Bali Hi

Posted on May 15, 2013 by Nicholas Mohnacky — Leave a comment ↓

I’m sitting here drinking a homemade lemongrass ginger iced tea overlooking an infinity pool with 3 forward facing Bali style villas, a plumeria tree to my left and a stone ox to my side thinking about what it means to be here in such a remarkable place. I never imagined either in high school or in college that I’d be an entrepreneur or someone who creates things and gets paid to do so, much less travel the world like this. Looking back however, I can see how it was God’s design for my life as one choice has molded another and shaped me to become who I am today. With that, I want to say how encouraged I am by the people I surround myself with and those that have come my way. Especially my new business partner Chris and the people I’m staying with here in Bali. Over the years I have seen people come and go some of which were close to me and I thought might be lifelong friends. So I’ve learned to cherish moments with those in my life no matter what their status is. Those that I’m currently with are young, kind, thoughtful, genuine, outgoing, smart, risk takers, and extremely successful. I’m inspired by their mindfulness and excited to explore life’s opportunities with them.Image

My experience in Indonesia thus far has taught me some foundational lessons about myself and my spirituality. I traveled here to gather marketing materials and create videos for Surfr App launch but I’m finding that God has me here for so much more. I haven’t been here 24 hours and I’m completely enthralled by the smiling people, the surf, and the spiritual energy surrounding the Balinese culture. Temples are present in every home and they light sacraments morning, noon, and night. I find this so fascinating because their spirituality is so visible and culturally sound. It’s opened my eyes to the reality of how far my country has gone in the opposite direction. Ironically, the USA, where we supposedly can practice religion freely has become a country where our foundational religion, Christianity, isn’t visible at all. Not to mention the overall sentiment of Christians has completely changed and It saddens my heart to think about how negative it’s become. Our country has a real identity crisis unlike the country I’m currently in…

 Indonesia, you are a beautiful and majestic place. Looking forward to getting to know you over the next few weeks.

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Posted in Lifestyle

Bolero Flashmob Mt. Dora, FL

Posted on April 3, 2013 by Nicholas Mohnacky — Leave a comment ↓

My agency, Mohnacky Marketing, was asked to produce a video for a very special and interesting event that took place in Mt. Dora, Florida.  After hearing the idea to do an orchestral flashmob, I thought to myself, wow that’s going to be fun and chaotic (there were 100k+ people coming to town that weekend).  With that, I happily agreed to the project in anticipation of the challenge ahead.

Check out Bolero, performed by the Florida Lakes Symphony Orchestra & Mount Dora Center for the Arts sponsored by Main Street Leasing.

Take note of the beautiful sunset time-lapse at the end. (def. one of the best sunsets I’ve ever seen)

Posted in Marketing

Escaping from Alcatraz

Posted on March 18, 2013 by Nicholas Mohnacky — Leave a comment ↓

A Triathlon in San Francisco

As the aroma of Sumatra (coffee) fills the air and the last drip hits the pot I await to taste the boldness of a fresh brew this Monday morning. Okay, don’t judge me, normally I have my first cup of coffee before 9:30am but I decided to go back to sleep after the 5:30am long course swim practice. Ah, swim practice… Today was the first day back in the pool since the Escape from Alcatraz Triathlon.

For those of you that don’t know, I did a triathlon on March 3, 2013 in San Francisco that demanded a 1.5 mile swim, 18 mile bike, and 8 mile run. In one word, this event was, incredible. In one sentence, this event broke down my body but strengthened my mind and spirit so much so that I felt stronger by the time I finished.

It was the week of February 16, 2013 and my friend Lacie asked me if I wanted to go to San Francisco because one of the guys that she’d been training was doing Escape from Alcatraz and we had a free place to stay. Me being the last minute up for anything kind of guy that I am I said, if tickets are affordable then you can count me in. Not a few minutes later she asks me, “If you go do you want to do the triathlon?” At that moment about 50 thoughts hit me like a brick. I could feel the weight of the thoughts in my head trying to rationalize my decision as it was being processed. All I could get out of my mouth was Umm… I don’t know… Out of intrigue and confusion I asked, why is there a spot available for me to do the triathlon? Isn’t it a lottery event? Well, she says, “Mat had a buddy that was going to compete in the event but his friend didn’t feel like he thoroughly trained for it.”

Oh man, exactly what I wanted to hear!!

Ok, let me get this straight… You are asking if I want to do the triathlon, on two weeks notice, in place of someone that felt like he didn’t train enough over the course of a year?? I resorted back to, umm… uh… I guess I’ll do it. I mean it’s Alcatraz, I have to, right? At that point my whole psyche changed from thinking of a leisurely trip to San Francisco to straight up survival mode.

The next day, I was in the water training for long distance. I did a mile set then another, putting in 2 miles per practice. I ran 6 miles that week to find that my knee still bothered me (still need to get it looked at) but I felt confident enough to run the race. The bike training consisted of me looking online for a bike rental in San Francisco not to mention I hadn’t been on a road bike since 2003. Yeah, there wasn’t any training on the bike…

The following week’s training was pretty much just tapering in the pool and no more running to let my knee heal from the 6 miles the week prior.

