Dear readers, it has been some 5 months since I have found something to inspire me to blog about life.  It’s not because I have in some way not been enjoying it, not been traveling or chasing the green or thoroughly enjoying the married life and the cit-ay.  But perhaps I’ve been riding the wave in cruise mode and not giving myself time to reflect.  Well, inspiration abounds in my soul with the pending close of the company dearest to my heart – Plus1 Marketing/Media/ACT/Grandpa B and the Goldenrod 5.

The whole Plus1 journey started almost unknowingly for me.  Early in 2005, it was clear that my first love (ShowMe Tickets) was on the outs.  My sage mentor had directed me to work solely on mortgage-related sites and the boys of the original LD were dropping like flies.  It was a lonely spring as I remember.  But come June, I heard the words, “I think I have something here that we’re going to do, and it should be really good for you.”  Indeed it was, indeed it has been.

We started out without a real name even, and our eventual moniker only came after a long, conflicting debate over email (as all company decisions usually are done, even if the involved parties are 1200 miles or 1200 centimeters from each other).  But we didn’t need a name.  We didn’t need a product.  We didn’t need a handbook, or a college degree, and we sure as fuck didn’t need an HR department.  In fact, the fact that we have lacked so many of those traditional accompaniments of business are what I know I will always cherish about Plus1.

The original boys – myself, Mr. Rahn, From, Phil, and Rob, all under the watchful eye of the Bukowsky Empire – were not without talent, vision, funding, or motivation.  Our burgeoning expertise in search marketing was full steam ahead from our times helping ShowMe dominate, doing so well that Google had to take notice.  Now, we were getting placed on center stage to help be the engine behind what would become a monstrosity of a mortgage company (at that time, it was nothing of the sorts), as well as to be the backbone of other successful forays into SEM with LakeRentals and others I’ll leave to the wind.

I loved it from the start.  I was leading the show and learning more every hour spent on Vandiver and Chapel Plaza than I was over months at a time at MU.  I already had the idea that this was to be my career before Plus1 began, but Plus1 is what sealed it.  How could you not love it?  We had blaring music, coloring Fridays, Sega hockey every day, our fish tank, our posters, “state wars”, and more.  Everyone had a nickname, and most still do.  And we had the social agenda of a Hollywood party girl and the bank account to back it.

How I will miss the days of the lead counter that refreshed every minute, the personalized pop-ups upon logging in to the LDSystem which we never used, and all that stuff so unique to the time and place.

This coming weekend, Plus1 will be celebrating its 4th annual X-mas party here in St. Louis, and what a time those have been.  Just getting to plan them and have a party that was completely catered to us made it special.

We’ve also seen a lot of people become a part of our lives since the original 5 and Grandpa B, some mainstays who are as much Plus1 as anyone else – Jay, Dipps, Mitchy – and tons of other talented people who have helped us be successful.  Much of that success has not been directly rewarded to us with news articles or Inc 500 awards – but we are as much a part of any press received by our soon-to-be Siamese twin company, as well as the growth of LR from nothing but a shitty website into a Weather Channel property.  Kudos to all for your contributions to all of these successful ventures.  Be proud and know that you’ve been a part of something unique.

I know I have grown from a basic manager and organic search expert, to someone that has seen all sides of running a business from start to finish.  I can’t begin to list it all out there.  But even if Plus1 was ending and I was out on the streets, I know enough, am confident enough, and have enough contacts and friends to start any business of my choosing and make it a success.  I owe that to my time at Plus1, and the people that have been a part of it.  Thank you all.

So, what is to become of Plus1, my baby?  Technically, not much will change.  But the feeling will never be the same for me, and I can say the same for all of us I think.  We are to be part of the corporate beast, the 200 employee behemoth where there’s a tendency to feel a lot more like Employee #172 than a part of a family that really cares about each other.

Those who have been with Plus1 will always feel some sort of independence I think, some feeling of nostalgia for the times we shared in the back parking lot watching old movies or having the entire company sit around a table at Heidelberg.  With this new beast we are a part of, you couldn’t fit the whole company around the Town Square of the actual city of Heidelberg.

Sometimes I feel like it’s just not “us”, and it’s hard to be totally happy about it.  But this opportunity for the company is only available because of all the great work we’ve done (in between the fun we are the best web marketing team you can find BTW), and it’s important to join up together with the beast and make it an even bigger beast.

I do believe that, and it is going to be a good thing, don’t get me wrong.  Now we will be completely recognizable as a contributor to the day we make the Fortune 500, and not just the Inc 500.  No longer will the well-fed phone jockeys nextdoor act confused when they hear we have a marketing department.  (Actually, that probably won’t change.  Neither will the arguments at the tailgate about who the hell we are, if we even know whos tailgate this is, etc.  Yes!  Oh and just so you know, in 4 years you’ll be gone and back working at John Deere, and we’ll still be here.)

So my friends, let us look forward to the future no matter the name on our building.  Let us hold strong to what we’ve created over the past 3.5 years.  We’re still all here together and sharing good times.  We are a bit older, a bit wiser and a bit more formal (Lane would be happy to sit in our office(s) these days).   Let’s go out with style this weekend.  Cheers to Plus1!