I don’t mind shameless promos of things I really love. And, I love Meetup. I’ve been using them for about six months now and have been really happy with how they continue to improve the service, the site and the offerings to meet the needs of their users.

Those cats know who they are, how to promote and when to communicate. Today I received an email with this copy that proves to me that they are growing up quite nicely:

Here at Meetup HQ we always want to help people get offline and attending your Meetups. Wouldn’t it be great if everyone realized that when you meet real people face-to-face, amazing things can happen? We think so! So we made a video.

With so many people these days plugged into their cell phones, email, and online social networks, it seems like only an intervention will help get them offline! We all probably know someone like this.

Check out unplugyourfriends.com and send an intervention to anyone you know who may need an “unplugging” of their own!

-The team at Meetup HQ

Watch the video. It’s really well done. And it only takes a few secs to fill out the funny form and send it along to someone you know. With this one little promo, Meetup has:

1) Gotten my attention by tapping into a cultural pain point: we all know someone who could use a breather from updating their status on Facebook or Twitter (okay, that someone is usually me but, whatever!).

2) Created something fun and interactive that is directly in line with their positioning: Meetup is your online answer to connecting with like-minded people in offline ways.

It’s so refreshing when an ecomm company uses common sense marketing to create something clever and effective! Go Meetup, go.

Seth Godin, once again, takes a pebble of an idea and makes me stop and think about all the boulders coming down the mountain.

In his Destroying Happiness post, he suggests that marketing is about making people unhappy. Because, what happens when people are unhappy? They want to get happy. And that’s when marketers swoop in to make all our dreams come true.

Sounds like a simple concept but it’s a great way to think about marketing. It’s taking the “create a need” mantra to the next level. It’s as if marketers are Horton’s evil twin (if he had an evil twin) or whacky Christof from The Truman Show. We really are puppets on a string.

I replied to Seth’s post with a lot of spouting out about how our society has transformed from survival society to leisure playground. There’s a lot of room for marketers to create desire because we spend a lot of time doing absolutely nothing except think about ourselves, talk about ourselves, think about other people and talk about other people.

There are pockets of savvy that are developing. We’re not all sponges and, I believe, that a lot of old tried-and-true messaging that worked in the ’50s/’60s/’70s and beyond is now invisible to most consumers. Just the other day I was watching some ad for deli meat where they were singing and dancing and I thought, is this really necessary? I don’t want your meat because you’re giving me a song and dance (literally). Just tell me why it tastes good.

I’ll tell you what makes me happy: marketing that does good. Get your product out there and show me that you’re a respectable company. Tell me why I would be associated with you other than the promises of making me look or feel good. Give me substance or give me nothing.

Predicting what 2008 will bring is tricky business. It’s an election year, housing is moving on from sellers-market denial, credit card debt continues to eat away at our economic stability, the U.S. dollar has seen better days, old media continues to fight the once-good fight while new media prepares for all-out infiltration and conglomerate air time is continually consumed by the Writer’s Guild strike and Britney Smears instead of our troops.

Armageddon? Not yet. As far as I can tell, turmoil breeds panic for the timid and intrigue for everyone else. The business climate, depending on the business, is at once volatile and filled with opportunity. I see the upcoming two years as less of an end to a decade than a precursor to the incredible shifts that will take place beginning in 2010. Virtual living and working will cause person-to-person business to make room for better online practices and philosophies. To be truly successful in the Web 2.whatever, businesses must synergize online and offline activities. Your business’ relationships, revenue and mojo depend on it. Enough about the decade, let’s just focus on 2008 for now.

Below are WallFly’s top three predictions for the upcoming year. I have to admit they are a mix of prediction and hope. Maybe I should have called them “Business-Fulfilling Prophecies” instead?

Recession Schmession

Smart companies will improve relationships, not business plans.

I’m not suggesting you avoid streamlining. We’re all making measured decisions with our cash flow. Just last week I considered not sending out a business mailer for the holiday season. Instead I opted to spend less money at Panera and wait until the new year to hit Staples.

Move your numbers around all you want but if you’re not taking time out to do the following, you are losing ground with clients: a) connecting with your clients on a regular basis (phone, mail, email or events) to increase opportunity for more interaction b) learning when, why and how your current clients interact with you, and applying that knowledge to improving your value and c) feeding your positioning with a menu of competitive activity, impending growth and your customer’s changing climate.

