After awhile, we realized that Ciscoe seemed to be a local celebrity around Seattle. Then while strolling around in our Kirland-Signature Kirkland Costco, we see our local celebrity, promoting his book, Ask Ciscoe. Bridget and I are suckers and ended up buying it, but also getting his signature: “Andy and Bridget, Oh La La – Ciscoe”

I browsed through it recently, and the book was setup in a question/answer form. A lot of the information was very specific, such as what types of vines to plant. And some of the answers were pretty funny. E.g. “How can I have a garden with low maintenance.” Answer: “Get a puppy. The puppy will dig the entire garden up and you won’t have to maintain much of it.”

I’ll most likely pick this book back up if I have a specific question, but meeting Ciscoe was well worth the $11.99 we paid for the book .

Across the Country for Work
That Sunday I flew into Boston for work. We had a training and it was first time I got to visit my favorite East Coast city since I graduated from UNR. The days were filled with training and work, and at night, I met a few of my coworkers over a few beers.

Back to LAX for Erron’s Bachelor Party
It was interesting to be flying from Boston to LA, when the Celtics/Lakers were playing each other in the NBA Championship. For Erron’s Bachelor party, Tyler rented a yacht and Dave, Chris, TJ, Tyler, Ian and myself sailed to Catalina with Captain Passive Agressive. He was a funny guy to be around because he was the most laid back, uptight guy I knew. Catalina was a nice place to visit, but we had to taxi in on a boat each time we were in the city since we were staying on the yacht. It was cool to hang out on the boat or near the beach bars again. Plus the sailing made it a really different experience.

Erron and Alexya’s Wedding
The next weekend Erron and Alexya tied the knot at the Grove. Bridget posted some pictures, but it was a beautiful wedding and A LOT of fun. It was great to see some people that I hadn’t talked to in awhile.

Party in the USA… up in Frenchman’s
Independence day was spent camping up in Frenchman’s. I didn’t realize how close it was! No fireworks, but we did build a big fire.

Boly and Tara tie the knot
Boly and Tara had a beautiful wedding at Edgewood. Mrs. B made some amazing cookies, like usual and there were some great pictures off Tahoe. However, the smug minister that married them, mispronounced Boly’s last name (somewhat forgivable), and then called the bride by the wrong name (Tara is no Sarah!). He didn’t even apologize. Despite the flaw, they were able to laugh it off with Kev’s speech.

And so it’s been a great kickoff to a still eventful summer.

After you get approval from the App Store on releasing your app, the hard work begins: it’s time to get people to invest their time and money into you, which is not an easy task. A Marketing Plan is key to the success of your app. Most likely, you will have an application that will build interest over time with quality marketing and a quality app.

These steps will help guide your mobile app’s success.

Building up to the release:

• Production – What type of app do you want to build? What are your hobbies? What are your needs? Where do you work? These things in your daily life make a great app – dog park finder, calorie counter, accounting calculator – etc. Build a tool – whether entertaining or useful – for your mobile toolbox.
• SWOT – What makes this application unique? What could it do better? How can it grow? And that leads to your target. Understand your target and be realistic with how many downloads your target will entertain you with.
• Success/Goals – Also gauge what your success will be. Is it ROI? Is it brand recognition. What will be the benchmarks to make this app successful.
• App Icon – The icon is the packaging of your product. It should symbolize the functionality of your application. Make sure you review your competitor’s icons before you make the final decision.
• Landing Page/Site -  Build a site specifically for your application. Make sure you spend the time and effort. It will be a direct reflection of how well your application works. I’d recommend using a blog style site for this. Then you can both promote the cool features of the application and the new releases/updates that you are doing. Also, you can do A LOT more with your site compared to the App Store page.
• YouTube Video – Use video in a problem/solution/demo format. I would also add a little flare to your video whether using humor or something else unique. Then a little before launch, post your video to your site, which can lead into building up the hype.
• Relationships – Begin building relationships with other bloggers in the targeted demographic. If you have developed a football application, develop relationships with sports bloggers. Also, start putting industry articles on on your Facebook profile and Tweets. Tease this target to become interested in you. Don’t be a sales guy right off the bat or you will find only your Mom and sister follow you.
• Reviews – Once the application is available to download, have others review it. Get them to provide you with feedback.  Also, make sure you are priced appropriately. (Keep in mind many corporate applications are free.)If you have an app that’s not free, Apple can provide you with promo codes for a free download. Don’t request these all at once, but give them to the people that you’re asking to review your app.
• App Store Page - Make sure you have family/friends review your copy. You may want to even consider a copywriter for this task to develop engaging content for you to attract, engage, and convert someone with your app. This is where people make the final decision to make the commitment to your app; it closes the deal, so don’t take this page lightly with the photos and content you put there.

