If You Love Someone, Make Them A Mixed Tape

If you really want to show someone you care, make them a mixed tape (or cd). There’s no better way to say “I Love You.”

Punch Bug, Blue!

Punch Bug, Blue!

We all had a car that we just HAD to have when we were younger. For me, it was a Punch Bug or Slug Bug or Punch Buggy or whatever you care to call it…I wanted one! I liked the way they looked and how they seemed to inspire happiness to those around.

As many of you already know, I recently pursued my passions to become a self-employed freelance writer and marketer, which has been an exciting and challenging experience already. When I say challenging, I mean it in the best of ways…challenging like hiking to the top of a mountain and then breathing in the chilly air. Know what I mean?

Deciding on a name for my little adventure in self-employment wasn’t exactly an easy task, but one day it hit me (so to speak). I saw a lovely little punch bug cruising down the street and thought to myself, “Now that is a car that stands out in a crowd.”

The mission of my company, of course, is to help businesses stand out in a crowd and I thought the name should represent that. This is why I decided that Punch Bug Marketing would be a great way to identify myself.

Here’s what I’ve experienced as a bug driver (and I think the same results are sure to happen for my customers).

Heads Are a Turnin’
As I drive by an individual (or group), I often see them do a double-take. My blue buggy looks different from most cars and sparks something in the viewer’s brain. It’s a simple design, but it has a huge impact. It goes to show that it doesn’t take a lot of bells and whistles to make a lasting impression.

Smiles Are Abundant 
Many of you know what my previous vehicle was, and you also know that it didn’t provoke any smiles. As I drive down the streets in my new ride, I’ve seen people from age 3 to 80 smiling from ear to ear. I’ve seen friends slug each other and bust out in laughter–just because of a car!

Okay, okay. I suppose I’ve made my point by now. I don’t want to draw too many similarities between a 40 year old car and the purpose of my business…but they ARE there.

Getting this car has been great, but having the opportunity to use it to help others succeed is the real treat. I hope to be able to turn heads and create smiles for you, for me, for us all!

Real green living, unplugged

Reblogged from Real Green Cleaning Blog Indianapolis:

Our homes have lots of things that use lots of electricity.  Light bulbs, TVs, refrigerators, computers, and many other appliances.  Each one of these things add up and are directly related to the price of your energy bills.  These energy hogs don't just hurt your wallet...they also have a major impact on the environment we all share.

In order to save some money (and the planet), try cutting back on some of these major contributors. 

Read more… 362 more words

Some simple ideas for green living.

If I had to pick one (6)

It’s not always easy picking a favorite.  Sometimes though, it is.  I can even pick my favorite day of the week.  It’s the day that we all look forward to each week.  It’s the day where work is the furthest thing from our minds and friends and family keep us company.  It’s the day I sleep in past 6am, and the day I stay up until 3am.  It’s Saturday!

My favorite thing to do on a Saturday morning is to mosey around the house and fix a pot of coffee for me and my wife.  6 cups in the pot will fill up both of our mugs.   I recently became a weekend-only coffee drinker, so Saturdays are that much more sacred to me.  What goes better with coffee than some eggs and toast?  Nothing…Nothing goes better.

Once breakfast is ready, we often kick back and watch a nature documentary of some sort.  It’s almost always about the National Parks in America.  Something like this:

 

It’s relaxing, it’s fun, it’s something spiritual.

After the film, it’s time to move on with the day and get some errands done.  Shopping, cleaning, and yard work…it all gets done on Saturday.  Once the chores are done, it’s time to hang out.

When I think of hanging out, playing cards comes to mind.  When I think about playing cards, there is only one game that matters to me.  Euchre!  An ideal Saturday night involves several games of this partner game and maybe even a few local brews.  The trick to winning is to let my opponents have too much wine so their game is off.  Even if I don’t win, euchre is still a blast.

So there it is.  The many reasons that Saturdays are my favorite days.  I relax, get stuff done, and hang out with friends and family.  And I never think about work.   Tell me another day where you can do all of that!

If I had to pick one (5)

I first became a REAL fan of Johnny Cash when I picked up San Quentin on vinyl.  Until then, I only knew a few songs of his and had no idea the impact he had on music.  I think I found it for $1 at Goodwill, and I listened to it nonstop for months.  To be honest, I still love listening to it.  That album introduced me to a passionate and truthful artist that did only what he wanted–when he wanted.  I find that to be inspiring on many levels.  Since then I have listened to nearly every song he ever released, and I have become even more of a fan with each listen.  Unlike a lot of artists, Johnny Cash aged very well as a musician and continued to put out powerful and creative songs up until the end.  We all know about his life story, but I’ll share a favorite song from each decade of his career.

1950′s –Give My Love To Rose

1960′s –Busted

1970′s –Flesh And Blood

1980′s –Chicken In Black

1990′s –Delia’s Gone

2000′s –Hurt

So there we have it.  Six decades of amazing music that has changed millions of people in millions of ways.  If you are not a fan, you should give it a try.  If you are a fan, just dig a little deeper and find a few tracks you have never heard.

