Gabe Dalrymple

Falling Temps and Climbing to Some Adventures

Texas is finally not an inferno during the day, which has been great. Outside of work, I’ve been putting a lot of time into tennis and climbing, spending an unexpectedly large amount of time in San Marcos, and doing my usual spontaneous fun stuff.

September was the first full month of having the entire family living in Austin! It’s been fun to hang out with everyone on the daily again, and I’m grateful to be able to have them around regularly. I’ve been playing a lot more tennis since they’ve been here, and was finally able to get out of the tennis slump I was in since January and start winning some matches against higher-rated opponents again. At the end of September, I played another Horseshoe Bay clay tournament, and although I lost in the 4.0 singles semi 1-6, 1-6, I had a good run in 4.0 doubles with a random partner – After losing the first round, we came back and won a couple good matches against some opponents I’d played and had close matches with before to secure the consolation trophy.

Bouldering + Time in San Marcos

I continue to love climbing, and after a couple months in the summer where I felt like I plateaued, I’ve been able to continue progressing and getting stronger, hitting some new personal achievements in bouldering. At the end of September, I topped my first pink boulder at Austin Bouldering Project (equivalent to V6-V8), and since then, I’ve been nailing harder moves that I’d previously struggled with and feeling a lot stronger overall! I’ve gotten some fun initial exposure to outdoor climbing with friends on the Greenbelt too. I also got to watch the open finals of Boulderfest at Austin Bouldering Project Springdale, and it was amazing to see the strength on display with a hype crowd surrounding.

I’ve recently been making frequent drives down to San Marcos to hang with friends a lot more, and although the primary thing we do is climbing, I’ve had a lot of fun hanging at new places in San Marcos and Kyle and doing things like running with a run club, trying Ethiopian food, house parties, Sixth Street in Austin, The Square in San Marcos, and bonfires!

ACL, Turning 24 and Golf!

This year, my birthday fell on an Austin City Limits festival day, and although there were only a handful of artists I wanted to see in the lineup, I went on my birthday with Jadyn and her boyfriend Levi, who had flown down last-minute to come with us. I didn’t think I was going to go this year with how expensive tickets were getting, but I was able to snag a God-send last-minute cheap wristband the morning of from Facebook Marketplace!

The week after, I had the privilege of attending a professionally-hosted 1-day golf clinic at Dave Pelz’ house in the hill country! Pelz Golf has been a great marketing client of mine for the last several years, and I’ve enjoyed getting to know everyone on the team! Dave was a renowned golf coach, NASA research scientist, nuclear physicist, and genius, and although he sadly passed away earlier this year, I did get to meet him last year. The clinic was an amazing experience, and I learned so much in one day I hope I can apply to my game (I’ve been out to play some fun 9-hole courses and a couple holes here and there, but my first recorded full 18 was a 110 from this summer at Plum Creek in Kyle). One of my friend Noah’s good friends, John, was also able to come with me too, so it was cool to have a friend there, and better for the coaches too, having at least one person that day who wasn’t a beginner (John played competitively in high school).

The morning of the clinic, Isaac was able to come out and meet the team, and got hired to capture photo and video of the lessons. Even without a lot of direction, Isaac was able to get some amazing shots, and I’m hoping they’ll continue the relationship with him in the future!

The next two weeks were equally as awesome! I climbed my first V7 boulder at Armadillo Boulders in San Marcos, attended a UT Pickleball fundraiser event at Urban Pickleball Club downtown, watched my friends compete in bouldering league finals at Armadillo, and spent the weekend of the 24th-26th in San Marcos. On Friday the 24th, I went to a bonfire hosted by my friends, and ended up staying the night at my friends Aleks and Kelleah’s house after a surprise thunderstorm hit with extremely harsh winds and rain right before I was about to leave back to Austin.

Watching friends compete at their boulder league finals comp

UT Pickleball fundraiser night at Urban Pickleball Club

Halloween Weekend!

I had a LOT going on this year on Halloween weekend. Thursday was Isaac’s birthday – In the afternoon, Isaac and I went to Mueller and rode the skate pump track, before heading to east Austin for dinner at Fukumoto and ice cream at Zed’s!

