The Studio at Adams Hub

Here we are, entering the end of the work week. We welcome Friday, April 12, 2019 with a forecast calling for mostly sunny skies with a daytime high in the low to mid 50s. Not bad. The weekend is shaping up nicely with sunshine and a warming trend. There's plenty on tap today and tonight around town. Enjoy.

Design plans for a roundabout at the intersection of Stewart Street and South Carson Street as part of the South Carson Complete Streets Project will be available for review at a public workshop Friday.

In February the design plans for the South Carson Complete Streets Project reached 60 percent completion. Current design elements include safe accommodations for travel, one of which is a roundabout at the intersection of Stewart Street and South Carson Street.

Don’t worry. My business column this morning isn’t going to be filled with party politics. But I will ask you an important question about the politics of your company. How do you make decisions in your business?

Happy Halloween! I thought I would hold this column for the scariest day of the year because, if you don’t plan alternative communication or business strategies during the low points of your business cycle, you could scare yourself into bad decision making.

Ideas On Tap, a monthly conversation and public discussion about issues important to the community, is moving its November venue from Battle Born Social to Bella Fiore Wines in downtown Carson City, said event moderator and founder Mike Smith.

Last Friday, I was enjoying Open Mic Night at A to Zen and sipping on a cup of tea, when my heart and mind was captured by a ukulele and the voice of Carson City newcomer Kelsey Kelly.

This morning on my radio show, I discussed the topic of forgiveness. It’s a tough subject, especially if you have been hurt. However, forgiveness is not for the person or situation being forgiven. It’s for you. And, sometimes, the person or situation isn’t the only thing that needs to be forgiven. You need to forgive yourself as well.

It’s a funny thing being in the business of helping businesses through challenge. Once a client is through their challenge or transition, our work is done. Clients work with me anywhere from one month to two years. No matter how long I work with a client, there is one requirement I provide right up front. No matter what happens, keep moving.

When business owners were asked in a survey what their most precious resource was, the pre-dominant answer was (drumroll please) PEOPLE. Relationships, partnerships, and contracts with people are a businesses’ most precious asset. So, if this is the case, why do with people fall through the cracks?

Each Monday morning, I host a show called Drive Time: Your Motivational Drive in the Morning on KNVC 95.1 FM. This morning, considering President Trump’s latest tweet to the president of Iran, I found it appropriate that the topic I had prepared for today was emotional intelligence. Emotional intelligence, in short, is how you manage yourself and how you interact with others.

There is more hot and smoky in store for the day, including a very real threat of thunderstorms. You may want to stick to indoor activities when the air quality is low like this. The Capital City Community Band has a free concert and ice cream social scheduled for this afternoon at the First United Methodist Church. All are welcome, and it’s hard to argue with ice cream on a day like this. If you are looking to start your own business, but still some legal guidance, you’ll find the ‘Lunch-n-Learn’ workshop at the Adams Hub extremely helpful.

Business is kind of like a horse race. When you line them up at the starting line, the horses all look good. They are all fast, just some are faster than others. Some of them have better odds than the others. Nevada is a betting state, so I will ask you some betting questions.

Sorry – It’s such a common word. It’s intention and meaning vary from person to person. It could be nothing more than pre-conditioned response or a heartfelt, sincere understanding of wrongdoing. Regardless of what goes wrong, even in business and customer relationships, the first inclination is to say sorry. However, what is sorry without something to back it up?

Yesterday, I woke up at 5 a.m. to start my radio show, Drive Time: Your Motivational Drive in the Morning, airing 6 to 8 a.m. every Monday on KNVC 95.1 FM Carson City Community Radio. Having a morning show seemed like a pipe dream a year ago.

Ever messed up? That should be a rhetorical question. Because, the truth is, we all have. We have all fallen short. Sometimes the mistakes are small. Other times they are big. At the time of a mistake, we reach a crossroads. Do we hide in shame and continue to make the mistake worse?

