boost the boosts.

"Market leaders today are those that define what performance means in their respective categories:

Volvo sets the bar on safety, shaping customers' expectations for features from seat belts to airbags to side-impact protection systems and active pedestrian protection; Febreeze redefined the way customers perceive a clean house; Nike made customers believe in themselves." -HBR

When you look at brands you truly care about and why those companies stand out, chances are it's not because of how sexy their products look or even a great experience you had with their organizations. Brands who communicate real, transferable values do more than just create profits, they ensure that returns will continue.

Before you dive forward with something that has the potential to grow you or your business fast, make sure that it happens on your terms. It's your values that are communicated. Everything that comes out of or is associated with you and your company should point at the same message every time.

The hook, the virality of the surprisingly effective marketing ploy you're endlessly seeking will undoubtedly produce profit if you gain that delicious spike in sales. But do you have the structure and the commitment to a singular message behind that power boost to ensure the returns will continue until long after the buzz has died? 

why?

The major shareholder in an investment firm with an annual funding of over $20 million, Permjot defined with unmistaken clarity a pivotal moment in their company's future. He said he'd been at a conference in Canada and sharing their vision for growth there, and afterwards a man he'd read about, seen speak, and respected greatly approached him. He greeted Permjot, then looked at him and calmly asked "why Canada?" 

Then he allowed the ensuing silence to run it's course as Permjot struggled through the limitless volumes of answers he could give but he knew wouldn't be enough.

The firm went on to invest in 33 companies a around the world in 4 continents.

My wife read to me from a case study in her grad program tonight. "When you answer a question you ask your students, you cheat them out of the discussion that follows unanswered questions."

Jerold Panas wrote in his book about how to successfully raise money that it is of the highest importance after the question is posed to the constituent if they would like to give, to not fill the silence that follows. The potential donor MUST be the first one to speak afterwards. This allows them a chance to ponder the decision as long as they need and be fully responsible for their answer, not simply made to feel comfortable and become blanketed by voiced assumptions about their feelings. 

In a world increasingly filled with ambient white noise and distractions, silence has become even that much more paramount to our decision-making processes. Allow yourself to do more than just react all the time. Maybe you'll find something in those pauses you hadn't seen yet, or may have missed otherwise.

William Benson.

November 22nd, 1963, John F. Kennedy was shot while riding in the back of car with his wife.

That afternoon, as the events unfolded on the television, a man by the name of Warren Benson was writing an orchestra piece for stringed and woodwind instruments. Stricken by the abrupt loss of America's leader, he rewrote the last movement of the song to incorporate the gentle, strained, yet unmistakable chord progression of the hymn "A Mighty Fortress Is Our God."
The composer of more than a hundred works, this honest and sorrowful work titled "The Leaves Are Falling" became the most notable of his career.

Your job isn't just your job. What part of you is allowed to affect your performance?
How can you translate that into work that becomes the most notable of your career?

forgiveness builds.

Below is a excerpt from an award-winning article by Rosabeth Moss Kanter, titled "How Great Companies Think Differently"
This story exemplifies the power behind processing each disagreement or conflict with emotional intelligence, identifying the core issues rather than heated emotions being the forefront of leaders' priorities.

Read the anecdote below and try NOT learning anything. Good luck.

"In South Korea, after the Asian financial crisis of the late 1990s, Shinhan Bank set out to acquire Chohung Bank, a larger and older bank that the government had bailed out. The moment the acquisition was announced, 3,500 male employees of a Chohung Bank union, whose ranks extended to management levels, shaved their heads in protest and piled the hair in front of Shinhan’s headquarters in downtown Seoul. The acquirer then had to decide whether to go ahead with the acquisition and, if it did so, what it ought to do about Chohung’s employees.

Shinhan’s leaders applied institutional logic. They negotiated an agreement with the Chohung union, deferring formal integration for three years, giving equal representation to both Shinhan and Chohung managers on a new management committee, and increasing the salary of Chohung employees to match the higher wages of Shinhan employees. The acquirer also handed out 3,500 caps to cover the heads of the protestors. Shinhan invested heavily in what it called “emotional integration,” holding a series of retreats and conferences intended not only to spread strategic and operational information but also to foster social bonding and a feeling of being “one bank.” According to financial logic, the acquirer was wasting money. In terms of Shinhan’s institutional logic, the investments were an essential part of securing the future.

The result: Within 18 months, Shinhan had grown both banks’ customer bases, and the Chohung union was having a hard time fomenting discontent against the benign acquirer. Although a formal merger wouldn’t occur for another year and a half, Shinhan and Chohung employees were working together on task forces and discussing best practices, and ideas were spreading that began to make the branches look more similar. Employees were, in essence, self-organizing. By the third year, when formal integration took place, Shinhan was outperforming not only the banking industry but also the South Korean stock market."

http://hbr.org/2011/11/how-great-companies-think-differently/ar/1

about the person.

There are always two stories you can tell -- one with names, and one without.
Check out the difference in what you feel about these two sentences from a tragic event that happened to day in New York City.

