The other night I went to a birthday party. It wasn’t a party for a person. It was a 3rd birthday party for a business. Our future daughter-in-law, Emily, started the jewelry business three years ago with an idea and a web site. She threw such a beautiful party. I wish you could have been there. If you want to build a business you could do worse than follow the trajectory of this Nashville-based shop.

Even the birthday party itself was a savvy marketing tool. The first 25 people to come to the party received a free gift, including a tote bag and a ring. There was a steady stream of people coming through the shop. They checked out all the new products and sampled some snacks and drinks. People purchased jewelry and got a sneak preview of new lines that are coming soon.

Emily built a business that now has a large studio, a retail storefront, and even her own employees. Her jewelry is sold at retail outlets and by wholesale. She sells on her web site and at craft fairs all over the country. The proceeds from the business are enough to provide Emily’s only income.

As I’ve watched Emily from afar, I have observed her keys to building a successful business:

1. She has a vision. From the very start Emily had in her mind a vision to build a business. You see it in the jewelry she made from the very beginning. Emily would go to the local flea market, find interesting pieces, and turn them into jewelry. Re-purposed pieces became her brand which then evolved into a very simply eclectic line today. The vision also included mercy and giving. Ten percent of the proceeds of the business go toward helping Honduran women start jewelry businesses of their own to support their families.
2. She has persistence. Emily doesn’t give up. Even when their are unhappy customers or the setback of financial loss she fiercely moves forward and uses the difficult times as a lesson to build her business in the future. Her persistence has moved her from her home, to a primitive studio, and now to a beautiful space for making jewelry with a retail store in the front.
3. She has foresight. Emily is always two steps ahead of the game. She knows enough to be planning lines of jewelry for the future. When she plans ahead it gives her team the opportunity to get ready for marketing, future orders, and opportunities for more creativity.
4. She has a positive attitude. Don’t think for a minute that Emily hasn’t had setbacks. They have come from time to time. But what I love about Emily’s attitude is that she never seems to pessimistic or down when she encounters a cranky customer or makes a business mistake. She literally shrugs these things off and takes another step forward. There is always something to learn when you build a business…
5. She has a hunger to learn. Emily listens to business podcasts and reads the books that feed her desire to learn. When you walk into her studio you will see a stack of books that any respectable business person should be reading. Emily knows that any business owner should never ever think they know it all. She should continue to be a student each and every day.

Want to build a business or any kind of organization? Follow these five steps and you will be well on your way to success. Before you know it you’ll be throwing your own birthday parties.

What would you add to this list?

What’s on your back burner? James Clear talks about the “four burners” we have going in our life: health, work, family, and friends. The theory goes that in order to be successful you have to cut off one of your burners. In order to be really successful you have to cut off two of them. Clear explains that there are ways to work around keeping all four burners burning, but every choice has a cost. One way to find your way through all of this is to be thankful.

It can be pretty overwhelming to stay healthy, excel at work, devote time to your family, and cultivate solid friendships. When I reflect on those four things I realize that it is next to impossible to have all four going and glowing well. If I devote too much time to work, my family suffers. If I don’t leave any time for exercise my health suffers. If work, family, and health crowds into all my time I may find myself without friends.

But what if I dedicate just a minute amount of time to be consciously thankful each day for something in each category? It won’t buy me any time or help me with any of the trade-offs, but it will give me a better attitude to work my way through the challenges each day of keeping all four burners burning.

In order to help me do that, I have a small notebook. I use it every night before I go to bed to write down four specific things for which I’m thankful. The more specific I can be I’ve found, the better it is to keep me grounded and moving forward with a positive attitude.

For example, here’s what I’m thankful for today:

• Health: I’m thankful I have recovered from the cold I had last week
• Work: I’m thankful that the member of our church I visited in the hospital today is recovering well from cancer surgery
• Family: I’m thankful for my wife’s creativity and hard work in the new little business she started this week
• Friends: I’m thankful for the friend who texted me these encouraging words: “You are doing amazing work in very difficult times for the ‘Church’ in our culture”

I have found that the act of simply writing these things down is enough to calm me down, get me ready for a good night’s sleep, and help me wake up with a positive attitude. I’ve also found this to be helpful at the beginning of a day to get things off on a thankful and positive note. Either way, it’s an incredibly helpful practice.

What are the four things you are thankful for today?