We all know that getting a client takes double the effort versus convincing a happy client to stay, so why do companies continue to neglect clients in the off-season of interaction? Think about your best personal relationships and what makes them tick. Making someone happy in a relationship 90% of the time requires improving their life every day (i.e., taking out the garbage) versus buying an expensive gift one day out of the year (i.e., buying an iPhone). Next time you consider dumping all of your marketing dollars into a big trade show, think about the low-budget things you can do to reach out to clients throughout the year: start a monthly newsletter, make quality control phone calls, talk about how other clients benefit from you, make in-person annual visits or even send out a short quarterly email that shares info on upcoming developments.

Ecomm Grows Up

Utility will emerge from 80 gazillion social media apps.

I’ve seen some pretty useless Facebook applications - from starting a virtual snowball fight to getting hugged by a zombie. How do these strides in web development improve your business? They won’t. But they will change the way users interact with the web and that’s what you need notice. Once users start expecting things from the online world, they want it from everyone - a streamlined user experience, content that takes into account context and a site that understands the concept of easy.

The massive amount of activity taking place among developers for Facebook and now Google’s universal app platform will both increase the size of our kids’ behinds as they play less soccer (or play more virtual soccer) and generate technologies that users will want to see everywhere. If you have a website, start paying attention to the activities happening online. You don’t have to apply them all but you have to understand how it will affect your clients. I’ve advised some clients to skip blogging because it didn’t make sense for them. It’s not about jumping on the latest, new technology - it’s about understanding how all new technology is driving the way we do business.

Marketing Gets Stuck

New media will drive marketing. The stories that stick, win.

I was wondering when some smart marketing guy would take Chris Anderson’s Long Tail and extend it by applying it to branding. The smart marketing guy is Mohammed Iqbal and the essay is The Elongating Tail of Brand Communication, as found on ChangeThis.

One-hit wonders are not only increasingly rare in this climate of targeted success, aiming for them is the same as denying the tastes of various music fans. We are a culture of choice and highly personal demand. One size does not fit all and this philosophy applies to both your products or service and your brand position.

I recently discovered this in my research for finding a market for a Connecticut coworking space, Group88, that I will help manage in 2008. Some of the area professionals liked the idea of getting out of their home-based office to meet with other folks while others had no need for networking at all (I think there’s always a need for networking but I’m partial to the practice). You can’t be all things to all people so don’t even try. You can, however, choose the primary values of your positioning that appeals to your variety of customers. Using new media channels to test an idea and then kill it or expand it will yield higher results than picking one thing and crossing your fingers that it will stick. Don’t egg your basket - add crates and buckets and other things to put all your eggs into.

Yesterday I attended a Hasbro vendor fair at their Pawtucket, Rhode Island headquarters. If you think hanging out all day at the birthplace of Mr. Potato Head is all candy canes, pumpkin pie and green apple licorice . . . Yahtzee! You’re right.

The purpose of the fair is to connect freelancers (writers like me, product and package designers, molders, illustrators, photographers, etc.) with in-house Hasbroites. I have been doing some work with excellent copywriter Kara Parlin at the East Longmeadow, Mass. location and was really psyched to attend this one-day only event. I invited my graphic design co-hort, Amanda Bedard of Spielman Design. Amanda does incredible work and she’s a networking hound like me so it was a perfect fit.

First things first, I need to give some major props to our organizer, Susan Algeo. Susan has more energy than Spiderman on speed and could give lessons on how to keep an event ticking while dealing with 800 interruptions, competition with the buzz of daily life at headquarters and a four-hour window to ensure a productive day for 50+ folks who have traveled as far as Portland, Oregon. At one point, I caught Susan attempting to fill up a plate for lunch and told her that I had a question for her when she was done. Nonsense! We chatted while she tried to eat and then, of course, also took care of a few more interruptions along the way. Along with a catalog of all vendors, a fab hot lunch, an afternoon snack of kettle corn, access to the discounted Hasbro boutique (Christmas for my nephew is done!), we also received either Scrabble or Yahtzee! as a parting gift. It was better than spending the day in Candy Land.

