I am trying to pinpoint the exact date of one the most physically exhausting (yet rewarding and life changing) days of my life (so far). I woke up at 5am in Boston, Delta Shuttle to New York for a day of 5 interviews in 9 hours.  The day saw 3 companies, 2 recruiters and 265 blocks of Manhattan (I went in every direction).  I also made a rookie mistake, my interview at Goldman Sachs (yes that Goldman Sachs) was last.  The last words from interviewer #4 was “please tell me you’re not actually going to walk into Goldman Sachs looking this exhausted are you?”

My first day at Goldman Sachs Learning & Development group was June, 20, 2000.

I had an amazing 2.5 years at Goldman Sachs and back then the concept of social media campaign optimization would probably sound like a game at a corporate retreat (or a bar on Houston Street).  I learned a great deal, spent time in London and even had a front row seat to the attack on the World Trade Center – like I said, life changing (and if you would like the full transcript of that day I have that as well).

Even so, as of today I can firmly say that my role here at Crowd Factory is the coolest job I have ever had (so far).  I would like to try to explain to you why, pray it does not sound like a sales pitch and maybe, just MAYBE if you are interested in what I am doing here, you’ll totally call me, poke me on Facebook, Tweet me, email me, fax me, or just like run up to me on the street at scream “I WANT A DEMO OF SOCIAL OFFER, NOW, not later, not in 2 weeks, NOW.”

Now if I had to tell you why I love my job I could probably come up with 25-30 reasons, but you’re not going to read all of that now.  So let’s start with the Top 3: People, Customers and the best Social Media ROI Product….ever.

People

Because I respect the privacy of CEO Sanjay Dholakia (who is truly the coolest cat on the Silicon Valley block, no really he is), I am not posting the pictures that he put on Facebook, but he seriously has the cutest freakin kids.  Sanjay is that CEO.  He is that CEO is truly that intelligent and appreciates the most important things in life: family, friends, education and how the people in his company are feeling about their job and quality of life.  I think sometimes we underestimate those types of people in our workplace, whether someone who is junior to you, your boss or even someone you don’t work directly with.  If it is a person you spend a majority of your day with, those things truly matter when you go home.

Customers

This morning I had to miss a meeting with a prospective client (who also happens to be a friend in the music industry) because I had to take a call with our PR team to discuss news worthy items related to Crowd Factory.  Now I was told there are certain things I can and cannot say.  My instinct is just to go ahead and BLURT it out and erase later, best to respect the powers that be I will keep to my promise (and that will also allow me to keep loving what I am doing here).  Here are some of my current projects:

• I learned that one of the factors leading to Britney Spear’s new album debuting at #1 on the Billboard 100 this week was due to the fact that Crowd Factory’s Social Campaign Application amped up pre-sales of the album.  Part of my morning was spent discussing how to re-create this with other big name artists who are planning to launch their album in the next 6 months (and no I can’t tell you who).
• The other day I look up from my monitor at the Senior Brand Manager of Molson Coors was standing in front of my office as he was here in our offices talking about the new campaign that is about to launch.  I can’t tell you any of the details…yet…but soon and when I do your jaw will drop and you will turn to the person next to you and just say something like “that is so freakin’ cool…why am I talking to you and not there enjoying that experience with Molson Coors?
• And the coolest (I know that is total bias thing to write) to me was HBO (sorry I grew up watching Not Necessarily the News!).  Today I needed to read  reviews of the new Game of Thrones series.  The main character is that awesome guy from Lord of the Rings, Sean Bean – though he was kind of a crook in National Treasure huh…ok ok, back to the blog.  So if you are a frequent visitor to any number of HBOs blogs, Crowd Factory is behind the scenes feeding the marketing team with data. Come on, now THAT is freakin awesome.

The list goes on and on.  The companies that are calling on Crowd Factory are those brands and products we all love…and now my job is to think of ways to make them even more successful using Social Media.  This is like telling a Little League Pitcher he (or she) will be called into the Bottom of the 9th, for Game 7 of the World Series.

Product

I almost did not write anything today as my entire morning was consumed by code.  It was full of PHP, meta data, HTML, 301 re-directs and more.  My life here at Crowd Factory must breathe both creative and technical.

We are in the process of re-vamping our website and I am doing my best to write new content.  I started thinking about how blessed I am to be here, at this very moment, at this exact time and very location and in the history of me.  Remember that friend I mentioned who came into the office (if not….GO back and read).  Well I think the friend loved what we had to say.  There is something incredible about working with a product that now more than ever, gives the most transparency into a customer’s social media campaign.  It is a life changing experience.

I have much more to write, including continued thoughts on Web 2.0 from last week – perhaps an editorial calendar is in the works?  For now I will leave you with this picture from Web 2.0 and whomever comes up with the funniest caption, I will offer a prize from …somewhere that I can get something cool for less than $20 and within a 2 square block radius of the Crowd Factory office.

You have until April 13th to submit your funniest caption….GO.

^{And for extra credit, how many times did I use the work “freakin” and is that a real word?}