Friday was Halloween, but also the first day of the Horseshoe Bay November tennis tournament! I had signed up for the tournament a little late, so had to enter 4.5 singles for the first time as 4.0 was already filled up. Dad and I drove out to Horseshoe Bay together in the morning for my first round match – I had low expectations, since I’d never played a 4.5 match before, didn’t have a seed in the draw, and was matched up against the #2 seed first round, who was rated over two full UTR points above me (that’s an expected outcome of 0-6, 0-6). After the first three games, though, I was a little confused, because my opponent was making just as many mistakes as I was! I ended up taking the first set 6-3, and after a small hiccup in the second set where I lost focus and he won three games straight, I closed out the second set 6-3 as well! It was a good reminder that it’s possible to beat better players if they’re having an off day, and capitalizing off of small weaknesses can add up!

After a quick lunch in Marble Falls, I returned to play my semifinal match against a 4.0 player I’d played in Austin before. That match turned out to be an absolute rollercoaster I won’t forget for a while. He started out slow while I was ready to go, which led to me going up 5-1 very quickly. Somehow, though, something changed and I started missing a lot of easy shots – I was already thinking about the second set, figuring I’d cruise to an easy 6-2 first set. That was a rookie mistake I rarely find myself making, but 20 minutes later, I found myself dealing with the consequences, still in the first set serving at 5-4! I was able to close out the first set 6-4 after several deuce points, though, and moved onto the second. I was still in my head after the first set, and found myself at the opposite of where I was in the first set – down 1-5! After saving a set point and clutching the game, I gave myself a big positivity talk, knowing I had the capability to win the set. Saving two more set points over the next few games, I worked back to tie up the game at 5-5. At the end of that game, my opponent decided to smash his racket on the court and then snap it in half, so I was pretty confident I could close out the match, and ended up doing so.

That evening, I drove back to Austin then down to San Marcos to hang with friends. We walked around the square a bit, and I ended up hanging around pretty late before going home to prep for my finals match the next morning. I played the #1 seed in the finals, and although I didn’t feel like I was playing at my best, I felt I gave him a decent match. It was clear he was the better player, and he was playing like it. I ended up losing 2-6, 2-6, but I wasn’t too disappointed for playing in my first 4.5 tournament!

Saturday was Hell Ride day in San Marcos, which was a last-minute commitment from me to attend that turned out to be a really fun night. I’d heard about the party-hopping bike event a couple years ago, but never got around to attending until this year. I don’t own a bike right now, so I brought out my roller blades for the first time in a while. This year’s event was apparently a lot shorter and more structured after being shut down last year, but it was a great time riding around the streets of San Marcos with friends!

It’s already the end of November, and enough has happened this month to warrant a separate blog post, so I’ll continue then. I don’t think I expected to still be in Austin after three and a half years, but I’m thankful for all the cool people and fun times in my life here. I’m still planning out my winter with snowboarding trips, but I’m looking forward to a boarding-filled next several months.

Summer 2025 Adventures – Sports, Work, and Bye to Breck (for now)

It feels like the summer season has flown by, although as I reflect on everything I did from June-August, I really did do a lot. Most notably, I planned out a big trip back up home to Breckenridge in July, which I didn’t realize might be my last one for a while with the family moving back down to Austin. It’s been fun having everyone close together again, but it definitely is bittersweet to officially (hopefully temporarily) separate from Breck.

June – Music and Pickleball Win Streaks!

In early June, I got last-minute tickets to finally see The Black Keys at the Moody Amphitheater. I’ve listened to their indie-rock music for over a decade now, and it was cool to see their songs performed live.

On the 14th, I played in a doubles charity pickleball tournament at Eastside Paddle Club with my friend Enoch, which was our first time teaming up this year! By now, we’ve played dozens of tournament matches together, so we’ve really learned to play well together. Charity tournaments are always fun, but can be hit-or-miss in terms of competition and format, and this one was a good example of that. Enoch and I ended up winning by a very large margin in every match, and as a result, we received a two-month membership to Eastside!

