Hey guys, I have some personal news. I’ve recently joined the DC-based online financial guidance startup HelloWallet as their new Marketing Manager. When I first met with the team a few months ago, I was blown away by what they were doing with not only providing top-notch tools for online financial tracking & management but also financial guidance.

Starting at the top with CEO Matt Fellowes and throughout the company, HelloWallet is employing top financial minds and have built personalized recommendations right into the online application, with the goal of maximizing your financial wellness. I’m excited by the opportunity to lead the effort in telling HelloWallet’s story.

Wanna learn more about HelloWallet?  Holla. Email me up. – justin@hellowallet.com

Oh and here’s an overview video for the product.

Also, would recommend watching this preso that our CEO Matt did at Ignite DC about “Our Future Path to Prosperity.”

It’s the time of year where every one’s talking about their New Year’s resolutions. Everyone promises that in the New Year they’re going to run more often, read more books, or go on more vacations to far off lands.

I was thinking about what I resolved to do last year and it got me thinking about the bigger issues around my resolutions, as well as everyone else’s… discipline.

Discipline is what you need to take something from a resolution that lasts a few weeks and that you’ve stopped feeling guilty about by February and turn that resolution into something that’s actually part of your lifestyle.

I’ll dive into my actual resolutions in another post but I want to work on my discipline in a few different areas like writing, reading, and exercise.

So… what’s the answer?

Well I’ve come up with three tips that have helped me as I’ve tackled other challenges in my life.

Set Measureable & Manageable Goals

It’s impossible to hold yourself accountable to something that you can’t obtain or that you can’t tell when you’ve obtained it. You need to set goals that are possible and you need to know when you’re finished.

You Need a Community

You’re not going to be able to accomplish your goals by yourself. You really can’t do much of anything by yourself. You’re always going to be living your life within the context of a greater community. So… find a few trusted friends or even use your social network of choice (and all your friends on it) and have them keep you accountable. This has made all the difference in the world with my experience with running.

You Need a System

You need some way to track your progress with your goal. It doesn’t need to be super elaborate. It’s actually probably a lot better when it’s simple. You just need some way of writing down what you’ve been doing and how it’s getting closer to your goal.

So… these are just some tips that I’ve learned. What have you learned that’s helped you stay disciplined when you have a task at hand?

Me just after my 10 mile race

When I started running back in August 2009, I knew I wanted to track my progress, which I do with RunKeeper.  When I go back and look at the stats, it amazes me to think that in the last 9 months that I’ve almost run over 300 miles.

If you were to tell me in June of last year that I was going to run a 10 mile race in April, I probably would have laughed in your face.  But I did it. Prior to this recent journey, the most that I had run was probably in elementary school when we did the President’s Physical Fitness Awards.

So, what made this transformation happen for me? How did I go from someone who’s idea of running was to running to catch the bus to someone who runs long distances for fun?    I’d love to say that it was all in the shoes or that I just woke up one morning with the hunger but that wouldn’t be true.

The thing that made the most difference in my running journey was the community.  When I started running, RunKeeper added the feature to have your runs posted to Twitter.  I thought, “why not” and didn’t really realize what I was getting myself into.  By being open about my journey, I allowed myself to connect with all of my friends who were runners or who knew that they should be running but were putting it off.

Before I knew it, I had assembled this community of people around me that were there to cheer me on as I worked through the process.   One of our execs would give me crap when he saw that I wasn’t running before work.  (Thanks Joel!)  I’d swap tips and tricks with friends at church.  I even got notes from other friends who’d been struggling with fitness saying that me being public about my journey was an encouragement for them.

Friends, who’ve been part of this community, I can’t thank you enough.  Your voices are the ones that I hear at 6am, when I’d rather be sleeping but know that I should be out there running.   Together, you’ve helped me get to a place that I’d never thought possible.  Thank you!  Thank you!

One thing that I’ve noticed is that when you run a lot, everyone asks “what race are you training for?”  It’s funny.  Races are amazing.   Running with 10,000 people is this jolt of energy, like nothing I’ve ever experienced.   Sometimes, I feel like training for a race is like when you go on a diet  for 3 months and then binge eat when you’re all done.

No, I’m not training for a specific 10k, 10 miler, or a marathon.  I’m training for life.  God has given me so many amazing blessings and opportunities to serve him that I want to be there for every minute of it.    I want you all to be there with me.

And… I want you all to be there running with me.   The Web has done this amazing thing and has allowed us to connect with each other in amazing ways.  It’s been exciting to look at the new and interesting ways that we can be transparent about what’s going on so that we can more effectively connect with each other and connect with each other about things that we wouldn’t normally connect over. I love it when I post on Twitter or Facebook about some random interest that I have and end up finding that a friend has the same interest or talent that I do.

