Doing (good) Business

Kevin Nolan, founder and president of Nolan Painting, is a leader who truly exemplifies our October theme of Openness. From open book accounting, to how he establishes goals for his team, Kevin has been in business since the 1970s and runs what has become the largest residential painting company in the US! If Kevin sounds familiar, that's because he was a guest on the Doing (good) Business live podcast panel, in Season 1 and we're thrilled to have him back for a deep dive into Openness.

Follow their painting adventures on Facebook and check out Nolan in the Neighborhood to see all of the community causes and outreach they support, like December 14th's Reindeer Romp 5K in Havertown, PA with pizza & pub crawl right after - they've raised $500K for American Cancer Society over the years!

Powerful takeaways from Kevin:

• "Good leaders have to cultivate the things they want in their business"
• Open Book Management - what it is, how Nolan Painting practices it, and why
• "I open myself up to them, and they do the same - I know about my people"
• Pay for performance system built around the company's monthly KPIs - that are posted on a white wall in the building!
• Focus on the values (theirs include friendliness and accountability)
• The 2 books Kevin used to create the Nolan Painting culture: Ownership Thinking & The Great Game of Business
• Kevin's advice to other business owners and leaders who want to adopt similar philosophies? Be a student. Cultivate it.

October's theme is Openness and Kelly & Lara talk about why you need it, how leaders do openness well, and of course, how it helps your organization do good business! We've got a special shout-out to Kelly's dog Bandit about 20 minutes in :-)

Be open to these good business tips:

• Lara coaches her leaders on what she calls "Appropriate Transparency"
• Growth mindset
• We all make up stories when there's a lack of info. Openness is a key ingredient to trust and trust positively impacts retention
• The Real Power of Transparency and Openness
• How Leaders can build a culture of trust and openness
• Kelly notes openness as one of the Big 5 Personality Traits studies by researchers

Our September happiness guest is Blake Harris from Zoom. Blake is a Zoom Sales Recruiter & the 2019 Happy Crew President. Yes, we did say Happiness Crew!

Did you know that Zoom's mantra is delivering happiness? Their Happy Crew is international & when Zoom went public in 2019, the Happy Crew got recognition and is now being branded throughout the organization!

What's important to know:

Glassdoor reviews are amazing - happiness positively impacts culture and retention

Zoom holds unique events - like bring your parents to work day - that foster happiness

All Happy Crew events recorded with Zoom so you can revisit the happiness!

Zoom adopts a fail forward philosophy

Kelly and Lara are back with their first solo episode of Season 2, and they're talking Happiness. If you're happy (or want to be) and you know it, listen in!

How to find personal happiness? Look for meaning.

How to create professional happiness at a corporate level? Make it part of your strategy!

Resources:

https://greatergood.berkeley.edu/article/item/happy_life_different_from_meaningful_life

https://www.tenpercent.com/dan-harris-books

https://blogs.scientificamerican.com/beautiful-minds/the-differences-between-happiness-and-meaning-in-life/

https://greatergood.berkeley.edu/article/item/the_four_keys_to_happiness_at_work

Takeaways to consider:

Micro - What are your ingredients for a happy life? If they're not all present right now, how can you add them back in?

Macro - What did it look like when you developed something new in your organization? How can you replicate that?

Would you like a realtor who genuinely wants what's best for the client AND who donates a home for every home bought or sold? We sure would, which is why we were so excited to discover Casa Real Estate in Southern CA. Their slogan? Your home builds another. Yup - you read that right! They took the buy one give one model and applied it to homes! We knew we had to talk to them.

In fact, Casa is approaching 100 homes built (all 100 have been donated, and are built or waiting to be built) in only 2.5 YEARS! Follow them on Instagram & Facebook @CasaMovement

Key takeaways:

• Long term vision is key for this model
• Hiring people who want to grow themselves and become better in different areas
• One of the owner's daily affirmations includes "I operate my life with integrity in and out of business"
• Start Something that Matters book
• Clients have the opportunity to join them in trips to Guatemala to build the homes their profits donated
• Chad & Nick's advice for businesses who want to incorporate this kind of model in their business

We are kicking off Season 2 with a bang! Our first 2 episodes feature incredible guests who are truly doing good business. In September, we'll officially get into our Season 2 format of 2 episodes per month - both around a specific topic and both chock full of powerful takeaways and small steps you can take in your life and work.