The Public Launch:

• Website – After building up the hype of what you’ve been working on, let people know when you plan on release the application. And once this date is settled, LAUNCH! The website is the first place you will want to point people to be able to find the download.
• Email – If you have a list of hungry subscribers, now is the time to update them of the new application. You could also partner with bloggers/content producers and see if they will put a blurb for you on their mailing list.
• Follow Icon Set – Usually in your emails and your websites, you will have your social media links (Facebook logo, Twitter logo, etc.). It’s time to update this and include your mobile logo as well.
• More Reviews - Get as many reviews as possible. People make their decision based off the reviews. Also, have other bloggers look at your app and critique/praise it. This will give you valuable information on how to improve. It will also start spreading the word. On the app store, maintain a positive ratio, 10 to 1, for people giving positive to negative reviews. You can’t please everyone, so please mostly everyone.
• Facebook Page – Get people to join your Facebook page. This could be a good route for you to have two way conversations with your followers. Be sure you are actively maintaining this page.
• Twitter - If it makes sense for you, you could use a Twitter account to help push information to Facebook and your website. This could be used to publish industry articles for engaging content. You’re helping build your brand, but this shouldn’t be forced.

Maintain and Build:

• Repeat – The above steps still need to be followed through. Continue to get people from the targeted industry to review your application and talk about your app. Continue to update the website with what you’re working on, and also continue to keep your Social profiles engaging.
• Review Analytics – Is your target getting what they need? How much traffic is the website getting and are they converting to a sale by going to the App store? Whose downloading your app? The greatest thing about digital media is if you are not on target, you can quickly adjust you’re strategy.
• SEM - Search engine marketing is a good way to get people to your site. You can get targeted advertising to help create interest. You can also track this directly back to your site.
• Promotions: If you’re application costs money, you may want to run a promotion some time during the year to help boost interest. Schedule this around a time when you’re target is looking to buy. (e.g. Football apps should go on sale at the beginning of the season.) Don’t do this too often, or you will train your target to wait for the sale.
• Contests – If your app can include user generated content (e.g pictures), run a contest. This will help spread the word and get people interested in your product.
• Don’t stop now: Keep developing your mobile app. Add new features; fix issues, and let people know on your site. You can even tease people with upcoming releases. As soon as you stop this, you have decided to take down your application.

I unexpectedly found one one of his books in Rob’s office, so I asked if I could borrow it. Purple Cow is the thing that stands out in the every day scheme of life. Ordinary thoughts will never make a great memory. Doing your regular tasks at work will never get you that promotion you deserve. And the normal effort will never make that extraordinary ending.

So what does that mean? Godin was driving through farmland. Cow after cow after… cow. Then he stopped and pointed. “Check out that cow. It looks purple!” The cow stood out. His kids took interest. They stared. They took the purple cow down as a memory. They stared in curiosity. But soon, the newness faded. They grew bored, and they carried on. But the purple cow stood out.

The Purple Cow was then put on the product stage. Godin believes that the majority of people follow the “early adopting sneezers”. These are the people that take risk in buying something new and different. And then they recommend it to their friends. Take the iPhone. Initially people didn’t know what the heck it was. Then some of the Mac enthusiasts decided to try, and after their positive review, they told someone (sneezed), and now everyone owns it.  And so, the strategy  strays from targeting the general public. Rather, target and change your product, so “sneezers” will start telling others. Overall, the early adopters make the decision, so appeal to them.

How to do it.  Interesting things aren’t normal. Friends don’t tell friends that they had a regular banana. Friends tell friends that they had the most extraordinary banana bread from  “X” bakery. And their friends listened and remembered. They were the purple cow.

If you’re going to sell plants, do something different. Offer extraordinary customer service; when someone pays for seeds, show a picture of the “dad”; Or become the experts on music/human touch to extend a plant’s life. Do something … anything to separate you from what others are doing. And as soon as the others are doing it? Do something else.

Back to the iPhone. The iPhone revolutionized the mobile industry. What did they do recently? They …  tried to revolutionize it again with “FaceTime”. They keep becoming “new” after their success. As the same with musics -  Led Zeppelin, Madonna, Rolling Stones – they revolutionized themselves. And that’s how “new” brands last.

