Rich Christiansen - Parallel Entrepreneur, Entrepreneurial Expert

As a child I grew up in a small town in Southern Utah. I had amazing parents. My father completely lost his sight when he was four years old. Despite being completely blind, he went on to become a successful Attorney. My mother was equally amazing. She was 15 younger than my father. One of their greatest fears was my mother would be widowed for much of her later life. Ironically fate played an awful trick and my mother and she died of breast cancer at the age of 58 leaving my father the one alone.

My mother was one of the strongest people I know. She had the courage and determination to become what I call a trend breaker. Despite all odds and with immense sacrifice she went on to be the first one in her family to graduate from college. She blazed a trail not only for all of her brothers and sisters to follow, but also all of her children, grandchildren and great grandchildren. Growing up in my parents home, B’s were not acceptable. It was never spoken, it was simply understood.

My brothers and I collaborated and determined one of the best ways to honor my mother was to create a scholarship in her name. Our mother was always behind the scenes ensuring others received acknowledgment and award. It was with great joy we brought our mother into the spotlight by awarding scholarships to deserving young women in her name.

Today I drove down to Beaver High School and experienced a rush of emotion as I awarded scholarships to 3 young women whom have the great potential that my mother realized and we believe will be trend breakers in their respective families. These three young ladies are:

1st place - Courtney Ann Rogers
2nd place – Shannon Joseph
3rd place – Whitney Whitbeck

At the request of several of my associates, I post the scholarship information and a bit of my mothers background relating to her intense drive to obtain her education.

Laurel Christiansen was a born in a small town in Sevier County Utah. She was the first in her family to attend college and she did so at great personal sacrifice and with dogged determination. She was a trend setter who broke through many barriers allowing her brothers, sisters and her children to follow. After college she came to Beaver High School to teach Art. She married John Christiansen, the blind County Attorney and had four sons. While her children were young she took a break from teaching and focused on instilling a love of education in her children. She then returned to teach 1st grade at Belknap Elementary. She is fondly remembered by many in Beaver as a “Master 1st grade teacher”.

She raised four boys and twelve foster children. She loved with all of her might and strength her daughter in laws, grandchildren, and masses of elementary school children. Our mother’s impact has always been from the background. She has taken no public spotlight. Her life’s song has been sung in beautiful support by those around her. Through this scholarship we wish to publicly honor the incredible and lasting impact that this amazing woman has made.

Excerpts From My Story’s Song

Applicants, in preparation for this scholarship, please read the following Excerpts from Laurel Christiansen’s Biography titled My Story’s Song. This will give you a better feel for what this scholarship is about and what we are looking for in a successful candidate.

The first year of college at BYU was very challenging and difficult for me. I had earned enough money to pay tuition and start out the year; however, my resources quickly diminished with the many expenses of school. So, during my second quarter at BYU my father helped me pay tuition. Still, paying the cost of living expenses was left up to me. I soon became a familiar face at the BYU employment office. I checked there weekly to find any little “odds-and-ends” jobs to earn money. Dora Young, who shared the bedroom with me, and with whom I had become very close, suggested that I take my money and purchase a sack of whole wheat and some powdered milk. She stated that it would keep me alive and eating. It did! Wheat and powdered milk helped me survive. This first year of college was by far the most difficult and challenging for me. I just about didn’t make it financially, and my grades suffered terribly as well. However, I felt very determined to receive an education and to eventually graduate. The learning process gave me joy and satisfaction, and mattered very much to me.

During my second year my love and appreciation for education deepened, as did my desire to become an art teacher.

By my third year, I was taking many classes in my major. I decided to go into Art Education (Secondary). I took a very heavy schedule, 18-20 credit hours per quarter. Despite the extra load my grades were much better and I felt at peace and happy. After completing two additional quarters I decided to attend the summer block as well. At this time I needed to get a student loan so that I could finish out my last year of schooling. I remember that when I applied, the fellow interviewing me asked me many questions. He told me he would give me the loan, for which I was very grateful. He stated that he did not encounter a girl like me very often. He felt that I was unusual because I was so determined to finish my education. He said I seemed more like a foreign student, and that I had values like an “old-fashioned girl.”

In making the decision to teach, I determined that I wanted to stay and work somewhere in the state of Utah. That was where my family was. I also wanted to teach in a small rural town because I was a farm girl at heart. I was interviewed (grilled, may be more accurate) by both Ogden and Salt Lake City, but my heart was won over during the interview with David Pierce from the Beaver County School District. The position of art teacher at Beaver High School was exactly what I wanted. I accepted Mr. Pearce’s offer immediately.

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I remember as I was younger in my career, everything was black and white. My opinions were strong and quickly formed. My views sharp and my perspective decisive. As I have grown older and been exposed to more cultures and experienced the dilemmas and challenges of the world, the once thin line separating black and white has expanded to a much larger thick grey line.

