Ozzie Smith - "The Wizard"

When I was about 12 years old, my family took a trip down to St. Louis, MO.  I was living in my hometown, Peoria, IL, and my parents packed up the family, and headed about 3 hours southwest for our family vacation.  This vacation was going to be special – we were going to a St. Louis Cardinals game!  And not only this, we were going to get to see one of the great Cardinals players in that game – “The Wizard” Ozzie Smith – a 15-time All-Star, Baseball Hall of Famer.

This was also special because I was born in St. Louis while my father was in law school.  A couple of years later we moved back to Peoria, IL to be close to family, but St. Louis still holds a special place in my heart, as do the St. Louis sports teams.

The game was awe-inspiring to this 12 year old boy.  I think there’s even a picture in one of our old family albums of me on the field with “The Wizard” in the background.  Every child has fond memories of times where they got close to the people they really look up to, whether it be a celebrity, sports figure, etc., and this was definitely one of mine.  These people inspires us, and we feel like we can conquer the world when we’re watching them.  That’s how I felt that day watching “The Wizard” play.

For the past several years, I haven’t had much time to go to baseball games or keep up.  But, while I was living in Peoria, I would catch up every once in a while on a young rising star who got his start playing in 2000 for the Peoria Chiefs, the single-A Midwest League feeder team for the St. Louis Cardinals (at that time).  Albert Pujols got his start playing in my hometown, had wowed people, moved up quickly in the ranks, and was playing for the Cardinals by 2001.

It was exciting to be following the Cardinals during this time.  Pujols helped lead the Cardinals to victory in the World Series in 2006, and most recently in 2011, with Pujols matching Babe Ruth’s record of three home runs in a World Series game.  The Cardinals hadn’t been this hot since they won the World Series in 1982.

Cardinals mania was at an all time high, and dang, was it fun to be a fan.

By 2011, I was living in Orange County, CA, but still following the Cardinals.  So, I was really saddened when I heard that Pujols was leaving the Cardinals.  “Are you crazy?!” I was thinking.  “You’re letting this amazing player leave?!”

But then, I was thrown a twist.  Albert Pujols would be coming to Orange County to play for the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim.

Jason Sporting His Pujols Jersey

This definitely helped soften the blow.  Although saddened by the loss of the Cardinals, here was this All-Star player coming to play in our backyard!  I guess if he had to leave, then this is definitely where I’d want him to come.

And I’m not the only GoldenComm fan to be excited over this news. The day after the Pujols news broke, Jason, our owner, came in to work flashing his big smile and wearing his very own custom-made Pujols Angels jersey.  He proceeded to wear this jersey everywhere for the next week – around the office, in meetings, in front of clients, at his monthly SEO seminar, etc.  You can see him in the picture giving his “Master Your Webmaster” SEO seminar while sporting his new attire.

Pujols-mania is high in Orange County, and Jason and our team at GoldenComm are proud to be a part of it.  We all feel like 12 year old kids again, excited to see this baseball star work his magic in Orange County.

So now, even though I’ll always be a Cardinals fan at heart, I know we’re all really looking forward to Albert Pujols’ first season here in California.

For more information on this All-Star player, visit the Albert Pujols website.

Albert Pujols Joins The Angels

From all of us here at GoldenComm, we would like to extend a warm welcome to Albert Pujols.  We’re excited for the 2012 season, and we welcome you to Orange County!

For the second consecutive year, OC Metro has surveyed Orange County to find the brands they trust most. That online survey identified 16 brands, based in Orange County, that have the strongest presence as the must trustworthy. Today, they were honored at the OC Trust Summit Luncheon, hosted at the Disney Grand Californian Hotel.

Golden Comm was honored to be one of the over 300 guests at the event and be able to provide reusable information bags to everyone in attendance. Not only did we get to meet the 16 honorees but we got to hear from one of the leading voices on business integrity and performance, President of J.D. Power & Associates, Finbarr O’Neill.

This Summit Luncheon was very informative and offered tons of insight on consumers and their trust in brands. To measure Trust, you must look at a multiple of simultaneous factors.

As Steve Churm, CEO of Churm Media says Trust is now “a simple concept that today means more to cynical consumers than anything else when trying to filter out the cascade of commercial messages about the biggest, the best and most powerful product or service. In an age when brands come speeding at us from the moment we open our eyes until we click the remote late at night, trust is now the ingredient that keeps us loyal and buying more.”