Godin is even a bit scared of the testing process. His point is that how can you be creative if you don’t get out of the general public’s comfort level. If you stray from the normal, people get uncomfortable and it fails. But it’s truly the remarkable ideas that fail in testing and excel when it reaches the market. He even used this example today. How well do you think shareholders thought of the idea to get Jack in the Box back on the map was with a guy with an oversized head. Point taken. It worked well.

Godin did seem to be a little too optimistic. Being different takes courage. And it’s the girth to try it – and either fail miserably or do well. But sometimes you need the right environment and the differentiator to make it happen. Everyone wishes they could do that. Everyone wishes they could come up with the idea that revolutionizes the industry. But it doesn’t happen.  And he almost made it seem that others weren’t hungry to do this.

Either way, it was a good read. It made me think that if you aren’t personal branding than you’re normal. So how are you making yourself stray form the norm?

Here are some recent thoughts that I found intriguing from his blog:

• One in a million

• Expose yourself…

• The difference between running and managing a project

• The non-optimized life

The symbol predates the Inca culture, which they inherited the symbols and philosophical principles from those people that came before them. The Inca cross is composed of 12 points revolving around a circle.

Each area composed of a few different meanings. The twelve points represented, not only their lunar and calendar year, but also the following points in each “season”

The number four (the cross split in quarters) is also a very strong symbol within the cross. It represented the cardinal points of a compass. Also, they relate it to the four winds; the four directions, and the body, mind, heart, and spirit.

Animals were a large influence of the Inca culture. The snake symbolizes intellect and knowledge. The puma represents courage and internal strength. It also represents present life. The condor symbolizes the balance people strive for. It also signifies the future and possibility of life in another dimension, soaring through the heavens.

Each quarter contained three different levels of conscious:

• Hana Pacha – (Condor/superconsious) The upper world inhabited by gods and other celestial beings
• Kay Pacha – (Puma/conscious) The living world and conscious.
• Urin Pacha – (Snake/sub-conscious) the world inhabited by spirits of the dead, ancestors, etc.

The center in the middle of the cross is the human soul and being, around which life experience happsn.

The circle represented Cusco (pronounced like Costco) as the center of the empire. It also represents Cuzco, the center of the Inca world and the Southern Cross constellation.

“And even more intriguing, at Puma Punku (Door of the Puma) which is the oldest part of the Tiwanaku site in present day Bolivia, the Chakana can be seen carved deeply into many different stone blocks. The stone used at Puma Punku is diorite, second only to diamond inn terms of hardness; the Chakanas are perfectly formed, as if cut by a laser.” [source]

Either way, I found it an interesting symbol that reminds me, not to be lazy.

Then January 2010 hit. With a little motivation and a lot of direction, I decided it was time to finish this project. I wanted to be able to enjoy our courtyard in the spring, so I decided to break ground in January. I had a friend who worked in the landscaping biz, so she helped with the “how to”.

Drainage
This part is where I really needed help. I needed a way to drain all the excess water falling from the roof and the courtyard to the outside. Sounds pretty easy, but you have to think of where the gutters are draining, how many drains you may need, what types of drains (we went through a few ideas), and of course the grade of the courtyard. Even with some direction, I still started to dig a ditch, and then after two weeks of digging, had to re-route the ditch another way since it seemed to work better. I’m glad I started the digging in the winter though. The storms that passed through made the ground a bit softer to work with  (rather than digging through the dry, summer rock).

Concrete block
One of our gutters was under an old concrete footer where a small brick wall used to stand. I had the wonderful challenge of trying to break this piece up. I also had to breakup the entire sidewalk leading up to the door, which wasn’t that big of a deal, but this concrete piece that was buried under ground was quite the challenge. This concrete not only broke my spirit, but also broke a wheelbarrow and a sledgehammer. I chipped away at it, day-by-day, hiding our pieces in the garbage can until one day, the final piece was broken in half and pulled from the ground. Victory is mine!

Sewer Pipe
While I was getting the drainage ditch moving, I was concerned about our sewer pipe. The summer beforehand I had gone underneath the house and found the water near our piping was damp. Well… I had wanted to put in a hose bib near the corner of the courtyard, so I called our plumber to see if perhaps he didn’t seal everything when we did our remodel.

