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\nJoin us live for the Net Effect!
\nThe replay of our September career conversation with Dan LaBar, innovative educator and community-builder, is now available in video, podcast, and transcript. Click “Watch Net Effect Replays” below!
\nTopic: “Sharing Tools That Help Churches Share Their Voice”
\nAbout Our Speaker:
\nShortly after graduating from Principia College in 1998, Gabriel was hired to be its first full-time webmaster. After leading two major website redesigns, and hand-building over 500 new pages of HTML, he was hired by a web streaming startup and launched a career focused on frontend design, backend development, and ongoing maintenance. His lifelong love of learning, growing, and always being curious about the next new thing has helped him stay relevant as technology has evolved with ever-increasing speed.
Gabriel’s company, Serafini Studios, has been helping people communicate online for the past 24 years. Clients include Perficient, a leading digital consultancy, the Stockton Symphony, various arts organizations, and more. In 2003 he founded Share the Practice, a web design agency aimed at helping Christian Scientists share their voice on the web. Today he helps support websites for more than 90 different Christian Science churches, societies, organizations, and individuals. He is also the webmaster for The Albert Baker Fund, Light in Prison, and the Embraced:Fully project.
\nBesides working on websites, social media, and email campaigns, Gabriel is a proud husband and father of an inquisitive two-year-old. He is also an amateur competitive racer on sailboats in the Bay Area and sailed on a record setting 37-foot boat from San Francisco to Hawaii in 2016. He and his family live in Benicia, a charming waterfront community in Northern California.
\nPart of our Net Effect Conversations series: https://www.albertbakerfund.org/category/net-effect/\r\nSubscribe to our YouTube channel here
\r\n\r\nThe replay of our September career conversation with Dan LaBar, innovative educator and community-builder, is now available in video, podcast, and transcript. Click “Watch Net Effect Replays” below!
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\nTranscript of episode
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\nTranscript prepared by ____, a NLC Internship Project for ABF
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Topic: “Building Bridges, Inspiring Students, and Praying About Equality and Equity”
\nAbout Our Speaker:
\nDr. Chris O\u2019Riordan-Adjah is currently the head of the Engineering Department at Wake Technical Community College in Raleigh, North Carolina. He is a licensed civil and structural engineer, originally from Ghana, where his love for learning and education took shape. We will talk with Chris about making inspired career decisions and effectively pursuing virtual education, as well as prayerfully addressing issues of equality and equity.
Chris received his Ph.D and Master\u2019s degrees from University of Central Florida. While teaching at Principia College, Chris was the Director of Engineering Programs and an Associate Professor. His professional experience includes bridge design and retrofitting techniques.
\nIn his spare time, he likes to write. He is the author of two motivational books, The Script-Chores and his most recent book The Boost, a collection of motivational and inspirational true stories and testimonials.
\nPart of our Net Effect Conversations series: https://www.albertbakerfund.org/category/net-effect/\r\nSubscribe to our YouTube channel here
\r\n\r\nThe replay of our September career conversation with Dan LaBar, innovative educator and community-builder, is now available in video, podcast, and transcript. Click “Watch Net Effect Replays” below!
\nTopic: “Your Mindset and Your Money–Learn from a Myth-Buster!”
\nAbout Our Speaker:
\nKim Butler, Not-Your-Typical Financial Advisor, Author, Podcaster, and Alpaca Farmer
Not-Your-Typical Financial Advisor Kim Butler dedicates herself to busting common myths about typical investment products and replacing them with alternative investment strategies. She is CEO and founder of Partners for Prosperity, a federally Registered Investment Advisory Firm that serves clients in all 50 states, and the author of 8 books on financial planning, retirement planning, life insurance, and real estate investing.
\nFinancial services expert Steve Savant has called Kim \u201c\u2026the matron of money,\u201d and \u201ca Joan of Arc crusader separating financial fact from fiction.\u201d
\nKim\u2019s career started in banking and then moved into financial planning. Over time, she grew frustrated with financial planning practices that rewarded advisors for what she saw as putting and keeping clients’ money at risk. Driven to find a better way, she studied the commonalities between wealth builders, discovering what she calls the 7 Principles of Prosperity.
