to see a few friends and got to spend time laughing and walking around the city to see parts I had never seen before.

Taking Dylan’s senior photos was beyond stressful for me. Thankfully they came out great and we even had a few laughs while taking them. This outtake warms my heart because it captures Dylan at his more real.

I’m a blessed man. To have Laura as my wife and Dylan and Emily as my children. I honestly can’t ask for more.

Photography for me is about capturing moments and this was one of those perfect ones that you have to bring home with you.

We had gone to Lowell for the day and she was catching Pokemon or checking her messages and everything lined up. The color of her hair against the brick and her leather jacket all came together and I’m so glad she allowed me to take it.

Yes, that is Rob Gronkowski and his brothers.

I was hired to shoot behind the scene photos for a video shoot they were doing. It was fun to have a secret shoot that I couldn’t talk about for months.

We welcomed Jaz into our family. This was the moment I met her and instantly fell in love.

Who knew we’d visit Martha’s Vineyard for the first time in our lives and it would be to adopt a puppy.

Niccolo joined us from Italy for a few weeks and we had fun taking him to King Richard’s Faire before he left. Dylan is excited to see him again early next year when he travels to Florence.

GORUCK asked me to take photos for them for their first Gold Star Family Challenge. It was an honor to do so and shooting in sand, water and darkness made for a day full of good living.

Iceland, what can I say? It was everything I’ve dreamed about.

Spending our 20th anniversary there is something I’ll never forget. I’m eager to return though since we didn’t see any waterfalls or northern lights. So much more to explore.

Life is about little moments too. Not everything is an epic adventure.

My annual birthday selfie.

What will 2017 hold?

Houston, Orlando and a father-son roadtrip to Arizona are all on my calendar.

Whatever happens I’m ready for it.

Our kids have been exposed this their whole lives through various fundraisers and activities. They’ve walked 5k, climbed up stairs and seen me go on humanitarian trips.

When Heifer International reached out to me about partnering for a post about giving it was easy to say yes. Plus, I had never had anyone ask me to take a “goat selfie” before

A photo posted by C.C. Chapman (@cc_chapman) on Nov 29, 2016 at 5:30am PST

Heifer International’s mission is to work with communities to end world hunger and poverty and to care for the Earth. They do this through empowering families by providing them livestock, agricultural training, tools and education. This turns poverty stricken families into  to small-scale farmers.

My daughter has visited their farm in Western Massachusetts several times (I have yet to be able to) where she learned about all of their programs. She got to experience first hand what it is like to farm, live and thrive in the areas of the world where they work and help.

You should visit Heifer.org to learn more.

With my children both being in High School, I thought I’d use this post to inspire something new.

I told them I wanted each of them to research and present to me a charity that they’d like to donate to this year and I’d give them each $50 to donate. It had to be an organization that we haven’t given to in the past and I wanted them to be able to answer the question of why they chose them.

On my birthday in a few weeks I’m going to ask them to tell my wife and I who they chose and then I’ll make the donation. I wonder who’ll they choose.

I personally like Heifer’s model of Passing on the Gift. This means families share the training they receive, and pass on the first female offspring of their livestock to another family.

This extends the impact of the original gift, allowing a once impoverished family to become donors and full participants in improving their communities.

Plus, how much fun is it that you can buy a goat, water buffalo or other livestock and help a family in need?

As you can see, I’ve learned to like goats since my daughter loves them.

By 2020, Heifer aims to help 4 million families achieve living incomes. This income will allow them to send their children to school, feed themselves adequately across every month of the year; and have proper housing, water, hygiene and other essential resources.

There are plenty ways to give to those in needs, but I love when you can directly know where your money is going and how it is helping. I encourage you to learn more about Heifer International and the work they do to improve the world around us.

I hope this post helps put you into the giving spirit a bit and that you and your family consider giving in some way during the Holidays.

Disclosure – This post was produced with support from Heifer International. All opinions are, of course, my own.

The only reason we are able to even begin to encapsulate and share with others is because the human brain has experienced similar things before and can fill in the blanks for us to understand.

This morning I felt the most pure form of joy that I’ve felt in a long time.

Jaz has never seen snow before and we woke up to a little over an inch this morning. It still falls as I type this.

She watched as Dylan cleaned off his car and when he threw a snowball at the window she was confused.

We went out and played. Just her and I so that I could see what she thought of it all.

Instantly I realized she isn’t as white as I thought. Seeing her against the pure white snow made her yellow spots stand out. Her natural color shining.

I flung snow in her face and she tried to eat it all.

The hound in her sniffed every inch of the yard in excitement.

Playing fetch with a snowball was something I loved doing with Roxie and Jaz played along. Hopping on top of the spot the natural ball disappeared and looking at me with a nose covered in snow seeking answers.

I laughed and giggled. My hands stung from the snow and my feet began to numb as my slippers soaked through.

Two years ago this week I lost one of my best friends and today a new one pushed down my sorrow with a wet kiss of my face.

Today, we were given a behind the scenes tour to see what is being assembled for all of New England to enjoy.

I’ve had the pleasure of walking through holiday markets in England and The Netherlands and have fond memories of them. The smell of sweets, the giggles of children and holiday cheer in every direction.

They are fun and I’ve always wished we’d see more of them here in the States.

With over forty different vendors, an inflatable igloo, bike powered Christmas tree and enough chocolate, beer and wine for all to enjoy this looks to be a good time.

It was underwhelming today to walk around and have to dodge forklifts and construction at every turn, but at the same time it was exciting to think about what it is going to all turn into.

An ice skating loop (real ice, none of that synthetic fake stuff here) is surrounded by vendor shacks selling everything from socially conscious jewelry, to dog biscuits.

The Urban Lodge will allow you to warm up while enjoying a cold one. If wine is more of your choice, cruise on into Vinopolis to sample and learn at the same time.

The Chocolate Story sounds like my kind of place where you can try a sampling of different chocolates while enjoying a cup of hot chocolate.

Of course there is also going to be a Santa’s House for the kids and photos with the jolly old man.

The marketplace is open to the public for free, but many of the attractions mentioned above require tickets to be bought ahead of time or on site.

As a thank you to you, use discount code BLOGFRIEND for 15% off your ticket purchase for any of the attractions.

The vendors I spoke to were very excited for the crowds to arrive and that something like this has finally come to Boston.

I hope that the kinks get worked out and that this grows into an annual tradition.

Follow along on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter for the latest updates. It runs through the end of the year.

When Thanksgiving leftovers begin to be annoying is when I become reflective.

Looking back at the year that is beginning to end. Pondering over missed opportunities. Smiling at the memories that warm my heart. Wondering what might have been and marveling over what was.

The truth is, I learned some hard lessons over the course of the last eleven months.

The lesson learned is that while I don’t have a lone wolf mentality, I need to be the pack leader more often.

See, this year I put my faith and energy into other’s ideas to satisfy internal cravings. None of them went the way hoped for.

Far from the first time this has happened in my life, but why do I keep going back to the same well rather than digging my own?

I’ve been trying to fit my work, direction and art into definitions made by others while telling everyone to not do that.

Time to take my own advice.

If you ever hear me use the word ‘hustle’ you have permission to slap me side the head, but I am going to be selling more. I’ve always avoided it, but I have to.

My skills as a creative and consultant are ones that can help others and yet my humble New England DNA has prevented me from raising my hand and shouting “pick me” over all the noise.

Mapping out 2017 on paper rather than a whiteboard has been a helpful change for me.

Determining what deadwood to get rid of in my life and not second guessing those decisions is making room for the things I should be focusing on.

Alicia Keys is belting out of my speakers and reminding me that I need to wrap this up and hit publish as there is work to do today.

Little tasks building towards bigger goals.

Success is never handed over lightly. If you rely on others to drive you are never going to get there.

He spoke of the legacy we leave and how we each leave one behind that we’ll never know.

The end of 2016 has been a life changing one for me that I know will have effects on my legacy that I can’t begin to contemplate yet.

I woke up to a nightmare election result, a friend died too young and I attended the National Council of Teachers of English annual conference in Atlanta.

Those three things have nothing to do with one another, but in my life they have combined over the course of a week to change so much inside of me.

While I was in Atlanta, I spent a morning at the Center For Civil and Human Rights.

I needed to visit. I wanted to be reminded of what our country had been through and to prepare for what may be coming.

I talked about how Bob dying caused a lightning bolt of peace inside of me. That is the only way I’ve been able to describe it. Yesterday, it was put to the test and I passed with flying colors.

Seeing the variety of books and inspiration they brought to teachers from around the country reminded me of the power of words.

Experiencing art from around the globe reminded me that it can make a difference to change minds and improve situations.

There were not many notes taken while in Atlanta, but there was one that has stuck with me and is going to evolve into mantra and a push forward when I need it.

It is something poet Donté Clark said in the new documentary Romeo is Bleeding when talking about his community. My note simply says “Thriving/Surviving.”

Words and images are powerful.

The art we choose to create may become more important than ever. We should never question that itch in our brain that screams to be put out into the world.

There is much I want to do. I need to stop focusing on what comes after the creation and begin the doing.

Thriving over only surviving. That sounds like a solid way to build a legacy I’ll be proud to leave behind.

Friday morning I poured a cup of coffee, grabbed my phone, turned on the local news and plopped down on the couch the same as any morning.

Sip the coffee. Turn on the phone.

It is a process that happens most mornings.

My phone was full of messages and wiping away the night I quickly realized that things were not well.

A simple comment by someone on a friend’s Facebook wall had started a wave of concern. Was our friend dead? Was it a joke? Was it in reference to his last Facebook post about being sick of all the hate he was seeing everywhere?

Messages were sent. Concern grew.

Sadly, our worst fears were quickly confirmed.

Thursday night, my Friend Bob Goyetche wasn’t feeling good and then he was gone. One moment this loving father and devoted husband was going about his day and the next he was no longer with us.

We’ve set up a memorial fund to help pay for his son’s educational costs. Simon is only thirteen and I can’t begin to imagine how he is doing right now. I’ve chatted with his wife and she is holding up better than I would be. I guess when faced with something like this, you find the strength.

One of the many things I loved about Bob was that he had no tolerance for bullshit. While he loved podcasting and the good that came via social media, he hated the douchebags that muddied the waters of something he loved. He always told me that he loved it when I went on a rant because he knew I tried to put forth only positivity at all times.

We were both members of the 2004 Club.

When podcasting first started, we were one of the few out there doing shows and of course we connected. Many long commutes were made bearable listening to episodes of The Bob & AJ Show.

I first got to hug the man at Podcamp Boston. I’ll never forget the late night in someone’s hotel room laughing, singing and being complete goofballs.

Sadly, I never made it to his conference Podcasters Across Borders.

EVERY year something would come up to prevent me from going. Emily’s first play, the death of my grandmother or something else.

There are plans to do another one next year in his memory and once the date is announced I’ll start worrying about what may come up to prevent me from going because you can be damn sure it is going to be the highest priority thing on my calendar. Hopefully it doesn’t conflict with Dylan’s graduation.

I wish the story ended here with fond memories of Bob and being in a haze of sadness all weekend.

Bob liked me best when I ranted, so I know he won’t mind me including one here. In fact I think he’d get a good laugh at it.

Shortly after the confirmation came of his passing I shared the above photo of the two of us on Instagram.

Bob I’ll never forget all the laughs we shared. You loved my rants and still to this day whenever I get that way a little voice in the back of my head would giggle “Bob is going to appreciate this.” The world lost a great man, a devoted husband and a loving father. Rest In Peace my Friend. I’m going to miss you.

A photo posted by C.C. Chapman (@cc_chapman) on Nov 11, 2016 at 4:25am PST

Now, if you are not aware there are tools to “help” lazy people comment on Instagram. You give the tools hashtags, people or topics you want to follow, provide it with a handful of generic comments and the tool will go forth and comment on photos following the parameters you set up.

The thought is someone will see the comment, click through to your account and follow you. After all, it is all about the numbers right?

This has been going on for a while and I have always shook my head and never cared much. Every day I have a couple of accounts that do this. Every week a few new ones swing by. It is obvious once you know what to look for.

If someone wants to waste their money on commenting on my photos I don’t care.

But, when your robot posts a “Nice!” on my remembrance photo, I am going to lose my shit.

I love marketing, but I hate marketers who use lazy tactics or sleazy practices to try and get ahead.

As I screamed at my screen, I said something along the lines of “I’m going to burn this motherfucker to the ground!”

A tweet and a reply to them on MY Instagram page and then a wave hit me. A true reality bitchslap that I hadn’t had in a long time.

These people are not worth the time or energy!

Anyone who knows me, knows that I have no tolerance for stupidity. Just ask Ragu or any of the other brands who in the past decided to be stupid and lazy in my direction.

That ended this weekend. Ended for good. Forever.

One moment I was mourning my dear friend and the next I was screaming about someone that I’ve never met and honestly don’t care one bit about.

One man was a Friend and a good person. The other was a lazy marketer who obviously cared more about himself than anyone else.

Instead of moving forward as I planned, I stopped. I blocked his accounts and a calm fell over me.

I can’t put into words how the wave of emotions shifted inside of me. It honestly felt like a wave of energy and suddenly I found myself feeling completely differently.

Sure, he later deleted his comment and reported my own comment to Instagram. He never apologized and probably never will. But, I don’t care. I don’t care one bit about this lazy, sleazy soul.

Life is too short to care about those who do things like this. Sure, I’ll use it and future mess ups as case studies in my class (I can’t wait to teach around this one *grin*) but I’m no longer going to go on crusades to try and teach the stupid how to do things better. Why should I?

My energy is going to be spent on spending more time with those I care about. I didn’t spend enough time with Bob and now I never can.

The rest of the weekend proved to me that this wasn’t just a momentary lapse, but a complete mindset shift for me.

