Longterm Relationships
You’ve heard the saying — “Don’t ever burn a bridge.”
This phrase was ingrained into my head growing up, and I often feared upsetting or losing any single one. That is for another newsletter someday, but the general premise was true — I want more friends than enemies. The world is a small place, and you never know who will be a future colleague, collaborator, competitor, partner, or even boss.
I was reminded of this recently when I had breakfast with an old friend.
Scott and I having breakfast 🍳
Scott was a colleague of mine at Lemonly almost ten years ago. He’s a gifted designer and an even better thinker. He worked remotely for our South Dakota team from Miami and pushed me as both a leader and people manager. In fact, Scott was the first person I ever did an exit interview with. (Note: he left on great terms, but I had no idea how to do an exit interview, so I Googled questions and faked it with Scott).
Recently, this Floridian was passing through South Dakota and texted me as he was coming through. We caught up for dinner one night and breakfast the next morning, and it was so cool to hang out with someone who last knew me as a completely different person (20-something, newly married, no kids, relatively new entrepreneur).
Now we’re catching up with a bit more life (definitely more grey hairs) and a lot of great stories to share with other. It was such an enjoyable conversation and reminded me of that adage - never burn a bridge.
I didn’t have a reason to burn a bridge with Scott (he left to pursue a different type of role) but I also didn't have a reason to maintain a relationship with a former colleague across the country. But I did maintain that relationship. We randomly texted each other cool startup ideas. Right before COVID, we caught up on a particular business challenge he was facing. Communication was infrequent but meaningful, so when the Floridian was passing through South Dakota, he texted to hang out with an old friend.
Old Friends, New Collaborators
Midwesterners love to tell you about “the guy” they have in their life to accomplish a task or solve a problem. They’ll tell you about their “Roof Guy” or their “Bug Guy” or maybe even refer you to their “Snow Guy.” Right? You know what I mean.
We brag about the collection of relationships we possess that can help us for a very specific reason at a very specific time. It’s the Midwest way of showing off the quantity, and hopefully quality, of the relationships you possess.
Well, in a more modern/entrepreneurial way than my Dad bragging about his “Lawn Guy”, Scott is my “UX Guy.” No one is better at taking a crazy idea on the back of a napkin and designing it to look like a real product. And thanks to this talent, I am reminded of why you cherish all of those relationships, as Scott is an old friend turned new collaborator on a software idea that I’m building (more on that in a future Point Letter).
The point of this week’s letter - don’t burn a bridge, keep in touch with those unique relationships, and embrace the random and serendipitous ways our world brings two people back together.
How one comment can change your life
A look at the power of belief
Do you know what this is?
It’s a device that measures your sit and reach distance.
The sit and reach, along with pull-ups/shuttle run/mile run/sit ups, is part of the Presidential Fitness Challenge that we all had to do in high school. We all had one of those damn challenges that kept us from ever winning that badge. For me, it was the pull-ups. 🤪
In my junior year, our P.E. teacher (who was also the football coach) told me I broke the sit and reach record. I had stretched 13 inches pass my toes and I while I highly doubt this was a record, I was feeling good. What happened next would change the next year of my life. After the sit and reach it was time for the shuttle run, the one where you run short distances back and forth between the cones to measure speed and agility. Coach Maffet clocked my time and slyly muttered “Meyer, you could go out for the football team with that time!”
As a 17-year-old high schooler, I heard, “John, you’re going to be a football star!”
Three months later I decided to go out for football.
I was a great backup football player.
I ended up as the kicker and spent lots of time on the sidelines that season, go Bobcats! But for those four months I got to experience the culture of Friday Night Lights and the Americana of small town, high school football. All of this happened because of that simple comment. What Coach Maffet truly said to me was…
“I believe in you.”
Belief can change your life
Six years later the power of belief changed the trajectory of my life.
I was unhappy, working a corporate job in Minneapolis. I was just six month into my career, but I knew what I was doing wasn’t for me. My brother was living in Norway after graduate school and living visa by visa from the Norwegian government being a tour guide and bartender. We both were restless and in search of a new direction.
We found a grant competition through the economic development department of our home state of South Dakota. The competition was to submit your business idea for the chance to win $15,000. The money came with two stipulations:
Start a business that involved technology.
That business has to be based in South Dakota.
