In high school I participated in speech competitions called forensics, as did many of my friends. One friend had a speech impediment which made it difficult to understand what she was saying. I often wondered what made Carol brave enough at 16, to speak in front of an audience and panel of judges.
Is The Juice Worth the Squeeze?
Linda here. I heard an interesting phrase last week: “The juice isn’t worth the squeeze”. It caught my attention because it could mean so many things. The context in which it was used was attempting to determine if trying to achieve a goal would be worth the effort. Said another way, would the reward outweigh the risk?
Your Competition Isn’t Who You Think It Is
Linda here. When anyone starts a business, one of the first things their banker wants to see is their business plan. Every good business plan has a section called Competition.
Sacred Cows Make the Best Hamburger
Linda here. I’m a farm girl; on the Best Valley Dairy Farm, we milked Holsteins. We often had our “favorite” cows, but when the industry developed the capacity to measure how much milk each cow was contributing, we were shocked to realize our favorites were not the producers who kept our farm in business. Sadly, one of the few options
Are You Lucky or Are You Good?
Dean Johnson, owner of Arcon Construction Company was my first boss when I moved to Mora. The year I joined Arcon, he treated all the employees and spouses to a week on South Padre Island, to celebrate their best year ever. I listened as Dean described growing his highway-heavy construction business from nothing to sales of over $30 million
Do You Have The Guts To Be Candid?
Linda here. I am often struck by comments people make when they miss an opportunity to speak up. “That man pushed right in front of me without even an ‘Excuse me’. I wish I’d have told him how long I’ve been waiting.” “She knows I don’t like to reprimand people, so she pushes the rules a hair past the limit
How do you know the Price is Right?
Linda here. Harold owns a plastic injection molding company. They ship millions of parts each month to customers all over the country. One of his biggest customers demands special packaging, just-in-time delivery and small batch quantities. At the same time, they have been paying late, aggressively negotiating price and taking discounts that had not been earned.
Where everybody knows your name
Linda here. Boyceville, Wisconsin – my home town. Most months I spend a weekend in Boyceville with my 90-year-old father and nephew Charlie. Our Friday night ritual is to go downtown for fish and chips at the Buckshot Bar. As we sat waiting for our food last Friday, I watched people come in, greet each other by their first name,
Are you the sharpest tack in the pack?
Linda here. Of all the jobs I’ve had in my career, my favorite (other than Raven Performance Group) was with Job Masters in corporate recruiting. The owner, John Sherman, had been a Vice President of Human Resources in a Fortune 500 company. To Mr. Sherman’s credit, he was intelligent and hardworking, but he thought he knew it all: every idea
December Is Lost Only If You Want It To Be
Linda here. I’ve heard many people lament over the years, “We might as well close down in December. No one’s mind is on their business; it’s all about the holidays”. If you follow that thinking, then you can’t do business in January because no one has any money, summer’s bad because everyone is on vacation, spring and fall are bad