“Always hire people that are smarter than you.” Those are the words of Mary Shrode, who I worked for in college. I learned so many things from Mary, but this specific bit of wisdom has always stuck out to me. I used to think her advice was specific to hiring good people, but it has [...]

What do you want to be when you grow up? I have vivid memories of having people ask me that as a kid. My response? “An astronaut.” Entrepreneur and business owner were never on my list. It was the eighties – Star Wars, The Right Stuff, NASA and Shuttle launches on TV. I got a [...]

Customer service. It has been a common theme in my articles, and this past week I experienced an amazing example of that at Children’s Minnesota where my daughter was being cared for. As we are preparing to leave and bring her home, I had a quiet moment to reflect on the past week here at [...]

This article is going to be short and sweet. I am writing it from my daughter’s hospital room. She’s sick, not deathly ill, but enough to have been admitted to Children’s Hospital in Minneapolis. I am hoping her stay is only a few days long. Here’s the reality of where I’m at now. As a [...]

It was the summer between seventh and eighth grade, and I was enrolled in a small private school. As the son of parents who ran their own small business, we were on the constant roller coaster of success and however you want to define “not-success.” To cover my tuition, I spent that summer working on [...]

I had a moment a few nights back to slow down and catch some recent episodes of Anthony Bourdain. Think of him what you will, but since his passing I’ve become enamored with his storytelling ability and how he masterfully developed a fusion between food and lifestyle with the unique ability to capture the humanity [...]

I dropped my kids off at school this morning, for their first day of seventh grade. It’s their second year of middle school and so much of the apprehension from last year around new buildings and new classrooms is gone. Instead, it has been replaced with a new chorus of "what-if’s" and unknowns that lead [...]

A client of ours, as we were reflecting on the Brand Bounce Bootcamp we had just facilitated, brought this up to our team. Her feedback ended up being very valuable as we continue to refine our approach to coaching clients. “You did a great job of setting my expectations for our day’s work. You set [...]

I’m writing this from a cabin tucked deep into northern Wisconsin, with limited access to the outside world. Freeway noise has been replaced by an occasional boat motor and the sound of laughing kids, and I’ve traded in my go-go schedule and constant desire to sneak in “just one more” email, project note, or design. [...]

“You have no idea how many hats I wear.” That statement has somehow become a badge of honor for many entrepreneurs and leaders. We love to brag about how much we have to do and how long our to-do lists are. If we’re not patting ourselves on the back for wearing those hats, we’re complaining about [...]