Recognize the people in the image above?

Yes.  That's my husband, Dae (aka @LuggageDonkey) on the left, me on the right.  

Back when we had just started dating, my husband introduced me to the idea of "windshield time".  Knowing is half the battle - knowing the idea of windshield time allows us to intentionally use it with each other.  Dae uses it to catch up and bond with his aging father (who is now 79 years old).  I use it with colleagues to prepare for meetings when driving together to a meeting.

I never thought I'd actually work with my husband... and here we are.  We've argued and fought, and battled our way to actually LAUNCHING the pilot podcast episode this week.  WHOO-HOO!  I wish you could have seen his face on Tuesday - Dae was so happy.  He was beaming about the beautiful weather, the view of Mount Rainier that was magnificent as we were driving to a meeting. We're on anchor.fm now. Check us out - give it a listen, send us some good mojo/feedback/ratings if you can to help us out. Thank you so much! 

Can't believe we actually got this done.  Whew! 

Here's the link: https://anchor.fm/windshieldtime206.

For my next post, I'll work on a list of quick early lessons that I've picked up in working with my husband. We both have strong opinions and personalities - and we are married, live together, and have two very young children together.  We're both sleep deprived.  That makes for an interesting mix.  

Hope you like it.  

Hugs,
Arry 
P.S. Second pilot episode of Windshield Time going live today! 

I saw this image fly by my eyes at about 330AM this morning - and I saved it as a reminder that I want to share/write about this... A LOT MORE ABOUT THIS.

Many of us humans, we have our dark down days.  Some have them more than others.  At my worst, I think I did not leave my room/bed/apartment for weeks.  Some times, the idea of being alive is just so exhausting.  Some times, I am able to push myself into being somewhat functional, going through the motions of a fully productive day - only doing what is absolutely necessary to not let anything blow up.  Other times, I've written long goodbye letters to my husband and family - only to "wake up" and throw it away.  I even daydreamed about getting in the car, alone, and driving endlessly on the highway to just go away from this surreal non-reality reality I was living in. 

I had a really tough time with postpartum depression with our first baby.  Really bad.  I had no idea how bad it was at the time.  Only looking back today, do I realize how deep in the depths of velvety despair I was living in day to day, night after night, month after month.  To help myself with this newest baby who was recently born, I did things differently. 

Five Things I'm Doing Differently with Our Second Baby to Avoid Postpartum Depression: 

1. Proactive Communication (before giving birth) - I told my OBGYN, my husband, friends, and more about how challenging postpartum depression was for me with our first baby.  With more people aware, they can help me when they see me teetering on the edge.  Recently, I woke up.  For some reason, everything felt so difficult.  I sat down on the couch ready to feed our newborn, and tears just started rolling down my face.  My husband looked at me and said, "go put on something comfortable to go outside with.  I'll drop you and the baby off at the mall and you can walk around a little while I do this quick 30 minute meeting this morning."  I started to object - and then something in me said, just do it. The day turned out to be really great because my husband was aware.
2. Lots of Photos - while pregnant, I put up photos all of over the home of wonderful memories, family, and friends.  It's seriously made a difference.  When I'm home, the photos are constant reminders of good memories, loving faces, and comfort that keep me from falling into that dark place too much.
3. Therapy - I see this Phd psychologist/leadership coach quarterly.  Todd.  When he saw me pregnant, in my second trimester, he asked, "did you get postpartum depression with the first pregnancy"?  I said, "yes, it was really bad".  Considering what I was going through last year, he strongly advised me to get a therapist ASAP to start working weekly on building some strong mental foundational tools before the baby was born.  Oh my goodness, SO HELPFUL.  He even looked up a few folks for me to call to find the right fit. 
4. Breathing Room & Forgiveness in Breastfeeding - For those that have not breastfed a newborn baby before, it's REALLY hard.  It's hard to produce the milk - enough milk.  It's hard on the body physically.  There's a lot of pain associated with it.  There's a lot of stress related to it knowing that this amazing adorable innocent human life form depends on you for it.  There's sacrifice - the sleep, the social events, what I can or cannot eat/drink, and then some.  This time around with this baby, we're going with "fed is best".  I've been supplementing with formula from the day he was born.  With our first baby, I felt so ashamed to even go there, so I pushed and pushed to have him exclusively breastfed until about 6 months of age.  I still feel the shame with not producing as much milk as with our first baby - and at the same time, I feel a tiny bit happier and freer.  It's a weird discombobulating feeling.  My husband has been reminding me, fed is best.  Whole generations of humans are and have been exclusively formula fed.  The baby will be okay. I don't know if it's the same for other mothers - my self worth and self esteem daily seems to be based on how breastfeeding is going that day.  
5. Indulging Myself with Food and Sleep - to my heart's content.  It took about a full month before I even allowed my husband to take care of our newborn ALL NIGHT LONG while I slept in the other bed with our toddler.  A full month.  For some reason, I have this innate feeling that it is fully my own responsibility to stay up all night, every night, with our newborn.  I feel an immense amount of guilt letting my husband do that.  I've been learning to let go - with coaxing and coaching from both my husband and therapist.  Sleep is amazing - milk flows so luxuriously and freely after a night of good sleep.  Same goes with when I've had some delicious food/beverage.  Oh, and this time, proactively recruiting help from not just family - but also the community has helped.  I now know what a MEAL TRAIN is!!! 

