Weekly Recap – MN and AL

Hello from Birmingham, Alabama! If you’ve never traveled to the deep South of the USA, I highly recommend it. The people are incredible, the food is outstanding, and it almost feels like you’re in a different country. Of course there are some sad states here – homelessness, zero sense of healthy foods or exercise – but everyone is super friendly and they have a charming simplicity to their life. I joked with my buddy saying, “It’s almost like they don’t have Internet here.” But seriously the term “southern hospitality” is no joke, and I hope all of you get to experience the culture (and inspiring history) that this area of the country offers.

Two highlights from this quick trip. First, me and a buddy on the SOA exam committee (the conference that brought us here) went for breakfast this morning. We hit up a greasy spoon in the otherwise quiet downtown area and had a fantastic experience. We each had an entree, a side of grits (we’re in the south) and coffees, and the bill with tax came to $11.45. Needless to say Alabama is not an expensive place to live.

I was able to squeeze in a quick run after our session today and ran through the beautiful campus of UAB. Go Blazers.

This marks the end of a long week of travel and stressful work. I’m starting to find my footing on this project and that means more responsibility and high-profile deliverables. Did I just use that barf-worthy consulting term “deliverables”?!?! Anyway, here’s the weekly recap.

I left NYC at 6am on Monday for Minneapolis and trained with my predecessor on this project for three days which was super helpful. We were able to dig into some of the weekly reports, solve some analytical problems, and I was able to learn the network of business partners I’ll be working with going forward. The Minneapolis office was cool to see, especially their view of Target Field where the Twins play. I also snagged three workouts during the trip (two treadmills and one outdoor run back and forth over the Mississippi), and an incredible plant-based pizza!

I flew back to NYC from MSP on Wednesday evening, worked from home on Thursday, then flew back out of LaGuardia Thursday night for Birmingham. I worked from my hotel room on Friday before joining the SOA exam committee for dinner – only after I snuck in a quick FaceTime with Danielle and Finn!

Tomorrow we will finish up the exam meeting in the morning, then I’ll try and squeeze in some work before flying back to NYC only to be picked up from LaGuardia by a buddy of mine, Tyler Derraugh, visiting from Winnipeg! It’s so fun to have people visit, especially when it’s their first time in the city. So we’ll grab a few beers in the East Village before heading to bed because I have an insane Monday calendar and then fly out of LaGuardia (are we seeing a pattern here??) on Monday night for a busy week in Atlanta.

Looking forward to a hustle-filled week. Hope you’re all well. Thank you for reading, and I promise to come up with some more insightful thoughts in future posts as opposed to just commentating on my week.

Cheers,

Mike