By Jon Swanson Leon was the high school band director in a small town in Iowa. He started working on his Master’s degree. He figured out some research topic that sounded good, that was like all the rest of the Master’s research projects around. His adviser said, “Forget that. Everyone is doing those kinds of…
By Jon Swanson Nancy and I are on a blogger tour in Hampton, Iowa. A bunch of bloggers are in town to learn more about agriculture and the local community. It’s a great idea for the town and for us. On Friday night, there is a wine and cheese, star-gazing, coffee-drinking, meet and greet. With live…
Our van broke. More accurately, while taking our daughter to college, our van, loaded with her stuff, began overheating 90 minutes into the two hour drive. After stops for cooling, much fretting, some praying, and smoke coming out of the tailpipe, we got to the college, got her stuff unloaded, and parked it. After catching…
By Jon Swanson Being individually responsive can be challenging. We talk about the idea, but how do you specifically customize things that are not part of your core service but help create the environment? Let me give you a very concrete example. I drink coffee. Often. I like when businesses provide coffee, but shudder when…
By Jon Swanson Nancy and I went out for supper. Because we had a free birthday burger at Red Robin, that’s where we went. Ryan, our server, was great. He was friendly at a volume which didn’t include other tables. He answered food questions thoughtfully, even providing a caution about what often happens in cooking…
Suzy and Tracie make bread in a little strip mall in Mishawaka, Indiana. They have a franchise with Great Harvest Bread Company. They give you free slices to sample. (Apple Scrapple is very good.) They are like lots of bread stores in lots of towns.Their store/bakery is only a couple miles from our daughter’s college,…
In a Father Brown detective story, a man is dead. It is clear that he has been killed. There were two guards at the door who knew the man was inside. No one entered, no one left. Father Brown, a priest with detective instincts, keeps asking Finally, the guards acknowledge that the postman had come,…
I was near the end of a two-hour drive to pick up our daughter at college. It had been an intentionally quiet drive. I had been texting a bit, but hadn’t talked to anyone for the whole time. When my phone buzzed twice, I realized it was a call, not a text. I looked at…
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