"Three members of two popular Iranian indie bands who were living and working in the United States were shot and killed in Brooklyn early Monday by a fellow rocker who then turned the gun on himself, police said."

And now this.

"The dead included Soroush Farazmand, 27, whose rock band the Yellow Dogs was featured in a 2009 CNN report about Iran's burgeoning underground rock scene. Farazmand's brother, Arash, 28, a drummer with the band the Free Keys, was also shot and killed at the same location as was a third Iranian musician, Ali Eskandarian, 35."

The human element is incredibly powerful in storytelling. We as humans have an innate desire to connect with other people. It's how we're created. The first paragraph is significantly more ambiguous, and we're noticeably more isolated from the horror because it's happening to nameless, faceless individuals.

Paragraph #2 hits the reader hard in the face, jarring our evening. With a name like Soroush we instantly pair the word with a foreign face, creating a person, an identity. Then in the second sentence the weight of what happened truly starts to hit home as the victim's brother is named.
I have a brother.
He has a name.
The third man is named.
The ages of all three are listed as well. These were people. We know people that either are or are close to those exact same ages.
And what was initially an news story about a tragedy starts to sink in far more than it did when we started reading.

---

When telling your story, whether it's about your business, your family, funny or sad, a sales pitch or referral, use the human element. It's what we connect with. It brings what we're saying to life. The ambiguous takes shape, a name, face, and identity appear to your listener. Tell your story well. Make it not about merely people, but individuals.
If it's a product or a mission statement, who is involved, what are their names and what do they look like? What did that product or idea do for a person specifically? Which person?

Marissa Mayer

"Marissa has create billions of dollars' worth of value in her time at Google. She's not the key brain in the programming department, nor is she responsible for finance or even public relations. 

She applies artistic judgement combined with emotional labor. She makes the interfaces work and leads the people who get things done.

Marissa led the way in forcing Google's start page to be as spare as it is. She counts the number of words on that page and fights to keep the number as low as possible. 

Google works because the interface between the engineers and what the public wants and needs is so tight. Someone at Google has figured out how to help the company solve our problems (ones we didn't even know we had). Marissa is often in the position of being that interface.

She didn't get assigned to those jobs. She just did them. 

If you could write Marissa's duties into a manual, you wouldn't need her. But the minute you wrote it down, it wouldn't be accurate anyway. That's the key. She solves problems that people haven't predicted, sees things people haven't seen, and connects people who need to be connected."

-Seth Godin about the current President and CEO of Yahoo! who appeared on Forbes' list of 14 Most Powerful Women of 2012

wooden puzzle.

If you walk into most Barnes & Noble bookstores, you'll find a section along the side by the magazines where they sell games. There are maps, Lego sets, role playing and board games, and an entire section dedicated to puzzles of all shapes and sizes. Some claim to be ancient from the ends of the earth, promising entertainment that has stumped generations.

My particular favorites are the interlocking three-dimensional objects that come apart or fit together by one means only. There are very few rules to these, each one is entirely unique in construction. They are made up of wood, metal, plastic... anything the creators felt would best suit to frustrate and bend your mind.

At work, each individual brings their own background, experiences, emotions, relational abilities and goals to the table. The challenge never gets easier. Our job as managers and leaders is to find out what motivates those we work alongside.

The only way to truly unlock those carefully guarded sections of each human's chemistry is to listen, ask the right questions, and watch to see what those around us respond the best to, then find ways to replicate that in the workplace. 

There is a time to assign tasks, bark orders, and make a list of "you will accomplish by". But that comes easy for many people who are good at their jobs.

What isn't so easy is remembering that everyone in the room isn't the same Rubik's cube with an algorithm of left and right wrist twists to win the game.

No, there isn't a single "How To" book that tells you how to solve each two and three-dimensional puzzle in the world. But there is usually a set of hints in the instruction booklet you get with each one. That's what we as leaders and managers need to be listening to, looking out for, and reading in each person we work with.

We just need to take the time and make sure that happens.

one of the crew.

He walked up to our shop showroom one day and knocked on the door. No one knocks on the showroom door; it's a showroom, people just walk in.
"I just lost my job I had for 5 years, so I'm goin' door-to-door looking for work."
We hired him that day, and there isn't a person in the shop he hasn't encouraged or made laugh at least a dozen times since.
He takes immense pride in every piece of furniture he builds and recently challenged one of our shop managers to break the crew up into two teams instead of just a bunch of individuals working on their own projects.
This took what was already a great work environment and made it excellent both in culture and productivity. Suddenly people were finding motivation in their team and problem solving together, driven to solve problems quickly by their team lead. It was a huge win for both the company and the employees.

One afternoon he came into my office and sat down heavily. "Boss, I need to apologize."
I was surprised, I hadn't seen him yet that day.
"I had a crappy attitude and I feel like you shouldn't pay me for this morning. I wasn't at my best and I want to ask your forgiveness." Dumbfounded and immediately choked up, I found myself completely without a reply.