Thankfully lunch with an out of town friend, time in the yard chopping wood and getting ready for winter and being surrounded by my family helped me get through all of this.

Bob, I miss you and I’m sorry we didn’t get to see each other more.

The world lost one of the GOOD guys.

I made a decision months ago to take the day after the election off. No matter who won, I knew that emotions would be raw and I didn’t want to be part of any of it.

I chose yesterday morning to post two simple words on my social profiles and then turned away from all live media for the day. Instead I watched movies, spent quiet time in contemplation and played outdoors with my dogs.

It was the best decision I made and this morning as I scrolled through my feeds I hated what I saw.

The simple two word phrase I posted on my Twitter, Snapchat and Facebook was “Hate Won.”

For me, it made sense. It didn’t have to make sense to anyone else since these were my spaces.

There was an ongoing Clinton campaign slogan of “Love Trumps Hate” and with the results what they were obviously hate had won out. It was as simple as that.

Yesterday as I reflected, thought and planned I realized how much hate I have in my own heart. How much hate plays a role in our country and in the ballot boxes.

Many people’s votes were driven by their hate of Hilary Clinton. Didn’t matter who they voted for as long as it wasn’t for her.

I hate that my vote was one against a candidate. I would have preferred to cast my vote for someone I was genuinely excited about being in the White House.

I hate Donald Trump because of his elitist, racist and demeaning views. The endless list of things he has said and done gives the racists, bigots and hate filled people in our country the green light to continue to do and say what they want and that scares me.

I hate our two party system. It is broken and needs to be fixed.

The Democrats decided that Hilary Clinton was the only choice they wanted in this election and did everything in their power to make it that way.

The Republicans have been imploding for the last eight years and couldn’t put up a viable candidate that held their true beliefs.

Both parties have become rotten from years of the same people in power and the constant influx of money into their wallets. We need better and more options in our country. We need youth, diversity and new thinking at all levels of government.

I hate how blindly some people vote along party lines. I’ve never understood blind allegiance to anything.

I hate that the majority of the media played into the hands of both parties rather than acting like the unbiased journalists they are suppose to be. Most care about ratings over anything else.

I hate that billions of dollars are spent on campaigning. That money could have been used to fix an infinite list of things. There is no reason for campaigns to go on for as long as they do and all it does is divide us further.

I hate that every small business owner and middle class family I know is struggling to deal with the rising costs of the Affordable Care Act. I have yet to talk to any friend who is not seeing the costs go up or being forced to change their doctors.

I hate how many people are calling anyone who voted for Trump racists and bigots. That is not the truth at all.

Yes, a sadly large number of people who voted for him are, but not all of them. Many of them somehow looked past what the man says and believes and voted for a change to a broken system. I could never do that and I don’t understand it, but many did.

There are bad apples in every cart, but you can’t say they are all bad. I do hope that those that are angered by this exact point will stop and realize that some of them have said the exact same generalizations of other groups of people.

Good, honest, hard working people voted for all candidates. Please don’t forget that.

I hate how broken our government is. How stagnant is has become. How little it does for our country lately. We do need change at all levels and I hope that happens.

When I post something online, I choose my words carefully. I don’t seek out or look for reactions unless those words end with a question mark.

Good people took those two simple words in so many ways and the way they chose to react was sad.

Less than a handful of friends reached out yesterday directly. To those who did, thank you.

Our great country is broken and divided. There is an endless, ugly soup of hate boiling over on the stove and turning down the heat even a little would help.

Last night after having drinks and heart felt catch up with friends, I walked across the Boston Common where a protest was ending. They were happening all over the country and will continue to happen. No matter who won, I expected them.

I hate that our ever connected world has turned so many into scroll and click zombies compelled to always voice their thoughts rather than ever being silent.

I said “hate won” because that is what I believe. You don’t have to agree. You don’t have to like it. I’m not looking for anyone’s reaction. I need to get words out of my head and these are my outlets.

America is a great country, but the only way it will continue to be so is if we get away from our screens and work together. This isn’t the high road, it is the only path that ever leads changes.

You don’t have to hug those you hate, but why can’t you talk to them outside of a comment stream?

I hate the results of the election, but I respect the Office of the President and plan on doing my part to be an active and engaged citizen to fix what is broken.

I hope you will do the same.

So when Relief Bed offered to send me one of their sleeping pads for review in exchange for a review, I instantly said yes.

The concept of a Relief Bed is simple. It is a bright orange sleeping pad made by Therm-a-Rest who make some of the best camping and backpacking gear out there and I’ve plenty of their products over the years as a happy customer.

But, here is where the company is about so much more than selling products.

Every time you buy a product from Relief Bed, they are able to donate sleeping products to those in needs. They provide innovative, strategically built beds for impoverished people in emerging countries, disaster victims, aid workers, and the homeless in North America.

That is how a company is about more than only their bottom line!

Watch this video from Founder, Scott Smalling and you’ll see what he and his company are all about.

So, how is their product?

While not compact enough for my backpacking needs, it is perfect for those times when you are car camping or need an extra sleeping pad in your house for a sleepover.

I really liked the built in pillow which even as I tossed and turned on it kept me comfortable. I had to deflate it a bit so that it had a little give which is how I like to sleep.

The bright orange color was an added bonus. This means the sleeping pad could double as a signaling tool if you were ever lost or stranded.

I plan on putting mine in the trunk of my car as part of my winter ready kit I keep there.

If you have someone on your Christmas list who likes camping and helping the world at the same time, consider a Relief Bed as a perfect gift. Their shop is always open.

Disclosure of Material Connection: I received a Relief Bed for free in consideration for a gear review. The opinions are my own. 

Going to games is a lot of fun and when the air gets colder and the playoffs begin, I’ll tune in if it gets interesting.

Last night watching the Cubs win was something special. Craziest game of playoff baseball I’ve ever seen.

What a great few hours to escape from everything else going on in the world!

This morning as I empty the coffee pot and ponder the hours ahead, Episode 2 of the Why I Write Podcast hit the feeds. I love this one because I got to catch up with my friend Jonathan Fields about his writing and latest book How to Live a Good Life.

Any time that work mixes with friends it is a good day.

Tonight I’ve got a Wediko Board Meeting. We’ve got a team running in the NYC Marathon this weekend if you have a few dollars to help kids battle mental illness, your donation would be appreciated.

On top of this, I have characters and words screaming in my head and a deep seeded urge to be outside.

Yesterday, my plan for some quality drone therapy was denied as the area was under a no fly restriction from the Air National Guard for some reason.

I need to get my Chroma back in the air after a freak fly away the last time I took her out. Need to make sure everything is ok.

As usual, a bunch of little things adding up to the world I live in.

Rambling on is me.

The bugs are gone, the tourists home.

The woods are emptier, more inviting and eager for those like me who wander.

The crack of gunfire echoes around me and I know that I have to choose wisely where I travel, but there are more than enough options.

Granted, the thought of fresh venison over an open campfire, under the cover of stars sounds damn near perfect to me right now.

The camera is charged. The boots are caked in dry mud.

The flask is full of whiskey and the dogs are ready for adventure.

I may need to head out and see where it takes me.

Last night, The Walking Dead answered the question of who would be brutally murdered with a barbed wire wrapped baseball bat in the hands of a twisted man.

I watch the show and was ready to be emotionally torn to shreds.

It was as painful to watch as I expected.

Violence is a weird thing. People react to it in so many ways.

This morning I’ve seen multiple posts from people complaining about the level of violence. Yet, this is the seventh season of the show and it is nothing but blood and violence all the time.

Yes, it was human on human last night which is why I think it hurt so much.

Yes, they didn’t pull the camera away and showed the brutality in gut wrenching realism.

Violence is never pretty and it is far too common.

But, you can’t cheer and tell everyone to watch and then complain that lines are being crossed.

Violence doesn’t know lines. It just knows how to destroy.

Today is the National Day on Writing.

This day was founded by the National Council of Teachers of English on the premise that writing is critical to literacy but needs greater attention and celebration.

To me writing is a core part of who I am.

The voices, ideas and worlds in my head have to be let out or else they just keep banging on my skull.

As I began to share more of my writing with the masses, I realized the power of words to inspire others.

The fact that I still get notes from readers who discover Amazing Things Will Happen at their local library or bookstore and thank me for writing it means that my words are making an impact.

Every time a student or executive thanks me for co-writing Content Rules I’m filled with pride.

So, to the question of #WhyIWrite my answer is:

If you have a moment, please share why you write on your social network(s) of choice and use the hashtag #WhyIWrite.

Besides being an inspiration day for the masses, today is extra special for me.

Today, I can let you know that I’ve been hired to be the host of the new Why I Write Podcast.

We are going to be interviewing a variety of people and talking to them about the how and why they write. My hope is that we get to talk to writers of music, video games, screenplays, poetry, theater and of course books.

You can listen to our first episode with author Brad Meltzer now and new episodes will be coming out every two weeks.

Subscribe with iTunes or with our RSS feed in your player of choice.

This is a dream project for me and already it has sparked me to write more. I hope it has the same effect on people around the world.

I’m looking forward to where this partnership with NCTE goes. I have a feeling there are many exciting times ahead.

“The cost of what we do is we have to show up.”

We were discussing his daily blog writing and my wonderment at how he does it.

It stuck with me like a thorn. Nagging at me to face the truth that I haven’t been showing up.

Sure, I published a piece called When Your Dream Job Doesn’t Want You on LinkedIn and I’ve been noodling along on other things, but if I’m going to be honest with myself and with you, I’m not shipping as much as I should be.

I have been working on a new client project that will be launching soon and that has taken up a lot of time, but is also a constant source of inspiration.

I’m not digging ditches, chainsawing down trees or working on a factory floor.

I’m a creative and cost of that is that I need to show up, create and show it to the world.

I promise I’m going to start doing it better.

Thank you Seth.

Last week, I had the pleasure of attending a MassMutual Foundation #FutureSmart launch event at the Mildred Avenue Middle School in Mattapan, MA

As a father of two, I wish that my children had been taught about personal finances, money and planning for their futures in school. Outside of the stale stock market games that we’ve all played, I don’t think they were taught a single thing about money and how to deal with it.

MassMutual Foundation is committed to making sure the next generation is not only informed, but educated on all aspects of finance.

The foundation donated $20 million in an effort to bring the FutureSmart educational program to 2 million students by 2020.

Before this event, I took part in two #FutureSmart Twitter Chats. These are put on to spark conversation about financial education.

They are a great way to hear from a variety of parents, educators and financial experts on what is going on across the country when it comes to students learning about managing their finances.

So that you can get a feel for what is discussed here are a few of my Tweets:

A1 – My kids didn’t learn at that age in school, but we tried to get them thinking about finances with their allowances. #FutureSmart https://t.co/4DpP23IXrd

— C.C. Chapman (@cc_chapman) September 28, 2016

A4 – If you give an allowance they need to earn it, not just expect it. #FutureSmart https://t.co/Cm0TTP1OZa

— C.C. Chapman (@cc_chapman) September 22, 2016

First one with a paycheck was bagging groceries at Purity Supermarkets. #FutureSmart https://t.co/VOXRIF4XOf

— C.C. Chapman (@cc_chapman) September 21, 2016

A3 – Only buy what you have the money for. Save for things you want. Work more if you need more money. #FutureSmart https://t.co/1JrorjB4HC

— C.C. Chapman (@cc_chapman) September 22, 2016

The chat showed me that a lot of parents are interested in how to try to teach our kids to be responsible with their money. As I feared, very few schools are teaching students these skills in school yet, so it is up to parents to do it.

I hope that MassMutual continues to hold these chats because I found them helpful and the more participants, the more knowledge sharing that can happen. The more we know, the more we can help our kids learn.

Before the chats, hadn’t actually seen the program, which was developed in partnership with EverFi, until I arrived at the school.

Students are lead through different financial simulations that have been turned into fun learning games. They are taught about planning and budgeting. Encouraged to complete blueprints around what is important to them and how to choose career paths that will help them achieve their goals.

Actor and author Hill Harper was on site for the launch and gave a passionate talk to the kids. I was not familiar with his work, but it was instantly obvious how dedicated he is to this program and helping kids not only learn about money, but also embrace the importance of understanding what it means in their lives.

Two things he said to the students jumped out at me:

“Money is just a tool to help us achieve our dreams.”

“The more education you get, the more options you have.”

The FutureSmart program is free to schools that would like to implement it. You can find out more at http://futuresmart.massmutual.com/

I’m honored to be partnering with the MassMutual Foundation to share information on their programs helping students and families deal with the financial stress that is all around us. I’m learning a lot and hope that by sharing, you get something out of it as well.

Disclosure: This post was sponsored by Massachusetts Mutual Life Insurance Company (MassMutual). All opinions are my own. 

Of course, this morning everyone is shouting about their candidate of choice. Hard to scroll through any site without someone shouting about how much they hate one person and love the other.

I tried balancing it out by sharing a photo of Jaz because puppies make everything better.

Today I think everyone needs some cute puppy in their lives to chill out, calm down and move forward.

A photo posted by C.C. Chapman (@cc_chapman) on Sep 27, 2016 at 4:43am PDT

Then, as I was working on a new podcast project, I thought I’d fire up my microphone to share some more thoughts on how shouting only does so much. You’ve got to roll up your sleeves and do some work if you want to make real change happen.

Listen to Episode 148 of Managing the Gray and let me know what you think.

Also, I encourage you to read my latest article on LinkedIn titled Advice For Communicating In Today’s Binary Emotional Online World.

Laura asking me this while out running errands is how the story of Jaz began.

I grew up with a black lab named Popeye. You know the story of Roxie.

Dogs will always be a part of my life and Labrador Retrievers will always be my favorite breed of dogs.

