When things are going well, it’s easy to wait on the other shoe to drop. “See, I knew I wasn’t doing enough,” I expect to say some day in the future when it all falls apart. I don’t have what it takes. I’m a fraud. When things are going poorly, it’s easy to ride the […]
A Simple System for Creating Community Based on Dunbar’s Number
My wife was busy on that Saturday afternoon in 2014, so I pulled out my list of my friends in Atlanta and sent a flurry of texts inviting 10-15 of them to grab dinner with me in Virginia Highland. Five or six of them said yes and we ended up grabbing wings and beer at […]
How to Plan a Team Retreat for Your Remote Company
19% of remote workers say that loneliness is their #1 struggle with working remotely according to Buffer and company’s 2019 State of Remote Work report. I can relate. While there are so many strategic advantages to running a remote team, there are also some parts of working remotely that really suck from a personal standpoint. […]
How to Recover from a Mistake as a Leader
March 1, 2018. I won’t forget that date any time soon because it was the day I made my first major mistake as COO… and it had taken less than 6 hours in the role to happen. “We can’t keep letting this happen. We just lost one of our largest customers to a completely avoidable […]
How to Introduce a Friend or Colleague
“My name is Barrett Brooks. I live in Portland, Oregon with my wife and two dogs. I work at a software company. Really happy to be here.” That’s my standard “humble” self-introduction when I’m not familiar with the people I’m being introduced to. It doesn’t do my work justice. It doesn’t make me more connected […]
How I Use Social Media to Build Community
The three things I most want to feel in my life are love, joy, and belonging. Belonging requires a sense of community. And community doesn’t appear out of nowhere. It takes work to build community or to become a part of existing communities. I use my social media channels to foster a sense of community […]
How to Plan and Host a Mastermind Group Retreat
If you haven’t heard of the concept of a mastermind group before, it might be best to start with this post on starting and maintaining a mastermind group. I gave Nathan and Caleb big hugs as they loaded their bags into the back of my dad’s F-150. After grabbing dinner with my fiancé and picking […]
How to Have More Meaningful Conversations
I grab a seat at the corner of a large rectangular table. The centerpiece is a mason jar of pencils and an old school pencil sharpener. The table is made of reclaimed wood set on top of antique school lockers. In some ways, the school theme is the perfect setting for a morning of conversation […]
Mentoring: How to Find and Maintain a Mentor Relationship
When I went to New York, I heard Seth Godin refer to Tom Peters and the late Zig Ziglar as his mentors. When I went to Geneva, I heard Shaper after Shaper talk about their mentors who have helped them avoid certain failure, learn from mistakes, and accelerate towards their goals. In the online world, […]
Customers, Work, and Community (What I Learned from #WDS2014)
I’m back in the saddle after another trip to Portland for World Domination Summit (WDS), put on by Chris Guillebeau and company. 2014 was my third year attending the (un)conference, and I took away lessons that you can just as easily apply in your own work and life. With every passing year, I’ve found that […]