\nPart of our Net Effect Conversations series: https://www.albertbakerfund.org/category/net-effect/\r\nSubscribe to our YouTube channel here
\r\n\r\nThe replay of our September career conversation with Dan LaBar, innovative educator and community-builder, is now available in video, podcast, and transcript. Click “Watch Net Effect Replays” below!
\nAbout Our Speaker:
\nJudith Patterson, Co-Founder and President of US Performing Arts
Judith is the co-founder and president of US Performing Arts (USPA), a summer program for students ages 11-18 that gives passionate and talented students the opportunity to hone their craft with the best professionals in the country, while seeing and being seen at their potential future college. USPA affiliates with top-tier universities throughout the world and is acknowledged as one of the premier programs of its kind and innovator in educating students in the arts.
\nJudith has been a professional actor and dancer since the age of 8 working in both theater and television. She later produced and directed some of the largest multi-media permanent attractions in the world. She has taught theater, film, television and dance at the college level, and has administered and developed performing arts curriculum for several college departments.
\nPart of our Net Effect Conversations series: https://www.albertbakerfund.org/category/net-effect/\r\nSubscribe to our YouTube channel here
\r\n\r\nThe replay of our September career conversation with Dan LaBar, innovative educator and community-builder, is now available in video, podcast, and transcript. Click “Watch Net Effect Replays” below!
\nTopic: “How to Drive Your Marketing Message Across All Channels for Maximum Impact”
\nAbout the Speaker:
\nClaire Stoddard, President and Creative Director of Claire Stoddard Associates
Claire describes her consultancy as an “international messaging company specializing in web content.” She firmly believes that the right marketing message is the single most important component of any marketing campaign. As president, she oversees all client work, making sure that every piece is brand-centric and echoes brand voice in ways that motivate target markets to try the product or service.
\nPrior to the launch of Claire Stoddard Associates, Claire was Senior Vice President of Marketing for Drake Beam Morin (DBM), a global consulting firm, and was responsible for the conception, oversight, and execution of DBM’s marketing and communication activity, including PR, web-based initiatives, and event support.
\nShe credits her marketing expertise to her early career days at ABC-TV, where she was Manager of Sales Promotion and produced marketing packages that sold time on the air.
\nPart of our Net Effect Conversations series: https://www.albertbakerfund.org/category/net-effect/\r\nSubscribe to our YouTube channel here
\r\n\r\nThe replay of our September career conversation with Dan LaBar, innovative educator and community-builder, is now available in video, podcast, and transcript. Click “Watch Net Effect Replays” below!
\nAs Chief Operating Officer and President of Color Me Mine Enterprises for 25 years, Mike helped develop it into a market leader in the paint-your-own-pottery industry, growing it into 9 countries and 27 states. He also spent 37 years in the restaurant industry including serving as President and Chief Operating Officer of the Koo Koo Roo casual restaurant chain, where he created its popular take-Home Meal Replacement concept.
\nA graduate in Economics from the University of California, Los Angeles, (UCLA) Mike is a frequent guest lecturer for the UCLA Department of Economics and delivered its commencement address in 2014.
\nA lifelong Christian Scientist, Mike is currently First Reader at First Church of Christ, Scientist, Newport Beach. In addition to reading, he currently teaches the online high school class for The Mother Church Sunday School. He has served as a Christian Science Chaplain for the Orange County Institutions Committee, and was a member of the Christian Science Committee on State Institutions. He is currently serving on the board of Broadview Christian Science Nursing Care in Los Angeles. He is a frequent contributor to the Christian Science periodicals.
