Jake Jabbs was a guest being interviewed, so I asked him about his branding.  No disrespect intended, but American Furniture Warehouse, I said, didn’t have too much American-made furniture last time I was in.

I should preface this by saying that good furniture can come from anywhere – Americans aren’t the end-all-be-all producers of everything amazing.  The question was never about furniture.  It was about branding and values.

Jake responded by informing us that 60% of what he buys is American furniture and he prefers American when he can get it.  

To brand yourself as American when you really mean only 60% is dishonest. So I followed up.

You set the values of your brand yourself - everything is stars and stripes, wouldn’t it make sense to advertise those values?  Isn’t it your responsibility as the leading American furniture spokesperson to educate your marketplace that if you want American, it will cost more than if you import it?

Jake answered by rehashing the old, “That’s a question of politics.  Customers choose the price points of the market…” and “Americans can’t compete on certain things”.  At which point I lost the floor for asking questions.

Jake Jabbs answered honestly and professionally – and I have no quarrel with a guy who’s employed (and retained) so many people over so many years.  I even went and shook his hand afterward and thanked him for answering (and he thanked me for asking). I can’t fault Jake Jabbs for doing what he thought was right – because at the end of the day, he’s true to his values and still buys American when he can – but American and Affordable (the market he’s developed) are sometimes mutually exclusive in his business.  Fair enough.

Afterward, though – after a series of increasingly painful “duh”-level questions from the University of Northern Colorado business student audience, one UNC student in particular came up to me and expressed his embarrassment that I’d asked the question – implying I’d embarrassed everyone with my bigoted “pro-American attitude”.

First of all – this was a question about branding and values.  Being embarrassed is the purview of a brainwashed sheep.  It’s like looking at Star Wars and thinking, “Oh, I don’t support War, so I won’t watch the movie.” Frankly, I expected more out of the UNC students.  What kind of college student are you if you can’t ask -potentially- red flag questions at the risk of looking like a total ass?  That’s what college is for.  That’s how you learn.  Take risks – that’s what entrepreneurship is about.

If you’re an entrepreneur, a business student, and afraid to ask the question, “Hey, uh… when you say American, what exactly do you mean?” then you shouldn’t be at college.  If you’re embarrassed by the implications of a question like that, you’ve become a blind, politically correct sheep.  You do not deserve the privilege of the hard-working professors’ time.

Second – when did patriotism become uncooth?  Remember that we’re talking about a business that shortens its name in advertisements to “American Furniture”.  That implies that you sell American furniture.  American furniture should, by nature of the name, come from America – there’s nothing bigoted about it, that’s the fucking name of the business.  Moreover, what about local artisans – like the chair-makers of Parker or the table-makers of Fort Collins?  Do they have a place at American furniture?

Why did nobody else ask these sorts of questions? What the fuck?

Only three people in that audience could look me in the eye after I’d asked a simple question about branding.  No wonder we don’t praise Entrepreneurs in this country.  If the best entrepreneur candidates in the room have a “don’t ask questions, be a sheep” mentality we don’t deserve praise.

The most important lesson is this: things cost what they cost.  The basic premise that drives this lesson is trust.  Trust between the buyer and the seller that the price is accurate and fair.  Without inherent honesty about accurate and fair pricing, someone’s getting screwed.  Without trust, it’s only natural to assume you are the one getting screwed, even if this isn’t the case.

Good business people will be blatantly honest about three things:

• What things cost;
• Why certain things cost more than others;
• How much higher or lower their price is, comparative to similar businesses

For more on this, check out Seth Godin’s The Dip and Waiter Rant by The Waiter – probably the two best non-business reads on fair pricing.

After I take a moment to remember the people, I usually come to the same conclusion: the greatest destructive force in our lives is the drive for affluence. What some will do to save $1 is unthinkable – what some will do to gain $1 is often worse.

Sitting in a cubicle, day after day, the value of that dollar starts to decline, doesn’t it?  But all the stuff we’ve created and tricked ourselves into thinking we need – a brand new, more expensive car, endless shelves of DVDs collecting dust, fancier couches, fancier furniture, more square footage to put all the junk we’re accumulating.

