Entrepreneurship is full of difficult decisions. Especially in the beginning. In fact, the decisions you make about expenditures early on determine whether your organization lives or dies. It sound dramatic. Like a commercial for the business board game Go! Gordon Gekko Go! But it’s the truth.
I have always been financially conservative. I believe leadership’s #1 responsibility is to keep the business alive forever. That’s why I have hired slowly, expanded slowly and invested slowly.
At my advertising and idea agency, The Weaponry, we have bootstrapped everything. Which means that we have paid for everything ourselves. No outside investors. No loans. No crowdfunding. No Ponzi scheme.
We started with the free version of every app and software until we knew it was worthwhile to upgrade. We made our first 3 desks out of countertops and legs we purchased at a used office furniture store. And we commuted to work uphill both ways.
Yep, I made that desk out of found parts. And it works as well as the most expensive desk you can buy.
Office Space
When I first launched The Weaponry I waited a year and a half until I decided we could afford an office. In hindsight I feel like I nailed that decision. Because we didn’t over commit in the early months when we were most fragile. We didn’t assume that our rate of growth was predictable or sustainable.
Cautionary Tale
I recently heard about another agency that launched the same time as The Weaponry. It just shuttered one of their 2 offices and laid off all but 1 employee in the other. (By shuttered I mean that they closed it, not that they added fancy, yet extraneous exterior window treatments).
The agency had invested and expanded aggressively. Too aggressively to sustain. Watching them establish beautiful offices with enviable appointments made me jealous. But it also made me concerned for them. Because those investments made them vulnerable. And of all the abilities your business can have, vulnerability is among the least appealing.
Doing It Right
Last month I saw an office that I absolutely loved. It was the office of an early stage human resources company. It had 4 desks in a space half the size of my bedroom. The density of humanity in that office equated to a very dense return on the investment in the space.
This is where my friend Amy Fallucca grew her human resources business, Bravent, into a thriving organization before moving it into a large fancy-pants space.
Idea of the Day
Calculate how much revenue you earn per square foot of office space. It is a much better way to think about your space than cost per square foot.
Key Takeaway
When considering office space for a small or new business think of the Tiny House movement. Consider the minimum space you need, not the max you can afford. Put the rest of the money you save in the bank as an insurance policy for future downturns and slow periods. Because they are likely to come. And you will be prepared when they do.
*If you know someone who could benefit from this story, please share it with them.
Where were you last night? Were you at home with family or friends? Were you decorating for Christmas? Watching a holiday movie? Watching football? Or maybe watching a holiday movie about decorating Christmas footballs?
Chances are that whatever you were doing it wasn’t very stressful. Because as Saturdays go, the Saturday night of Thanksgiving weekend is about as relaxing and as far from work as most people get.
Working For the Weekend
Last night I was at work.
Not working from home. Not catching up on emails or sending witty-but-heartfelt holiday notes to clients. I was in the office, downtown Milwaukee, taking care of real business issues.
Why WiFi? Why?
Last Tuesday afternoon the wi-fi at the Milwaukee office of The Weaponry, the advertising and idea agency I launched in 2016, was not properly wi-ing or fi-ing. It made for a frustrating afternoon. Wednesday morning was no better. So I called our internet provider and spent an hour and a half trying to get things fixed. But no dice. And no wi-fi.
The Repair
They internet company (what our forefathers and foremothers used to call the cable company, or the phone company) couldn’t get anyone over to fix our issue last Wednesday. But they could get someone over on Thursday afternoon, right during my Thanksgiving meal. I had to turn that time slot down or I may have been the turkey on the table at the Thanksgiving feast at my house.
I asked what the earliest available appointment was on Monday. They told me they didn’t have a business appointment opening until Thursday, December 5th!
The Internet Era
That just wouldn’t work. We are an incredibly busy business and need to be fully operational Monday morning. In the 2000s, internet access is as core to an advertising agency’s operations as Martinis were in the 1960s, marijuana in the 1970s, cocaine in the 1980s, Prozac and flannel in the 1990s, and coffee in the 2000s.