Nadia is a lab mix, but looks nothing like a lab. Her size has always thrown me and while I love her, she isn’t a lab.

Part of the fun of rescuing dogs is that you never quite know what you are going to get.

I fired up our trusty Petfinder.com and began looking for labs. While I was leaning towards a young dog, Laura insisted on a puppy so that we could insure it was trained properly and to minimize compatibility problems with Nadia.

A trio of labs caught out attention right away and I submitted the lengthy application. Days went by and we didn’t hear anything back.

Then, I saw her. This is the adoption photo that made the special connection with me. Her name was Pia.

Look at that nose and those eyes! Laura loved her too and we filled out an application immediately.

The next day I was on the phone with the shelter. A few days later they had called our references. Then the call came that we were waiting for. She was ours if we wanted her.

This is where the adventure portion of Jaz’ story begins because she was at the Second Chance Animal Rescue of Martha’s Vineyard.

We hadn’t told the kids about looking for a new dog because we thought it would be a great surprise. Life being as it is, this wasn’t going to be an easy surprise to pull off.

Logistics made it so that we had to wait a week until we could pick her up. All week I was like a kid on Christmas Eve, but I couldn’t show it. Laura got a good laugh at me letting her know how many days were left until we had a puppy.

Rescue weekend was a bit crazy. Dylan had a cross country meet that he was leaving for at seven, so we made up a tale of Laura finding a new geocache hotel that she wanted to check out. This allowed us to leave at 6:30 without raising any suspicions.

Emily was on a girl scout camping trip, so we hit the road to catch the 9:30 ferry to the island.

We made great time and arrived just as the 8:30 ferry was boarding so we jumped on board and headed on over.

Never in a million years did I think the first time we’d visit Martha’s Vineyard would be to adopt a puppy, but we certainly will never forget it.

Kym from the shelter would pick us up, so with our free time we grabbed coffee and breakfast from the Black Dog Tavern and found a quiet bench to enjoy them on.

Soon we were on our way to the shelter.

We arrived and she went inside to get the two pups. She had a sister named Honeybun who had her potential mom coming to visit that day as well.

The minute I saw her, I bent down and she jumped up and gave me a big kiss. I was hooked.

We were told that her name was an acronym for “Pain In the Ass” since she was so social and when they first got the pups, she immediately escaped from the pen. Plus, she loved to jump in her water bowl and make a mess.

Turns out that she was found in Arkansas living under a trailer. The family didn’t want any of the puppies and planned on leaving them outdoors to survive on their own.

A good hearted soul from the rescue proposed that she take the pups and that she’d paid to have their dog spayed. They agreed.

Laura and I played with the pups and ended up catching the noon ferry back. Crazy how fast the morning went and we now had a new family member.

She slept the whole ride home in Laura’s lap. I couldn’t help but smile as this was the third pup we’ve adopted who enjoyed this cuddly ride home.

Dylan was shocked when he met her.

The next day when Emily got home she cried with joy asking, “is she ours to keep?”

All the turmoil of making it a surprise was worth it to see their faces.

It is now a week later and she is doing great.

One of the names I had thrown out was Jaz and Laura liked it. Laura decided she wanted to name her Jasmine, but we are calling her Jaz.

Besides some tensions during feeding time, Jaz and Nadia get along fine. They play every day after breakfast and I hope that she’ll continue learning from her older sister.

It is obvious that she is mixed with a hound of some sort, but she has yet to howl or bark except when we put her in the crate.

She has slept through the night with only minor whining the first two nights upon turning out the lights.

Jaz loves to cuddle and give kisses. She has already established several favorite sleeping spots in the house.

Thankfully after only doing it a few times, she has stop sleeping on her food mat.

I’ve never owned two dogs and the only problem so far has been figuring out how to walk them at the same time.

I’m eager for her legs to grow bigger and stronger so that we can go on rucks together. Perhaps by this winter?

I can’t help wondering how big she is going to grow and if her spots will get any darker like her sister’s.

No matter, she is already a part of the Chapman family and we love having her here.

I hope she is ready for a lifetime of adventures, cuddles and love.

Life is extremely short.

While days will drag on and never seem to end. Others fly by and you barely got a chance to enjoy them.

We’ve all heard the jokes about getting older, getting crabbier and yelling, “Get Off My Lawn!” more than once.

Age is a relative thing of course, but over the last few years I’ve come to realize that for me it isn’t about becoming crankier, but rather about knowing exactly where the line is for what I will put up with and what I don’t have time for.

This election has shined a light on people’s true feelings. No matter who you are voting for, people share their inner truth by what memes, “facts” and content they share across social media.

This has lead to plenty of pruning of feeds.

I have no problem with a difference of opinions, but I have zero tolerance for hate and lies.

Priorities and permanence come to mind no matter if I’m buying a new piece of gear or deciding what to do with my day. I think beyond the moment, the impulse and take the time to truly think about the long term at all times.

If I died tomorrow, what would you say about me? Who would remember me and what light would it be in? What would be left behind for my kids to show others?

I choose not to surround myself with hate because I know all I have to do is open a window, walk down the street or open an app to find plenty of it.

Life is about living. Making the most of the few minutes we have.

Laughs with friends. Hugs with loved ones. Long walks with dogs.

There are fewer years ahead of me than behind and I’m choosing to make sure they are as good as possible.

Lots of work to do.

Lots of bullshit to ignore.

Onward and upward we go.

Make it a great day.

When an email arrived asking if I was available to socially cover a video shoot with a well known New England professional football player to be named later, I didn’t think twice about it.

Attending events to create and share content is something I get hired to do. Freelance writing and photography is also in my wheelhouse. While I knew more details were coming, I checked my calendar and replied with a simple “lets make it happen.”

Turns out that I wasn’t able to talk about this until now, but I’m excited to finally be able to tell you about my day on the set with MassMutual, Rob Gronkowski and members of his family.

MassMutual is a 165-year-old insurance company that operates with a single purpose: to help people secure their future and protect the ones they love; simply put, they offer products and services that help individuals and families make sense of their insurance and financial needs. And they have a strong commitment to service too; community service and financial education for kids are just some of the things they do to give back.

While not a Patriots fan, I’ve got respect for what Rob Gronkowski does on the field. Every time he spikes the ball against my beloved Miami Dolphins I shake my head in admiration because he is so good.

When I first heard that I’d be on set of a video explaining how Rob’s father taught him and his brothers the importance of planning for your financial future, I was intrigued. The video was going to be about how lessons learned in the gym or working out to keep your body fit could be applied towards being financially fit.

The plan was to shoot interview footage with the boys Gronk, two of his brothers and with Papa Gronk about the topic. Mix in footage from the gym and football field and edit it all together into an informative and fun piece to inspire others to get wise about the financial fitness of their own families.

Watch the finished videos to see how it all turned out.

As a father, I was intrigued watching this video be created. Listening to the stories being told and watching the father and brothers interact when the cameras weren’t rolling was inspiring. They truly love each and admire each other.

Rob Gronkowski and his brothers all talked about how much their dad pushed them growing up. He saw greatness in them early, but made sure they knew they’d have to work to achieve any goals they wanted.

He also put in place the financial foundation to protect them as they entered sporting careers that could end at any time from a single injury. While many athletes only focus on signing the big contract, the Gronkowski’s have always thought about finances in the long term to play it safe.

As the day was winding to a close, Papa Gronk and I got chatting a bit and I asked him what advice he’d give me as a father of two teenagers who are looking to make their mark in the world. He smiled and encouraged me to push them to find something they love and then support their dreams in any way I could.

Seeing this man and what three of his sons had grown up to be inspired me. His advice fits how I’ve approached parenting so I must be doing something right.

Have you ever thought about how the discipline of exercise could translate to the discipline of planning for your family’s financial future? I certainly hadn’t until that day on set as it began to make sense to me.

Thank you MassMutual for hiring me to be part of this project.

Thank you to the Gronkowski family for reminding me how important it is for parents to think and plan for their financial future no matter what age their children are.

Disclosure: This post was sponsored by Massachusetts Mutual Life Insurance Company (MassMutual). All opinions are my own. Mr. Gronkowski’s appearance is educational only and non-compensated.

]]> http://www.cc-chapman.com/2016/think-before-you-scream/ Mon, 29 Aug 2016 15:18:30 +0000 http://www.cc-chapman.com/?p=10607

For all the good that social media has brought to our tables, there is no question that it has also served us seven days in the sun bowls of potato salad as well.

Scroll through your network of choice on any day and you’ll find a stew of anger, hate and outrage.

This morning I tweeted:

As we start a new week, try to remember that you don’t need to be outraged by everything that you don’t agree with.

You can be annoyed with, upset at and disgusted by things without having to throw your own junk in to the wave of social angst that has become common.

Our children use to be taught the story of The Boy Who Cried Wolf, as a way for them to understand that they shouldn’t freak out over every little thing or make up stories. That they must learn the difference between a tough situation and a true emergency.

Today, we need to teach a similar tale, but this time perhaps it needs to be The Person Who Screamed You Are Wrong Seven Days In A Row Yet Forgot What They Were Screaming About.

Every day things cross my path that upset me. Every day I see people saying things that make me shake my head, growl with disgust or sideline me for a few hours with anger.

The more diverse the audience you surround yourself with, the more diverse the opinions. The more things are going to upset you.

Form a fishbowl of only likeminded ideas and soon the water will go from clear to goo infested grossness.

With so many people publicly reacting to every little story it fuels more of that activity from others.

So, lets flip the coin and NOT publicly share our opinion and outrage du jour. If you are truly upset by something go nuts. But, we need to stop this twenty four hour cycle of anger and upset.

Pick the issues that matter to you. Focus on what really matters most. Share your opinions, but don’t feel compelled to tell everyone why theirs is different (and thus wrong).

Think before you scream.

Everyone will appreciate it.

]]> http://www.cc-chapman.com/2016/the-shot/ Fri, 26 Aug 2016 13:02:00 +0000 http://www.cc-chapman.com/?p=10602 Every photographer knows the feeling.

The slice of a moment when the light is perfect. Shadows dance on your subject as if you painted them on yourself.

You point, press the button and hear the familiar sound of your shutter.

You don’t even need to look. You know you got it.

THE shot is not always the best one. It isn’t always the one people will rave over. Many times there are things about it that make it less than great.

In your heart and mind something clicks. It feels good. You feel a sense of accomplishment as you look at and think, “yup, that is THE shot.”

There were several great photographs that came of taking Dylan’s senior portraits, but this one was one of those shots. As soon as the camera rose to the eye there was no question.

For me, this was THE shot of the day and I love it.

]]> http://www.cc-chapman.com/2016/shooting-my-sons-senior-portraits/ Tue, 16 Aug 2016 15:27:56 +0000 http://www.cc-chapman.com/?p=10585

As a photographer, I love to be out shooting with my cameras.

When on assignment, the stress factor always goes up a bit. Will I get the shot I need? Will the talent work with me? What if something goes wrong?

All of those are natural and part of the photography business.

It is one thing to be taking casual snapshots on your phone and something completely different when a client is writing you a check for the work you create.

Yesterday, I had all of the stress with none of the money.

That is because I was shooting my son’s senior portraits.

A few months back my wife commented, “I just assumed you were going to shoot them.”

To be honest, I hadn’t even thought about it.

It makes total sense. I’m good with my camera and know what I’m doing so why pay someone else to take Dylan’s photos?

I joked about how stressful this was for me. Laughter is sometimes the only way to cope with a stressful situation.

In the end there was no doubt that it would all turn out fine, but the pressure is always there.

We went out and took some shots yesterday. We’ve got a couple more locations and types of shots to do, but after the first round I feel really good.

Not going to share them yet, but Emily was with us and took these fun behind the scenes photos since she knows there are rarely any of me taking photos.

We had fun and I’m happy with the pictures I made. We even have a couple in yearbook consideration already.

]]> http://www.cc-chapman.com/2016/a-simple-weekend/ Mon, 15 Aug 2016 11:53:53 +0000 http://www.cc-chapman.com/?p=10578 The majority of the weekend was spent feet up in the sun room reading The Accidental Life: An Editor’s Notes on Writing and Writers on my kindle.

The stories and style hit home and fuel my desire to write more and fear less.

There were pork chops on the grill and fresh corn beside them. Cold beers giving a moment of salvation from the soupy sludge of the humid August nights.

Sunday morning breakfast at our usual spot. Iced coffee bought from Dylan at work.

Preparing for my most daunting photography assignment was also in the cards. This week I’ll be shooting Dylan’s senior portraits and scouting locations was at the top of my 2do list.

A few perfect locations were found and I am now left with the logistics in my mind of what I want to create. There will be the typical shot for the yearbook pages, but besides that I want to capture and show Dylan as he is. Not some studio set up with his chin tilted just right.

As with most of my photography, I’m not worrying about what lens I’m going to use or if I have the right equipment. I’m concerned with getting the shot I want. The one I need to feel successful.

No matter how many years you work at your craft, the true creative always wonders if they’ve still got it. 

In my heart, I know that the photo that will hang on our wall and live forever in his yearbook will happen. But, will I make the photograph that I’ll look at, feel that familiar heart thump and know I got what I wanted?

We watched random bits of the Olympics. We played a heated game of Phase 10.

Thunder rolled and thankfully the rain came down. Not enough to green up the brown, but enough to give the earth a taste of what she has been missing.

It wasn’t anything fancy. It was simple, touching and I smile as I think back and type these words.

Not everything has to be epic, shared or liked by others.

Simple is satisfying.

]]> http://www.cc-chapman.com/2016/remaining-positive-in-a-less-than-happy-world/ Wed, 10 Aug 2016 11:55:04 +0000 http://www.cc-chapman.com/?p=10567

Turn on your television or look at a news site and you are guaranteed to see something that upsets you.

