Elevator Up Blog a web hosting & development company

We got our new sweatshirts in last night and got to hand them out at the company Christmas party to everyone and their spouses.

The design is a result of Adam Weiler’s amazing talent at Ambrose. He did an amazing job and we’re super pumped to be sporting it around the town.

Well week 1 on the new job is over at Elevator Up. I made it. I survived. I’ll be back next week.

Why? I already love it here! What an awesome place! The people are smart and caring. The projects are exciting. The place is inspiring. It’s all good. (even if the servers went down and the team spent 48 heroic hours in Chicago to fix, move and improve them)

It is quite a bit different here, though, I have to say. After 20 years in the big “corner office” with titles like owner, Sr VP and managing partner, sharing a desk with others is a big change. So is putting on headphones for privacy, stepping out in to the hallway for a personal call and hand washing the coffee cups. And so is learning a new language and set of tools to communicate and connect with my twenty-something teammates. (can you say wiki, CRM, project log, Fonality, blog, Campfire, IM, Tweet, Harvest and Skype) Sure I have dabbled with these tools before. I have even considered myself ahead of the curve - at least for my demographic peers.  But this is a whole new level.

The challenge of it all is so exciting. I can feel myself molding and moving in new directions. I am becoming more than I was before. And I love it. I feel more relevant and on top of trends and shifts in the market. I can see a new future coming tomorrow, if not not today. It is a renaissance of sorts happening in me, and around me.

I can also see the blending of the new with the wisdom that comes from experience. It’s combining the stimulation of “I don’t know…let’s try it!” with the confidence of “been there done (something like) that.” Things are changing for sure. And they are hanging fast. But blending the emerging with the established - it’s going to be a good thing. A powerful combination. I can’t wait. Oh, I don’t have too: it’s already here!

I am so thankful I have been welcomed by a new team. I already consider them friends. I appreciate their skills and talents. I look forward to exploring the future together - one leap and bound at a time.

Can’t wait for Monday morning.

Effective Monday December 7, 2009 I will no longer be a partner at The Image Group. After 13 wonderful, exciting years, I will be moving on to a new opportunity. I will be partnering with Aaron Schaap to help him manage and grow Elevator Up; his group of web hosting, application development, coworking and social networking companies.

I have greatly appreciated my time at The Image Group. I have worked with a great team of talented, passionate people working with purpose-driven clients. The mission of “creative communication impacting culture” continues to be the driving force behind the company as it heads into the future. TIG is a special place that I will miss dearly. I am fortunate to have been a partner there. I am also fortunate that I will continue to work together with The Image Group on select strategic consulting engagements.

I am excited now to face the possibilities of building new teams and growing new companies. I have already worked with Aaron on an off over the past 6 years as a teammate at TIG, working on web projects together since then through Elevator Up, participating in the MomentumMI program this past year to help launch Downstream and most recently celebrating the launch of the coworking space in Grand Rapids called The Factory.

Our home base will be in the Colonial Clock Building in Zeeland, but you may find me in many places in the region as we collaborate with individuals and organizations to develop new strategies to launch products, support businesses and buildup brand communities.

-Dayna

The difference between cockiness and arrogance can be sliver thin, but it does exist. Cockiness is the star basketball player assured in his responsibility for the buzzer-beater shot. Arrogance is the prancing show pony demanding the shot because he thinks none of his teammates are capable. Keen confidence in oneself underlines cockiness. Acute comparisons and denigrations of others moves the line into arrogant asshole territory.

In our own playing field as a development and hosting company we foster a confident cockiness. We think such an attitude shows we know our stuff, and that people can trust us to get shit done. Monday, we failed to keep the cockiness in check and landed squarely in arrogance territory. We noticed a fellow hosting company experiencing some hiccups and instinctively puffed the feathers out. Several of you called us out and rightly labeled it a dick move.

We’re sorry.

Our website emphasizes that we’re building a kick-ass hosting company. One with rock solid uptime, state of the art fail-over strategies, and just all-around awesomeness. This isn’t to say that some of our competitors aren’t also kick-ass - Engine Yard being a perfect example. They’re a fellow hosting company we look to for inspiration and with respect - even if that wasn’t shown Monday.

One of our internal mottos is to fail fast forward. In hindsight, we certainly failed fast in our promotion attempts. We tried capitalizing on someone else’s hiccups instead of looking after ourselves. Moving forward, we’ll make sure to sell ourselves based on our own ability, not the downfall of others. We want to be a cocky, kick-ass hosting company - not a bunch of arrogant jerks.

In all fairness, this month got away from me and I forgot to touch base with a designer to give him/her enough time to create something. Besides, I was itching to create one anyway. You’ll be glad to know we’re already on track for next month though.