Holiday Video for Work

I created a holiday video for work to send out in an email to all of our Logistics Plus customers, partners, and employees. It's a little boring, but it does a nice job of showcasing the size and diversity of the company. In any event, I thought I'd share it here as well.

My Work Week

I've been experimenting with an iPhone app called "Directr for Business" and made the following short video with it. It's kind of cool. The app has template storyboards making it very easy to produce short videos on a variety of subjects. Last week was a little more interesting than most. As the video shows, my highlights of the week were:

• Monday - drive 2+ hours to my Erie, Pa. office (leave at 5:00 am, arrive at 7:15 am
• Tuesday - interviewed three candidates for a possible marketing internship
• Wednesday - facilitated a conference call/interview with editor from Supply Chain World magazine
• Thursday - organized an on-site photograph shoot of all Erie-based employees (almost 100) and an interview with Business Magazine
• Friday - returned to Cleveland area for a meeting with my go-to web designer at Brown Wood Fish
• Saturday - finished out the week from my "home office" before enjoying a little R&R

Tennessee Wedding Bells

The Newlyweds!

It's been a while since I posted something, so here are the highlights from Jessica (Karen's niece) and Timmy's wedding a couple weeks ago. The wedding was in the mountains of eastern Tennessee (Butler) since they live not too far a way from there (Knoxville area). Although there was a lot of driving involved for The Hollywood Four during the three-day stretch (including picking Abby up from college and then taking her back again), a good time was had by all.

The Start of a New Chapter in my Career

With mixed emotions, this week I officially ended my time at PartnerShip LLC in order to pursue a new opportunity. I started with PartnerShip in December 2011 and it was a great run! I am so proud of the things we accomplished during my nearly three years there. Faced with a significant business diversification challenge outside of its traditional college/association channels, we successfully re-imagined and re-introduced the PartnerShip® brand, completely redesigned the PartnerShip.com website, introduced a new customer loyalty program, created new videos, a protracted social media strategy, and started an in-house truckload brokerage service (among many other things). As a result, we more than doubled website traffic, we tripled online rate quoting, we earned shipping endorsements from over 40 new association groups, we significantly grew the non-college, non-association business channel, and we effectively established PartnerShip as a viable 3PL/broker in the marketplace. As the director of marketing and business systems, I had the pleasure of working alongside some wonderful people whom I will always remember ...

The Logistics Plus Logo

... But tomorrow I turn the page and embark on the next phase of my career as the vice president of marketing for Logistics Plus Inc. Founded in Erie, PA seventeen years ago, Logistics Plus® provides domestic and global logistics solutions to both large and small businesses across the United States and worldwide. The company has dozens of offices located around the world to help its clients with air, road, sea, and rail transportation. Working as a 3PL or 4PL partner, they offer simple, reliable, and affordable logistics services with a strong "passion for excellence." With 300+ employees, the company is over three times as large as my former company.

Logistics Plus HQ in Erie, PA

I am very excited by this opportunity and how openly and enthusiastically the CEO/owner has embraced me into his logistics family (the other employees I've met so far have been great too). I will also have the pleasure of working alongside and learning from a long-time colleague and friend - the executive vice president of strategic initiatives - who hopes to be retiring sometime soon. Karen and I will not be re-locating to Erie, PA for at least a couple years (after Andrew graduates, maybe), so for now I'll be working from Erie, PA a few days/nights per week, and then from home the rest of the time. It's a great flexible arrangement, and in today's age of mobile technology, very do-able. Most importantly, I am simply excited about the challenge of helping Logistics Plus take their marketing, branding, and growth efforts to the next level. Wish me luck!

2014 Summer Vacation in Boston

The past few years most of our vacations have entailed hiking in the mountains. This year we decided to take a "city vacation" in Boston, MA. We started by driving to Pittsburgh where we flew Jet Blue to Boston. Our vacation highlights included: Shopping (mostly for Abby); Eating (lots of good food); Seabass Fishing; Watching the Blue Man Group show; Riding the City Trolley Tour; Touring Fenway Baseball Park; Whale watching; Visiting the Aquarium; Expanding our horizons at the Art Institute; Marveling at engineering at the MIT Museum; Riding the Boston Subway; Beer Tasting at Sam Adams Brewery; and a few other things too. The video below contains picture and film highlights from our vacation.

Abby's High School Graduation

This was a busy week for Abby. On Tuesday night she received her golden tassel for earning an Ohio Honors Diploma and the Presidential Award. Then today, she walked the stage as part of her official High School Graduation and Commencement. Over 500 students of Medina High School walked the stage in what was a very well organized program. Many pictures were taken both before and after the ceremonies - and even a few video clips too. Here is a short presentation of this week's highlights. From Kindergarten to High School - my how time flies.

