Monthly Archives: January 2014

Super Happy GSD

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Howdy Super Happy People!!

Today I had a conversation with a friend of mine (the same person who talked me into going to business school) who is an entrepreneur as well.

Me:  “So do we ever get a ‘net negative 1’ on our List, or is it always increasing?”

Friend:  “Yup. There is always something to add.  It never stops.”

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While you might see your Goal in the distance, there is always more, often unseen, ahead of you.

For the past few weeks, I’ve been furiously hammering my List, and every time I start to make headway, 10 more things are added.  For example, we are locking down our production facility for Super Happy Juice, and we need to have a Food Handlers License before we can sign on.  Nothing we didn’t foresee, just something we have to do. It will likely take a day for the class, pay the $15 fee, and whammy, we are certified food handlers.  Again, nothing that precludes us from creating a Super Awesome Company, just another thing.  Just backs up the ability to “cross it off your List” by a day or two.

When I was a Teaching Assistant my 2nd year at Anderson, I worked with undergrads on business plan development and lectured on hands on running of companies.  A common theme was:  A good plan and excellent execution, beats a great plan and mediocre execution.  I would hold this as the most important tenents of entrepreneurship–execution.

In B-School, and the business world, I describe these people as a GSD.  There is no better accolade to bestow upon someone, in my opinion.

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A follow up to my mentorship post yesterday.  I had a young person I met over a year ago, connect with me this week about helping them create plan for the next 3-5 years.  Very positive meeting.  What was encouraging about the person was they knew they had an uphill battle facing them.  And in one conversation, they had a week’s worth of homework ahead of them.  As a former collegiate athlete, they were  excited about the adversity in front of them, and the chance to have a long-term goal.  More to come on this.

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Tomorrow I’m meeting with another banker.  I get a much better vibe from this one, even just via email.  We have a mission at Super Happy Juice:  Only work with people who espouse what we do, and are excited to be part of our venture.  If you aren’t excited to work with us, there is someone else who is.  And that’s a good thing, for everyone.

That’s my job, and I’m sticking to it. #ChiefSuperHappy

Super Happy Networking

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This past week has been an incredible amount of serendipity for Super Happy Juice.  Our FedEx account manager was able to deliver with a very positive shipping structure that will really give us the flexibility to launch our Brand.  He has been just incredible with his efforts and results.  And, we were blessed with a “famous person” photobomb in my PotD.  If you can guess who it is, I will send you a free bottle or two of Super Happy Juice–shipped via FedEx, of course!

Super Happy Juice also had a fantastic experience at a Pre-Grammy Party promoted by PlanetLA Music and hosted at The Village Recording Studios

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@ChiefSuperHappy on the Red Carpet

There was an incredible amount of like-minded people and a great way to begin to promote the brand.

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Of course, it makes it easy when your business partner is very photogenic.

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(I can’t get this photo to rotate)
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Me and my Super Happy Juice Business Partner

Last week, I made it up to San Fransisco for the Fancy Foods Show

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@ChiefSuperHappy (at) @Twitter

I used to live in Berkeley, and returning to The City brought back a few memories.  There is an energy in SF that is vibrant and palpable; different than Los Angeles, which is a little flashier. I definitely need to visit more!

As the focus of this post, I made several new contacts and reestablished a few older ones.  It’s refreshing to see people after a “break” of a couple of years, and be able to pick up where we left off.  Lesson Learned:  ALWAYS be polite, nice, and memorable.  (aka, Super Happy)

Today I had two events at the alma mater UCLA-Anderson.  One event was listening to David Booth, co Founder of Dimensional Fund Advisors, www.dfaus.com, and someone who gave a few hundred million to endow a business school.  (Many Million) I have a standing rule to always listen to a Billionaire, regardless of what they are saying.  They have done something right, and there is always something to learn.

The second event was a mentoring event put on by Anderson EDGE, a great program run by an alumni friend of mine.  I was able to reconnect with a person I mentored last year, and catch up with some challenges she was having with her sales team.  Additionally, I was able to help two other former classmates of mine with some of their sales challenges too.  In a nice, quid pro quo I was also recommended to a few good people that can help @SuperHappyJuice.

