A few words from Jim – March 2023

Posted in

I just got back from nearly two weeks in the UK. It was an awesome trip and very enjoyable, and it was a work trip. 

Dena and I setup a basecamp in London and took trains daily to meet with business owners, dev partners and business associates, current and past. 

Dr. Martens has been a client for over 20 years. We are very proud of the work we have done together and even though they are now a public company and our paths may part soon, I still look back at what we worked on together fondly and proudly. 

We developed software for them  to help them manage growth and then grew to become their digital e-commerce agency and stood up their first store and stayed with them as they became a global powerhouse. The growth in sales has been staggering and we were part of it. It’s pretty awesome. My team has done a brilliant job morphing as needed.

Over those years we developed a lot of friendships with current and past employees and I took advantage of the rail system to visit as many as I could each day. We averaged 3 meetings per day, sometimes an hour train ride or more apart and we did not have to rent a car. 

We ate and drank in ancient pubs and even stayed one night in a mews at a castle and even crossed an item off my bucket list by attending a fund raising concert headlined by my friend Chris. He is someone I have worked with the entire journey with DM and it was wonderful to see him celebrate 25 years of singing in a local band to hundreds of adoring fans. The database programmer came alive on stage and worked the crowd into a frenzy. It was very loud, very hot and very, very special. I’ll never forget it. 

When I got home I was asked to give talk to the Ashland Rotary club and update everyone on everything I have going on. I have a lot going on and I loved the opportunity to bring them all up to speed since my last talk about 5 years ago. The room was about 1/2 the size since my last update (declining membership?)  And many stayed home or in their offices and enjoyed the live stream via Zoom. 

I ended the talk sharing photos of my friends from the UK. Often times in business, we are so focused on solving problems we forget that we make life long friends along the way and I loved showing them off to my local friends. 

We run a couple of small businesses here in Southern Oregon and we have had the pleasure of being international at Project A. Now I’m going to see if I can make another one more international as well. 

Watch this space to find out what friends I make along the way. 

In the mean time be sure to read about the Rogue Music Festival, Women’s Leadership Conference and People’s Bank celebrating 25 years in business. 

We have some amazing things happening right here in Southern Oregon and I can’t wait for my international friends to come see what we have going on.  

Jim
Jim@SouthernOregonBusiness.com 

Posted in

Leave a Comment





Advertisement

Archives