We spent the next five days brainstorming, drawing on the back of a napkin, and completing our application for that $15k. Guess what? We got it!
My first day of entrepreneurship picture.
At the time we thought the $15k was a HUGE deal. Years later, that amount wouldn’t even cover a payroll at Lemonly. But as I reflect on that moment in my life, it wasn’t about the money, it was about South Dakota saying…
“We believe in you.”
Go believe in someone
Playing football didn’t change my life, but it created a lot of memories. Becoming an entrepreneur and moving back home to South Dakota absolutely did change my life. This is the power of belief
Our world has a lack of belief. Today, we are so quick to decide something can’t work — an idea is too big, a project is too expensive, or a dream is too impossible. We are void of belief. People are afraid to dream.
I want to challenge you to go believe in someone. Belief doesn’t have to be expensive like a $15,000 check. Belief doesn’t have to be time-consuming. Belief can be a simple statement — you could go out for football!
Oh, one more really important thing, before you put your believe in someone else — believe in yourself.
With belief
John
I’m building a YouTube channel
After years of tweeting and podcasting, I have a goal of building a YouTube channel in 2024. I’m working on creating long-form, video content and a goal of getting 1,000 subscribers to my channel (click here to subscribe if you want to support that goal)
This is the first educational, long-form video I created about why your business needs a 3-legged-stool of sales growth. Give it a watch.
The 437 adventure
The third week of September was a week to remember.
One Wednesday, September 20th, 12 of us loaded up into RV’s and headed to the Black Hills. The next morning Kelly Marshall took off from the Wyoming border and on Sunday afternoon Paul TenHaken ran into Iowa. Over those four days a journey of celebrating, mourning, storytelling, bonding, crying, laughing, and of course running would take place.
Together, we ran 437 miles.
Together, with the help of many incredible volunteers, we safely traveled across the entire state of South Dakota.
Together, with your help, we raised a quarter of a million dollars to raise awareness for mental health and suicide prevention to go to the Helpline Center.
The 437 Project was an incredible adventure that left me with three big takeaways:
1. The hardest things are worth the most
2. South Dakota is so damn beautiful - the people and the place
3. The cause is even greater than I realized - check on your friends and family
I’m so grateful for new friendships that were made and the stories that were shared. My sore legs remind me of the importance of pushing yourself past your perceived limits. We can do hard things.
A tremendous thank you to Midco and Leadership South Dakota for being my jersey sponsors. These two organizations also span our great state investing in both people and communities.
Thanks to my shoe sponsors - Lemonly, Lost&Found, Mariner Wealth Advisors, and VanHorn Financial, and the local artists who designed them - Joe Schaeffer, Tyler Blake, and Zach DeBoer.
Thanks to my girls - Paige, Margot, and Liv. I felt your support with every mile from FaceTime to the shoes the girls painted.
I said on stage at the Levitt, “Today, we had a finish line and a closing ceremony, but this is just the beginning. Let’s end suicide and give everyone hope.”
Thanks for the adventure 437 Project.
Home is where the .com is
From 2009 to 2023, I’ve been a lot of different people online — so this website has looked a lot of different ways. This has to be about version 8.0 of johntmeyer.com, and I’m excited to show it off to you.
This must be version 8.0.
The year was 2009, I was a brand-new entrepreneur teaching businesses about this new era called Web 2.0 and these new tools called social media. In every meeting I told folks, “Make sure you buy the domain name for your name. Even if you don’t do anything with it, just buy it!”
JohnMeyer.com was already taken. My name is not unique. When I typed John Meyer into the search bar, Google would say, “Did you mean John Mayer?”
So I bought johntmeyer.com, and that’s when @johntmeyer became my digital moniker.
Today, I’m launching a new version of johntmeyer.com.
This version is meant to be home. A home for all of my digital stuff. A home to describe who I am. A home to share what I believe. A home to capture what I’ve done, but more importantly share what I’m doing. The newsletter is the place for what I will do — that’s the good stuff.
From 2009 to 2023, I’ve been a lot of different people online — entrepreneur, CEO, blogger, video blogger, author, and speaker — so this website has looked a lot of different ways. This has to be about version 8.0 of johntmeyer.com, and I’m excited to show it off to you.
The TLDR: this website is my digital home.
And I’m still just John.
Welcome.