Honestly, right now I think the name “Drive-By Consulting” is a bit of a misnomer: I’m getting a lot more out of this than I’m giving. Anybody have any ideas on a better name?

Continuing the cross-country trip to meet entrepreneurs, investors, photographers and “change agents”…

College Station, TX
In College Station I had lunch with Travis Collins at Dixie Chicken, a restaurant and bar next to the Texas A&M campus that proudly proclaims that it “serves the most beer per square foot of any bar in the U.S.” Gotta love Texas.

Travis is an insanely talented programmer and creative problem-solver who has carved out a niche for himself in “getting wandering projects back on track.” In addition, Travis has also independently created a number of e-commerce solutions under his DreamingWell brand.

Talking to Travis about his projects reminded me what’s possible if we spend our time identifying problems and creating solutions instead of creating plans, outlines, pitches and approaches to partners and investors. (More on Travis and DreamingWell to come in the future…)

Dallas, TX
I met Brad Garland (bradgarland on Twitter), Mark McSpadden and Dave of The Garland Group for lunch in Plano, TX (thank you to Ron Shevlin for the introduction). The Garland Group is a consulting and software firm that specializes in risk management service and solutions for financial services companies and has also launched Banktastic, an online community for helping banking industry professionals quickly find relevant, industry specific information and share it with others.

We talked a lot about the credit union v. bank “issue”; the division between banks and credit unions is a source of deep-seated acrimony throughout the banking industry, yet for all the debate within the industry among the professionals and insiders, the differences between banks and credit unions are not readily apparent to customers.

Most of our conversation centered about the nature of communication, about our choice of channels, the implications of anonymity in communities, the “CU Skeptic”, the varying rules and codes of conduct we form throughout our relationships and the tyranny of email. It’s pretty easy to pick up that Brad, Mark and Dave are very smart, intelligent and insightful guys that blend their financial services industry experience with a broader view of how the Internet is altering the technological and cultural foundations of the industry.

Communication in financial services is an interesting topic. Historically communication and innovation are very closed in the industry, but recent changes in technology and culture are creating some cracks and opportunities. A maze of legal restrictions have created many of the walls between bankers (and between bankers and customers ), but it is as much based on the culture of the industry; bankers put heavy guardrails on their communications with customers, bankers don’t talk to other bankers and bankers certainly don’t talk to credit union professionals. But Banktastic is working to change that by offering an outlet for people to share on their own terms, to find value and knowledge outside their organizations; perhaps empowering the actions will lay the seeds for changes in the industry.

Later I met with Andrew Hudson (thanks Ryan Booth for the introduction), an independent video professional who pays a lot of attention to the changes going on in the video and photography industries has some great plans for the future (I won’t spill any of his ideas). Andrew’s passion and love for his craft shines brightly; I love meeting people like Ryan and him who live for their craft and are dying to create great work and great businesses. It’s what entrepreneurship is really about.

Meeting people like Andrew, Brad, Mark and Dave is what excites me; I get much more from them than I can hope to give in return. I don’t have a great master social media plan, but it’s still leading me to great people.

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Where have I been?

• Washington, DC and Charlotte, NC
• Atlanta, GA and New Orleans, LA
• Houston, TX

Follow the continually updated map of the trip for all posts, more stories and photos.

What’s next?

• Phoenix, AZ: today.
• Los Angeles, CA: starting this upcoming weekend, and around for a bit.
• San Francisco, CA: coming up soon…

How can you meet me?
If you’re on my route, contact me if you’re an entrepreneur or if you’ve got an idea for a product or company and you would like a bit of free consulting and advice, or if you want to hack out a financial model for your idea, or want to do an interview about your idea, or if you just want to say hello. I’m here for you.