Senior Prom Night 2014

Last night Abby attended her Senior Prom with her date, Matt, and her friends Emily and Tiffany and their dates. Despite a chilly slightly rainy day, we were able successfully take inside and outside pictures at Tiffany's parents' house. The kids then departed for prom - after which they would all attend the "After Prom" party (a midnight to morning thing at the High School). However, we received a phone call from Abby around 9:30 pm telling us she was with one of the dance chaperones because a boy (not her boy) stepped on her toe on the dance floor and totally mangled her big toe nail. She was in quite a bit of pain and the nail was hanging half off her toe, so we took her to an emergency care location. They numbed her toe, cut half of the nail off, bandaged her up - and she was good-to-go again (she even signed her own paperwork since she is now 18). She still attended the After Prom party and - as far as we know - all went okay.

Savannah, GA Getaway

I had a business meeting/conference in Savannah, GA last weekend. Since last week the kids were on Spring Break, they really wanted to go somewhere warm. So we decided to drive down to Savannah last week Wednesday (12 hours) as a family. We spent Thursday morning hanging out at the Tybee Island ocean beach. The weather was great - mid 80s - but the water was cold. Later that day we went to the season opener for the Savannah Sand Gnats. The place was crazy as all of the locals showed up to drink beer and watch baseball. While Dad was working on Friday and Saturday, Mom, Abby, and Andrew trolley'd around downtown Savannah for some shopping and site-seeing. Then we all drove home on Sunday (coming back was rough). Overall, it was still a nice getaway. Here are some highlights (sans music which I apparently forgot to add in).

St. Patrick's Day Recap

Yesterday was a busy day for Abby and the O'Hare School of Irish Dance. But I suppose that is to be expected on St. Patrick's Day. The day started with a performance at 10:00 AM at Sully's Irish Pub in Medina, OH, followed by a bus ride to various other venues in and around Northeast Ohio. That included an appearance in the Cleveland St. Patrick's Day Parade. The day ended right back where it started with yet another performance at Sully's Irish Pub at 7:00 PM back in Medina. Here are a few pictures and video highlights that were captured on one of our family iPhones.

The Rhythm of Ireland - Promo

A couple years ago, I helped the O'Hare School of Irish Dance put together a short promotional video that they used on their website to promote one of their featured, annual events: The Rhythm of Ireland. Although I missed last year's event (here's a link to the performance from two years ago), this year I was able to help them out again. So, here is the new video promotion that is posted to my Hollywood Four YouTube channel.

Andrew Hockey Highlights

Here are a few hockey clips and highlights from the past couple weeks of Andrew (finally wearing his official #97 game uniform) and the Medina High School Bees JV Hockey team. The last clip in this highlight reel is of Andrew scoring his second goal of the season. On a related note, the Medina Varsity team is continuing where they left off last season with a #2 ranking in the state of Ohio for club teams, and #16 ranking among all high school teams.

Akron First Night 2014

Abby, once again this year, and the O'Hare School of Irish Dance performed live at the Akron First Night 2014 celebration. This year, First Night Akron celebrated its 18th year as a family friendly New Year's celebration that entertains with music, fireworks and activities for adults and children alike. More than 80 artists and performing groups will entertain during the event, including such diverse musical acts as the Beatles tribute Hard Day's Night, Colin Dussault's Blues Project, the Akron Symphony's Gospel Meets Symphony Choir, the Cleveland Chinese Music Ensemble, Fergie & the Bog Dogs, the Smokin' Fez Monkeys (jug band), a Johnny Cash and June Carter Cash tribute show, Akron Big Band and the Street Beat Drummers. Here are a couple of the dances from the performance captured on film by mom:

Happy New Year!

Welcome back to the Hollywood Four blog. This year we mark our 7th year of blogging. To view reruns from our previous six years, click the links shown to the right under the "PAST YEARS" heading. In year's past I would normally archive the ending year and then create a brand new blog design for the new year. As our family blogging activity has been winding down the past couple years, it is my intent to use this year's blog for at least the next few years rather than starting from scratch again - hence the new, Hollywood evergreen design!

We have some great family milestones coming up in 2014: Grandma Carole will celebrate her 80th birthday in February; Abby will graduate from High School in May and then start her college career at Kent State University in the fall; and Andrew will transition from his freshman to sophomore year in high school. At this point, I still plan on leading marketing and IT development at PartnerShip LLC (logistics) for the foreseeable future, and mom still plans on being the Jack-of-all-trades at Woodbine Products (soap products).

Before we proceed forward creating and sharing new memories in 2014 and beyond, let's first take a look back at all of the wonderful blessings and experiences we shared in 2013 ...