Talking with the Hasbroites was really refreshing. These people love what they do. I talked with copywriter Danielle Slawsby who has great war stories from the dotcom days and is working on some cool web stuff for Hasbro, Joanna Kalafarski who manages packaging and product copy and was kind enough to let me bend her ear while I could tell she was swamped with work, Art Director Kathleen Murray who apparently loves pop culture more than me (although I think it might be a tie) and Design Director Melissa Mips who began with Hasbro at the East Longmeadow branch and seems to know just about everyone in Hasbro’s extensive network of past and current employees. I also met tons of designers like a kid (I think he was older than 12 but I’ll still call him a kid) who designs GI Joe and a guy who’s worked on Play-Doh for ions.

Equally cool was hanging with the other vendors. Here’s a list of my favs:

Fuszion - Killer design company located in Virginia. Rick and Jeff let me babble on about branding and marketing so I loved them even more. How can you go wrong with a name like Fuszion? These guys have awesome years ahead of them.

Smith Design - Mr. and Mrs. Smith are green-concerned packaging and product designers out of New Jersey. Their daughter Jenna, an ex-Silicon Valley girl, represented the fam and did a great job of showcasing their excellent work.

Gary Leveille, Berkshire Creative - Gary is a fellow writer who has quite an extensive list of experience in the biz. He had some great writer-to-writer advice for me which I will keep to myself.

Smartshape Design - Did you know Cleveland is really just an old ‘burb of Connecticut? These guys did - they know everything! Smartshape are innovative engineers who can also hook clients up with tooling and manufacturing. Smart.

Gary & Maggie Houston, A Printer’s Film Service, inc. - Gary and Maggie are a husband and wife duo who met in Providence, RI and worked for Hasbro “back in the day” and now live in North Carolina. Spunk doesn’t begin to describe them.

Philip Hatter, Thistledown Puppets - You have not seen puppets until you’ve met Philip and his puppet posse. His work is incredible and his love for puppet theater really shows in his designs. I kept meaning to ask him why he went with the name Thistledown versus a play on Mad Hatter. For another day.

Pumpkin Pie - Jennifer and Sheridan specialize in branding, logos and package design. They practice what they preach and have done some of the best branding for their own company that I’ve seen in a long time.

Adam Gillespie, Night Light Graphics - Adam is an extremely talented illustrator and graphic designer of cool other worlds. He has a very bright future ahead of him.

Floating Pear Productions - Digital animation experts, Floating Pear were our neighbors and Hasbro’s too since they are based out of Providence, RI. Co-founder Dee Boyd’s bubbly personality and their cool mug give-aways kept the traffic flowing our way. Thanks Dee!

And last but absolutely not least . . .

The Linnett Sisters - A long-forgotten ’50s pop band? Nope. Two creative New Hampshire gals, Katie and Patti, daughters of illustrator Charles Linnett (also an ex-Hasbroite) and owners of Linnett Studios. The Linnett Sisters are talented illustrators and innovative package and product designers.

All in all a great networking event. I’m sure Susan will be looking for feedback on how to make the day better and I really only have one suggestion:

The Catalog - The catalog of vendors was not distributed to Hasbroites unless they strolled down to the event. I would flip this entirely. Why not offer up an electronic catalog teaser to those groups (Design, Creative, etc.) one week ahead of time? In the teaser, I would allow the vendors a quick promo paragraph and also a chance for them to say which Hasbro projects (or types of projects) they’d like to work on.

Life gets in the way - meetings, sick days, unexpected work issues - if someone isn’t able to meet with the vendors on the day we’re there or from the 10-2 time frame, it’s possible that Hasbro staff might want to meet with vendors before or after the event. I say promote the folks who are traveling to Pawtucket, RI as much as possible. There was a lot of talent hanging out in that Hasbro hallway. Keeping us a secret is like telling kids about this great movie where funky fighting, car-morphing machines attempt to destroy the world versus showing them this.

Either way, I’ll be back again next year. To those vendors who declined to attend because they considered it a Trivial Pursuit: you’ll be Sorry! next year if you Boggle an opportunity to Connect Four hours with folks that could move you along in The Game of Life. And let’s not forget the kettle corn. That’s worth the trip to Pawtucket alone.

I have never been tempted to drag myself out of a post-Thanksgiving coma to mingle with the early morning freaks on Black Friday. But darn that Kohl’s if they didn’t have the best deal on digital photo frames. So, there I was, pulling into Kohl’s at 4:15 a.m., and under my droopy eyelids I suddenly notice not 1, 2 or 3 but like 8-10 women strolling out of the store with purchases in hand. The store had only been open for 15 minutes! These gals must have been camped out since 2 a.m. and, obviously, knew exactly what they wanted - my digital photo frame. Dang it!