\nPart of our Net Effect Conversations series: https://www.albertbakerfund.org/category/net-effect/\r\nSubscribe to our YouTube channel here
\r\n\r\nThe replay of our September career conversation with Dan LaBar, innovative educator and community-builder, is now available in video, podcast, and transcript. Click “Watch Net Effect Replays” below!
\nSpecial thanks to DiscoveryBound NLC intern Brenna Erickson who volunteered to transcribe this episode.
\nHe\u2019s a graduate in economics from UCLA and a frequent guest lecturer at The UCLA Department of Economics. He\u2019s a lifelong Christian Scientist, currently the first reader at First Church of Christ Scientist in Newport Beach. He\u2019s taught the high school and college Sunday School class in Newport for 50 years, and is currently teaching an online Sunday School class for the First Church of Christ Scientist in Boston, the Mother Church. I could just go on and on but you know the best thing for me to do now is to turn it over to Mike.
\nMike: \u201cWell thank you, Robin! Hi everybody! Secret Sauce, huh? I first heard the term \u201csecret sauce\u201d when I was a teenager working in McDonald\u2019s. The company was introducing a new burger called the Big Mac. We all wanted to know what was in the sauce and they told us it was a secret. Thus the name \u201csecret sauce\u201d was coined, and we called it that from that day forward. The question is, what is your secret sauce, your special, unique gift? Why are you here today? Are you looking for employment? Money? Security? If so, you\u2019re not thinking big enough. Why not seek that which inspires you to higher accomplishments? We mustn’t start from a standpoint of a limited need or problem. You know, the Bible doesn\u2019t start\u2026\u2019In the beginning, oh, a problem of mine,\u2019 and the Lord\u2019s Prayer doesn\u2019t start\u2026\u2018My problem which art on earth.\u2019 Of course we both know they start with God, and God must be first and only. And he has much bigger plans for you than just finding a job or making money [Start 7:03][End 7:57]\u2026 Mrs. Eddy writes in Miscellaneous Writings \u2018the mere puppets of the hour are playing only for money and at a fearful state.\u2019 As we glorify God, we tune in to the blessings just waiting for us to discover. God knows what we need even before we ask (quoting a 1979 journal article called Supply and Transparency.) The writer says lack isn\u2019t truly overcome by getting more money, education, or possessions, but by relinquishing the concept of limitation. Real supply isn\u2019t things coming to us. It\u2019s ideas appearing through us, through the transparency, the clarity, purity, and spirituality of enlightened thought [Start 8:13][End 9:08] Let me just repeat that. Lack isn\u2019t truly overcome by getting more money, education, or possession,s but by relinquishing the concept of limitation. Real supply is ideas appearing through us, through the transparency, the clarity, purity, and spirituality of enlightened thought. Enlightened thought–it is a unique gift from God to you. Enlightened thought is your \u2018secret sauce,\u2019 your weapon in the battle, a barrier to entry by others, but that means reading the spiritual landscape as well as the competitive one and focusing on what you are seeing as an unmet need as opposed to simply your own economic game! I\u2019m reminded of the little known story in the book of Numbers about Balak and Balaam. Balak was a King of Judah at the time, and goes to the prophet Balaam, and asks him to curse the children of Israel as he\u2019s fearful they will overtake his country. But Balaam says he needs to pray about it. Well, he did, and that night God said to him \u2018No, the children of Israel are blessed. You may not curse them,\u2019 when Balaam told Balak he could not, since god would not approve. Balak responded by offering Balaam a promotion–power and money, lots of it! Balaam responded that if Balak were to fill his house with gold and silver, he would not betray God\u2019s will. Now what would you or I have done in that situation? All spiritual advancement–and that includes your business success–comes from God revealing his plan to our thought. In other words, inspiration, as opposed to humanly willing, manipulating, or outlining something to happen. When we\u2019re receptive to a higher thought, human consciousness becomes enlightened; new ideas