Dynamic Duo Events

Engaging Team Building Events

Greg Cleverley and I have launched a new business to produce fun, creative, and wholesome corporate team building events!

The best way to describe it is the Tonight Show meets Minute to Win It games.

Greg organizes the fun, one-minute games that are as goofy as they are challenging (stack as many chocolate donuts on your forehead as you can without them falling off...) and provides humorous interlude as I try to keep the train on the tracks hosting and making deals with audience members (who has a bobby pin in their purse?).

Attendees will remember the event for the fun challenges and the camaraderie, as well as relish a chance to see coworkers in a different light.

Team work, unity, and employee engagement all increase!

Click here to learn more.

21 Questions for 21 Olympians: Jessica Smith

The work of interviewing Olympians rolls on!

What a grand experience to learn from the trials and triumphs of successful people like Olympians.

Last week I was able to interview Jessica Smith, a speed skater. She competed in the 2014 Sochi Games.

The theme I'm noticing with the female athletes I've interviewed is that they had someone or others in their lives with whom they were trying to keep up. Jessica's dad, her first coach when she was roller skating - Jessica makes it clear this was on 4 wheels, not even inline skates - would tell her to go catch the older kids. He never let her settle or take a pass.

When she was 12 she was competing against and beating 16-year olds. She had a successful career in inline skating, but after accomplishing just about all she could in that sport, she was ready for a new challenge and decided to switch to speed skating so she could compete in the Olympics.

One of her most painful moments was in 2010 when she attended the Games as an alternate. She wanted to be skating so badly; it hurt to be the alternate watching the others compete.

Watch for her story and others when I launch the book next spring, "21 Questions for 21 Olympians."

Detroit, Camp Bow Wow, Frozen Custard, Dating

Camp Bow Wow

While running in Detroit this week I saw this.

It’s always great to see Heidi Ganahl’s Camp Bow Wow locations when I’m out and about. Looks like all is fine at this one! If you didn’t catch it, Heidi spoke at TEDx. Amazing woman.

Erma's Frozen Custard Detroit

Here's something else I enjoyed while in Detroit.

Pretty good custard, a B- grade. Was smooth and tasty, but not knock-your-socks-off. I enjoyed it while watching the sunset, people watching, and texting with friends.

Best frozen custard EVER: Witt’s Frozen Custard just outside of Columbus, Ohio, and Farr’s Frozen Custard in Sandy, UT. Witt’s is undoubtedly the best mixed/concrete custard there is. Farr’s is undoubtedly the tastiest, smoothest, and creamiest.

I also had some frozen custard from Custard & Co. this week in Detroit. Sad to say, but after a few bites I wasn’t interested. It was too creamy, too rich. Of course I didn’t let that stop me from finishing nearly the entire cup, but it wasn’t awesome. C grade.

Why did I nearly finish it when it wasn’t that good? Because it’s frozen custard. Why should I have stopped a lot sooner? Because I’m trying to get back into the shape in which I feel (and look) the best.

I’ve been food cheating about 3-4 times per week while at the same time being calorie deficit (sometimes by over 500) the other 3-4 days per week through running, lifting weights, riding my bike, swimming, basketball, softball, and or football (sometimes doing 2 and 3 of those things per day).

All I really need to do is maintain a daily calorie deficit of 300 while working out and I’ll be where I want to. But it’s a little “hard” right now since I’m in an emotional place that’s not all that comfortable so I’m compensating with food…

LDS Temple Detroit

I’m journaling about this emotional place to get clarity, as well as praying, so I was also here this week.

I have a friend in my neighborhood who is really attractive. I enjoyed spending time with her last weekend.

I have a friend in Arizona who is REALLY attractive. I’ve been communicating with her for a few months about the really important things in life. We’ve shared each other’s loads, have lifted each other up, have shared compliments, and most importantly, have shared God’s love and a pure, friendly connection. I met her for the first time last Friday. It was AWESOME. A great hug, more great hugs, a nice time talking and holding hands in a friendly way. After I left, she said it felt like I took a piece of her with me. After I left, I could still feel a piece of her with me.

I had a GREAT hug with the friend in my neighborhood as well. Of course, I can be friends with both, but at what point am I a little dishonest playing out two different tracks?

