by Kirby Hasseman
“If you don’t know where you’re going, any road’ll take you there.” Cheshire Cat from Alice in Wonderland. Do you know where you are going? Do you know where you want to go? I don’t necessarily mean for the rest of your life. But do you have something you are working toward in the next 6, 12 or 18 months? So many people I meet really don’t know where they are going. They lack intention and purpose. I am talking to those people that complain every Monday that they have to go to work. Everyone gets a case of the “Mondays” sometimes. But if you are constantly bemoaning the state of your life, then you have not created a “why” that really matters to you. The thing is, you might be working a job you don’t like. But if you are doing so in order to pay for the opportunity to do something that DOES matter to you, even that menial job has a purpose. You may not love it. But you understand why you are doing it. In the book “The Subtle Art of Not Giving a F&@k,” author Mark Mason talks about this. He says that successful people don’t always love what they are doing. But they have a vision of where they want to go. Once they create that vision, then they are willing to suffer through what it takes to get there. A good example would be a marathon. When I trained for a marathon I did not WANT to run 10 or 15 or 18 miles. No one I know wants to do that! But I was willing to suffer through it…so I could complete the marathon. The same is true for whatever you are trying to do. Create the vision and the goal for yourself. Then decide what you are willing to suffer through. Let me end with a message that got sent to me today (thanks Janet McMaster). Decide what you want.Write that stuff down.Make a freaking plan.And work on it.Every.Single.Day.
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by Kirby Hasseman
You can learn a lot about business and building an organization when you learn from a well-run church. My family and I attend Newpointe Community Church in Coshocton, Ohio. NewPointe is a multi-site church and Coshocton is one of (currently) five campuses where Dwight Mason is the lead Pastor. This past weekend, NewPointe hosted a celebration with all of the campuses coming together. It was a great day. One of my favorite parts was when Dwight was interviewed about the history of the church on the main stage. In front of thousands of people, Dwight told many stories about how NewPointe began. If you listened closely, you heard lessons that would be featured in any business book. So I thought I would give you a few of them here. Play The Long Game: When building the church, Dwight had many times when he was not sure things were following his vision. But when creating something really big, you have time. You have to have patience. So often, once we know what we want, we want it right now. If you have created a really good mission, then that will take time to reach. Grant yourself some grace that these things don’t happen over night. Don’t Be Afraid To Ask: You might be excited about your vision. You might be willing to tell the story. But when it gets to the moment of truth, are you willing to ask for what you want? So many of us stop just before we do. If you know what you want (and what you need) you have to be willing ask. Create the Vision But Let The Plans Change: Dwight created a vision of trying to reach as many people as he could with his message. But in the course of his vision, properties changed, team members changed, etc. Don’t get caught up in the minutia. Create a vision that resonates with you and your team…but don’t romanticize how you get there. Be flexible. Be Ready When Good Things Come: At one point on the journey, Dwight had lunch with someone who asked “What are some things you would like to do but don’t have the money to do right now?” Dwight named 10 on the spot. As he pointed out, when someone offers you an opportunity, don’t tell them you will get back to them. Be ready for wonderful things to enter your life…so you can use them to create your vision. We Don’t Get Where We are By Chance: We get there by choice. Every day we make tons of decisions that guide our life. Will we do our very best? Will we take a risk? Will we put ourselves out there? When we fail, will be try again? You get the idea. But our life is made up of choices. If your life is not where you want it to be, make different choices. (As Dwight would say “Y’all ok?) The good news is, you have the choice to change.
