summer one take

Summer One Take – Read a U.S. History Book

July 3, 2019
bald in business symbol

Mid-Year Reflections

June 24, 2019

This is the last post for the month of June, which means the next time I post we will be in to the second half of 2019. So, as I am accustomed to reflecting at the mid-year and year-end, what follows is an assortment of reflections based on the first six months of the year. […]

alex gretchen and charlotte

3 Lessons I Have Learned Working With My Sisters

June 17, 2019

I chuckle when I ask others if they would like to work with their siblings because I usually get a sarcastic response in return. “We would kill each other,” I often hear. My sisters and I have chosen to do exactly this, and we haven’t killed each other yet! All kidding aside, this has made […]

outstretched hand in black and white

#TheoThursday: Leadership Prayers

June 13, 2019

Want to be a leader, which is someone others follow? Here are three non-negotiable traits. Being a #TheoThursday post, I’ll frame these as prayer requests because they originated in a text-exchange early one morning between Nate (a subscriber and reader of BIB) and myself. Pray for the courage to do what is necessary. To be […]

alex and friend

Bonus Post: Lessons from Last Week

June 11, 2019

I learned that you can’t practice enough, especially in preparation for a talk. Repetition is key. I learned that it is better to be bold – be the real you – than to be someone else. I learned that visiting customers in person is THE work of business development. The skill for the twenty-first century […]

looking down at golf ball in hole

Invest in Strengths, not Weaknesses

June 10, 2019

Let’s say, hypothetically, that you have a child that is getting 2 A’s and 1 B and one C on their latest school report card. Which class would you have them focus on? This question has sort of become akin to the “are you a glass half empty or glass half full” question as it […]

robert hoffer

Some of My Grandfather’s Traits I want to Emulate

June 6, 2019

I have been thinking a lot about my grandfather as the clock clicks towards Father’s Day. Here is a collection of his of his traits that I want to emulate: I want to emulate my grandfather’s ability to not bring work home. I’d imagine that he did. No person in human history has not, to […]

closeup of blades of grass

The Best Ideas (Should But Often Don’t) Rise to the Top

June 3, 2019

Four years ago, our family moved into a newly constructed home that was built on an old farm property. In the early fall that year, we contracted someone to plant grass seed. As the spring approached, we waited in anticipation for our beautiful green grass to sprout, and some of it did. But more frequently, […]

alex gretchen and charlotte

EL Summit Diary

May 29, 2019

This post was written in real-time on site at the Entreleadership Summit (April 28 – May 1, 2019). The purpose of the post is to share how beneficial Summit was, share interesting nuggets of wisdom, and what my takeaways were from the experience. April 28, 2019 I have arrived in San Diego, checked-in, worked out, […]

outstretched hand in black and white

#TheoThursday: The Reality of Self-Doubt

May 23, 2019

I mentioned in an earlier post that I recently heard criticism about how I am leading the company from someone at an event our team attended. In sharing this criticism with my accountability partner, he advised not to turn this blog into a response to the critic. I share this because the experience got me […]