Mom

Learning to make peace with being uncomfortable. — Pit in your stomach? Don’t feel up for the task? Rather go hide than face the challenge? Good. That’s a signal you’re on the right track. Growth is imminent so buckle up and be grateful. I’ve felt this anxious energy many times as a leader whether it was giving an…

Failure, uncertainty, and serendipity. — We all face uncertainties in life, and risk taking is the key to growth and success. But what are the important ingredients that enable us to take those risks? I remember the conversation clearly, “Mom, I can’t go home. I can’t work a normal job. I’ll never be happy.” She…

From ticket booths to 1,000,000 customers — a few reflections on selling. — Selling gets a bad rep. It conjures up images of used car salesmen and deceptive jokers selling you junk you don’t need. But I’ve been selling for a long time. Really since I can remember. And that experience has taught me that selling is fundamental. Selling is relational. It’s the…

My memories of Grandpa mix with the formative golden hews of my childhood. I remember visits to the hardware store “up north”, his hand holding mine at eye level as I walked by his side. I remember visits to his old Main Street office, a smile on his face as…

When in doubt, just pick up the phone — When you first start a business, you do everything. You’re the web designer, the sales person, the operations manager and worker, the accountant, the janitor, and of course, the customer support representative. In the earliest days we needed every sale we could get. One customer could be the difference between…

What they taught me about building a business — Both of my Grandparents grew up in the rural northeastern cornfields of Wisconsin. It’s a land largely the same today as it was then — still speckled black and white with mobs of Holstein cows. It’s a place where people live on the land in the grace of a harvest.They…