Season 1 of the CULTURE goodr podcast shook out much differently than we expected. We are grateful to have taken the time to recap how our investments in culture paid dividends during hurricane season, aka Covid-19. In Season 2 we’ll be diving into even more deets about what makes goodr’s culture the whipped cream on top of the sundae. No, not the cherry-- who actually likes those maraschino cherries??! Yuck.

In May 2016, things started to shift. We were at a point where we’d sell out, take all of that money and buy more product. What changed was we asked our vendors for terms, and Stephen walked out of a consulting practice and never looked back. A year later we were picked as Runner’s World Gear of the year (humble brag). This didn’t change our sales, or balloon us, but it was a huge rose and validated goodr in what we were creating.

Stephen listened to Brené Brown at Inc. Magazine’s conference in October 2018. She was the keynote speaker, and she blew his shirt, pants, and socks right off of him (imagine how awkward that would be…) He brought his learnings to goodr and did three book clubs around the book before weaving it into our culture via a mastery class that every employee goes through. Go read the book so you know what we’re talking about!

“Should” is the new “S” word. You might as well put a penny in the swear jar every time you use it. (HAH, “swear jar!” That’s cute. We don’t have one of those at goodr. We’d be filthy rich if we did.) When the word “should” is used in a brainstorming sesh, everyone knows the response is going to be something like, “...Sounds like YOU should do that… Sounds like YOU just volunteered!” This hands people over the power to take and run with projects themselves.

We love how customizable Slack is. Our pink and teal custom colors make us so happy. Plus, Doug, our Bike Brand Manager, even uploaded his very own pink Croc emoji. #winning

Before you call that out as overkill, think about this...

WOULD YOU RATHER:

A) When starting a new job, watch a VHS from HR in a room with no windows, and be told, “This is how you log into your computer. Good luck.”

OR

B) Start a new job and on day one lose miserably to the CFO in a Ms. Pac-Man tournament? Although... our epic UPS driver crushed the CFO’s long standing high score this week… 73,060. TAKE THAT BEN.

During crazy times Stephen will work over 40 hours. However, he has developed a solid practice: when his day is done, his day is DONE.

“My goal in life is that when people ask, ‘Stephen, how is it going?’ I can answer, ‘CHILL AF.’ Because ‘busy’ is garbage.” ~ Stephen Lease, Chief Executive Octopus

Corporate America is full of middle managers. We don’t need that. In the book, Pink (can you imagine if we were talking about the pop icon, exclamation mark for an “i”, P!NK? It’s not...), unpacks how money is a poor motivator. It’s all research based. From here we created our AMP (Autonomy, Mastery, Purpose) project. Autonomy is “I have control over myself.” It’s all about proving to yourself and everyone else how you’re crushing your role. It’s about making decisions and standing by those decisions. It does not mean “no accountability.” It actually means more accountability. You’re in charge of what and how you’re accountable.

First note that there are managers and there are those who lead. Be a leader, lead by example. Courage is contagious. You have to have that courage and want to do something different. If you’re in a place where you get undermined and culture change is impossible, you have autonomy, and you have a choice. You have a choice to go somewhere else where that can’t happen. Peace out with pride.

1. Prepare for Season 2 by watching Brené Brown’s Ted Talk “The Power of Vulnerability.” Here we’ll make it REAL easy for you:

4. EXTRA extra credit, read Daniel P!nk’s book Drive

If you do all of that you are a serious overachiever, but we appreciate you for it. Hey, if you figure out a way to prove that you did all four of those next actions, we’ll send you a prize! We dare you to try!!! Season 2 drops when the crystal ball says it does, which don’t worry, will be pretty soon! Stay tuned!

Opportunities: Do more retakes, work on filler words, capture questions, more PR initiatives, more actionable plans to leave you guys with, a more fun intro, and Stephen vows to do better talking directly into the mic.

Wins: We did it!!! Preparation in general was solid. Both Stephen and Shaun now have podcast home studios. So much support from our team and with the goal to write a book, this whole initiative is getting us that much closer!!! Stephen and Shaun were also jazzed (still trying to bring it back!) to hear from so many random friends that took the time to listen.

Leopards (threats duh...): Covid of course… The goal is to share goodr’s culture with the world, so we’ll always be competing with ourselves to do “done is better than perfect” and just get the damn thing done. A threat could be getting lax on episode prep. As we continue to do things differently we need to budget in how long new things take. Additionally, Stephen will be launching his personal brand, which will be nifty to see!

Snext Actions: Get together for a deep dive with strategy and tactics. Map out season two more thoroughly, use the same deck-- merging notes, and make a PR plan.

Biggest takeaway: This is fucking awesome and that’s because we put a ton of prep work in and have an amazing team supporting us. Stephen was surprised how hard it was to push this baby out of the nest and was grateful that she flew!

On that note, we leave you anxiously anticipating the kickoff of Season 2.

Sign up below to get exclusive emails on the CULTURE goodr podcast (this is separate from our normal boring email list. Actually, there is no such thing as a “boring email” in the history of goodr). BONUS: If you slap your email address on the list by July 8th you’ll be hooked up with FREE SHIPPING on your next order from goodr.com. A little extra motivation for you to GET CULTURED.

Remember: Be excellent to each other.