It is hard to believe it has been 4 years since the big CVS construction project in downtown Lewistown. 

Recently someone shared my time-lapse video of the project and stated Lewistown has been a "ghost town" ever since. That statement really bothered me. Obviously, this person does not spend any quality time in our community.  I am in Lewistown 4 to 10 times per week, and there is always something going on, even during a pandemic. Many wonderful people are working and living in downtown Lewistown. It is actually pretty impressive to watch the transformation occurring with all the new businesses and people deciding to call downtown Lewistown their home.
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I will agree - retail is not what it was in the past, but this is the case for most American towns and is not unique to Lewistown. Consumer and business demands have changed and will continue to change if you shop at Walmart and online retailers over your local retailers. I have not stepped foot in our local Walmart for over five years. I do shop online if the product I am looking for is not available locally out of necessity. Unfortunately, this occurs more than I would like to admit, and I do wish it was different. 

Even with the retail environment being different, our downtown is transforming into something pretty darn impressive. In reality, there is very little vacancy on Market Street in Lewistown. Most of the places that are vacant today are either in need of major repairs to be functional or oversized for most small businesses. Either scenario requires major remodeling and expense to make the property viable for most, especially with today's building codes.

Our downtown is not a "ghost town." Our downtown does not look like it did in the past. Our downtown is transforming. Our downtown is a wonderful place to be! 
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How are you supporting your downtown and all the local businesses in your community?

Last year I was struggling to see things clearly when reading anything right in front of me. You see, my eyes have been slowly changing as I get older, and I didn't even realize it and didn't want to admit it.  
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It took a family trip to New York City for a long weekend to get me out of my normal routine to realize I needed a different set of lenses for a new perspective.

​One night I was paying the bill after a wonderful dinner at a little Italian restaurant, and I was having a tough time reading our bill. My wife said you really need to get your eyes checked. I barked my eyes were just fine and told her it was the poor lighting in the restaurant. Yes...I received one of those looks we all know too well, but I was still not willing to admit I was wrong and needed to see things from a different set of lenses.   

Later that evening, we stopped at the hotel's gift shop for a few things to take back to the room. As I was looking around the shop, I picked up a pair of reading glasses they had for sale, slipped them on, and looked at the receipt I had in my pocket. As I was looking through these new lenses, I said "OH MY" out loud. Of course, my wife turned to see what I was commenting on to see my look of surprise as I was seeing things from a new perspective with much more clarity. 

I quickly conceded I needed reading glasses, and now you will rarely see me anywhere without a pair of glasses on top of my head. I will pull them down in front of my eyes anytime something is not clear. These glasses quickly provide me with a clear view of what is right in front of me. 

In business (and life), it is not uncommon to lose our way because we cannot see clearly. Usually, we just need a new perspective on our surroundings with a new set of lenses to clearly find our way. To do this, you will need to take some time to try on some different lenses to determine which ones are right for you and your business. And over time, you will most likely need to change those lenses, just like glasses.

I find it extremely helpful to look through the lenses of others to gain their perspective to find solutions that are beneficial to everyone involved. If we put blinders on, we will have tunnel vision, and it will be a small world without many opportunities, especially during uncertain times.

Have you tried on a new pair of lenses recently? If so...how has it changed the way you see your business, others, or the world?

PS...My wife snapped the photo at the American Museum of Natural History in New York City before I would admit I needed reading glasses. 

As a business owner, the last four weeks have been challenging, to say the least. I'm even having a hard time believing we have been dealing with all the pandemic changes for so long now. To me, it feels like this all started just a week or so ago. In reality, it has been well over a month now. I wish this pesky virus would just vanish as quickly as it altered our lives. There are many aspects of all the changes we must adapt to that I wish were different. Unfortunately, many of these changes are for the good of others or out of our control, so I continue to move forward with the things that are within my control and take action to make the best out of the current situation.