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by Kirby Hasseman
“Hey! Let’s start a Brewery!” These are words that many have uttered over the years (often over a couple of beers). As it turns out, we are actually doing it. For the last couple of years, I have been working on (with 2 awesome partners) creating Hasseman Brewing in Coshocton, Ohio. We are super excited to get this project up and running…and it looks like we are close to making it happen! For the latest updates on that, you can check out the Hasseman Brewing blog here. So what does this have to do about marketing? As it turns out, a lot. One thing I have told people over the years is, “You can tell what I like by what I put my logo on.” Well I thought it might be helpful to see what we have started with (even before we open). It might give you a peak into what we are thinking…and will give a “shout out” to some of the great suppliers we are partnering with…so far. T-shirts: If you have visited nearly any microbrewery, you know they have t-shirts. We are working to create more…but for this first run we went this this soft t-shirt with our one color logo. We think you need a comfortable t-shirt if you want anyone to wear it…so this is a good start. Hats: We have several styles of hats we will feature when we open, and we will get more as we go. But the first two we bought were this Mesh backed Cap and this Heathered Navy one. These are two totally different styles…but we think they are cool! But we also wanted to have some choices, so we have this one too. Anxious to see what everyone likes! Bottle Opener Key Chain: Want a heavy duty key chain that also doubles as a bottle opener? Of course you do. We have that! 🙂 Glass Growler: You can’t start a brewery and not have Growlers, right? Don’t worry. We are on it. This is a great “to go” container for any brewery! Check that out here. Stainless Growler: But if you want to take it “up a notch” on the Growlers, you can go with this one. This is a very cool single walled stainless version. Still fun to take your Craft Beer on the go! And yes, this is the one featured in the picture above. Patio Umbrella: If you have a brewery, or really any outdoor venue where you want to market, these are really nice! You will want shade (and this works for that) but it’s also an awesome branding opportunity. Pens: We also have these fantastic pens that allow us to showcase our brand in full color. You might not think “pens” when you think “beer” but these are a great piece to help us get our name out there in the community! Coasters: But we need to keep the rings off of the tables right? Of course. That’s why we have these really cool full color drink coasters. These are a really low cost way to protect the investment! The fact is, there will be much more to come. As a matter of fact, I have asked my partners to help hold me back! But it’s been an amazing exercise…and one filled with personal growth. Here’s to more good things to come!
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by Kirby Hasseman
“I just need to vent.” We have all heard those words from a friend or family member. As a matter of fact, most of us have said them on more than one occasion. I know I have. Sometimes life (or more accurately, the people in your life) can frustrate you to the point that you need to vent or you might explode. I get it. But you need to stop. Seriously. Complaining, especially the kind followed by no action to fix the problem, is an epidemic today. It seems like everyone today is a “keyboard activist.” They have opinions and complaints about everything while they are behind the keyboard. But in the real world, they do nothing about it. Here are 3 reasons why you don’t want to be “that person.” 1. The World Doesn’t Care: It’s not that the world is full of un-caring people. That’s not what I am saying. But each of us has our own burden to bear. Most of the time, we don’t need to carry yours too. This is especially true if your complaint is trivial (and often it is). 2. It Creates a Mental Pattern: The science behind this is simple. When you do things over and over, it creates a pathway in your brain. This makes is easier to repeat the behavior automatically. This is how habits are formed and how you become “excellent” at certain behaviors. This is why it’s important to be mindful of your patterns. It can become a habit. Do you really want to be the person who habitually complains? 3. Most Have It Worse: There is a term called “First World Problems.” It’s based on this simple concept. We complain about things that are comical when compared to the rest of the world. The fact is, most of our problems are barely that at all. I am reminded of a friend’s story about “worst jobs.” We all went around the table telling our story about the worst job we had had in our lives. All of us telling the story with great detail about something we had hated doing. Then we came to him. “I was in the military in the desert. We had Porta-Potties there and could not leave the ‘remains’ in country. So we had to dispose of them. This was done by adding diesel fuel to the mixture of feces and urine. But you could not just leave them to burn, otherwise it would settle. So for three weeks, I had to stir this mixture of diesel fuel, feces and urine in the desert (average temperature 126 degrees). I still remember that smell.” Wow. I am sure there are worse jobs than that. But I have not had one. So for today, I will not complain about mine.
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by Kirby Hasseman
Last week I had the opportunity to drive to Lenoir, North Carolina to work with one of our newest Account Executives. Jim Duncan, who joined us just a few weeks ago, has been a longtime friend, and I am excited to have him aboard. As you might expect, we each had a list of things we most wanted to go over. I wanted to talk about some product training. Jim wanted to spend a great deal of time talking about our software. Together, we discussed the power what we do, and how we can help organizations. It was a great day. But one theme kept coming up over and over as the training day went on. We would cover a topic and go back and forth with questions. After I felt confident he understood the material I would say something like, “As you do this more and more, you will get comfortable. It’s about the repetition.” As the day wore on, I must have said that a dozen times. It’s like that in all areas of our life. If we want to get “good” at hitting a baseball, we have to spend lots of minutes in the batting cages. If we want to be “great” with the bat, we have to spend hours and hours. When we are teaching others to hit a ball, we know this. But sometimes when it comes to our professional lives, we lose sight of this. We think that if we are “good at talking to people” we will automatically be good at sales. Um…no. You still have to put in the work. The challenge, I think, with putting in the work as an adult, is we are hesitant to fail in front of others. Let’s face it, if we stumble on a sales call, we (by definition) are doing it in front someone else. In the batting cage, no one might see us whiff the ball. But the rules are the same. If you want to become a “sales champion” you have to put in the reps.
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