So what are you running towards?  How can we help each other?  Where can I be an encouragement?

After reading the posts from Michael Arrington and Kevin Rose about the products they couldn’t live without, it got me thinking about what products on the Web that I’ve started to depend on.

I thought to myself, “if this product was gone and I could never use it again, would there be a major void in my day-to-day life?”  What I came up with was slightly different or left out some things that others did, which will hopefully provoke comment and good discussion.

Also… for some of these products, I think it’s more that I’m identifying the class of products that solve this problem and not this product specifically.  The product I’m naming is just the one that I’m using that solves that problem.   You’ll see what I mean in the list.

Google Reader

I remember when you had about 10 or 15 sites in your bookmarks that you’d track and check each and various points throughout the day to see if there was anything new.    Now, the ability to syndicate the contents of a website (through RSS) and aggregate it together with other content is SUPER powerful and totally changes the way that we consume content, as in it let’s us consume a lot more of it.  For me, Google Reader has definitely done the best job of aggregating all the information I want to see together into one location.

Gmail

Even with and before RSS, the most popular way to syndicate or distribute online content to users is via e-mail.  For me, G-mail has done the best job of attacking the problems around that.  One of the killer features for me is it’s ability to group threads of e-mails into conversations, instead of just unique messages.

Google Docs

Recently, I’ve been increasingly been taking on projects where I’ve been writing a lot of material and having to collaborate on it with a handful of people.   After a while,  the model of e-mailing MS Word docs to your teammates and using track changes just starts to break down.  I knew I needed a cloud solution for all of my productivity apps.  Google Docs has done an amazing job.  I don’t see myself using Microsoft Word or Excel for anything unless I absolutely have to.

Facebook

I’m always wanting to keep up with my friends and what’s going on.  The thing is that I have a lot of friends and their lives have many complex facets.    I think Facebook does the best of ingesting those lives and helping you keep track of things as they change.

Twitter

For me, Twitter scratches a different itch.  It’s more of a short form publishing platform, where users can exclaim the things they’re doing or thinking about at any given moment.  As an end-user, you get solidarity when someone else relates to what you’re thinking or feeling.   As someone in the customer service business,  I get a chance to hear from my users and get unfettered access to what they’re thinking about our product and this very second.   That help me deliver them the happiness they’re looking for.

Hulu

More so this year than ever, I’ve found that my schedule has become increasingly busy and unpredictable.  I’m not able to guarantee that when I start watching a television show that appears on that network on Wednesdays at 9pm that I’ll be able to continue watching it at that time for the rest of the season.  Being able to grab TV at the time which better suits my schedule has become increasingly important.    Plus being able to get all the shows I want in once space is amazing.

WordPress

More and more people I want to know are wanting good mechanisms for communicating their voices online.  WordPress is both SUPER easy to setup and use for newbies.  Plus it’s moldable into just about whatever use case you can imagine.

Pandora

I never realized how much I depended on the radio for discovering new music till I moved into the city and gave up my car.     Pandora has done an amazing job of tackling this problem, while at the same time finding me new music that I’ll actually enjoy.  I’ve purchased so many new albums because I heard it on Pandora.  Now, when I do listen to the radio, I’m shocked to hear what is “popular.”

Amazon Prime

I live in the city and so it’s not always easy to run to a store after work.   The ability to click a couple of buttons and have a physical good appear in 2 days is REALLY powerful.  It’s really disruptive.   Before I may have waited till the weekend to go to a store and pick something up,  now I can just have it at my apartment in 2 days.  I think this will force brick & mortar stores to find new ways to add value to the purchase process, other than just be the place that you purchase the good.

Instapaper

There’s so much to read online.  What I had been doing for the longest time was just leaving each blog post open as its own tab until I read it.  Well, this used so much processing from my computer that it brought things to a grinding halt.   With Instapaper, I can just send the article to Instapaper and I can read it later.  I’ll have access to the queue from the Instapaper website, the iPhone app, or the daily Kindle digest.   I’ll often catch up with the blog posts I’m behind on while on my way to the office.

AddThis Toolbar for Firefox

Yes, yes, I know this is our own product but I really do love it.   I’m the kind of person who’s always sharing links with my friends.  Before you have to copy and paste.    With this, you just click and share.  Click and share.  Click and share.  It makes sharing easy.

Things Absent…

One thing that’s notable and not on the list is Foursquare or Gowala.   While I find these apps enjoyable, they haven’t become a necessary utility yet.  I’ll write more about this later.

…

So what’s in your list?

