eROI Days Email Agency

“Back away from the laptop,” the voice inside my head pleaded with my irrational ‘addicted to email’ self. It was a snowy, clear morning in Central Oregon and I had at least a 1/2 hour before my kids or the rest of my family woke up. It was prime email-checking time. But this time, I fought the urge. I was on vacation and I needed to unplug after a hectic, insanely busy December at work.

An amazing thing happened. I succeeded in NOT checking my email. Here’s how I did it:
1) I kept my laptop closed. An open laptop screen is like the gateway drug to email addiction. Keep it closed. Period.
2) I found a distraction, otherwise known as a healthy activity. A brisk walk accross the meadow with my dog, a lovable but goofy yellow lab.
3) I found another distraction – finishing up a great entrepreneurial book called “Small Giants” by Bo Burlingham.
4) Have an awesome plan for the day – went skiing at Mt. Bachelor with a friend. We happened to have a bluebird day with 11 inches of dry powder.
5) Stretch, relax, find a hot tub and submerge for an hour, then eat well with friends and family that night.
6) Check email the next morning – don’t kid yourself into thinking that you can avoid email forever – this just causes more anxiety of returning to an overwhelming and urgent stack of emails in your inbox.

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It must have been the euphoria of feeling the tropical sun and breezes on a family vacation (Christmas 2004) in Belize. A charismatic guide and president of TIDE Belize (an environmental conservation group), Wil Mahea steered our boat through the coastal mangroves in a remote section of Belize and talked of the progress his group was making in restoring fish, bird, Howler monkey, and even panther habitat. My 2-year old daughter (at the time) was taking in all the sites and sounds and she wanted to get closer to see the monkeys. When we did, she clung to me like white on rice and motioned to back away as the booming sounds of the Howlers scared her. By the end of the day, I was sold on Belize, on Wil Mahea, and on the good things that TIDE Belize was doing. I offered to help build them a website. I didn’t think they’d take me up on it, but 3 months later, Wil gave me a call and we re-designed their non-functioning site.

A few minutes ago, I got an email from a past client and it goes to show that charitable acts are good for business and good for the soul. It also goes to show that THE WORLD IS FLAT!

Her email below:
“I have a funny small world connection for you. On our recent honeymoon to St. Lucia (Sandals Grand Resort) we struck a conversation with a fly fisherman guide from Costa Rica. We mentioned we were from Portland and he told us that EROI and Ryan Buchanan had done his website after he guided your family on a trip. He said that his website is amazing, and that his business has increased immensely because of it. Just thought I’d share the small world connection and let you know how happy he is with his site and the success that you helped to create.”

I got this email from a co-worker who is stuck in Alaska. If the email wasn’t so elaborate, I might not have believed him and thought he was trying to make excuses for missing work, but the story is just so good. The best line is: “Sorry this meessage is so messed up, it’s missing half it’s keys.”

“Just wanted to give you all a little update. I’m currently stuck in Russian Mission calling every airline in western Alaska trying to get to Anchorage. We’ve been waiting for a plan for well over 24 hours now, but due to a serious of blizzards and freezing fog the planes have remained on the ground. So the rest of this trip might be an attemp to get back to work on Monday with no time in anchorage at all. Hopefully that won’t happen though. So far this trip I have caught two 2′ pike from whole in the Yukon. (we fish with a stick and lower a rope into a hole in the ice). We’ve gone on some long snowmobile rides up the yukon which can be little scary when the water sits on top of the ice you can’t tellif you are going to go through or not. At one point we saw a bunch of moose and tried to get closer but got stuck in a snow drift and had to spend a half an hour digging them out of the snow, with the moose staring us down, and stuck in 5 ft. of snow which made it virtually impossiblle to walk.

Hung out with the natives in their sweat lodges and helped pull up a fish trap which is the point at which i fell partially into the frozen Yukon river. It’s cold. We’ll there is a slight chance we will be leaving now so i ‘ll let you go. Sorry this meessage is so messed up, it’s missing half it’s keys.”