Where Do I Even Start?

Seriously…where do I even start to talk about the past 24 hours?

I’ve received over 40 emails from people about yesterday’s blog entry about owning your past, specifically thanking me for writing it.  That never happens.

Then we had an awesome, packed event last night at BlackFinn.

And then there was the camera crew from Pep Talk there at the ‘Finn.

And then there were the conversations that took place.

And thennnnn

NO AND THEN!

Yes, I sat up and flipped through movie channels when I got home last night.

Sorry.

No “and then”.

Anyway…so, yeah, I got a lot of emails yesterday.  Like I mentioned when I published it, I was a little concerned about actually putting that one out there.

As it turns out, I’m really glad that I did.

Not because it helped exorcise some of my own demons, but mostly because it apparently really struck home hard for a lot of people.

Surprise…I’m not the only one with a “questionable” past walking around.  I’m not the only one with demons.  I’m not the only one with baggage.  I’m not the only one that wonders if someone’s going to come creeping out of some dark, forgotten hallway connected to my past who’ll try to screw with me.

So…I guess “you’re welcome” is in order.  I wasn’t really expecting that when I wrote it, but I’m really glad that so many people found something in it that could help them.

A “thank you” is also in order as well…because, again, not the most comfortable thing for me to have published, and I’m really…relaxed? Relieved? Something…along with a bit overwhelmed…at all of the positive response it received.  So thank you for that.

Plus, over the course of the night, I got hit with “If you don’t give me a thousand dollars, I’m going to tell everyone you know COBOL”, “if you don’t give me a thousand dollars, I’m going to tell everyone you like 80’s music”, and my favorite: “I’m aiming low…if you don’t give me $5, I’m telling everyone you like Stella Artois beer.”

Good times.

Speaking of “good times”…after a conversation last night with someone from i3detroit, I’m thinking that we might try to do something…a little “out there” and interesting.

So you know we have our next Pink Slip Party coming up in June at Woody’s in Royal Oak.

The i3detroit folks are building robots.

Fighting robots.

(which, by the way…they need a serious Python programmer to drop in and say “hello” to help with some of the programming needed for the battlefied)

So am I the only one that thinks that it might be kind of cool to get some folks from our little corner of the world involved with their little corner of the world…and maybe have some fighting robots at our Pink Slip Party?  I mean, that’s a few months away, should be plenty of time to get things done and ready…and maybe get some prizes put together…and have that be a “test run” to maybe do a bigger throwdown at our conference

…oh, the conference?  What, you thought we forgot about that?

No, no we haven’t.  Things are still moving along, and we’re about to start getting more serious about it and publishing things out for review and comment.

But back to those robots.

Cool?  Not cool?  Good idea?  Intrigued?  Interested at all?

Drop a note down in the comments area, or on LinkedIn, or shoot me an email…do something.  Let’s talk about this.

And as you were warned, there was a camera crew there last night.  Not gonna lie, I was thinking “a couple dudes with a handheld cam”…but no, we had Michael Bay setup shop, which, sure, was inconvenient for a while since they took up about a quarter of the back room…but still, “very cool”.  Had a great conversation with them, as did Russ (the recruiter), Jeff (yep, “voice of reason” got on camera), and Russell (one of our members who had found a job at GE through one of our events).  Very cool time talking with Pep Talk about our events, our group, our scope and purpose, what we do, what we don’t do, etc.  It was a really cool chat.

And apparently the others went equally well…because they’re coming back for our event at Tipsy McStaggers in April to get some more footage, more conversations, etc.  Didn’t really have the opportunity to do many group shots last night, just due to logistics and timing…but things at Tipsy McStaggers (seriously, I can’t say that name enough) should be far more open and conducive to this sort of work.  Looking forward to it.

All in all…a really great event…and I think we have to stop calling these our “small” events.  They’re not really all that small any more.  Lots of new recruiters, folks looking for gigs, and people just looking to expand their networks showed up last night.  Always a good thing to see, as well as many of the usual suspects.

So keep your eye here on the site for further updates about the robot thing, other stuff we’re working on for the Pink Slip Party, the conference, and anything and everything else that we’ve got going on.

And if nothing else, we’ll see you on April 19th at Tipsy McStaggers…right?