I asked the internet company’s scheduler, ‘Do you have any openings over the weekend?’ He replied that they had options on Saturday. Because nobody is actually working on the Saturday of Thanksgiving weekend. I was scheduled to be out of town on Saturday, so I asked for the latest possible appointment. Which was actually later than I expected.
Driving back through the woods and over the river.
I rearranged my plans to drive home 3 hours from visiting family in Central Wisconsin. It snowed, sleeted or rained the whole way. I got home and dropped off my family. The Wisconsin vs Minnesota football game was on TV, but I had to DVR it, and avoid social media and texts to avoid spoiling the result. I then drove 30 minutes to the office, by myself, through cold, blowing sheets of rain, on a Saturday night, during a holiday weekend.
And I couldn’t have been happier.
Living The Entrepreneurial Dream
When I became an entrepreneur I signed up to do the hard things. I declared that I would take on anything and everything that needed to be done to make my business work. I had always dreamed of creating my own ad agency. I would work nights, weekends, holidays, or on my birthday to make the business successful.
I Gotta Go
I had to go in on Saturday night. We have 18 clients counting on us to deliver. We have loads of work to create. We have major projects due in December. We have new businesses requesting proposals. The demand for our thinking is high. Like a lumberjack must have a hearty breakfast, we must have robust internet access!
Rick
I met Rick, the Internet Magic Man, in the dark, rainy parking lot in front of my building. We went up to the office together. We were the only humans in the whole building. He got to work on our internet issue. I sat down at my desk and got busy with work due this week.
Me and Rick, making things right on Saturday night!
Rick Rolling
Within an hour Rick had the problem diagnosed, installed a replacement doohickey (we needed a new modem), and the wi-fi came flooding through my computer. You could practically hear the business roar back to life. All was right with the world. This business that I am responsible for once again had all it needed to make magic happen. And I had another example of the things you have to be prepared to do when you are an entrepreneur.
Key Takeaway
There is nothing better than living into your own dreams. The demands, the time commitment, the menial jobs, and the hoops you jump through are all worth it when you know you are doing what you always wanted to do. When you are living into your vision for your own life a holiday weekend trip into the office is a small price to pay. Because there are things worse than sacrifice. Like not having anything worth sacrificing for.
*If you know someone who could benefit from this story, please share it with them.
2019 has been great to me. My health is great. My relationships are great. My family is great. My prospects are great. And my go to word is apparently great. As I reflect on all that I am thankful for this is what I found.
15 Things I am Thankful For This Thanksgiving
1. The first laugh of the day. My friend Diana Keough, whom I share Milwaukee, Ohio, Atlanta and Columbia, Missouri connections with, introduced me to the concept of the first belly laugh of the day. I have since noted the first laugh of the day. It is something I am grateful for every day. And I try not to think too much about my belly.
2. Laughing until I cry. This is one of my favorite experiences in life. I have done it twice in the past 2 weeks. One of the times was when I found out that the number one song in America when my co-worker Sarah was conceived was Boys 2 Men’s smash hit, I’ll make love to you. (Thanks Paul and Debbie) You can find your own conception song here.
Laughing until you cry is better that pumpkin pie.
3. Travel. Travel is my favorite. It opens the mind, enhances creativity and empathy. And it creates life long memories. Or at least until the dementia sets in. My family and I did some really fun travel this year. Including a road trip that took us from Wisconsin to San Antonio, where I wanted to start a pie shop called Pie Alamo. We went to the Pacific Northwest. We visited British Columbia. Which I would have named Canadian Columbia, but nobody asked me.
4. Randomly seeing people I know far from home. I love running into people I know randomly. It makes the world feel smaller and full of surprises. This year I ran into friends totally randomly and unplanned in Seattle (Andy Bosley), Fort Worth (The Smith Family of Mequon), at basketball tournaments (college teammates Bobby Smith and Bobby Myers), at a hotel in Chicago (PJ Cannon) and at Ikea (Terry Schmitt).
My college teammate Andy Bosley ran himself into me in Seattle. We live a mile apart in Mequon, Wisconsin.I saw my freshman year college roommate, Terry Schmitt, for the first time in 25 years at an Ikea.
