The death of Adam “MCA” Yauch this past Friday made me sad.

I moved to New York City right after college and saw the Beastie Boys open for Madonna at Madison Square Garden.

They were booed off the stage.

One year later they were the  first rap group to hit the top of the Billboard charts.

They  landed on the cover of Rolling Stone magazine under the title “Three Idiots Make a Masterpiece”.

They brought hip hop to the suburbs and I loved them for it.

They made it just a little bit easier to be the only white guy in a South Bronx basketball league.

And they did it, especially Adam, with persistence, humor and humility.

That guide to building a small business?

It’s in the lyrics.

I have to admit that when I first heard about OC SOCIALIFE I rolled my eyes.

Really?

Just what the fine folks of Orange County need.

Another reason to get trapped into some scammy networking nightmare: I have some friends I’d like to introduce you to.  Oh, there’s something you don’t see every day, a drunk middle-aged guy.  And here comes the pitch: “Just sign here and for $595 you can get started on the path to riches with a parcel of land in booming Costa Rica.”

No.  No.  A thousand times no.  We’ve seen this movie.  We are living this movie.  We don’t need any more of that right now.  Or ever.

Networking needs to be reinvented.  And so does philanthropy and conferences and featured speaker talks.  If social media has taught us anything it’s that YOU have a ton to offer.  And that the best opportunities come when like-minded people can find each other, make a connection and start collaborating.

Brent Callaway gets that in spades.

Only an optimistic jock from Odessa Texas would lay down a bet that he could grab Orange County by the shoulders and shake up what it means to be social.

For every social media marketing rookie talking about “conversations” and scheduling tweets on Hootsuite there are a thousand of us wondering where the real conversations are.

They are offline.  It’s meeting people face to face because you enjoy getting away from your desk.  Because you love helping out a local charity and want to discover new businesses doing cool things.  Because you want to create community.

Community.  There’s the rub.  We all want it and it gnaws at us without us knowing what it is we’re after.  We are social animals.  We feel good about ourselves when we give to others.  We enjoy new experiences.  And it’s what OC SOCIALIFE is striving to provide.

OC SOCIALIFE Founder Brent Callaway

Callaway:

“We created OC SOCIALIFE for those who want to be connected and involved in the Orange County social and philanthropic scene.  We couldn’t be happier to redefine what it means to be a socialite in Orange County and cannot wait to see the impact this will have on the local economy as we bring members into Orange County businesses to eat, drink, give and be social.”

Krochet Kids International is their first “Spotlight Charity”.  Members can learn more about the nonprofit’s efforts and how to support it, directly from OCSOCIALIFE.com.

Callaway again:

“We are humbled to support an amazing organization that teaches women a craft in order for them to provide for their families. At the core of OC SOCIALIFE is a desire and a responsibility to give back in a meaningful way. Krochet Kids products will be available for purchase at many of our upcoming events.”

Events include wine tastings, happy hours, VIP gatherings, galas, yacht parties and other community-based activities.  The philanthropic piece attracts a certain kind of person.  The guy ready to recite his LinkedIn profile will stay home.  And you might meet someone who ends up being a new friend, colleague, collaborator or perhaps all-in-one.

So you join for $20 a month.

Give a little.

Get a lot.

I’m in.

You?

OC SOCIALIFE is holding a wine tasting event tonight at 5PM at Da Vine Food & Wine in Dana Point

Tekcetera has been providing infrastructure solutions, cloud services and managed IT services for Orange County businesses for the past 10 years.

In February, they launched a program to celebrate this milestone anniversary by giving back every month for each year they’ve been in business.

They’re calling it 10 Months of Giving Back.

You’re right.

It is clever.

And their PR kicks your PR’s ass.

I spoke to CEO John Pitts and you can hear his passion for his company and the community that has supported it.  So it’s not surprising that they would come up with a cool way to celebrate and do it throughout the year.

A quote from Pitts:

“We have created a very special culture of ‘do what it takes’ to care for people in both business and community.  Our ‘10 Months of Giving Thanks’ initiative is not out of the ordinary for the Tekcetera team. We have spent the past decade giving back, but for the next 10 months, we’ll give thanks as a team of one, with our managers, staff and family members. Tekcetera is proud to be in this position after 10 years in business and we look forward to the next 10 months and beyond of thanking the Orange County community that has supported us over the years.”

They started off in February with a CHOC Toy Drive for children with cancer.

And followed it up in March with a visit to Someone Cares Soup Kitchen in Costa Mesa, preparing and serving food to local hungry residents.