I parked the car, in the second back lot since the first was a complete nightmare, and strolled into the store. After finding the empty shelf that was home to my digital photo frame and catching a glimpse of the frenzy throughout the store, I split. I then strolled over to Best Buy, which was opening at 5 a.m., and got in the line about 300 people deep. A guy in front of me told another guy that he’d need a ticket or he’d be forced to wait outside and, by the way, they weren’t giving out tickets anymore. Back to the car I went. I’ll spare you the details of the rest of my day, which I now call Black-Eye Friday, for the elbow-throwing crazies who will do anything to grab the biggest deal first.

Have we totally lost our minds? Retailers are pointing to high fuel prices (which are definitely a factor but not always a deal breaker) and the mortgage crunch for pre-blame commentary on how they will have a tough holiday season. Dozens of surveys and reports such as this one by U.S. News predict consumers will tighten their belts and spend less than we have in the past 5 years. Fooey! It’s not the holidays we should be worried about. Consumers won’t spend less between now and December 25. They’ll just jack up their plastic and then, starting January 1, try to figure out how to pay for it. And that’s when we’ll all be in trouble.

I don’t think we’ll have an all-out recession (plus, who am I to predict such things?), but I do think that businesses will be tightening up in every area: resources, marketing, advertising, overhead, employee benefits and anything that isn’t instantly reflective of the bottom line. You will see tons more businesses investing marketing dollars in online within the next two years. This isn’t difficult to predict based on the recent growth in trends and the Googlization of advertising, but I believe more businesses will be open to online for basic cost-saving factors. As long as they can be sure of the return and, with online, tracking the return is as easy as a few clicks and a scan of the data.

You can take all the surveys you want that will predict a slow in spending, and they might be true, but I’m less concerned with the economical effects of not buying Johnny an iPhone in Christmas 2007 versus the after-effects of a nervous economy that breeds less investing and ostrich-like spending in 2008 and beyond.

I’ve been watching Ken Burns’ latest mega-documentary, The War, with great interest. I encourage those of you who did not live through World War II (i.e., a heck of a lot of us) to NetFlix it when available or catch it on PBS while it’s still rerunning this month.

Burns is getting a lot of flack for his very personal and Americana approach with The War. While he relays great chronological detail of the War’s events from conflicts in Asia to Europe, the backbone storyline is told through the eyes of soldiers and communities in four U.S. towns: Mobile, Sacramento, Waterbury and Luverne. Alessandra Stanley from The New York Times doesn’t hold back, calling his approach “disconcerting.”

I have to agree with American Thinker blogger Ed Laskey that Stanley inserts her own political views in her review, making references to the Bush administration, the current war in Iraq and even the debate on standardized tests in U.S. schools. Her review cuts Burns for not bringing in viewpoints from other countries, citing The World at War, a 26-episode Brit production that apparently satisfies Stanley’s requirement for what should be contained in a WW II film.

Whether you agree with Stanley or Laskey, I think we can all agree that we wouldn’t be having this discussion if Burns had properly marketed his film. The title is “The War.” Direct? Yes. Impactful? Yes. Misleading? A little bit.

With all of Burns’ films, his approach is personal and granular. Anyone can get interviews with different viewpoints and map out a chronology of events. Only Burns can connect you with the people and communities who lived it, touched it, breathed it, walked it and agonized it. This film was produced as a tribute to our brave nation, not a political platform.

As a tribute, I believe that Burns missed the opportunity to really showcase his talent by branding his masterpiece with a very nondescript title. While clean, definitive naming is his trademark (i.e., Baseball, Jazz and The Civil War), this film seems to be especially personal and intense and calls for at least a subtitle or tagline that immediately evokes Burns’ unique approach. If Burns would be repelled by a longer title such as “Our Nation At War,” I do think he needs three or four words to accompany The War that lets viewers in on the real flavor of this film: how this most tragic war damaged and altered the U.S. as a nation - from the teen-age soldiers on the frontlines to the neighborhoods back home.

Naming is tricky business. Whether it’s a film, business, book title or a blog, the name you choose evokes immediate personal perceptions. With a different, more focused name for The War, Stanley’s argument doesn’t have many legs and the review would have had to have taken a completely different turn. And now, for those who just read her article but do not personally view the film, a perception of Burns’ work has been generated. But, unfortunately, not by Burns.