5. Great new books. I love to read and learn. I am thankful to authors who write great books. And I am thankful to discover those books. This year I have added some really great reads to my library.
6. Seeing my two oldest friends in the world. My first memories in life were when I lived on a farm near the shore in Lincroft, New Jersey. My bestest friend was Steve Withycombe. I saw Steve in Seattle this summer for the first time since 2002.
Me and Steve have known each other since we were about 3 years old.
My actual oldest, oldest friend in the world, is Andy Shirk who lives in Dallas. I thought we met on our own in Columbus, Ohio in 2010. However, soon after we met our parents dropped the bomb on us that we actually have known each other since I was born. Our parents lived in the same apartment complex at the time in Mansfield, Ohio, back in the 1970s. And they had pictures to prove it. I saw Andy and his hilarious wife, Megan in Dallas this spring. I am super thankful to have friendships that have lasted over 40 years.
Me and Andy on the day I was baptized. I was practicing my swim strokes because I thought there would be more water.
7. The Weaponry The advertising and idea agency that I started in 2016 continues to be one of the greatest chapters in my life. I love our team of Adam (Henry), Kristyn (K-Lil), Kevin (Lower Kayse), Sarah (Ice), Simon (The Harper), Jeanne (Genie), Calla (Super) and Sally (Eggs). Plus our like-family-members Diana, Sue, Gary, Julie, Monica, Tony, John and Todd.
8. Clients It’s awfully hard to play advertising agency if you don’t have clients. I am a volcano of thankful lava for everyone who has trusted us enough to work with us in 2019.
Nicole Hallada has been an amazing client and advocate of The Weaponry since the beginning. Here we are in 97 degree heat, 100 feet over Louisville, in a bucket.
9. My Family I am endlessly thankful for my wife Dawn and kids Ava, Johann and Magnus. I am at truly at home any place where the 5 of us are all together.
But wait, there’s more!
My parents, Robert and Jill, and my sisters Heather, Alison, Donielle and their families are amazing, and I got to see everyone this year.
We are family.
But it doesn’t stop there!
My Mom is one of 9 kids (The Spraus) and my dad is one of 12 (The Albrechts). And I am extremely thankful to have so much family to call my own. Heck, I am even thankful that my Grandma Albrecht passed aways this year at 99 years old, because it gave my family a great reason to get together, and let’s face it, she was really old.
My Dad, far left and his siblings and parents.This pic is of me and my Albrecht cousins (3 are missing) after my Grandma Judy’s funeral service, which tells you everything you need to know about my family.
10. My friends I am lucky to have wonderful friends from many different chapters of my life. I am thankful for how they have all added to my story. Here are just some of my special friend groups.
High School friends (Hanover High School, Hanover, New Hampshire)
Vermont and New Hampshire Friends
New Jersey friends
College friends and roommates from the University of Wisconsin
College track teammates
W-Club members
Milwaukee friends
Atlanta friends
Columbus Friends
Work Friends
People I met on airplanes
Quebec Friends
Dionne and Friends
College RoommatesChildhood Friend Greg RozyckiCollege Track Teammates and FamiliesAtlanta Neighbors
11. Enthusiasm I am extremely thankful that I have as much enthusiasm for life and its mysteries, adventures and challenges as I ever have. Sometimes I think I have too much. And so does Dawn.
12. Faith This has been a wonderful year of faith for me and my family. My daughter Ava and son Johann took their first communion this year. Ava is in Confirmation class. Dawn and I have taught Sunday School and generally feel both the joy of giving and receiving in our church community.
13. Entrepreneurs I am extremely grateful for all the entrepreneurs who have supported and advised me. Entrepreneurship can be isolating or it can be uniting. I am thankful to be united with so many talented, experienced and sharing entrepreneurs. I belong to a great CEO roundtable group through the Metro Milwaukee Area Chamber (MMAC). And I have a strong tribe of entrepreneurs who I lean on regularly (Richards, Hilimire, Bandy, Florsheim, Salamone, Wong). And I am always open to adding more.