Even though we loathe the 9+ hours we’re away from our families, without access to natural light, a window, or even taking lunch breaks, we persist at sitting there.

Being self-employed, I value my own time.  I know if I don’t pull in enough, the roof over my head will disappear.  In order to keep that from happening, I have to inflict monetary damage on someone else: monetary damage that, if they had my skills, they’d never have to pay.  The urge is always there, human nature, I guess, to offer one more service, one more thing I can charge for that they might get value out of.

In a way, I’m every bit the “capitalist” bad guy that I detest.  But then I remember that I’m usually doing business with friends – and if they’re not friends yet, they soon will be.  I don’t do business with bad people – I’m very blessed to have so many wonderful business friends.  I can’t justify doing unnecessary damage.  That’s not how I do business.

Business is inherently evil, cutthroat, and populated by the vile, disgusting mirrors of decent, hard-working people.  That’s just the nature of the game.  The value of the $1.  By extension, entrepreneurship introduces you to the lowest fucking depths of the human psyche – ones so dark you can’t imagine them – because it’s not “the man” or a corporation bending you over, it’s another person.

I don’t play by those rules.  It’s why I offer $1 classes while others charge ridiculous sums of money to share the same ideas.  It’s why I do business with people like Ron and Ava and Viveka and Tracy and Laurie, who believe the same things I do.  It’s why I take on just as much pro-bono work as I do paid.  It’s why I don’t overcharge my friends with recommendations for unnecessary services or by padding my hours.  Google might have said it first, but Do No Evil is my mantra, too – and I’m getting better at it every day.

If I could do it all for free, I would, because I’m damn good at it and I love the work.  Sometimes I’m metaphorically punched in the face for this view.  If you can’t take a little bloody nose once in a while, you ought to turn right around and head for the cubes.

Mark my words – I’m going to change the game.

My calling is to kick ass

The hardest part of becoming an entrepreneur hasn’t been the looming threat of financial failure, the haunting scent of the cardboard Dell box that might soon be my home, or even sacrificing the “niceties” like healthcare insurance, Grade-A food, and free time.

Instead, the hardest part so far has been learning to be accountable.  As a cubicle employee, I was only accountable to my boss.  As an entrepreneur, I’m accountable to myself, my clients, and everyone else who depends on me in some function to do a good job.

For as long as I can remember, I have kicked ass.  I’m not… you know, tooting my own horn or anything – but, I got a 4.16 GPA in high school, participated in the Drama Club, made websites that took first and second place in state web design competitions, and organized a group of over 500 people to participate in a Star Trek club.  In college, I ran my own talk show – interviewed Doug Hutchinson – the Fort Collins Mayor, Puke and Snot from the Colorado Renaissance Festival, and entertained thousands as a prime-time DJ.

Then I graduated, landed a kick-ass job at HP making more money than any graduate out of college has a right to and then realized that the working world didn’t want a rock star – they wanted someone who would shut up and follow orders.  They wanted a cog.  And for two years, I played along.  Hell, I was playing along even now – today.

What a horrible, horrible mistake.  There were fits and starts of brilliance – Giant Gnome, Psychotic Resumes… but holy hell, what did I let myself become?

My mistake has turned me into the bumbling idiot – 15 minutes late to everything, overwhelmed, barely succeeding, missing deadlines, not good at communicating.  This isn’t me.  I get so frustrated with myself because I know I can do better – I just let those things slip away as a side-effect of doing something that wasn’t my calling.  When I finally got the programming job every programmer dreams of, I blew it because I was stuck in “mediocre mode”. 

F*CK.

No more. This is my shot to do something good in the world.  I’m not going to blow it like Taco Bell blows it when you order a chicken taco.

This is it – this is what I’m afraid of – why I can joke about “meaningless” consequences like homelessness and the lack of health insurance. The real consequence of failure isn’t that tangible bullshit. The real cost of failure is my self-respect, the respect of my friends, my mentors.

It took two smart people to wake me the hell up this morning.  Today is a sort of “wake up” call for me that I need to get my ass back in gear.  I’ve been slouching since HP – it’s not my lot in life to be ordinary.