Even with all the social distancing, I managed to connect and make a new friend on the west coast. It turns out there is more than one Michael Buffington on this earth, and I received a message from one of them a few weeks ago. By chance, the other Michael Buffington Jr. found me and read the chapter I authored in the book Desire, Discipline, and Determination. I must admit it was a little strange replying to a message from Michael Buffington, but I am sure glad I did. It turns out he is an extremely talented concept artist in the video game and entertainment industry that is currently a professor at the Academy of Art University in CA. He has been the Concept Art Lead in the School of Game Development since 2012, which now is ranked as the number 1 school in the country.

We ended up connecting by phone after several emails, and it was such a pleasure talking to him. We certainly lead two very different lives, but we also discovered many similarities that quickly made it easy to have a conversation that lasted almost one and a half hours. I found it fascinating to hear his story and learn about his passions in life. It still amazes me we talked for so long. In one of his messages to me, he said the following really resonated with him from my chapter in Desire, Discipline, and Determination. 

"None of this matters if you don’t have the right attitude. Attitude is the one thing we have total control over in our lives. No one else controls our attitude. You have a choice of how you are going to react to anything thrown at you in life. The wrong attitude will quickly break any family, business, or organization. We truly are a product of our attitude. I believe life is 10% of what happens to us and 90% how we react to it. You are in charge of your attitude!"

I wrote this way before the current pandemic, but feel it resonates with me more now than ever, and I am glad the other Michael Buffington reminded me. As things are changing so rapidly and many of them seem out of our control, it is so important to remember its not really what happens to us. It is how we react to it. We owe it to our family, friends, employees, customers, partners, and community to take charge of our attitude and react in a way that is beneficial to all concerned.

How are you taking charge of your attitude that is beneficial to all concerned? If you need someone to bounce ideas off of or just chat, feel free to reach out to me. I will help in any way I can!

Stay safe, healthy, and sane! 
Mike

PS...
I am honored Michael Buffington Jr. gave me permission to share some of his work with you. As I said before, he is extremely talented. You can see more of his work at https://instagram.com/drawaholic1124?igshid=1pqa1rwhagqp2

I am incredibly grateful Hungry Run Distillery helped One-Stop Communications with hand sanitizer for our employees and customers. I was already a loyal customer of theirs, but now I am a loyal raving fan of theirs! The power of helping others is incredible and will not be forgotten!
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My favorite drink of choice during the quarantine has been their Blackberry Vodka mixed with Sprite. Easy to make and tastes great! 

www.hungryrundistillery.com/

​I need to apologize to all my local central Pennsylvania friends for being MIA, including everyone I usually see regularly in all my favorite businesses. This week I realized I hadn't seen some of you for well over a month, and I miss all of you! I promise it has not been on purpose. Originally, I had a crazy schedule that had me traveling most of March. The first half of March started as planned, but then a pesky virus altered my plans for the second half of the month. As you can imagine, most of my travel plans for the end of March were canceled, which ended up being a good thing considering current events.

Some of you thought I was taking social distancing to an extreme and retreated to a bunker somewhere to totally isolate myself from the world. Well, for the last several weeks, my bunker has mostly been my home. I am trying to do my part in social distancing, but I am not trying to isolate myself from the world. I wish I could say life was easy after my schedule was wiped clean of my travel plans, but just the opposite happened. It was time to jump into action and solve problems for all the businesses and organizations I'm involved with.

You see, my days have been crazy busy from the time I get up until I go to bed. This virus changed so many things in just a few short weeks, and we all had to change and adapt rapidly, which is not always an easy thing to do. I wasn't leaving my house out of fear of the virus. I have been getting up and taking action immediately so I can adapt and respond with the appropriate changes as needed for my family, friends, employees, customers, vendors, partners, and community.

I did finally get a chance to stop at one of my favorite local places for a meal this week after a long day of grinding away. It immediately cheered me up to walk into The Square Cafe & Bakery and see everyone there smiling and serving the community. It felt incredible to interact with them since I consider them all friends. It made my heart sing, talking to Kayla Zook and hearing how she has been adapting and changing her business to survive. It was clear her business was not the same as it was several weeks ago, but it will survive this storm, and I venture to guess it will be even stronger on the other side. Simply put, they are taking action to adapt and change as needed. Just to clarify, I have several favorite places to eat locally, and I miss all of you! As my schedule starts to lighten up, I will be out to say hello and get some take out from you soon.