reveal themselves, and we must remain loyal to that inspiration and stay focused on the good it foresees. For example, the intense focus and persistence of some famous modern visionaries, I think the current term is \u2018market disruptors,\u2019–the Wright Brothers, Elon Musk, and Steve Jobs all developed products that change forever the way we live. Wilbur and Orville however didn\u2019t invent flight, Jobs didn\u2019t invent the laws behind the smartphone technology, Musk didn\u2019t invent electricity for vehicles. What they did was discover pre-existing laws that only needed to be discovered and then put into practice. These were ideas that were needed before anyone realized the need for the laws and ideas. Their discoveries have always existed. The laws of flight existed before man was on the Earth, so what was its source? There must have been an intelligent source, something Christian Scientists refer to as divine Mind, the same mind that was also in Christ. So here\u2019s the question of the hour, what is your yet to be discovered idea that you will bring to the world? Think big. No, think bigger. Think about the future needs of mankind. But you need to really listen to what the mind of Christ has in store for you. The key is being responsive to the need even when no one else knows they have a need. [Start 11:11] [End 13:26]
\nHere are two personal examples. In the 60\u2019s and 70\u2019s, women were entering the workforce in record numbers for this country if they weren\u2019t home cooking meals for their family. Their two incomes were needed for mortgages then, and there was a rising divorce rate, so a lot of working women, and the hottest industry at that time was fast food. In many cases fast food preempted the family tradition of having a home cooked dinner together. Mom didn\u2019t have any time to prepare a meal and I saw a need, being in the restaurant business, a new kind of restaurant that would serve fresh, homemade quality food that working moms could bring home with pride. I called the concept \u2018home meal replacement\u2019 and I wrote some articles about it in the restaurant news and I took over the management of a failing chain called koo karoo as a vehicle for my idea. \u2018Home Meal Replacement\u2019 is now commonplace in the restaurant industry, but it was non-existent at the time. Later in the mid-1990\u2019s as Koo Koo Roo was being sold I got involved with a pottery painting concept called Color Me Mine, that was losing $3 million a year on its 14 pottery painting studios. We were publicly held at the time and the company was being sold. Former Chrysler chairman Lee Iacoco, who was on our board at the time, came in our office and asked me to get rid of Color Me Mine. He said it was a loser and killing the sale of Koo Koo Roo to El Torito, who eventually brought our restaurants, I didn\u2019t want to go to work for El Torito, instead I opted to buy a Color Me Mine. You see, I saw another need that no one was really aware of. There was a need for a communal family bonding concept accomplishing just what home meal replacement did for restaurant. It came to me that Color Me Mine was the perfect answer. You see, when a family celebrates a special event, what do they do? They typically go to a restaurant. Each person around that table expresses their own individual expression by ordering something different on the menu, but at the same time they bond together in a communal activity. And it dawned on me that pottery painting was and is the only activity that duplicates simultaneous communal activity with individual expression. People sit and paint, do their own thing, but they talk. Good idea, but I didn\u2019t have the assets to cover the three million dollars in losses. Nonetheless I held firm to my understanding that the idea came to me with the means needed to be fully realized by listening. You might say my prayers paid off. Funding was made available by a source I had never thought of, and I was able to buy the company and turn it around. By the way, the restaurant chain I bought around \u2018Home Meal Replacement\u2019 achieved the highest sales per outlet of any quick serve food chain in America. And as for Color Me Mine, it became profitable, the only franchise of its kind, for the 30 years that followed and continuing to this day with 150 pottery studios around the globe. You see purpose was a conduit for profitability.