It doesn’t matter which side of the aisle you lean, team you root for or flag you salute. There is a never ending stream of bad news that will bother you.

I’ve talked before about how throwing more hate, anger and frustration out into the world helps no one.

There has been an endless stream of tweets and status updates I’ve thought about creating.

But, whenever I’m slamming the keys in frustration, I try to stop and ask myself this.

Will anything good come of me throwing this out into the world?

If I can’t answer yes, I try not to do it.

Yesterday, I received an email from a woman I shared the stage with on a panel several years ago. She was dropping me a note to thank me for writing Amazing Things Will Happen because after going through some things in her life, she was packing and found the book and reread it.

She wanted to let me know that my words had helped her push forward and through something she was working on.

I share this story as a reminder that there is good news out there too. You just have to look a little harder for it sometimes.

In the midst of someone being on stage and spewing hate, I looked at my phone and found this thank you note.

Did it balance everything out in the universe? No way.

Did it help remind me to remain optimistic and try to keep my glass half full? You bet!

Today as you go about your day, think about what you share and put out for others to see.

Take an extra few seconds before hitting the share or post button to wonder if any good will come of it.

Seek out things that make you smile and share that rather than what you disagree with.

Every bit helps. It may not feel it, but I believe it does.

]]> http://www.cc-chapman.com/2016/family-fun-at-revere-beach-sand-sculpting-festival/ Mon, 08 Aug 2016 10:15:37 +0000 http://www.cc-chapman.com/?p=10552 The beach is the last place I personally go for family fun during the summer.

Sure, the ocean is beautiful and there is always endless people watching at the beach, but sitting on a blanket, melting in the sun is not my idea of a fun day.

So, when I partnered up again this summer with Fidelity and MEFA to cover one of their UFund Dream Tour stops I’m not sure why I chose the Revere Beach International Sand Sculpting Festival.

I mentioned to our neighbors that we’d be going to this and they asked if they could come along. When I told them why I was going she chimed in, “Oh I love MEFA. I use to listen to their webinars during my lunch breaks to learn about how to pay for my son’s college. Plus, whenever I have a question they answered me.”

That is a true and unpaid for statement. I had to include it because I think it sums up the experience a lot of people have had when interacting with these organizations.

We arrived joking that none of us had been to Revere Beach in over twenty years so we didn’t know what to expect.

The beach and the surrounding area sure have been developed and improved over the years. It was the perfect location to showcase the mind boggling creativity and artistry of what someone can do with a pile of sand.

Nothing I’ve ever made out of sand at at the beach has come close to what was on display.

The variety in topics and themes on display covered everything from the abstract to the absurd. There was political commentary and issue awareness mixed in with pure imagination.

The official sculpture of the festival focused on the evolution of technology and I loved that in addition to being a beautiful sculpture that they worked technology directly into it. As you can see on the phone in this photo they were showing real time updates of photos people were posting to Instagram. It took the idea of sand art to a whole new level.

Among all the vendors taking part in the fun, was the bright blue big top covered in sheep and clouds. This of course was the U.Fund Dreams Tour tent.

Kids and adults alike were having fun and learning about saving for college at the same time from the always smiling staff.

They still have several events that they will be at this summer, so check their events calendar to find one near you.

Disclosure: I have partnered with Fidelity & MEFA in support of the U.Fund Dreams Tour. As always, all thoughts, opinions and photographs are my own.

]]> http://www.cc-chapman.com/2016/being-prepared-to-fear-less/ Thu, 04 Aug 2016 12:13:50 +0000 http://www.cc-chapman.com/?p=10531 The other day I placed a new order from Serepick because I wanted a set of lock picks in my car. Upon arrival, I added them to my ITS Trauma Kit that I keep in my center console.

I was discussing this with some in my family and received a familiar smile and head shake. I ignored it and moved on.

Yesterday morning I saw a friend tweeting about coming across a jogger who was having medical problems.

They mentioned that no one around them was comfortable enough with CPR to do anything and they all had to wait for the EMTs to arrive.

People need to realize that more often than not, it is going to be up to you to save yourself or someone you love in a time of need.

This is why I read about every possible thing I can. Why I want to learn skills that I hope I never have to use.

Last year when I attended ITS Muster I learned how to break out of restraints, perform field medicine and red team basics.

I hope I never need to use any of these skills, but I feel more comfortable living every day having that knowledge in my head.

By being prepared to deal with any situation life throws at me, I’m less fearful of having to face those situations.

Everyone should know basic first aid and CPR.

You and your family should have escape plans from your house in case of a fire.

Do you have the basic supplies in your house and the skills in your head to survive a natural disaster?

Could you keep warm, cook meals and provide for your family during a prolonged power outage?

It is impossible to have too much knowledge about how to deal with difficult situations.

I’m not a prepper, but I like to be prepared.

It is why my GORUCK (or any bag I’m using) has certain every day carry items in it that I never want to be without.

I feel better going out into the world knowing that for most situations I can help myself and help those around me if I need to.

Are you prepared?

]]> http://www.cc-chapman.com/2016/giving-the-cobblers-kids-some-shoes/ Wed, 03 Aug 2016 13:32:25 +0000 http://www.cc-chapman.com/?p=10520

We all know the old story about the cobbler being so busy making shoes for customers, that his own children had none.

When it comes to online strategies and marketing programs this is how it has always been around here for me.

Always helping clients set up and execute things, while neglecting my own.

Today that changes.

Yesterday, my friend Jason from GORUCK let me know that the tool I was using to send out new blog posts via email was a pain to read on the phone.

This is something I’ve meant to change for years and never have. Today, if you subscribe via email and are reading this on your phone I sure hope it looks better! Let me know if it doesn’t.

As you can also see, I’ve updated the website from top to bottom and I’m still making tweaks.

I need to get my teaching and photography pages up and running. I want to get some more integration with other sites here as well.

If you catch something that is broken, please let me know.

Finally, I’ve never written enough thought or how-to pieces and I’m starting to do more of that over on LinkedIn and Medium.

I’ve been impressed with the level of stats I get from LinkedIn and how detailed they are. So you can expect a lot more there.

All of this is to bring in more work, speaking gigs and new opportunities.

If you have ideas, let me know.

Thanks for being patient while I break in my new shoes.

Get New Posts Emailed To You

]]> http://www.cc-chapman.com/2016/death-inspires-living/ Tue, 02 Aug 2016 11:51:21 +0000 http://www.cc-chapman.com/?p=10511 July was a rough month all around me.

It began with the tragic death of a nineteen year old and ended with the peaceful passing of a seventy eight year old.

Two ends of the spectrum of life. Leaving behind heart broken friends and family.

Reflection is part of my daily life. I think about things. Looking behind and forward. Pondering what comes next.

These deaths have had my mind in overdrive. I’ve planned my funeral, wondering what people will say and knowing that I don’t want it to come anytime soon.

They have also shaped the decisions I make.

I was part of something that was moving too slow and not making any progress. It was consuming too much and not giving enough back. I made the decision to move on.

I have been plotting and thinking about creative projects, but not actually doing any of them. That stops as soon as the rain does. I need dry ground for the first one I want to do.

A book that has been in the back of my head for a while and accumulated cob webs in my hard drive was dusted off and thought about once more.

Tomorrow might never arrive. We have zero control over how many minutes we are given.

The last thing I want to do is debate and argue on Facebook about the election. There is an endless list of things I’d rather be doing and thus I choose to avoid it all (for the most part).

There is evil all around us, but I’m going to choose optimism.

I’m going to try and make every day count. To create memories with those that I care about no matter if they are in the next room or across the world from me.

To use my gifts for the greater good. To provide for my family. Inspire the world. Help my fellow man.

It shouldn’t take people dying to inspire other people to live.

We should all be showing more empathy to those around us. Even if we don’t agree on everything, it is never a bad decision to show respect.

I enjoy life. I enjoy living. I want to make every bit of it worth it.

]]> http://www.cc-chapman.com/2016/rough-streets-of-neverland/ Mon, 01 Aug 2016 15:12:56 +0000 http://www.cc-chapman.com/?p=10506

I arrived home and walking up to the front door I saw this on our stairs.

A pipe cleaner Tinker Bell.

She laid there on the cement. Shadows being cast around her.

My assumption was that she was the latest artistic creation of my daughter. Probably done at Science Camp that day to entertain the kids.

As I took the photo, all I could think was, “Must have been a rough day on the streets of Neverland.”

 

 

]]> http://www.cc-chapman.com/2016/eulogy-vs-resume/ Wed, 27 Jul 2016 12:38:46 +0000 http://www.cc-chapman.com/?p=10496 Earlier this week, I attended Bentley University’s Center for Business Ethics 40th Anniversary Conference.

One of the speakers was discussing the concept of virtue in the workplace and during his talk he raised the question, “are you more concerned by your resume or your eulogy?”

That stuck with me. It hit home.

Last night as we sat watching television, a text from my Dad arrived letting me know about the passing of a long time family friend.

I was overcome with grief and began to cry. Dylan and Laura were not sure what was going on and it took me a bit to be able to say it.

Al Langley was a great man and had a huge impact on my youth and yet I have no idea what he did for a living.

Truly, if you were to offer me all the money in the world, I couldn’t tell you what was on the man’s resume, but I could tell you stories about who the man was.

We spent many hours out camping and canoeing. He was the man who I met with and learned from in order to earn my camping merit badge.

He’d give me crap for never having seen a John Wayne movie (which I still haven’t done) and if we were not moving fast enough in the morning would shout that we were “burning daylight.”

He wore silly hats and always had a toothful grin on his face.

Al was my Dads long time adventure partner. I always looked forward to the latest story of what Al had done hiking up a mountain or paddling around a corner on the river.

I have a feeling that there will be many at his funeral this weekend who have fond memories of the man. About what he taught them. About something silly he said or did.

I don’t believe there will be much talk about his resume, because good humans are about more than what they do to make a living.

Years from now, when I lay my head down for the last time I hope I’m remembered as fondly about all that I’ve done for others rather than only what I accomplished inside of an office.

Rest in Peace Al. I’m going to miss you.

]]> http://www.cc-chapman.com/2016/when-the-muse-screams/ Wed, 20 Jul 2016 16:11:12 +0000 http://www.cc-chapman.com/?p=10489 If you are a creative, you’ve heard the scream of the Muse.

Not the simple whisper in your ear or tickle on your heart, but the full blown cry out to be recognized and used.

This morning she yelled in all of her fury.

Reminding me that while I’ve been spinning, strategizing and sipping, I haven’t been creating.

There are blank pages that need to be filled.

Images yet to be captured.

Spaces on the bookshelves of people around the world where a combination of my thoughts and dead trees would make the perfect addition.

Too many thoughts and inklings and not enough creations.

The Muse screams and who am I to ignore her anymore.

I must create.

It is what I do.

]]> http://www.cc-chapman.com/2016/star-wars-celebration-london-2016/ Tue, 19 Jul 2016 18:02:47 +0000 http://www.cc-chapman.com/?p=10462 Growing up, I always stopped in the toy isle to look at the latest Star Wars toys. I’d lust after them and check them out in detail since I rarely was able to bring one home with me.

Hours were spent playing with the toys I did have. Grand battles were fought on my bedroom floor and throughout my house.

So when Verizon asked me “Would you like to go to London with us to attend the Star Wars Celebration?” the little kid in me bounced with giddy excitement as the adult in me typed out “Yes, please!”

I’ve been a part of the Verizon influencer program for several years and while getting to try out new phones and other technology is great, getting access to an experience like this is the coolest perk I’ve ever receieved.

To legally cover myself, know that they paid for all my travel expenses and access to the event. All they asked in return was that I shared my experience on my social channels.

After nearly missing my flight out of Boston, I arrived ready to get my geek on along side Chris Bernholdt and Gina Stark in London.

Traveling around the world, I prefer to travel light and that was my goal for this trip.

My plan was to shoot mainly on my NX500 and use my S7 for posting. In addition to my every day carry items, my newly patched GR0 would be loaded up with battery packs since I had a feeling there wouldn’t be any free plugs while I was out and about.

Thankfully, one thing I didn’t have to worry about was paying a bunch of extra fees for posting while out of the country.

Verizon now has something called TravelPass that kicks in when you land in a country that is part of the program. When I powered up my phone upon landing, I receieved a text letting me know that a daily fee of $10 was all I had to pay to use my plan as I usually do. No more having to sign up for a global data plan before traveling is such a sigh of relief for travelers like myself.

Walking over to the event wearing a badge emblazoned with a Death Trooper and the words “Special Guest” had me exited for what may lie ahead.

Our morning began with a walk through of an exhibit showcasing the costumes of Rogue One by two of the producers of the film.

Each costume had a description of not only the character who would be wearing it, but also what the costume was made of.

As a fan, I could piece together a bit more about the story by looking at the costumes. During our tour, the two pieces of information that we were told that I took to heart were “there are no Jedi in Rogue One” and that the movie is “a father and daughter story.”

All of the costumes were cool, but my favorite were the new Shore Troopers that sound as if they’ll be playing an important role as they defend “the secret base” in the film.

Verizon filmed our tour, but I’m not sure where or when the footage will appear online. When it does, I’ll be sure to update this post.

After the tour, we found ourselves on the Expo floor before they had opened the doors.

I took the time to take a quick spin around and see what was there before the crowds swarmed in.

My biggest take away was how many different levels of Star Wars fandom there are. People focus on specific types/brands of toys, original tattoos and building R2 units.

Who knew you could go to an event like this and leave with a new tattoo to go with your inflatable remote controlled Darth Vader?

The other take away I found myself pondering still today is the dedication to Cosplay.

I saw people of every race, age and gender dressed up as their favorite characters.

I chatted with a retired Leia and a youthful Rey.