We all must adapt and change to survive this storm. How are you adapting and changing? Do you need help adapting and changing?

If you need someone to bounce ideas off of or just chat, feel free to reach out to me. I will help in any way I can!

Stay safe, healthy, and sane! 😊
Mike

PS...Photo of Mann Edge Terrace and Water Street in Lewistown, Pa. This was a brownfield site several years ago. The property went through a major change and was adapted for a new use.

Today I have a heavy heart. Yesterday I received news that someone I worked and communicated with regularly for the last seven years passed away in a tragic paramount glider accident. Bill Koebernick was the rental manager for our property on the Outer Banks. Our relationship was strictly professional. We never did anything together outside of his professional life other than chatting about our mutual passion and love for flying, but I still considered him a friend and feel grief over the loss of his life. I always enjoyed talking and working with him. He was always kind, calm, and patient. He had a smile that would make others smile. He was one of the good guys and will be missed. 

This accident quickly reminded me how valuable all our relationships are, whether they are personal or professional. Today is a good day to be kind, calm, and patient with others no matter what is going on in the world!
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https://tinyurl.com/u4g7s27

​Shout out to my entrepreneurial friends or anyone else that finds this helpful.

Are you looking for tangible action items to do for your business right now? Unfortunately, I hesitate to give general action items for any entrepreneur or business without knowing more about their business. We are all in different cycles of business, levels of growth, and various types of business. The advice and action items for one person or business may not be the same for next.

What I do know is we must all change and adapt to the current conditions to survive and thrive this ugly storm. Over the years, I have watched many businesses fail because they are unwilling or refuse to change and adapt even during the good times. There are many things out of our control and as an entrepreneur we must focus on the things we can control to make sure we are doing what is best for our family, friends, employees, customers, vendors, partners, and community.

Right now, my businesses are all in survival mode, so we can thrive when this storm passes. We are definitely not thriving right now. We continue to operate in different capacities to serve the communities we call home. Below you will find a short list of some of the things I have been working on the last couple of weeks. If you think any of them may benefit you or your business and would like me to expand on them, feel free to let me know. It can be in private or part of this post.

