Hire Passion and Teach Skill

One of the newest things to me is having a team. We have a walk in love. team and a Brooke Courtney team. I am going to focus on the walk in love. team and how we ended up with these eight awesome people. When we decided to open the store we weren't really worried about whether people had computer skills, could work the register or knew how to fold a shirt correctly. Those are all things that we could teach. We wanted passion, energy and excitement! We wanted people who loved the brand and wanted to see it grow. Here is how we got those people.

We needed around 8 people to staff the store.

First we asked 3 of the people who worked at the kiosk the year before - Mike (my brother), Matt (the first walk in love. intern) and Maddie (who I've known since she was 6 years old).

Then my best friend, Jeff, asked if he could have one of the jobs. He was tired of working at his other job and was ready for a change. So we said, Yes!

Then we posted an application online for the 5 positions we had left and were greeted with over 100 applications.

So Mike, Brooke and I looked through them and narrowed it down to about 30 based off whether they fit our brand. We were looking for excited, young and happy people to join our team.

Then we thought about sitting down with 30 different people and having them all regurgitate the same answers on why they were perfect for the job and blah blah blah. Not my idea of an exciting Saturday.

So instead Brooke and I decided to have a party at our house and invite the current team of 4, some other friends and all 30 potential team members. We wanted to see how they interacted with each other and with other people.

I won't go into the details of the party, but after it was over the team came to almost unanimous decisions on who would be a good fit and who wouldn't. We were all in on 3 people so I offered them all a job and they accepted. Two of them - Drew and Gina still work at the store.

Then there was one other person at the party that I was on the fence about. I heard peoples opinions on her but it came down to me to make the decision and I had to trust my gut so I asked our last team member Kristen to be on the team and I couldn't be happier with that desicion.

I love our team. I love their energy and passion. I love that I can trust them and I love that I didn't just look for people who gave me the right answers. Yes, sometimes I am so frustrated with our team members, but in the end I know that each one of them is passionate about walk in love. I know that they will do their very best to represent the brand and to live out our message in public.

I think whenever you are hiring or building a team look for passion first and skill second. When we asked Maddie to be the intern for the Brooke Courtney team she didn't know much about photography but we knew she had a passion for it. Skills and technique will come with coaching and practice, but passion will not.

Enjoying the little things

People are always saying they are busy. It's something that I didn't understand a couple of years ago when I didn't really have anything going on, but I thought maybe I will understand when I have a house and a wife and so on. But now I have a house, a wife, two businesses and I still don't understand. I know some people will say, "Just wait 'til you have kids." but those are the same people that said, "Wait 'til you are married and have a house." So if you are saying that, just be quiet. Currently in my life I have two very different businesses - walk in love, a retail store, is open every day. Everyday I have 3-4 out of 8 employees working at some point in the day. I do have an awesome manager, my brother, who handles the day to day, which is incredible.  You can never underestimate the power of great employees, but I am still responsible for quite a bit.  I have to make sure that it's running smoothly and that product is coming in at the right time in the right amounts. So while walk in love. is daily, it's also a couple of months in advance. We are currently planning Christmas- so it's today, but also the next couple of months.

Brooke Courtney Photography is very different. It's today, this week and next year. Today we need to make sure that our clients questions answered, photos are being edited and things are running smoothly. This week we need to make sure that we have all our wedding and portrait details finalized, our camera gear ready and travel directions. Next year we need to make sure that we are booking enough dates so we don't have to get jobs at Starbucks (although we love Starbucks).

So, if you asked me if I feel like I am busy I would say, "Yes...but no." Yes, because the next free date on our calendar is September 25th. Yes, because we have Smilebooth events for the next 6 weekends before a break. Yes, because we have 4 weddings in the next 6 weeks. Yes, because our shirts coming out at Christmas need to be designed.....but still no. I am not busy because I enjoy the little things. I enjoy the house that I live in, I enjoy the cats we have, I enjoy the beautiful wife I have from her head all the way down to her toes (see photos above). I don't allow myself to choose busyness over enjoying life or use "being busy" as an excuse.   I choose daily to be productive, to be energetic and to be excited about what I have to do. I also choose to make time for the things that matter to me. I try to see my mom once a week even if it's for 5 minutes because that matters to me. I make time to exercise because I don't like feeling fat. I make time for video games because it relaxes me.  The list goes on and on.

I know a few people who say, "I am really busy" a lot and most of the time I just want to say, "bulls**t." I feel like most people who say that are using it as an excuse because they don't want to admit to themselves that they could be living a better life, a more full life.

