Tag: Colorado Springs (Page 2 of 3)

Crush It! by Vaynerchuk: What It Looks Like Off the Page

January 4, 2011 / Ethan Beute

If you’ve already dropped your New Year’s resolution and you’re looking to pick up a new one, I recommend that you start to Crush It! The concept is laid out by Gary Vaynerchuk in his book of that title. I wrote about it late last year.

The subtitle of the book is Why Now Is The Time to Cash In on Your Passion. In it, Vaynerchuk advocates that you put family first, do what you love and work super-hard. Tools are now available to help you build your personal brand and monetize your personal passion. It involves a ton of hard work, but your passion should continue to pull you in such a way that it doesn’t feel laborious.

In thinking again about the key takeaways, I realized that a friend of mine is starting to Crush It! My favorite part: I don’t think he’s explicitly trying – he’s just doing what comes naturally.

From Left to Right: Ethan Beute and Matt Payne on the summit of Emerald Peak, Sawatch Range, Collegiate Peaks Wilderness, Colorado

Matt Payne’s got a full-time management job with Peak Vista Community Health Centers here in Colorado Springs. He’s a husband and father. He’s also a mountaineer at heart. Matt achieved the summit of his first “fourteener” (14,000+ foot peaks for which Colorado is famous) at the age of 6.

After losing touch with this innate passion, he decided a year or two back to revisit a long-time goal to climb the top 100 peaks here in Colorado. Researching the peaks, planning the trips, getting new and necessary gear, locating and screening climbing partners – it all consumes a great amount of time. He layered on another set of tasks by committing to shoot photos and write trip reports, which he’d post to a personal blog (now defunct, more on that next) and to other sites, like SummitPost.org and 14ers.com.

Both SummitPost and 14ers have good features, active communities and loads of information. Not perfectly satisfied with either site, though, Matt taught himself Joomla, a content management system, and built 100summits.com from scratch. He’s since added loads of features (interactive map of all the Colorado mountain ranges, deals of the day, photo sales and tons more – like an algorithmic breakdown of summit “impressiveness”). The blog has turned into a series of Examiner posts.

The new skills he taught himself by building a website with no prior programming experience has resulted in potentially revenue-generating outcome – offers to built others’ sites. Consider, too, that the Examiner series is revenue-generating (authors are paid per page view). Add in the various revenue-generating aspects of the site (he gives away 25% to the Colorado Fourteeners Initiative and the Rocky Mountain Field Institute). Also consider the value of building a community around such a focused concept – climbing the 100 highest peaks in Colorado.

In short: Matt’s using newly available tools (like Facebook) to begin to monetize his personal passion. These efforts eat up nights and weekends. It’s a sacrifice. The revenue’s not nearly enough to boot the day job (it may be just enough to buy new gear), but he’s building an asset for himself, for his family, for their future. The best part: he’s loving every minute of it (or most, anyway).

Related: his wife, Angela, is taking a more blended old-school/new-school route. We were one of her earliest customers, ordering holiday cookies that she baked and sent to our family’s homes across the country. Check out The Sweet Shop on Facebook.

Their efforts are young; I’m excited to see where it all goes. So, will you start to crush it this year?

Photos from our visit to Collegiate Peaks Wilderness to summit Missouri, Iowa and Emerald Peaks are right here.

Photos from our visit to the Sierra Blanca to summit Mount Lindsey, Iron Nipple and “Huerfano” Peak are right here.

2017 UPDATE

Years after writing this post, Matt continues to drive into his passion for landscape photography.

See that passion on display at his photography website and in his landscape photography podcast.

Customers Just Want to Know What’s Going On

November 24, 2010 / Ethan Beute

When you place an order with Amazon, you immediately receive an email confirming the order. You receive another to let you know when it’s been shipped. You can track its progress all the way to your door. As a customer, you know what’s going on from beginning to end with updates throughout the process.

Even Domino’s Pizza lets you track your order from confirmation through prep, baking, quality checking and completion. “Hey, look! Rick just put my pizza in the oven!”