Thanks goes to Ron of CodeGeek.Net and Laurie of Blue Skies Marketing – I’m very fortunate to have them as mentors – thankful in the way that words can’t express.  Without them, I likely would be living out of that Dell box already.  What I’ve learned from them could fill an entire blog, but I’ll share with you the best advice they gave me this morning:

• Bring order to the chaos that your client is feeling – even if you’re freaking the hell out, too;
• Tell the client “No” when you have to – it’s better than breaking a deadline;
• Help the client arrive at realistic expectations – doing anything else sets both parties up for failure;
• Don’t give a reason for delays – they sound too close to excuses;
• Always communicate – communicate if there’s a problem, before there’s a problem, as much as you can, always.

I’m fired up – the fuse is lit.  It’s time for me to get back to kicking ass.

1. What did I learn last week? –
   I learned that I’m pretty good at design – when it’s not my own design.  Check out 3 Elements Marketing – I put this site together in the span of about 12 hours (sans the logo).  When it’s my own design, it’s really hard to see and put together… the usual “vision moments” don’t happen as often.  It’s pretty frustrating and holding up the WTF Marketing website, but I think tomorrow will be my day.  I also learned that certain aspects of my humor work better than others – one of the business card designs I made was the most popular, by far.
2. What was my greatest accomplishment over the past week? –
   My greatest accomplishment was the WTF Marketing launch party.  I really enjoyed putting it together.  Leslie was a key part of making sure it went smoothly.  I really enjoyed having her help to bounce ideas off of and make the event as successful as it was.  I loved that everyone got something useful out of the launch of my business.
3. Which moment from last week was the most memorable and why? –
   The best moment of the week was the WTF Marketing launch party – people laughed at my jokes, they had fun, and people met others who could help them with their businesses.  I couldn’t be any more proud.  The worst moment of the week was two-fold and had to do with communication difficulties via e-mail, when my tone couldn’t be determined or I misinterpreted other’s tones.
4. What’s the #1 thing I need to accomplish this week? –
   The WTF Marketing website MUST be completed. (again)
5. What can I do right now to make the week less stressful? –
   Finish the WTF Marketing website and smile more.
6. What have I struggled with in the past that might also affect the upcoming week? –
   The biggest struggle has been fighting with the WTF Marketing website to try and get something I like designed.  The only other big struggle was the communication difficulties.  Email can’t indicate tone, which is a huge problem.
7. What was last week’s biggest time sink? –
   The vertigo.  Saturday afternoon I had a vertigo attack and slept late to Sunday, which was a big productivity sink.
8. Am I carrying any excess baggage into the week that can be dropped? –
   I’ve had a hard time with stress this week, so keeping that from impacting me – making sure to enjoy myself and be positive, that will need to happen more often.
9. What have I been avoiding that needs to get done? –
   The WTF Marketing website.
10. What opportunities are still on the table? –
    I need to hit up coffee with a few clients, work on the TV thing, multi-user wordpress and get the WTF Marketing website done.  The MeetUp groups need to be created.
11. Is there anyone I’ve been meaning to talk to? –
    I definitely need to meet with an accountant about WTF Marketing’s taxes!
12. Is there anyone that deserves a big ‘Thank You’? –
    Leslie – for keeping me sane.  Laurie, Viv, and Ava, for their gifts at the Startup Party.  And a huge thanks to all the great people who showed up!  Ron also deserves a HUGE thank you for his sponsorship of my MeetUp group!
13. How can I help someone else this coming week? –
    I can put together Margo’s website and finish Crystal’s.
14. What are my top 3 goals for the next 3 years? –
    • I want to make enough from WTF Marketing to buy my own health insurance.
    • I want to make enough from WTF Marketing to pay off my medical bills.
    • I want to expand WTF Marketing into Denver at some point.
15. Have any of my recent actions moved me closer to my goals? –
    By holding a launch party and speaking at FCIP, I’ve helped to establish myself as more of a “professional” in town.  At least, I think so, haha.
16. What’s the next step for each goal? –
    • I have to put the MeetUp groups together.
    • I have to keep spending wisely.
    • I have to save up while I’m making sure every bill is getting paid.
17. What am I looking forward to during the upcoming week? –
    I want to see Harry Potter at the Drive-In with Leslie.  This week we saw The Ugly Truth which was a lot of fun!
18. What are my fears? –
    Becoming an overly-negative person.
19. What am I most grateful for? –
    I’m most grateful for Leslie who’s kept me on the right track this week, helped me work out problems, and solve a lot of issues I would have had otherwise.
20. If I knew I only had one week to live, who would I spend my time with? –
    Duh

