In the last five years the question I was asked the most was. “How are you doing this?” What they were asking was always about the countless articles and awards that LJ Urban was getting. We used to have a joke, if its been more than a week with no mention in the news of LJ Urban, something is wrong… I have been thinking a lot about that lately and weather or not I should tell about our secret weapon, I debated if I would be giving it all away or… Anyhow, I decided its best to just tell you and get it out there.
Without a doubt one of the biggest reasons that we were able to do what we were able to do was the guys at EMRL Floyd and Stephen are working on another level from the rest of us when it comes to getting a story told, they built this website and helped craft the vision for LJ Urban. That is not to say that we were not authentic, that is just what is so amazing about them, its like they sat down with us and found the passion that was deep inside and pulled it out and brought it to life. They should not call themselves an advertising company but rather a Business Consultant / Shrink. They get to the bottom of who you are and tell the story like no one else can.
I want to thank them from the bottom of my heart for all they did for LJ Urban. I know that they will play a major role in the next version of what we become…
Word is starting to get out that my wife and I are moving to Ethiopia to run the orphanage I keep mentioning here on the blog. We simply could not sit by while children were being killed over there without stepping up and doing something about it. So sometime in the next month we are going to be moving our family to Jinka Ethiopia for a Sabbatical.
But before you jump out of your seats… Don’t worry, LJ Urban is still going to keep rolling here with Micah at the helm but at a much slower pace. As I am sure you all know the market has slowed significantly and its a good time to slow things down and wait out the storm. I will be explaining all the details as well as keeping you all up to date on our progress as we wind up our American life here to embark on something completely new. As for the blog we are going to keep posting updates from Ethiopia and so it will be a sort of developer – orphanage blog for a while. Sound fun?
The thing with blogs is that there really are no rules and so we just kind of do what feels best and with this change in our lives it feels to good to keep blogging here. It’s been quite a ride for those of you who have been with LJ Urban since we started and I hope you will all stay tuned as we go on the biggest adventure yet!
In the mean time head over and check out the site for the orphanage and see what we are up to.
After returning from Ethiopia some incredible people who heard the story called up and offered to donate their time to put together a website and video about the project. The site is still not quite done but you can follow the link and see the 95% finished version. The video on the other hand is done and very cool. Make sure you are sitting down before you watch this.
We have been brainstorming about fun ways to get people involved in the effort and will be announcing them both here and on the orphanage site soon. Stay tuned…
Ok I know its been a while. We have been running around like mad the last week and have not posted much here on the blog. Stay tuned, more good things coming your way.
Today marks a big occasion for the LJ Urban blog. This post you are reading is our 600th bringing a total of 1627 comments. I know that may not mean a lot to you but to us who started this thing not knowing where it would take us and why we were even doing this its a huge deal. The first post was on October 3rd 2006 and was done by Jason Presley. Jason was an incredible writer and spent months leading up to the launch of the blog deciding what our message would be. Once we did launch Jason tirelessly tweaked and retweaked the design with EMRL ultimately landing on the site you see today. He liked to call it a “playground” every component of the site is interchangeable and always in motion.
Anyway, I know its sappy to hear someone write about looking back and how far they have come. But I am darn proud of what the site here has become and can not wait to see what the next 600 posts bring.
And since we are getting all sentimental here are a few of my favorite posts out of the last 600.
I know its been an unusually long stream of small posts. I have several big ones I have been noodling on that are not quite ready for the sunlight yet. In the meantime I have been finding lots of little things to post about. Like this sign…What do you think about this going up on the Good site? We have some new flyers we are putting up on site and wanted to put them on a neat sign.
We got this comment yesterday and it made my day. I thought I would post it in case you may have missed it.
So I’m wandering around the web – kind of web 1.0 (because my sis tells me there is 2.0, but I don’t get it yet) looking for work, or opportunity or maybe even optimism. And I find this website and I am intrigued and encouraged by the optimism, the honesty, and the work.
So my comment is about “real estate development 2.0″ – the comment by someone named Levi I think – and its a great description. I’m a real estate developer, and nobody knows what I do – my friends, my parents, even the consultants that do so much to make projects happen. I love the comment about the S being a dollar sign….
So, in my world, a real estate developer is a creative, maker, doer, dreamer, and promoter of new, improved, land, living, using, walking past stuff. Its about passion and trying and then doing it all again.
THEN he gets sued by a neighbor who tries to extort money by stopping a project, then he gets sued by a contractor who refuses to live up to an honest contract…then the banks fold up and walk away…
And the real estate developer wonders where the optimism and the satisfaction went? Well, I found a little here, a little optimism and honesty and not much ego, and I am encouraged again.
I started the day with a goal. Vet out Twitter. Simple, by the end of today I am either in or out and its final after that. So far I went from 4 people to 25 following me and have posted about 8 times. I think I am in.
Want to follow me? If I get to 100 I am in for sure.
Don’t know if you noticed but we have a pretty neat little calendar widget on the right of your screen where you can find out about upcoming events. Some are things that we are doing like open houses and such and others are things that we heard about and think you might want to go see. If you find anything interesting send it our way, our goal is to have the calendar stocked full of local happenings and we need your eyes to help spot the cool events.