Among the many observations my wife shared with me from her years as a flight attendant is that customers don’t expect the mechanical delay to be fixed in an instant. Instead, they just want to know what’s going on. What’s the problem? How long until it’s fixed? When will we be taking off? How late to my destination should I expect to be? Has the status of the problem changed?

The same is true under crew, weather or any other kind of delay. The rising anxiety of passengers was slightly diminished each time more information was shared. On occasion, she’d been explicitly told how nice and helpful it was to know what was happening.

This is also a basic rule of crisis management within public relations. Share what you know, when you know it. Be honest. Be clear. Be informative.

Now to my motivation to put this little post together: my 2003 Volkswagen Jetta was recently hosted by the local Volkswagen dealer’s service department for three entire days. During this time, I had to initiate every single piece of communication. This poor customer service was acknowledged by the fact that they took $100 off the final bill.

VW, Volkswagen, Jetta, engine, car, 2.0, 2002, 2003, under the hood

The Bob Penkus VW Service Department should share what they know when they know it.

Situation and Timeline

The car would not start properly on a Wednesday morning. We got it jumped, then I dropped it off with them at 7:45am. To be fair, I did not have an appointment. I characterized the problem as a failing battery and noted that we still had a temperature light flashing (it’d been looked at before but never solved).

I didn’t expect to have the car back by noon. I did expect to hear something that day, though. I called at 5pm to learn that, of course, it wouldn’t be ready.

On Thursday, I didn’t hear anything, so I gave them a call at 3pm. A new battery was definitely needed and they were “looking around” for one. They were still looking into the flashing light.

I left a voice mail message at 5:30pm and again at 6pm to see if they’d found and installed a battery. I got a call back at 6:15pm and learned that: I had two choices of battery, they’d solved the flashing light, they’d found that the oil filter leaked and they wanted to change my timing belt. Also: no work had yet been performed. And: no costs were mentioned until I specifically asked about them. Even then, the whole package was positioned at once ($1,200), rather than as a series of options.

So after 5pm on two consecutive nights, it was up to the customer to figure out if he’d need to line up an alternative ride home from work that evening and back to work the next morning.

On that callback, I said yes to $400 in work – new VW battery, new oil filter and new coolant return thing that solved the flashing and beeping with which we’d been greeted every cold morning. I said no to the $800 timing belt change (I’ll get that done elsewhere, even though they price match). I was assured the work would be performed first thing in the morning and that the service manager would call me as soon as the car was ready.

I heard nothing all Friday morning, so I gave them a call at 1pm. The person handling my visit was not in, so someone else said she’d check with the technician and call me back right away.

At 2:15pm, having heard nothing, I called again. I was told that the car should be ready by 4:45 or 4:50pm.

The Bottom Line

Voice mail messages unreturned. Broken promises of calls back. All information pulled by the customer rather than pushed by the service department.

I don’t expect them to work miracles. I don’t expect to drop in without an appointment and be first in line. I only expect to know what’s going on.

Customers should be presented with choices and associated costs when decisions need to be made. Customers should not be left to wonder what’s happening.

Phone call, email, text message, anything – let customers know what’s going on. The customer experience is made much more positive … and you’re more likely to collect full price for services rendered.

Chair Socks: When You Absolutely Must Buy More Stuff

November 10, 2010 / Ethan Beute

Apparently, the urge to live your life with style has come to this: socks for your chairs.

This may not be new, but it’s new to me. It can’t really be called “conspicuous consumption,” because you don’t carry your chairs on your arm like you might a $1,000 purse. I’ll call it “ridiculous consumption.”

I’m good with style. I’m good with design. I’m good with new ideas. I’m good with entrepreneurs – they’re our best bet for an economically better tomorrow.

I’m not so good with the perishable, fleeting and often silly nature of fashion. I’m terrible with having to buy more stuff so badly that you’d pull out a credit card for socks … for your chairs.