Dan Richards is one of my best friends in the world. We grew up together in Norwich, Vermont. His company, Global Rescue, became The Weaponry’s first client. And he has been an important advisor to me on business ever since.
14. A Comfortable Home As the weather has turned colder, and the winter wind and snow have arrived in Wisconsin, I am extremely thankful for a warm and comfortable home. As Maslow’s knows, a comfortable home enables you to enjoy more joy in life.
15. Blog Readers Thank you to all of you who take time out of your busy day to read my blog. I appreciate your time, likes, comments and shares more than you will ever know.
Key Takeaway
There is a lot to be thankful for this Thanksgiving. The people in your life, laughter, knowledge and magical accidents are amazing gifts. If you have those things you can count yourself among the richest people on Earth. Happy Thanksgiving everyone!
Earlier this week I filmed a video with a group of very talented health and wellness coaches. The work was for my client, StayWell, which pioneered corporate wellness programs more than 40 years ago. Today StayWell works with many of best companies in America, where they help improve lives every day. (Unlike Chick-Fil-a, who will not improve my life with a delicious Spicy Chicken Deluxe sandwich on Sundays.)
During the video shoot I heard inspiring story after story of how the coaches had a transformational impact on the lives of those they coached. But there was one particular story that really hit me in my profunditude receptors.
The Story
The last coach of the day told us a story about a man who she coached who had a variety of health and lifestyle issues to address. One of which was that he was an enthusiastic smoker. Which I translate to mean that he really liked standing outside, alone, by a backdoor that no one else uses.
The man knew he should quit. The warning labels on the cigarettes packs that told him that he was going to die if he actually smoked the cigarettes made that clear. But he had not yet summoned the resolve and a master plan to make it happen.
The coach suggested that he try just one day without cigarettes. It was a pretty small challenge. Much easier than really quitting. The man tried it. And succeeded.
At the end of the day he realized that it had been several decades since he had gone a full day without a cigarette. He was very excited about his big day. And he wondered if he could do it again the next day.
That was 2 years ago. And he hasn’t smoked a cigarette since.
Easy Does It
Too often we think we have to do something monumental to get results. But that is poppycock. All you have to do is start. Do something. Anything. The littlest step in the right direction is progress. It helps you build momentum. Because success builds like a snowball. It always starts small. But as it rolls it can become massive.
It Worked For Me.
I always wanted to start my own advertising agency. But entrepreneurship seemed daunting. Until I broke it down into small, simple steps. Then I simply started taking one small step after another. Today I’m the Founder and CEO of The Weaponry. Which sounds like a pretty cool title. Because when you start your own business you get to give yourself any title you want. The Weaponry now has 2 offices, 17 clients from coast to coast, and more on the way.
Key Takeaway
Big accomplishments start with small steps. So take the smallest, easiest step forward you can. You’ll find that it is so easy that you can’t help but take another step forward. When you do, the next step will reveal itself. When it does, you take that step too. You don’t have to be prepared for the whole journey. You just have to be prepared for the next small step. Knowing and believing this secret is the first and most important step of all.
*If you know someone who could benefit from this story, please share it with them.
Last night I was supposed to have a nice dinner at a nice restaurant in Minneapolis. I was supposed to stay at a great hotel too. And this morning I was going to have an easy start to the day before we rolled cameras on our video shoot at 10am.
Instead, I woke up in Milwaukee this morning at 4am. I quickly got ready and hurried off to the airport to catch a 6am flight to Minneapolis. But don’t cry for me, Argentina. The truth is I am living the dream. My dream. It’s that dream where you get to enjoy all the most important things in life.
Orchestral Maneuvers
I rearranged my travel plans and took the pre-dawn flight because my daughter Ava and son Johann had a school orchestra concert last night. And in my perfect life, I get to play creative advertising guy, entrepreneur, business traveler, AND, involved father and husband. I get to attend my children’s events in person, instead of seeing them on video, in photographs or while supervised in the prison visiting room.
That’s my daughter Ava, to the right of the violin in the middle of the photograph.My son Johann is the 3rd from the left.
