For the last couple of weeks, it has felt like I am wading through a swamp. And in case you are wondering, no I am not off on a hunting trip. 🙂
By wading through a swamp, I mean it is a period of my life and career that is culminating all at the same time with more intense projects than ever before. Every day, there is a fight of some kind with an alligator coming at me for blood. Now that is just a dramatic way to prove a point that I’m up to my waist in the swamp, and alligators are coming at me from all sides. Â What are these alligators, in case you are wondering? Well, here is a start.
The Mothership
Our agency business is off to the best start to a year that it has ever been. Normally, January and February are tough, and things break loose by March. But this year, we took off out of the gate like a missile and show no sign of slowing. With 141 associates, we have the best team we have ever had to manage this growth and keep up the pace. It’s back to where the market is tough and the dealers need help, which makes it even more intense. Car dealers are notorious for being alligators, especially when they need traffic.
Dealerships
My new venture of owning a car dealership is a new learning curve every day. But it has proven to be a great way to grow my career and seek out expertise in another field that is closely tied to the one I know the best. While it hasn’t been easy, it is off to a great start. It presents new challenges daily, but we are having a blast. The fun thing about this project is that when my other job ramps down around 5 p.m. and on the weekends, this business ramps up – meaning there is never a dull moment. Alligators also swim after hours and on the weekend.
Housing
I am close to the end of building a house to move my family into and getting ready to sell a house that my family has lived in for over 70 years. We are thrilled to be close on our new house, and somewhat sad to be leaving the old one, but it’s time. We have outgrown it, and just like anything that is 70 years old, it is deciding to start breaking. The prospects of a move coming soon and selling a house are starting to create a lot of alligators.
Housing 2.0
My new neighbor where we are building is on the Homewood City Council. To say she doesn’t like me (or the historical home I tore down) to build my new one is an understatement. I had to fight with the city for the better part of 2 weeks, hire a civil ordinance attorney, and put my project on hold just to get a parking pad. People in Homewood sure love their sidewalks and greenspace. Alligators are also named Jennifer and serve on the city council.
El Rancho
Just as all the land clearing and building of roads, gates, and lakes had been completed, we decided to build a barn. It seemed faster and easier to hire a couple of “good ol’ boys” rather than a construction company that had a backlog for months or years. The “good ol’ boys” couldn’t add or subtract well, so all the measurements were wrong and had to be redone. They ended up getting fired, which left me without a finished barn. Alligators are also country boys who show up in Carhartt’s and worn-out t-shirts, smoke Marlboros, and say “I reckon.”
Air Travel
Even though I have flown millions of airline miles in my career and over 2,500 hours in private aircraft, I have learned more about flying, fixing, and selling airplanes in the last 4 weeks than I have in my 42 years on this earth.  Yeah, I know that sounds like a first-world problem to complain about, but talk about time intensive and stressful. Aviation folks are also alligators – only they wear Raybans.
Kids & Dogs
My homelife is like The Brady Bunch, where instead of 2 families getting blended, we blended 4 kids with 2 dogs. My house is utter chaos. The dogs are fairly low maintenance, only walking in the morning and evening and feeding twice a day. The kids on the other hand are all involved in an activity. Baseball, tee-ball, dance, and ballet. Yep – no two kids could do the same activity. So when I am not traveling, I am spending every night as an Uber driver taking kids from one practice to another. Then there is Ford. He is a 4-year-old animal the likes of which I have never witnessed before. On Sunday he turned on the hose, put it in the grass, turned the backyard into a mud pit, then proceeded to roll in the mud. Alligators are also 4-year-olds named Ford.
So there is my swamp, and those are my alligators. Next time you see me, just smile and say it’s all going to be ok.