I wrote a blog a few months ago (if I ever get my blogs back you’ll be able to read it) about going with the flow. I can’t just go with the physical flow on this one because even though there is nothing physical beyond hugging, I feel like I have to be emotionally full of integrity and can only give such attention to one person.

And that’s just the latest emotional struggle. I’m still trying to get emotionally whole from a lifetime of not being and I’m trying to ensure I’m healing from divorce the right way.

I hope this is the kind of stuff my friend Tracy meant when she said this is what I should really write about…it feels a little weird, but as a social researcher I should also be looking objectively at myself, no?

Oh, by the way, I interviewed another Olympian. Watch for that post.

Flu, Strep, Airport Delays

Thursday: Felt the beginning of a cold (I get one about 3 times a year. Sure, I travel so it's to be expected, but really, 3 times?). Swam, played a bit of softball, and played an hour of basketball that night. Fitful sleep. Friday: Yep, it's a cold. Body sore from basketball - it happens when you get old like me. Ran kids around all day, watched my son's theatre performance - Loved it! He's funny, has great presence, and stole the show with his dancing. Fitful sleep.

Saturday: Played a little pick up football with friends. Ran hard and lots. Swam with kids and swam laps. A friend helped me fix up my bike. Went to a going away party for a friend and got in bed a little later than I hoped. Fitful sleep.

Sunday: Woke up at 3 am to go to bathroom, was shaking uncontrollably from being cold. Got into bed still shaking. My son heard the noises and came to check on me. He helped me get water and medicine, then suggested we say a prayer for me. Before he even started, I felt better and slept through the night.

Woke up feeling AWFUL. Had to get the kids to their mom's house and wanted to go to church. Took the kids, went to an hour of church alternating between cold and sweaty, then went home to bed. Slept most of the day, had a headache tylenol couldn't touch, finally felt a little relieved toward the end of the day, but totally exhausted. Got a priesthood blessing and took all the home remedies I could stand.

Monday: Woke up feeling SO much better, but my throat hurt pretty badly. Had to travel to CA for work, so on the plane I decided to see why my throat hurt so badly. Saw white spots on my tonsils... I talked with my friend, a P.A., who suggested strep. Yeah! Traveling and strep. Good combo, right Milkowski?

-----We interrupt this blog post with updated information!!!-----

Hilariously, my computer DIED the next morning after getting home 3.25 hours late from a delayed flight!

Boy do I feel better physically, though. I even spent some time at the pool during a break from training today.

Blogging About Real Life

Two months ago I was in San Francisco and had dinner with a friend, Tracy. As we talked about my life and what was new, she commented that that is the kind of stuff I should write about. Apparently my books, as insightful and intriguing as I think they are, pale in comparison to my personal life (really? The World's Most Interesting Man...).

So, here's a little personal dish, albeit very belated since I've had the problems I have with the website and blogging.

I attended the symphony two months ago with a friend Christy. Not only do I love the symphony and was so happy to be sitting in that concert hall listening and watching, I had some very important and deep conversations with Christy. We talked about relationships and the associated pain when they going south, as well as how to work through that.

We also talked about how we both feel that since we're attuned to interpersonal relations that everything in that area of our lives should just work smoothly. Yet, there is a chasm between what we would like and reality. That chasm is known as life.

Even though Christy and I understand some things about how to be emotionally whole and how to not get wrapped up in relationships and invested in the outcome we both do it. Why do we do that? Because it's natural. We seek to control what we inherently cannot, and we seek for outcomes that we feel will best suit us. Luckily, there's a greater force at play and He always gives us what we really need.

Tracy was so insightful during dinner when she said that we ought not to become emotionally invested in the outcome, because it's not our outcome. Christy highlighted this point when she mentioned that toward the end of a recent relationship she got caught up in caring more about the outcome than in sharing her truth.

I could relate because of a recent situation. I wasn't sure whether or not I should share my truth so while I couldn't decide I just let the situation play out naturally. Fortunately, I've gotten to a place of more emotional wholeness and have disassociated myself from the desired outcome. I'm learning and growing every day.

 

Website Updates

Website is coming together. I've hired someone to find the old blog posts and reinstate them. Hopefully it works well since I spent the greater part of yesterday beating my head against the wall yet one more time chasing rabbits down paths that yielded nothing. Yet it's all part of the process and I'm happy to be on it!  