Very excited about the next few days.  Our website is going live on Friday, so I’m relying on some very trusted people.

I wouldn’t want it any other way.

(And if you made it this far, thank you for reading this)

Be Super Interesting

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interesting2Your Choices are your Reflection

We all want to be around positive, fun, interesting people.  We feel better, get inspired, and grow personally by having this interaction.  I have always been very comfortable talking with people.  Perhaps it is from always wanting/needing attention as a child.  Perhaps it is from being in sales and never knowing whom that someone is that could be a “Glengarry Lead”Glengarry-Leads-300x223.

However, as I’ve met more people, with no ulterior motive, I’ve gotten to the point where there is a true fulfillment of making a connection with someone.

I do believe in karma, and paying it forward.  For me, being able to help someone with their goals is a different, but equal, satisfaction of me having a personal success.

Today, Business Insider has a great article on “being interesting”:
http://read.bi/1eeTfOR

Many years ago, I was a District Manager for Vector Marketing.  Something I taught my sales reps was, “Be interested, not interesting”.  Meaning, get good at asking questions and letting people talk about themselves–they love that!  Note, this is #2.

Also pay attention to #7, Live an Interesting Life.  Not to espouse the whole YOLO (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/YOLO_%28motto%29) era; perhaps the concept of “May you live in Interesting times” is more appropriate.   It can boil down to this, “Do Fun Stuff”.  I have a few benefits of being “unencumbered”, and I take advantage of it.  Also, I am horrible at “saying No”…If you ask me to do something, I’ll probably say “yes”.  (See:  Wrestling, Steer)  If anything, I have cool stories to tell my grandchildren when I’m wearing pants up high around my chest.  #GrandpaUsedToBeABadass

The last concept, #1–Don’t be boring, Be Brief, Be Positive.  Nobody want to hang around a Negative Nancy, or Downer Doug.  Having a bad day, acknowledge it and move on.  People will appreciate you for it, and you’ll actually be accepted for it.  Plus, you will condition yourself to not get stuck in those situations.  This will help you create and develop your more powerful self.

And then, Be Brief.  So I think I have taken up enough of your time already with this post.  Keep Being Super Happy, and I’ll let you know about some business stuff over then next few days.

Assemble Your Team

A crucial component of starting any business is making sure you have the BEST people “on the bus”, “in the raft”, “pulling the wagon”, etc. Without getting overly simplistic, here’s how describe it:

Three months from now, when the shine of enthusiasm has waned, and this person brings to you a challenge, are you excited tackle it with them? Yes, this might be a challenge, to predict the future performance of a person. However, if you know this person reasonably well, your diligence would indicate, and you know your business, then are you excited to roll your sleeves and dig in this person?

If answer is unequivocally “YES”…

 

Those are the Super Happy People you want. Build your Team around them. Late at night, under pressure, you’ll be glad you did.

Oh, I was on “Spoilers-with Kevin Smith” last week. I’ll write about that next. Interesting insight into individuals…

Chief Super Happy–Let’s Do THIS!!

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My friend gave me this to read
My friend gave me this to read

Howdy!  My name is Chris Ochs.  I am the Chief Super Happy of a company I co-founded, called Super Happy Juice.  I’ll write later, at greater length, about my company.  This is a blog about me, and the challenges, and most importantly victories, of starting and running a company.

While I’m sure there are many “better” blogs about being an entrepreneur and running a company (For example, one of my favorite blogs on this subject is, www.onlyonceblog.com.  It is Super Fantastic), I will not try to be one of those.

Instead, I will just be myself.  There is a term called WYSIWYG “wizzywig”.  It means “What You See Is What You Get”.  I will try to covey what it is like to start up and run a company, by doing it the Super Happy Way.  I will hopefully accomplish this with some insights into me…and hopefully that will at least provide you with some entertainment.

What is the Super Happy Way??  That is what we shall both find out, and create.
I will also try and keep this short and to the point.  (Something I’m not so great at in conversation.)  As always, I welcome feedback and discussion.

Be Super Happy!!