Janu-Feb: Well, That Was Fast.
Slow start to a new start.
The Big News…
The big news is… that I’m not ready to share the big news yet. 😊
It’s been nearly three months since my sabbatical and my subsequent decision not to return to my role at SAI after the new year. At the time, I thought I knew exactly what I was going to do, but the more time I spent with Jenelle and Ford, the less clear the path forward became.
I’m currently considering three different options. Each is great in its own way, and I anticipate making a decision within the next two weeks.
It’s a complicated world out there right now, but one that’s also insanely fascinating.
No matter the decision, expect some cool new events, writing, and nerd-media to drop in the very near future.
Stay tuned.
Cool House Projects
With a little extra time on my hands, I’ve had the opportunity to take on some house projects that I had been putting off. Here are the details on the “big three”.
The Garage.
The garage is my favorite room in the house. Yes, you read that right.
I spend a lot of time out there. Between tinkering with Ford’s dirt bike (yes, you read that right too), working on the cars, and hitting the gym, I spend a ton of time out there. Being the motor-head that I am, I’ve always wanted a cool garage—and I finally built it out.
I went with a dark grey flake polyaspartic on the floor and black epoxy on the upright cinder blocks. The floor came out amazing, thanks to Signature Concrete Coatings. I have no idea why I waited so long.
I had the ceilings painted black by Mathias Painting, and Hexglow lights installed by Jado Customz. Everything looks better than I anticipated. The garage has turned into such a cool space.
Paint.
Ever since finishing Ford’s room, Jenelle and I have been really into color washing. Last year we painted our parlor room navy and immediately wished we had color washed the space instead. We also knew I didn’t have the skills to do it properly, so we leaned on our friends at Mathias.
There’s still a lot of work to do in the room, but it’s off to a great start. Next up: art, chairs… actually, we’ll probably turn the whole thing over to our friend Kelly at GoldLeaf Interiors.
Next up was the bedroom. There wasn’t anything wrong with it, aside from the fact that I royally screwed up a wall when touching things up. So, while fixing that, we decided to do a little extra. We lightened the color of the room and did a modified color wash. We painted the trim and doors the same color as the walls, and decided to leave the ceiling tray white to help keep the room feeling “tall.”
The Cars.
The last of the big-three projects was to have the cars ceramic coated. In our family, we only buy black cars. If you’ve ever had one, you know how great black looks when clean—and how horrible it looks when dirty. Additionally, you’re probably more familiar with swirl marks in your paint than most other car owners.
With my car being six years old, Jenelle’s car having soft paint typical of a GM product, and our desire to hang on to these rides for several more years, we decided to invest in a quality ceramic coating service.
Daniel at Perfect Finish did a three-step paint correction on each vehicle, applied the Modesta BC-X 5-year coating, and added a protective film to my windshield.
Both rides came out great. My 6-year-old Mercedes looks better than anything I’ve seen on the showroom floor recently.
If you care about the finish on your car, ceramic is a must (just be sure you care for it properly).
The Adam Mattis Show
I have built two pretty solid podcasts over the years. My first, The Everyday Executive, which I launched after Orion’s Kin was cancelled. I learned a lot about production during that experiment. I shut EdE down after I inherited Agile Amp’ed while at Accenture. It was pretty popular in our community, but more curated than I would have preferred.
Where I really hit my stride with podcasting was when a rogue team and I took Business Agility Now to a top 5% podcast on iTunes and Spotify while at Scaled Agile. I had a lot of freedom in terms of style with this one, but I was still constrained from fully expressing my natural voice.
As things changed last year at SAI, I put the podcast on the shelf after we published our last episode in June.
Now that I’ve created some separation and had time to reflect, I’ve come to realize how much I miss recording. Beyond that simple realization, I’ve learned that what I miss most is the opportunity to get to know interesting people and their stories—and to help give people great content to promote whatever it is they’re doing.
So, I’m getting back to it. And I’m doing it my way, in my own voice, with The Adam Mattis Show. I’m excited to host a show where I can be myself: a little punk rock, a little moto, a little nerd, and a lot of interesting people.
I intend to release 2 episodes per week—one car-thought and one long-format. The first will drop on February 2 with a hotly anticipated guest: my wife, Jenelle. This one will be fun, funny, and uncomfortable. I’m much more excited about it than she is.
Please subscribe on your favorite platform via the links at TheAdamMattisShow.com. I will publish on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, and YouTube.
A Business You Should Know:
The Balcerzak Group
Annie Balcerzak is a badass.
In the world of real estate, it can be hard to stand out. Annie and her team at The Balcerzak Group don’t have that problem. Their style, their approach to business, and their approach to people are second to none. The driving force behind that is Annie.
If you follow Annie on Instagram, you’ll quickly see a lot of her personality—and also her deep knowledge about property maintenance, staging, rehab, and more. They really are in a class of their own.
With all of that said, what is most remarkable about Annie is her approach to people, business, and life. We are aligned on so many perspectives, and I find myself learning a little more from her almost daily.
If you’re in the Baltimore metro area and need a real estate partner, check out The Balcerzak Group.
Oh, and you may catch her on an upcoming episode of The Adam Mattis Show too.
In Closing.
My sabbatical helped me realize that I needed to make a change and focus on my little dude, Ford. The time away made me understand that I had to shift things so I could spend more time with him.
I’m excited for the next step in my career, and I’ll be able to share those details soon.
But for now, please take a lesson from what I’ve (again) learned the hard way: family first. You can never reclaim time, so protect it with everything you’ve got. Also, if you ever find yourself in a situation where you feel like you can’t be yourself, consider that it may be time to change your circumstances.
Until next month!
-Adam