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Rob Katz of Vail Resorts Does It Write 

SEE LARGER HERE

I received this email (as did tens of thousands of Epic Pass holders) from Rob Katz, CEO of Vail Resorts.  Not only did Rob do the right thing by stating that he feels Vail has fallen short and apologizing, he warmed my heart with the statement, “This is certainly not the fault of our call center agents, who have tried their best to provide great service under difficult circumstances.  It is my fault for not ensuring we were better prepared.”  Rob is being a great leader by supporting his front-line team and asking that any frustration be directed at him instead.  Rob, thanks for being a role model of the Colorado spirit!   

How One Person Changed My Impression of the U.S. Postal Service 

I was at a post office in Littleton last weekend to ship a box and the line in front of me stopped because a woman asked for a roll of stamps.  The clerk had to leave his post for almost 5 minutes to GO GET THEM.  A post office clerk had to leave his station to go get (find, it seemed) STAMPS???  

Slow, inept, uncaring. 

Since my work office uses a postal meter, today I spent an hour taking 8 boxes of packages to the post office.  Why take them?  Because last year when we ordered FREE PICKUP, the post office never arrived, and my account said that they’d been picked-up as scheduled.  I decided to just take them this time, and hoping to avoid hauling 8 crates from the parking lot, through a door I’d have to somehow prop open with one foot while I pulled a dolly and tried not to touch anything with COVID on it, I stopped outside and asked a postal worker if I could borrow a wheeled bin.  He was upbeat, friendly and eager to assist, “Just back up here to the loading dock and I’ll get them from you!”  I did that – EASY – and he gave me replacement bins for next time.   

Easy, fast, friendly.  That’s today’s impression of the post office at 225 S. Broadway.  One person did that!   

Colorado’s Unprofitable Reopenings are Encouraging

In my interview with Jamie Repenning, President of Colorado-based Floyd’s 99 Barbershop, I was struck by the fact that even as Colorado businesses reopen, constraints in the number of customers that can be in the shops at a time mean that businesses will reopen knowing that they’ll be losing money.  In fact, many were losing LESS while closed than they will reopened.

But, I haven’t heard loud complaining.  I think that says great things about Colorado business and Colorado entrepreneurs: that putting their staff to work serving customers is the priority.

That’s gratifying to me.  Sure, maybe your do-it-yourself haircut wasn’t as bad as you thought it would be.  Still, it’s time to reward the commitment of our Colorado businesses by going back to them and leaving big tips.

Coronavirus 1 – Don’t Just Be Part of the Cacophony

Of course we’re all talking about COVID-19.  It’s pretty much the ONLY thing we’re talking about.  Every organization’s focus is on it, and every organization feels compelled to communicate about it – to add to the dialogue because it seems if we don’t, then we’re irrelevant now.  It doesn’t matter that before COVID-19 we had a perfectly wonderful business focused on delivering products or services to customers who wanted them – now our business is all about COVID-19.

No, it’s not.

Communicating during and about COVID-19 should be within the context of staying connected to the people who cared, and will care again, about how we served one another before all this.

Innovation is not born from the dream, innovation is born from the struggle.

This headline is a tweet from Simon Sinek, the author of Start with Why.

In my conversation with Lee Mayer of Havenly, we talked about the hard work of running a startup, and the huge personal price to be paid.  I asked, “Do those close to you understand your challenges and sacrifice?”  The answer: “No, not always.”  Being a startup CEO is a tough existence.  Social marketing guru Gary Vaynerchuk says, “Ideas are Shit – it’s all about execution.”  And he’s right.

Our world is so cluttered, particularly in media.  When I get on LinkedIn for example, I see everyone busy posting and reposting – and sometimes I get sucked into admiring them.  Then I remind myself that the people most worthy of respect, the best role models, are not those creating social media IMPRESSIONS.  It’s odd that I have to repeatedly remind myself to respect WORK over impressions.  But I do, and we all should.

So why am I featuring a tweet as the headline?  Because Simon Sinek uses social media to spread his work, not as the work itself. Being an entrepreneur and a leader – that’s hard work – and it’s what we ought to admire to support what Lee Mayer describes as a culture that builds on success.

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