Yesterday I spent some time with a young man for whom I have tremendous respect. This is a young man who is in the early stages of his career, has been bitten really hard by the entrepreneurial bug, and is creating a successful web design company. In so many ways he reminds be of myself 20 years ago. He is intensely passionate, has very strong opinion, and is insanely talented. I have every confidence he will succeed.

The lengthy discussion that I had with him yesterday, related to a moral stand that he was taking relating to what type of web sites he was comfortable designing and his willingness to decline business that did not meet his moral standards. I can not help but respect anyone who is willing to take a stand and draw personal boundaries. In this apathetic world many people have become desensitized and are not willing to step forward and stand up for what they believe to be right.

As we discussed, it became very evident that we have many of the same long term goals and value systems, however on a few points we have dramatically different views.

It caused me to reflect on those simple days and in some ways longingly wish for the ON or OFF perspective that I did when I was just out of college. That being said, I have found that much of the richness of life comes from understanding and learning the perspectives in the thicker grey line. It may be messier, but it is also more rewarding to take the effort to look at the “beast” from a different angle.

We all have different upbringings, perspectives and value systems. In life, there is no simple black and white with a thin line. It is by making the attempt to understand each others perspectives, what motivates each other, and why we view things differently that unlocks the power of great advances. The lamest and most ineffective teams I have managed have been those that were homogeneous where everyone saw things the exact same way and everyone got along. The most powerful teams I have been involved with were compiled of members with extremely diverse backgrounds and differing perspectives YET all focusing on a common goal.

Looking for solutions in The Thick Grey Line requires more focus and effort, but when you find the solutions they not only last longer, but also mean more.

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This past month I have been working with Warner Music to analyze a number of their artist’s sites and help them develop a viable search and strategy. Today I began working on the site of Michael Buble. I think I have single handedly loaded the home page more than the rest of the USA combined. Now that is saying something because he was on Oprah today.

How do you know if an musician is really good, well today I discovered the answer. If you actually look forward to the music playing when you start a web page, that is really a good first step. Very seldom do I find the web home page an acceptable location to play an unsolicited song. The second litmus test is if you have head the song 11,452 times in one day and have not went insane, then you might have know that they have a little talent.

As I was driving home tonight, I heard on the radio that Michael Buble was performing in SLC on July the 17th 2007. I have on my task list to order tickets. I am even considering downloading one of the Michael Buble ring tones.

Last week I worked on a site that was heavy metal, and I will put it this way . It was NOT “my mothers type of music”. For that matter, it was not my type of music either! Anyways, at the end of the day I was so stressed out and onery that my family hid under the furniture whenever I entered a room.

Tonight I found myself light, happy and in a great mood. I even went and downloaded 2 of his CD’s onto my Ipod.

I know all the head shrinks have already told us this, but the music we listen to makes a huge difference. You can “Call Me Irresponsible” but I am a new fan of Buble. If you have not heard his music before, it is worth checking out.

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Just as an update, we received word this morning that Fonality intends to honor our contract, and allow us access to our phone system. After all that, they backed down. What an unpleasant encounter!

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This week I have witnessed the most horrific example of customer interaction that I can recall in recent history. The proud recipient of the worst company interaction of the year award is Fonality, based out of Los Angeles, California.

Approximately 1 year ago we purchased an amazing new IP phone system for our office. It had all the bells and whistles of a enterprise phone system, yet at a small business price. We worked with a responsive service-oriented local company called Veracity to get the connectivity access. They referred us to a local representative of Fonality to actually purchase the hardware and server.

We installed, got it up and running, and all of a sudden our small office had the telephone appearance of a large company.

Last week I began getting very strange emails directly from Fonality (see an attached at the conclusion of this blog). I was taken aback that they were publicly disparaging a man whose name I did not even recognize. Fonality stated that he was financially insolvent and they were offering a migration path for his customers at a reduced rate. I didn’t think it would affect me because I owned my server and had paid for all hardware and software in full, outright.

As the emails continued, I began to take more notice. The tone shifted, and Fonality informed me that on May 10th the control panel of web access on the server would be shut down unless we signed up for their nifty (expensive) service plan. Without the management interface, the system is worth no more than $19.95 telephones found at Kmart.

At this point I became concerned, and began to establish contact with someone at Fonality. After several very sterile email exchanges I finally received a telephone call from Fonality’s Manager of Customer Service, Mr. Michael E. Smith. Minutes into the call it appeared that Mr. Smith had engaged in an intensive course with their attorneys which provided him with skills necessary to legally posture. He advised me that all of my problems resided with their previous vendor in our state, and that they suggest that I pursue him, not them. I was told that it was tough luck, they knew I had paid for the service already, but if I did not pay for it again, they would disable the management system. They acted as if we were old friends, and as if they were offering me a wonderful solution. I pointed out that shutting down the management system would completely cripple the phone system. Mr. Smith was quick to point out the phones would still ring and function, and that Fonality had no intention of hurting my business. I then asked how I would be able to turn the voice message system on at night, or how I would add a phone or change an extension. His response was “That would be a problem,wouldn’t it?” As I asked him my options, he replied:
1. Upgrade your service and pay us the fee
2. Live with it the way it is
3. You can sue us if you like, I don’t care

I was so blown away and actually became very terse with Mr. Smith. I thought I was living a really bad dream. Waking up this morning I realized it was not a bad dream, just very very bad business.

