Hello Greenville

It’s been a little over 3 months since making the move to the Upstate. Although a difficult decision to leave behind the Lowcountry after 11ish years, the transition to the Upstate has been rather smooth and exciting. I wanted to provide a quick update on both life and work. And as always, more to share in the coming months!

Life

As I said in the above, the transition has been rather smooth. My wife is originally from Greenville so already having a family base living up here has been great. My side of the family is scattered all over North America so having family living right down the street is somewhat new and great all at the same time!

My wife and I also have some of our closest friends living in Greenville… hence the “exciting” part. It’s been great moving to a new area and already having a group of established friends as making new friends is one of the hardest things to do when moving to a new place.

3 hours… thats all it takes to get home (yes, I still call Charleston home). This transition would be completely different if I had to catch a plane (cue pilot Rich Yessian) every time I wanted to head back. 3 hours = 3ish podcast episodes… I find myself not wanting to get out of the car when I arrive.

Lastly, to keep this super broad, I find that there are two types of people in the world – those that love the beach and those that love the mountains (yes you can be both). It’s been great being on the water all these years, but I’m excited about camping, hiking and all that the mountains have to offer. See you on the trail!

Work

I’m a firm believer that if you follow your heart and make decisions that are best by you and your family, all will work out in the end and that’s exactly what happened here. What started with me quitting Blue Ion in order to make this move (worst day ever), quickly transitioned into “well what are YOU doing up there?” to “don’t look for a job, we’ll figure something out”. And that’s exactly what happened.

I’m currently working out of Textile Hall, which is a great co-working spot in Greenville’s up and coming West End also known as The Village or the Arts District (good article here on co-working spots in GVL). Textile Hall is part of a larger non-profit, Mill Community Ministries, which focuses on developing under-resourced communities for success. Connected to my office are two additional initiatives; 1.) Village Wrench – a bicycle shop working to develop leaders in the community by building the value of hard work and social responsibility through bicycles; 2.) Mill Village Farms – a market that helps transform vacant properties into gardens to grow locally-sourced produce for communities that often have limited access to fresh and local foods. While I’m only renting a desk from Textile Hall, it’s been nice to feel like I’m part of something bigger.

Getting plugged into the community up here hasn’t been too bad either as there are events on event on events. ZeroDay at Co-Work Greenville, Tech After 5, Technically a Coffee, Business on Tap to just name a few. It’s been fun networking and getting to know the community through these great events.

Lastly, we already have some cool and fun projects lined up in the area. I’m excited to be able to share the teams amazing talent from back home!

Hello Greenville.