I've Been Tagged - 8 Things You Didn't Know about Me for 2008

Ardath Albee at Marketing Interactions tagged me to share 8 things that most people do not know about me.  I was hesitant to do this, since as you know, I don't often share personal stuff on this business-based blog.  That said, some of these are business related.

1. Right after I graduated from Penn State with my Master's Degree, I had a very difficult time finding a job. I was the poster boy for too much education, not enough experience. In order to find a job, I actually took the PSU reference off my resume in order to get interviews. I started temping and, after about 4 temp gigs, fell into a great job at Medical Mutual of Ohio in downtown Cleveland.
2. I am a sports collectible nut. If it had anything to do with baseball or the Cleveland Indians, I most likely owned it. I haven't seriously collected in about a decade, but I still enjoy sports card shows and still have the majority of my collection. If Albert Belle would have made the Hall of Fame, I'd be a multi-millionaire.
3. My wife and I spent part of our honeymoon in Denver in 1998 for the MLB all-star game (my half...her half was the cruise to the Bahamas). We didn't have tickets for the game, so I wrote a letter to the owner of the Colorado Rockies about our situation.  He made premium seats available for us for the all-star game, home-run derby and the celebrity challenge (about 10th row, 1st base line).  I've been a Rockies fan ever since.
4. The original name for Junta42 was custompublishers.com. Before launching, we decided that the custom publishing term was too print-centric and may have a tendency to limit our ultimate product offerings. Thus, the odd, but fun, Junta42.
5. My all-time favorite book is Stranger in a Strange Land by Robert Heinlein. There is a point in the book where Valentine Michael Smith (the man from Mars) makes the woman he was kissing faint. The kiss was so powerful because he was so focused on just the kiss alone (with no other distractions), amplifying the effect. That always stuck with me as the case for focus!
6. I'm a big believer in "being the brand." So much so, that I wear orange almost everywhere. I'm immediately drawn to anything orange. I also purchased the license plate for Junta42 (unbelievably, it wasn't taken).
7. I finished 3rd in my high school class, and high honors at Bowling Green State University and Penn State University, and still didn't have a clue what I wanted to do at any point in the process. I didn't find my passion until 2000, and didn't realize it was my passion until about four years ago. Go figure.
8. I come from a family of funeral directors. My grandfather, Leo Groff, owned Frey-Groff Funeral Home in Sandusky, Ohio, and then passed the reigns to my Uncle, who has grown the business into Groff Funeral Homes.
9. AND ONE MORE...my brother, Tony Pulizzi, is an accomplished jazz/blues/funk musician.  If you are into jazz and blues, check out his stuff at his myspace page. Junta42 is launching a few videos in the next few weeks, with music compliments of Tony. Thanks bro!

Passing this on and tagging my industry/blogging friends Newt Barrett at ContentMarketingToday, Eric Shanfelt on the eMedia Strategist Blog, Ian Alexander at Eat Media, and Pete Shemilt at Relevant and Valued.

Comments

[Shama Hyder]

Number 3 is a great example of wonderful marketing and creating brand evangelists.