chrisbrogan.com - Latest Comments in My Family Life

Re: My Family Life

youtube downloader — Mon, 06 Dec 2010 07:14:59 -0000

kids :))))))

Re: My Family Life

Shama Hyder — Fri, 19 Oct 2007 17:41:32 -0000

You have the cutest kids!!! I agree with Dan-let's get them blogging too. : )

Re: My Family Life

Will — Fri, 19 Oct 2007 16:54:40 -0000

You couldn't have said it any better.

Re: My Family Life

Yianni Garcia — Fri, 19 Oct 2007 15:05:16 -0000

You're kids are beautiful. You're a lucky man. This might sound crazy since I'm 22 years old, but my daddy clock has been ticking out of control lately. Every time I see pictures like these, I get envious of the parents and start day dreaming about the days when I'll have my own mini-social media guys running around the house. I very much admire your ability to kick-ass in business and while maintaining a family. ..I'll be there one day-sooner than later it seems.

Re: My Family Life

JoeCascio — Fri, 19 Oct 2007 13:32:57 -0000

Take this from someone 60 years old and with a very successful 35+ year engineering career behind them. It is absolutely necessary to make yourself unavailable at times. Shut off the phone, close the Twitter and email windows, tell the world it can wait. Because damn it, it *can* wait. If people tell you your career or company will suffer if you're not always available, tell 'em "thanks, I'm prepared to live with that." Because the more you respond to interruptions, the more you will be asked to respond. Most of those interruptions are because the person interrupting you was interrupted himself, and so on.

Slowly, our work and lives have developed into a sort of biological multi-processing OS. It all runs on interrupts. Well, every computer as the equivalent of on IOF instruction, for Interrupt Off, and so do you. Good on you, Chris, for realizing that.

Re: My Family Life

Joel Mark Witt (FolkMedia.org) — Fri, 19 Oct 2007 10:55:18 -0000

@ Dr. Mani

Great point. I guess it is a good thing that we are concerned about not spending enough time. At least I am aware.

I think when people ask Chris if he ever sees his family they are really looking inward at their own family life.

Joel Mark Witt

Re: My Family Life

marshal sandler — Fri, 19 Oct 2007 09:30:42 -0000

It is to your credit, that you are not just a signature or a nickname on a website ! I think most people like to know about the people they follow on the net ! Socially yours Msandler

Re: My Family Life

Dan Schawbel — Fri, 19 Oct 2007 08:52:00 -0000

You gotta teach them how to blog now. They can have their own small boxes ;)

Good seeing you last night.

Re: My Family Life

Dr.Mani — Fri, 19 Oct 2007 08:10:03 -0000

Chris, from my not inconsiderable experience of knowing entrepreneurs, professionals and self-made people, the biggest clue to those who have their priorities right is that they are *concerned* that they may not be spending enough time with family.

I'm always wary of those who claim they are giving adequate (or more than enough) time to their spouse and kids. Truth: they are NOT.

The most powerful statement I've heard is this... "To a child, love is spelled T-I-M-E."

Each time I ask my little girl (she's eight) if she thinks I'm spending enough time with her, the answer is prompt and clear... "No". And she's right - even if she has my undivided attention for 2 or more hours daily!

You're lucky to have such a lovely family - and they are lucky to have someone like you who cares!

All success
Dr.Mani

@ Kat - you should talk to my wife... she's completely endorse your views re the window thing!

@ Ben Yoskowitz - took me a few seconds, but I figured it out before reading your second comment ;)

Re: My Family Life

JasonFalls — Fri, 19 Oct 2007 06:27:43 -0000

First off ... beautiful kids. Second, thanks for sharing. I have a two-year-old and one on the way and would completely prefer to spend every waking hour at home. But like your comments indicate, managing and balancing time and schedules well makes for happiness at both places.

It's easy to get twitchy when people question your commitment to your family (since that's how we busy bodies take the comment). But as long as you're good with the wife and kids, what others think doesn't matter.

Congrats to you for being able to list the special things you do with your son and daughter. Some folks would be hard pressed to figure that out.

Re: My Family Life

Joel Mark Witt (FolkMedia.org) — Fri, 19 Oct 2007 00:45:34 -0000

@Kat

So - was it an end goal you both agreed on (i.e. getting a job as a social media pro) that kept you from killing him while he was investing time away from your family?

Joel Mark Witt

Re: My Family Life

Clintus McGintus — Fri, 19 Oct 2007 00:20:18 -0000

Thank you for this Chris. It puts things in perspective for me and my family. I'm not quite there yet with juggling my time, but getting there.

Re: My Family Life

Ben Yoskovitz — Fri, 19 Oct 2007 00:15:45 -0000

I realize now that it looks like I have a 3 month old and a 4 month old. I've got a 3 YEAR old and a 4 month old. Not that I really need to clarify that to your audience, but oh well. *smile*

Re: My Family Life

Ben Yoskovitz — Fri, 19 Oct 2007 00:13:31 -0000

As a father with two kids myself (3 and 4 months) all I can say is: ROCK ON CHRIS!

I've written about "balancing" family and work life (starting a new company) and I think more Dads should talk about it. The difficult times and the good times.