The Talk
Last week I had a speaking engagement to over 120 marketers, sales people and small business owners. I was the 3rd of the 3 speakers to talk to the group about storytelling. Apparently they were saving the least for last. When my talk was finished it was time for food, beverages and networking. All of which I love.
But as soon as the applause quieted after my talk (which took seconds), I grabbed my work bag and Usain Bolted for the door. There would be no food, no drinks, no meeting of new people. No spoils of public speaking. No attaboys as I hurriedly exited the venue like the Von Trapp Family Singers.
Good Reasons
Meeting new people is one of my favorite things. But my 9-year old son Magnus was performing in a school choral concert that night, honoring America’s Veterans. He had a speaking part, and I worked with him to prepare for his concert as I prepared for my own presentation. I wasn’t going to miss his concert for all the appetizers in Milwaukee. And Milwaukee knows how to appetizer. #CheesilyTheBest.
So I left the swanky downtown socializing event to race to the folding chairs of the Wilson Elementary school gym, 30 minutes away in Mequon. And I couldn’t have been happier.
My little guy Magnus is the boy in the back row, in the white shirt, with the long blonde hair.My son Magnus is the 3rd from the right. His big line was, ‘N stands for Never Give Up!’
Today
This morning I was up at 4am. I will have a full day of filming on location in Minneapolis. And my plane will land back in Milwaukee tonight at midnight. It will be a long day. But it’s a small price to pay to get to maximize my time at home.
Key Takeaway
For working parents, and especially business owners, it is easy to feel like work is your most important priority. Because keeping the business in business and earning a living is also important to the rest of your family, whether they recognize it or not. But don’t miss your family events if you can possibly help it. Those concert years go by in a blink. The sports years sprint by. And the cats in the cradle and the silver spoon say we need to set great examples for our kids too. So get creative. Problem solve. And whenever possible, be there for the things that are meaningful to those who mean the most to you.
*If you know someone who could benefit from this story, please share it with them.
I own a lot of books with the word ‘rich’ in the title. Among them you’ll find Think And Grow Rich, Rich Dad Poor Dad, The Science of Getting Rich, The Richest Man In Town, and Rich Like Them. In fact, I have bought so many books with the word ‘rich’ in the title that the Amazon recommendation engine now suggest books like The Adventures of Richie Rich, Rich Desserts, and The Many Impressions Of Rich Little.
The Real Lessons
I like these books because they are about success. They help you think and act in ways that help you accomplish great things. And those great things often attract money like magnets. Or magnates.
I consider the tips, tricks and examples in these books to be important reminders rather than great aha’s. Although there are certainly plenty of both in my library of riches.
The One Thing To Remember
But if you want to know the most important point of all about getting rich it is summarized in the following line:
‘It is the value you bring to a company, an organization, indeed the universe, that ultimately determines your level of wealth.’ -From The Richest Man In Town by W. Randall Jones
Key Takeaway
If you want to earn more money, add more value. If you want more social capital, add more value. If you want more political capital, add more value. Your success is directly related to your contribution. So if you want more, contribute more.
If you know someone who could benefit from this message, please share it with them.
When I first started telling people that I was launching my own business they asked, ‘Is your website up yet?’ I quickly realized that many people consider having a business website actually having a business. I also realized that startups that begin with a website, rather than a business development plan, struggle like Muggles at Hogwarts.
Creating A Business
Instead of focusing on building a website, we focused on building a business. We were creating an advertising and idea agency. And we named it The Weaponry. We started by meeting with marketers, asking about their unmet needs, and then creating services to meet those needs. #WeAllHaveNeeds
Building the Machine
We focused on finding great people to work on our team. We developed repeatable processes and procedures that enabled us to deliver great results. We developed the machinery that enabled us to find new clients. We implemented customer service standards that kept those clients coming back. And we honed our accounting operation to make sure that cash flowed through the business to keep the organization healthy and its people paid.
Some of The Weapons.
Shiny Happy People
As a result, we developed a strong foundation of happy customers. We developed a strong group of business partners and collaborators who loved working with us. And that created a problem.
