In our home, where dogs currently outnumber humans, lives a spirited little rat terrier named Jax. He has what I’ll call a healthy obsession for tennis balls, but had never been swimming until earlier this summer when an errant tennis ball splashed down in the lake. After some heated internal debate and apparently realizing that he had no choice, Jax slowly ventured into the unknown. Once the water got up to his face, he continued on his hind legs. And when the water got so deep that he could no longer feel the ground, he began to swim. After retrieving the ball, he swam ashore, dropped the ball in the sand at my feet, and gave me that look. My marching orders were clear—so I threw it again, and the cycle repeated itself.
All was well until one time, there were two balls in the water. He couldn’t fit both balls in his mouth, but retrieving one at a time would have meant swimming ashore with one ball left behind. And that, to Jax, was unthinkable. As he kept trying to do the impossible, he went further and further from shore. Before he got too deep, I waded out and gave him a hand.
I share this story because, more times than I’d like to admit, I’ve been Jax. Jumping into an exciting new project without a plan, and confident that I’ll figure it out as I go along. Clearly, that’s not a good strategy.
That’s why I attend publishing conferences several times a year: to learn how to do my work for the LBM Journal team, and the LBM community, better and smarter. Publishers, as it turns out, are very similar to LBM dealers in that they’re willing to share their experiences. They want to help, and they intuitively know something that I learned from Grant Leavitt of Marcus Lumber when he took the stage at a past LBM Strategies Conference.
As Grant explained, if you and I each have an apple, and we exchange these apples, then we each still have one apple. But if you have an idea and I have an idea and we exchange ideas, then we will each have two ideas. Now multiply that exchange over several days at a conference with other members of your community. The results can be powerful.
I just returned from a conference with fellow business publishers. I connected with some old friends, made a few new ones, and came home with some fresh insights that are going to help my team and I do a better job for you. And it’s my hope that I shared some ideas that will help others work better and smarter, too.
As I write this, we’re less than a month away from the LBM Strategies Conference. While Jax won’t be there to share what he learned about trying to manage too many tennis balls, more than 200 members of your LBM community will be there to share ideas and experiences. Hope to see you there.
— Rick Schumacher, Executive Editor & Publisher