Women and men were dressed up and taking photos all around me. It was fun to see more dressed up little girls than little boys. It didn’t matter what skin color was under the masks, people were united by their love of the Star Wars universe.

The first panel of the day was one with Luke Skywalker himself, Mark Hamill. Being more of a Han Solo guy growing up, this still had me excited to see. After he pretty much missed out on the last film completely, I was hoping that he’d share some nuggets of goodness with everyone in attendance.

We were escorted in the door early and shown to four seats in the center of the front row. After seeing photos online of people camping out over night to get into this panel, I had no idea we were going to be taken this care of.

It was 100% questions and answers with him.

When someone asked about any favorite lines from the forthcoming The Killing Joke movie, I had a feeling something magical might happen so I took out my phone and recorded his answer.

Once again the network impressed me as I filmed, uploaded and published directly from my phone while sitting in the session.

Nothing new or exciting was shared, but it was fun to see him in person.

We’d skip the line again and go to the official store for the event. Loved that they had someone hand making t-shirts to order there and I picked up a few things for the kids.

Walking around you couldn’t help but giggle every so often at where you were. One second you’d have a wookie walk by you and the next you’d find yourself face to face with an AT-AT.

There was a family section and another for video games. Collectibles of every shape, size and variety were there for the purchase.

The marketer in me was impressed to see that Discover Ireland even had a booth set up with a replica of their famous stairs from The Force Awakens that fans could stand and get a photo on. Very smart!

We’re getting ready for @SW_Celebration tomorrow! Bringing #SkelligMichael to life for #StarWars fans! #SWCE pic.twitter.com/5QzdbxLvxC

— Discover Ireland (@GoToIrelandGB) July 14, 2016

Our last panel of the day was the one I was most excited about.

The Rogue One panel was scheduled to have the director of the film and some of the other crew involved on stage talking about the movie. My personal hope was that they’d also show a new trailer for the movie because I’m eager to check it out.

Upon once again being ushered in to our special seats, it was instantly apparent that something more was going on by the number of chairs on the stage.

Turns out that this panel was also going to include the main cast of the film too!

Hosted by Gwendoline Christie (of Game of Thrones and Star Wars fame), the panel had her chatting with each cast member about their characters and sharing what little they could about their roles.

It was a riot to watch them go to answer her question, look over at the director to check if it was ok to answer and then give a half answer so not to spoil the plot.

For the first stand alone Star Wars film ever made, they’ve assembled a great cast that is going to be fun to watch on screen. The sizzle reel they debuted highlighted that this is going to be grittier, while being familiar to all the Star Wars fans.

The highlight of watching this on the big screen was actually watching everyone on stage turn around, lay down on the stage and watch it themselves. Based on their reactions, I don’t think they had seen it either.

It was also cool to witness the star of the film, Felicity Jones, being given her first Star Wars action figure!

The Rogue One cast is a refreshingly diverse group of talent. Star Wars has one a great job of making sure the galaxy far, far away isn’t only populated by young, white, good looking males.

Emotions were high and the energy in the room vibrated through everyone as Kathleen Kennedy stayed on stage and asked if we’d like to see something more.

She asked for phones and cameras to be put away because no one else was going to be seeing this right away.

I’m sure everyone in the room was as pained as I was not to be able to share it, but they showed us a new Rogue One trailer.

I wasn’t ready for the hairs to stand up or the emotions to get so hard from it, but they did.

Let’s just say it ends with some very familiar breathing that had all 4,000 people lucky enough to witness it screaming with delight.

At the end of the day, as I sat down thinking about everything I had experienced I found myself getting extremely emotional. Young C.C. Chapman could have never imagined that some day he’d grow up and be able to take part in something like this. All the years of time and work has opened some down right amazing doors and for that I’m eternally grateful.

Thank you again to everyone behind the scenes who made this trip possible. I was very fortunate to have been asked to be part of it.

Oh and if you don’t follow me on Snapchat yet, I downloaded my story from the day so you can watch how I shared my experience on that channel.

I keep looking at my new Rogue One poster and smiling.

Thinking back to everything I saw and did while in London and how thankful I am to be able to share it with all of you.

In addition to the photos in this post, you can view my entire Flickr album here.

I don’t know what next brand sponsored adventure I’ll be going on, but it is going to be hard to top this one.

Disclosure: As a member of a great group of Verizon influencers, I occasionally receive products to test drive and experiences to take part in so that I can share my honest thoughts on them. No additional compensation is provided, neither were any favorable comments promised. All opinions are my own.

]]> http://www.cc-chapman.com/2016/one-week-all-the-emotions/ Mon, 11 Jul 2016 12:33:55 +0000 http://www.cc-chapman.com/?p=10455 Last week was one of those series of days that won’t soon be forgotten.

A roller coaster of emotions brought on events close to home and around the country.

There was death, life milestones, anger and happiness.

I was shocked as I watched two black Americans be shot and killed by those who are suppose to serve and protect.

I cheered on my son as he started his first job and worked every day and quickly realized how different the world is with a job.

I gathered and cried with my community as we came together to grieve the untimely death of one of our own.

I awoke to the news of a deranged man attacking and killing men doing their job to protect and serve.

I cheered with friends as they watched their home country win their first soccer championship.

I hugged my son deeply with a tear in my eye as he shared the news of being accepted to his first college.

Trying to wrap my head and heart around this wide range of emotions was damn near impossible. One minute crying my eyes out, the next frustrated with anger and then being filled with love and happiness.

It isn’t the sort of week I want to repeat any time soon.

]]> http://www.cc-chapman.com/2016/making-sense-of-the-madness/ Wed, 06 Jul 2016 13:33:36 +0000 http://www.cc-chapman.com/?p=10447  

It only takes a quick scan of the news to be buried in the madness of our world.

This week, I’ve been hugging my kids a bit longer than usual as neighborhood friends lost their daughter in a horrible accident.

Jackie was a GOOD kid determined to do GOOD things in the world.

I remember her and I talking before she graduated about how she hoped to find a way to take her love of dance and turn it into a career. She mentioned perhaps doing dance therapy or traveling to underdeveloped countries and working with kids around the arts.

I encouraged her to try and make it happen. That it wouldn’t be an easy road, but if she really wanted to do it, she could.

When Dylan got home from work and I broke the news to him his shocked was response was simply, “but she was so nice…”

The biggest lie humans have tried to push on the world is that everything happens for a reason.

I’ve never believed it and when madness like this happens it just reaffirms that life is random and unknown.

Hug those you love every, single day.

Work hard every day to do what you want to do in this world.

Tomorrow is not promised to any of us and it never seems to be the bad people who are taken from us too soon. Only the good…

Sandy, Ron and Ryan our thoughts, prayers and love are with you during this time. Your words last night at the vigil were beautiful and strong. I took them to heart.

Rest in Peace Jackie.

]]> http://www.cc-chapman.com/2016/phases-of-financial-freedom/ Fri, 01 Jul 2016 16:28:47 +0000 http://www.cc-chapman.com/?p=10441

MassMutual asked me to write a post on “financial freedom.”

My first thought was that I couldn’t write a post on that topic because Laura and I still think about the bills and how to pay them all the time.

The more I pondered it, I realized over the years there have been a couple of moments when I felt financially free-er.

The first was when our kids were young.

Shortly after our son was born, we realized that something had to be done about our credit card debt. After a conversation with a friend who had recently consolidated all of his debt we decided to investigate our options.

We ended up using a company to take all of our credit debt, destroy our credit cards and now make a single monthly payment that would go towards paying that debt.

It was scary and even though we now had a date when our debt would be gone, it never felt like we’d reach it.

Getting out of credit card debt isn’t easy, but it was one of the best financial decisions we ever made.

The other vivid memory of when I suddenly felt a bit of financial freedom was upon making my last student loan payment.

I went to a college that was far outside of my price range and was not given nearly as much Financial Aid as I needed. (This is one of the main reasons I built up so much credit card debt.)

To mail that last payment in felt amazing. It wouldn’t put a bunch of extra money into my wallet every month, but like paying off our credit cards, it felt like a massive weight has been lifted off of our life.

These days there are many options for paying off student debt that I didn’t have. I’m glad there are more options for our kids.

I’ve always said that I don’t need to be rich, but I’d love to get to a point of not having to worry about money. Not sure I’ll ever get there, but I’ll keep on trying.

Disclosure: This post was sponsored by Massachusetts Mutual Financial Group (MassMutual). All opinions are my own.

]]> http://www.cc-chapman.com/2016/the-road-to-yuma/ Thu, 30 Jun 2016 21:51:44 +0000 http://www.cc-chapman.com/?p=10431 Geocaching is an activity that our family enjoys doing.

When out rucking, driving or any time we are someplace new my wife will pull out her phone and see if there are any geocaches around us.

We knew we’d be visiting her parents in Arizona this summer, so when she received a notice that one of her trackables had been dropped off at a Travel Bug Hotel we were intrigued.

A three hour drive to drop off a piece of plastic and metal seemed a bit crazy without a few other stops. But, we knew we had to do it.

Pulling up the handy Roadtrippers app, I found a few other destinations and we headed out for the day.

My in-laws had rented a van for the week and since they could only drive it, I found myself as the navigator.

Our first stop was The Painted Rock Petroglyph Site located twelve miles off of Highway 8 near Gila Bend, Arizona.

I think the over 110 degree temperatures messed with my in-laws Tom-Tom unit because we soon found ourselves on dirt roads going through the desert.

I’ve got a good sense of direction and had no idea where it was trying to bring us.

The final straw was when in the middle of nowhere it told us to turn left and this is what we were looking at.

After that, I declared that I was only going to be using Google Maps because I didn’t trust the unit.

After a little re-routing we made it to the petroglyph site and it was amazing.

Some might call it a pile of rocks, but these rocks were covered with paintings older than most of us can imagine.

I have never seen so many petroglyphs in my life so this stop meant a lot to me.

Since we were out of the car, I took some time to walk around and snap photos before me or my camera melted.

We loaded back in the van and of course Laura had found a nearby geocache so we jumped out and climbed up a short hill to find the hidden ammo box under a pile of rocks. I left a trackable I brought with me as it seemed a fitting spot for it.

There was a simple twelve mile trek back to the highway or there was an option to take a sweeping arch through the dessert and pick the highway up further down the road.

Of course, I chose the option that didn’t have us going where we had already been. Where is the fun ever in that?

It ended up being longer and more remote than I had expected, but it was beautiful to be the only one on the road for mile after mile with the only signs of civilization being long abandoned.

My friend Aliza recently moved out of Yuma and suggest we go to Tacos Mi Rancho for lunch and as soon as we pulled in the parking lot, I knew I was going to like it.

One of those places that you’d drive by without a second thought, but you’d be missing out on to die for carnitas, tacos and great Mexican food.

I’ll never forget Emily ordering “something with shrimp” and then being given a bowl of shimp soup on a 113 degree day. It tasted great, but we both assume the cooks must have been wondering who the silly gringa was ordering soup on such a hot day.

With full bellies we set off to visit The Peanut Patch (it was closed until October) and The Muffler Man (not as big as we hoped) before leaving Yuma.

As we jumped back on the highway, we stopped at the one spot that had brought us here.

Nestled between the road, the river and the RV park we found our Travel Bug Hotel that we had come across the country to find. We dropped a few off and pick up a few to bring with us.

It was a long, hot and giggle filled day and worth every minute of it.

Here is how I shared it on Snapchat.

]]> http://www.cc-chapman.com/2016/a-savings-memory-from-my-youth-has-me-thinking-about-saving-today/ Tue, 28 Jun 2016 21:30:23 +0000 http://www.cc-chapman.com/?p=10426 Saving is something I’ve never been that great at.

When you don’t have much more than what will pay the bills, the idea of saving is great, but it isn’t a reality.

The older you grow, the more you realize that putting away even a little bit does help. I think we get lost in thinking we have to have a massive nut of money squirreled away in order to be considered a savings.

Growing up in small town New Hampshire, I remember the local bank did something they called “The Christmas Club” every fall.

You could open up a special account that people were encouraged to use to put aside and save money for their holiday shopping.

The way I remember it, you couldn’t do any withdrawals until December.

My parents got me one and it was fun to put in a few dollars here and there. Going to the bank and getting my little passbook updated with the latest deposit and total amounts was a big deal.

I seem to recall little tickets too that encouraged you to set aside a set amount every week so that you would have a set amount of $500, $1000 or more saved by Christmas. Of course I wasn’t on one of these plans, but breaking it down like that it is amazing how much little deposits can add up to.

Savings is all about putting a little away on a regular basis. That is the key.

The Christmas Club growing up first exposed me to this. Later, when we had our children and set up college accounts for them it once again reminded me.

Now that we are less than a year away from receiving our first college bills for our son, the idea that we haven’t saved enough is a reality.

Few people save enough for college, but I wish I was more educated on the options when our children were young so that we could have done a better job.

Thankfully, these days there is lots of information on saving for college and I’m happy to be partnering again with Fidelity & MEFA in support of the U.Fund Dreams Tour.

This series of events around Massachusetts are intended to educate parents (and any adults thinking about becoming parents) about the importance and options of saving for college.

Stay tuned to see where it takes me and if you have any college savings tips, I’d love to hear them.

Disclosure: I have partnered with Fidelity & MEFA in support of the U.Fund Dreams Tour. As always, all thoughts, opinions  and stories are my own.

]]> http://www.cc-chapman.com/2016/raise-the-alarm-for-minute-man-national-historical-park/ Mon, 20 Jun 2016 12:18:02 +0000 http://www.cc-chapman.com/?p=10404 Growing up in The United States, every child learns about the start of our country and the Revolutionary War.

Growing up in New England, we learn about it on a whole new level since it happened in our backyard.

Minute Man National Historical Park is home to where some of the first shots of the American Revolution were fired.