Chris and Ruby, Chris & Ruby, Chair Socks, socks for your chair

Socks: What You and Your Chairs Never Knew They Never Needed (Photo: Dwell.com)

I did buy a pack of pads for the bottom of some of my chairs for $5 at Bed Bath and Beyond; they prevent my chairs from scratching the floor.

I did not buy a set of four chair socks from Dwell.com for $20. At that price, socking up your dining room would cost $80-160, depending how many you seat.

If you absolutely must spend money, please consider other options, because there are people who live within a 5 mile radius of your home that need socks more than your chairs do.

Here in Colorado Springs, the Colorado Springs Independent’s IndyGive! campaign just fired back up – colorful, fun, incentivized and wonderful. Later this month, the Gazette-El Pomar Empty Stocking Fund campaign begins again; this campaign is run in several other cities, too. Both benefit a wide variety of non-profits on all kinds of missions to make life better for all of us here in the Pikes Peak region.

About what do you care? How can you improve your own life by improving others’ lives? Is there a person, organization or idea you appreciate that could use a little boost?

Most of us buy things we don’t really need, but instead simply want. That’s OK. But I’m drawing the line at chair socks.

Pikes Peak: Second Time’s Most Charming

June 22, 2010 / Ethan Beute

Spring snow melt is producing seasonal streams down the high east slopes of Pikes Peak. The alpine tundra is greening and blooming. With perfect weather and good, unexpected company, my second round trip hike of Pikes Peak by Barr Trail was the best summit experience yet.

Pikes Peak, Barr Trail, treeline, timberline, photo, self-portrait, self

Self-timer near the A-Frame Timberline Shelter, Barr Trail, Pikes Peak

I pulled into the parking lot off Ruxton over the Hydro Plant immediately behind a guy in a Toyota Tundra. As we were both getting our stuff together, he asked if I was heading to the summit and if I’d ever done so. I answered in the affirmative to both questions, prompting his follow-up: can we hike up together. He wasn’t so keen on my idea of starting the hike on the Incline, but he decided it’d provide a good challenge and cool story.

(Aside: committing to spend the entire morning with a complete stranger may seem striking, but it’s not. My rationale: we’re both in the parking lot at the bottom of Barr Trail at 4:45am – we’ve definitely got enough in common to carry 5 or 6 hours of conversation!)

Just like that, Jay and I were headed up the mountain.

We’d probably have made it to Barr Camp a half hour or 45 minutes faster, but Jay tweaked one of his calves on the Incline and it kept seizing up on him. He worked through it nicely and we kept a nice pace the rest of the way.

I love the mountain, the people and the culture of the place, but where Pikes Peak by Barr Trail really gets great is at the Ghost Forest a bit above Barr Camp. Next is the A Frame Timberline Shelter, followed by a climb up to a broad, bouldered bench. For its beautiful alpine tundra and wild granite figures, my favorite part of the hike is around the 3-miles-out mark (progress is all very well marked). Once the trail switches on a long, southerly crossing of the east face of the mountain, you’re treated to a couple nice looks into the 1,500-feet-deep Cirque. A few mouths full of diesel exhaust from the Cog train let you know you’re close to the destination. The “16 Golden Stairs” are the final switchbacks before the summit, where a zoo awaits.

Greening, blooming tundra and granite figures make this my favorite part of Barr Trail, two or three miles shy of the summit.

Jay wasn’t hiking round trip, as he had a 5pm commitment far across town. I hung out at the summit house while Jay lined up a ride down with a family from Kansas City. We thanked each other for what was certainly a mutually positive experience.

The hike down was marked with a nice Father’s Day phone call with my wife, son and father, all of whom are in Michigan at the moment. Passing through Barr Camp, there was a little to-do about a huge black bear that’s been hanging around this spring. I also took a little more time to shoot some photos than I did on the way up (example: the stands of Columbine just above the Fremont Experimental Forest were in the shadows on ascent, but lit on the way down).

It was a fantastic 12-hour day throughout which I became more fond and more familiar with my “home court” hike. Pikes Peak and Barr Trail don’t get much love from the serious hiking and climbing community (my impression), so I’ll share it in abundance. I aspire to return annually, maybe at different times of the season.