That same week, we partnered again for a more official tournament hosted at Austin Pickle Ranch. We started off strong, winning our first few matches. A couple hours in, I was gassed, and we ended up losing our fifth and sixth round-robin matches before I was able to come back (with the help of an 8-minute nap in between courts) and help win our seventh match, putting us into the semifinal bracket. We came out swinging in the semifinal, and beat the team 15-3 we had just lost to in the round-robin. Carrying the momentum into the final match, we closed out the tournament with a 15-10 win to secure the 4.25 doubles gold medal and some cash!

At the end of the month, my friend Sam Hall came down from Tyler to play an Independence Day-themed pickleball tournament with me at Eastside. It was his first tournament ever, so although we didn’t do very well in 4.0 doubles, he qualified for the 3.75 singles semifinals after round robin play. We ended up wearing some funny US-flag shorts after running around trying to find themed athletic clothes, and it was a good time overall.

July – Leading Interns and Colorado Travel

Over a couple weeks between the end of June and early July, I got the opportunity to manage a team of college interns who were working at the VC studio. While they were primarily working on supporting the wider venture capital investment pipeline for Palm Venture Studios, I was offered to have them work under me for the last couple weeks of their internship. I had done the same thing last year with another group of interns, and it had gone really well, so I was excited to see what I could get out of this year’s group!

The first week, I had them source leads for my sales pipeline, before giving them some basic sales training on how I do cold outreach. I didn’t like just giving out boring work, though, so the following week I had them do some cold calling with me, which was a lot more fun for both me and them! I celebrated every small win they got, and as a result, they were able to give me several interested business owners to follow-up with. I also wrote this blog article recently about pipeline management and sales follow-up, spurred by my own sales experience and working with the interns this summer. Check it out here if you’d like!

On the 16th, I flew up to Colorado for a trip back home. The annual Pickle in the Peaks tournament was scheduled for that weekend, and the Keystone Tennis Tournament the weekend after that, so I was excited to spend a couple weeks back home and also play some competitive pickleball and tennis. I’ve been fortunate enough to see my family close to at least every other month over the last several years, but it had been four months since all five of us were together, so I was eager to spend some time all together in Summit again.

My friend Enoch committed last minute to fly up to play doubles in the pickleball tournament with me, so I was pretty confident going into men’s doubles! I also played my first mixed doubles draw with our good family friend Suzy Martinek.

The whole weekend was fun hanging with friends, watching everyone play, and after ending 5th in mixed doubles, I finished out the weekend going undefeated on Saturday and winning the men’s 4.0 doubles draw with Enoch, making it our third straight tournament win! We had family and friends cheering us on the whole time, so I was glad we were able to perform well. The following weekend’s Keystone tennis tournament was fun as well, but I was unfortunately unable to defend my win from last year and lost in the singles final.

Outside of playing tennis and pickleball, I made sure to make the most of my time back in Summit with hikes up to Blue Lakes, lots of walks around Main Street Breck, the marina, and Lake Dillon. Summit is probably my favorite place to be in the country, and not being there full-time does make me appreciate what a special place it is even more. Towards the end of my trip, it became clear that my parents were moving quickly to get everything in order to move from Breck back down to Austin, so there was definitely some sentimentality in “saying goodbye” to all my favorite places while I was up there. I’m planning on spending some time up there this winter though, so it won’t be for long!

Hikes around Blue Lakes are always the best quick hikes!

August – Bouldering League and Family in Austin

August was filled with a lot of climbing for me, which has quickly become one of my new favorite sports over the last year. I signed up for Austin Bouldering Project’s bouldering league with my friends Kai, Page and Liberty in July, which was a good challenge! We ended up tying for third place, and got invited to compete in the finals on the 21st – My first climbing competition and a really fun event! Even though I only topped one out of the four boulders during the timed final, climbing with a crowd and hype music around me was a great experience!

That same night, Mom, Dad, Isaac and Jadyn arrived in Austin after packing up and driving down from Breck! I had spent some time getting their house ready in the weeks before they arrived, and now that they’re here, I’m grateful that I’ll be able to see them even more regularly and spend time together in Austin!

I’ve also been spending an increasing amount of time down in San Marcos with a great group of new friends I met through my friends Aleks and Kelleah in early August, climbing at Armadillo Boulders, running at a run club event, swimming at Barton Springs, and a lot more. The people I connect best with have always been cool, engaging people up for fun adventures with little-to-no notice, which has been true of the majority of friends I’ve met down there.