Last week I was fortunate to have presented to XCellR8, part of the Connecticut Growth Network, an eclectic mix of technology start-ups, academia, reps from the state, VCers and consultants. After a shaky start, literally . . . (I stupidly skipped breakfast and wore shoes that crunched a broken left toe, sparking nausea and a blood sugar drop that almost landed me on the floor - I wish I were kidding) . . . my very patient, considerate crowd and I tackled a few topics on brand synergy and top online and offline marketing channels for pocket-friendly budgets.

If I could redo the hour, I would’ve focused it more on the area of high-return marketing channels. Brand synergy is important stuff, particularly for companies looking to build loyalty and find a competitive voice, but this group needs more “what can I do right now that won’t kill my budget” options. So, here are three areas that I believe hatchling start-ups should contemplate, keeping in mind that each business requires unique strategies:

Strategize, Don’t Agonize

During the discussion, the group expressed a few pain points that need further discussion. In particular:

“My business is not ready for marketing.”

RESPONSE A: If you’ve got a website and/or clients, you’re already marketing. The trick is focusing those energies to ensure the right message gets to the right markets and leads to more clients.

RESPONSE B: Remember that commercial that showed a start-up company’s excitement turn to panic as they launched their website and then watched purchase orders pile up into the millions? Never happens. I’m not saying that you shouldn’t have your infrastructure in place before you reach out to the world, but avoiding marketing because you think you’ll be bombarded with clients that you have to turn away is causing you to miss opportunities. Building a product (or service or organization) and marketing it are joined at the hip. While you are building, you should be marketing. This doesn’t mean printing flyers or hiring a PR guy. It does mean engaging your market on the groundfloor to grow your audience, learn from them and then reach out to places where there are more of them. More tips on what marketing to tackle first are coming up.

“My clients don’t live online.”

RESPONSE: Are you sure? Call them and find out. Spend a few hours to reach out personally to clients and ask them questions about their challenges, the benefits you’ve been able to provide, how you can make it better, where they spend their time, publications they read, what types of programs they’d participate in and how they prefer to interact with you (email, print, etc.). When you have this information, compile it into a spreadsheet and compare notes among the clients based on their industry, purchase history and other defining features. This knowledge will help you finetune the channels you use to reach out, what you say and how often. By calling, you have also just made yourself top-of-mind with a client who was thinking about solving a production line problem or how they could improve efficiency. You never know where conversations can lead.

“My background is tech-based and I can’t afford to hire out for marketing or I only want to spend XXX, where do I invest?”

RESPONSE: Consider setting a budget, even if it’s only $500 and pick one or two initiatives. Based on what you know about your current clientele, target efforts that make sense for your business and what your audience is willing to do. Some ideas include: starting a referral program with clients or building a “beta or advisory group” of select clients where they give you feedback on your product/service in exchange for giving them something they can use (access to you, discounts, etc.). If you’re going to spend your money in online advertising, first find out how your current clients found you. Get the keywords they used, who mentioned you or, if cold calling, what sold it on the phone. Google Adwords (and the like) are cheap but worthless if you don’t use them wisely and keep an eagle on eye on their return. I believe, for start-ups, you’ll get more leverage out of building unique content and generating PR buzz.

Every business is different and requires a unique, tactical approach that aligns with your business strategy. If you’re starting out, focus marketing efforts on areas that get you noticed, provide the biggest return and allow you to be agile. You are testing the waters of what works, how to best market yourself and where to find your audience. Where you spend your time and money now will become building blocks for your brand’s unique value and will set the stage for bigger marketing initiatives.

Become A Resource

These days, out of sight ensures out of mind. Depending on where your audience lives, online or offline, reach out with unique content or activities that sparks more interaction with you and adds value to their day. Here are some ideas:

1) One Paragraph Tips. Spend an hour and write out 5-6 different paragraphs on using your product/service, business ideas, ways other clients have been successful and dos and don’ts. Use this content to post on your homepage (and in your blog if you have one) and email to clients in a quick “Tip of the Week” type email, always linking back to your site for them to read the archived tips. When you run low, sit down for another hour and write out 5-6 more.

COSTS: If you can easily post items on your website and can manage email campaigns, this will cost you 3-5% of your time per week. If you need to pay your web developer to do this for you (yuck - that will add up!), it will cost you a few hours of their time per week.