In addition to running on a regular basis and as part of my journey to be a much healthier person, I’ve recently gotten back into using Weight Watchers Online to keep track of what I eat.

For those of you who aren’t familiar, with Weight Watchers, different types of food are assigned points.   You’re allotted a certain number of points per day.  I have the iPhone app that I use to track what I eat and the points.  It’s pretty simple.

Writing out what you eat and what it costs you helps SO much.  It forces you think about what you’re putting in your body as you move towards consuming in moderation, in the same way that someone uses software to help them budget what they’re spending.

I really see using Weight Watchers as a standard part of living a healthy lifestyle.  If you like to eat, you need some type of frame work for thinking about what you eat to help you self moderate.  But see, Weight Watchers has this real brand perception problem.   Admitting in a group of people that you use Weight Watchers can feel like you’re admitting that you have a heroin problem.   You’re embarrassed and don’t want to say it out loud.

The fact that people hide their struggle with eating and health is  really unfortunate.   I’ve seen first hand throughout my running journey the difference that living openly in community has played.  The encouragement from you all has been priceless and is often what motivates me when I don’t wanna get up in the morning to go running.

I think so many people could be helped by just being open about where they’re at.   I struggle.  It’s easy to use food as means to make yourself feel better about whatever it is that’s going on in your life.  It’s easy to slip into the head space that that order of Five Guys is going to make you feel better about yourself.

But as I can attest to, while food is wonderful and delicious, it’s not a source of hope and fulfillment in your life.  That can only come from one place.  There are times that I’ve forgotten this and have had to work hard.

Ha… looked at the scale this morning and it said 257 lbs, which is nuts considering it feels like yesterday (well May 2009) that I was 282 lbs and I’M SOOOO glad that I decided to do this.  Working towards 230 lbs.  That’s my goal.

I don’t know where I’m going with this post, except to say that I’m a broken human being with my own weaknesses and struggles.  I see so much reward from being open with each other and talking about them.   As I walk through life, I’m so thankful to all of you for being part of my community, encouraging me, and helping to point me in the right direction.

How can I be an encouragement to you guys?

Ha. Apparently, there’s hope for me yet.  As a geek, I’ll rule the world.  *evil laugh*  :-)

(Found via GigaOm)

This weekend, a friend of mine invited me to her Halloween party that her and all of her housemates were throwing.   Parties are always a blast.  For me it’s always fun when you get to hang out with cool folks in a relaxed setting but I think there is always a certain slight level of nervousness when you go to a party and you only know one person really well.

At this party, I got to spend time with my friend, which was great, but I also got to spend  some time with her roommates and her roommates friends, which was great too.   They were all super chill and welcomed me into the group like I was a member of the family.

This was a huge blessing for me, partially because of the fact that it had been a long week and it was good to have some time to just relax with cool folks but it was also a reminder to myself that as I walk through life that I don’t walk so fast that I miss out on all the great people who are around me.    There are so many great opportunities to show real unconditional love and be a blessing to the folks that you interact with.

A lot of my day-to-day is interacting with customers or planning how we’re going to do so.   This notion of unconditional love or treating customers like they’re a part of your company… part of your family is an important part of being successful.   As my friend Mike McDerment put it, customer service is an opportunity not just a cost center.  When you approach your customers in this way, that’s when you create the experience that makes them want to come back.  That’s when the customer wants to tell their friends.  That’s when your customers will go out-of-the-way to help you however they can.

I travel a lot for work.  I’ve become very familiar with a lot of hotels and airports across the country.  I’ve already been quite outspoken about how much The Kimpton Hotel chain has gone out of their way to show that as a customer I’m very important to them.

But this isn’t just something that you do in the office and then you give up in every other aspect of your life.  Love should be something that permeates every aspect of your lifestyle.

Speaking of my travel, similar circumstances to the Halloween party story, when I travel I’ll often only know one person where I’m going or not even know anyone.    There’s a certain level of scariness or uncertainty to that.

But I’ve been amazed that as I’ve traveled to places like for example San Francisco, Austin, or Seattle that I’ve been greeted so warmly by people who are total strangers.  The various tech folks in the tech communities have just included me as a part of the gang.  They’ll invite me to hang out, like I’m someone who’s been living in that town for the last 10-15 years.

You can’t help but leave that town with a sense of excitement and happiness.  You leave with a new set of close friends that you didn’t have when you came.

Can you relate to what I’m saying?  When it happens to you, it has a pretty profound impact.  I guess when it doesn’t happen, when you don’t know anyone at the party and everyone’s a jerk that would have a pretty profound impact on you as well.  I’ve definitely had those experiences as well.

What do you think?  Have stories to share?