As the temps start to go from triple digits every day to “slightly more bearable” here in Austin, I’m looking forward to another great fall season filled with lots of closed deals, tennis, and adventure before snow arrives in the mountains and I start to plan out as many snowboarding trips as I can.

Make the Pipeline Flow Again!

I’m writing this as a good reminder for myself when getting discouraged at leads dropping off, but was originally spurred to write on this topic after coaching a second round of interns this summer at the VC Studio, where they helped source, call, and set demos for my sales pipeline.

It’s always a terrible feeling when I’m working a promising sales lead, I’ve done the work to warm it up from the freezing cold state it starts from before they hear about the awesome thing I have to sell, everything’s going great, and suddenly, the lead drops off at one point or another. Something’s gone wrong, and instead of using my time to find new, amazing leads to add more dollars to my next month’s commission check, I have to go back and try to get the prospect reengaged and re-excited to buy the product that will make their lives better. Unfortunately, this happens to a LOT of leads, which can be frustrating for me and any salesperson who wants their leads to just close!

What I’ve learned from this is that lead drop-off stems from different reasons depending on where I am in the closing process. I keep my pipeline stages as simple as I can, and although these only all really apply to a full-cycle, outbound account executive closing deals with quick turnaround, I think some-to-most of them work pretty well for SDR/BDR/inbound pipelines too.

Attempted – No contact with a person.
Gatekeeper (GK) Connect – Speaking with anyone who isn’t the owner.
Decision Maker (DM) Connect – Speaking with anyone with buying power, without getting a date on the calendar yet.
Demo Set – Successfully setting a demo with the decision maker.
Demo Held – Successfully holding a demo with the decision maker.

From here it definitely depends on whether I’m passing a deal to someone, closing during the demo, or sending an invoice, but that’s just a quick overview of how my personal pipeline has looked at my last several sales roles. The following sections are a summary of a lot of notes I’ve taken on leads going cold at different stages in my pipeline.

Gatekeeper Navigation

Calling the same person who promises to have the owner of a business call you back gets annoying pretty quickly. If my lead is stagnating here, I know I either need to find the owner’s direct contact info myself, or get the gatekeeper to give it to me with a more creative approach. It’s very rare that a gatekeeper will give me a personal cell number, so I rely on getting as much info from the gatekeeper as possible while giving the least amount of info they need to consider me important enough to get the decision maker.

I usually try to probe for the following info in order of importance – Direct cell, personal email, and best time/place to call. Occasionally I’ll get to them in some other way (One time the gatekeeper insisted that sending a Facebook message inquiry to the business page was the only way to get in touch with the owner, which, to my surprise, ended up being the first demo I booked using Facebook), but 90% of the time, I’ll need one of those three things if I ever want to talk to someone with some buying power.

Decision Maker (DM) Connect

If I’m on the phone with an owner and not scheduling a demo or progressing the lead to that point, I’m doing something wrong. Most of the time, I didn’t convince them of the value enough, and I need to practice my pitch or find new angles to show whatever amazing product I’m selling is worth their engagement. Reviewing calls that drop off here is super important and usually leads me to start writing, improving my pitch and selling points. This is really the most important part to me, because it’s where the bulk of the actual sale happens.

Demo Setting (No shows)

I don’t take it personally when I do get a meeting booked and the decision maker doesn’t show – They’re busy, life is unpredictable, I get it. I try to eliminate most of the reasons why they wouldn’t show ahead of time – Things like repeating the date and time of the scheduled demo verbally to them on phone call or a personalized email reminder the day of the meeting combined with the automated reminders Google sends out.

I used to be pretty bad at the immediate follow-up after a no-show, because I assumed that if people scheduled a call with me, they’d be motivated to actually show up. Now, I try to be on top of it every time. Assuming I have their phone number at this point, I’ll usually give them a call if they’re not in the meeting after five minutes, send a “Does this time still work for you?” message, then a “Missed you on the call today. When can we reschedule?” after 10 or 15 minutes.