2) Get Out There. Conferences and seminars always need speakers. Find outlets where your audience is future clients, not just colleagues. The key here is to use the opportunity as networking and leveraging. Before your talk, announce your appearance to clients and encourage them to join you. Maybe a client you’re very close with will want to help you present and give their view from the in-industry side? Be sure to follow-up with clients after the event with a recounting of the experience that includes what you learned at the conference and trends to watch.

COSTS: Again, your time is required on all aspects: putting the presentation together, participating in the event and reaching out to clients and prospects. Make sure the investment is worth it by ensuring the audience is within your target market and that buzz you create around the event will engage your current clientele.

3) Pitch It. I realize that not everyone is comfortable with talking to the media or don’t even know how to go about it. Getting major PR does require connections and a savvy PR guy or gal who can make it happen. However, media is always scrambling for fresh stories. Especially in these days of constant content when they have paper and/or a website to fill and a narrower audience base to reach. When you reach out to a publication, have a game plan. Give them a story idea that fits their audience and makes their publication look like they’re on the cutting edge. Maybe you and a client are working on an unusual project or maybe you see a trend in your industry that no one else is catching on to. The goal is to a) get published for visibility and b) use that publicity as a conversation starter with clients and prospects.

COSTS: This requires more time with gathering a list of media outlets, writing press releases and/or pitches. Consider contacting me for a free needs assessment. If you’ve got a budget for this, I can work with it. If you have a zero budget, I can give you more ideas of things you can do yourself - just be prepared to invest time that may take you away from your core business. How do you like how I did that – I pitched myself in a post on pitching. See how easy it is?!

Back in “the day” when I was young-er and living in NYC, I was lucky enough to be a part of a group of friends that became like family to me. We were all in our mid to late 20s, making our way together through first career mishaps, crazy bosses, jackass men and a city that wouldn’t let us quit. We’ve all since split and moved to California, Ireland, New Jersey, Staten Island and Connecticut but there was one night in Port Chester, NY that we’ll never forget.

Somehow we fell into partying with this group of guys who were relentless at promoting themselves. This was the early days of mass email and these guys latched on - building lists of people that they could email write-ups about their weekend adventures and announcements about upcoming gatherings. At the time, retro ’70s was huge in NYC so these guys decided to have a Boogie Nights party. For me and my girls, it was like a message from the glittery gods of platform shoes and feathered hair.

We spent HOURS. We shopped out our costumes at Salvation Armies and cheap discount stores, we bought loud make-up and talked endlessly about what look each of us could carry off. The highlight of our make-ready was studying the blue eyeshadow of William H. Macy’s wife in Boogie Nights as she got jiggy with a guy who was not William H. Macy. We actually paused the scene so we could replicate the look. When the pause ended, we rewinded and paused again.

When felt boogied up enough, we jumped on a train out of the city to Port Chester where we anxiously talked about what everyone else would be dressed as or who would be there and how awesome the night ahead was sure to be. It seemed like days since we started getting ready. The time had come to shake it down.

Arriving at the train station, the host picked us up and provided many compliments on our presentation and effort. We didn’t seem to notice that he was sans Boogie Nights apparel. We were dying to jump right into the festivities. Walking into the house, I was pretty sure I could feel my wispy feathered do go limp as we entered into nothing. No balloons. No streamers. No people. Well, there were some people but they were all huddled in a side room watching a football game. Not one of them in polyester or blue eyeshadow.

They didn’t stay in that room long. We had arrived and we were ready to party. It took a while but we got that group off their butts and made a heck of a boogie out of that night. We have the pictures to prove it.

I think the best marketers and business strategists can take a page out of the Boogie Nights’ book. These days, so much effort is spent mapping and measuring and mulling over promotional strategies that will garner X, Y, Z penetration and deliver A, B, C results. We spend more time trying to control the outcome of a product or company than actively living in the goodtimes and pitfalls that happen every day. When you live in the moment, you are agile and aware. You can recognize opportunities that you may have missed by looking at tomorrow.

If my pals and I knew that we’d show up to a blah party that night in Port Chester, we would’ve done something else. But we didn’t. Instead we spent too much money on ourselves, too much paste on our face and too much time giving each other belly laughs. The result wasn’t showing up to a disappointing party. We were the party and, today, friends for life.