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I love the road but it’s nice to be home.

The only plan I had was flights and the first night hotel booked. Wandered my way over to San Deigo collecting footage along the way and staying offline. Kinda living like in olden times.

I visited some stuff so I have some neat videos to edit during the next few weeks. Good stuff.

Was surprised there was so much green in the desert… I thought it’d only look like the desert in my previous post.

I cruised around in my rental with a cooler of Miller Lite, delicious. I’m used to driving standard and so I spaz out driving automatic; I always forget if I don’t hold down the brake pedal the car moves forward.

Stayed at an Indian reserve casino. You could smoke inside. I’d forgotten how horrible that is.

Of course I played Wheel of Fortune. Didn’t win. Remember where I was.

Stuff in the States really is bigger, eh; the cups, meals, signs, the everything.

For the first time in 2+ years I don’t have dark circles under my eyes. I’m going to make sure going forward I do this regularly, just stop and disappear. Turns out it’s good for me.

Plus this tweet by Mason has always stuck with me, and really, that’s how you know you should be paying attention to something… it repeats over and over in your head:

It’s because I took off running down a hill, and they just got swallowed up. Wasn’t for lack of looking… if you drop something out there, the end.

Return of the Jedi was filmed here. I’ve never seen any of the Star Wars.  

I filmed here; it’s going to be weird to edit, because it’s all just two blocks of colour.

Being surrounded only by desert has been on my to-do list since I’m little. Check.

Oh, this is Arizona.

Get your shoes shined, check out the ridiculously overpriced everything, get a coffee and sit quietly absorbing it all. The people watching is extraordinary.

I always board last. Already I’m going to have to sit still for longer than comes naturally, whyyyyy would I increase that if I don’t have to?

Here’s a Twitvid from last year – what I think about having a Canadian Passport.

Hi from way south in the States! Land of giant everything, styrofoam cups and real nice people.

I’m gone all week back Sunday and probably I should’ve posted something about my absence earlier but I’ve been so excited it never occurred to me, sorry.

I _was_ going to blog my trip but once down here I realized nah, this is a vacation, so no.

I can’t just shut it off though, I’ve still been documenting.

So next week I’ve got all kinds of stuff to tell you including why I love it here, descending into a missile silo, shooting an HK MP5 on auto, walking through a turn-style into Mexico, and whatever else happens to me.

TTYS

Xo Keri

A total success according to me, because I learned a LOT. I’ve been to many conferences over the years, and to be honest they’re mostly meh… keynotes full of hot air and pontificating while the “networking you’ll do!” being sold as the best part. Not the Art of Marketing.

Gary Vaynerchuk was great of course; you already know how I feel about him.

Above that’s Jeffrey Hayzlett CMO of Kodak.  Get this… 15 years ago Kodak sold $15 billion in film, last year they sold $200 million… woah, I know. He was great because he brought old school business sensibilities to the online world, and with relish at that.

By far though, my favourite was the Avinash Kaushik’s analytics talk, because FINALLY I heard someone of authority say what I’ve been saying for years… [paraphrased]

… it’s not the amount of hits and visitors you receive, it’s the level of                    engagement that matters.

I’ve been saying this since 1999, because let’s be real – if you want hits, oh I’ll get them for you…. by doing a shady deal and buying thousands of views for pennies. But how will that help you or I? It won’t; all it will do is screw up our analytics.

The rule-of-thumb online is: for every 1 comment there are 20 visitors who were there but didn’t say anything.

And so wit: these are the stats for my video, Let’s have a Staring Contest shortly after I posted it and before I put the link out anywhere…. so these are pure numbers here:

21 views, 5 comments, 2 likes…. that’s approximately 25% which is 20% higher than the average 5%.

Not bad not bad. Quality over quantity.

And now this will be a post I send to potential sponsors and advertisers.

Thanks again for inviting me, Art Of Marketing!

On Friday I went to the bike show here in town and reinstated my Presidency. I went around all week saying as much, “ya I’m just reinstating my presidency”, ha.

Click here for a better photo from last week of my team members, because look, all the camera went to meeeeeee.

This’ll be my third year at this, and my team is riding for The Canadian Explorer again.

Click to watch, Exploring Cycling.  Not gonna embed that twice in one week, seems tacky.

Here’s to a great season fellow riders!