 And this month they’ll be participating in the Make a Wish Walk for Wishes tomorrow and hitting a local park to do a clean up in celebration of Earth Day, which is this Sunday April 22.

Here’s the thing.

They don’t have to do this.  No one is forcing them.  They just have a quality as a company that makes them say, ” If we’re gonna market ourselves, let’s at least give back while we’re doing it and have a little fun.”

Those are the kind of qualities you want from someone you outsource services to.  Lots of companies like this are competent.  But not all of them are giving and most won’t brighten your day.

As I’m writing this I’m listening to Love My Way by the Psychedelic  Furs on my iPhone with Sonic Emotion‘s Headquake app.

The sound is unreal.

And when I say unreal I mean UNREAL.

It does way more than I thought it would.  And this is merely an app for the iPhone.  I can only imagine what their home entertainment systems, docking stations and gaming sound bars are like.

Sonic Emotion has its U.S. headquarters right here in Irvine.  And their new CEO is Cal State Fullerton grad and former SmartHome  president Rajeev Kapur.   So it’s the home team.  And I’m all about the home team winning.

CEO Rajeev Kapur

But you gotta pass the sniff test.  Are you doing at least one of these three things?

1.  Something different

2.  Giving back

3.  Kicking ass

Sonic Emotion does all three.  3D sound technology is certainly unique. Rajeev is the chairman at Irvine-based Greenwala, whose mission is to “help people create opportunities to go green and improve their lives.”   And garnering worldwide patents, establishing yourself as the leader in audio processing technologies and coming up with a cool app like Headquake, which was an Innovation Honoree at CES this year is certainly kicking ass.

If you think about your surround sound system at home you really have to be in the right spot to get the full effect.  Sonic Emotion’s system and technology makes everywhere the sweet spot.  The sound is more of a field than a wave.  And it’s all done with no extra cables or gear.  It’s very very cool.   And it’s innovation straight outta the OC.  To learn more about Sonic Emotion visit their website.

This is a shot of downtown Bangor, Maine (population: 35,473).

These are the streets I grew up on – the streets my parents shopped – the streets where you knew almost every store owner by name.

I remember the creaky wood floor at Bangor Hardware and chasing my father up and down the aisles looking for the nails and screws and tools he would need for that weekend’s project.  How he would linger at that counter (“Are we ready to go yet?” -my 7 year old brain would think), picking up tips and tricks and always heading out with a smile on his face.

We’d stop at the corner store for a couple of things and another 10-minute friendly conversation.

The whole notion of transaction or upselling or customer service not even entering into the equation.

This was life being lived.

People being people.

It didn’t hurt that my dad was the city planner.  Or that my mom wrote for the local newspaper – The Bangor Daily News.  They were naturally social people and enjoyed being out and engaging in activities, banter and commerce.

When you’re raised in an environment like that your DNA molds you into a heat-seeking community-making missile.  You know how good it can be when people help each other.  You understand the ease of social transactions and how much people cherish them.  It’s like you’ve played one video game your entire childhood – Small Town Mayor.  And you pick up points for building a thriving community, a strong business network and lots and lots of friends.

When my dad died a month before my 16th birthday that small town was there for me.  It lifted me up in ways I never understood until I looked back as an adult.  My football coach, Gabby Price, himself a successful small business owner, was instrumental in keeping me on the straight and narrow.  My uncles, who each ran their own law practices, provided paternal support.  I could walk into these men’s businesses and sit down for a talk because they were the boss.  It was their time, not someone else’s.  I just didn’t grow up around too many people who worked for somebody else.

So how does that affect you?

It places within you an instant seed of admiration for the small business owner.

You learn three things about them that are true – for the most part:

1.  They’re tough.

2.  They’re disciplined.

3.  They care about community.

What marketers like me hear from our small business clients all day long, is one thing and one thing only:

“I just want to get people walking in the door.”

And with good reason.

That is where they thrive.

That is their wheelhouse.  You and them face to face.  They will find a way to help you.  They want to create community.  They are naturally drawn to it.  It’s in their genes.

My business partner still lives in Bangor Maine and is someone I have known since I was 5 years old.  He’s one of my best and closest friends in the whole world.

Two other close childhood friends recently returned to Bangor to purchase a local bread baking business.

They are great guys, smart and driven.

We need these people around us.

They make us all better.

There is a great post over at AllFacebook making the case that the new Facebook Timeline features is the best thing for brands since Pinterest.  Um… ok, is that tongue in cheek?

Read it  here.