Mother’s Day Without My Mother – Keeping Her Memories Alive

It’s been a year and a half now since I lost my mom suddenly and without any warning.  She was my heart, my soul, my mentor and my child in so many ways.

She showed me how to love unapologetically, how to appreciate art, how to be street smart, how to just be.
In every sense of the word my mother was just pure emotion.  When she loved, she REALLY loved, and when she was hurt she was devastated.

I miss her now and every single day. There’s not a day that goes by that I do not think about her and with every fiber of my being I take heart in knowing that she provided me the lessons I needed in life to be strong and to be cautious and to love.

I lead with my heart the way I realize she did.

I can’t say she’s in a better place because I don’t believe that, however she is in a better place in my memories and in my heart.

I think back on the times we shared and become overwhelmed with either guilt or with gladness that I was filled with bitterness and/or joy respectively.

She hurt me.  And I hurt her. But never did I ever doubt that we loved each other unabashedly.

And so on this Mother’s Day 2015; 1 year and 7 months later, the pain is stings just as much as the day I lost her.
That being said, I found solace in channeling my energy to creating this video for her. It brought me closer to her and despite not having very many videos to choose from (which made it extremely difficult since she refused to be in front of the camera) I made something that I can say describes exactly how I feel.

Happy Mother’s Day Mom.  I know you’d be so proud of me for this and for what I do each and every day having you as my guide.

Have You Ever Seen A Bromance Like This?

The sheer genius of this film inspired me to repost it.

True Bromance

Acrobatic male bonding on the streets of London

From the quest to reclaim all-American Adonis imagery—as championed by Bruce Weber’s iconic 90s Calvin Klein ads—to a gym or juice-cleanse obsession, the ever-changing relationship with our bodies is never far from conversation. For Bertil Nilsson, the London-based Swedish director of Bromance, the body and its movement is his sole method of communicating with his subjects. Through an interest in circus arts and natural landscapes, his work presents contorted nude figures displaced from their everyday contexts.

“The film explores the intimacy of physical interaction between guys—their ‘bromance’”

“It’s based on them being friends, exploring the intimacy of physical interaction between guys; of their ‘bromance,’” says Nilsson of dancers Beren D’Amico, Charlie Wheeller and Louis Gift from the experimental acrobatic company, Barely Methodical Troupe, which won the Total Theatre Award at Edinburgh 2014 for its live performance or Bromance. “The concept of the film was to set something unusual in the real world, almost a documentary in the most abstract of senses.”

The Jay-z and Beyonce of Sales and Marketing

IMG951985Meet Melissa White and Donny Boyer:

  • Both own a successful sales and marketing firm in Bridgewater, NJ and New Brunswick, NJ respectively;
  • Both have won awards for the respective company;
  • Both are parents;
  • And both are married – to each other.

Melissa & Donny own businesses that acquire and retain commercial accounts for large Fortune 500 companies. They also provide a management training program to their employees that offers a hard-to-match advancement opportunity and top notch managers to help their clients expand. Their management training program is a large reason they attract great talent. Donny and Melissa run separate businesses, yet partner their teams often to form a camaraderie and subsequently a work environment that has earned them both top spots among some of the most well known, reputable names in the business industry.

Melissa White has been in the outsourced sales and marketing industry for nine years, earning several awards, including the “Best Company to Work For” list in Oregon in 2012. Melissa has been recognized within her industry as a “Top Performing Business Owner”. She has helped expand her client’s market share and footprint several times within the past six years, providing opportunity for her employees to grow into ownership roles through her management training program. Her next step is to move into a consulting role within her field.

Donny Boyer has also been recognized as a “Campaign Pacesetter” in his industry and has been making strides, in only five short years into his career. He too, has begun expanding for some of the largest telecom companies in the nation. Donny’s company has been most recently named one of the “Best Companies to Work For” by Glassdoor, one of the largest employer review sites in the world.

 

It is an interesting dynamic to see this husband and wife team work together, yet compete in business at the same time. According to the couple, they feel that there is a big pie to share and they have only taken a few slices. “Our clients want us to grow faster than we have the ability to develop future managers and that means more opportunity than we can even handle together or separately. That’s a great industry problem to have.” says President Melissa White of BluMarc. “We worked together in Oregon before running separate businesses across the country and eventually sharing locations. Whether in the same or inevitably in two new locations as we continue to grow, we will continue to share our great  team environment. We are competitive, but love the dynamic of working together and helping each other grow companies.” says Donny Boyer, President of Infinite Direct.

One thing they both have in common is their mutual passion for philanthropy. This passion also bleeds into their business and is a heavy part of their corporate culture. Donny and Melissa, with the help of their teams, have raised money for Operation Smile and supported their medical humanitarian missions.

They were also invited to Cipriano’s Gala in support of Operation Smile

The Metropolitan Museum of Art’s #TipOff2015 in support of Autism Speaks.

They are regularly hosting events and letting their team come up with creative and fun ways to raise money and awareness for a good cause while uniting both offices.

While busy building their companies and participating in Philanthropic activities, they have taken on their most exciting endeavor yet. They are brand new parents to their nine month old son. Their son has added a new dynamic to the “work hard, play hard” environment at BluMarc and Infinite Direct. It’s created a family environment for both companies beyond their already close-knit atmosphere. This new chapter of their life has only given Donny and Melissa more focus and drive to build an organization their family will be proud of, says the couple.