Grant Baldwin's Blog » Travels

My 2009 Highlights…

Grant — Tue, 22 Dec 2009 14:50:11 +0000

As we wrap up 2009 and begin to turn the page towards 2010, I know a lot of people are happy to leave this year behind them. And while it has been an unusual year (the economy, housing market, bailouts, Speidi, Susan Boyle etc), it’s always a good thing to pause and reflect back on the past year. Sure there were some low points, but I’m confident everyone had some great moments as well.

Here were a few of the highlights for me from 2009…

Moving into our new house back in March
Building a fence at the new house (a labor of love)
Going to Hawaii with my hot wife and no kids (she couldn’t keep her hands off me)
Traveling through a true blizzard in North Dakota
Being named to GO Magazine’s “20 Under 30″ list
Taking my girls on trips to Chicago (twice), St. Louis, and Dallas
Completing several puzzles with my daughter
Being able to speak at NPC several times
Attending the Home Run Derby with my Dad
Taking a cruise to the Bahamas with my hot wife (she still couldn’t keep her hands off me)
Driving a convertible around Yosemite National Park
Visiting the Baseball Hall of Fame with my Dad
Ordering a 2nd printing of my book Reality Check
Doing the opening keynote at the BPA National Leadership Conference
Both my sister and sister-in-law got married (and my daughter made a lovely flower girl)
All the time spent at the pool over the summer with my girls
Creating the student money website www.BrokePiggy.com

Here are some additional stats from my travels and speaking schedule from this year…

55 Events
134 Presentations
73,000+ People Spoken To
51,000+ Miles Traveled
19 State Spoken In
61 Nights In Hotels

As I was going back through my calendar, I could recall so many of the places I was able to go, the students and teachers I was able to meet, and am once reminded how fortunate I am to do something I love.

What about you? What have been some of your highlights from 2009?

Thank You Upson-Lee High School!

Grant — Fri, 04 Dec 2009 14:05:12 +0000

I was fortunate enough to be able to speak at the Upson-Lee High School Career Day in Georgia yesterday. The school also gave every senior a copy of my book “Reality Check,” which was very cool.

The picture above is with Betty Thurman, the assistant principal who organized the Career Day, and Cleve Hendrix, school principal. Both were outstanding administrators who clearly care about the work they do with students.

Thank you to both Ms. Thurman and Mr. Hendrix and all the seniors that made Career Day a success!

The Value Of Living In The Moment

Grant — Tue, 01 Dec 2009 14:59:32 +0000

I’ve written before about why memories matter more than possessions…last week was one of those experiences for me.

After speaking at the New York Student Council state conference (video here), I met up with my dad who flew in so we could visit the Baseball Hall of Fame. We’re both big baseball fans (specifically for the St. Louis Cardinals…the greatest team in all the land), so this was certainly a field trip we’ve always wanted to take.

It was truly an amazing experience I’ll never forget. To me it was more than just the experience of visiting the Baseball Hall of Fame, but it was being able to share that with my dad.

It was a simple reminder of the importance of living in the moment. Someday when my life wraps up, I won’t remember how fancy of a car I drove, the square footage of my house, or my high score on some random iPhone game. But I will remember trips, experiences, and moments.

Take advantage of every opportunity you have to live in the present, to live in the moment. It’s what life is all about.

How To Stay Connected When You’re Away

Grant — Thu, 17 Sep 2009 17:00:31 +0000

I got a question on my blog yesterday about my travel schedule and how I stay connected with my family while I’m gone. She asked specifically how my wife handles being home with two little girls while I’m bouncing around the country doing cool stuff. Good question!
Whether you’re a youth speaker or you just travel for your job, here are some tips to stay connected with those back home:

Limit Your Time Away - This has been a particularly busy week for me as I will be speaking in 3 states and am gone 5 nights. I’m rarely gone this much. Most of the time, I’m not gone more than 5-7 nights a month. As an example, I will be speaking in 8 events in October and am only gone 3 nights. Most of the time when I’m gone, it’s only for a night here or there. Find a balance of nights away not only that you’re comfortable with but that your family can work with as well.

Keep In Contact While Away – When I’m traveling, I call and text my wife constantly throughout the day to talk with her and our daughters. We also use Skype for free video chat. We probably talk more than most people, but I want to stay connected with what’s going on at home, and I want them to feel connected with what’s going on with me.

Bring Them Along - A few times each year, my girls will get to tag along on trips. It makes them feel a part of what I do. Although my girls are too young to really sit down and listen to me speak, they do enjoy tagging along and staying in hotel rooms where we get to “bouncey on the beds and make a pile of pillows” (their words!).

Make Your Time Home Matter - One of the most important things is when you are home, be home. Make that time count instead of just planning for your next trip. Be fully present with your family and those you love the most.

Lots Of Travel Next Week

Grant — Fri, 11 Sep 2009 12:53:13 +0000

Next week will be one of the busiest travel weeks I’ve had in a while. Sometimes events just fall in a row and you end up having to go from one to the next. It makes for a whirlwind week, but I always hate being gone from my family for that long. Here’s what next week entails…

9 Presentations
3 States (Michigan, Illinois, California)
8 Flights
4 Hotels
3 Rental Cars
6,000+ miles
4,000+ students
1 Packed Week!

I’ll keep you updated throughout the week (usually via Twitter). Come along for the ride!