I consider hiring him one of the best business decisions our company ever made. Every day he shows up to work he will not just build into the people he works with, but construct beautiful dining furniture.

hug-free zone.

I read somewhere once that a "20 second hug can release [insert impressive percentage] of stress."
When my wife gets home and has a difficult day, I practice the 20 second hug thing and it seems to help.
With customers, I'm not given that option, and doubt I would take it if I was.

When talking through problems we've been recently encountering with several third-party shippers, I've felt somewhat hopeless.
The problems relating to shipping tend to be larger-than-life, blown out of proportion, and significantly worse than a lot of the daily challenges that arise at work these days.

"I took off work to receive it and it didn't come."
"They re-scheduled three times with me."
"They wouldn't help me bring it inside."
"They were rude with me on the phone."
"I got someone else's package instead and they won't swap it out."

Each time the customer is thousands of miles away and we find ourselves fighting for a reputation that seems like it's no longer in our hands.
I'm learning that is a complete myth.

People can be understanding that problems can arise. They always, always, always want to several things, regardless of the circumstances.

1.) Have you heard what I've been telling you?
2.) Do you agree with me that I'm reasonable in being upset?
3.) What can you specifically do about it?
4.) Will you communicate with me openly and keep me updated?

Very quickly and sincerely answering those questions are secondary to them knowing if it's our fault or not.
The truth of the matter is, they don't care. They just want to receive their shipment.

Once we've established on our end that we are now on the same side of the table, it becomes a much more smooth and sometimes easier.
My last priority I've taken on as a personal challenge is not to hang up with them until I've gotten them to laugh.
It's sometimes a grossly ambitious undertaking and can result in a fifteen minute conversation. However, in the absence of a physical presence where eye contact and listening posture can be incredibly important, it's proven more than apt at bridging the distance and bringing our humanity back to the forefront of the problem at hand.

accidentally fired m'self.

Starting out, my business partner and I were the textbook definition of what Michael Gerber, author and founder of the “E-Myth” book and organization, calls “technicians.” Bright-eyed and bushy-tailed, we took on challenge after challenge ourselves.
We were entrepreneurs, dammit.
It was what we did.

Soon however, as the months went by and we continued to grow, things began to change.
And somehow, today, I find myself no longer a technician. When did this happen?

Somewhere down the road between 0 and 18 employees, my position began to change.
I am now no longer needed like I once was.
There was a significant chunk of my ego that took a huge hit when I realized this. The people we hired because they reflected the values of our company silently moved into position and became the values of our company. My job is to now support them in whatever they need to better execute the roles they play in their positions.

As an innovative furniture company, we attracted our managers to our company with the bright shining promise of risk and reward. As business owners the risk (and most of the rewards/failures) were possessed almost entirely by my partner and I. Now that is no longer the case.
One of the challenges we run into is how to build systems that allow risk (and rewards/failures) to be owned by both our managers and us. How are we encouraging growth and creativity while still functioning within the support systems now crucial to sustain our long-standing promises of timeliness and excellent quality furniture?

We can crunch numbers, evaluate and re-evaluate cash flow, create systems for systems and monitor every dollar and where it goes from the time it arrives until the time it goes out again, but in the end we build value into our company when we focus on our leadership team. If we focus on them and build into their skill sets as managers and leaders, we maximize our potential to not only have a healthy workplace, but handle growth together as a team while minimizing the growing pains.

Do I get to build furniture anymore? Not very often. But I get to work with a team of people who on their worst day are better at the jobs I taught them to do than me performing at my best.

I had no idea how exponentially more exciting it is to take triumph in someone else's accomplishments rather than my own, but daily our team reminds me of that counter-intuitive truth.

the long fall down.

In June of 2005, I received a letter from my parent's Alma-mater that I had been accepted into John Brown University. My relief was overwhelming.

My stolen high school diploma worked.

I arrived to school, quickly moved in and got settled in my dorm and was growing out my hair in no time. 

Intercultural Studies. Looked easy enough.

"What do you want to do with that?" people would ask.
"I'd love to work overseas someday" I'd answer.

Three semesters later I dropped out of college. Something about not ever doing my homework and a GPA of 1.65

Today I find myself a 50/50 business partner in a company that delivers products to 15 States each month and ships to 48 with 22 employees, and almost no clue how I got here.

Free-market capitalism doesn't reward effort, commend passion, or acknowledge ideas. 

It states simply: when people pay for something, they are saying they want more of it. 

Two years ago my business partner approached me and said "I think this is something the world wants. Are you interested in going in on this 50/50 and seeing how we can maybe grow a business out of this product?"

"Sure" I replied, excited to do something that involved not tutoring, not putting an elderly lady to bed, and not cutting lawns (my three jobs at the time). 

As far as I was concerned, ROI was a fish that swam in ponds outside expensive Asian restaurants. 

---

Italicized words are from my Dad. 

MBA Graduate with honors, he resides in Montana as a small business owner and consultant, and I attribute much of who I am and any of my success to his wisdom.