Thursday 2/28/13 – San Francisco here we come!

(stay tuned for the rest of the story) Image

Posted in Fitness, Lifestyle, Travel

Be Confident & Believe in Yourself

Posted on February 23, 2013 by Nicholas Mohnacky — Leave a comment ↓

I just finished watching an interview that an old friend did with his Alma Mater, Full Sail University, talking about his road to success at AWOLNATION and felt moved to write a post about the formula of success.

It was 2008 in Orlando Florida where I first met Kenny. I stepped foot into a house full of what I soon learned were pro and semi-pro wake boarders, artists, and college students.

Kenny Carkeet now rhythm guitar, keyboards, backing vocals for AWOLNATION was jamming with a couple other guys in a cozy office/sound room when I met him. His fingers quickly pulled away from the down stroke of his electric guitar as he reached out to introduce himself.  He engaged in welcoming conversation and followed it with an introduction to the rest of the band members of then, “Evolution Heart.” (I still have the little rectangular band sticker placard on my old dresser)

kenny carkeet orlando

Fast forward a month or two and you’d have seen Kenny and I stroking an agreement, on the coffee table in his living room, to sponsor his band with t-shirts and swag that I produced under the label Stigmata, formerly Statik Apparel.

You see, the reason I moved to Orlando was to seek out opportunities within the wakeboard industry and promote my clothing line. I spent a couple years in the corporate world after college then decided I was ready to move back home for a change of pace. During this time I spun off a clothing company called Stigmata from a company that I founded in ’06 called Statik. The line obviously didn’t take off but I learned a lot about working with people, networking, sponsorships, managing expectations, design, surf shops, and grassroots marketing along the way. (side note, it’s ok to fail because not every venture is going to be a hit)

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Posted in Success

An Excerpt on Leadership

Posted on February 5, 2013 by Nicholas Mohnacky — Leave a comment ↓

“People with humility don’t think less of themselves, they just think of themselves less.” Ken Blanchard and Norman Vincent Peale’s The Power of Ethical Management 

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Posted in Blogs

Susan G Komen Race for the Cure 2013

Posted on January 29, 2013 by Nicholas Mohnacky — Leave a comment ↓

Hello!

This is an extraordinary event in every sense of the word.  I love the fact that there is marked support for a race that means so much to so many lives across the world and here locally in greater West Palm Beach.  I’m so proud of our city for devoting resources to bringing this event to a world class level.  It’s especially exciting to have witnessed the fervor and zeal of breast cancer survivors running the race proudly and visually depicting, through their fun outfits, that they have so much to live for.

The Susan G Komen 5K is one of the only races that separate men and women runners.  I signed up in the men’s division but opted to run with my friend Lacie the day of, as did a lot of other men who wanted to share that special moment with their friend, family or spouse.  Apparently, the chips only timed the race you registered for so my time didn’t get clocked since I ran with the women.  (I guess I was the first man to finish) haha

No worries, though, I found Lacie’s time online here and figured I did the same since we crossed the finish line simultaneously.  My time was 22:35 a 7:17/M

I’m so thankful for this event and events like this that reveal our humanity in such a humbling way.  Race – Susan G Komen 5K January, 2013. websiteImage

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Posted in Fitness, Lifestyle

Reaching Backers on Kickstarter

Posted on January 16, 2013 by Nicholas Mohnacky — 2 Comments ↓

This post is about my findings and experiences with the Surfr App Kickstarter thus far. The premise of the Kickstarter is to raise funds to develop an app that will enrich the lives of the surfing community by allowing them to document and share their surfing adventures. I knew going into it that I’d be dealing with a very fickle group of people and reaching critical mass wouldn’t be easy.  Here’s a snapshot of the project so far.

Surfing Related Kickstarter Projects that got Funded

Matt Warshaw

Matt Warshaw

Prior to launching, I studied a handful of surfing related projects posted on Kickstarter and the takeaway was that the funded projects were posted by people with industry influence like:

Pro Surfer Lakey Peterson – “Zero to 100 – A Lakey Peterson Story”

Former editor of Surfer Magazine, Matt Warshaw – “Encyclopedia of Surfing” which BTW was very kind to respond to my message to him saying, “As far as getting media exposure, all you can do is just sent the KS link to everybody you know, and cold-call surf mag and website editors. Everybody is so hungry for content these days, they’ll get the word out.”

Movie Producer, Bryan Jennings of Walking on Water Productions – “Beyond Sight”

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Posted in Blogs, Lifestyle, Technology
About Nicholas Mohnacky

Nicholas Mohnacky

Entrepreneur, Winner of Startup Weekend Orlando, Alumni of the Year Nominee at Palm Beach Atlantic University, Surfer, Christian, Triathlete, World Traveler

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