by Joseph Graves | Jan 4, 2014 | 30 Day Blog Challenge
You may find yourself living in a shotgun shack
You may find yourself in another part of the world
You may find yourself behind the wheel of a large automobile
You may find yourself in a beautiful house with a beautiful wife
You may ask yourself, well, how did I get here?
-Once in a lifetime, Talking Heads
I had been in the homebuilding and remodeling business for nearly 20 years prior to taking over Workshed. I had the wonderful opportunity to grow from a kid working as a laborer to the CEO (I use that term reluctantly) of a four million dollar a year business employing designers, project managers, carpenters and office staff. We were pretty successful- winning awards while building a portfolio full of really cool projects. We had a great reputation and a long list of happy clients.
One of the cool homes I built
Through this experience, I found that what I really loved was creating the processes that allowed my talented team to do what they do- design and build at a high level. Putting a solid structure in place helped them work together seamlessly which resulted in happier employees, happier clients and smoother projects.
Then, as we all know, the market cratered. There weren’t enough projects to keep my team busy so we had to let them go. It sucked. It really sucked. All that hard work seemed to be for nothing.
I began to think about pursuing something new where I could apply my passion for process and working with creative folks.
Which brings us to Workshed.
Joe and I had wanted to work together for several years and were looking for the right fit. When we heard that Workshed was available we were immediately intrigued. Both of us believe passionately in building a strong local economy (which requires healthy local businesses) and love solving problems. We felt that we understood the needs of the small businesses that Workshed serves and that we could have a positive impact- so we took the plunge.
Some people may wonder what a “construction guy” is doing with a website company. Well, I’m not really a construction guy and Workshed isn’t just a website company. My true passion is improving businesses and that is the mission of Workshed v2.0. We aim to build a great company that helps other folks build great companies. Building websites is one component of what we do to help businesses, but it’s an outcome of the process of solving a problem, not an end in itself.
My goal is to apply my hard-earned knowledge and skills to help my clients solve problems. It’s what drives me to work at expanding my capabilities into new territories (like how to build an effective website that generates a positive ROI). By working with the brave entrepreneurs who accept the risk of starting a business, I’ve found the perfect avenue for having a positive impact on my community and I’m helping to make the world a better place.
That’s why I got into this business.
by Joseph Graves | Jan 3, 2014 | 30 Day Blog Challenge, Articles
A Changed Man
There are many ways we are influenced in life and in business. It has been my experience that the most profound changes have been inspired by people I have known only through published work (books, interviews, etc). Individuals who caused me to question my assumptions and reevaluate my beliefs thereby allowing me to arrive at new understandings, be aware of my biases, and continue the process of refinement. The list is long, but in this post I’d like to focus on someone who was (and still is) key in shaping my thinking. He is Nassim Taleb, the author of 5 books, a philosopher, professor, a statistician, a former options trader, adviser to the International Monetary Fund, and an outspoken critic of the financial industry.
Like many people, I was first introduced to Taleb through his book, “The Black Swan” in 2007 (although unlike some of his critics, I actually read the book). There was one phrase in particular that created a paradigm shift in my thinking: “absence of evidence, is not evidence of absence.” In other words, just because you can’t see something (or quantify it), that does not mean it doesn’t exist. It’s been over 6 years since first reading those words, and I still feel the weight of their implication.
Blissfully Ignorant No More
His books (The Black Swan and Fooled by Randomness) opened my mind to the asymmetry of the risk return relationship in my business (investing) and life. Phrases within the financial industry became absurdities, and I soon developed a skepticism of commonly espoused strategies and instruction. It was this skepticism that led me into other bodies of knowledge and research that touched my life. Economics, politics, asset allocation, agriculture, the environment, parenting, the principles were consistently applicable, resulting in errors due to a lack of intellectual honesty. If you can’t accept or even consider that you might be wrong, you won’t look for alternatives.
His latest book, “Antifragile: Things that Gain From Disorder” is among the most insightful and directly applicable books I’ve read. The opposite of fragile is not robust…to survive is not enough. The opposite of fragile is antifragile. To benefit from adversity, volatility, and the like. As a parent, I can use an antifragile philosophy to prepare my children for adulthood, in business I can use it to turn a previous weakness into strength and benefit from tribulations.
NNT talks to the Stanford ETL Class
Nassim Taleb is someone I admire for his insight, commitment to excellence, and his ability to remain true to himself and his beliefs in spite of enormous financial success. Lately, he has also assumed the mantle of exposing charlatans and calling a spade a spade. It’s one thing to point out fallacies…quite another to name names. He sums it up nicely with his first ethical rule:
If you see fraud and do not say fraud, you are a fraud.
He follows it up with a promise:
If I call someone a dangerous ethically challenged fragilista in private after the third glass of Lebanese wine (white), I will be obligated to do so here.
Taleb is an interesting combination of a brilliant mind with a well read education and a practitioner who is acting on his philosophy. I’m thankful for his insights and inspiration.
How About You?
Who do you admire?
What books have inspired you?
by Joseph Graves | Jan 2, 2014 | 30 Day Blog Challenge, Articles
How can we help you?
There. That’s it. It very simply gets to the heart of the matter. Businesses exist to serve the customer’s needs.
Before you try to meet someone’s needs, it helps to know what those needs are. Many businesses (and salespeople) mistakenly assume to know what the needs of their customers are. Maybe they do, but you know what they say about assuming- something about making an ass out of….well you know the rest, so why take the risk?
The art and science of asking questions is the source of all knowledge.
–Thomas Berger
Ask and you shall receive! You never know what you might learn from asking questions. At a minimum, you’ll confirm what you thought you knew, but you might just uncover a need you never knew existed.
At Workshed, we like solving problems, and we really like solving problems for our customers.
So how can we help you?
Contact Us
by Joseph Graves | Dec 30, 2013 | 30 Day Blog Challenge, Workshed News
Ah, the new year is almost here. If you’re like us, you’re feeling a little bit guilty about all that merriment from the holidays that added to the ol’ mid-section. Time to get back in shape, maybe join a gym, take up jogging again, or try out that newfangled CrossFit thing.
Sounds like a plan. Fitness is important to a happy, healthy, productive human being. But what about your business fitness? Is it time start exercising your marketing and content creation muscle?
Of course it is! Content creation is the oft-neglected, but important part of your business that can resemble a treadmill collecting dust in the basement. Like any piece of exercise equipment, it’s no good unless you actually use it.
For many, creating content (just like exercise) is hard at first. But after the initial pain it gets easier. Once you’re in the habit of creating content and start to see results (more customer engagement), you know it’s all worth it.
Misery loves company so we invite you to share in the pain.
30-day Blogging Challenge
To show that we at Workshed practice what we preach, we’re accepting Hubspot’s 30-day Blog Challenge and invite you to join us. Why blog more? Because it’s an effective method of marketing. Hubspot says customers that write just 3-4 blog post per month attract 800 more website visits, 60 more Twitter followers, and 50 more Facebook likes than those who only write 2 blog posts. Visits and fans are great, but this also led to 20 more lead submissions as well!
Yeah, this stuff really works.
Our Blogging Goal
The challenge is to publish a blog post once a day from January 2 to January 31. We’ll track our site stats and report them daily on our Facebook, Google +, and LinkedIn pages (make sure you’re following us to stay updated). We invite each of you to share your stats, ask questions and help push us through to the finish line.
Not sure if you can post everyday? All is not lost, just post more than you are now. The point is to start…and do it regularly.
Are you up to the challenge?
Sorry, the form is closed.