Random Notes

I really felt great all day – never weak, tired or sore. That said, I woke up pretty tight on Monday morning!

The summit is not the best part of Pikes Peak. The views are nice, but not nearly as fine as those on many, many other mountain tops or as those from elsewhere on the mountain.

To enjoy the finest part of the experience in a way that doesn’t require as long or high a climb, I recommend you drive to the summit and hike down three or four miles. Sure, you’ll have to hike back up, but you’ll have walked the finest part of Barr Trail.

By starting the hike on the Incline, you knock off a mile or mile and a half in distance and put 2,000 feet of the 7,500 foot climb behind you.

Tedious Lists

Timeline:

Parking lot 4:45am
Start of Incline 5am
Barr Camp 7:15 or 7:30am
Summit 11:15am
Depart summit 12:15pm
Back at parking lot 4:45pm

Beverages drunk:

3 liters of water
1 32oz Gatorade (Fruit Punch-Berry)
1 16oz Gatorade (Lemon Lime, purchased at summit at 250% of normal retail price)

Snacks thrown down:

Pro Bar Superfood Slam
Nature Valley Granola Bars (Oats ‘N Honey)
Raw Revolution Live Food (Spirulina)
Kashi TLC Chewy (Trail Mix)
Terrible “hot” pretzel (purchased on summit)
Natural Grocers’ Colorado Sunrise Fruit Mix (self-blended with generic mixed nuts)

Albums to which I pop/rocked down the mountain:

The New Pornographers‘ Twin Cinema (the split male/female duties on vocals – combined with the album name – always send my mind to Dirty Projectors)
Spoon‘s Girls Can Tell (they’ve never sounded better than on this record)
TV on the Radio‘s Desperate Youth, Blood Thirsty Babes (doo-wop and delectable distortion – the latter made me wish I’d digitized Medicine’s Shot Forth Self Living)
Yo La Tengo‘s Summer Sun (And Then Nothing Turned Itself Inside Out would have sequenced better, but this seemed more fitting for so fine a day)

Links

My Flickr photo set of the marathon round trip summit hike of Pikes Peak by Barr Trail is here. Click “Slideshow” to see them in sequence.

The 2009 Pikes Peak Atlas by Ormes and Houdek is here.

Previous blog post with more details about Barr Trail and Pikes Peak is here.

I’m obviously extremely fond of Pikes Peak. If you have any questions about the mountain or the hike, please Connect with me about it.

Pikes Peak: Gleeful Ignorance vs Mental Challenge

June 19, 2010 / Ethan Beute

Tomorrow, I’ll day-hike Barr Trail to the summit of Pikes Peak and back down for the second time. This hike, however, already feels different.

My first ascent was undertaken in gleeful ignorance just three weeks after moving to Colorado Springs.

Sure, I knew I’d be hiking about 25 or 26 miles round trip to the top of “America’s Mountain,” the inspiration for the writing of “America the Beautiful.”
Yeah, I knew it would require most of my waking hours that day.
Absolutely, I was up for a walk up through three distinct ecological life zones (Montane, Spruce-fir and alpine).

It wasn’t until I hiked up alongside of JJ, a 20-something from Denver who’s in the Colorado Mountain Club, about 5 miles up that I really understood the accomplishment of day-hiking it. The young man filled me in.

Pikes Peak, Barr Trail, 14er, mountain, summit, hike, peak, Colorado, Colorado Springs, Manitou Springs

First summit hike of Pikes Peak by Barr Trail, September 2006

Pikes Peak by Barr Trail is marathon-length, the longest approach of any of Colorado’s famed 14ers (+14,000 peaks). It also has the greatest elevation gain of any approach; from the trailhead in Manitou Springs to the summit, you climb approximately 7,500 vertical feet.

Among more than 50 qualifying Colorado peaks, Pikes ranks 30th at 14,110ft above sea level. So, it’s not even close to being the highest.

It’s also not the most technical. In fact, it’s probably the least technical. Barr Trail is a Class 1 walk-up, about as simple a summit hike as you’ll find.