Losing Out On Brand Champions
We were developing brand champions who didn’t have an easy way to champion us. Because clients who loved working with us, and partners who loved working alongside us would want to recommend us to others. But the only website they could reference to promote us was a joke website we created that featured Laverne and Shirley from the TV show by the same name.
The NonWebsite
I loved not having a real website. It was rebellious and provocative. I loved that we built a multi-million dollar business without a website, by focusing on old fashion business development and maintenance.
One of The Weaponry’s rockstar clients, Nicole Hallada of AEM.
But I hated the fact that people who loved The Weaponry didn’t have an easy way to promote, endorse or recommend us. In fact, we made our biggest fans look looney when they did tell others about us and had to note that we didn’t have a website, or at least a real website.
I’m Gonna Make A Change, For Once In My Life.
The realization that we were not helping those who were trying to help us was the reason we decided to create a real website for The Weaponry.
TheWeaponry.com
Today, I am excited to announce that TheWeaponry.com is a totally legit website.
You can check out the What We Do section to see if it is what you are looking for.
You can see photos of our offices.
You can find out who we work with, and where those clients are.
You can see work.
You can see our team members, and you can read their not-too-serious bios.
You can submit request for information or more conversation.
You can find our contact info, office locations and ways to socialize with us.
You can tell us if you like Pina Coladas.
I invite you to check out the site at theweaponry.com and see it all for yourself. And if you look hard enough you still may find Laverne & Shirley.
Key Takeaway
Don’t be afraid to do things your own way. But recognize when it limits your growth. This is true in your personal life, and in business. If you want to launch your own startup remember that building a business is more important than building a website. But once you have fans you should make it easy for them to evangelize for you. Can I get an Amen?
There was a lot of thought that went into our decision to not have a real website. I wrote about that thought in these posts:
There are many amazing people who have had a significant impact on my career. There have been CEOs I admire. Entrepreneurs that inspired me. Creative Directors who have guided me. And successful marketers of all sorts that have provided me with important lessons and insights.
My Wife
But there is one person who has had the greatest positive influence on my career, by far. My wife, Dawn Albrecht. Dawn and I have a special relationship. I fell in love with her at first sight. Then, just seconds later I realized that she was actually my new coworker. It was a little like the moment Kelly McGillis walked into Tom Cruise’s classroom in Top Gun. #SoYoureTheOne
My wife Dawn serves up career magic.
The Downside
Initially the fact that we worked together was a negative. It made it awfully hard to ask her out. Because a failed office romance provides a constant reminder of your failed office romance until one of you quits or gets fired.
The last picture of us before we became BF &GF.
The Upside
But once we became an actual couple, not just a couple in my imagination system, the fact that we worked together became a major advantage. Dawn fully understood my job, my industry and my career path. She understood the workplace dynamics I faced. She saw my untapped potential. And she knew just how to push me forward.
Dawn always coordinates her shirt with seasonal gourds. #nextlevel
You know I thought I had it so good.
When we first met I was just 4 years into my career. I thought I had a great title. And I was very proud of my salary. But I didn’t know what I didn’t know. Dawn, on the other hand, had spent 7 years working for great companies in New York City and Chicago, including the Lifetime Channel (television for women), Times Mirror Publications, Discovery Networks and Cars.com.
Simply put, Dawn knew more than me. She recognized my growth potential and she pushed me to realize it.
Our wedding day. (You knew it was either that or Halloween, right?)
Here We Go
Over the course of the next 10 years Dawn went from my coworker, to my wife and best friend, to the mother of my 3 children. But she also became my career coach. And my personal motivator. She made me think about whether I was stretching and growing. She made me think about my professional skills and abilities. She taught me about the true value I brought to my clients and employers. And she called me out when she thought I had grown too comfortable. And she was always right.
An Endorsement For Coaching
Dawn taught me the value of having a strong career coach. And over the first 10 years of our relationship my title grew from Senior Writer at Cramer Krasselt to Chief Creative Officer at Engauge, an agency with 4 office locations and 275 people in Atlanta, Columbus, Pittsburgh and Orlando.