What am I going to do? My immediate reaction was to go chase the snake down and kill it. Not because of the money, but because of the principle. All my business sense tells me that you just can’t treat customers this way. After a good night sleep and dreams of cutting the head off the snake, I worked it out of my system.

The reality is in such a competitive market and world, companies that behave in this manner will self destruct, they don’t need active outside participation in burning their bridge. To that end I am going to purge with this blog entry, throw a few links up to make sure it gets visible on the search term Fonality, ask those who are having similar experiences with this fine example of a pathetic company to link to this blog, and let it go.

Good riddance Fonality, you just lost the faith of 1 customer, I am sure many more to follow!

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Operations and Customer Care

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This past week I had the opportunity to spend a night with my wife at a condo. This condo is high in the Tusher mountains well over 10,000 ft and there is no television, no internet access, and most notable no cell phone coverage.

I must admit, upon arriving, I felt a bit lost! Without any of these “life necessities” there was no way to manufacture a crisis’s or stir up a distraction. I felt totally disconnected and out of touch.

As the night settled, I found myself talking with my wife, really talking. I found my nerves settling, and my spirit calmed. The following morning as I woke, several key issues that I had been wrestling with had a new and sharp level of clarity. It was not until the next day that I actually realized how tense and tight I had been and what it felt like to be calm and relaxed. As I descended the mountain, I dreaded hitting the on button on the cell phone and “returning to reality”.

We live in such a fast paced interrupt driven world that often times we assume that the never ending cell phone calls and text messages are reality. The truth is, they are not. Although these are nice conveniences, they are often distractions and cripple us from focusing on the really important things in our lives.

After this experience, I realized how important it is that we take time away and consciously shut off the cell phones, turn off the TV, and deliberately communicate with our loved ones. I contend that doing this will not only make us happier, but also more effective and efficient.

Where did Christ go just before he began his ministry? (Matthew 4:2 JST) Where did he go with Peter, James and John upon transfiguration? (Mark 9:2) Where did he go to gain strength just before the Garden of Gethsemane and eventually his crucifixion? (Luke 22:39)

Isn’t it interesting that before each major event in Christ’s life he gained strength by retreating to the wilderness or to a mountain?

I challenge each of us (particularly myself), to daily find time to “Go To The Mount” where we can break through all of the noise and clutter that we seem to engulf ourselves in. Let us each find our own wilderness, in times of trial where we can gather strength. As we do so, we will be calmer, and find more purpose in our lives.

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Last weekend my amazing daughter Nawang Sera became the first person ever in her family to graduate from college. Nawang is a Sherpa from Nepal who grew up in the small village of Khumjung which is a high village in the Himalayas just above 13,000 feet. Nawang came to live with us at the age of 15 with English being her 4th language. The past six years I have watched with great joy and tenderness as I have observed Nawang face life’s challenges head on. She always is positive, builds others, and has a determination that amazes me. Everywhere she goes she is a bit of sunshine.

Last Saturday as we sat in the commencement exercises at Snow College. The event had all the usual trappings of a real yawner. From my experience most commencement speakers blather on about notably boring nothing. I slipped into a mentally neutral position waiting for the long ceremony to conclude. I was not prepared to actually be awoken from my thoughtless slumber. The commencement speaker was an individual named Pamela Atkinson. Pamela was a feisty British woman who declared herself as a “Community Advocate”. As I listened to her introduction I sat up and took notice. She was referred to as the “Mother Theresa of Utah”. She had basically spent the majority of her life attempting to help the underprivileged focusing on the homeless. As she addressed the audience she told of her upbringing in England where she was raised in a poor family where her father left their family when she was young. She stated that she had been abused as child and had determined the only way out was education. She challenged not only the graduates, but also the audience to make a Difference in life. She went on to cite multiple examples of how small unseeingly important acts made all the difference.

As Ms. Atkinson proclaimed her personal mantra those of you saying it can not be done, get out of the way of those of us who are doing it I could not help but reflect on Nawang and her amazing story.

Nawang’s education goal is to become a Registered Nurse and gain acceptance into one of the local nursing schools that is rather difficult to gain admission. Although I have always been a believer in Nawang, at times I am often too quick to point out that the path she is perusing is difficult.

I found myself reflecting, how often am I the one “standing in the way of those who are doing it”? I resolved that from this point forward that I would not only encourage, but also believe in and fully subscribe to the dreams of not only Nawang, but also my sons, and other loved ones.

I have always loved the statement that imagination rules the world. Let’s not only get out of the way of the individuals doing great things, but let’s go stand by them and help them dream the dream and live the reality.

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