Blog 3-30-22

In this edition of The Blog, I will pick up the pace reporting on the progress of my entities. Through the first quarter of 2022 my time was primarily spent with the rowing team at UCI, operations at Netrendity, and development at Grant Coultrup Productions. Coultrup Designs, the primary holding company for business operations, will produce financial statements and official quarterly reporting.

UCI Rowing

This organization begs Grant’s attention daily, where he serves as the men’s novice coach. Through the first quarter of 2022 the team had their ten week “winter quarter” of school, concluded by a one-week spring break during which we ran a double-day training camp. This training camp was very effective for both training and camaraderie. Now we begin spring quarter, where the team will train and compete in championship racing. Current issues lie in their schedule, their focus, and boat logistics.

• The schedule is difficult to manage due to the fact that a significant amount of the students have 8am classes. This has caused us to begin the warmup at 5:30am and the row at 5:45am. I understand how taxing this is on the group, remembering that they are student-athletes and not just athletes. Our alternatives are to 1) compromise practice time or 2) move to afternoon session. In the first alternative we would cease to be competitive, and in the second we would face the problem as an equal or greater amount of student-athletes attend afternoon class.

• In any case but particularly in the boat, an individual’s ability to focus on the work at hand is a powerful competitive advantage. Further, the group’s ability to focus on the task is an even greater advantage. Motivating the group to direct their mental energy is as great a task as directing their physical energy.

• Boat logistics are difficult. My job is simple: to write workouts, develop technical skill, and make lineups. When making lineups my attitude tends away from catering to feelings and towards answering the question “does it make the boat go fast?”. To that end my energy is focused.

The head coach and program director has many more years of experience than I so I will continue to rely on his vision and direction on a macro scale.

Netrendity

This organization is parent to The Rowing Channel, where Grant serves as Operations Coordinator. Work has been sporadic through the past year and a half during the covid pandemic, where rowing regattas were run rarely. The season is now in full swing. We have completed three of our largest events and one smaller production, each of which experienced its own difficulties but overall we walked away with success! While this planning and operating consumes much of my time and effort, there exists substantial networking opportunities and chances to build my own portfolio. For example…

Grant Coultrup Productions

This organization houses my production operations, ranging from audiobooks to drone coverage to intelligence videos. Importantly, the company houses the Granté brand. Work here is primarily promoted through a YouTube channel and through this website’s Production portfolio. GC Productions has also partnered with Griffin Enterprises to produce LIVE political/geopolitical podcast-style videos.

AMPEL

The Additive Manufacturing Prototyping and Experimentation Laboratory has seen little work in this last quarter due to the prioritization of the operations listed above. However the vision remains and continues to be refined. Printing projects included the Qlone 3D scanner (to be refined) and multi-material artwork applied to canvas projects by Granté. Future projects seem to center around 1) networking and connection between designers/manufacturers/consumers; 2) easing the tension on modern supply chains; and 3) developing new edible/organic/biological materials for 3D printing; and 4) microgravity manufacturing.

Conclusion

That’s all the updates I have time for today. Thanks for reading, and if you want to follow more closely then check out the video version of The Blog: The Vlog.