Today it is a beautiful place to walk your dog, go for a jog or learn more about our history.

They are the only New England park in the running to receive funding as part of the Vote Your Park campaign.

In honor of the National Park Service’s Centennial, the National Trust for Historic Preservation has joined with National Geographic and American Express for Partners in Preservation: National Parks to award $2 million in grants—as decided by your votes—to historic sites at our beloved national parks.

Minute Man will use the funds to clean up an old battlefield and establish a new educational center in an old barn.

The money will be used to insure that generations to come can see and learn about what happened on these fields.

I’ve been working with them a bit to get their social media efforts going and check out these videos they had made before I got involved.

Voting goes through July 5th and you can vote once every twenty four hours.

Raise the alarm and encourage all of your friends to Vote Minute Man!

 

]]> http://www.cc-chapman.com/2016/the-first-rays-of-morning/ Mon, 13 Jun 2016 12:38:20 +0000 http://www.cc-chapman.com/?p=10390 Yesterday morning, Emily and I woke early to go to the flea market.

The news was reporting on a shooting at a nightclub in Orlando, but there were no details yet so we went on our way.

We hit the ATM, grabbed donuts from a local bakery and arrived to discover that the vendors were still setting up. I decided to take a little adventure and drive up the road a ways to the Old Stone Church that I had taken some photos recently with my drone and Emily wanted to explore.

My phone buzzed, but I was ignoring it. We enjoyed the quiet of the morning. Giggled at the baby geese walking by. Laughed at the pigeon we upset by entering the old church.

We each found a memory rock, took photos and then headed back to the flea market.

That is when I checked my phone and the horrible news began to unfold.

Another week in America and another mass shooting. Now, I know it is the deadliest one so far.

Details were still not known and I remember thinking how common this has become. How the minute you walk outside your door you don’t know if you’ll ever return.

Between people looking to do harm with guns, people caring more about their phones than the road and the randomness of life itself we need to take every day as a gift that none of us are promised.

There is evil in the world and it must be dealt with.

There are laws that need to be changed to protect the greater good.

We need to admit that for too long we’ve ignored issues that are plaguing our world and hoping they wouldn’t come to our doorsteps.

But, we also have the ability to insure that we take full advantage of the time we do have.

I’m glad I was oblivious to the horrible events for a few hours yesterday. While many people were sleeping, my daughter and I enjoyed the life we have.

I’m angry and sad. This toxic cocktail of emotions is one that we are having served to us far too often for my likes.

So today as you go about your day, make sure you hug those you love, say hi to those around you and do something with your time.

We never know if tomorrow’s first rays of the morning will be seen or not. It isn’t a decision we get to make.

SO much needs to change and we each have to do our part to make it happen. We also need to make sure we live our lives. Help our children live theirs.

My heart weeps for those effected by the despicable violence in Orlando and my blood boils with a yearn to punish all those who are currently planning similar events.

I don’t know if love beats out hate. I do know that prayers do nothing unless backed up with actions.

My children just left for school. The sad reality is that for the briefest of moments I worry almost every single day.

That isn’t how to live life and I know it. It is why I push the worries to the back of my mind, determined to not let it pull me down in a quagmire of doubts and concern.

I saw the morning’s first rays and I’m determined to make today count.

]]> http://www.cc-chapman.com/2016/a-visual-postcard-from-echo-valley/ Tue, 31 May 2016 19:53:27 +0000 http://www.cc-chapman.com/?p=10313 Ever since the team at Horizon Hobby gave me a Chroma 4k Drone to try out and review I’ve been eager to take it to one place in the world.

That place is Echo Valley in the hills of Vermont.

I’ve written about this magical spot before for one night escapes and Chapman family celebrations.

So when Clarence I began planning a little time off the grid together, I knew where we were headed and I knew what I’d be doing.

You’ve got to understand that my Grandfather was a pilot and loved photography. He built model airplanes and had a passion for creating. He would have loved to have access to the technology I get to create with today.

So many people in my family have grown up loving Echo Valley and I wanted to provide them with a view of it that they had never seen and that would make my Grandfather proud.

Watch it and let me know what you think.

As I edited this video together, Moby released his latest album Long Ambients 1: Calm. Sleep and gave it away to anyone who wanted to use it in their non-commercial projects. I jumped at the chance to legally use one of his tunes and the music set the perfect tone for what I was going for.

Be sure to choose the highest resolution your computer can handle, turn up the volume and maximize the video.

I promise it’ll be six minutes of laid back beauty. At least that is what I was trying to create.

Drone photography and videography is something I plan on doing more of in the coming months. Recently I was hired to shoot behind the scenes footage for a special web series and I hope to get more work soon.

Enjoy.

]]> http://www.cc-chapman.com/2016/putting-my-house-on-the-nest-platform/ Sat, 28 May 2016 15:21:01 +0000 http://www.cc-chapman.com/?p=10300 I’m excited about the wave of new products being released to convert our residences into “smart homes.”

Watching the space for the last few years has been exciting. While I enjoy bleeding edge technology, when it comes to my home I usually prefer to wait and let others be the first movers in the space.

When a gadget is only being used by me it is fine, but when it effects my whole family I proceed with more caution.

There has been enough trailblazing in this space that when Verizon offered to send me a free starter kit of Nest products as a member of their Influencer Team I jumped at the opportunity.

Thank you @Verizon for reminding me you sell more than phones. #ad #vzwbuzz

A photo posted by C.C. Chapman (@cc_chapman) on May 10, 2016 at 2:20pm PDT

If you were not aware, Verizon sells a lot more than just phones and FiOS. In their stores and on their site, they sell a variety of accessories that fit into your total digital life style.

I was given a Nest Protect smoke and carbon monoxide alarm, Nest Cam Security Camera and a Nest Learning Thermostat.

Set up was super easy for the camera and the smoke detector. It is only a matter of downloading the app to your phone and connecting the devices to your WiFi network.

The Nest App is available on Android and iOS and serves as a dashboard for all the Nest products you install in your house. Adding a new device is as easy as scanning the QR Code on the back of it and instantly it is added to your house.

One improvement that could be made here would be to one click copy over the WiFi information. Currently have to type it in for each new device you add, which is a pain when first setting up everything.

Another design improvement I’d suggest is that since the camera is all black, the power cord should be as well. I don’t understand why they chose to make the cord bright white on a device that is flat black.

We are just getting started with all the devices and I plan on sharing a more detailed review after using them for a while, but I can say that so far we are really liking having these.

I’ve set it up so that the camera only turns on when my phone leaves the house. I had the motion detector turned on, but with pets the notifications became too much to deal with.

While I was on the road this week, my kids had their first experience with the Protect when as they were cooking dinner it began talking to them and vocally warning them that it had detected low level smoke. I wish I could have seen their faces.

We all liked that it gave a warning rather than instantly freaking out and going off. They opened a window and no alarm was sounded.

We don’t have air conditioning, so the thermostat won’t be doing anything until next winter when we have to turn the heat on. I am super curious about watching it learn, but that will have to wait.

Thank you once again Verizon for feeding my digital lifestyle addiction.

Disclosure – I am a member of the #LifeOnFiOS & VZWBuzz influencer teams from Verizon. From time to time they provide me with gadgets, information and experiences in exchange for articles focused on my digital life style. I control the topics, words, thoughts and everything else. They just get to read and share them.

]]> http://www.cc-chapman.com/2016/tomorrow-is-not-promised/ Tue, 26 Apr 2016 09:07:06 +0000 http://www.cc-chapman.com/?p=10284

Prince died and I’m positive he had more to create and do in his life.

Death is coming for all of us and none of us know when we’ll take our final breaths and that is why I hit record today so that you could listen to Managing the Gray #147.

Links from the show.

• 30 Days to Genius
• Digaboom
• Beyonce’s Lemonade

Listen, share and create.

Hope this nudge helps.

]]> http://www.cc-chapman.com/2016/rest-in-peace-prince/ Mon, 25 Apr 2016 14:55:27 +0000 http://www.cc-chapman.com/?p=10275

Photo by Valerie Jardin.

There will be two songs played at my funeral. ‘Amazing Grace’ on the bagpipes and ‘Sometimes It Snows In April’ by Prince.

Thursday as I closed my lecture at the end of class, my inbox was in the background and the top email’s subject line read “Prince Dead at 57” and my first thought was “which Prince died?”

Opening the email, I blurted out “Oh shit, Prince is dead.”

The students all gave me a look and Dylan who happened to be in class with me after a college tour of Bentley instantly hugged me and asked if I was ok. I didn’t even know how to respond.

The first thought I had in my head was “I can’t believe it died. I can’t believe it happened in April.”

Prince has always been the artist who has had the biggest effect on my life. His music has been used to celebrate, grieve and motivate.

Very few days of my life did not involve one of his songs out of a speaker or in my head. It is just the way it has always been.

I’ve been writing this post in my head ever since I heard the news. I’ve been listening to almost nothing but his music. Watching videos, laughing, crying, showing my kids Purple Rain for the first time.

If you did not know how big of a fan I was, you were not that close of a friend.

My phone didn’t stop vibrating on Thursday as a slew of notes came in from Friends checking in to see how I was doing. While not as earth shattering as a family member passing, this death is one that won’t be out of my mind for a very long time and my friends knew this and checked in on me. I can’t begin to express how much that was needed and appreciated. I love you all for it.

You’ve got to understand that Prince has been my favorite musician since I understood what it was to be a fan of music.

Music was always playing in my house. The radio was rarely off. I grew up on a steady diet of all kinds of music and yet as a child of the Eighties, Prince grabbed me in a way that few could understand.

The first memory I have of Prince was the moment I saw the video for 1999 on MTV.

Getting cable was a big deal and I’d spend hours watching music videos. This new art form and being exposed to such a diverse variety of music was heaven for me.

I still laugh about opening up a 1999 cassette on Christmas morning and my parents informing me that they listened to it to make sure that it was ok for me. I remember this being a bit confusing because while I hadn’t heard the whole album yet, I was nine years old and knew there were some questionable things on it.

Looking back I’ve always wondered if they actually listened to it and we’re cool with me being exposed to the unknown, or if it was a fib told by parents. It was still wrapped, so I like to believe it was a combination of the two.

Two years later, my girlfriend would give me a cassette of Purple Rain for my birthday and my parents would give me a copy as well. Both copies would get plenty of play.

Shortly thereafter, my grandparents would be babysitting me and I’d plead with them to let me watch Purple Rain on HBO. I had no idea how awkward this would become, but I’m convinced this movie is what gave me my never ending love of black thigh high stockings and brunettes.

Being online ahead of most of the world, there was a special day when I learned about the world of trading Prince bootlegs. I wish I could recall how I discovered this, but these were the days of Usenet, Telnet and email being an extreme rarity.

Soon little brown packages would begin arriving from around the globe and day after day I’d send out two high quality Maxell tapes per bootleg I wanted. There was no money exchanged. It was all for the love of the music and hearing things I had never heard of before.

Again, my parents barely batted an eye. They asked me about them and I showed them.

One time I remember my dad jokingly walking into my room as I was listening to the latest arrival and him shaking his head with “where did I go wrong with this one?” in reaction to my love of Prince.

Dad, gave me lots of great music. Billy Joel, Van Halen, The Eagles, James Taylor and Harry Chapin all come from him spinning records as we fell asleep at night. But, he could never understand where my love of Prince came from.

If you are not aware, Prince played an aftershow almost every night after a concert. Hours after he completed a concert, he would play a show at a small club.

These were famous for long jam sessions, rare tracks and him at his finest. I still remember the first time I heard Small Club, 2nd Show That Night from The Netherlands and my world never being the same again.

There are so many memories of the man, his music and the way it injected itself as a core part of my life.

When Batman came out, everyone I knew was excited about it. I love movies too so that was part of my excitement, but I was more jazzed about the soundtrack. Prince was doing a movie soundtrack!! Are you kidding me? That is gold.

Or the time in college when I had to take the shuttle into Boston because I needed to buy the Symbol album the moment it came out. Without a car this was my only choice and there was no way I wasn’t buying it the second it came out. My roommates were confused and baffled. Thankfully I had headphones so I didn’t need to listen to them.

There were always waves of popularity with Prince. He’d have a song hit the charts and suddenly everyone liked him. I loved these moments because I loved people loving him even if it was only for a song that hit the charts.

I got shit my whole life for being a Prince fan. It didn’t matter. I knew what I loved and since when have I ever rarely cared what other people thought of me?.

The bootleg days were far behind me since I was listening to CDs and the blossoming new MP3 format that was starting to come out.

Over a conversation with someone from one of my classes at Bentley the topic of Prince came up and this kid was shocked to learn I was a fan.

This happened a lot. True Prince fans loved finding others like them. There was no secret handshake, but there was an instant connection.

Chris, opened my mind again to a whole new world of bootlegs. These were not just aftershow recordings, but unreleased tracks. Studio quality stuff that had been leaked from the vault. Whole albums that were never put up for sale, but were traded around by die hard fans.

I had found gold. Lots and lots of gold!!!

If you listened to my radio show in college, visited my room or came over for a party you were exposed to Prince. Few things made a party more interesting than throwing on P Control late in the night after many drinks. I can’t help but grin thinking about some of the things that went on when that was playing.

Thankfully I saw Prince live three times in my life.

First was at DOR Constitution Hall in Washington, DC. A smallish venue and he tore the place up. Next, was front row at The Boston Garden. His guitar solo during a cover of Zeppelin’s Whole Lotta Love is still one of the most amazing performances I’ve ever seen.

The final time I saw prince was two years ago at Mohegan Sun.

I was SICK to the point of almost not going to the show. Laura had surprised me with tickets for my birthday and this is Prince, so unless I was on a stretcher I was going.