Bad news! The sewer pipe to our blowout valve had eroded and needed to be replaced. To help save some money, I had to dig the entire pipe out, and he was right. The cast iron had eroded and needed to be replaced. One of my “favorite” memories was digging around the pipe while it was snowing outside.  I had a shovel in one hand and a flashlight in the other… I needed to get the digging finished for our plumber, and  I didn’t want to puncture the eroded pipe any worse than it was.

This put a bit of a delay on the project, but I’m glad we did it now rather then next year and have to pull up all the pavers we put down.

Pavers
We went to a business’s “boneyard” and looked to see what pavers they had available. These were the pavers they had left over from past jobs, so we would be able to get a little bit of a discount. But, that also limited some of our options. We came up with two colored palettes that may do the job, but I could see Bridget’s eyebrow start sweating with worry when the pavers finally arrived. She didn’t know how these colors were going to coexist.

Base and Sand
And so it began. We decided to build a small step to separate the two different colors from one another. And so we had two of our friend’s workers come out and compact and grade our base. This would have been a tough job, but seeing how they did it, definitely helped.  We placed some regular 3/4″ PVC pipe down and then poured beach sand over the top. Bridget even recruited a few different people to help for the paver setting party (Her parents, Rob, and even a person from her work).  We leveled everything out and then began placing pavers on top. We had a random pattern, so we moved the pavers together similar to playing Tetris. Unfortunately, we soon ran out of our boneyard pavers.

Round II
Now we had to buy pavers at regular price from two different companies. (Each company sold  the different types of pavers.) We continued to finish the pavers until we got more bad news. According to our friend, there seemed to be a miscommunication on the step. Now, the step was only about 2 to 3″ tall, which is more of a tripping hazard, rather than a real step. We then made the executive decision to remove the step entirely, which meant redoing a lot of the work we already put down. Damn it!

And finally…
The last part of the project was filling the cracks with polymeric sand. This type of sand holds similar to light glue and locks the pavers together. It’s not cheap, either. It had been awhile since we were able to do this, and a few pieces of grass began to grow in between the cracks of the pavers. I pulled these out, and Bridget and I poured the sand.

After watering everything down, everything seems to be in order. In fact, all the hard work seems to have finally paid off. This has been one of the longer, more complicated projects I’ve done, but it’s well worth it.We were delayed by a few things, and I only missed spring by a few days. But late is better than never, right?

Today, we moved our barbecue, two potted plants, and a table there today. Bridget and I sanded the table and stained it, which seems to go well with the courtyard. (Thanks Rob and Shayna!) Now all we need is a glass of lemonade, a book, and some time to relax, and it will be complete.

The Build

The Product

At the annual Hidden Valley garage sales last year we found a house that was selling tons of fruit and vegetable seeds for a very low price. They said the seeds had one year left until they were to go bad. We bought a bag full of all different kinds: bell peppers, cucumbers, squash, lettuce, beans, peas, pumpkin, watermelon, herbs and more.

We got started early this year with an indoor greenhouse. We weren’t quite sure how many seeds to put in each container and frankly we weren’t even sure they would grow since we bought them at a garage sale. Andy mentioned that we should put a quarter to half of the packet in each container. I guess this is something we probably should have looked up, but I just went with it. Once we planted the seeds we put them a window in the office that get’s the most sun, with a towel underneath it so it wouldn’t ruin the furniture.

The next day when I got home from work I went to go water the plants and the kitties had knocked it over. They must have stuck their claws in the towel and pulled it down. The container with all the seeds and dirt was all over the floor! I called Andy and said that he better come home soon before I kill the cats.

After that I was skeptical that anything would grow at all. We had no idea which seeds were planted where and pretty sure that some of the seeds got mixed up with others. But sure enough about 1-2 days later there were plants growing! They started growing like crazy and we quickly realized that we should have put only a few seeds in each container. When we got back from Peru we noticed that the plants were even growing up the cord of the blinds. It was definitely time for them to be outside.

As soon as the weather allowed we re-located the plants to the backyard. All the compost we created throughout the year only made about a large bag full, so we roto-tilled it in with the existing soil.

There were so many plants that it took about 4 hours to plant and covered the whole length of the back wall. We  kept the paper cartons on when we planted them, which was a stupid mistake as I quickly found out that they weren’t doing too well. They were so soggy that for some reason I thought they were going to dissolve, but didn’t so I re-planted all the plants. Sadly a few plants didn’t make it, but luckily our strawberry plant came back this year and is even producing fruit! However it’s getting eaten by the birds (and Anya ) so we need to get a net to protect it.

Hopefully in the next month or so we will have lots of home grown veggies to enjoy! To be continued…