Becca Meierbachtol is no stranger to the challenge of creating a dream job. Her work life is a manifestation of her passions, centered around movement, physicality, and activity.  A full-time personal trainer, she also runs Old Ford Skateboards, her growing side business. For Meierbachtol, the path to her passions wasn’t about finding them but cultivating them into a job and career.

As a personal trainer, Meierbachtol started FRESH Performance in 2011, where clients include athletes from the Oregon Ballet, Portland Thorns, and the Portland STAGS. When she’s not there she’s in her shop at Old Ford Skateboards. “I tell people that I own a small business making handmade skateboards which usually causes a reaction of ‘whoa, really!?’” It’s that new creative venture we’re exploring, her second and newest passion project.

Meierbachtol has always loved surfing, skating, and art. Old Ford is the manifestation of these long-held creative pursuits. “I literally had the idea one day that I should make my own skateboard. It then spiraled into an idea of owning a van of some sort where I could travel around and sell skateboards. I saw an old Ford van and loved it. I thought in my head, ‘it would be so cool to have an old Ford. I could name my boards Old Ford Skateboard. I literally started creating boards, made a brand, and then bought a van. People thought I was crazy!“

So how do you know when you’re ready to take the next step and turn your passion project into a job? For Meierbachtol, so much had to do with not being able to stop thinking about her idea. She took the dream she couldn’t stop thinking about and made it real. So can you. Here are a few steps she’s learned along the way:

Passion  

It truly is rewarding to love the work you do. When you can turn your passion projects and dreams into a job, whether it be a side job, part-time, or full-time.  “I truly feel a strong passion for shaping skateboards and having people hop on one and enjoy the ride.  I know it might sound silly, but I love waking up knowing that I get to work in the shed and create something that people could enjoy and that I enjoy. I have always really been drawn to the surf and skate culture and I love being involved in it any way I can. I also love reusing materials and creating something new out of the old. To take a plank of wood and shape it into a usable board that can function and ride is so rewarding! I use sand from the Oregon coast as my grip on my boards, which again just incorporates natural substances that already exist. I want people to see the simplicity in my boards and realize that they can shred on a board that is not necessarily a modern, high tech board.” Meierbachtol looked back on her youth and was reminded of three things that she loved then and now: surfing, skateboarding, and art. It’s the things that have always made you happy that are the best places to start looking for work to be passionate about.

Simplicity

Simplicity is a huge drive behind her work. It’s not just about the board, it’s about a lifestyle.  Meierbachtol once took a six-month solo trip to South America and remembers writing a piece when she got home:

Maybe it’s not me that needs to reconnect, but the world that needs to disconnect.

“I think there is something to be said for that,” she says, “Old Ford Skateboards takes a retro style and brings it to today’s world. The boards are smooth cruisers, sustainable, fun, and simple.” Her first goal is to make cool skateboards and enjoy the time spent making them. At the core of that goal lies simplicity, enjoying the process from start to finish.

Know your weaknesses

“The biggest challenge I face is the actual business side of things,” says Meierbachtol. “I love the process of making the product, but getting it out there and figuring out how to run a successful business is so hard for me! I am not that connected in terms of social media and websites, etc., so I make something that I think it awesome, but people might not know about it as much as they could.” Meierbachtol pursues the avenues of pushing her product that works for her.  You don’t have to know, or want, to do everything. For Meierbachtol, the best business strategy is forging real work connections with friends and customers. It’s all about word of mouth and also running an Instagram account for the business. “I try and take a few photos throughout the day to post to my Instagram account to kind of show what my brand is all about.”

Love and learn from the process

A day at Old Ford is always different, but a cup of coffee in the morning and Carhartt’s is always a must. “I may stain a couple boards and then set them aside to dry while I shape some new ones. I source wood from many different locations so it comes to me in all different shapes and sizes. I always use recycled wood for my boards. So I will usually plane down a few boards to the correct thickness and then get into deciding what shape I want to make. This is the fun part. Each board can be whatever I want it to be. I have been shaping boards that tend to look and ride like old school surf style boards. I appreciate the simplicity of the boards from the 60’s and I love coming up with my own shapes that replicate that era.”