The lights went down and Janelle Monae came on stage. I had no idea she was the opening act and Laura didn’t know who she was. I was going nuts. Especially since Prince came out on stage for the opening song.

I had met Janelle the year before and instantly became a fan of her music. How could I not when it was obviously forged in the purple fire?

To give you an idea of how sick I was, as the lights came up at the end of the show I prayed to any gods listening that I would not be given a ticket to the aftershow because I didn’t know if I could survive that and if I was given one I certainly wouldn’t be able to pass it up.

Prince was an artist beyond art.

He was a man full of talent and whole lived life on his own terms.

How many men could pull off heels, fishnets and still make anyone bow down in amazement as he shredded the guitar or rocked the base.

I’ve had fun watching people share videos on social media that I’ve seen a million times. Part of it makes me sad that so many people did not realize how talented he was, but I’m glad that they are discovering it now at least.

How he died does not matter to me, but the fact that he is gone kills me.

The last celebrity death that had any real effect on me was when I heard on the radio that Kurt Cobain was gone. Strange that it happened as I was heading back to Bentley from work.

That hit me hard, but nothing like this.

With every death that happens I’ve often said in my head how I can’t imagine the day Prince dies because I know it is going to be horrible for me. I honestly thought I had many more years before that would happen, but none of have control over that.

The world lost one of its most creative last week.

There will be an endless list of tributes, posts and thoughts. I had to write mine because I had to get the words out of my head. I had to write something to remember a man who had such a big role in the man I am today.

You’ll never be able to appreciate how much he meant to me. How important his music is, was and ever shall be. I may not cloak myself in purple, but I sure am hurting inside right now.

I’ll always have his music. The world will hear more of it as the doors of his vault finally crack open at some future date.

It is impossible to explain how a stranger’s death can have such a devastating effect on me. Perhaps it is because he wasn’t a stranger to me even though I did not know him.

Rest in Peace Prince.

Thank you for all that you created.

Photo Credit: My talented friend Valerie Jardin who graciously gave me permission to use it for this post.

]]> http://www.cc-chapman.com/2016/snapchatting-while-driving-makes-you-a-dangerous-asshole/ Fri, 08 Apr 2016 12:46:51 +0000 http://www.cc-chapman.com/?p=10259 Every day I see people with one hand on the wheel of their car and the other on their phone.

They try to pay attention to the road, but every so often they’ll drift, swerve or slow down. It is obvious they can’t pay attention.

Every study has shown that it is not possible for a human to pay full attention to the road if they are using their phone.

Common sense should tell you that looking up and down away from the road is a distraction and not a good idea.

As the over twenty crowd starts using Snapchat, I’ve seen more and MORE snaps from people while they are driving.

It upset me so much that I put in place a three strikes and you’re out rule. If I see someone snap while driving three times I unfollow them.

Of course, it is very easy to notice when this happens. When a friend tries to send me a snap and they can’t it means I’m not following them and I’ve had two friends ask me straight up why I unfollowed them.

I tell them the truth. Both have given me excuses, but it doesn’t matter.

It makes me angry and sad that I’ve had to unfollow six people I care about because they are stupid enough to drive and use their phones.

If you have kids and use your phone while driving, think about the life in the back seat.

If you are in a car think about every other person around you. Every other mom, dad, son and daughter who you could injure or kill because you just had to snap, tweet or share that moment.

STOP IT!!

There is nothing important enough to endanger everyone around you. Pull over. Park. Wait until a red light even.

If you text me while I’m driving, you get an autoreply that uses the #ItCanWait hashtag because it is a campaign I want to see more people to become aware of.

I want laws to be passed to make the penalties much harsher. Locally I don’t believe the $100 fine makes anyone stop. I have yet to hear of anyone getting one of these tickets. I’d love to see the police start giving tickets for this. All they’d have to do is sit by a toll booth one day and they could write them non stop.

Only dangerous assholes drive and use their phones.

Maybe that is overly blunt, but it is how I feel. You don’t care about those around you if you do it and in my book that makes you an asshole.

To my friends reading this who do it, I still love you and usually your not an asshole, but when you do this you are. Nothing is going to change my mind. Please stop it so that no one around you is in danger from your actions anymore.

Life is short enough already. Your Snaps go away after twenty four hours and are not worth more than your or my life.

Be safe out there. PLEASE.

]]> http://www.cc-chapman.com/2016/rockagator-rg-25-40-liter-covert-series-bag-review/ Tue, 05 Apr 2016 12:05:41 +0000 http://www.cc-chapman.com/?p=10237 The outdoors are where I’m happiest and over the years I’ve had adventures of all sorts and in every sort of weather.

One of my favorite activities is canoe camping, where rule 1 is that you want everything to stay dry.

This photo is my view on a week long paddle in the Boundary Waters with my dad.

Because I don’t only hike, camp and canoe when the sun is shining I was excited to be offered a Rockagator RG-25 2nd Generation 40 liter COVERT Series bag to test and review.

If you’ve never owned a waterproof backpack, you need to understand that most are designed for function over form. That is important because you care more about things inside staying dry than you do what it looks like or how it feels when wearing.

I own several different waterproof bags and most are no more than a big waterproof bag with straps thrown on them. Everything stays dry and you only need to carry them when doing a portage or to camp every night. You don’t need to care about comfort because that isn’t what is important.

The Rockagator RG-25 though is as good looking and comfortable as it is functional.

The specifications on the RG-25 are:

• Quick Submersion waterproof
• 40 Liter Capacity
• Floats when dropped in water (when correctly sealed)
• Splash-proof front zipper pouch
• Interior Zipper Pouch to store small items
• Internal Carabiner Loop Strip so you can attach your gear inside the bag
• 20 Kg strap strength
• Elastic Mesh pockets on sides
• Welded construction for watertight seams
• Padded shoulder straps, back and lumbar
• Top Carry Handle
• Elasticized bungee

I brought it out in a New England snow storm to see how it held up and it kept everything inside dry and stayed comfortable when I wore it.

It has a single large capacity compartment, but it also has a handy small internal pocket to keep essentials in.

An outside pocket is handy as well for your phone, maps and other essentials that you don’t want to have to open up the main compartment to get to. Just know that isn’t a very large compartment.

As you can see, it also has two external mesh pockets that won’t hold a standard Nalgene size water bottle, but will easily hold the skinnier variety.

I loved that it has a variety of loops and elastic chord on the outside to strap down any items that you might want to carry and not care if it gets wet.

The external handle was a pleasant surprise too for quickly grabbing and going when you need it.

If I was to buy this for canoe camping, I’d opt for their bright yellow reflective model though because then I could use it to signal people if my adventure went south.

Those of you looking for a tactical friendly go bag that can handle the elements will be happy at the blacked out look of this bag where none of the logos scream for attention.

In my tests, no water got inside which of course is the most important thing.

I loved the padded back and solid shoulder straps. For a big guy like me, I sometimes have a hard time finding comfortable backpacks.

My only worry is how breathable it is when hiking long distances. I haven’t had time to put that to the test, but I certainly expect to use this bag on any wet adventures this spring and summer.

All in all I’m impressed with this backpack from Rockagator and I’m going to be curious to see what other products they roll out because this one is constructed so well.

Disclosure of Material Connection: I received a  RG-25 2nd Generation 40 liter COVERT Series bag for free from Rockagator, LLC as coordinated by Outdoor PR in consideration for review publication. Photos, thoughts and opinions are 100% my own.

 

]]> http://www.cc-chapman.com/2016/our-first-year-with-nadia/ Mon, 04 Apr 2016 10:50:21 +0000 http://www.cc-chapman.com/?p=10227

Dogs have a way of becoming an integrated part of yours where it is hard to remember life without them.

Today marks a year since Nadia’s ‘rescue day’ and in some ways it feels much longer and at the same time like yesterday.

Roxie passing occurred in the middle of dark days for me. On top of that, it was the worst winter we have ever had in New England so getting a new dog would have to wait until the spring.

The moment I saw Nadia on Petfinder something drew me to her. Looking back at the smug look on her adoption photo still makes me smile because she looks like a little punk.

We say quite often that she is not the dog we thought we were getting, but she is definitely a Chapman.

Currently at 34 lbs she is smaller than I’ve ever wanted a dog, but I’ve grown to love her compact size. Being able to pick up a dog at any time and everyone thinking she is eternally a puppy is fun and something I’ve never experienced before.

She loves going for walks and when I take her rucking in the woods she goes crazy. Her nose and ears never stop and I’m not sure which of her senses is better.

One thing she does that I love is play fetch. She loves to chase the ball and is quicker than most dogs she plays with. Whenever I’m having a stressful day, fifteen minutes of fetch with her and I feel better.

Working from home, I’m daily reminded of one of her traits that I love. She doesn’t bark.

Roxie use to bark at squirrels and every delivery truck. Nadia only barks when she is playing or at the shadows in the woods when she is outside. It is a nice perk of my little furry girl.

It only becomes a problem when we let her outback because she doesn’t bark to come in and we’ve all forgot her outside once or twice. Thankfully she just curls up at the top of our deck stairs and watches over the yard.

We’ve debated if she could become a lap dog because she loves to cuddle, but I grew up not letting dogs on the furniture and I’ve been flirting with the idea of a second dog and that could get out of control.

Nadia has brought endless smiles to our family over the last year and I hope we have many more years of laughs ahead of us.

You often see bumper stickers asking the question, “Who Saved Who?” and I understand those better than ever.

Adopting a pet is the best thing in the world and I’ll never understand paying for a purebred when there are so many loving animals out there that need to be rescued. If you are thinking about getting a family pet, please check your local shelter or go to Petfinder.com and look at all the adorable faces that could become part of your family.

We’ll never know what breeds Nadia is, but I get a kick out of telling people she is either “an all American Mutt” or “a Louisiana Cuddle Pup” since that is where she came from.

Thank you Nadia for being a part of our family.

]]> http://www.cc-chapman.com/2016/socialgoodclub/ Wed, 30 Mar 2016 14:44:30 +0000 http://www.cc-chapman.com/?p=10195

SocialGood.Club is a new venture that I’m the Co-Founder of with my dear friend Brad Powell.

The conversations began last year as we both found ourselves walking a career path motivated by doing more good in the world.

We both have years of experience conceiving, developing and executing marketing initiatives. The amount of content we’ve created over the years is staggering when we stopped to think about it.

This sort of work is exactly what I love doing. Consulting with companies and organizations to brainstorm a marketing strategy or campaign that makes sense for them and will deliver the results they desire.

One thing that neither of us are great at is selling sponsorships and thus our first activation #SyncYourInk during SXSW 2015 wasn’t as big as we had hoped for.

Thankfully our good friend Jeff Sass and his team at .CLUB stepped up and helped make our idea a reality. He has been a huge supporter in making this happen and we can’t thank him enough!

Our goal with the SocialGood.Club is four fold:

1. Partner with and sell products that actively practice conscious commerce. This means that the products or services are about more than just the bottom line and in some way give back. If you need an example check out Oowee Products which we are happy to be working with.
2. Develop and execute marketing campaigns for those who believe in the people, planet and profit approach to business.
3. Serve as an event space in Austin, Texas to foster gatherings of likeminded people. In addition to our weekly Gardenuity Garden Club on Tuesday nights, we are looking forward to hosting authors, musicians and other creatives whenever they come through town.
4. Raise awareness about what social good is about and why everyone from a painter to a CEO should be embracing it in the ways that make sense to them and their business.

To summarize:

SocialGood.Club is a community of brands, consumers, and socially conscious initiatives dedicated to practicing and promoting conscious commerce.

Two weeks ago on March 12,2016 during SXSW we opened our SocialGood.Club shop at 1720 Barton Springs Road in Austin, Texas.

There was live music, live art and poetry on demand. Plus, lots of hugs and congratulations from new friends and old who swung by to celebrate with us.

We were lucky enough to have a kind soul who believed in our vision loan us a vintage Airstream trailer that was updated and turned into our storefront.

I can’t begin to tell you how amazing it felt to sell our first product to a complete stranger.

We will be donating a portion of our profits to nonprofit organizations that Brad and I choose.

So far we’ve partnered with a variety of local and international companies to sell their products in our shop.

The masks, bags, hats, dog collars and other products that we are sourcing from Costa Rica are some of the most beautiful.

We are actively working on taking a trip to visit the Boruca people to further our relationship and to create more content so people can see where the money is helping directly in their community. Plus, Brad’s been and I haven’t so I’m eager to get there!

There are also hand decorated notebooks, gardening kits, laser etched bottles, a high tech meditation chair and leather beverage sleeves that you definitely want one of.

Our stock changes all of the time so come on down and enjoy a variety of great food from The Picnic and shop the store.

Speaking of food, we are excited to announce our campaign with Mighty Fine Burgers to raise money for No Kid Hungry. You buy a gift card and a local family gets a meal. Everyone wins.

We are still very much a bootstrapped organization driven by heart and a determination that there has to be like-minded companies out there. If we can help you in some way please reach out.

You can follow us on Instagram, Twitter and Facebook and any day between 12-7 swing by the shop and say hello to Brad.

This has been a long time coming and while I know it won’t be easy, I know in my heart that it is a piece of the bigger puzzle that is my life.

]]> http://www.cc-chapman.com/2016/technology-shouldnt-replace-your-humanity/ Tue, 29 Mar 2016 11:41:09 +0000 http://www.cc-chapman.com/?p=10191

Technology empowers us to do amazing things.

We can connect with people around the world. We can form businesses together. We can create together.

But, with all the technology around us, many of you are losing your way and giving in to the automated tools to run your lives.

Yesterday, I added SocialGood.Club to my LinkedIn profile and instantly the automated messages of congratulations began coming in.

If you didn’t know, the LinkedIn app has a handy setting where with two clicks it’ll send a canned congratulations message to someone when they share news.

