It’s hard to believe that just one year ago Restaurant Intelligence Agency was still in its original development form, something I believed would work but hadn't yet tested. In the last 12 months:

• We built a new platform for our clients' online press kits;
• Nearly completed building a digital dashboard for chefs to streamline their
   communication with media and with each other;
• Branched out into repackaging and distributing our clients' news over
   multiple networks to help them find new customers;
• And took to the drawing board for how we will be navigating the rapidly
   changing landscape of news and marketing in the future.

The first year of anything important — college, job, urban chicken farming — is filled with as many missteps and misfires as successes. I expected that going in, but foresight didn't soften the blow when I stumbled.

That's where friends, family and teammates stepped in. And it wouldn't have been nearly as fun to celebrate the good times without them — and with all of my clients. So here, in no particular order, are the things for which, and people for whom, I am immensely grateful this year:

People willing to take risks. Risk is hard, and some people even admit PR doesn't work and they hate most of it — and yet, they are too afraid to change. I am grateful for all the people who have felt the pain of the broken business model that is traditional PR and been brave enough to take a sip of the RIA Kool-Aid.

Clients who understand how much time and energy we pour into our service. RIA may have started with just a dream, but the reality is coming into clearer focus each day. That reality has cost me every penny I have, a lot of my parents' pennies, and some investments from friends. (P.S. I am currently looking for $50 grand more, if you are interested.) The clients who know and appreciate this, who give us the atta boy when we roll out another product for which we have paid dearly, are precisely why I am doing this.

The many writers who have contributed their services in trade. They're hoping the dream will pay off for them, and I intend to make sure it does. Because I want them to know that believing in something good is a good thing. 

Reporters/bloggers/concierges who use RIA. They my heart sing every day — especially the ones who use Media Registry. The more the media taps into the registry for answers to their questions, the better chefs seem to be getting at responding to requests in a timely fashion, with appropriate, interesting answers. Everyone using our site makes its impact on the industry growth, and I appreciate that.

My team. I deploy a small, but insanely dedicated, team of specialists for help with everything from running the machine that is RIA, transcribing my jumbled firehouse of ideas into workable plans, collecting garbled messages from clients and turning them into news, editing the site to within an inch of its life so we don't look like hacks, and even scheduling my life. You. All. Rock.

My new web designers/coders. (You haven't seen their work yet, it's not this public-facing website that is RIA right now.) Some people design websites, most now add a simple CMS in the back end. Neoteric Design is so much more.  They delve into each new idea, tease out the business value, ask a lot of questions and figure out how to turn it all into workable, scalable code so that it all comes true on the World Wide Web. I have been through two web teams before turning to the real deal, a team of web people who didn't figure out the hard way that my dreams and ideas aren't above their pay grade.

Mom. I've said it before, and I'll say it again: She has the patience of the Buddha, especially when I need to vent. And Laura, I'll throw you in here too, since you are a calm sea.

My dogs, cats and chickens. If I don't recognize them, I fear they may revolt.