• Communications with everyone. I have been reaching out to family, friends, employees, partners, customers, vendors, bankers, accountants, and many more. I continue to try to find time to contact those that I have not reached out to yet. If anyone contacts me with a concern, I am following up as quickly as possible. We have open and honest conversations to find solutions to anything being thrown at us.
• Setting up and learning new technology. Believe it or not, I prefer face-to-face meetings and have avoided virtual meetings in the past for my businesses. Typically all the managers for One-Stop Communications come to Lewistown for a weekly meeting. We had the technology for virtual meetings, but we were not using it until the last couple of weeks. Google Meet and Zoom have become part of my life now.
• Reviewing staffing needs. I feel so fortunate to be surrounded by so many good people in the organizations I am involved with. All our teams have jumped into action as needed. We have all felt stress, but the teams I work with have been excellent at communicating and taking action as need.
• Reviewing policy and procedure. Every day and sometimes hourly, we are adjusting our policies and procedures to handle many different aspects of our business. The amount of new information being thrown at us is really just hard to digest.
• Sourcing disinfecting supplies. As we all know, many supplies we took for granted are in short supply. Most of our operations are considered essential, and we have been exploring all sources to locate things like hand sanitizer, disinfectant wipes, and cleaners to help protect employees and others we work with. We are still looking for a good source of disinfectant wipes if you know of any.
• Reviewing the CARES and FFCRA acts. These two acts impact business in many ways. It is extremely important to understand how they impact your business. I have some general overviews if you need them.
• Reviewing unemployment changes. At this time, we have retained all our staff at One-Stop Communications, and I hope we can keep it that way. Although...we need to understand the current unemployment system in the event we do need to make any additional schedule changes. Pennsylvania has been posting videos regarding the changes. I can share them if needed.
• Rebalancing inventory. Inventory demands have changed in the last couple of weeks. We have been adjusting and moving inventory as needed for all our locations. This is being reviewed almost daily, so we stock balance and lower inventory levels for better cash flow.
• Reviewing the Payroll Protection Program by the SBA. If you are a small business and have any employees and have been impacted by the current situation, you owe it to your employees to take action to help protect those jobs. I have some easy to understand information on this program that I am happy to share.
• Reviewing sources for emergency funds if needed. This includes everything from our current resources to programs available from the SBA, banks, state, federal, etc... I have information on some of these programs if you need them and would be happy to share them.
• Reviewing current loans. Contacting the banks I work with for options and taking steps to maintain a strong working relationship with them. This is why I believe in local banking. Local banks are there to be your partner and create long term relationships.
• Finding solutions to close or keep existing deals moving forward. We were able to settle on a property for a partnership and maintain social distancing. It required some unconventional ways of processing our closing, but we made it happen without everyone sitting around a table.
• Reviewing mandates and recommendations for social distancing. This part has been challenging. Not only does it continue to change, but not all the mandates and recommendations are completely clear. Certain activities are deemed essential, and some of them for good reason. For example...facilitating rentals has been clarified by our governor's office as essential, and we were thankful for this. I had some tenants that wouldn't have a place to go if we couldn't finish working on their apartments.
• Addressing repairs for properties. Any emergency repairs are still being completed immediately. We have people who rely on us for their homes and businesses, and their emergency repairs cannot be ignored.
• Still processing daily business activities. Just because the movement of people in the public is different does not mean businesses get to stop completely. This includes paying bills. Our nation hit a pause button, but others are still relying on payment to keep their businesses going. None of the daily business activities have stopped for us. We are just doing many of them in different ways.
• Reviewing budgets and cash flows. Do not bury your head in the sand on this one. You should know your numbers and how you need to adjust.
• Education. I spent almost two full days last weekend live over Zoom with people that are business and real estate rockstars so I could understand what they have done and what they are doing now. It is incredible when you can use other people's knowledge and wisdom to accelerate your growth.
• Planning for when this is all over. Unfortunately, I cannot forecast when this will be over, but when it is, we need to be ready to jump back into action. Our economy is like a garden hose, and someone just put a kink in it. When the kink has been removed, the water is going to come gushing out again. More than ever, people will want to return to some type of normalcy, and we need to ready.

How are you changing and adapting in your business to survive and thrive? Do you need help adapting to a change in your business?

If you need someone to bounce ideas off of or just chat, feel free to reach out to me. I will help in any way I can!

Stay safe, healthy, and sane! 😊
Mike

PS...The photo is my current laptop desktop and is not one of my wife's photos. It helps take me to one of my happy places throughout the day as I am grinding away at all this.

To all my entrepreneurial friends and anyone else that finds this helpful!

The last couple of weeks have been a wild roller coaster ride for everyone! For entrepreneurs, it is not uncommon to be on a roller coaster ride every day, but this one feels different. At times it feels like this rollercoaster is on a freefall straight down without any track and no end in sight. It is one scary ride, and I had no idea I even jumped on. Until a couple of weeks ago, I thought I was just on the Sooper Dooper Looper at Hershey Park.

As an entrepreneur, I always expect the unexpected and sometimes even thrive on it. I am definitely not thrilled about what is going on right now and will be happy when this is all over. By the way...we are now one day closer to it being part of history.

Don't let the fear of the freefall paralyze you from taking action and solving problems. After all, these two things are at the core of being an entrepreneur. If you want to be truly successful in life, learn to solve problems. The more and the larger the problems you learn to solve, the more successful you will be, and sometimes those problems are our own struggles. We owe it to our family, friends, employee, customers, vendors, partners, and community to take action and continue solving problems, especially during times of uncertainty!

If you need someone to bounce ideas off of or just chat, feel free to reach out to me. I will help in any way I can!

What problems are you solving? What problems do you need help solving?

Stay safe, healthy, and sane! 
Mike
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PS...Sooper Dooper Looper photo credit goes to my wife.

Shout out to all my entrepreneurial friends! It has been a crazy couple of weeks making the necessary changes to keep things operational. Business has changed in the last two weeks and there are things we should all be doing to make sure we are there for the communities we call home. If you need someone to bounce ideas off of or just chat feel free to reach out to me. I will help in any way I can!

Stay safe, healthy, and sane! 😊