For Meierbachtol, pursuing her passions makes every day a whole lot more fun. No job is a perfect fit until you take ownership of it and make it your own.

The post Taking Ownership appeared first on River Capital.

Chloe has built a business based on turning ideas into experiences, much like how she crafted her own successful business from an idea. Chloe embodies the unteachable ingredients of drive, determination, and mindfulness.”

—Michael Knapp

The universe seems to take notice when you find something you’re really passionate about. For Chloe Mandell, her passions united to create Mandell Experiences (M.E.), a large-scale event planning company. Within M.E’s first year of operations, Mandell organized or worked twelve events, including the X Games and Rio 2016 Summer Games. Not a bad first twelve months. Her inspiration? A wholehearted belief in the power of experiences and their value in our lives. “Experiences have been proven to hold more value than things for many reasons, but especially because they increase in value over time,” says Mandell. “Think about the last pair of pants you bought versus the last trip you went on. From which do you gain more long-lasting happiness? I started Mandell Experiences to create and spread happiness in the best way I see possible (and love doing).”

M.E. offers a comprehensive approach to events of usually 500 people or more. With events of that size, Mandell needs to access a myriad of skills for both the office and being out in the field. Every day is a learning experience. With every event, Mandell isn’t only planning it, she is also working on funding it, getting people there, and running the event. Those four aspects of event planning take very different skillsets. “The ability to manage large groups of people and troubleshoot on the fly is quite different than the demands of developing and operating year-long planning, marketing, and sponsorship strategies. However, I’d like to think of myself as a full package experience producer, allowing my company to create a cohesive program from start to finish.”

In Mandell’s world, no day is typical, but she works hard at maintaining balance. Take this schedule:

Mandell just returned from Innsbruck, Austria, where she was shadowing the IFSC Youth World Climbing Championships – a 12-day, 800 competitor, multi-thousand spectator, live broadcasted event – which she’ll be helping produce next year in Canada. Before that, she was balancing training for an Ultimate Frisbee tournament, while negotiating a new contract for conference manager of a tech conference in Phoenix, AZ, while planning the largest single-day bouldering competition in the country, and supporting her twin sister as the Maid of Honor at her wedding. Phew!

So how does she maintain this crazy schedule? It’s not about a routine but about choosing to participate in activities that offer her a sense of work-life balance. She has found success through several positive life habits: cooking healthy vegetarian meals, waking up before 7am, not drinking coffee, staying hydrated, meditating 15 minutes a day, yoga, bouldering, and trail running.

The life of an entrepreneur is a daily learning experience. Every day you learn something new. Here are some key lessons that have helped Mandell continue to succeed:

Your passion is your purpose

I have been rock climbing for over half my life. My passion in climbing led me to produce some of the largest climbing competitions in the country. Then I pursued my passion for events and found myself at the Olympics. Moreover, I studied abroad in France in high school and later in Japan in college, gaining fluency in both languages. What’s the connection? Climbing just so happens to be making its Olympic debut in the Tokyo 2020 Olympics, and my goal is to take advantage of my unique skillset to help produce that event. I feel lucky to set myself apart by aligning with events that share the same quality and standards I hold for myself.

Be reliable

If I say I’m going to do something, I do it. If I say I’m going to be somewhere at a certain time, I’m there. In a place like Portland, where an easygoing and perhaps commonly passive attitude among many can make “I’ll try and be there” a very likely no-show, or fashionably late the norm, I’ve felt a little out of place for thinking otherwise. Perhaps it’s a good thing that I’m in events.

Not every potential client is the right client for you

I feel like when you start out running your own business, you take any client you can get. But as you begin to identify what you stand for – in the case of Mandell Experiences: quality, integrity, creativity, flexibility, and stoke – you are able to make a more deliberate effort to take on, or, more difficulty, pass on certain opportunities. I strongly believe that in the end, everyone is better off if you’re the right “model match,” as Michael Knapp puts it, for each other. I am grateful to be at the point now where potential clients are excited to grow their events to reach a place where we can work together.