\nWhat are you seeing mankind needing today? Open up your entrepreneurial vision, stay focused on that vision, and never become discouraged. Meet all obstacles with prayer and persistence and resilience and you\u2019ll bring the opportunity to fruition. Align profitability with purpose. Remember, then, your yet-to-be discovered ideas will attract into your experience like-minded people who share your vision–funders, team members, and most of all, customers. You will need to research the competitive landscape, to identify what is missing. Put together your team, show proof of concept, write the business plan, and then execute it with confidence because it is purpose-directed. Of course, you\u2019ll need to seek input from others, but beware of those giving advice or attempting to discourage you. Musk, Wilbur and Orvill, and Steve Jobs were all told their ideas would not fly–pardon the pun–and they had severe funding needs, bad press, stiff competition, and many initial failures. But they prevailed; not yielding to discouragement and ignoring opposing human opinions. They were obedient to the vision. Their success was based on the impact of the vision, not the profitability. When God speaks to you, there is no need for advice or confirmation from others. But the big question is, how do you know when it\u2019s truly an inspiration and not just doing your own brainstorming? In my career I have found five surefire signs that told me it was a divinely inspired voice speaking to my thought. I\u2019ll list them for you. First, the new idea is free of self. It\u2019s never about you, it\u2019s always about God, good. It\u2019s about the idea; no self-pity, no self-justification, no self-indulgence, no self-will, or self-promotion. Second, it\u2019s free of fear; it has an immediate rightness and peace about it. Third, it\u2019s free of lack. It comes with everything it needs to be realized. God would not give you a mission without the means to fulfill it. Fourth, what blesses one blesses all. the success of your idea is not at the expense of anyone else, it\u2019s not a zero-sum game, your winning does not involve another\u2019s losing competition is not a factor when you are vision driven. Fifth, unexpected good occurs. That\u2019s the $2,000 check in the mail from the aunt you didn\u2019t even know you had at exactly the time when you needed $2,000. We have all had that kind of experience from one time or another.\u201d [Start 17:16][End 20:35] In other words, God winked at you with a sign you could not have made happen yourself. When those 5 ingredients are all present, you need to stand and take notice–a new idea is being revealed to you! The question is, are you receptive? So enter the closet referred to on page 15 of Science and Health, and quietly listen to the Father shutting out fear, human opinions, and discouragement. He will answer you when you get yourself out of the way and stay mission driven,\u2019 Eddy writes on page 117 of Miscellaneous Writings, \u2018God is the fountain of light, and He illumines one\u2019s way when one is obedient. The disobedient make their moves before God makes His, or make them too late to follow Him. Be sure that God directs your way; then hasten to follow under every circumstance.\u2019
\nBefore we go to questions, I\u2019ll leave you with a prayer by a 17th century theologian poet and writer, the French Roman Catholic archbishop Francois Finland, who wrote \u2018Cheered by the presence of God, I will do each moment without anxiety according to the strength which He shall give me, the work that His divine providence assigns me. I will leave the rest without concern; it\u2019s not my affair.\u2019 [Start 21:58] [End 22:17] Thank you all! And now Robin, I think we\u2019ll take some questions?\u201d
\nRobin: *asks what\u2019s happening with entrepreneurship today, how do you learn about it, etc/ how he interacts with UCLA and the kind of program they have there*
\nMike: \u201cSure, I\u2019ve been a guest speaker for the Econ classes at UCLA for the last six or seven years, and for the last probably 5 or 6 years, I have focused on a subset of entrepreneurial- focused classes called \u2018social entrepreneurship.\u2019 That\u2019s where there would be 50 in a class, and there\u2019d be 5 to 10 teams of 5 each, and they would seek a non-profit that would need funding, a continuous form of revenue generation, and they would have to come up with a for-profit business plan that would support the non-profit. And it\u2019s become so big that every university across the country has a social entrepreneurship program in their Econ or business department. And venture capitalists have expanded to where there\u2019s a whole set of venture capital only focused on social entrepreneurship, which is really well-timed today, it\u2019s where the action is. I\u2019ve been a judge when they have a competition. We just entered one yesterday, in fact, and I mentored one of the teams that ended up winning it. What everyone is looking for are three factors: scalability, sustainability, and barrier-to-entry. A secret sauce is something that is missing from the current competitive landscape. Something fresh, something new that would be very hard to copy or compete against when those three factors are there and it’s a worthwhile idea. There doesn\u2019t seem to be any limit to the funding available so really it just takes inspiration.\u201d [Start 25:46][End 26:39] In the last five years we\u2019ve launched over 200 entrepreneurial ideas at just one university.\u201d
\nRobin: *asks how he deals with divine inspiration that results in failure/ how he remains receptive to divine intervention*
\nMike: \u201cWell you know I go back to the example of the three visionaries I mentioned: Jobs, the Wright Brothers, and Musk. They had so many failures before they succeeded. Sometimes it\u2019s not you doing it, sometimes you need to hook up with a company that shares your vision and you\u2019re just the right person that they\u2019re looking for to help it succeed. Don\u2019t be discouraged by failure. You\u2019ll have multiple failures until you succeed.\u201d[Start 28:26] [End 29:21]
\nRobin: I think failure is a great educator. I\u2019ve failed so many times with things I\u2019ve started and stopped. People think failure is horrible but even Apple\u2019s most recent IOS 13 was fraught with failure right out of the box, but sometimes you have to get things moving forward so the things you need to work out will reveal themselves. Would you agree with that?
