AUTHOR: Robert TITLE: Snow bodies bizness but my own! DATE: 2/06/2004 12:59:00 AM ----- BODY: Hey, everyone! I've been told by my good friend and co-worker Suzanne Sugimoto to go to bed immediately, but I really felt I *must* update everyone on our lives a bit. I'm in Chicago right now watching it snow. I always thought "Blizzard" was just a shake-and-M&M concoction they made at Dairy Queen -- BOY was I wrong! Its snowing like crazy here and everything is covered in a beautiful white blanket of whipped cream! Around the World in 80 Friggin Days Rob's travel has become something of a topic as of late -- in January I took a new position with Genesys, the same company I've worked for for about 4 years now -- and I'm VERY excited about it. My new responsibilities include a new fantastic boss named Judie, (I'm sure you'll hear more about her as time goes by) and new *global* responsibilites for a portion of Genesys software. Its a really fun job with lots and lots of work, but I've never in my life felt a part of a more dynamic, collaborative amazing team as I do now. That's no slam on my past team, as I miss them all very much, and they are some of the smartest people I've ever worked with -- and this new position is something of a kick because its like being at a startup inside a big company. We're dealing with a new product at Genesys, so it all feels new and exciting. We've had lots of late nights in somebody's hotel room raiding the mini bar, everyone's laptop out wirelessly connected to each-other furiously collaborating on projects -- its a blast, and I feel more alive than I have in terms of my career in a long long time. A huge part of how alive I feel in my job is how much I'm being respected and treated like somebody who has a lot to offer. I've really come to realize that when I'm treated like I'm an amazing person with lots to offer -- I suddenly find all these amazing resources and within myself to pull off things I never thought I could. I'm coming to believe that its human nature to rise to the occasion, and its giving me a great new outlook on life. Our recent Sales Kickoff at Genesys was a great energizer as well. Its so wonderful to see this company that we all care about and have worked so hard to help it become successful -- well, its just really becoming something fantastic. Our new CEO did some different things at this kickoff -- namely having a keynote speaker who was very inspirational, asking us all to write down personal goals for the year and having us all sign a glass plaque that indicated our "buy in" to those goals -- that really felt different and like we were all in this together, which was great. Let's see -- Travel? So, in the month of January, I flew to Chicago in the first week, Phoenix in the second, LA in the third and Chicago again in the fourth. February and March are going to see me in Dallas, Atlanta, Barcelona, London, Munich, Hamburg, Amsterdam, Paris and possibly Milan, April is (so far) Orlando and New York and June looks like Sydney, New York and some other locations. I'm glad, because I *like* New York in June. How about you? I'll probably make Premier Executive this year with *no* problem. Did I mention I'm *loving* this? Adam's going to join me in Dallas and the "Rob Norton, International Man of Mystery European Tour '04" so far, we'll have to see what else we can afford in terms of his travel. Speaking of Adam, he's doing GREAT at his new job working with Sheila (his Mom) at getting her new business together, and though we haven't seen much of each other lately, we're still doing very very well -- our home is a safe place away from lots of craziness, and Adam really helps keep it that way for both of us when I return from my travels. He's met most of my new team and gets along VERY well with my new boss. I'm keeping a list of things I'm doing with my new boss that I could never do with my old boss, some of the things on that list are: 1. We went and got our hair done together at the salon where Adam and I get our hair cut by Xavier, who also happens to be a budding porn star on the side (Only in San Francisco) 2. I helped Judie fix her hair for a meeting she was going to where she needed to look fab 3. Adam and I had Judie to our house for wine and cheese and talked for hours I'm sure the list will grow as time goes on, I'll just add them in. ;) Ok, so that's it, I've got to hit the sack. I'm teaching a class all day tomorrow and I've got to be somewhat fresh for it, though that's going to be hard to do on 3 or 4 hours of sleep. Love you all, hope you're doing fantastically! Love, Rob and Adam ----- --------