Having a baby - it's like the whole family getting hit by a bus.  For the mother who just gave birth, it's like getting hit by the bus a few more times.  The physical and mental demands are big - and not knowing any better, I really struggled with recovery with our first baby.  This second baby has been easier in so many ways, and more difficult in other (like having survived the unplanned c-section, that got infected... more on that some other time.)  

Net-net?  
Ask for help.  
Accept and embrace the help.  
Don't add more stress than is really needed.  
​Eat/sleep as much as you can.  
Have strong mental and visual anchors to stay strong daily.

Arry 

Bar Rescue has become an integral part of my morning routine with the Quinoa in the past several weeks since he's been born.

Bar Rescue.  I kind of laugh right now realizing how much time I've spent half-watching/listening to this show.  Maybe Quinoa has been absorbing some of the lessons.

At first, it started as this random, mindless thing that was (very un-seriously) randomly on one day when I was feeding our newborn - that I kept on watching day after day after day.  I don't watch it on weekends.  Now having seen at least 20 episodes to date, there's definitely a formula and pattern - and I've extracted the takeaways for you here.  These takeaways are actually applicable to the world of entrepreneurship and startup, too.

8 Lessons I've Learned from Bar Rescue:
​

1. Leadership is Key: There's got to be a clear leader.  A leader worthy of following.  In the vice business of bars and alcohol, the leader cannot be drunk.  The leader has to be an effective manager - or the leader has to give the proper authority to another manager to run the day to day operations of the business.  This is probably the most important piece that Jon Taffer (the star of the show) will work on fixing in every episode - and everything else is details.  No leadership, no business worth saving (or having).
2. Consistency in Vision: Have a clear vision that is consistent throughout the business - from everything in the product served, the brand, and the service.  
3. Know and Serve the Market: Know your market - who is the ultimate customer you are serving and what do THEY like, want, and enjoy.  Serve the market.
4. Have Clear Processes and Clear Bottlenecks: Enable the business to thrive.  Anywhere your employees are getting stuck, focus on creating or enabling a solution to remove that bottleneck.  Investment in creating a great work environment that enables employees to thrive is important - skimp here, and the business suffers.
5. Don't Cut Corners: Literally, do NOT cut corners in the quality of the product and service or it will bite you in the ass.  It's the leader's responsibility always - to ensure that the quality bar is known and met EVERY SINGLE DAY.  Clean work areas.  Proper procedures are known and followed.  Safety of customers and employees is tablestakes.
6. Team Over Me: If anyone on the team is not willing to be part of the team, cut them as soon as possible.  One person can pull the effectiveness of an entire team down.  Hell no.  It's the leader's responsibility (or the manager's) to ensure the team is made up of team players.
7. Customer Service FTW: The leader is there to ensure the employees are happy, safe, and thriving.  The employees (and leader) focus on happy customers and clients.
8. Repeat, Consistency: Have a vision.  Be consistent in all matters of execution from hiring, to the product and service.  