Funny/Interesting Happenings From My Trip…

Grant — Tue, 21 Jul 2009 13:43:43 +0000

If you follow me on Twitter or catch my occasional status updates on Facebook, you may have heard the live play-by-play of these incidents. But in case you missed them, here were a few interesting/funny stories that happened on my trip to Phoenix over the weekend.

Cops On A Plane – We land in Phoenix, get parked at the gate, and the captain announces this: “stay in your seats while our officials come on board and solve a delicate matter.”

Awesome. I love delicate matters in small confined places like an airplane!

Next thing we know, multiple cops come on board. I travel enough to know that cops don’t normally greet the arriving passengers…unless of course it is a “delicate matter”. A few cops stay towards the front and one goes to the back. Some lady gets up and walks out and then the cop starts “escorting” some guy in 20s off. As they are passing me, the guy asks the cop what this is all about, and the cop replies: “keep your mouth shut until we get out in the terminal.”

Apparently, this guy didn’t win the “best passenger of the flight” award. Sounds like he was going to get a spanking. Or a time-out for a few days in a small room with some dude named Vinny.

Obviously, the entire plane is intrigued by this “delicate matter”. As I’m walking off the plane, I see the captain and a stewardess talking, so I switch into “eavesdropping-regarding-delicate-matters” mode. As I walk by them, the stewardess finishes a sentence (I didn’t hear it), and the captain responds, “So at that moment it became a physical assault.”

Interesting.

Out in the terminal, there is some official talking to the lady (I knew he was official because he carried a walkie-talkie and his jacket said “official”). Then there were four cops surrounding the guy talking to him.

Honestly, I wanted to stick around and watch this unfold. Actually what I really wanted to do was take a picture, but I thought taking a picture of four cops with guns handling a “delicate matter” wasn’t such a smart idea.

I guess we’ll never know what happened with the “worst passenger of the flight”. Say hi to Vinny for us.

Twitter Backfired On Me – I was sitting in one of the general sessions at the conference with a couple of friends. There was another guy at the table we didn’t know who had his back to us but was fiddling with his iPhone most of the session. No big deal, except for the fact that he didn’t mute his phone off of clicking mode, so anytime he typed anything, it was loud and annoying.

So I post the following on Twitter: “Sitting in the AM session at #nsa09. Guy at our table is typing on his iPhone but apparently doesn’t know how to mute the clicking…wow”.

The mistake I made was to include the “#nsa09″ also known as a hash-tag in Twitter world. You use hash-tags to identify a category for your tweet. People at the conference all use the same hash-tag so you can easily search and read what others are saying about the event.

Of course, I didn’t really think this guy would stumble across my tweet. (You see where this is going don’t you?!)

Not five minutes go by before said iPhone guy turns around and says, “I turned off the clicking.”

OMG.

Well that was awkward.

At that moment I found myself in a pickle. What is the proper protocol for technology-based situations like this?! What do you say to a guy you’ve never met, who is sitting five feet from you, yet you offended via technology? Do you apologize in the medium in which the offense took place (via Twitter) or do you take the incident from virtual to real since he is sitting right there?

What did I do?

I decided to tell you about it on my blog.

Headed To Phoenix…It’s Hot There

Grant — Fri, 17 Jul 2009 12:56:36 +0000

I leave tomorrow morning to head to Phoenix to hang out at the NSA National Convention for a few days. While I’m looking forward to the event, I’m not looking forward to the weather.

Notice I took this at 7:39am CST, which would make it 6:39am in Phoenix. And by 6:39am…

IT’S ALREADY 95 DEGREES!

Are you kidding me?

There’s only one day where the LOW isn’t in the 90s.

And save your comments…”But Grant, it’s a dry heat.”

115 degrees is 115 degrees genius.

I’ll be maxing out the air conditioning in my hotel room.

Travels & Events This Week…

Grant — Tue, 07 Jul 2009 10:00:10 +0000

This morning I’m flying out to Montana to speak at their 4-H State Congress tonight and tomorrow.

I was going to be part of this event last year, but it was scheduled too close to when Emilee was due to be born. That wouldn’t have gone over well to be in Montana while my wife goes into labor!

I’ve never been to Montana, so it should be fun. I’ll fly home Thursday morning and then leave Friday afternoon to head up by Lake Of The Ozarks for a youth conference over the weekend. I’ll come back Sunday morning and then we’ll have Emilee’s 1st birthday party that afternoon.

It’ll be a busy week for speaking and travel, but when you love what you do, it never seems like work!

National BPA Conference in Dallas

Grant — Tue, 16 Jun 2009 12:56:10 +0000

I’m totally pumped about tomorrow night…I will be speaking at the opening session of the BPA (Business Professionals of America) National Leadership Conference in Dallas!

This event was actually supposed to take place back in early May but due to the swine flu scare, it was moved to now.

My wife and daughters will be tagging along for this event as well, so it’s always nice to have them around.

This will be one of the largest events I’ve spoke at so far, so I’m pretty stoked about it. For updates about how the conference is going, be sure to follow me on Twitter.

Great Weekend In Chicago

Grant — Mon, 08 Jun 2009 13:30:00 +0000

We had a great little family getaway to Chicago over the weekend! It was a whirlwind couple of days that included enjoying famous deep-dish Chicago pizza, wandering around downtown, goofing off at Navy Pier, swimming at the hotel, and a trip to IKEA.

Then the girls dropped me off in Champaign, IL where I had the privilege to speak yesterday at an Illinois HOBY event. Really fun event, and I think all the parents in attendance even had a good time!

I’m now in Kentucky where I speak tonight for the state teen conference for 4-H and fly home tomorrow.

I love my job.