Demo Hold to Post-Demo/Close

The most disappointing drop-off occurs when I’ve done my job the whole way through, got to the owner, pitched them, set a demo, and held it with them. They have everything they need to make a decision, and… no payment. My current sales role has a bit of a frustrating closing process, since I’m selling a technical product that requires systems integration with a third-party integrator, the “close” can take days following the demo depending on if they need additional hardware, another conversation with the integrator, or some other random thing. Not ideal, but it’s made me engage a LOT more in the post-demo stage. Definitely different than my first sales job, where it was entirely on me to close them by getting their card info at the end of the call.

Assuming the reason they drop off here is something under my control, I cover all my bases as best as possible. Did I cover all their objections or was there a hidden hesitation that they didn’t express? Were they truly motivated to get the ball rolling at the end of the call? Did I clearly outline the next actions to get them set up with the product?

Sometimes all it takes is a quick follow-up phone call to find out that I missed some small detail, cover their objection, and they sign the contract right after.

In Conclusion

My sales process is constantly being iterated upon. I had to write my own script for my current sales role, and the Google Doc I store it in is called something crazy like “Sales Script 6.0 v2 final”. Leading this summer’s intern group gave me some good insight into more reasons why leads go cold again, and led to some good tweaks in my pitch and follow-up that I implemented in my own process. I hope this summary can be a good place to reflect on when my leads go cold and I can keep improving my outreach with new tweaks every week.

2024 Reflections

2024 was a big growth year for me, both personally and professionally. I worked hard, played hard, won tennis tournaments and new business deals, and somehow did all of it without writing a single blog post. That will change this year, though. I’m planning on working harder, playing… about the same amount, winning more tennis tournaments and even more business deals, and writing a lot more.

My life continues to be a big adventure, and I’m grateful I have the ability and drive to push away the mundane and strive for bigger goals. None of it would be possible without the love and support from Mom, Dad, Isaac, and Jadyn, and through the highest highlights and toughest lows of this year, I’m glad to have them all behind me (and in front of me when they need my support).

Spring in Colorado

I spent a lot of time in Breck early last year, with a lot of fun events happening. In March, Jadyn competed in her final snowboard competitions, with boardercross races on the NorAm tour at Steamboat. I enjoyed seeing old competitors and friends racing the event, and obviously cheering Jadyn on was the best part. She finished 12th and 11th the first two days, but qualified for the final on day 3 against a very stacked heat of other riders. Watching her compete is always exciting, and it continued to made me super proud to see other teams and coaches give her respect for her riding one more time, racing against a field of the top American and Canadian girls (over 30% of the competition has competed in a pro race now!)

I ended up riding Steamboat more than I ever had, because after Jadyn’s week of training and competitions, we drove right back over the next weekend for Slash and Burn Banked Slalom, one of the best snowboard events of the year.

Since 2018, we’ve raced Slash and Burn every year (except 2021 when it was canceled), and it’s become an annual tradition! This year’s course was fast and sketchy as usual, but so fun. It wasn’t my best year results-wise (I finished 30th out of around 120 in Open Class), but then again, I do live in Texas now.

Preparing to drop in for our race runs in Steamboat!

In May, I once again flew to Breck, this time for Jadyn’s high school graduation! It’s hard to believe all three of us are adults now, but here we are. Grandma and Grandpa Cortez and Aunt Nettie flew up to celebrate with us, and it felt like a full week of celebrations for Jadyn, with the main street parade, graduation, and her grad party! Grandpa and I even rigged a pulley system for the piñata, which was definitely the highlight of the grad party!

Jadyn and her friends in the Main Street graduation parade!

Concerts!

This summer, I saw more live shows than any previous years (probably due to being in the live music capital of the world, but idk). In May, I saw AJR in concert for the fourth time – they always put on an amazing show with the most theatrics and production I’ve seen put into a concert. I even got to meet Ryan, their pianist, after I randomly bumped into him downtown the day before their concert! In June, I got a cheap, last-minute ticket to see NF, and was able to get close to the front row. Before flying out to Colorado again, I also got to see one of my favorite bands, X Ambassadors, at a small venue downtown. Seeing bands close up and personal is such a cool experience! Back in Summit County with the family, we all went and saw KALEO, who I’d been waiting to see for several years after they canceled the concert I had tickets to back in 2022. In terms of raw musical talent, they definitely stood above anyone else I saw this summer, and it’s always so fun to hear songs I listen to daily live.