And looking at it - yea, these are lessons that also are core to running any business well.  

There you have it.  Bar Rescue. 

​--Arry 

Nice chart, huh?  BYND baby.

My husband has a huge influence on me.  I think I have a huge influence on him.  That's marriage...  and he's really into investing, money, markets, all things business and finance.  

I've always been pretty passive, especially when it comes to finances: 

• I don't look at the stock performance daily, even weekly or monthly.  
• I believe very strongly in living a lifestyle significantly below your means - that means smaller house than you can afford, buying baby stuff at GoodWill or embracing bags of hand-me-downs, cook at home more than you eat out. When we have dual income, that means, we still live as if there's only a single income coming in.  
• In our marriage, I have happily given him full CFO/Chief Investor reign of everything regarding our assets and finances.  I really trust him (as I should).  And, we're both happier this way.
• Previous to our marriage, I managed it in 6 month to 12 month chunks at a time - investing (well) takes work.  When the S&P500 did its thing 2001 - 2006, I rode that all the way up, and a lot of it down.  I threw in a whole bunch into Gold, Gold Miners, Commodities, Apple (of course), and some death stocks (I think I was too early).  Cashed out on Apple when it doubled (~$40 to ~$88) to buy my first home.  In hindsight, oh man I should have held onto Apple.  Cashed out on MSFT at $24.10 too, because it was not moving year after year (back then).  Man I should have held onto that too.  Shoulda. Woulda. Coulda.
• I spend from time to time on myself (less than 5 times a year).  I spend mostly on family happiness (gifts, photos, experiences), or donating to charitable causes (mostly at gala auctions and events).  My husband calls me the family "social worker".

Smile.  

I'm tracking a few different stocks and companies now.  We've been mentally placing bets on companies (or with angel checks) since 2012, and have learned A LOT.  I'll write up the summary of learning in another post.  Now I'm taking those principles and applying it back to the stock market - and with that, I've placed a bet on BYND.  In at ~$80 on BYND, and today it's up to ~$166.  Not bad, huh?  I'm playing 1-5 year ranges now (versus the 6-12 month ranges I had done previously).  In hindsight, I should have put more in when I did - shoulda, woulda, coulda.

Ah well.  Proud owner of BYND.

Sharing, because sharing is caring.  :). 

​Arry 

This is a blog post to... warm up my blogging self again.  It's really hard to start something again after dropping the ball for so long.  I am trying to pick the ball up again.  

​Smile.

I look at our growing family, now with two amazing little babies (technically, one is a toddler). Never say "never" is the lesson.  To think I was adamant with my (at the time) soon to be husband that I did not want children is crazy.  Never say "never".  I did not know what I was saying.  Of course, it's hard - sleep deprivation, mess everywhere, our home has been invaded with kids' items and baby gear.  Giving birth is hard - 36 hour labor with Lentil, and an unplanned c-section with complications with Quinoa.  Feeding them (or convincing them to eat healthy) is a constant negotiation exercise.  

On the other hand, I'm probably a better human for it (than if I hadn't been lucky to have had our children).  I see the miracle of life, the blessing that life is, and have far more empathy for how babies grow up to be people.  Probably, most of the troubles we have in our lifetimes are because of how someone was or wasn't wired properly based on who the parents were, on top of all the emotional baggage we collect as adults.  That about sums it up.  To fix some of the biggest world problems, be pro-human and make sure that the world's babies are brought up with love and the proper nutrition, from birth.  How can we prioritize that globally as one human race? 

​Seriously.

Lentil is our toddler, full of passion, curiosity, energy and zeal.  He loves to learn, sing, dance, anything art/creative, help in the kitchen, and most definitely, anything red with four wheels on it.  I'm sitting in his bedroom right now as I write - smelling his toddler smells and smiling. 

Quinoa is our newest addition and now barely over a month old.  He arrived, after being breached (twice), and a failed second attempt at a versioning, via c-section.  I'm mostly recovered from the c-section and its following complications now, as I'm now starting to worry about my vanity and how I am going to lose the extra baby weight (15 pounds to go).    