Think of a new approach

Ever since I was a child, I have always sought new ways to push myself mentally, physically, and in this case, experientially. I’ve never really been good at accepting the status quo just because it’s always been that way. I often think outside the box, like filming in 360˚ up a climbing wall during a competition so folks can experience what it’s like to climb in front of 1,000 cheering fans during a postproduction Virtual Reality setup. “Same ‘ol” is just not good enough for me. I continue to strive for ways to be the best at what I do and create the best events for my clients and the wonderful folks who come out to join them.

An entrepreneur wears many hats, but they don’t all fit!

Photo Credit – Casey Elliott

As an entrepreneur, you wear many hats, but that doesn’t necessarily mean you’re good at everything nor necessarily have the background training in everything. For example, I have had to learn a lot when it comes to the nuts and bolts of contracts, insurance, and basically all the administration it takes to run a business. While it’s certainly rewarding to diversify your skills, one thing anyone going into business needs to realize is that to be successful, you need to work on your business, not just in your business.

I’m blown away by how my seemingly random life path has actually created the perfect combination of skills to achieve my dream,” Mandell says, She found this path by pursuing what excited her most and being open to following her dreams. “If you’re willing to take that leap, opportunities magically start to appear,” says Mandell.

We agree.

Find out more about Mandell Experiences at mandellexperiences.com and read Chloe’s blog here

The post When Passion Becomes Purpose appeared first on River Capital.

“Within the dynamics of real estate, one key ingredient to the client’s successful outcome is to understand the details of the subject property in question. In being able to look behind the preverbal real estate curtain to the inner workings of noted subject property, Nathan has established himself as one of the integral pieces to our client’s​ success within the market place.”

-Michael Knapp

Portland native Nathan Bernhardt was just 21 years old when he began to follow in his father’s footsteps. His company, Bernhardt Swiss Trust, focuses on brokerage and appraisal services, as well as investing. Estate planning appraising, bankruptcy appraising, appraisal rebuttals, residential appraisals, and land appraisals are just a few. It is no surprise Bernhardt is always working several roles. Since he began, Bernhardt says his job is to connect with clients and simplify the process. For him, long-term success comes with knowing every facet of his business.

With a lifetime of overseeing 20,000 plus homes, Bernhardt has learned what helps and doesn’t help him achieve his goals. Being credible, accessible, and honest come at the forefront for him. “My real estate businesses, both brokerage and appraisal, are founded on trust and independence,” he says, “Without it, there is no business communication, and no deal.”

Taking responsibility for your own strengths and shortcomings is the key to learning what it takes to be a successful entrepreneur.  For Bernhardt, he learned to overcome short-term thinking, lack of experience, and arrogance to be where he is now. Learning, he says, never stops coming your way. Here are a few valuable skills that Bernhardt found as a key to long-term success:

Listen

If a customer stops talking, ask questions, then listen again. You’ll learn so much more.

Observe

Nathan can feel when a house is well made or not; sometimes there is a smell or noise or humidity. It’s all in the details! Observe your surroundings and you’ll be surprised at how much you begin to notice.

Be honest

“We lose business every day by being honest. We don’t sell, we inform. Long-term, it works. We are not business cycle driven; it’s the lifecycle that keeps us busy. I believe there is no such thing as ‘too honest.’ I don’t know why we lie to children about things, for their own good. I don’t know why it’s ok for a politician, or public figure, to lie and keep their job. Brutally honest communication should be rewarded.”

Keep learning

The learning never ends. Everything you want is out there if you take both responsibility and action.

Explore

Bernhardt is a Portland native but that doesn’t stop him from exploring his city. He enjoys Portland’s food scene, and tunes into the cities architecture, real estate, and environment sectors. “I am impressed with Portland’s uniqueness, the art and the beauty of the new built environment,” he says.

Every day is a new day

“I wake up happy every morning. It might be naive, but I believe in each and every new ‘look’ every day.” Bernhardt finds inspiration from Nassim Taleb, a Lebanese-American essayist, scholar, statistician, former trader, and risk analyst. Taleb writes, “People overvalue their knowledge and underestimate the probability of their being wrong.” It’s a quote that highlights what has led Bernhardt to be a successful entrepreneur. Know your strengths and weaknesses, be honest, listen, explore, and be inspired.

The post Every Day Is A New Day In Real Estate appeared first on River Capital.