Sprinting into a barber shop to say hi to Ryan, AJR’s pianist

Finally, I also was able to see Drew Holcomb and the Neighbors during my July trip to Colorado for the Keystone tennis tournament. Drew gave a phenomenal concert at the Dillon Amphitheater – absolutely the best free show I’ve ever attended!

Racquet Sports

One of my New Years goals was to win another tennis tournament, and after finishing runner-up in a very competitive 4.0 doubles draw (our first match went three hours!) at Horseshoe Bay back in April, I was hungry for a win.

A tennis win would have to wait, though. I found myself playing in several pickleball tournaments with my friends Kai and Enoch, and I ended up taking my first pickleball singles tournament win at the start of June, after a grueling 11.5 hours of play in triple-digit temperature. That morning, Enoch and I had finished 5th in 4.0 doubles, and I knew the afternoon singles draw was going to be an endurance battle. Thankfully, I had brought seven spare shirts (I used them all), and was able to sprint to the bathroom between every game to soak myself in cold water and lower my body temperature, which ended up making the difference for the final few games, with my opponents looking like they were feeling the heat a lot more than me. I won the gold medal match with a comfortable lead, 21-15.

Earlier in the summer, I had made plans to fly up to Breck again for the Keystone Classic tennis tournament in July. In 2022, I lost in the singles final with an unfortunately-timed sprained meniscus and I missed the 2023 event, so this year, I was determined to win. I played every day for two weeks before flying up to Colorado, scheduling matches, clinics, tournaments, and going out to hit serves by myself if I couldn’t find any of those to do that day.

The Keystone tournament was definitely the best weekend of my year so far! I won my first singles round 7-5, 6-4 in the closest match of the tournament, and proceeded to win the next three rounds fairly easily to take the singles draw win. In doubles, Dad and I survived a semifinal match after losing the first set 2-6 to win 2-6, 6-2, 10-3 in the tiebreak. I knew we’d have to change something for the final, and since Dad and I aren’t always the most positive teammates, I thought that would be a good place to start. “Abundance of positivity” was my theme for our finals match on Sunday, and it worked. Battling tough opponents, we stayed positive through every unforced error, double fault, and broken serve, with high-fives after every point. We barely lost the first set 6-7 in a tiebreak, but managed to pull out a 7-5 second set. With family and friends watching, we decided to play out a full third set instead of a 10-point tiebreak. It was a close one, but we ended up winning the set 6-4 to win the tournament!

While I often get motivated by both negative and positive reinforcement internally, negativity doesn’t really work when you have a partner that you’re depending on and is depending on you.

In late September, I won my first singles 4.0 USTA tournament at Horseshoe Bay! It was one of those weekends where everything just lined up. My first round opponent was rated so much higher than me I didn’t think I had much of a chance. Dad had texted me before the match “You can find a way!”. Somehow, I did. After getting destroyed 2-6 in the first set, something clicked in the second set and I won 6-1. It ended up coming down to the wire, and I was down 5-8 in the tiebreak before winning 11-9! The semifinal went the same way, and I won in the tiebreak once again 10-7.

My final opponent was very solid. Many years of match experience, and lots of tournaments under his belt. It felt like the match could’ve gone either way at any second, with both of us taking the lead over and over again. Luckily, I was playing close to the best I ever had, and I won the match (and the tournament) 6-4, 6-3. New Years Resolution complete! (I almost won doubles, too, but after we won our semifinal, my partner informed me he’d have to forfeit the final due to scheduling)

A rally from my quarterfinal match.

Besides those three memorable tournaments, I also won a tennis doubles event with snake-draw seeded partners in September, and a doubles pickleball tournament with Enoch down in Dripping Springs, which had a $150 cash prize!

In November, I returned to Horseshoe Bay to try and defend my 4.0 singles title. I made it through to the final after a tough first round and semifinal against my own doubles partner, but lost a rain-filled final against the same opponent I beat in the final back in September.

I played one final pickleball tournament at the end of November, a singles round-robin event. I had invited Enoch to play, since we’d played multiple tournaments together throughout the year. We both entered the 4.0-4.5 draw, and, after both recording records of 5 and 1 through the first six rounds, we faced each other for the gold. Unfortunately for me, he had me figured out that day, so I had to settle for a lower spot on the podium.