Kudos for posting this. Oh, and the smooshing game doesn't sound all that odd to me. *chuckle*

Re: My Family Life

Kat — Thu, 18 Oct 2007 21:36:38 -0000

@joel
it *did* put strain on us
sometimes i wanted to throw that mike/camera/computer through the ^%&^%* window
we had to hammer out what we needed
repeat daily/weekly etc
I was very supportive
but I wouldn't have lasted long at that pace.

@Eban
Chris talks about us a lot because he adores us
but
there's an alterer motive
talking about the kids is ressuring
it's a little visual signal for "Hey, You matter."

He will talk about us with friends at an event and remember to tell me
"Even though I am far away, You're still part of this."
these all help his/our lives go smoothly
I think (hope) that it also establishes respect for us
for those of you who call after 6?
I hiss at you.

--------
one example of why it works :
I was getting resentful of his cell phone's voice mail
everybody's chris telling me he was once again not able to talk to me
now?
my own direct separate msg
He's sorry he can't talk to me, he loves me etc.

Small action = HUGE change
tweak it,
fill it in with silly stuff ,
little things make or break it

it's very odd to be part of a world i am not part of. : /

Re: My Family Life

InhaleExhale — Thu, 18 Oct 2007 20:54:14 -0000

I appreciated this post. It's good to see how other folks manage work and family.

Re: My Family Life

InhaleExhale — Thu, 18 Oct 2007 20:53:58 -0000

I appreciated this post. It's good to see how other folks do it.

Re: My Family Life

Mark — Thu, 18 Oct 2007 20:36:48 -0000

I can relate. I have been accused of neglecting my family because of two things - my blogfather role at completerunning and also when I started running at high mileage (about 12 hours running a week).

It's not really fair. People don't know how a person organizes their life to NOT neglect their family AND commit to their passions.

For example, I am able to do high mileage training because I go to work very early so that I can leave early and run home. It works and my family doesn't even notice.

Re: My Family Life

Sean — Thu, 18 Oct 2007 19:26:51 -0000

People shouldn't ask that question. Still, as Annie mentioned, they may just be intrigued.

Thanks for devoting time to social media. It's refreshing to see that people with families can blog and podcast.

It's great you set time apart just for those closest to you.

Re: My Family Life

Joel Mark Witt (FolkMedia.org) — Thu, 18 Oct 2007 18:45:15 -0000

You said that before you used to work 60 extra hours a week when you had a day job. Now that you work in the social media / events biz you are able to spend evenings and some weekends with your family.

Had you not started working with Pulver Media - would you have burned out your family life trying to move into this space. I only ask because it applies to me - not because I am judging.

I still have a day job and I feel that the extra hours per week puts a strain on family life. Right now I am making an investment in social media & content creation but not really making a living at it.

Sometimes it seems so hard with little provable or measurable reward. Some close to me even view it as a hobby that seems to over-run my life.

I'd be curious to hear anyone's thoughts on striking a better balance in this realm... ??

Re: My Family Life

IDrpowell — Thu, 18 Oct 2007 18:04:23 -0000

I thought the whole point of getting involved in social media and technology was to have more time with family and friends. It seems contradictory to assume that you'd spend LESS time with your family working in this field. My perception would be the opposite and matches what you've outlined. Aren't you actually accomplishing more in comparable or less time than what you were pounding out before at a regular 9-5 job? And, enjoying yourself in the process?

Re: My Family Life

EbanC — Thu, 18 Oct 2007 17:55:44 -0000

Hey Chris,

First, no person from this online community has the right to judge your situation, so please don't let them have any gray matter real estate. That being said, when you do make your occasional references to your family here and there online, it is obvious that you are totally enamored with them. That is a great thing. The forest Tweets were great!

There is also one other aspect. Look at what you are building for their future. Not only social networking and media, but also the solid base you are building for their life. You are also setting a great example to the power of hard work and the success that it brings.

In other words, you are doing fine. Keep it up!

Cheers,
Eban

Re: My Family Life

Annie — Thu, 18 Oct 2007 17:36:42 -0000

I think the questions come from a lot of us seeing in our own lives how easy it is to get wrapped up in this stuff, and how quickly the time disappears. And you acknowledge that before you were able to do at least some of it for a living it sucked away family time.

I'm glad you have such balance. I know my husband and I have always made choices based on how they would affect our relationship and our parenting, and some of those choices are hard. So don't feel like people are accusing when they ask the questions about family. Maybe they're hoping you'll answer as you did, and provide an example of a family that is making it work!

Re: My Family Life

Ryan Irelan — Thu, 18 Oct 2007 17:25:51 -0000

You shouldn't even have to post that, but good for you.

To the doubters out there: You can be highly productive, involved in many projects and _still_ have time for your spouse/children/family.

It's all how you manage your time.

Re: My Family Life

Vladislav Chernyshov — Thu, 18 Oct 2007 17:02:14 -0000

You know....Maybe in US it's obvious when grown-up like you hardly uses social networks, twitter and other web stuff. Here in Russia it's not true. So I'm really appreciate you and other guys I've met.

Respect!

Have fun. Do good. As always. :)