The Agency Takes Off
13 years after Dawn and I met, Halyard Capital, the private investment firm that owned Engauge, decided the agency was on the right trajectory to sell. I was part of the 4-person leadership team that represented Engauge as we met with 15 potential buyers. In August of 2013 the agency was bought by Publicis, the world renowned ad agency holding company in Paris. And I was ready for my next chapter.
Entrepreneurship
I always wanted to start my own business. And just 2 years later I began plans to launch my own advertising agency. Despite the fact that I would be trading in a nice salary, and comfortable benefits, Dawn was 100% behind the plan. She never questioned or doubted that an agency I created would be successful. Her total confidence in me added to my healthy confidence in myself.
The Weaponry
I launched The Weaponry, my advertising and idea agency, when I was 42 years old. Today, I am frequently asked what the scariest moment of my entrepreneurial experience has been. But I really haven’t been scared at all. I credit much of that to Dawn. Because she has had full confidence that this would work out exactly as planned. And if Mama’s not worried, nobody’s worried.
Our tribe at The Weaponry.
Birthday Girl!
Today is Dawn’s birthday (at least it is if you are reading this on October 29th). I will take the day off, just like I do every year. We will spend the day together. And I’ll reflect on how I wouldn’t have made it this far down my path this fast if it wasn’t for her. She has encouraged me, inspired me and challenged me. She has put her complete faith in me (and maybe my life insurance policy).
She has fully supported the decision to walk away from a comfortable life in search of an adventurous and even more rewarding experience. Dawn is like the Jelly of The Month Club. Because she’s the gift that keeps on giving the whole year. In friendship. In family. And yes, even in business.
Key Takeaway
If you want to be do great things, find someone great to go with you. Someone who believes in you. Someone fun and funny. Someone who won’t let you get comfortable. Someone who challenges you to grow and become all that you were supposed to be. If you find someone like that never let them go. Never take them for granted. And if you can take their birthday off every year and spend it with them, do it. You’ll never regret it.
Just like every party has a pooper, every bottle has a neck. You learn that in Bottle Anatomy 101. But what you might not have known is that every business, machine and human has a bottleneck too. The bottleneck is the singular constraint that limits an organization, object or person from accomplishing more, creating more and earning more.
Lessons of Entrepreneurship
I spend a lot of my time thinking about bottlenecks. It started when I first launched my advertising and idea agency, The Weaponry. As an entrepreneur, you have to spend a lot of time working on your business, not just in your business. By doing so you find that both you and your business have limitations. Unless you are Master P. #NoLimitSoldier
Finding Bottlenecks
A great way to know what areas of your business you should work on is to simply look for the bottlenecks. These are the areas that limit everything else a business can accomplish. They can be processes, equipment, people or money. In some cases your bottleneck could be too many long necks. (You can learn all about that by listening to Garth Brooks music.)
Delivery
The Weaponry’s bottleneck is not how much work we can deliver. Because we are organized in a way that allows us to scale our team when necessary to meet surges in demand. I am confident we have the right kinds of people too. So that is not our current limiter either.
Business Development
Our bottleneck is related to business development. We have discovered our businesses limiter is about awareness that we exist and what we can do for our potential clients. Which is perhaps the most common bottleneck in business. It is why advertising and marketing agencies like us exist in the first place. Alanis Morissette would say this is ironic. Don’t you think?
They Don’t Go Away. They Move.
Because we know awareness is our bottleneck we make it The One Problem To Solve. By increasing our awareness we can increase demand, which increases our business. Once awareness is no longer our limiter, our bottleneck will move somewhere else in the business. It may become our bandwidth, financial resources, location, skill sets, or the types of snacks we have in the break room.
As the business grows and evolves the bottleneck will continue to move. But by paying close attention to the business we will identity the new bottleneck, and the solutions needed to improve our business. Which is like winning at Whac-A-Mole.
Key Takeaway
The single most important thing you can do today is identify your bottleneck. Ask yourself what your greatest limiter is. Then address that limitation. Because if you open that limiter you open all kinds of new possibilities. This is true in business and in our personal lives. So find your bottleneck. Widen it out. And you will find new levels of success.