Sure, this makes it easy for you to let someone know you are thinking of them (kind of), but I can tell you that when your inbox looks like the image above it does nothing positive for the person receiving them.

In my mind you look lazy. You look desperate. You opted to use your thumb and five seconds instead of using your fingers and thirty seconds of your time to say congratulations in your own words.

Back in December I watched a similar thing happen when my birthday came up on Facebook.

Technology continues to make our lives easier and I love it. But, no matter how powerful the technology around us becomes, we should never lose the basics that make us human.

Thank you to those people who did take the time to send me a quick note, text or comment to say congratulations. I appreciated every single one of them.

Don’t forget to be a good person.

Humans are pretty damn awesome too.

 

]]> http://www.cc-chapman.com/2016/connected-worry/ Tue, 22 Mar 2016 12:58:58 +0000 http://www.cc-chapman.com/?p=10185

Another morning starts with the news of another attack.

They’ve become too common and with the global climate as it is, I don’t see them slowing down.

My heart aches. My brain goes into overdrive.

Of course at the same time I think about my kids and my family. We’ve talked about how to react and what to do if ever faced with something like this.

I’m a firm believer in being prepared.

But, this morning as I thought about it I realized that Emily doesn’t currently have her phone.

Today, the phone is a vital connection device and her not having it that could cause problems if something went wrong.

Butterfly effect in full force.

A modern day parental dilemma.

If you take away a phone for even a day are you causing more stress to them or to you?

My heart goes out to those directly effected by the tragic events today. I’ve been checking in with friends and so far everyone I know in the area is ok.

It is a sad reality that this is the world we live in. These are the things parents have to think about every day.

A hug and an “I love you” as you close the door every morning.

A bit of worry always in the back of my mind.

Be safe out there.

]]> http://www.cc-chapman.com/2016/sxsw-was-exactly-what-i-hoped-it-would-be/ Thu, 17 Mar 2016 13:22:07 +0000 http://www.cc-chapman.com/?p=10174

SXSW is a festival of culture and creativity. My words, not theirs.

Up front, know that I’m an Advisor to SXSW. This means that every year I set aside several hours and go through and judge panels. In return, I’m given a free badge to attend. All other costs are on my dime.

I know that this week there will be posts about the good and the bad. How next year some people won’t be attending. How the glory days are over.

The funny thing is that most of these will be written from the perspective of marketers. A group of people that this festival was never created for, but has certainly embraced.

This year at SXSW I learned about how the NFL is embracing sustainability, talked to a robot that is helping with elder care and giggled at real time emoji clouds from live monitoring of the primaries.

I had an amazing steak with a dear friend, chatted with a Bad Robot producer over drinks and made several new connections that I hope turn into business.

Sure there were big marketing installations and for the most part I kept walking by. The thought of standing in line for hours to possibly win something makes zero sense to me when there is so much else going on around the next corner.

We opened up our SocialGood.Club shop and even with the #SXGood crowd once again ignoring us, we planted the seeds for a lot of good in the future.

Plus, every time someone talked to me about my “activation” I was given the chance to explain to them that it was far from just that. (More on that in a separate post.)

I had the pleasure of talking to people about Digaboom, Wediko and Bentley everywhere I went.

The conversations you hear and the contacts you make is where the magic is.

There are too many panels and too much information, but that is why this is a festival and not a conference. It is up to you to prioritize what you must see and then go and check it out.

The fact that I can be learning about the expressive nature of tattoos one minute and the next learning how Nascar is using Snapchat at the same event is inspiring to me.

I approach SXSW with an open mind, a soon to be filled notebook and the willingness to see where the weekend takes me.

People need to stop looking for the next breakout _______ and instead focus on getting exposed to all that is on the horizon.

I enjoy riding the bleeding edge of the wave and SXSW always gives me a peek into the next several years (and beyond) to see what I might want to focus on and try out.

Thank you SXSW for once again refueling my fire and giving me focus and inspiration for the months ahead.

See you next March.

]]> http://www.cc-chapman.com/2016/lamb-or-lion-i-do-not-know/ Mon, 07 Mar 2016 14:00:31 +0000 http://www.cc-chapman.com/?p=10166

Some days start with a bunch of little things that get in the way of getting off on the right foot.

Today was certainly one of those.

Nothing earth shattering. Nothing to worry about.

But, still as I try to find focus, be productive and get ready for the day ahead these little things pile up and get in the way of the brain doing what it is suppose to be doing.

I teach today and tomorrow and then Thursday I’m off to Austin for SXSW. The time there will be a mix of all that makes SXSW what it is.

I need to come home with at least one new client or else the trip won’t be worth it.

Laura and I spent some time this weekend looking at the summer ahead. Amazing how fast and full it can become without even blinking.

Last night Nadia slept for the first time without her crate door shut. It is a little thing, but a big one in the life of a pup.

March is off to a good start all around and the rest of the month I hope goes even better.

Lambs or Lions? No idea yet.

]]> http://www.cc-chapman.com/2016/savor-or-binge/ Fri, 04 Mar 2016 13:39:02 +0000 http://www.cc-chapman.com/?p=10158

To savor or to binge?

That is a question I face this weekend as the new season of House of Cards is now live on Netflix.

Last season I tried to savor it a bit. To let it breath and take my time with it.

I made Season 3 last a full week and then it was done.

I try to keep my consumption to no more than three episodes at a time and with everything else going on in my life that is usually very easy.

The kids tell me I’m crazy for even raising the question. They are the binge culture and hate waiting to see what happens next week.

Thankfully, I’m off to do a photoshoot this morning so the temptation (and the decision) is set aside until tonight at the earliest.

I know I’ll watch at least the first episode tonight and then we’ll see where it goes from there.

Everything in moderation is perfect advice for life. I want to have the will power to stretch this out and enjoy it for every amazing moment that I know it will contain.

Wish me luck.

]]> http://www.cc-chapman.com/2016/snapchat-stress/ Thu, 03 Mar 2016 15:00:51 +0000 http://www.cc-chapman.com/?p=10148 Watching people stress over how to use any new social network or tool gives me the giggles.

Snapchat of course is the latest one that is confusing so many.

“I just don’t know how I’m going to use it?”

“It is too confusing for me to figure out so I don’t see the point.”

“I can’t figure out how to use this for marketing.”

All real statements I’ve read, seen or watched over the past few weeks.

Remember when something new would come on the scene and people would simply play with it? Install it on their phones, click around, babble and just see what they got out of it.

Whenever I get something new to play with that is exactly what I do. I usually end up posting some stupid stuff, making mistakes and sharing it with the world.

I do this because I’m comfortable enough not to worry about “my brand” or “how can I leverage this for clients” because I know in the beginning it is not about any of that.

It is about play and experimentation.

Of course in the back of my head I’m always wondering how I can use everything to help my clients. But, I don’t allow that to get in the way of the creative fun.

Before my class Tuesday night at Bentley, I set up a custom geofilter for my class so that I could have my students experiment with it. We all got a good laugh out of it and while I didn’t see what they posted, I hope they enjoyed it.

With everything going on in the world, it makes me shake my head what some people choose to worry and stress about.

Take a deep breath and play.

And don’t forget that the uninstall button is never far away and I promise life will go on for you.

]]> http://www.cc-chapman.com/2016/what-was-so-super-about-yesterday/ Wed, 02 Mar 2016 13:50:22 +0000 http://www.cc-chapman.com/?p=10141

Gloomy and gray is how we find ourselves this morning in the woods outside of Boston.

Nothing was “super” about yesterday. It was more of standard issue Tuesday according to my sources.

Macklemore & Ryan Lewis are pumping out of my speakers. The new album isn’t as ‘up’ as the last one, but tons of artistic commentary which I’m glad to hear.

We need more artists in all mediums to step up and address the topics of the day. A post in my head is brewing about how we might see more of this in the coming months as our country becomes more divided.

My plans to get outside today to take aerial photographs with the drone are sidelined by Mother Nature. It is ok, I still love her.

Instead, I’ll focus on a magazine article that is due, a requested blog post and perhaps putting the final touches on the latest draft of a book proposal. That sounds like a productive day to me.

I’m going to create. I’m going to do.

You should too.

]]> http://www.cc-chapman.com/2016/the-power-of-three-words/ Tue, 01 Mar 2016 13:48:12 +0000 http://www.cc-chapman.com/?p=10132

Your Work Matters.

Those were the three words that hit me right in the heart and soul.

It was a short email. It was a response to an equally quick email that I sent to someone never expecting a response.

I consume more than I create and that is problem.

It is a problem I’ve been trying to deal with and have been losing at.

Consuming a recent video, the person being interviewed talked about how too many people get fulfillment from clicking, sharing and commenting that it gets in the way of them actually doing.

BOOM!

Yup, I’ve been there. I call it “getting lost in the clickstream” and some days I give in and float down the constant river of drivel that hits my screen.

At the end of the day I look back and wonder what I accomplished. The truth being almost nothing.

Your Work Matters.

Building things from scratch use to mean chopping down a tree and making something of it. We use to grow the vegetables, raise the animal and then cook our meals.

Today, I create with my fingers, eyes and heart. I almost never create with my hands.

Building companies, creating movements, trying to make a difference in the world.

All of this is great for my soul, but not always for my wallet.

How can I get paid for this? Why isn’t someone sponsoring this and throwing their money away on that?

These questions plague me as I push forward and continue to find a way to make it all work.

Your Work Matters.

Some days all it takes is an email to make the little black raincloud go away.

These three words from someone I admire and respect have become a new mantra for me.

A daily reminder that what I’m doing is with a goal in mind. It is with a purpose. It is never for the clicks. Never for the glory. It is for the good.

Tonight I’ll enter a classroom like I do every Tuesday night. It might not be the arena, but for the 150 minutes I’m in there I give it my all.

The calendar flipped to March this morning. SXSW is on the horizon and I wonder what those few days in Austin will hold. They certainly aren’t holding what I’ve been trying to make them hold for months, but I know I’m going to leave there with a full heart and a renewed soul.

Creating fuels me. Thinking turns me on.

Some days all it takes is three little words to kick start you in the right direction.

YOUR WORK MATTERS.

]]> http://www.cc-chapman.com/2016/onegin/ Fri, 26 Feb 2016 15:48:36 +0000 http://www.cc-chapman.com/?p=10118

Last night Emily and I enjoyed opening night for The Boston Ballet’s season with a performance of Onegin.

We were invited as press and given two free tickets to attend the show.

Ballet is an art form that I never fully appreciated until we began to attend performances on a semi-regular basis. With every performance I see, my appreciation of it grows.

Onegin is based on Alexander Pushkin’s narrative poem telling the story of unrequited love in the high society of Russia.

First performed in America by the Boston Ballet in 1994, it has quickly become a favorite of audiences and dancers, everywhere.

What I’ve learned to appreciate most about ballet is that an emotional story can be told through only dance and music. That is not an easy task to do and last night it was a powerful moment to feel the emotions pouring forth from the dancers on stage.

This darkly emotional performance is easily the best I have ever seen and honestly makes me want to see more ballet.

It is full of themes that anyone can relate to. The first pings of young love and then being pushed away by the object of your affection. Making decisions that you regret for the rest of your life and when hope shines in the direction of redemption only to never arrive.

Onegin is running until only March 6th, so buy tickets now if you want to catch this bit of beauty.

Of course, The Boston Ballet has a full season this year including Kaleidoscope, Swan Lake and Mirrors.

Thank you to The Boston Ballet for providing me with these photos beautiful photos taken by Gene Schiavone and inviting us to the show.

These Daddy & Daughter Dates are always special experiences for Emily and I.

]]> http://www.cc-chapman.com/2016/eartheasy-lifestraw-go-filtered-water-on-the-go/ Thu, 25 Feb 2016 13:01:58 +0000 http://www.cc-chapman.com/?p=10107

I’m much happier outdoors than I’ll ever be behind a desk. When I was asked if I’d be interested in reviewing the LifeStraw Go from Eartheasy, I instantly said yes.

From the moment I first heard of the original LifeStraw I was intrigued.

I’ve been backpacking and camping for years and know how important it is to filter your water. After my trip to Ghana in 2012, I had a new appreciation for the importance of clean drinking water when I traveled.

My family bought me a LifeStraw for Christmas a few years ago and I carry it in my ruck whenever I’m out hiking as a backup to our standard water filter.

The problem with the straw is I have to be at a water source to use it.

It is great to stick in a cold mountain stream and suck water through, but later when I’m no where near water it isn’t helpful.

The LifeStraw Go is a water bottle with a built in water filter. All the features of the original with the added value of being able to take the water with you.

I first tried it out around the house. Thankfully it does not add any flavor to the water and it is easy to suck the water through the filter.

It went with us on a family ruck  and performed great. Putting water into it and drinking it didn’t make me sick so I’m taking that as a good sign the filters work.

The water bottle is slim at only 9.25” (235 mm) long and 3.14” (80 mm) in diameter so it fits into almost any outside pocket you might have on your bag. Holding 22oz is plenty since you can refill it from any water source you find.

One small addition I’d like them to add is a fill line on the bottle so that you remember not to fill it up past that and splash water all over yourself when you stick the filter back in.

The LifeStraw Go comes with an attached carabiner that is useful to clip onto your pack so you don’t lose the water bottle if you are going through rough terrain or suffer a fall.

All in all, I was impressed with the product and know that I’ll bring it on my global adventures in the future and use it with confidence.

Also, I’m a fan of the companies practice of donating water to children in need for every product purchased. Follow the liters here to learn more.

Glad I got to try this out and I know it’ll get plenty of use this summer when I hit the trails.

Disclosure of Material Connection: I received a LifeStraw Go for free from Eartheasy as coordinated by Outdoor PR in consideration for review publication.

]]>