\nMike: \u201cYeah, I guess the question goes back to where Adam was hiding himself from God because he was naked, and what God said to him was, \u2018Who told you, you were naked?\u2019
\nSo who told you it was a failure, and not a step in the progress or the development of the idea? And boy I\u2019ll tell you, I\u2019ve fallen on my face over and over again. That\u2019s how you learn each time, and the next time you pull it out.
Robin: *asks if he thinks there\u2019s an entrepreneurial DNA that some people have and others don\u2019t. Can someone who has never been entrepreneurial become so later in their life*
\nMike: \u201cThat\u2019s a great question. When you go through the Bible\u2019s heroes, one after the other, it\u2019s the most unlikely group of ne\u2019er do wells and they always responded the same way, \u2018Me? You\u2019ve got to be kidding, no not me.\u2019 It has nothing to do with your inclination, talents, DNA, or anything else. It has to do with what happens when inspiration calls. It comes to you for a reason. You know Moses fought like crazy to get out of the job of going to let the children of Israel go to Pharaoh, and Gideon said, \u2018My family is the weakest of everybody\u2019s here and I\u2019m the weakest in my family.\u2019 And poor Jacob was a con man all his life until he had that little wrestling match that caused him to wake up. So I mean, it has to do with being receptive to a calling. Your first reaction is, you\u2019ve got to be kidding, not me. I don\u2019t have the money, I don\u2019t have the talent, I don\u2019t have the experience. No, no, no! Listen, listen to the idea that comes to you. It may not be an idea you develop, it may be something you share, may be a company you go to work for, but it all comes back to going to God first and listening[Start 32:34] [End 33:06]. I\u2019m thinking of Noah, I\u2019m thinking of Saul; the list goes on and on.
\nRobin: * Asks about programs at local community colleges across the country and how to determine the difference between which failures are to be lessons, and which ones highlight inspiration as actually human determination?