Dae keeps referring to himself as "grandpa-dad" - mostly because he'll be about 70 years old when our kid(s) graduate college.  :). I refer to Dae as "Benjamin Button" because he looks seemingly younger and younger each year that goes by.

Life's truest blessings is family and friends,
Arry

Hello, everyone! 

I'm sitting here, in the jury duty waiting room with a lot of quiet time.  I forgot to bring my book that I've been reading - so, decided what better time than now to get back into my blog.  Lots to catch up on and so many learnings to share.  The biggest update is that as of the end of September 2018, I am no longer with Storm.  Yes, so it's been about three months since then, and I've been working on focusing my full attention on what matters most in life.

Life tip: You can tell a lot about a person's values by 1) what they spend most of their time on and 2) what they spend most of their money on, and the 3) kinds of friends a person associates with closely.  It's very telling.  

October, November, December Summary 
(Not necessarily in any order): 

1. TIME WITH FAMILY - This is one of the biggest most important part of my life that knowingly and willingly I did not spend enough time with over the past several years.  I'm lucky in that I have a full family, my husband and extended family that was willing to jump onboard to do all that they could to enable me to go out and be in the trenches of startup life.  I'm now daily able to cook for my family, sometimes more than three meals a day.  I get to talk more often with my husband.  One thing is that even while living with a spouse, it's easy to get caught up in life and forget to really connect - so we've been coming up with creative ways to really connect regularly.  We've been solidifying our relationship even more these days.  I get to have quality time with our tot, who is just so full of joy and wonder.  Watching him and being a part of his life is simply the most amazing creative experience I have ever been through.  It's very difficult - and it is so rewarding too.  Nothing worthwhile comes easy.​​
2. HOME OPERATIONS - Last week, to spend the week putting up family photos of all the love and memories we've created together was so refreshing.  I even enjoy laundry these days - particularly doing the laundry of our tot.  Folding his little shirts and pants melts my heart.  I had no idea that as a mom, I would love smelling him and his scent so much.  Intoxicating with love.  My next project is to start the cleanse before our next baby miracle arrives in April 2019.  Cleanse the home of unnecessary items and donate away.
3. RECLAIM MY HEALTH - Over the past couple of years, my health got worse and worse, and worse.  The bottom of my health woes happened in March 2018 to June, 2018.  In June, especially with my birthday and turning another year older, I decided that enough was enough.  An example of what can happen to your body under extreme stress over a long period of time?  Head to toe psoriasis.  Yes.  Head to toe.  Psoriasis.  Personally, to understand how shocking this was for me, is to know that I've been so very lucky to literally have had a handful pimples my entire life (of almost 40 years).  No skin issues ever.  Since then, I've been watching my food intake, getting enough sleep, drinking a lot more water and then some.  I've even done the phototherapy sessions three times a week, changed all of my shampoos, conditioners, soaps, and topical lotions head to toe.  Life changing.  It's only now, more than 10 months since my health plummeted that I've been able to get the psoriasis under control (and I'm one of the lucky ones to be able to do that.)  Side note: once I decided in June that "enough was enough" and that I had to get my health back, shortly after in July we were able to finally miraculously conceive our second child.  It's amazing what can happen with the mind is in sync with the heart and body.
4. COOKING - Not having cooked regularly for years has been draining for me, and my family.  My husband appreciates this language of love, the act of service - and I know it means a lot to him.  While perhaps the modern "feminist" woman may not believe in cooking any more, I am in the camp that to be a truly whole human in this life experience, knowing how to curate, cultivate, and cook your food from start to finish is a really important piece of knowledge that can only better the quality of life for me and my family.  I'm not the best - with continued intentional practice, I know I'll get better and better, and better.
5. GARDENING GOALS - Speaking of which, gardening is not my forte. At all.  I have always had a brown thumb.  Guaranteed.  It has bothered me - and so, one of my life goals right now is to experiment, iterate, and learn to find my green thumb.  I started with this basil plant (it's struggling, but still alive after a few months now).  I'm now on to green onions.  I'm now thinking about adopting an indoor house plant - one of those NSA approved plants that help detoxify the indoor home air like the spider plant or peace lily.  Practice makes perfect.  
6. READING BOOKS - I used to read 1-2 books minimum a week.  I completely fell off the book wagon the past few years and it's been a shame of mine.  My husband will attest, that my book backlog however has continued to grow as my book acquisition habits are still going very strong.  I'm happy to downsize on dresses, shoes, whatever - my books, I will haul them box by box to whatever home I reside in.  Each year consistently, buying books is where I continue to spend.  Kindle still doesn't do it for me - I need to smell, the crackle, and feel of a real book in my hands when I read.
7. SEEING FRIENDS - As we all go through different life stages and chapters, I've noticed friends come and go.  Mostly go off to the side to focus on having a family, or rather, surviving.  This change that we go through as we field life stages used to really bother me - now, I hold on less tightly and assume that the friendship will outlast all the craziness of life.  Made peace.  Now it's literally letting people that are important to me know that I'm here, and that I am thinking of them. Sometimes, the stars of various schedules/ timing have allowed us to meet in person recently.
8. STEALTH PROJECT(S) - This is taking up a lot of time.  A lot of time.  Some parts of it are great because I'm meeting some very interesting new people and disciplines.  Some parts of it are amazing because I get to reconnect with some of the most brilliant minds I've ever known in hopes of working together again soon.  Some of it is trying to wrangle up enough of the right kind of energy to push a ball forward into the light.
9. WTIA BLOCKCHAIN COUNCIL - This also takes up a bit of time, and it's worth it.  Humans do what we do, we tend to work in silos and we each want to be the owners/leaders fighting for the same principles in many ways.  The Blockchain space is no different.  The Council is about: 1) bringing those of influence together to lift Seattle to be one of the great global hubs for blockchain technology.  It only makes sense when you think about Seattle as being the cloud capital (with AWS/Azure), enterprises, technology talent, and more.  The Council is also about 2) helping bring about awareness and educating the general masses about blockchain.  The current dialogue is wrong in that blockchain equals bitcoin which equals evil and money laundering.  We can change that, together --> and together, we shall rise.  
10. MENTORING & SERVICE - Something I will always do until I die.  My husband calls me the "social worker" who can't help it.  I want to help others, I want to bring people together, and I want to do good.  I've been that way since I've been very young.  I can't help it.  Mentoring students at the University of Washington, working with other female founders of the Female Founders Alliance and Ready Set Raise, meeting founders at Galvanize, and more.  It's always great for me to stay fresh in learning about how other founders and entrepreneurs think and the problems they are working to solve.