Mike Nye’s gift to Portland is that he puts his soul and commitment into understanding the person and their needs, and then proceeds forward in matching them with the perfectly suited property.

I’ve been honored to have negotiated a seven figure real estate transaction with Mike, as well as a simple month to month lease, and he has treated each one of these deals as if they were equal in value and of importance.

Michael Knapp

Mike Nye, co-founder of Capacity Commercial Group, is an expert in commercial real estate. From leasing, sales, and investments to tenant representation and construction management, he’s made a name for himself for his keen eye for real estate deals. As an Oregon native, he’s seen his state grow exponentially over the years. “It is amazing seeing our business community growth,” says Nye, “We are a major entrepreneurial hotbed and investment firms are investing millions of dollars.” So what are Nye’s secrets to success? Well, along the way to becoming an expert in his field he’s learned that it’s all about balance. Here are a few things he’s learned that have made him such a successful entrepreneur.

Make time for you

On the path to success, it’s easy for an entrepreneur to take work home. You can! But carve out time for you, your friends, and your family. You need to connect to experiences and people outside of the workplace in order to be more effective in the workplace. Nye starts every day with his family. He makes breakfast for his family every day for a sit-down meal. He also spends his evenings with his family. Your time is your choice. For Nye, his priority is to be present and involved with his family. He chooses that every day. So remember, your personal time is just as important as your professional time.

Emails don’t come first

Emails aren’t the first on Nye’s priority list when he arrives at the office. Rather, he prefers to get into the daily plan of moving projects forward first. Getting weighed down and distracted by emails is an easy mistake and one that can decrease productivity in the office. Set the time in your day to send and respond to emails but remember that they shouldn’t occupy your entire day. Find a working plan that works best for you.

Plan tomorrow today

Every evening Nye plans his emails for the next day and sets his agenda and priority list. It helps him save a lot more time the following day. So whether you need a to-do list or pre-written emails prepared, figure out what you can do today to make tomorrow more manageable.

Do what you say you will do

Do what you say you will do. This really is the hardest lesson of all says Nye, but it’s a trait shared by all successful entrepreneurs. Trust is built on your everyday actions. It’s an everyday task, but keep it in mind and you’ll find yourself thinking first before making what could potentially be a false promise. Deliver when you know you can deliver and you can build your reputation on it!

Give thanks

“Business relationships are not built to go fast; they are built to go far,” believes Nye. He’s built and maintained fruitful relationships with his clients because he believes in long term investment. At the heart of learning to say thank you one learns the practice of gratitude. Nye has learned that success is not a road one walks alone.

Find out more about Capacity Commercial Group

The post Raising The Bar – Mike Nye appeared first on River Capital.

Meg is an incredible technician in the “human operating systems” of life. Her ability to guide clients successfully to a healthier and well balanced being is nothing short of amazing!

Being an entrepreneur is no easy task. The road to success requires dedication, risk, self-reliance, and time. One misstep and it feels like everything you’re working towards will disappear.  Every step forward is personal. So how do you find your dream job and how do you balance it all? Meg Orion is an entrepreneur who has discovered just how to do it all. How? She’s a health coach.

Orion offers personalized one-on-one health coaching services. It’s her dream job. “My mission was almost selfish at first,” she says. “I place a lot of value in honoring passion and following dreams, so personally I wanted to create a job and lifestyle that I loved, one that I was excited about and eager to engage in every day.”

After more than a decade as a massage therapist and professional dancer, an interest developed to help people both holistically and physically. Orion found a path that combined both. “Knowing that I could reduce someone’s pain and stress by getting them to change their diet and start exercising, that was great! That by promoting and teaching self-care I could make a client’s days easier and happier, and that they, in turn, would spread their good feelings to others? It was clearly a path that delighted me.”

