Love | Suits to Boots

Archive - Love RSS Feed

How to revamp your culture – Authenticity (part 3 of 3)

June 14, 2013 in Growing Companies, Leadership, Love with 0 Comments

Today’s post on authenticity is part three of a three-part series on “How to revamp your culture.” If you missed the first two posts, no worries. There is definitely something for you here. Read on!

Successful culture changes are created by changes in the authentic core beliefs throughout an organization. It starts not with a memo or conference call, but with a change in the behaviors and attitudes of the leadership. And where the head leads, the body tends to follow. But critical to the sustainable culture change is the authenticity of those beliefs and the behavioral changes.

How to revamp your culture – Gratitude (part 2 of 3)

June 4, 2013 in Growing Companies, Leadership, Love with 1 Comment

Today’s post on gratitude is part 2 of a 3 part series on “How to revamp your culture.” If you missed the post last week, you might wish to read part 1 on Commitment.

The culture where Justeen and I live in the rural country is outstanding. In many ways, it really does remind one of Mayberry. Neighbors are genuine, generous, and they just…do things for each other. Last week our neighbor two doors down brought us a housewarming present. It was a framed aerial photo of our property taken in 1982! They saw the photo at a yard sale, knew we had just moved in, and bought it for us. How unbelievably nice is that? We are so fortunate to have moved to such an amazing country culture.

517-Jim-Starr-1982_edited-1

Culture is made up of the collective attitudes and choices made by those in that particular community, company, or organization. Positive, negative, happy, unhappy, moral, and immoral. If the majority of the people are happy and positive, the culture is happy and positive. If a handful of people are unhappy and negative, it can be harder to maintain a culture which is happy and positive.

Continue Reading…

How to make a huge change in your life

May 1, 2013 in Love with 4 Comments

My post from six weeks ago, Five Words I gave myself permission to say…out loud, spawned a LOT of questions from readers and generated some really fun discussions with colleagues, family, and friends. That post revealed a great deal about the tremendous changes Justeen and I made in our lives and our personal journey over the past two years.

Well, we definitely awoke some dormant desires to make big changes in my readers’ own lives. And, do you know what?

THAT IS TOTALLY AND COMPLETELY AWESOME!

Most of the questions and discussions were around “how did you do that?” And, two friends asked “how did you even have the courage to start?” They are both great questions. In thinking about the answers, it reminded me that we approached these changes differently than any big change we tried to accomplish in the past. Here are the five steps we believe led to our success. Continue Reading…

When do you burn the ships?

April 9, 2013 in Growing Companies, Leadership, Love with 7 Comments

On April 21, 1519, Hernando Cortés and just over 500 Spanish soliders arrived by ship near the site of Veracruz, Mexico. With conquest in mind, Cortez knew that his small force would encounter Aztec warriors, who outnumbered the spaniards by 300 to 1. To remove all thoughts of retreat from his men, Cortez burned his ships before taking his soldiers into the fight. The message was clear: we succeed or we die.
Continue Reading…

Five words I gave myself permission to say…out loud

March 27, 2013 in Growing Companies, Leadership, Love with 6 Comments

Moving to the country and the road we traveled turned out to be so much more than a change in geography for Justeen and me. Our journey became one of discovery. Before two years ago, I never really gave any thought to the following five words. And, I probably never spoke them out loud.

Love
God
Debt-free
Meditation
Vegetarian

The Road to the Country

Perhaps its just a societal norm, but uttering these words can come with a fear of being considered “weak” or even “unmanly,” especially in a business setting. In the past year though, these words have become very strong change agents in my life and have shaped both my self-identity and leadership. Perhaps it was all the success associated with moving to the country that has opened my mind (or lowered the perceived risk) to considering a number of new ideas. Not only am I no longer ashamed to speak these five words aloud, they have become a critically important part of my relationships with Justeen and friends, my life, my client work, and now my writing.

