Thinking I haven’t been posting much lately, maybe that’s because I haven’t been flying much. When I fly I tend to take some time to day dream and think. The idle time is nice. There are a myriad of personal reasons that I have been much more grounded on the west coast and home more than not. I’ve long pined about how much I want to reveal about my personal life but sometimes it just feels better to write and let things out than hold them inside. I may get some flames for this, or, people may actually learn more about who I am and who the person is that’s driving the business. Risks we take.
Today I am flying from Atlanta to Reno, and I am looking at an overwhelming pile of work ahead of me when I return. I’m mentally tired, and while I can honestly say that I feel happy today, there remains a shadow of discontent. As I fly, my grandmother is sitting in ICU, on life support, fighting pneumonia, fighting really hard. I need to visit her as soon as I can because who knows how much longer she will hold on. She’s a fighter but so very weak. She is a beautiful, crazy woman and I love her. All this reality of life, has me rethinking things, or at least reprioritizing. I’ll start with work and come back to me…
Our business has grown, we have an amazing client list, new partners, new people, new products, everyone is really working well together. We have, in the last quarter found that we have some clients that simply will not make next years roster. I feel like this year we made some big mistakes with our business, management of accounts, receivables management, and pursuit/selection of certain projects. These decisions are draining the business, and our excitement about working. That’s really bad. I want to get back to the excitement of new projects for our clients.
An example. ID Wholesaler/Plasco have been clients since the day I went into business for myself (some 8 years ago). We just worked with them on their biggest shows of the year and everything was a giant success. Their 2009 looks amazing and we are excited about what we’re going to be working on. This client is defending their leadership position with our help, that’s really cool. Another example. Dickson Realty, during the most down economy my memory, has chosen to partner with Fuze to launch an amazing new web experience, ground up. They need this to reposition their business and restate their leadership position. There are few details that can be shared other than there will simply be no web presence like this in our region, state, on par with the best of the best. A new client example, Clearstar. Naysayers say what you will about this small credit union. They have some fantastic ideas for the way they will approach the market and present their business in 2009. We are so proud to be part of this business effort. I bring up these clients in particular because these clients are my partners, my friends, our bread and butter and I value their business more than I can express. These sorts of relationships cannot be recreated with an order, or a fancy dinner, these are years in the making, customers for life.
The common thread in these relationships is the trust, collaboration, and mutual respect between our companies. I will bank my future on these companies success. We have skin in the game. So how do we cultivate new client relationships like these? How do we remain accountable to these relationships and provide creative vision and technical execution to new clients, new projects, new opportunities. I believe that several of our current clients have this direction as a possibility: The Entrust Group, Watt Companies, True Blue Gaming, Boyd Gaming, Artown, CLP, Legends Reno Tahoe Open, Education Collaborative, NNDA, Great Basin Wind, etc, etc. I don't mean to leave clients out, we have many more, and I don’t say this simply to restate our client list. I say this to chart a course, a public course to our own destiny. Taking all orders is over, its diluted who we are, its made our people frustrated, its made the clients frustrated, and its made me frustrated. We veered a bit off course chasing shooting stars we have chosen to latch to. These projects have taken our focus away from our core capabilities and our core culture. We are changing this, now. Our clients must possess a drive to lead their markets, be pioneers, take some risks, push the limits, and trust, trust our abilities to the job they hired us to do.
We feel that better stating who we are up front may help us find our kindred souls. To this end, we embarked on the redesign of ifuze.com (or whatever our new website will reside on). In the next 3 months we will be building a new world for ourselves online and our direction will be very clear. Watch for that on the horizon.
2008 has been a wild year for me personally. With my wife and I deciding to split and share custody of our beautiful son, life has certainly changed. This roller coaster continues for me but things are getting to a point where we are rebuilding respect and friendship…we both love our son and eachother, just separately and in a different way than before. I finally feel good about this. As I look out of my cramped coach window seat, I stare out on the horizon and I can almost see the future (for myself). I will say that today, I am truly happy and excited, and that’s a feeling that has been missing for a while. I see a lot of new beginnings for me and for my company. With all this said, my head and heart sit with my grandma right now and I really hope she will pull through.
I don’t know how many company presidents would air out 100% of their thoughts and I frankly don’t care. When you choose a company to do business with, a company to put your hard earned money into, it requires a gigantic level of trust. Knowing where the ship is driving, and who is driving it, adds to the authenticity of the business. We force our clients to communicate authentically every day so I am just practicing what I preach, I guess. Comment, flame, yawn, or appreciate the sentiment. Sometimes you need to reinvent yourself, business and personal, to keep focus on what makes you happy, and stimulates your soul. I am not quite there. I see it, but I cant reach it, yet.