We are thrilled to start the season with Jennifer Brown, a leading diversity and inclusion expert, dynamic keynote speaker, best-selling author, award-winning entrepreneur and host of The Will To Change podcast, which uncovers true stories of diversity and inclusion. As the founder, president and CEO of Jennifer Brown Consulting, Jennifer's workplace strategies have been employed by some of the world's top Fortune 500 companies and nonprofits—including Walmart, Microsoft, Starbucks, Toyota Financial Services, T-Mobile, and many others— to help employees bring their full selves to work and feel Welcomed, Valued, Respected and Heard℠.

Her new book, How to Be an Inclusive Leader: Your Role in Creating Cultures of Belonging Where Everyone Can Thrive (Berrett-Koehler), released in August 2019, has an important message for business leaders everywhere: it's time we turned the promise of inclusion into a reality.

Key takeaways & helpful links:

• How to know when you've got a problem with D&I?
• Why to put I before D, and how does belonging play into the conversation?
• Who is doing it well & why re: D&I?
• D(g)B Episode 15 - Inclusion
• Peter Drucker - Culture Eats Strategy for Breakfast
• Reversing the Generation Equation
• www.inclusiveleaderthebook.com - assessment to learn where you are in your inclusive leader journey

You guys! Doing (good) Business has released 31 episodes! That's 1 episode per week since October 2018. We are thrilled with the reception we've gotten and can't wait to do more.

Walking our talk is a top priority for us, and to make the podcast sustainable, we decided to move to a season format. That means you have the whole summer to catch up on the 31 awesome episodes from Season 1!

We'll be back in your podcast feed on Monday August 19th with Season 2 - we'll have all new episodes, a new bi-weekly format, more actionable steps to take between episodes, and more great information on how you can do good business!

Thank you for all of your support and for making our first season such a success. Please share this podcast with your friends, rate & review us on iTunes or wherever you listen to podcast, and don't be shy! Drop us a line over the summer on our website, Instagram, LinkedIn or Twitter.

See you in August!

Kelly & Lara are thrilled to welcome Mark Puncher, Chief Energy Officer of Employer Branding Australia, to Doing (good) Business. Mark is a fantastic Aussie who makes it his business to help companies define their employer brand - authentically. What's an employer brand? You didn't know employer branding was a thing? Well, have we got the podcast for you! Learn what employer branding is, how to do it honestly and with authenticity, and how differentiate your company. Mark shares his top tips for you (including why you shouldn't have a ton of expensive videos!).

Check out:

Employer Branding Australia's Purpose (scroll down)

What does Olivia Bland's whistle-blowing mean for employers?

Employer brand is a deeper version of the corporate brand

Get more in depth info on these tips in the episode and find Employer Branding Australia on Facebook & Mark on LinkedIn.

Note - the video Mark mentions hasn't made it into the world yet, so keep your eye on his social media to see it soon!

To help fantastic, imperfect employers attract fantastic, imperfect people.

We're obsessed with the powerful collaboration between talented people and the progressive organisations they choose to work for. Our job is to bring those everyday stories to life to attract and engage your current and future workforce.

Our (highly) secret ingredient: Authenticity.

We bring the expertise, the objectivity and the energy to help you and your people celebrate who you are.

Second half of the panel discussion around Culture. This episode includes audience Q&A and our panelists #1 tip to put a Culture Mindset to work in your business.

Panelists:Diana Asbury, Marketing Director at Workzone

Hope Bear, Chief People Officer at AWeber

Jim Bishop, President & Founder at Cornerstone Clubs

Kevin Nolan, Founder & CEO at Nolan Painting

Special thanks to Alex Dingley for recording this event and AWeber for hosting!

Kelly and Lara moderate a panel discussion around Culture - how it doesn't have to cost a lot of money, how it positively impacts retention, and how you can put a Culture Mindset to work in your business.

Panelists:Diana Asbury, Marketing Director at Workzone

Hope Bear, Chief People Officer at AWeber

Jim Bishop, President & Founder at Cornerstone Clubs

Kevin Nolan, Founder & CEO at Nolan Painting

Special thanks to Alex Dingley for recording this event and AWeber for hosting!