Love is a business term…finally

February 21, 2013 in Growing Companies, Leadership, Love with 12 Comments

Leaders and aspiring Leaders,

About once every five years, I come across a book that makes a deep and lasting an impression on me. And that’s exactly what happened when I read “Love Works” by Joel Manby, president and CEO of Herschend Family Entertainment. Seriously. Whatever book you are currently reading, put it down. Start reading this book instead. How deep an impression did it make on me? You need look no further than the menu at the top of this page. I made “love” one of the four cornerstone categories of suits2boots.net. How do I really feel about it? You’ll see when you get to the final three paragraphs of this post.

I’d like to think that I’ve always been a practitioner of at least some of the principals in “Love Works”. So, I won’t say that Manby changed my leadership. He’s done something much more profound. He has wedged his foot in the mahogany boardroom door that I hope will forever change what happens inside. He attached a label to a leadership style and had the courage to publish an almost forbidden word in business…that word is love.

Hiring a Guard Donkey

January 15, 2013 in Growing Companies, Leadership, Love with 11 Comments

My wife, Justeen, and I moved to the country about a year ago after 12 years of living in the middle of Atlanta. I learn new things every day about how things work…in the country. And I can’t help myself but apply what I learn to my client work. Here’s a good one.

Did you ever notice when you drive by a cow, horse, or sheep pasture, chances are there’s a donkey in there? I never thought twice about it, even growing up in rural Ohio where cows are a-plenty. I figured that the herds’ owners just happen to own lots of cows or horses AND a donkey. Well, I learned recently that there’s a reason for that donkey. They’re actually standing guard over the livestock.

Garbage Can Dinner

September 25, 2012 in Love with 6 Comments

Sometimes it’s not what you serve that delights your guests, but rather how it is prepared and the experience of the evening.

Last weekend, Justeen and I hosted a dinner party for 22 friends that all live near our community of Serenbe, Georgia. The occasion was a birthday party for two of the guests. Our goal wasn’t to out-gourmet the great cooks we know – an unlikely outcome, as they are an incredibly talented bunch of foodies and chefs. Rather, we just wanted to muster an unforgettable experience for the guests and memories for the birthday girls. And, we wanted to maximize the time spent with our guests.

Thinking through our repertoire of dishes and skills, we were stumped on what to prepare. What would allow us to prep during the morning, and be done in the kitchen when our guests arrived? Justeen’s specially, Mexican? Nah. Matt’s Skirt Steak with Chimichurri Sauce? Too predicable. But, then I remembered a meal I had in Indiana at Justeen’s lake house…The Garbage Can Dinner!!

Walking the Walk

July 22, 2012 in Growing Companies, Leadership, Love with 2 Comments

Today’s post reminds us that an established list of corporate values is best used to guide employees and corporate leaders before decisions are made to insure the best possible decisions, rather than using the values as an after-the-fact measurement to identify a poor decision or decision-maker.

Remember back when we were kids? Remember when parents and teachers told us about the ills associated with…well, whatever they thought were the “don’ts” in life? “Don’t smoke cigarettes”, “don’t drink alcohol”, and “don’t spend all your money (you should save it)” are all examples of don’ts that we all remember.

I also remember discovering that adults didn’t always practice what they preached.

About Matt Oess

Hi, I'm Matt Oess. I'm a sales and marketing strategy and execution consultant. My wife, Justeen, and I left Buckhead/Atlanta last year for a new life in the country. Everywhere I look out here, I see the lessons that the country life teaches us about growing companies and leadership.

So, my blog is a country-inspired perspective on four of the things I am most passionate: growing companies, leadership, sales/marketing, and love. I hope you enjoy and would love to hear from you! My full bio here.

Justeen's first lesson on driving our friend Bill's tractor.

Here is our farmhouse in the country. Isn't she cute? There are 5 fireplaces in this little place, all original from 1890! Most of the house was rebuilt in the 1950s with one addition in the 1970s and another in the 1980s.

Here is another shot of the front of the house. We can't even guess how old the 2 oak trees are in the front yard. Definitely over 100 years. But, the feeling you get when you stand under them is...well...calming.

The camera caught me thinking about all the projects that have to happen to make our hobby farm happen. Wow, it can be overwhelming.

Down to a concrete slab and stud walls. This is the future den. Go big or go home, right?

Envision a dining room. Imagine family and friends gathered around, laughing, smiling, and eating wonderful things from the garden... wow, this might take some time before we can entertain anyone here.