When you’re on the path to entrepreneurship, or already there, finding balance helps lead you to continued success. Her philosophy is that the body, mind, and soul are all interconnected— that you cannot work with one without shifting the other two. Guidance in nutrition, physical activity, and self-care was a path she wanted to share as one entrepreneur to another. Sometimes self-improvement needs a guiding hand, and who better to help than someone who has already been on the same journey? Orion shares her story on how to achieve personal success and self-fulfillment:

Be Your Authentic Self

I attribute my success to walking my talk, showing up as my true self and not giving up. Taking great care of myself and following many of the same suggestions I give my clients is integral to my being in a position to help others. My career path provides me a wonderful symbiosis; not only do I offer expert guidance in the areas of nutrition, physical activity and self-care, but it’s vital to my profession that I take my own advice, and so I benefit, and the cycle is positively reinforced.

People hire me for my skills and education – but also from the way I present myself. Showing up as one’s authentic self, believing unshakably in the process one promotes is an unmistakable position and is correlated with success in many areas of life.

Ask For Help

As my business grows I strive to know when to ask for help and when to hire out. There are many aspects to running a business that are auxiliary to the actual services I provide, and I understand that while I am slowly improving at all of those, it’s more important to have them done very, very well than it is for me to know I completed every business task myself. Ultimately, delegation has been a wonderful necessity.

Look At Your Fear

A year-and-a-half into starting my business I almost gave up and went to nursing school. I’d found myself temporarily paralyzed with the self-doubt and fear of creating something new, and my mind rebelled. Thankfully, I defaulted to a run in the woods, and there I either found or lucked-upon the clarity that allowed me to look at the fear objectively, and I was able to return to the idea of following my heart and going for the thing that excited me. That run was over a weekend, and on Monday I made a plan of attack and began again.

Balance The Personal and Professional

I do my best to stay present and non-rushed as my husband and I feed the kids a good breakfast, make smoothies for ourselves and get everyone out the door. After drop-off, I put on my professional hat. Arriving at my office, I have a second cup of tea, answer emails and get ready for my first client. I typically see three clients; take a break to then go exercise at a kettle-bell gym for an hour. Then I return for lunch and computer work. That work might be updating my social media, writing a blog or planning a community class. I leave my office by 2:15p.m. everyday to pick kids up from school. I love this part of my day and feel blessed and fortunate that I have the flexibility to arrange my day in this way. From 2:30p.m on it’s mom mode; we’re playing, going to Tae Kwon Do, tidying the house and preparing dinner.

Follow Your Own Advice

It’s vital to my profession that I take my own advice, and so I benefit, and the cycle is positively reinforced. What I believe in intimately and wholeheartedly – is how wonderful it feels for you to realize that you’re the successful instrument of your own positive change. That realization – that you have what it takes to clear the hurdles between you and your own health and happiness – can be fabulously addictive, and the entire world can use more of that addiction.

As an entrepreneur what you put in is what you get out. At the end of the day your motivation comes from within. Whether you’re looking for a new career path or a dietary change, Orion helps people find balance and introduces sustainable and healthy behaviors. 

Next online group coaching starts February 14th!

For more details: megorion.com/group/

Find out more about Meg, and try a free coaching session, at megorion.com

The post Finding Balance appeared first on River Capital.

Who knew that a simple invitation to participate in a lunchtime game of Ultimate Frisbee would change my life, allow me to travel the world, forge lifelong friendships, and fire my ambition to go for the gold.

The Spirit Of The Game
Ultimate Frisbee, long known to the public as a grassroots activity of the hippy culture, is largely responsible for fueling the accomplishments in my personal and business life. Unlike most other traditional sports, it is a self-refereed game.  This self-refereed aspect is known as the The Spirit of the Game, or SOTG.  All fouls and violations are called by the players on the field.  When a foul is noted, both parties have to agree on a fair outcome- Can you imagine Kobe or LeBron calling fouls, or Aaron Rodgers or someone like JR Smith or James Harden trying to fairly self ref a game?  What a mess that would be! This one ingredient of the game is THE singular most important characteristic distinguishing Ultimate Frisbee from every other sport.

The SOTG requires a conversation between the two parties to resolve the foul or infraction.  Imagine this scenario:  You are playing in the Gold Medal game at Nationals or at Worlds, and the game is tied.  You are streaking down field to catch the frisbee for the game winning goal.  You reach out to catch the frisbee and barely make the fingertip catch in the end zone. The defender says the frisbee just hit the grass prior to you making the catch.  You clearly believe that the frisbee did not touch the ground first. The defender thinks otherwise, and the fans and spectators watching the game are yelling and screaming their own opinions as well!  What do you do?  There’s no referee to talk with and both of you believe that you are right….Well, you have a conversation with the defender and come to one of three conclusions:

1). You agree with the defender that the frisbee did hit the ground first, which results in a turnover, and now you are on defense.