I love the way the message says Ephesians 5:11

"Don't waste your time on useless work, mere busywork, the barren pursuits of darkness. Expose these things for the sham they are. It's a scandal when people waste their lives on things they must do in the darkness where no one will see. Rip the cover off those frauds and see how attractive they look in the light of Christ. Wake up from your sleep, Climb out of your coffins; Christ will show you the light! So watch your step. Use your head. Make the most of every chance you get. These are desperate times!"

Don't use the excuse of busyness or the useless things that are making you busy to waste your life. There is so much more to live for. It doesn't mean you have to climb a mountain, it just means do something that matters to you and matters to God. For me it's enjoying the little things.

Education, Execution and Dedication (with some crying mixed in)

I was writing a post called with this same title and just recently added "with some crying mixed in" after certain events that have happened in the past 2 1/2 weeks.  This is my advice to all the aspiring small business owners out there. Education : When I look back on the history of walk in love. and Brooke Courtney Photography (the two buisnesses my wife and I own) this is the step that I really wish I would have used more.  If you are out there thinking that "all you need is a website or a camera" and then I will make tons of money you couldn't be more wrong.  Those two things will help you make money but they are not the answer to the question "How do I get started?"

The answer to that questions is education.  I don't mean go and get a business degree or anyhing like that.  I don't have a business degree. It just means that before you take the plunge into the small business world make sure you are educated on your field of interest.  When I started selling shirts I started with these terrible Gildan shirts that were so ugly and uncomfortable.  I just wanted to sell shirts so it's the first one I picked out.  Looking back I wish I would have educated myself on the styles, builds and brands of blank shirts out there.  Instead I jumped in thinking "it's just a t-shirt."  So often I see friends and other aspiring small business owners skip this education step thinking, "if they can do it so can I."  If you educate yourself on what you want to do, whether it's photography, design, clothing or selling sports memorabilia you are instantly giving yourself a leg up on all the people who are just starting with no thought at all.  I wish I could go back sometimes and start walk in love. with more education.

Also, ask for help!  There is so much knowledge at our fingertips with the internet and there are so many good business men and women out there that are willing to share their story with you.  Brooke and I decided very early on that we weren't going to hoard our secrets.  We love helping aspiring business owners grow and mature with what we've learned over the years (mostly from mistakes.)  Also if you are really serious about going into business for yourself read the book "Crush it" by Gary Vaynerkchuk

Execution: After you are done educating your pants off you better bring it.  Owning, running and growing a small business takes execution.  Don't expect to open the web store or launch your website and watch your bank account rise without doing anything.  Get ready to work and work hard.  I get so tired of people expecting everything without doing anything.  As I grow in business I am finding that the most important place to execute is in giving your clients the best experience out there.  When people come into the store I want them to feel welcomed and appreciated.  I want our employees to smile, joke with and make every customer feel welcomed.  I also tell them in the same breathe not to be creepers and to just let the customers shop.  With photography I want our clients to feel comfortable and happy during our sessions.  I want to be able to bring the stress down of a wedding day and not add to it.  I am so often sickened by poor customer service to the point where I will not shop in certain places.  Give your customers the greatest experience and you will create brand loyalty and word of mouth advertising, both of which cannot be bought.  I am just highlighting customer services, but execution is crucial in every part of your business, but they all have their roots in giving your customers the best experience out there!

Dedication: For the first time in my life I had the thought "I wish I didn't own walk in love."  For the context of this I will backtrack about 5 months.

When Brooke and I were looking into an inline store at the mall we spoke to the women that we've dealt with in the past concerning the kiosk.  We knew the space we wanted and we started working out the details.  Now when you are a small independent store in a mall with larger chains you don't get the same deals that they do, mostly because malls want the big brands over the little guys, which is understandable because they do so much more revenue.   Anyway, our store space was leased to us a temporary tenant, which means that we have a year lease but if a permanent tenant (5 year lease/big brand name) wants the space we will be relocated.  So there was  risk when taking the space we did but we felt pretty secure because the mall assured us that no one was interested and the space had basically been vacant for 2 years.  We felt safe taking the risk and investing money into the space.  It was either take the risk or not open a store at all because we didn't have enough sales history to become a permanent tenant right off the bat.

About 2 weeks ago I received a call from the mall manager telling me that there was a permanent tenant interested in the space and it looked like we were going to have to be relocated.

