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May 22, 2022

Nick’s 2-Hour Cocktail Party

Introduction

Nick Gray and I worked together in NYC.  If you don’t know Nick, you should. Nick was described as a “modern day Emily Post” and that only scratches the surface. Nick is a twice-exited entrepreneur and investor who spends most of his time running a small family office and writing a weekly newsletter which I think is one of the most interesting things on the internet.  was his personal Chief-of-Staff during some of the big growth years of Museum Hack. Nick had just handed over the reins as CEO to the extraordinary Tasia Duske and was figuring out what the next professional chapter of his life would look like. We worked together to look at investments, supercharge bringing value to his network (a big priority if you know Nick at all) and most of all plan cool parties with awesome people. Everything from small cocktail parties to a large birthday party at Lincoln Center, of course with nametags. 
Nick is also very much stuck in my head thanks to the quote below 

Nick Gray and Cocktail Parties

Nick has a VERY specific way of hosting a party. I’ve seen it, dozens of times. There are name tags, and icebreakers, and party reminder messages, and lots more. My favorite part about the parties was always how many new connections were made. My job was to help run all of the logistics to make them seamless. At our height, we were hosting one party per week.

The 2-Hour Cocktail Party

This is a new book from Nick that will launch on June 14, 2022. He sent me an advance copy, and I’ve read various versions of the book over the past few years. I know it will be great.

How to Host a Party

This is a whole site that Nick made about how to host a party, with various tips, tricks, techniques, shopping lists, etc. See more at www.party.pro, and here are links to some of my favorite articles there:

 

How to Make New Friends

Nick says that the best way to make new friends or build your network is to learn how to host a happy hour or a cocktail party. The book talks a lot about that. It is an extremely tactical book.

Conclusion

I’m super happy for Nick to finally get his book out. I learned so much from working with him and a good chunk of my networking game is inspired by the way Nick operates. I hope others can benefit from his unique way of hosting. It can be easy!  But of course, it also helps if you have a great Chief-of-Staff named Mike. 😄
Let me know if you buy the book, would love to hear what you’ve learned.
May 7, 2022

2022 Q2 Goals

2022 Q2 Goals

I sit here having tested positive for covid-19 last night which feels like a fitting end to 2021. My hope is 2022 will be what 2020 should have been for everyone  

Goals

Move

I’m moving to Jersey City in June and couldn’t be more excited. We are way ahead of the game having signed a lease three months in advance, bought a couch, and secured movers but there is sitll alot of work to be done. I need to purge/donate/giveaway much of the stuff that won’t be coming into the new apt.

Diet Coke reduction

I’m driving probably a minimum of 7 or so glasses a day and want to reduce this as I know it is not healthy and likely impacting my overall fitness goals. Replacing with more seltzer from my sodastream as well as coconut water and lemon juice. Aiming for 3-4 glasses a week. Writing this on April 10th so going to keep a log that lets me do 40x a month.

250 Stealth attempts

I failed on this last quarter and need a lower hurdle to crush. 5x a day is 400.

Target consulting specialization

I’m at the point of my consulting career where I need to develop a view on what I want to specialize so i avoid becoming a generalist and am able to take more leadership roles moving forward. Project Management is a strong skill of mine but needs to be paired with something more narrow. We are growing our merger integration and transition practice so I will dive deeper in this area.  Also by summer I expecte my engagement to end so i will need to find a new project

Draft and publish EMS Post

Already have the outline just need to put to paper, get copy edited and then publish through my various social channels

Redirect social media effort to linkedin by limiting Instagram and Twitter

Description  

Habits to work on

  1. Stop emailing myself – if it is important it goes on the calendar
  2. Use sent folder as homebox not inbox – i find myself getting distracted by my inbox and being reactive instead of proactive
  3. Hit 150g+ protein – I am not losing weight becaus I’m working out a ton and not getting enough protein.

Highlights

December 26, 2021

2022 Q1 Goals + Recap

 

I sit here having tested positive for covid-19 last night which feels like a fitting end to 2021. My hope is 2022 will be what 2020 should have been for everyone  

Goals

Draft Case for Manager

In the coming year, I will be up for promotion to Manager at EY, and part of the journey is not just showing why I deserve it but also how the business will be better suited with me in an elevated role. Tactically this means I make a written case and then discuss it with leadership. I feel I am already performing at this level so feel confident about my chances. Ultimately it will partially come down to the number of seats our unit is allocated. If its 4 I have a strong chance if 2 it is unlikely. I won’t learn about the decision until spring / summer but the prep work is Jan – march.

  • Recap: Completed well ahead of schedule. I am noticing a subtle balance between being a workhorse and a show horse. There are folks whose work do a bunch of work but don’t let people know about it and then the exact opposite. So to that point I made a one page sell sheet as opposed to the multi page decks that I have seen. 

