Close Your Gmail Tab Right Now!

In addition to Jamblr, I am also Founder and CEO of a multi-dimensional entertainment company called Endagon Entertainment Group. Needless to say, I see a large influx of emails everyday, ranging anywhere from job applications to messages from family members. I use to let email control my life, thinking I had to be that guy that replied right away to make sure things were constantly progressing. Now I have my iPhone for that.

I have to admit that I am still on my iPhone too much. Whenever an important message comes in to me outside of office hours, I find it hard to resist replying right away, especially if it is an important business matter. Because of my addiction to iPhone emailing, I have found myself being more productive at the office simply by closing my Gmail tab throughout the day. As usual, I still start the morning rummaging through emails but then quickly move on to more important tasks.

I highly recommend that everyone avoid being “that guy” that is always anticipating the next email to come in. This addiction ruins lives and I am very proud to say that I overcame it. Now, my Remember the Milk list is demolished every day and I have more time to focus on those tasks that are much more important to me and my company, including Jamblr.

Surviving a Storm

As I write this, I am sitting at home looking out my front window as Tropical Storm Fay pummels through Orlando. While this storm was blown out of proportion, we still closed our offices in anticipation of horrible weather. This tropical storm comes at an interesting time in the jamblr life cycle. In an odd way, Fay represents the potential for something big being formed or a disastrous moment for jamblr.

As struggles continue, ground is still being gained as we all make sure we are doing our parts to ensure success for jamblr. Whether that be procuring the funds needed, meeting important people, or recruiting worthy web developers, every small feat should be seen as important one. However, the time everything has taken has caused a few members of our team to question and doubt the future of the site. That is never a good thing.

For me, it has always been about outweighing the negatives with the positives. In a sense, things are still moving smoothly. It’s just that the rapidity isn’t there right now. With patience and continued passion for the project, I remain confident everything will work out in the end. We have some pretty exciting events happening this week, as a matter of fact.

Tropical Storm Fay may not destroy Orlando, just as our team’s emotional storms will not ruin our project. We will continue to truck on with what we believe in and hopefully I will have some pretty exciting news to announce by next week. Stay tuned…

Reaching Out

The entire founding team of jamblr has struggled endlessly to solidify new relationships, secure funding, and nurture family friends, relatives, and any other leads that could potentially help out with the venture. The last of these aforementioned tasks, although unexpectedly so, has been the most difficult to execute.

Have you ever asked your grandmother for thousands of dollars? Have you ever begged your uncle for one of their wealthy friend’s contact information? Believe it or not, doing these things have been one of the hardest elements of building Jamblr. You don’t want to ruin relationships or sever ties with the important people in your life by approaching these situations unprofessionally. There is a very fine line between being a loved one and receiving the business respect that you need to form any type of partnership.

At Jamblr, we have had many opportunities to meet with friends of friends, and even direct relatives of our founders in order to keep the ball rolling. Even the fortunate opportunity to reach out to individuals already in the tech industry has helped out a great deal. Whenever we are given a shot to whisper the word “jamblr” into anyone’s ear, we have taken it. And that is what will allow jamblr to be successful down the road.

As we approach our official launch date, we will continue to reach out to everybody we possibly can. When the situation arises, even if we don’t need anything at the time, we make sure to enable any outsiders to take pride in jamblr and become involved with the project. If we neglected any of these opportunities, we wouldn’t be giving 100% to the project, and going out of our way to make jamblr a success.

Summermash Miami

This past weekend, Mashable was in South Florida as part of the Summermash US tour. Held at the Opium Garden in Miami Beach, the event featured some of the hottest startups around and a myriad of important executives for jamblr to network with.

Pete Cashmore, the founder of Mashable, made a guest appearance that ignited the entire party. In addition to the free drinks and raffle giveaways, all attendees were having quite an amazing time meeting new like-minded people.

Right before the Summermash event, which took place at 7pm, Social Media Camp gathered together a ton of creative types to discuss all things social on the web. With a similar setup and environment to your typical Bar Camps around the nation, those who were inclined to present a topic did so, while the shy introverts of the gathering sat around and learned a great deal from them.

All in all, my weekend in South Florida was a wonderful getaway. Not only did I get to meet some extremely cool people, but I got to visit my family and spend quality time with the woman that is most important in my life. It was very relaxing and one of the more pleasurable experiences of my 2008 thus far.