Sunday, January 25 through Saturday, January 31, 2015
Sunday brought further opportunities to connect with lawyers in Atlanta. I met with many public defenders who were present during my presentation on Saturday. My hopes were to persuade them to work with me. The service I provide would prepare their clients for a more successful journey through prison. I received a favorable reception. Yet the public-defender lawyers with whom I spoke did not represent the types of clients that could afford my services. Their clients were indigent. I’ll need to work harder to create my niche. Following my meeting with the lawyers, I returned to my hotel room to work on a sentence-mitigation package for one of client that I’m currently working to help.
On Monday I met with Serena Nunn, an impressive young woman. President Clinton commuted Serena’s sentence after she served about 10 years in prison. She completed her undergraduate degree and then enrolled in law school at the University of Michigan. She now works as a public defender in Atlanta. I enjoyed talking with Serena very much. Following my meeting with Serena, I had lunch with Professor Colin Harris. Colin was one of my professors at Mercer University during my undergraduate years. We shared a nice lunch at the hotel, and then he drove me through tour of Atlanta. I was pleased to the United States Penitentiary from this side of the walls. More than a quarter century passed since I walked into that penitentiary for the first time, in chains. Much better to see it from an outside view. Colin then drove me to the airport, where I waited on standby for a flight back to Orange County.
I was glad to wake up with Carole this morning. Almost two full weeks passed since I left our home and I really appreciated being home with my wife. Instead of running, I went to the office and resumed my work on the sentence-mitigation package that I’ve been writing. I had a lot of busy work to complete after being gone for so long.
Wednesday brought some morning work on the PrisonProfessor.com website. I redesigned the way the products look in the store. We’re getting ready to begin advertising the site and I want to be able to track whether the money we’re investing to advertise translates into more conversions. In the evening, I had a meeting with my friend Rich Folk and Joanna Fankhauser. We met to discuss the prospect of launching an ongoing live-event initiative.
Thursday I worked more on the website. In the late afternoon, I drove with Carole on a house-hunting excursion. We visited a community known as Coto de Casa, which has some beautiful homes. But it’s too far away from the office where I work, and even farther from the hospital where Carole works. We’re going to have to pass on that community. We continue deliberating over strategies we can launch for our 2015 real estate purchase.
Friday I did some more work editing the sentence-mitigation project, and I also met with a new prospective client. This is exciting work. I’m thrilled to have this opportunity of building a career around my journey. There is much more work ahead of me, but it’s awesome to be starting.
On Saturday I worked to write new content for that I’m hoping will lead to more business for PrisonProfessor. In order to reach my goals, I need to make sure that more people find me. There will be a combination of content-generation, advertising, and social media work. It’s just a lot of man hours that are necessary for brand building. In one year I anticipate having a more steady stream of business, but new lines of income opening as well. Now that January is behind me, I’m also going to resume my regular running schedule–to the extent possible. This heavy travel schedule has been interrupting me. And now that I think of it, I’ve got two trips planned for February. I’m going to San Francisco and then to Hawaii.
Miles for week: 10.06
Miles for month: 119.87
Miles for year: 119.87
Weight: 165.5
Link to 2015 running log: Running Log