Okay - that's the update in a nutshell.  More updates to come.

​--Arry 

Quick note to let everyone know:

As of 730AM PST, Monday, September 24, 2018, I am no longer part of Storm.  It's official and  three months has passed by.  I'll write more in the new year about what I've been up to - in the meantime, lots of cooking, reading, and spending time with family.

Thanks!
​Arry

• The Democrats are now back in control of the House of Representatives, bring a semi-sense of balance back to our political landscape.  And we have women, people of diverse backgrounds getting seats at the table in this mid-term election.  Maybe we can start working together.  Maybe we can unclog our ears and listen more.
• In October, 2018, California became the first state to enact a law that makes it mandatory to have at least one woman on Corporate boards.  (LINK)  This is huge - and begins the shift of influence, power and wealth in corporate America.
• Amy Nelson of the Riveter (and I'm a huge fan of her work as an example of this trend) is making major traction for her new kind of coworking space. Yes, if co-working is the present and the future, then the work space should not be a frat house.  (LINK)  We'll see more and more of this kind of work space - and I'm really glad that we'll actually start having work spaces that make sense for all human beings, not just bros and dudes.
• We have so many women taking leading, powerful roles across entertainment.  It's awesome.  A Star is Born, Wonder Woman, and so many great titles portray women that are heroes, fighters, warriors, and so much more than the 2-dimensional one that only exists to bare children and serve dinner.
• Financial sector along with corporate governance models are being shaken up thanks to this brilliant opportunity that is opening up with blockchain, cryptocurrencies, Initial Coin Offerings (ICOs), together with the push of GDPR.  We've only seen the beginning of what the future looks like when it comes to the topics of data security, privacy, governance, accessibility, usability, and beyond.  2017, 2018, and I predict, 2019 and 2020 - the world as we know it is being rewritten through policies, regulations, governance, and people rethinking what really makes sense in this new digital realm we already live in.  