It’s also insanely civilized. To call Barr Trail heavily used is a gross understatement, even by 14er standards. There’s Barr Camp halfway up, where many hikers spend the night, purchase t-shirts, eat a pancake breakfast or pick up a bottled drink. The summit itself is a tourist’s delight, designed to satisfy all those who drive up the Pikes Peak Highway or ride up the Pikes Peak Cog Railway. In addition to a huge gift shop, replete with the requisite “Got Oxygen” t-shirts, summit house offers a snack bar and fresh donut stand. Note: in addition to hiking it, I’ve been up by (rental) car and by cog railway.

So, what’s the difference between my initial go at it and what I’m preparing for tomorrow? I don’t keep a list, but I’d guess I’ve climbed a couple dozen mountains since my day-hike of Pikes Peak. So what’s the big deal?

I’ll call it the mental aspect of endurance. It’s a little more in my head now. I’m thinking too much about it. It’s shaping up as more of a mental challenge than a physical one.

It’s going to be a long day – probably 12 or 13 hours of hiking. I’m going to start before sunrise. I’m certain to have blisters by the end of the day (even though I plan to switch between shoes and boots near treeline).

I’m not going up the much shorter Crags route on the west side of the mountain. I’m not splitting the hike in half with by staying overnight at Barr Camp. I’m not hiking up, then catching a ride back down in a car or on the train.

Instead, I’m heading up as fast as I can, buying a Gatorade in the summit house, seeing how full the parking lot is, then hauling all the way back down and out (the hike down’s different, but it isn’t easy). I’m already wondering how tired and sore I might be as I head in to work on Monday morning.

To feel a little more prepared, I put on my boots and a full pack and did The Incline this morning. And to think … last time, I simply decided on a Thursday afternoon that Saturday’s weather looked good, so I should head up that mountain in my back yard.

All kinds of Pikes Peak photos from my Flickr photo stream are here.

Local History, Local Artist and Landscape Art

May 28, 2010 / Ethan Beute

Three things I truly enjoy intersect just 2 miles from our home: local history, a local artist and landscape art.

Physically, they intersect at Tejon and Vermijo in downtown Colorado Springs.

The Pioneers Museum is dedicated to local history, including the settlement and development of the Colorado Springs area. Its home is the former El Paso County Courthouse; one of the exhibits is a fully restored courtroom. It used to be open from 10am-5pm every day of the week, but the city budget is an absolute wreck. It’s always free to the public and absolutely worth a visit by locals and visitors alike.

The Pioneers Museum, downtown Colorado Springs, Colorado, history museum, local history

The Pioneers Museum in downtown Colorado Springs is housed in the former El Paso County Courthouse

One of my favorite exhibits is “Looming Large: The Artistic Legacy of Pikes Peak,” which was developed during the 2006 bicentennial of Zebulon Montgomery Pike’s expedition up the southwestern slopes of America’s Mountain. It’s a room filled with various artistic renderings of the mountain that now bears Pike’s name. One painting truly stands out from the rest and earns prominent placement.

Pioneers Museum, entrance to Looming Large exhibit

Entrance to the Looming Large exhibit at the Pioneers Museum

The oil painting is “Pikes Peak 2004” by Tracy Felix, who grew up and worked as an artist in Colorado Springs. Within the past few years, he and his wife, artist Sushe Felix, moved to Denver.

Pikes Peak 2004 by Tracy Felix

Perhaps for my love of mountains, wilderness and trails, I’ve always favored landscape photography and landscape painting over most other artistic forms. Fold in the fact that the artist is local and the subject is Colorado mountains and I’m all in.

The style here is obviously bright, playful and inviting. Though this treatment of Pikes Peak is relatively straightforward, much of his other work is a bit more abstract.

His work hangs at the Denver Art Museum, the Colorado Springs Fine Arts Center and the Sangre de Cristo Arts & Conference Center in Pueblo, among other places.

Here’s a sampling of Felix’s treatment of other Colorado landmarks.