*If you know someone who could benefit from this story, please share it with them.
Every business starts off as an idea, dream, or vision. You probably have a great business idea lounging in your brain right now. Or maybe you have a conglomerate-worth of business ideas up in your noggin. What entrepreneurs know that others don’t is that businesses are just ideas that someone decided to make real by simply living into their dream.
My Dream
In the summer of 2015 my cousin Brooks Albrecht and I started talking about opening our own advertising agency. And the first step was really fun. Because all we had to do was dre-E-E-E-eam, dream, dream, dream. There are absolutely no constraints, no budget limitations, and no reality check at all in this phase. Just ideas and fantasies.
The E-Myth
Brooks and I bought and devoured copies of The E-Myth by Michael Gerber. (It was delicious). Then we followed the book’s advice. We wrote down all the details we dreamed up about the business, its processes, procedures and culture. We thought about all the crazy things our business would have. Like Thinking Showers and Thinking Beds, because those are where people come up with many of their best ideas. And I wanted my imaginary HR director to have something real to worry about. #AmIRight
Read this book.
Impractical Jokers
The whole thing was just a dream. And totally impractical. I lived in Atlanta and Brooks lived in Seattle. Yet we kept calling each other late at night to talk more about our fake little advertising agency. We were playing business, like kids play house. Which is to say we were grown(ish) men, imagining and pretending. But through all that pretending we seemed to have envisioned and imagined everything. And this ad agency we were pretending we owned seemed totally real to us. Like realer than Real Deal Holyfield.
What If…
We could have stopped right there. We could have told our friends, family and professional network that we had thought of a great agency idea. Like so many of my coworkers had done. And we would have wondered for the rest of our lives what would have happened to that idea had we brought it to life, like Pinocchio, Frankenstein, or that hot chick from Weird Science.
Don’t Stop, Get it, Get it.
But we didn’t stop at the dream, the vision, or even the janky police sketches we made of the business. We took the next step. And we told people what we were trying to do. And we talked to potential clients as if the business really existed. Because in our heads it totally did.
Then, one day, we decided to go online and register The Weaponry LLC as a legal business entity for $120. And the business got realer.
Then we sent for a federal tax ID number. And it got realer.
Then we opened a bank account and transferred $16,000 into it. And it got realer.
Then I took the day off of work, and flew to Boston to spend the day working with our first customer, Global Rescue. And shit got really real. Because Dan Richards, Global Rescue’s CEO and one of my best friends in the world, told me he needed what The Weaponry offered.
It’s Getting Realer!
Throughout the fall of 2015 and the spring of 2016 my favorite line to Brooks was, ‘It’s getting realer!’ Because that is exactly what was happening. The business I dreamed up was becoming realer every day. Because Brooks and I believed it into being. And this little figment of my imagination literally became a business because we pretended it was a business. And like visionaries and people suffering from serious mental illness, we could no longer separate reality from fantasy.
Soon, perfectly sane humans started referring to The Weaponry as if it was a real thing. Or even better than the real thing. #U2 In meetings people introduced me as ‘Adam Albrecht, from The Weaponry.’ And suddenly real business were working with The Weaponry. And it just got realer and realer and realer.
I’m just living the dream.
Today
It has been 4 years since Brooks and I started dreaming about our advertising agency. And things keep getting realer. We have offices in Milwaukee and Columbus. We have 17 clients from coast-to-coast. Yesterday I saw advertisements The Weaponry created on TV, on billboards, on my mobile device, and on my computer. I saw packaging we created at the grocery store last night. I saw a trade show booth we designed. And I saw logos we designed for our clients on Facebook and Instagram. And the dream felt realer than ever.
Key Takeaway
Don’t just dream your dreams. Make them real. Envision your vision. Then live into it. Don’t quit your job. Just take one step forward. Taking that first step makes it realer. Then take another step. And another. And another.
Before you know it other people will call your made up idea by name. Fiction will become reality. Because a business is just a made up idea that someone began treating as if it was real. That’s all it takes. If you have a dream to create a business, organization, event, product or service, all you need to do is live into it. And it will get realer than you ever imagined it could.
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