Month: December 2017

Corporate Communications

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I worked for my family’s business for a while. It is a communications company, installing phone systems for businesses. Some of the best saying in business I learned from working there.  One of my favorites was from my Dad.  I’m not sure where he got this gem, but he would say  “The ass you kick on the way up the latter is the same ass you will kiss on the way down .”  My dad is great at saying, he has a great Irish wit.  He actually used that ass kick/kiss line in a corporate letter to one of his suppliers.

His business letters were epic.  One time I was going out to Arizona for training.  The class was a two week certification course, and many of the technicians went to the class before I did.  I can’t remember what happened, but the my father was upset with the school and wrote them a letter.  In the letter he complained about the cost of the class, and he closed the letter with “All this money spent for a school that doesn’t even have a football team!”  He sent that letter out before I attended the class, and when I got there plenty of employees told me they passed that letter around the office.  He was sort of a legend.

About a month ago I got a call from a marketing company, All Points Media.  They asked me if I wanted to use their envelopes for when I pay people in cash.  I wasn’t interested, but the man said “What if I pay you $50 or $100” so I said yes.  He took my information and said he would send me $50, so I said “Send me the $100, why would I take $50 when you said $50 or $100” so he laughed and sent me the envelopes.

When I got the envelopes, he asked me to send him photos of the display.  He emailed me this…cash jacket sample pic

And followed up with this text….

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I was thinking about my Dad’s letters, so this is what I sent back.

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I thought it was funny to send a “Hit the Dab” picture with the envelopes taped to my chest.  I figured he would get a laugh.IMG_9784

I am glad to have made someone laugh, and pass the communications through out his office.  I guess I am following that Hurley tradition of non traditional corporate communications 🙂

Fake it till you make it

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It is just about my 4th anniversary of being totally on my own.  It almost seems like a lifetime away, and such a difference in my life.

The first week in December in 2014, I decided to “fire” all my employees.  I technically can’t call them employees, and because I am still being sued, but I have no other vocabulary to use with the guy who used to work at my shop.

I can remember how scared I was the first day, week, and month when I was out on my own.  I had no idea if I could make it on my own.  I still have moments, but there is nothing like walking into your shop, having your own business.

My friend Nick just did this profile on me and he sent it to me on a day that was sorta slow.  I day I  made no money.  Watching this made me feel proud again.  It didn’t matter that I made zero that day, some days you  make nothing, but there is always potential.

I watch this and think about how far I have come.  The day I opened the shop myself, I was petrified.  I was afraid of failure, but failure was not an option.  I wouldn’t exactly say today that  I made it * but I can guarantee I won’t quit until I do.

 

**Making it to me would be having a car with heated seats.  I don’t know why I feel that is so luxurious, but I do.

Wet Cement

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Strange things can spark a memory.

There has been a ton of construction in Warren, and it seems like most of it at my front door.  This week, the city decided to redo my sidewalk.

Looking at that wet cement reminded me of my childhood. I remember when my father put an addition on the house I grew up in.  In the cement he placed a penny and drew a shamrock.  Irish Pride.  But my dad is married to my Portuguese mother.  When my mom found out he put a shamrock, she was angry there was nothing to represent her heritage.  So my dad went back and added a bowl of Portuguese soup in his drawing.

I went back to that house I grew up in (now abandoned and  possibly condemned).  I couldn’t find the bowl of soup or the shamrock, but I did find the coin.  1981, it has turned green from oxidation.

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I also found this with my brother sister’s names

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I am sure my name was there somewhere, I just couldn’t find it.

I did find it a few streets up at my Aunt’s house.  I remember this day like yesterday!  It was in 1990, 27 years ago!  It is amazing how fast those years went.

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My uncle was doing a patio in the yard and he let us all put our hand and foot prints in the wet cement.  My cousins and me and my sister put our signatures.

So when I saw the sidewalk getting poured next to my store, I couldn’t let an opportunity like this pass.

I wanted to do a coin because I am a coin shop.  One of my favorite thing to follow on instagram is accounts of hobo nickel carvers.  There are some amazing artists carving coins, and it combines 2 things I love, coins and art.  I have even commissioned one coin, a morgan Silver Dollar, from “Hobo Shane” for my shop…

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My store mascot “Zippy” coin was carved in under a day.

(If you are interested in hobo nickels, check out “Roman Booteen” one of the most incredible artist I have even seen)

I figured I would be able to carve my initials pretty easily……WRONG.  Here is my attempt at carving my initials in a coin..

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This is “TLH” with the “L” running through the “H”.  I probably was using the wrong tools, but I decided to put the coin in the cement.  I figured I would do “TH” as well.  It was sort of hard because there were police directing traffic and the sidewalk had caution tape all over it, so this is how it came out.

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The town will be coming back in the spring to fill in the space between the sidewalk and my parking lot, so I will have another opportunity then.  In doing this, I found this website where people post things they find in cement.  Awesome Wet Cement Check it out.  I am already thinking about what to put in the cement next…a lego mini figure? If you have any suggestion, let me know.