Week of Hard Knocks

This past week was silly. It was another week where every single day was a train derailment of hours colliding into each other and spilling across time and space.

Hard Knocks 11 is in the bag and for all intents and purposes it was a really good show. During the run up there’s always a thousand things to do and no matter how I try and get ahead of the game the last two days are pure mayhem. Add to that two other clients wrapping up their websites, another one waiting for some printing, and three new leads for new branding and marketing work.

In Hard Knocks land things are simple, but compressed. It’s as exciting as having a syringe of adrenaline stabbed into your heart … or so I’m told.

In 48 – 60 hours here’s what needs to happen in my world:

1. Teach Jujitsu Wednesday and Thursday, miss Judo Thursday night
2. Event Program – can’t be finalized until the day of the event due to fighters not making weight or not passing medicals
3. Event Program – Chasing sponsors for logo’s and last minute format changes
4. Tale of the Tape – can’t be finalized until the day of the event for the same reasons as the Program, but we’re also waiting for photography of the 22+ fighters
5. Tale of the Tape – Transfer in a way that can be played on any variety of devices at the show – who knows what we’ll need to run it on this time
6. CLIENT A and CLIENT B are approving final edits on their websites
7. CLIENT C needs a new sign printed, mounted and delivered by end of day – Printer runs out of ink
8. CLIENT C isn’t there to receive sign
9. CLIENT D and E are new and want meetings for their projects
10. Purchase and install new software for database management for CLIENTS F, G and H
11. Domain Registrar accidentally hits a button and redirects CLIENT I website to Google Adwords, crashes client email, Registrar disavows any knowledge but the site is miraculously fixed within hours
12. Cage Decals – two days before the event all the old sponsors are removed from the cage pads (usually at 10pm – midnight)
13. Cage Decals – the day before the event all the new decals are put into place
14. Cage Decals – art is usually approved the day its installed, which means it needs to be ripped, cut, masked and prepped that day
15. Fight Card Updates – the card is continuously being updated right up until the day of the fight. We’re at the mercy of fighters, coaches, the commission and Murphy’s Law
16. Fight Night – Secure cage-side location and begin the search for POWER. This time I was smart and brought my own extension cord and gaff tape, that didn’t stop us from having to source another extension cord due to a change in AV setup
17. Tale of the Tape – AV company doesn’t have the media player to show the TOT on the big screens which means I’m driving 200KPH down the road to find a solution
18. Announcers Intro and Movie – AV company can’t play it. DJ company can rip the audio from the MP4, but for some reason it doesn’t happen
19. Live Updates to Twitter, HKFC Website and TopMMANews.com – happens flawlessly, but maybe that’s because I’ve had a couple of beers to steady the nerves and lubricate the synapses

This is a fairly typical couple of days and it’s lead me to realize that I need to hire some more people – what’s more is that I’m not even mentioning the chaos that is my personal life in those scant 60 some-odd hours.

This is fun. It’s exciting. But it’s also a little retarded to think this pace can be kept.