I love human interest stories. They’re the ones they tag onto the end of a newscast to keep us watching right up until the final commercials. They’re the ones about interesting, unique, or extraordinary people. Many are centered on folks you’d walk right past on the street never giving a second thought. Yet they have a unique story or an unusual gift or talent.

One of my favorite recent human interest stories is from CBS. It’s about Richard Renaldi, a New York City photographer who is working on a series of photographs called Touching Strangers. He brings together on the streets of New York City people who have never met and poses them in portraits like intimate family. You can watch the CBS human interest piece on Richard’s project here.

What is striking about the piece is that the people in the portraits usually have two very different reactions before and after the picture is taken:

1. Before the photo is taken they are reluctant. You can see it on their faces and in their body language. How would you feel if someone pulled you together on the street with someone you had never met before and asked you to actually touch and have your portrait taken? It’s uncomfortable.
2. After the photo is taken they are pleasantly surprised. The people in the CBS story say things like: “I felt like I cared for her. It broke down a lot of barriers” and “We are probably missing so much about the people all around us.”

It’s a good reminder. What are you missing about the people all around you? How often do you take the time to actually get to know people? What do you know about your waitress or the person behind the cash register?

Steve Hartman, the reporter who does the piece for CBS, suggests that these portraits capture “humanity as it could be.” Now I’m not suggesting that taking intimate portraits with strangers will change the world. But I am suggesting that a little intimacy in the form of a simple conversation where we do most of the listening could most definitely be a great start.

I was once involved with a community organization that had us sitting down and having conversations with people. These were usually people from a completely different end of the political spectrum, from a different side of the city, or from a different race or nationality. I can tell you from experience that these simple conversations brought about great friendships that would have never happened otherwise. I’m still astonished at the relationships that were formed when people simply asked questions and listened to one another.

What are you missing about the people all around you? How about initiating a conversation today? Ask a question, then sit back and listen. Take a picture together.

You might just get a glimpse of humanity as it could be.

When have you been surprised by a relationship that you never saw coming?

We could all use a little transformation in our life. Whether it’s transforming from a student to a professional, single to married, from one career to another, or transforming from blasé faith to bold and adventurous faith, transformation is a necessary part of living in a changing world. Sometimes transforming is easy and other times it’s incredibly painful. But laying out the story of an intentional transformation can be incredibly helpful both to individuals and to organizations.

Nancy Duarte is an expert in helping people and organizations tell their stories. She recently discovered the five stages of transformation as she wrote a new book with Patti Sanchez entitled Illuminate. The book helps people lead transformation in their own lives and in their workplaces by working through its five stages. You can see the following five stages in most of the movies you see:

1. Dream: The protagonist has a dream and wants to achieve it.
2. Leap: The protagonist takes the leap and sets off toward the dream.
3. Fight: The protagonist faces an epic battle or challenge and ends up going into a cave to decide weather the journey is worth the reward.
4. Climb: The protagonist decides the journey is worth the reward and continues to climb the mountain.
5. Arrive: The protagonist arrives at the fulfillment of the dream.

It dawned on me that the church I pastor is making its way through these very stages. Our church is 66-years-old, and as it is for many churches in a “mid-life crisis,” we stepped back to take a look at what a transition or transformation might look like. That process began when I arrived nearly four years ago:

1. Dream: We sat and listened to each other about what our dreams, goals, and aspirations are as a congregation. We wrote them down. We came up with a mission statement that described those dreams: “A joyful community of the caring Christ.”
2. Leap: We took the leap by making changes to our governance structure. We changed the way we planned and participated in congregational life. We created ways for grass roots activities to be easily implemented.
3. Fight: Change is never easy. I wouldn’t say there were fights, but there were and are challenges as all this takes place. Our leadership group is currently “in a cave” making sure that the journey is worth the reward (hint: it always is when the Gospel is at stake).
4. Climb: Climbing can be difficult. There can be growing pains. But the climb our church is embarking upon is discovering new and better ways to love and serve our immediate community. It also includes using new media to show and share the love of Jesus.
5. Arrive: We haven’t arrived at all that…yet. But we make sure to celebrate small “victories” along the way. We’ve produced highly successful and fun events like an Oktoberfest, a sit-down dinner auction, and a 50’s style sock hop. A trivia night is in the plans.

A great exercise for all of us would be to sit down and map out these stages toward our own transformation, whatever we may dream it would be. Why not take the time to do that right now? It could mean a new and exciting transformation is in the works for you.

What would you saw are the steps or stages of transformation?