\nMike: \u201cThe answer is always the same. Get yourself out of the way. You know, sometimes we\u2019re our own worst enemy. Father, what would you have me to do? That\u2019s the question. That really takes a sense of humility, a sense of receptivity, a sense of obedience, a sense of expectation, and when the humility is there the human will is gone. And when the fear is gone, it just opens up all sorts of things. You know what the definition of fear is: ingratitude in advance. You are already ungrateful for the bad you think is going to happen. And so, what is love? If perfect love casts out fear, then love must be gratitude in advance. You know, Jesus when he raised Lazarus, didn\u2019t say, \u2018Oh Lazarus, I hope you come forth, a lot of people are watching. It will be embarrassing if I don\u2019t pull this off.\u2019 And the first thing he said was, \u2018Father I thankthee.\u2019 He started off with gratitude, and I love that. When you\u2019re grateful and grateful for what you expect to happen, and know that will happen, then you\u2019re really approaching it from a spiritual standpoint ,a divine standpoint, and human will is never a part of that .[Start 35:30][End 37:26 ] So I hope that answers the question.\u201d
\nRobin: *Asks how to approach someone in your industry after being away from it for awhile
\nMike: \u201cIt doesn\u2019t even matter if you\u2019ve never been in the industry. When you recognize your own natural talents, when you\u2019re an artist or a musician, or you\u2019re into computers, or you are a graphic designer–whatever it is. When you know that\u2019s a passion of yours, (mine was cooking, it was food) when you know that\u2019s a passion, you go out and you meet everybody in that industry. You talk to them, you let them know about your passion and how much you like their company, and why you like their company. And I\u2019ve told this to people over and over, offer to go to work for them for free. Say, let me sweep floors, I just want to learn. There\u2019s not a business owner out there that would not respect that kind of humility, that kind of honesty, that kind of work ethic, that kind of passion. And there\u2019s nothing wrong with going to work for a company and learning the industry from the ground up before you launch your venture. [Start 38:04] [End 38:59]There\u2019s nothing wrong with that.\u201d
\nRobin: *remarks that Mike\u2019s time at McDonald\u2019s must have been valuable as he moved through years of restaurant business
\nMike: \u201cRight, the stories I could tell you about Ray Kroc would keep us here all day, but you know I\u2019ll give you one quick story that\u2019s really fun. I\u2019m 14 years old. I weigh about 100 pounds, a skinny kid, and Saturday morning comes, and Mr. Kroc comes in the back door and I hear, \u2018Mikey, how you doing?\u2019 So Mr. Kroc is here and I\u2019m shaking, and he takes me by the ear–he couldn’t do that today–he takes me by the ear and drags me into the parking lot and shows me weeds in the garden between the parking stalls and wants to know why I didn\u2019t pull them. I say, \u2018It\u2019s not my job.\u2019 He replied, \u2018Never say it\u2019s not your job. You see it, you fix it.\u2019 Then he had me take off my paper hat, my apron, my McDonald\u2019s shirt. Here I am with my white t-shirt, my black pants,–and skinny little kid–he has me open up the trash can. You know, the fiberglass trash can out in the parking lot, and pull out a lot of the papers, the bags, and the cups. He says, \u2018I want you to go up and down the street and I want you to throw them along the street, along the gutter. Don\u2019t let anyone see you. So, ok, all right.\u2019 I begin to do that. I come back and he says \u2018Now, get dressed, put on your new shirt and apron, here\u2019s a lobby pan, a little toy broom, and little bobby pins. I want you to very boldly and in front of everybody go up and down the street and pick up that paper.\u2019 See, he wanted everyone to know how busy McDonald\u2019s was and then he wanted everyone to know what good citizens McDonald\u2019s was. Well, that\u2019s how you did some gorilla marketing in those days when you didn\u2019t have any money for advertising. That\u2019s innovation. That\u2019s entrepreneurial spirit. He never knew any limits, and he always found a way to get the job done.
\nRobin: * Asks about age-related issues in dealing with senior executives, entrepreneurs.