This was the most tennis I’ve ever played in a year, with over 65 matches recorded. I won several UTR Flex League seasons, and definitely improved my game!

Traveling – Dallas, OKC, and Minnesota!

In July, I took a road trip up to Oklahoma City to go visit Isaac, who was doing door-to-door sales with Vivint over the summer. I stopped in Dallas to see Grandma and Grandpa Cortez on the way up, and road tripped back down with Mom and Dad from OKC to Dallas to see family again! It was my first time back in OKC in a while, and we had a great time seeing Isaac and hanging with the Brooks family again! I also got to see the Town Lake firework show on July 4th from very close up, after deciding last-minute to paddleboard out on the lake!

When I got back to Austin, I committed last-minute to flying up to Minnesota for my friend Leo’s wedding at Castaway end-of-August. I met up with Ty and Collin, two friends I met when I worked Summer Staff in 2021, at the airport in Fargo, North Dakota (new state for me, 9 to go), and drove that night all the way to Detroit Lakes, MN. The wedding was an amazing time, and celebrating that night with everyone was even more fun!

Work – Sales!

This year I’ve been doing sales and marketing work for an AI video monitoring startup, Camio, contracted through Palm Venture Studios, a venture capital studio investing turnaround capital for early-stage startups. Getting laid off in December 2023 from Atmosphere was unfortunate, but catalyzed my next move to a better company with a much better setup.

I’ve been primarily selling an automatic tailgating (unauthorized entry) detection solution to 24/7 gyms, and, in stark contrast to my last job, I comprise the entire sales team. After getting hired, I built out our CRM system and sales processes, writing my own call scripts and cold email copy, using my sales and marketing knowledge to give myself a fast start. In addition to sales, I’ve been helping supplementally with marketing efforts, creating graphics, managing social media postings, and strategizing around email marketing. It’s been an enjoyable last year working with Camio, and I’m looking forward to another great year!

Fall in Austin with Family

This year I finally got to spend time with the family down here in Austin! Dad was in town for almost a full month from the end of September through mid-October for business opportunities, and I enjoyed hanging with him back down in Texas. At the end of September, we drove down to San Antonio for a weekend tennis tournament, which was a fun trip – I got upset in the quarterfinal tiebreak after coming back to win the second set, and Dad lost in the 40+ singles but won the consolation draw.

Dad was also in town for my birthday! Kai and Dad took me to Café No Sé on South Congress for breakfast, and in the evening, Dad and I played a tennis clinic downtown. The rest of the family showed up a couple days later, and as we usually do, we packed in a ton into just a week and a half. Isaac even stayed a couple more days at the end– We went to a Marvel Cinematic Universe Trivia Night (finishing second), and that weekend, we went to F1 at Circuit of the Americas and saw Eminem perform for 100,000 people!

After everyone left, I spent November in Austin before heading up to Breck for the holidays. A couple highlights were listening to Cliff Knechtle speak at UT, spending time with the Burnettes for Greg’s birthday, driving out to Sargent Beach, TX last-minute for Thanksgiving with the Deweys, attending local entrepreneur Codie Sanchez’s live book launch event dressed in a Canadian tuxedo, and seeing Uncle Mike, Aunt Thu and Olivia during their visit to Austin!

Snowboard Season Kicks Off

Thanks to having a more flexible job this year, I was able to fly up to Colorado the week before Christmas and spend some time with everyone. The weekend before Christmas, the US Grand Prix and X Games Street Style came to Copper, so we got to watch some friends compete with all our favorite pro snowboarders.

On Christmas Day, we did our annual family Christmas ride day at Copper! We went out with our friends the Heflins (plus my friend and old Team Summit teammate Akos!), and had one of the best days of the season riding all around Copper. In between work meetings, I ended up getting a lot of time on snow, with some really great snow days scattered in!

2025!

We’re already two full months into 2025, and it seems like so much has already happened! I’m eager to work hard this year and make some big moves hopefully resulting in lots of money, while also staying in shape with tennis, bouldering, the gym, and hopefully a few more snowboarding days sometime in the spring.