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Moving Day: A Road Beset With Obstacles
It’s Time To Move
For the last year we’ve known we needed to move into a bigger space. The 800 square feet we’ve been working under has served us well for several years. Rent was affordable, the space was workable and we were able to squeeze every last inch out of it. We might have just stayed if we knew what would happen on moving day.
The truth is though, it was never an ideal setup for our operation. For one thing, the business was physically separated. The warehouse had it’s space in one building, then you waltz across the driveway to another building where the offices are located.
It worked but it sucked. The team spirit and contagious enthusiasm was not at full MAX where we needed it to be. On top of that we were just plain out of space.
Change Was Required
It was time to bring everything under one roof. Have all the team together with dedicated space for every aspect of the business. Warehouse storage, fulfillment zone, offices for all the guys, dedicated creative spaces for podcasts, photos and videos, a lounge for hanging and shooting the shit, and of course a conference room to get the whole global strategy ironed out.
After months and dozens of hours scouring, touring and contacting every possible option in San Diego county we finally found a place we felt great about calling home. A 5,000 square foot figurative bunker in Barrio Logan, just south of downtown San Diego. Prime location and plenty of space to launch The Longhairs into the stratosphere.
We Were Stoked!
Enthusiasm was high. Everyone on the team saw the vision for the space and we were all on board to get the deal done.
That enthusiasm stalled as tense negotiations with the landlord began to unfold. To paint the communication picture vividly clear, like 4K Ultra HD clear, our representative was speaking on our behalf to the property manager, who was relaying the messages to the owner's assistant, who was then delivering the messages to the owner.
It was like a game of telephone.
Except the messages were about terms and conditions and repairs and tens of thousands of dollars. And you know how it ends in telephone. When the message is finally delivered, it’s about 3-5% accurate.
For example, in our case it started with open access to a secured parking lot, then it was only two spaces, then it was $200 a month per space, then it was no parking. All this over five weeks of nebulous email transmissions, out-of-office replies and SMS group threads.
Imagine this back and forth for months. We had to piece together the data like an FBI agent mapping out the nuanced inner connections of a crime syndicate.
As time passed and we decoded the communications, we finally got a lease signed. We sent our first month’s payment plus security deposit, expecting the keys on February 1.
SICK! DIALED!
With a few weeks until moving day, we began planning our strategy for the space.
Who’s gonna have what office, where we are going to put the podcast area, fulfillment, lounge, etc. Some guys want it this way, others have different ideas, everyone thinks their solution is the best. Just a bunch of knuckleheads trying to plan out the biggest space any of us have ever been responsible for—with no idea what we’re doing.
It quickly became apparent we needed to bring in a professional. Someone who has a lot of experience doing these types of things, a person we can count on.
This is going to be the official global headquarters for the foreseeable future, it’s got to be sick AF!
So we reached out to professional organizer Amanda Titchenal and her team at Well Organized, AKA WELLO. Their mission was to help with the logitices, plan the setup of our spaces and execute the whole plan.
She also handled the purchasing of all the stuff we needed: desks, racks, bins, white boards, monitors, basically everything. It was awesome, and it was all going to arrive on moving day.
Moving Day Approaching
The lease was signed, the money was sent and our strategic plan was in place. Hotel rooms were booked for the WELLO team just a few miles from the facility. The moving operation was ready to launch.
Only thing was we hadn’t seen the place emptied out, or whether renovations had been completed, or when and where and from whom we would receive the keys. With four days left until moving day, things began to get rocky.
It starts with the landlord’s assistant telling the property management representative to tell our representative to tell us that we should reach out to the vacating tenants to request the keys on the first of the month. We didn’t have their contact information, so we told our agent to ask the property management representative to ask the assistant for the info so we could get the damn keys.
“Sorry,” our representative relayed from the property management representative, “the assistant has COVID.”
By some miracle we got in touch with the vacating tenants, and finally got into the building on the afternoon of moving day.
Upon entering it was clear there was only one thing we could say…