2). The defender agrees that you caught the frisbee cleanly and you now have won the game.

3). You both agree that you can’t agree if the frisbee was up or down and a repeat/do-over is warranted.

It’s this talking point in creating a fair and appropriate outcome that differentiates Ultimate Frisbee from every other sport.  As this sport is being played by every age group, the benefits of learning the game with the SOTG as the underlying framework, creates life long benefits outside the field of play. *As a note, the youth/adult program in Portland is incredible and information about it can be found at Portlandultimate.org.

A Life Lesson

As a teenager who grew up playing all of the traditional sports, I was introduced to the game of Ultimate Frisbee in 1988 by my summertime employer, Mr Doug Voderberg.  He was one of the captains and a player on the local Portland elite men’s team, Portland Rhino.

During a phone interview with him about an upcoming job, Doug requested that I bring work boots, a gallon of water, and cleats to the job site. What did I need cleats for? At lunchtime we proceeded to Willamette Park. There I saw a game of soccer being played on one field and people throwing a frisbee on another field. Doug jumped out of his truck, grabbed his old red canvas duffle bag and headed in the direction of the people playing a silly looking game of frisbee.  Not only was I disappointed not to be playing soccer, but, I was also a bit bummed at the thought of playing some silly game of frisbee when I could be eating my lunch.  Why would I give up my lunch to play frisbee anyway?

Well we played frisbee that day. At least I tried and my life was changed forever.

I enrolled at OSU, co-captained the Ultimate team from 1991-1996, and developed some incredible friendships that are today some of my most cherished relationships.

After graduation a group of my best Ultimate friends from OSU and UO created a team called Jaded Andain.  This team defined what Ultimate Frisbee meant to me.  We were a super fun team of young 20 year olds, fast, athletic and full of “know it all”.  Though we never won a tournament, we sure acted like we did!

Winning The Gold

From 1998 through 2007, I played frisbee with the Portland Men’s team.  Throughout our years, we would play just be well enough to finish consistently within the top 10 at Nationals and at Worlds.

It wasn’t until I began playing with teams outside of Oregon that I was able to experience winning National and World Championships.

In 2009, a handful of Portland men joined forces with a San Francisco crew to win UPA Nationals, which qualified us for Worlds 2010 in Prague.  We competed against teams from around the globe and our US team won The Gold Medal in 2010.

In 2014 we joined a Colorado contingent and won the Bronze Medal at Worlds in Italy.  The following year we won Gold at the 2015 USAU Nationals and repeated our victory winning the Gold at 2016 USAU National Championships.

The game of frisbee brings important life ingredients to the field of play.  In return, it has taught me life lessons off the field that have helped craft my amazing life.

If you are interested in learning more about Ultimate Frisbee, please take a look at the PUFF website(Portland ultimate.org) or contact me directly.   

The post Back To Back Champs appeared first on River Capital.

Lane Cooper’s ability to understand people in relationship to their homes is a gift.

-Michael Knapp

Whether you’re remodeling your existing residence or building a custom house, Cooper Design Builders helps you create your dream home. Owner Lane Cooper is a man who knows about dreams; he’s spent a lifetime making them come true.  “The bricks and mortar isn’t what it’s about for us,” says Cooper on what drives him, “It’s the product we produce, but really, quite frankly, it is about people.” 

Success is always personal. For an entrepreneur, it’s a dream that hopefully becomes a lifetime reality. Cooper Design Builders has it, and it’s not without inspiration. At the core, success lies with Cooper’s values. The draw of being an entrepreneur not only comes from having freedom and creativity, but understanding what it is that you want to do being an entrepreneur. “I’ve always said to myself that I want financial independence and a wealth of relationships. That’s why I do this.” Cooper says owning a remodeling company allows him to foster relationships. I have the unique opportunity to have meaningful conversations with people about how they want to live with their loved ones in their home.  It is through these conversations and the trust that is bestowed upon my company to craft their space into their dream, that I am honored with so many amazing relationships in my life.