\nMike: \u201cYeah, story of my life. You know when you start with age, it\u2019s the same as starting with unemployment or lack or fear. You\u2019re starting with a problem. Mrs. Eddy founded The Monitor when she was 90 or 88, or something like that. Yeah, the idea doesn\u2019t know how old you are, doesn\u2019t know your gender, doesn\u2019t know your educational background, doesn\u2019t know your bank account balance. And you know, Ray Kroc, when he started McDonald\u2019s, already had a career behind them, so it doesn\u2019t have anything to do with any of that. [Start 42:05] [End 42:50] Although there are places like SCORE for senior citizens to help share their talents with younger people coming up, there\u2019s opportunities in business to go to a company and say to young management, you\u2019d like to be a consultant and help train and give some wisdom to the younger managers coming up. You don\u2019t have any aspirations of advancement, you just want to contribute. There are so many opportunities for seniors. People I know that are retired, their schedule is busier than ever because they\u2019ve learned that they have so much to give and they want to give. And boy when you want to give, there are always takers. So that\u2019s got to be the mode of giving, not starting with the limitation of I\u2019m too old.\u201d
\nRobin: *Asks where to start, how to turn around a company with a huge debt and find motivation\u201d
\nMike: \u201cBoy, there was plenty of bad press about it, too. We were publicly held and everybody in Koo Koo Roo stock was flying high, and the Wall Street Journal was calling it Color Me Blind and gosh it was just horrific. But I knew this idea of communal bonding and individual expression had a need for \u2018mommy and me,\u2019 and that was so strong that I was able to convey that vision with the funders, and the funders had an equal understanding of it, and they agreed. And I saw Color Me Mine strictly as a vehicle, not as a concept that I could make money off of, but a vehicle for this idea. Purpose-driven profitability. And as long as I stayed with the purpose we would be fine. [Start 44:50] [End 45:31] And I had a background in franchising all those years in the restaurant business. I basically ran a publicly held company and we were franchising and we were trying to run these Color Me Mines ourselves. And I saw it being a more community intimate concept that needed an owner on the premises, so the other idea that came to me was franchise.\u201d
\nRobin: * Asks how to promote franchising and find prospects*
\nMike: \u201cNo I never advertised one day for a franchise. I went to the stores, redesigned them, focused around mom, and a hundred percent of our franchisees over the next 30 years were customers that fell in love with what we were providing. And the applications started coming in on their own because they saw the vision with me. They knew I was filling a need they never even thought about. And when that clicked, it was like a light switch going on, and it wasn\u2019t the case of paying down a 3 million dollar debt, the franchising was going to shrink those losses and did so. And it was through franchising that it happened, but I never had to prospect. I never had to do that. I did have to take the first couple of them and virtually give the franchises away to prove the concept. I had to have proof of concept, and I needed a couple of successful franchisees to do that. I mentioned that in my talk that proof of concept is one of the human footsteps you have to take before you lay out a lot of cash and commit yourself to leases and other things like that. You need to prove your vision works and then you\u2019re off to the races. Then it’s going to be hard to stay up with the vision. It will be dragging you along.\u201d[Start 47:31] [End 47:51]
\nRobin: * Asks if he faced resistance about his changes to business*
\nMike: \u201cNo, I mean if I did from an employee, or anyone else, I just politely told them they were working for the wrong company. You have to stay so strictly to the mission and not allow any distraction or anyone to pull you off of what you know to be the reason you\u2019re there. You can\u2019t deviate at all. And, well you look at the growth of Christian Science in the early days and Mrs. Eddy\u2019s strict adherence. When she said that\u2019s the way it was, look at the opposition she had to having the words Christian Science in the Monitor head, you know, The Christian Science Monitor. Everyone tried to talk her out of it. Everyone. Right down to Calvin Frye and Adam Dickey. They all tried to talk her out of it. And one last try, the head of the publishing society walked into her office, and the meeting lasted about three minutes. When he came out all the rest of the directors were in the hallway waiting for the answer and his answer was, \u2018the name of the paper shall be The Christian Science Monitor.\u2019 You know she just wouldn\u2019t tolerate anything that deviated from what her vision was with the revelation that came to her. And that\u2019s an example that\u2019s relevant for all of us. Stick to your guns.\u201d [Start 48:14] [End 49:36].
\nRobin: *Asks how to juggle the new workload with existing workload*
\nMike: \u201cOh there\u2019s always time. There\u2019s no limit there. The way I always ran my companies was something that you guys teach in Albert Baker, and that\u2019s servant leadership. And you want to pull out the best in the team you\u2019ve surrounded yourself with, and so you learn to delegate trust. Support and make other people successful by aligning their thought with that same vision. Like-minded purpose, that\u2019s always the answer and that doesn\u2019t take time, that takes love. When you\u2019re around someone who genuinely cares for you, you\u2019ll do anything for that person. [Start 50:04] [End 50:45]
\nEND
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