Jotting down and sharing some quick high level thoughts from the intensity of today.  It is a very monumental place in time we are sitting today - and I'm so thankful for the opportunity to be alive and a part of it.

--Arry 

The advertising world is fraught with problems of fraud, complicated supply chains and lack of control over data privacy. Not only are advertisers losing more money to fraud than ever before, they’re also losing control over ads because of an increasing number of middlemen in the supply chain.

The good news is that blockchain technology has the potential to solve these problems. Here are three important ways blockchain can provide more transparency and trust in the digital advertising industry.

1. Increased Fraud Prevention
Ad fraud is a huge problem in the advertising industry today. Exact numbers vary from source to source, but it’s been posited that as much as 36% of all digital ad traffic could be fraudulent. Mobile ad spend hit $40.1 billion last year. That means approximately $14 billion of all mobile ad spend is potentially fraudulent.

The solution lies in blockchain as a digital ledger of transactions. Every transaction of a digitized product is stored on blockchain as an immutable record, which means that nothing can be faked or changed after the fact. Each transaction is recorded only when all parties agree. The ledger is decentralized, or shared in real time by all participants. This means that no single party can unfairly influence the results.

Because of its transparency, this technology has the potential to allow advertisers to more easily monitor where ads are going and what happens to them. Blockchain even has the power to provide information like bid price, where impressions are coming from and how many times an ad is viewed.

2. A More Transparent Supply Chain
The supply chain for ads is dizzyingly complicated. What used to be a simple transaction between advertiser and publisher now involves supply-side platforms and aggregators handling ads along the way. Advertisers often don’t know exactly what happens after an ad leaves their hands.

Because of this, many advertisers now feel they don’t have control over their ads in how they’re presented, bid on or distributed. They may feel powerless because they’re unable to choose which steps, or even how many steps, an ad should go through before it’s put in front of consumers.

Blockchain’s decentralized ledger makes it possible to record every party who has touched the ad from advertiser to publisher. This allows advertisers to regain control of the supply chain by making it fully transparent.

3. Improved Data Privacy
By now, everyone in the advertising world has heard of Cambridge Analytica. Users are warier than ever of the way their data can be used against them, and governments are beginning to respond with their own policies for data protection such as the General Data Protection Regulation.

One problem is that people tend to enter the same sensitive information on multiple websites. Most people do not understand where their data is stored and how it might be used. Since the data is stored by multiple organizations, a security weakness in any one of them could lead to stolen data. It’s no wonder that people are opposed to providing advertisers with personal information.

Blockchain technology offers the possibility of a safe place to store sensitive information. For example, a highly encrypted, decentralized database of personal information eliminates the need to enter the same data multiple times. People can access their information with a private key and choose what they share and with whom.
​
Advertisers, on the other hand, can use blockchain to demonstrate to people how their personal information is used, making it clear that they’re using data in a safe and helpful way.
These measures could potentially increase users’ trust in advertisers. And with the ability to control exactly what they want to share, people may be more inclined to share basic information that allows advertisers to show them the ads they’re most interested in.

-------------------------------------------------------

Originally published at www.forbes.com on September 20, 2018.Here’s the original link: https://www.forbes.com/sites/theyec/2018/09/20/why-advertisers-cannot-ignore-blockchain-technology/#7645b6766f12

Video of Women in Blockchain that was made for the Blockchain NW conference here in Seattle on September 10-11, 2018.

" I'm excited because the more opportunities where we can bring thought leaders, people that are really active in the technology space in Seattle.  You know that Seattle is the hub for cloud technologies, artificial intelligence, which means we are at the hub of technologies when it comes to the digital evolution with cloud, devices, mobile, machine learning, data data data, which is the heart of blockchain.  So it's gonna be really exciting to bring all of these thought leaders, have us trade notes, build those relationships and work together in building the new future."  --Arry