It felt like someone had kicked me in the stomach as hard as they could.  I felt sick.  I felt like my legs had been kicked out from under me and I was falling.  It was one of the worst conversations I have ever been a part of.  I thought about all the time and energy we had invested in the spot we had.  I thought about the fact that we would have to do that again at our new location.  I thought about the investment that I would lose.  Brooke and I thought we would go under before we were moved.  It didn't even feel like a possibility while we were working out the details of the lease.  I knew it was in there but it just felt like it wasn't possible.  Like I know people get hit by lightning but I don't go around worrying about getting hit while I am outside.  I felt like I was losing so much.  I felt betrayed by the mall.  I was mad, I was angry.  Unfortunately (or maybe fortunately) I was at the last day of my sisters school with the smilebooth in a room that was about to be full of screaming, excited 5th graders so I tried to put it out of my mind and enjoy the event.

The event ended and I checked my e-mail.  I had an e-mail from my contractor for the store saying that he couldn't do a payment plan and I needed to pay him the remaining balance of my bill as soon as possible.  All those feelings I tried to fight off during the event came crashing down.

I felt horrible so I went to my parents house.  If my mom and dad weren't the people they are I can't even imagine where I would have ended up in life.  Having the two people who raise you tell you that they believe in you is the ultimate pick me up.  So the past two weeks have been a roller-coaster of emotions.  The deal wasn't done and the move wasn't official so we were hoping and praying that we could stay in our spot and finish out our lease, so I tried to just continue on with business as usual.  We put up new window displays and photos (that are totally awesome).  I told the employees and some close friends about the situation and that we might have to move so they weren't caught as off guard as I was.  One of the mall employees showed us the vacant spaces in the mall that we could potentially move to.  It felt like I was in the waiting room, with the store sitting on lap.

I hate waiting for things.  I am very impatient and the past two weeks have been so painful for me not knowing whether we are moving or staying or where we are moving to.  So many questions that I didn't have answer to.  I just wanted to control something and I couldn't.

Fast forward to today and a meeting I had with some of the park city staff.

"The deal is about to go through."-mall manager

"When will I have to move"-me

"As soon as they sign their lease we will give you a 30 day notice."-mall manager

And my thought "I wish I didn't own walk in love." slipped into my mind for the first time in the past 6 years.  It felt wrong.  It came and went and my mind immediately went to this post that I had been working on in my head called "Education, Execution and Dedication"  Something I had been thinking about before I even found out that we had to move.  Dedication is sometimes the hardest part of anything.  It's the hardest part of my faith, my excercise routine, my diet, my relationships and my business.

When it is raining crap from the sky on your business life, will you be dedicated to it?  Will you see it through?  I am at that cross-roads today.  Dedication can be summarized as the giving of oneself to some purpose.  So for you future or potential small business owners out there make sure you are dedicated because at some point you are going to be pushed to the breaking point.  I could throw in the towel, retreat from the store, sell everything online but I am dedicated to being in that mall, to growing walk in love. and to spreading the love of God through our shirts.

Even if you don't own a business or never plan to ask yourself if you are dedicated to your purpose?  Even when it's raining crap.

Some Life Rules by Bill Gates

So my Dad is an e-mail forwarder.  He is always sending me things that I usually browse through and delete but he sent me this one and I thought it was awesome. Bill Gates recently gave a speech at a High School about eleven (11) things they did not and will not learn in school.  He talks about how feel-good, politically correct teachings created a generation of kids with no concept of reality and how this concept set them up for failure in the real world.

Rule 1: Life is not fair - get used to it!

Rule 2: The world doesn't care about your self-esteem.  The world will expect you to accomplish something BEFORE you feel good about yourself.

Rule 3: You will NOT make $60,000 a year right out of high school. You won't be a vice-president with a car phone until you earn both.

Rule 4: If you think your teacher is tough, wait till you get a boss

Rule 5: Flipping burgers is not beneath your dignity. Your Grandparents had a different word for burger flipping: They called it opportunity. Rule 6: If you mess up, it's not your parents' fault, so don't whine about your mistakes, learn from them. Rule 7: Before you were born, your parents weren't as boring as they are now. They got that way from paying your bills, cleaning your clothes and listening to you talk about how cool you thought you were.  So before you save the rain forest from the parasites of your parent's generation, try delousing the closet in your own room. Rule 8: Your school may have done away with winners and losers, but life HAS NOT. In some schools, they have abolished failing grades and they'll give you as MANY TIMES as you want to get the right answer. *This doesn't bear the slightest resemblance to ANYTHING in real life. Rule 9: Life is not divided into semesters. You don't get summers off and very few employers are interested in helping you FIND YOURSELF.

*Do that on your own time.

Rule 10: Television is NOT real life. In real life people actually have to leave the coffee shop and go to jobs. Rule 11: Be nice to nerds. Chances are you'll end up working for one.

Are you worried?