Hello Carson City! It’s been a bit since I’ve written a column. May has been a whirlwind, which started with a pre-graduation meditation retreat with Mindful USC. I was honored to be one of two alumni present on a silent meditation retreat with 30 people. The remaining 28 were USC professors and employees. After the retreat, I worked in Los Angeles for two days before participating in commencement activities.

It seems, this week, so many I know have lost something. Whether it’s a job, health, a relationship, or an expectation, loss is real. It’s emotionally hard. In some cases, it’s a crisis. Loss of a client can hurt or kill a business if a contingency plan isn’t in place. Losing a job or a partner can be life altering. So, how can you recover faster?

The projects are piling high like the snow on the summit of the Sierra Mountains. You are suffocated. You can’t breathe. The air is thin. There’s too much to do and no time to do it. You’ve hit overwhelm and you shut down. You Netflix and chill or find some way to forget about it, just making the matter worse. The pile gets bigger the more time you don’t tend to it, which just makes the overwhelm worse.

What does it mean to be free to be yourself? Sometimes, I see clients who are quite confused. Some are at the end of their rope. They are doing what they are “supposed to do.” But something is off. They are dissatisfied. Business, life, career, isn’t matching up to what they expected.

The other day, I was watching Katy Perry’s music video for the song “Rise.” The video shows Perry looking strong, strapped to a large red parachute that is pulling her upright, up into the air. She smiles. But then life happens. She’s grounded. She’s crawling through the dirt, hanging off the edge of a cliff. She’s drowning in water. It seems things get worse and worse. The one thing she doesn’t do is leave the chute behind. That parachute we all have has a name. It’s TRUST.

Those of you who have read my column for a while know I picked up a mentor in the last year named Brendon Burchard. If you haven’t heard of him, Google the name. I just returned from High Performance Academy and one small shift has transformed my productivity. No, I’m not following some new system or complicated technique. I just added a morning routine!

I used to say, “expectations are pre-meditated resentments.” I used to try to stop myself from having expectations, of myself, others, and outcomes. Every time I tried to stop myself, I waged a private war in my head. What I didn’t realize at the time is that I needed to stop communicating with myself so much and start communicating with others.

How often do you allow yourself to play? If you just rolled your eyes, I’m definitely talking to you. At some point, you had joy in what you were doing. Maybe it wasn’t work. Maybe you were at the hot springs with a pool noodle shooting water at your friends. Whatever you were doing, you were in a place of joy.

Life comes out of left field sometimes. I remember when I was laid off from my last full-time job. I had it all: a nice salary, stock options, insurance, and a 401k. By all auspices, I was set. More than set, I was really happy. I loved my co-workers. I really enjoyed the work I was doing. The boat was sailing on smooth seas. Then, the typhoon hit.

Have you ever been in a situation where you wanted to say something, but you didn’t know how? What does that feel like in your body? Does it feel like a headache, pressing on your chest, or a pit in your stomach? Stating your truth is uncomfortable. But it’s also necessary in order to have authentic relationships with others.

This morning, my thoughts were consumed by the idea of being the leader, the benevolent king or queen, or the alpha. The word alpha stuck in my head. I thought of the wolves and how an alpha wolf leads the pack, both from the back or the front.

I’m on a mission. Maybe you are too. Maybe there’s something you want so bad you can taste it. That might be a weight loss goal. It might be an ideal relationship. You could be striving for a revenue goal or promotion. Whatever you want, you increase your chances of getting it if you plan to succeed.

My column is late this week. And, you know what? It’s OK. It’s OK because done is better than not at all. It’s OK because I can get out of my head long enough to forgive myself for how busy I have been. And, guess what else? It’s OK for you to just get things done too.

Ok. So, I am a bit early for Groundhog Day. But, if you read this column, maybe your can crack the code to one of your patterns by then. A life pattern is nothing more than a message for you to pay attention to. I will give you an example from my own life.