Brian’s project is, without a doubt, one of the most important ideas ever to grace the realm of business.

One man, seeking wisdom, finding experts, and not only promoting those businesses and lauding them for their amazing success and achievements, but creating one of his own at the same time.

If you’ve met with me in person, I’ve undoubtedly told you that business, as it exists today – that is, corporate, sleazy, competitive, tie-wearing, 8AM coffee chugging BS business, is going to die a slow, painful death.  The future business world will be ruled by roving bands of entrepreneurs who group together and do the work previously done by medium and large-size corporations.

Millennials will not play the regular corporate game. Only 20% of 2009′s grads are employed after looking for jobs.  The jobs that are available require highly-skilled people willing to accept dirt-poor salaries.  71% of those under 30 are looking to switch jobs after the “economic recovery”.

The writing is on the wall.  It costs 130% of a person’s salary to fill a position after a layoff.  130%!  If you think the economy will recover by bailing out and supporting big businesses, you’re absolutely nuts.  These companies are failing for a reason.  Laying off your workforce is not the answer.  I don’t care how you justify it – when you lose people and have to pay 130% to hire each one back again, you will never recover those costs.

Those jobs are gone – probably forever.  That talent, that knowledge, will go to better use for your competitor, for an entrepreneur, for… well, you name it.

In order to fix businesses, we have to collaborate, not compete.  We have to be secure in the knowledge that the “king of the hill” mentality is a game played by losers and only one winner.

The three most important words for business today, besides “Let’s do coffee…” are now “Let me help.”

Lincoln knew this.  A house divided against itself cannot stand. Let’s win together.

How can I help you?

One of the ways I’ve started doing this is to keep an offline record of hours worked.  Another is one that I discovered today and want to try out.  It’s called a Sunday Reflection – it comes from the blog Marc and Angel Hack Life.  I thought it would be a great way to hold myself accountable and track my progress.  The whole exercise is supposed to take 30 minutes – it’s 10:30 right now, so… let’s see how I do.

