Posted by John on Apr 30, 2010 in
Business A welcoming shout to yet another new Jones Lang LaSalle client, Kim Crouse, who directs the commercial real estate leader’s national brokerage marketing from Washington DC. Through Kim, I’ll be writing a white paper on implications for business tenants when building ownership changes hands (don’t expect good news). Also, a nod of gratitude for the umpteenth time to Sandy Nordahl; a living, breathing– and usually smiling– embodiment of the value of referrals. Thanks to you both!
Posted by John on Apr 6, 2010 in
Business Welcome to Katy Pietrini, a new member of my largest client “family,” international commercial real estate services leader Jones Lang LaSalle. Katy recently hired me to do some executive bio writing for the firm. A shout of thanks also to Sandy Boettcher and Leslie Gall, longtime clients who recommended me to Katy. Sandy and I have a particularly lengthy history; I’ve freelanced for her through about 20 years and three employers!
Posted by John on Feb 17, 2010 in
Business A quick shout and thanks to my newest client, Emily Micheletto from international commercial real estate services leader Jones Lang LaSalle. Emily is a market director for the firm’s Dallas office, and I helped her publicize the launch of a new football and business blog by former Cowboys football legend Roger Staubach and his son, who are both executives in the firm. Since Dallas is host to the 2011 Super Bowl, folks in that region are understandably stoked. Check out the blog at http://joneslanglasallesuperbowl.wordpress.com/
Posted by John on Nov 17, 2009 in
Business I’m happy to recently begin working with two new (for me) professionals from two longtime clients. Jim Jamrus was recently hired by BP North America to manage tank car leasing, maintenance and security. He takes the throttle on a very long track laid by Tom Gaines, who retires from the position at the end of November. Tom and I go back nine years, and his “work should be fun” attitude has been a real joy. Hatching out BP’s award-winning RailSafe program on a bar napkin is just one of many fond memories of one of my favorite clients. I wish Tom all the best, and hope we’ll continue to dip a kayak paddle and tip an Irish pub pint, now needing only to mix pleasure with pleasure!
Welcome also to Lisa Karbowski, a Pittsburgh marketing professional for international commercial real estate services leader Jones Lang LaSalle. Lisa recently assigned me a case study that marks my first project for the firm’s Pittsburgh office.
Posted by John on Oct 6, 2009 in
Business The biggest group of my active clients are those from global real estate services provider Jones Lang LaSalle. That team grew by another member with my newest Marketing and Communications client from that firm, Kate Hardy. Thanks for your business, Kate, and I look forward to working with you, as with your colleagues, much more in the months ahead!
Posted by John on Aug 11, 2009 in
Business You probably won’t see it on You Tube anytime soon, but a new video I created for BP and adapted for Union Tank Car Company is up and running on Union’s web site, www.utlx.com. The subject, the proper documenting of information such as last contents when a tank car is sent to a repair shop. When cars carry hazardous-classified contents, the consequences of opening a car expecting one commodity and encountering another can, can be harmful to the environment and, in the worst cases, fatal to workers. Not that most of you will need this information, but for a sample of my recent video work click http://www.utlx.com/video_car_shop.html . Thanks to Bill Hansen at Union Tank Car for hanging our project out in cyberspace.
Posted by John on Jun 30, 2009 in
Business Much appreciation to my newest clients: Tim Schwister and 44,655 other people, the population of Glenview, Illinois. Tim is the Facilities Supervisor of this Chicago suburb, and I will be helping him draft a Strategic Plan for managing the comunity’s public properties in the years ahead. Another grateful grin goes to Tim Revord and Sandy Nordahl, my clients at Jones Lang LaSalle who referred me with a good word or two.
Beyond Chicagoland, military veterans around the U.S. remember Glenview for time they logged at its former Naval Air Station, one of the nation ’s largest in its heyday. About 10 years ago the 1,100-acre facility was reborn as The Glen, an elegant blend of housing, shopping, cultural areas and woodlands. Nature walkers frequently spot whitetail deer, but the redoubtable bear on Glenview’s village seal is, presumably, a nod to the past.
Posted by John on Jun 8, 2009 in
Business,
Me At this time 25 years ago I left a “real” job in Chicago– and a pretty good one at that– to try what many deemed “sefl uemployment.” I had a concept for a children’s story brimming with multi-media tentacles, and a nest egg of $10,000 in 1984 cash. I’d swim until I became the next Walt Disney or until the money ran out, one or the other.
Neither happened. The childrens book never found a publisher, though eight others eventually did. I passed much of that first summer in my mobile office at Wrigley Field, three blocks from my condo. It was the golden era of pre-lights Cubs baseball, when $2 on game day conferred status as a Bleacher Bum, a subculture 355 feet and a societal universe from the hoi polloi behind home plate in reserved boxes. Barking comments to a left fielder known as The Sarge (he actually shouted back) and catnapping in the afternoon sun mollified the recjection letters piling up back home, and my manuscript always read much better after a beer or two.
Just as the Cubs were bounced from the playoffs in October, I got a call from my former employer seeking writing help. Then another inquiry, and yet another. To my mild amazement, freelance work was working. Within a year I had replenished my savings, and the rest is my version of history. The road has taken all sorts of unexpected professional and personal turns, including a journey north to sink roots behind the Cheddar Curtain in Wisconsin, from where I scribble today. It’s been a ton of fun, and to those who have smoothed the path with an assignment, even an encouraging word, I’m eternally grateful.
And say, might you be interested in a book on a talking Victrola?
Posted by John on Mar 13, 2009 in
Business Before we get too far into March, I’d like to send a shout to two new workmates I acquired in February from my largest overall business client, global commercial real estate services leader Jones Lang LaSalle. Shawn Bectol is a Communications Manager newly charged with the daily Today@ JonesLang LaSalle intranet employee news site, which I’ve helped write through others for several years. Howard Futterman is Vice President-Benefits, and I’m writing a monthly employee newsletter for him called Environment of Health. I’m feeling better already; thanks to you both!
Posted by John on Feb 23, 2009 in
Business Okay, time for a travelogue. I recently returned from a video shoot for client BP at their Whiting, Indiana facility; the oldest continuously operating oil refinery in the world, and still the largest in the Midwest. Whiting opened in 1890 on then rural shoreline at the southern tip of Lake Michigan, and the ensuing appetite for gasoline to feed new-fangled automobiles spawned a boom that built one of America’s first “company towns” for 10,000 employees and familes. I worked in a bunker-like building as solid as the day it was erected in 1910, breaking only for cheeseburgers and fries from Shoop’s, another institution rooted in the neighborhood since 1948.
You won’t find Whiting on the Travel Channel. Its location could designate it as the buckle of what has been disparaged as the Rust Belt. Still, while sunny empires collapse from Lauderdale to La Jolla, Whiting still works. It was exhilarating to be among fellow Midwesterners who endure the old fashioned way, by showing up every day with sleeves rolled up (or more accurately, coveralls donned per refinery rules) and muscles ready. Even shooting a video gets your hands dirty at a place like this, but there’s something oddly purifying about the grime.