Our store opens in 17 Days, 23 Hours, 7 Minutes and 43 Seconds. I've never opened a store before. We've had the kiosk a couple of years in a row now so I am not totally oblivious to everything that goes into it but a store is a lot bigger than a kiosk, a lot bigger. With a store you have to deal with construction and painting and shelving and floor and bags and more employees and scheduling and applications and...and...and...and....breathe....deep, deep breaths. Basically it's an overwhelming task. The other night I was sitting on the couch with my sister Sam and she loves when I fill her in on the store and our businesses so she always asks a lot of questions. Our conversation went like this:

Sam - When will all the shirts get here? I can help you fold, I am a really good folder T.J. - Hopefully they will get here the 25th of April, but it will probably be more like the 28th or 29th. Sam- Don't you open the 30th? T.J. - Yes. Sam- Aren't you worried?

That is such a key question at the forefront of my mind right now. "Are you worried?"

Worry and fear are such easy things to get lost in. They are two reasons that people don't do anything with their lives. If you let fear and worry totally consume and control you, your life will be meaningless. Our answer to the questions "Are you worried?" isn't just a question you need to think about when taking a business risk or big decision, it's a stance you take toward life.

I am not worried about the store. I could easily slip into a panic that could consume my thoughts and actions and the people around me but I have made the decision not to. I decided early in the store process to trust God. It's not an easy decision to live by but it's the only decision that will work. If you let fear and worry consume your thoughts, actions and words you will paralyze yourself to act out of fear.

Brooke and I have a really good friend that is only 15 years old. She seems more like 20 but she is only 15 and the reason that we are so fond of her is because she is fearless. She loves photography and wants to become a great photographer, so you know what she does?   She takes her camera out and shoots as many photos as she can of whoever will let her. Most new photographers are so scared of looking stupid that they never take any risks and try something new out of fear of looking stupid. So theses photographers slip into this "normal" way of shooting everything and become generic and plain while people like our friend have been out there trying and trying to come up with something new and inspiring. Now our friend might take 1000 stupid un-important photos, but then she could take 1 that could change the world, why? Because she's fearless. Now that's how I want to be. That's how I want to run my relationships and my business. I want to be fearless in the way I love people and customers. It may not be the way people have done it in the past but it's the way that I want to do it. I don't want to slip in this "business or life as usual" mindset because of fear and worry. I want worry and fear to take a back seat to ambition and faith and let God decide how far I can go because when we listen to fear and worry all we are doing is deciding how far we are going to go. Don't you think God might have bigger and better plans for our lives than we do?

Here are some awesome verses to read and post on your walls if you are constantly letting fear dictate your life:

"Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own." Matthew 6:34

"There is no fear in love. But perfect love drives out fear, because fear has to do with punishment. The one who fears is not made perfect in love." 1 John 4:18

Everything Is Relational

God's desire is for us to be in a relationship with Him. He wants us to trust, love and depend on Him and Him alone. In the garden of eden God walked with Adam, talked with Adam and had a relationship with Adam. Sin entered the world and destroyed that relationship, but God in all his goodness and grace sent Jesus to be a bridge to restore that relationship between us and God. God has always desired us to be in relationship with him, but also with others. In Genesis God said, "It's not good for man to be alone" so he made Eve. The reason I am saying all of this is because God wants us to be in relationships, with Him and with others, so why wouldn't he want the same with our businesses? Why are we quick to help a friend in need but slow to help another business in need? Are we afraid that if we help them they are going to surpass us and be better than us?

Brooke and I went to Las Vegas for WPPI and we got the chance to listen to the wonderful Dane Sanders who touched on this point by saying, "If we tell everyone our secrets we will have to find new ways to be better and if we all get better we all win." I love a lot of things about Dane Sanders, but what really inspires me is the way that he wants to make everyone better at being a photographer. There are a lot of photographers in the industry that aren't friendly. They don't like new photographers, they don't want to help anyone because they are afraid that if they do they will eliminate their own jobs. It's the same in the t-shirt industry. There is so much negativity on the blogs and forums out there because t-shirt companies don't want other t-shirt companies to succeed. They are afraid that if another succeeds that means they will fail.

I used to struggle with jealousy toward other clothing companies, but over the past year God has really been working on my heart to show me that if we aren't stingy with our advice and look to help each other, everyone wins. It all goes back to everything being relational. I don't think God has different plans for our personal and business lives. Our business should be another extension where we can express the love and grace of Christ to the world. We shouldn't be relational with our social life and stingy in our business life. We should look to bless the start-ups in the same way we look to bless friends and family in need. Being the light of the world is about using every venue you have to express the love of Christ, so let's start using our businesses to do this.

Imagine with me for a second if every Christian business owner looked to bless someone in the same industry that wasn't a Christian? Jesus says, "love your enemies" and I think that can translate to the business world as, "love your competition."