For Cooper his day starts early with a 5:30am run. It’s his creative time and critical to his day. His love of nature is satiated, the greenery of Portland is perfect for this native Oregonian. “I stay here not because I have to but because I love to,” he says. Cooper grew up in Albany, went to the University of Oregon in Eugene, and moved to Portland in 1991. He’s been here ever since. If he’s not running he’s reading. He arrives to work at 8:30am. After that, the rest of his day stops being typical. So what’s his drive?

Freedom of choice

“What I want to do and how I want to do it – It’s super important to me and no matter if it costs me money, I love the freedom to navigate my own way.” 

Togetherness

I’m very much a person who loves togetherness – I would rather do something with somebody then alone. It makes the ‘experience’ far more valuable. The best parts of my life are when I’m doing things with others! 

Nature

“I am a person of nature – always will be – I gain my energy by getting out in nature – especially when I am around water.”

Listening

Cooper spends a lot of time listening. Not just to what a client is saying, but their demeanor. At the end of the day, it is the heart of Cooper Design Builders. “I ask them to tell me the story of what they want to accomplish,” he says of his clients, and then I listen. I know by the end of our conversation I’m going to have a good feel for helping them craft their dream.” Usually when people come to a remodeler – like
Cooper- they want to fix something that doesn’t work for them. The answer to crafting a remodel that truly connects to the homeowners personal needs and style, Cooper discovered, lies in the heart of their story.  

What’s next?

Cooper Design Builders is growing to help other succeed. “I am very excited about growing our company to develop more leaders and to give better service, but it doesn’t come without a price.”  Cooper Says laughingly.  “To develop leaders I have to give up control and allow them to control their areas of expertise. To improve the company I put together a team of directors.  We meet weekly to identify, discuss and solve the issues of the company. They don’t always agree with me and I have found myself being out voted, which is not easy for me.  However, the results are undeniable. Our business will grow by more that 25% this year and it is on track to do the same again next year. Another benefit of this growth is I have more time to do what I like most in this world, to foster relationship.”

Over the years Cooper has learned that what motivates him, are the relationships in his life. “I believe that at the core of my business or anything in my life; it’s relationships that create my success and help me solve my issues,” says Cooper. I don’t talk about that very often, but when I’m making a decision I’ll base it on my relationships over money every time.” It’s this belief that manifest itself in his company.  Cooper Design Builders is a company about relationships, beautiful design, and helping people live better in their home. At the end of the day, we learned from Cooper, it’s your relationships that matter the most. Learn how you want yours to be.  I like to experience life with people – it makes my work that much better.” We think so too.

The post It’s About The People appeared first on River Capital.

This trip was simply about experiencing more “good life” in a geographic region that I would end up calling “Heaven.”

A classic trout steam near the Kokatahi river.

A toast to the good life! And chasing monster brown trout. Thank you to Nathan Donaldson President of EO Wellington, New Zealand.

 

The southern region of New Zealand has an appreciation of Mother Nature like nothing that I have ever experienced. Water, trees and fish and every other natural components of New Zealand are seen as valuable ingredients of Mother Nature. These ingredients are respected, appreciated and valued as a gift, not just as a natural resource. Up until my New Zealand travel, the term natural resource resonated as utilizing nature in a manner that is beneficial to people. My experience in New Zealand was met with a different understanding. I realized that “natural resource” was not commonly used within the vernacular of the small towns and local jurisdictions.  Don’t get me wrong, nature is woven into the economy of New Zealand, but is done so in a manner of appreciation. The result is a very powerful differentiation around the mindset of Mother Nature.

This bag and my fly rod hiked over 80 miles of stream bank. Just another day in paradise.

 

Fishing to me, isn’t about the fish. It’s not about how big, how many, or even catching. It’s simpler and more important than that. In fact it’s so ingrained within my soul that it actually creates an imbalance if I don’t find myself knee deep in the water every 3 to 4 days.  Hiring guides with fancy jet sleds to rage up a river or sitting in a boat pulling plugs while waiting for the bite, does not satiate my being.

