What a difference 6 years makes, right? In that era known as PC (pre-Covid), when we were free to move about the country and gather at indoor facilities shoulder to shoulder and still shaking hands and hugging people.
A lot of words to say that I’m way behind in posting FOCM photos. So this is from June 2018 and occurred at Ruckus in Cary. Pictured are Gayle Grandinetti (Illingworth Research), Matt Comstock, Chris Wurst (WEP Clinical) and Entrane Harvey (WEP Clinical). Sadly, Entrane passed away in July 2023.
And get this, Matt and I attended the same high school in Yuma, AZ called Kofa High School. (He was there a few years after me.)
So, as many of you know I am an extremely well known social media influencer*. What many of you may or may not know is that I have been dabbling in creating content for YouTube. I have even gone to the extreme of creating a character, Uncle Robby. Uncle Robby stops by to put up and take down outdoor Christmas lights.
For the cooking videos, that’s me, yep, just me, no character, simply dull me. After posting one cooking video, my brother (Jon) provided me with some brutally honest feedback and so I enrolled in an extensive series of media training courses*. I believe that my performance has improved immensely. The entire premise of this particular cooking series is to demonstrate my culinary belief that virtually any food that I enjoy can be put into a tortilla with cheese and salsa and be particularly tasty.
Leftovers from dinner the night before are especially good in a tortilla with cheese and salsa with an egg added making for a delicious breakfast burrito.
I have made a pot roast, carrots and potatoes burrito. I have made a boneless pork ribs, sauerkraut and carrots burrito. My most recent one was chopped shrimp and couscous to which I added tomatillo salsa, red chiles and red onions.
I trace this back to my childhood. I grew up in southwestern Arizona, about 10 miles from a Mexico border crossing. Mexican food was a staple, such that we didn’t even think of it that way. That the high school cafeteria had chimichangas (fried burritos) as an option everyday wasn’t noteworthy.
The great thing is I’m doing what I love to do and the various platforms on which I post things is paying me to do so. I average around $10,000 per month and am often paid to attend parties and dining events.* People ask to get their picture taken with me.+ https://focmnetworking.com/networking/focm-membership-ceremony/
This FOCM card-membership ceremony was a very significant one for several reasons –
It just happened on November 11, 2017 – making it very recent given my usual delay in posting such things
It’s too important to delay until I catch up
recipient and I probably first met when we were pre-schoolers and
we spent our formative years in that oasis in the desert known as Yuma, AZ
we slow danced to Stairway to Heaven or maybe it was Nights in White Satin in 8th grade
wandered around Yuma on New Year’s Eve with a few friends and a few bottles of Boones Farm wine generously donated by our sisters when we were 13
At the recent Kofa High School reunion, this significant event (photo below) was captured.
Jody (Ambur) Nestell received her FOCM membership card. Other than family members, I believe she is the youngest card-holder that I’ve known the longest. Perhaps only Brady Leffler and Jody’s cousin, Ray Face, if they’re ready to accept the responsibilities of card holdership could surpass this.
Crazy, I know, but rather than go back to 2016 and find pictures from a networking back then (which I commit to still doing to get caught up), I decided to go with a more recent event.
On July 27, while in Boston for the 2nd Ophthalmology Drug Development Summit sponsored by Hanson-Wade, a FOCM event was held at the Back Deck, 2 West St., Boston, MA. This group (pictured) is quite unique in the origin of the connections it represents. It represents quite a timeline of my life and career. Attending were:
Christie Schmitt Coombs – we know each other from our home town of Yuma, AZ; having gone to high school together. Her sister Carolyn and I graduated the same year. I worked with her sister Linda at a summer camp during college.
John Ketchum – we worked together at Burroughs Wellcome (my first job out of college) and stayed in touch while he traveled the world for Novartis, from which he recently retired.
Brian Langin – we worked together at Quintiles (my job after Burroughs Wellcome) and again at YPrime (where I worked prior to current job).
Amy Zastawney – we worked together at ICON (after a short stop elsewhere, my job after Quintiles).
Brian Langin, Amy Zastawney, John Ketchum, Me, Christie Schmitt Coombs
The FOCM meeting record does recognize that Cory Winters, with Bio-Telemetry Research also attended, but he had to depart early and that was before I thought to take a picture. FOCM member Vicky Martin brought Cory into the network. Time will tell if she is to be thanked, we’re just waiting on Cory’s background check to come through.
Also I’d like to point out that our bartender was Denver Lincoln and he took our photo, so I took his so he can get credit for it and to give him some promotion as he works two jobs while working on his stand-up comedy. When he gets famous, you can go through me to get his autograph and to book him for events.
On February 8, 2016 while living in Yuma, I had a business trip to San Francisco. Rather than fly out of Yuma, I drove to Phoenix to fly from there. That seemed like a good excuse to get people together. So that night, I invited friends in the Phoenix Metro area to meet at Four Peaks Brewing Company in Tempe.
Pictured receiving their FOCM membership cards are: Greg Stanford, who I have known since 5th grade after he moved from Plainview, TX to Yuma; Denise Jones, who I have known since high school and Jorge Pierson (the Nogalesian) who I met at Univ of AZ. The overwhelming joy on their faces is genuine. It was another emotional induction ceremony.
