Today was the 366th day I’ve lived in San Francisco. I’ve promised this “one year in SF” to you guys and it’s 74% complete (more details soon). In honor of this San Franniversary, I went to my favorite cafe to work away from the office. I generally find myself at the cafe once a week because it’s a chance to focus, relax and immerse myself in work accompanied by coffee. Sugar Cafe has become the spot for many of the tech crowd to hang out and get work done on weekdays so it’s not uncommon to see at least one person that I know sipping a latte’ and pounding away on a MacBook. Today was different and solidified the huge progress I’ve made in a very short time.
My final task today and something that was optional but really had to get done was that I needed a haircut / shave. My hair and face have gotten out of control and it looks totally unprofessional so I wanted to get a haircut today before the barber closed at 6:30PM.
I awoke at 7AM and took care of emails until 8:30. I always get to inbox zero first thing in the morning (knocking out about 60 messages) before I even start my day. After a shower and bagel, it was off to Sugar Cafe for coffee and GTD (Getting Things Done). My first “break” came at 10AM when Kaushal Jhalla recognized me and sat down for a chat. Both of us shared our current projects and I think we both contributed greatly from the chat as we semi-scheduled to meet again to make more progress on our ideas.
Around 12:30, I was going to leave for Subway and also get my haircut. My latte was finished and suddenly, Marissa Louie recognized me and we chatted about her company Ad-Village and how well it was going. She was there with her team and they were doing some serious co-working. After half an hour of chatting, I had missed my hair appointment and rescheduled for 3:30PM.
Marissa came to me and asked if I could chat with her team and give some pointers on social media and community building. Of course and I planned to come by in a few minutes but time slipped and I realized my appointment was soon and as I left she grabbed me and my 5 minute “pep talk” turned into a 1 hour coaching session on social networking that I would normally have to schedule in advance for but Marissa is a friend so I really enjoyed talking to a team of 6 people on my strategies and day to day focus for my job.
I rescheduled for 5PM with my barber and I had a 5:45 Meeting at Zannel so everything was working out but as I left, Jacob Morgan who I haven’t seen in ages grabbed me and soon we were strategizing about doing some co-marketing of our books, doing some Twitter Day camps and exchanging tips on personal branding. I went to leave and realized it was 5:10PM.
I quickly went to the barber and they all full for the rest of the day, I grabbed my bike and headed over to Zannel for our weekly meeting and left at 6:30. I actually pushed back two other meetings today as well due to Yoono things and my week is already full of meetings. Yes I’m in “business” and yep I’m pretty busy.
When I moved to San Francisco, I never expected to go to a cafe at 9AM and take part in 4 impromptu meetings in one day but it happened and it’s on this day, my 1 year in SF that I realize I’m on the right path and things are in place for an expanded career full of opportunities. Of course, I now need to figure out how to monetize it all. Sigh.