Updating website

Hey There! I'm updating this website after a hack and hosting provider move, attempting to see if I can restore my previous blog posts. Until then, I ask for your patience with the limited content here and encourage you to come back in a week or two to see what's new! (or rather, old, since it's the historical blog posts I'm looking to restore).

In the meantime, if you'd like to learn more about me and what I do, click around the site. The link for Corporate Entertainer isn't yet active, but will be soon.

Thanks for visiting.

Brandon

Overcome vs. Change Course

One significant challenge after another.

That's what the process of getting my website where I want it has been. And as you can see, I'm nowhere near close.

For about a year I stopped blogging because my hosting provided kept blocking my IP address as part of preventing brute force attacks - I guess that's where robots attack my site. In addition, I wasn't very happy with the layout of my site, but couldn't find a WordPress them I liked.

I finally decided to switch hosting providers so I could blog again and manage my own site. At the same time I stubbled onto a theme I liked. I bought the theme, customized my website, starting blogging, and was getting ready to make the switch.

Then the war against me getting a good site up and running began.

First, I wasn't able to make a backup of my website through the plugin I had installed. No biggie, I'll just use another one. So I installed it and tried to use it. No luck.

What did happen, though, was my site was hacked and the hack used code in that new plugin to prevent me from logging into my site. The hosting provider was somewhat helpful in getting the issue resolved, but I still had to chase down the issue with them and the plugin maker, costing me time and effort. Once that issue was resolved, however, the hack used another plugin to prevent me from logging in.

Once we disabled all plugins I was able to log in.

Next, I needed login and FTP credentials from my friend who was the primary account holder with the existing hosting provider. Since he's busy and has a few other things going on, it took a little time. Plus, I didn't give him the right info in the first place to give me all that I needed.

Eventually, I got the right credentials.

Stacey, at GoDaddy, the new hosting provider, was so helpful in answering my questions a week earlier when I called about switching, that I wanted to give her the credit for the sale. We had trouble connecting on the day I was ready to make the switch, so I had to wait a day later than I wanted to to get going.

Not a big deal, but one more setback.

When we got the hosting set up and I was able to make a copy of my database, I used the credentials necessary to migrate my website. What should have been a simple one click migration was not. Once again, it took time and effort to figure out what was wrong and that it wasn't going to work. It took three calls to figure out it wasn't going to work.

Note the frustration mounting...

That wasn't all. When we tried to migrate through the alternate, longer way, the database didn't transfer correctly, the WordPress contents folder didn't transfer correctly, and the website theme didn't transfer correctly.

Ugh.

GoDaddy support looked into it, had me try the migration again and we got a temporary site up and running. One problem - it was only functioning at about 40% of the way it should, since the theme still wasn't working.

I emailed the theme provider to get some insight and they gave me an idea of what to look into for the fix. When they responded, I was fortunately (unfortunately?) heading out on vacation, so I forwarded that email to Stacey asking her to forward it on to technical support so they could work on it while I was away. That didn't work out so well.

When I got back from vacation I called GoDaddy support to reengage the process. You can imagine, given the issues, how excited I was to do that. My energy to deal with this, though fresh back from vacation, was waning.

Through some additional phone calls and emails, it became clear that GoDaddy did what they could and the theme provider gave as much support as they were going to and my best option was to wipe the existing content and start over.

No biggie. I had only spent 40 hours or more getting my site to a point where I felt comfortable with it before migrating...

When I wiped and started over, there were still problems!!!

I emailed the theme provider and called GoDaddy, and luckily GoDaddy support was able to resolve it.

Now I'm rebuilding the site and have to figure out how to import all of the blogs from the last 4 years.

No luck yet.

At this point, however, I'm wondering what the message is.

Should I keep trying to overcome or change course? Is the reward going to be all the greater since the struggle was hard or am I wasting my time?

At the same time, I'm having difficulty getting in touch with Olympians to interview for my next book AND a new business line I'm launching is being held up by some things. In similar circumstances, some of the millionaires I interviewed pressed through while some changed course. One of the questions I asked them during the interviews was how to know when to keep going and when to do something different.

There was no clear answer.

I think it comes down to one of the main points I learned from them and was reinforced by my wonderful friend and colleague, Juliann Wiese as she and I talked yesterday. She said, "I trust that whatever the right answer is, you'll make it."

I trust that, too. If I don't smash my computer first...