Suspension bridge over the Kokatahi River.

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“There is an art in her ways of extracting the non tangibles of an entrepreneurs inner workings and subsequently crafting a brand awareness around it…I call it magic…other people call it a gift.”

Michael Knapp

Entrepreneur and marketing strategist Holly Hagerman wanted to make an impact in the world. She founded Green Rising Marketing to do just that, making the green movement more successful day by day and company by company. Hagerman believes you can make an impact in whatever you choose to do, and she certainly has with notable companies such as Friends of Trees, Idealist.com, Cairn Pacific, and more. We recently sat down with her to learn the secrets of success for an entrepreneur.

“Our fundamental reason for existence is to fuel the success of the environmental movement,” she says, “that’s why we were founded.” To do that, Hagerman insists you must start conversations that mean something. Eventually the ultimate goal is to turn socially conscious into socially subconscious – to make the responsible way second nature. For Green Rising, they boiled it down to discovering their core values. The result, she says, were principles for which we should be willing to hire and fire.

Hagerman and her team wrote down the core values about two years ago. It was so impactful that now she does it with most of her clients.

Green Rising’s Road Map of Core Values 

• Start conversations that mean something. 

“It’s not about meeting in person, it’s about making a powerful connection.” 

• Dig deep, celebrate the details, think in systems. 
• Take care of each other.

“This starts with our employees and extends to our clients…Sometimes if a client is sick we’ll send them some chicken noodle soup or Jack Daniels.”

• Go with your gut, be intuitive.
• Revel in the hot seat.

“You have to be able to think on your feet, set expectations that are accurate, and give answers in the moment.

• Never stop learning.
• Seek results. Be a budget guardian. 

“We want to know what’s coming out of this work. If we don’t get clear results we shouldn’t be in business.  The first step is to protect the clients budget, always have it top of mind.” 

• Rethink normal.

“Take things and look at them from every angle, including this angle: What happens if we do nothing?”

And most importantly:

• “Do the right thing.”

Do Less: The Secret to Everyday Success

In 2015 Hagerman set a New Years goal: Be early. It inspired the goal she set for 2016: Do less. Yes, LESS! Here’s why…

“What I realized after I spent a year trying to be early was that I was filling my life with too many things, making arriving on time a challenge” she says. She recently spent time among Ethiopian tribes, and it was eye-opening. Community is a big part of their health. Depression, they say, is a ‘city sickness.’ When you ask them what they like to do they always say, spend time with friends. With such shared work, you see them sitting around chatting more.  And studies show that tribal people spend only 3-5 hrs a day working (The original affluent society – https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Original_affluent_society ) “So, a truth that I try to live by is: doing less gives you so much more. Meditating, doing nothing, gives you windows for creativity and problem solving making you far more productive than working ten or twelve hours a day.” As the old adage goes… “Don’t just do something, sit there!”  Hagerman takes a full two hours to welcome the day, get ready and eat before work each day. She puts her phone on airplane mode at night, and only turns it back on after her morning meditation. This makes room for her second resolution: Make space, don’t fill it or try to capture it.

How to engage Millenial hires 

Hagerman knows how to lead her team, and she’s skilled at understanding the millennial drive. “The millennial generation is very entrepreneurial. If you don’t give them freedom, mobility, and career acceleration they will leave,” she says. So how does an entrepreneur lead other entrepreneurs?  “I had always wanted to have a virtual agency model and I wanted to treat my employees as equals, like you would a contractor.”

The book, “Why Work Sucks and How To Fix It: The Results-Only Revolution,” was pivotal for Hagerman. The book became a driving force, and gave the reeducation neccessary to get away from the ‘buts in seats – over-the-shoulder’ management style. “Their desk is in their computer and they can pick up and go whenever they want. The idea is that you are responsible for getting the results. Your job depends on it.” 
As an entrepreneur Hagerman lives her work, and she does so with intent, balance, and thoughtfulness. Her vision comes true with Green Rising, and it’s amazing to see marketing come into fruition with those values as a driving force. Everyday Green Rising fuels the environmental movement by starting conversations that mean something. What happens next is what we can’t wait to find out. 

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