Movement

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Movement and momentum are more important that waiting and dreaming. Go as far as you can see and you will be able to see a little further. If it isn’t going to sink the boat to move then just make a decision and move, you can always change course later. Ask “who” can I put […]

No complaints

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It is a blessing to not get a good nights sleep…  To have little arms and tiny legs bump into you and dig under your back like some little night creature trying to find a cozy place to hide.  To get coughed on and sneezed on all night with the knowledge of the inevitable cold […]

What Snapchat means for the Hardware Business

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Millennials have grown up shopping at Big Box stores and point/click have it at your doorstep in a day. By 2018, the millennial will outspend Gen X and Baby Boomers. For my hardware store this represents an interesting hurdle as 75% of our customers are Boomers and less than 5% are Millenials. That is where […]

Keep moving

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I don’t always need to do my best in order to move forward with a project.  In fact it is much more productive to just do something, anything.  The fact that I can’t see over the next hill is irrelevant.  If I just keep moving forward, once I get to the top of that hill […]

Own your work. Own your LIFE.

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I want to SCREAM every time I ask someone how they are and the response is “It’s my friday” or “It’s almost friday.”  What is wrong with you??? Assuming you work for 45 years, you are spending 16,380 days complaining and waiting for only 4,680 days.  What a terribly sad waste of time and a […]

Hiring WINNERS

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I was recently asked to be on a panel of Retailers under 40 to discuss hiring.  I KNOW that people make a difference and that hiring right, training well and protecting your culture is the number one hack to a profitable company.  Below are the notes from that session. Young Retailers Retail Best Practices Session […]

We can learn a lot from Ants.

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That right… we can learn a lot from ants.  Not Aunts, but those little bugs you can burn with a magnifying glass (which I never did when I was a child).  Exploring new opportunities, new paths doesn’t have to be an “all in” kind of thing where you abandon the familiar to blaze a new […]

Doing what you know

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Translating something you already know and are passionate about into a business is the way to go.  You are prepared to be the guide and make your customer the hero.  I think it is possible to take something you have no experience in, reverse engineer how to be successful and make it happen but it […]

Culture, Pipeline

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My focus right now is to protect the culture of the Company and to have people trained in the pipeline to take over any position.  My job is to bear the weight of the organization and be the biggest Cheerleader, supporting my team and making sure they have the tools to do their jobs correctly.