In my last post as an eastwikker, I wrote a farewell to my partners at Eastwick who for four years provided me with a home to tinker, fuss and explore. I called the piece "Trading Down," explaining that my departure from Eastwick was a deliberate move to scale down and try something new despite the obvious temptation to go to a larger, established agency. It's been about a month since I left, and just last week I took up residence inside the Palo Alto suite of my partner and client, Socialtext. Ross Mayfield and the rest of the gang were kind enough to take me in and clear out a space for me to build my new business.
Yes, I traded down for a smaller business -- my own -- but I am now shacking up -- to steal a phrase from my Eastwick colleague Mimi Harris -- with a great new venture. Socialtext is a hub for some of the best thinking and people in the Valley. I am fortunate to be there.
Now that I've resurfaced -- and now that I've retired from both eastwikkers and thegoodseed (Future Tense lives on) -- I will be writing a lot more. And I'll be using this space to begin sharing what my clients and colleagues have been talking about all summer, the impetus for my career change. Lots of movement in the PR world, and I plan to do something different. Three things are making me feel good these days:
(1) I have a partner -- Rebekah Mitchell, who left Eastwick several years ago to start her own PR consultancy. Rebekah and I are a great team, and as my friends keep reminding me, I am very lucky to be working with her.
(2) I have five great clients -- I will discuss them soon -- who are taking a bet on Rebekah and me.
(3) I have a home -- though temporary -- on 655 High Street in Palo Alto, and it's providing me with the space -- and sanctuary -- I really need. I am happy, grateful, lucky.
And yes, I have a name for the new business. Would love to tell you, but the lawyers are working on it. What's in a name? Apparently, a lot.
Went to my first holiday party of the season, and this one was with the former team from Groxis, which has formed an alumni group called Sixorg. (Don't mean to get all Da Vinci Code on you, but Sixorg is a dead simple anagram. Give it a try.)
Wonderful thing about this party was that it was on a boat -- a three-hour tour of the SF Bay, climaxing under the Golden Gate Bridge, which btw, is a breathtaking sight from below. The whole gang was there -- RJ, Adreanne, Jean-Michel, Kevin, Rosie, many others -- and it was a nice way to tighten the bonds as we explore new opportunities for working together. And yes, the 
bridge loomed both physical and metaphorical in every conversation I had tonight. The party was as much about the past as the future.
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