Brickman Group: Plant friendly. Planet friendly.

Brickman has been a leader in the commercial landscape industry for some time now, and a new focus is on the horizon.  Industry best practices are often around thanks to the management team at Brickman, and they always strive to improve.  To put it plainly, Brickman has efficiency, quality, and customer service down pat.  Having mastered these things, it seemed time to move on to a new initiative.

As a company, Brickman launched a sustainability initiative a couple of years ago that set the tone for future expectations.  Essentially, they want to become a leader in all aspects of the GREEN industry, and sustainability is a huge part of that.  The sales team, branch managers, and regional managers were all equipped with Toyota Prius‘ tagged with a new slogan, “Plant friendly. Planet friendly.”  This is one huge step in the right direction to save fuel and other energy costs.  Now that the corporate goal has been set, it is up to each region, branch, and employee to make a difference.

At branch 743 where I work, things are starting to change.  We have recently started an in-depth recycling program aimed to reduce our impact on landfills and save us money in the long run.  Until now we have only recycled office paper, and we were not too enthusiastic about that.  That is all going to change!

Flip the switch!

It may seem like a small step, but we think these signs will make a big difference.  Most of the time when someone leaves the room they leave the light on for the next person.  Although it may be considerate, it is time to change the way we think.  Artificial light represents over 15% of total energy costs in an office–so we can waste less and save money!

The next step in our recycling program is to equip each team member in the office with their own recycling bin. A lot of people simply will not recycle unless it is easy to do, and this takes all of the effort out of it. For most people, the bin is strategically located next to their desk so it is closer  to them than the trash can.
We placed a larger bin in the front office because there tends to be more paper waste generated there.  This bin alone can hold up to 100 pounds of wasted paper!  We can collect paper, cardboard, aluminum cans, plastics # 1-7, and even some electronics in the bins mentioned above.  We are lucky to be able to co-mingle our recycling–a lot of places still do not allow it.

This is all exciting, but it gets even better.  This year we will have easy-to-carry recycling totes in each of our trucks.  Each week the supervisor will report to me at our routine safety meeting and I will weigh everything they have collected.  At the end of the month I will tally up the totals and reward the winning crew with a lunch on me.  As mentioned earlier, it can be hard to get people on board with recycling.  However, we feel that all of our employees will enjoy the competition and work hard to do their part.

Everything that is collected will be combined into two large pallet boxes.  Aluminum and plastics will be in one, and paper and cardboard in the other.  Any electronics, batteries, etc will be collected separately.  We have contracted RecycleForce to pick up the recycling once a month, but it is likely that we will need them more than that.  Please check out RecycleForce to see the great things they are accomplishing around the Indianapolis area.  Check out the slide show to see what the other bins look like.

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In our first 3 days of doing this, we  filled up one bin half-way (that’s approximately 200 pounds of waste!).    We are now two weeks into the initiative, and we are averaging around 80 pounds collected per week.  My expectation is that we will need another pallet and also a more frequent pick up.  That is great news!

Our recycling program will not only be a good deed for the earth, it will also help us to save on our waste management expenses.  Each week we pay for our dumpster to be emptied twice.  We have now reduced that to one time a week, which will save us nearly $70 per month.  The only thing better than saving money, is saving money and going green at the same time!

Brickman is well on its way to becoming a leader in sustainable landscape practices.  We are all working hard to make sure that our practices are “Plant friendly. Planet friendly.”  Check out the Brickman website to see other ways we are conserving energy, reducing waste, and lessening our carbon footprint in our everyday practices.

RecycleForce: http://recycleforce.org

Brickman Group: http://brickmangroup.com

If I Had To Pick One…I Couldn’t (4)

TV…I love it, and I hate it.

I hate it because I love it too much.  Believe me, I think most shows  are probably not worth watching.  However, there are some that completely change how people act and think.  You know the ones I am talking about — Seinfeld, Cheers, Friends, ALF, Frasier.  OK, apparently the only shows that I think can change a person are old sitcoms.  I stand by that.

At this point in my life, now that I have accepted my humanity and become a Netflix subscriber, I am obsessed with two shows.  Cheers and Frasier keep me up at night, but only because I can’t stop watching them.

Everyone knows the premise of these shows, or at least they should– Cheers is a sitcom set in a Boston bar that showcases just how predictable (and hilarious) everyday life can be.  See clip below:

In the third season of Cheers, a loveable psychiatrist named Frasier Crane is introduced as Sam’s therapist.  He quickly became a favorite character, and after the end of the series somebody had an idea:

Good idea!  If you are not already a fan, you had better get on it.  Every episode of both series is streaming on Netflix, and if you stay up until 1 am each night you can cover a lot of ground each day.  I suggest typing a blog (or something else productive) while you watch!