Category: Official Schipul Blog

What makes you get out of bed every morning?

Let that thought marinate for a moment…

Now how many of you thought: “because I’m pumped to go to work and become world famous!!!”

Slap me with a fish if I’m wrong, but I’m guessing not many. But if I was to ask the hearty men that work at Pike Place Fish Market in Seattle, Washington the same question…well, there answer is clear, and I’m pretty sure I would still get slapped with a fish in the process:

‘…our commitment to having fun while we work and making a difference in the world is what makes us “World Famous.” ‘John Yokoyama, Owner of Pike Place Fish Market

When John Yokoyama bought Pike Place Fish Market in 1965 his first order of business was not about fish, but more of ‘who do we want to be?” They set out to cultivate a workplace in which ‘…customers leave with the experience of having been served. They experience being known and appreciated whether they buy fish or not. And it’s not good enough just to want that – it takes an unrelenting commitment.” My thoughts are if a group of men that constantly permeate a fish-esque fragrance are able to love their job…why can’t you?

‘We may not be able to do exactly what we love at the present time, but any of us can choose to love what we do. We can bring our best qualities to our work-it is our choice.”‘Fish!

The book, Fish!, is a fantastic little tale that is based off the Pike Place ‘world famous” mantra, and of course, is all the rage here at the Schipul office. In fact, we even had ‘fish” cupcakes to celebrate the distribution of copies to all the Schipulites. (Thanks happykatie!) Yes, the book is that great.

Fish! relates to any sector of an organization and implores you to realize that you don’t have to be stuck in a ‘toxic energy dump” forever. Unfortunately, some people live their lives just going through the motions…wake-up, eat, work, ‘deposit,” sleep, repeat. I promise there are things in between daily patterns that can truly enrich your life; you just have to want it.

Here’s a little suggestion, I laugh at everything. You can tell me my zippers down or I have spinach in my teeth and I will just giggle and say, ‘Appreciate ya!” Aside from my suggestion, the lessons in this book can be life-changing…but once again, that’s if you want it to be.

The Fish! Philosophy:

1. Choose your attitude: You can easily blame your lackluster enthusiasm on a smelly co-worker, a dismal work environment or the angry phone calls that stream in, but you have the power to control your reaction and ‘as long as you’re here, why not choose to be world famous rather than ordinary?”
2. Play: Ok this is not an excuse to bring back recess, although a little monkey bar action would be nice. Running a business is serious, but if you don’t have fun with it, are you really bringing your whole self? I mean honestly, if you come into work one day and your company has set up plasma car races in the parking garage, wouldn’t that give you incentive to work your butt off for anyone who views life this way? Mind you, this was my first day at Schipul…and I’ve been waking up excited ever since.
3. Make their day: You must find a way to ‘engage” your customers. I mentioned the importance of names in my recent blog post, ‘Why Dale Carnegie would be an awesome blogger…” and I believe it stands true here. Make an effort to not only remember a customer’s name, but also their birthday and how little Billy Joe did in his soccer game.   People love to feel important; make your success their success.
4. Be Present: There are a lot of ways to communicate these days, and a lot of them you can do simultaneously, but to be present you must take interest. ‘When you are present with people you look right at them…just like being with your best friend…everything is going on around you but you’re still taking care of just them.” Well you want to be world famous right? You can’t do it alone.

It’s so simple. Don’t make me slap you in the face with a fish to make you realize the this.

Over and Out,

Courtney Pemberton

Thanks yohann.aberkane for the splendid flickr pic!

Everyone around the office is making New Year’s resolutions. I’m going to work on time management, Fayza is focused on more detailed tweets, and Glen is going to eat more veggies.

Our graphic designers and programming team caught the resolution bug and decided it was time to revamp the Schipul site to align with Schipul’s resolutions. Last year one of the things we really tried to focus on was telling our story and teaching our clients how to tell theirs. Check out how we incorporated that onto our homepage!

Right at the top is our brand-spanking new Stories module. It can feed from a number of different places and works as a one-stop-shop for all of our friends and family to see what is going on at Schipul. Even better? After a new more tweaks it will be added to our arsenal of Tendenci modules!

So check out our new site and leave us comments and feedback. Just for grins, here’s a screen shot of what Schipul.com looked like ten years ago:

A few of us attended the IABC Houston luncheon last Thursday and it was great! The speaker was Carol Kinsey Goman, the author of The Nonverbal Advantage and President of Kinsey Consulting Services. Carol has been dubbed a “Change Mangement Specialist” and focuses on how executives can ignite their work force during times of change or dispel fears through times of turmoil using non-verbal communication.

I took a lot from Carol’s presentation; she gave a lot of great tips on using non-verbal cues to your advantage in business situations. One of the most important things she talked can be carried over into your everyday life. Granted, this is a lesson we’ve all heard 100’s of time but It is nice to hear it again every once in a while.

First impressions are important; Carol gave some tangible tips on making them great:

1. Attitude: Choose the attitude you are going to bring when you meet someone new and BRING IT. Leave negative emotions and feelings at the door when meeting someone new, because through your non-verbal cues, the person you are meeting will sense your bad attitude.
2. Eyebrow Flash: Your eyebrows unconsciously go up for a flash of a second when you encounter someone you like or know. When you meet someone new, give them an eyebrow flash! People subconsciously like people with big, innocent eyes and when your eyebrows go up, your eyes automatically get bigger.
3. Eye Contact: This one is pretty simple. When meeting someone for the first time, look them in the eye long enough to register their eye color.
4. Smile: When someone smiles at you, the reward center in your brain (your orbital cortex) automatically “lights up;” this is why it is so important to smile when you first meet someone.
5. Lean In Slightly: Like the eyebrow flash, we subconsciously lean towards things we like. So lean in a little bit when you meet someone! It shows you’re interested and engaged.
6. Shake Hands: This is the most important tip of all! According to Carol, we live in an essentially touch-free society, that is why we need to optimize on this initial touch. Palm to Palm, Web to Web!

For more tips from Carol, check out her blog, Speaking of Change!