Last night I was invited to participate in Muzeo Bowl IV charity event for Muzeo’s ENIRO arts education program with the OC Fine Arts Storage Team, a company that specializes in the storage and installation of art installments,  and what a BLAST that was! Muzeo is one of the newest museums in Southern California, and hosts some of the coolest world-renowned exhibits. Right now they have a really neat Gold Exhibit featuring gold from the year 700 and 1100 AD  from now until May 29th with a really cool Chocolate Exhibit following that in June, so if you are an OC Choc-aholic, get your fix and make a day of visiting the museum in June.

The ENIRO progam is a program for at-risk youth and school children to allow them to visit the museum and expose them to wonders of art and history. Kids can always use our support, so if you would like to make a contribution to the museum and their arts education program, visit here.

The event was pretty amazing! The 300 Anaheim is a great bowling facility to host any party or event. The food and service was top notch, and the overall bowling experience was exceptional. In attendance were business and teams from all over Orange County including Pacific Enterprise Bank Corp, Anaheim Union High School District, the Anaheim Ducks POWER PLAY GIRLS, the Mayor of Anaheim Tom Tait, and more! Special thanks to the Muzeo Bowl IV Committee for all of their hard work, and especially Sandra Day for being such an amazing  and inviting host.

At our SEO seminar in late January, we had the opportunity to talk and meet with @maryannewendt.

She had mentioned that she was putting together an #OCtweetup in conjunction with @bigtrain, @yelpoc, @charmforcharity, and @dealgooder at Il Fornaio in Irvine to help support saveourbeach.org! Without hesitation, we all signed up and payed a visit Thursday evening to support the cause. Not only did we get the chance to check out products from local businesses and charities, we met and networked with some of the most passionate people involved with social media in Orange County!

@Maryannewendt is a purple loving techie and social media enthusiast, who put on the amazing fundraising event! She introduced us to some of our new favorite local brands including Big Train, DealGooder, and saveourbeach.org!

Big Train had an amazing selection of samples from their natural line of beverage mixes, but I must say, the Organic Chai was amazing, and left us wanting more!

DealGooder is an amazing local concept where companies can set up deals online that are promoted to the growing DealGooder network. A portion of the proceeds from each deal goes to charity, but what makes this program great is that DealGooder donates the money to a multitude of charities in Orange County! What a great community initiative! People get to save money on local brands while benefitting a local charity!

And last but not least… saveourbeach.org, a non-profit organization committed to cleaning our California coastline, had an amazing presentation of creative recycling. Meeting the founder Kim Masoner and listening to her story of how she started the organization, and how she was able to get support for her project from across the country was truly inspiring. Currently, she spends all of her free time spreading the word and getting people involved in helping to make the world a better place! She even makes blankets from recycled plastic grocery bags to give to the homeless in her spare time! Towards the end of the night, Kim gave my friend @veganvagrant one of the blankets that she had on display so that he could give it away to his eco-friendly subscribers on his vegan blog for one of his next contests, so be sure to check it out!

All in all, the #tweetup was a huge success! Saveourbeach.org was able to raise a good amount of money to help fund future projects, we met some great people, and we were able to learn about new products and services all while supporting a good cause! What a great way to use social media to bring people together to support one another, while also helping to make a positive social and environmental impact on the Earth!

GoldenComm hosted three visitors from local high school (Mission Viejo High School) today as part of a community program called Vital Link . Vital Link’s “tag line” is actually quite descriptive of what the mission of their organization does:  “Connecting Students to Their Future”

Jason Lavin, along with colleague and friend Barrie Day, spend the morning with three Mission Viejo faculty:

• John Harnack, Video Production Teacher
• John Elg, Vocal Music Teacher
• Steve Uthus, Guidance Counselor

The meeting was aimed at helping our Orange County teachers/counselors better understand the different career opportunities in website design, website programming and Internet marketing.

Look for content-driven, video-driven, candid and interactive websites to come out of Mission Viejo High School this year under the leadership of John, John and Steve and the innovation of the MVHS students.

Thank you guys for stopping by and spending time with us today and have a great 2009-2010 school year!