1. What did I learn last week? –
   I learned that friends can surprise you no matter how well you think you know them.  I also learned a lot about Thematic, having built out my personal blog, and that Star Trek will take up a lot of my consciousness if I let it.  Sometimes it’s better just to turn the TV off, even if it’s my favorite episode.
2. What was my greatest accomplishment over the past week? –
   The new theme on I Am Nick Armstrong.  It took a long time and it was GREAT to get it at least half-way started.  Totally beats using a stock theme… and I also really enjoyed giving my Ignite presentation again for the Refresh NoCo crowd.
3. Which moment from last week was the most memorable and why? –
   It’s a split between talking for the Refresh NoCo crowd and the most disappointing thing of the week.  The Refresh NoCo event was awesome – I got to meet a lot of fun new people and I also had a blast giving the talk again.  The most disappointing thing of the week was realizing the people who should be there for you sometimes aren’t – or at least don’t make it apparent.
4. What’s the #1 thing I need to accomplish this week? –
   The WTF Marketing website MUST be completed.
5. What can I do right now to make the week less stressful? –
   Finish the WTF Marketing website… and land a steady, good-paying contract.
6. What have I struggled with in the past that might also affect the upcoming week? –
   I’ve had a hard time keeping a positive attitude.  At the moment, it’s very difficult for me to see past the bills every month.  This will be a huge consideration this week, especially if the Facebook for your Business and Online Reputation Management classes don’t get filled.  This is more true of the July 23 one than the August 5 one.
7. What was last week’s biggest time sink? –
   Star Trek on Justin.TV.
8. Am I carrying any excess baggage into the week that can be dropped? –
   The negative attitude of “oh my god I have no money”.
9. What have I been avoiding that needs to get done? –
   WTF Marketing website and blogging on Psychotic Resumes.
10. What opportunities are still on the table? –
    The WTF Marketing website can be set up correctly.
11. Is there anyone I’ve been meaning to talk to? –
    I definitely need to meet with an accountant about WTF Marketing’s taxes!
12. Is there anyone that deserves a big ‘Thank You’? –
    Leslie – for keeping me sane.  Laurie, Debbie, Viv, Ava, Ron and the wonderful peeps at Toolbox Creative, for keeping me working.
13. How can I help someone else this coming week? –
    I’m going to help Crystal by making her website and I’m helping Ron (and he’s helping me) by my presentation this Thursday at the Fort Collins Internet Pros Meetup on WordPress.
14. What are my top 3 goals for the next 3 years? –
    • I want to make enough from WTF Marketing to buy my own health insurance.
    • I want to make enough from WTF Marketing to pay off my medical bills.
    • I want to make enough from WTF Marketing to buy a house or condo.
15. Have any of my recent actions moved me closer to my goals? –
    I’ve been doing lots of meetings… and turning those meetings into client work, but nothing sustainable yet.
16. What’s the next step for each goal? –
    • I have to make sure all my other bills are paid each month, which is happening (albeit very, very closely.)
    • I have to make sure I’m spending wisely as I pay off my medical bills.
    • I have to save up while I’m making sure every bill is getting paid.
17. What am I looking forward to during the upcoming week? –
    I want to see Harry Potter at the Drive-In with Leslie.
18. What are my fears? –
    Running out of money, getting evicted… game over.
19. What am I most grateful for? –
    I’m most grateful for the people who have faith in me.  People who think that I can do this.  People who want to see me succeed.
20. If I knew I only had one week to live, who would I spend my time with? –
    Duh

Sometimes when you’re fighting – whether it’s to survive another month, pay rent, afford food or maybe you have it worse off than that, it’s easy to forget that you’re human.  Causality – the decisions you make, how you handle problems, the rules you fight by, whether you allow your decisions to negatively affect other people, these things speak to your life.  Remembering that you’re human gives you dignity, it lets you make respectable decisions.

Humanity is in short supply these days.  Need proof?  The WSJ has all you need – companies are seeking the already-employed to fill positions when only 20% of 2009′s graduating class have jobs after applying for them.  Not very human of them… sort of… monster-ish.

With these ideas in mind, I examined some of my own decisions:

• When I first was laid off, I could choose to panic about being laid off in a recession or to get to work looking for a job.
  • I chose to look for work.
• When I started my job search, I had to fight the urge to apply for programming jobs I knew I could land but would be horrible for my soul.
  • I chose a new career.
• When I heard back from only 5% of the jobs I’d applied for, I had to fight the urge to get bitter.
  • I chose to seek better options.
• When I had to pay my medical bills, I had to fight the insurance company to pay the full amount, the doctors to reduce the fees, and to arrange a payment plan with the hospital.
  • I chose to borrow what I needed until I could do better.
• When I filed for unemployment, I had to fight the other unemployed 7.9%  of the state of Colorado (approximately 400,000 people) to get a call in.
  • I chose to be persistent.
• When I found out I was denied for unemployment, I had to choose between fighting my friends and former colleagues or going broke.
  • I chose to go broke.
• When I decided to pull my IRA, I had to fight the urge to pay off my credit cards so that I could pay rent instead.
  • I chose to budget better and eat less.
• When I ran out of money to pay rent, I had to fight with the leasing property to arrange a payment plan.
  • I chose to keep negotiating until I had a better option.
• When I tried to pay rent according to my payment plan, I had to fight with the bank to get a simple Money Order.
  • I chose to do whatever it took to make it happen.
• When I started up my own business to make a living, I fought my parents who thought I was wasting my time.
  • I chose to ignore them.

When you have to fight, don’t forget that you are human.