Tracking spreadsheet

I want to focus more on processes and habits and less on direct goals. My hope is if I can build a better process around how i manage my life and goals everything else will fall into place. I’m tracking across 5 dimensions: meditation, exercise, logging food, personal progress before work, and journaling and only using social media once a day. Given how ingrained work from home is the only thing stopping me from doing this is me mentally making the space at the start / end of my work day  

  • Recap: Did this for 6 weeks and realized it was more of a hindrance than a catalyst. I was mostly good with the habits but the takeaway is I need just bring back journaling that was affected earlier even if it wasn’t digital. 

Two Blog posts

Content has not been a priority for me for a while. I just hired someone to help me push out a few blog posts that are on my queue

  • Posted one and started outlining another. Need to leverage my VA more to help me with this. 

Not To Do List

I wouldn’t quite call them bad habits but I want to be more intentional with how i use my time. Too granular to track but I want to focus on stopping these in the coming quarter

  • Emailing myself reminders – I think of something and then shove it into my inbox to be used later. When its in my inbox it inevitably gets snoozed till later and later and becomes a thorn in my side. Instead I want to add these things to my calendar even if they are months or weeks out. Less processing power needed
    • I cut this down a ton and this is a good reminder. If it is important enough it goes on the calendar instead of living in the inbox. 
  • No social media in bed – I find myself going into scrolling loops before bed and after I wake up. It is not great.
    • 6/10. Was good with separation at the start of the quarter but want to get better
  • Keep my phone in a separate room for most of the day – Similarly to social media my phone takes up too much of my time and attention. Part of the problem is i need it for 2FA for certain work things. I have set it up so my favorites will ring through so i will be accessible in an emergency
    • Same as above 

Highlights

October 5, 2021

2021 Q4 Goals + Recap

I want to narrow my focus this quarter

Recovery

I’m scheduled for surgery this quarter and it is certainly going to slow me down both physically and metaphorically. Thankfully I have the ability to take medical leave at work which makes me feel incredibly fortunate. I’ve been known to take things too fast and I want to give myself ample time to recover. This will likely mean weeks away from a computer screen and a slow down to most of the things I am chasing. If I don’t dedicate time to this recovery this will continue to nag me. No real metric to track other than do i feel better than I currently do on Jan 1st.

  • Recap: What a whirlwind. Definitely feel better than I did October 1 but somehow am still dealing with the dumpster fire that is paying medical bills. Here’s a thread of my surgery and recovery experience.  Super grateful that I had my girlfriend, roommate and parents help me as I was an invalid for a week or so. Also what a blessing from EY that I was able to go on short-term leave and focus on recovery; I genuinely did not receive a single message about anything work related during my time out. That says a lot about the firm. I would say at this moment in time I am 85-90% recovered as I still have aches and pains and scarring but I am mostly on the right path and back to my normal life. 

Tracking spreadsheet

Last quarter I made a spreadsheet of habits I wanted to track and i totally abandoned it. Despite nobody reading this blog I think publishing the spreadsheet held me back a bit. I want to track things like meditation, tracking food, journaling and a few other things but gonna keep the tracking effort private.

  • Recap: I did this for a few days and then surgery took me off my routine which I am going to make a focus point for 2022 Q1

Highlights

July 7, 2021

2021 Q3 Goals

I want to focus more on habits and processes and less on the personal and professional dichotomy. Strong habits and foundations will ripple over that imaginary line in the sand.

30+ days during the workweek with progress before walking into the office

Often I get up only a few minutes before my first meeting in the morning and I want to make more space to have a more intentional morning and start to my day off on the right foot. This will become increasingly important as remote work takes over the world.  I want to make progress on a personal goal before signing in during the work week. This can include fitness, reading, writing, personal development or anything that moves my life forward.

 

55+ days journaling

I used to have a healthy habit of bookending my day with journaling and want to get back to that. I dislike writing things by hand but love catching memories. It often takes me 5-10 minutes and is a delightful breather or moment to review

55+ days meditation

I live a pretty fast paced life and a few of  my close friends continually nudge me to get deeper into meditation. The longest streat I’ve had is 5 days and I remember a noticeable improvement in my psyche

55+ days no social media until noon

Social media has been a huge boon to my personal and professional life but I am not being intentional about it. I find myself sucked into a twitter or instagram hole when I find myself with a few spare minutes and that is far from a healthy habit. When I am in my apartment I have an orange handheld counter that I will try to track each time I grab for my phone

1000+ stealth attempts

I bought this toy for my basement during quarantine and have fallen off. Going to an OTF class takes 90 minutes which is a big chunk of time. I can easily squeeze a workout in during lunch or before or after work. ~15 per day

Draft hiring is broken blog post

This always falls to the back burner due to other things but I need to make an effort here to invest time. Every single person I know who writes publicly either personally or professionally has seen benefits independent of how much exposure it gets. One blog post is very reaslisitc

I’ll use this spreadsheet to track

 

 

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