Moleskine, The Legendary Notebook

I love my Moleskine notebook. For the uninitiated, a Moleskine, pronounced "Mole-Skin" is a little notebook that you write ideas, drawings, thoughts and anything else that you want to capture. I have an iPhone with well over a hundred apps, many of which are for jotting down ideas and such. But there is just something about a real Pen and paper. The story of this thing is extremely intriguing. When you first tear off the plasic wrap, there is a little piece of paper that reads: MOLESKINE is the legendary notebook that has held the inspirations and ideas of everyone from Van Gogh, Picasso and Hemingway to famed author, Bruce Chatwin. Artists, authors, and geniuses of all variety have long appreciated the simplicity and superior functionality of these notebooks. That's just the beginning of the story, but it makes a person feels like the little book is a conduit for extreme creativity. Ok, well at least I feel like that. Heck, I'm even a member of the Facebook group "I love my Moleskine Notebook". Check them out at http://tinyurl.com/broppk

My New Mobile Office Project

I've learned so much by moving my "office" into our lobby, that I'm making it a habit. I will be placing myself in other areas throughout both buildings. I even bought a new little red desk with wheels.(God bless Ikea). You really see what going on when you are sitting where the action is! Next stop will probably be the customer service department. So watch out Marcie, Cassie, Leta, Amy, Amber, Kahler, Tara, and Michelle. I'm heading your way. David's my name and Company Culture is my game. See you girls upstairs.

Evaluation Day

Yesterday I had a large group of our employees fill out an anonymous survey. The form that they filled out rated me on a scale of 1 to 10 in the following areas: integrity, generosity, friendliness, gratitude, attitude, perseverance, dedication, passion, motivation, excellence, optimism, communication, negotiation, networking, Self management, relationships and knowledge. I have a great, and HONEST staff. I asked them to rate me accurately AND be brutally straight-forward with there comments. they were. the result were very interesting, and after being a little defensive (in my mind) I completely embraced the whole survey. I did well and received mostly 9s and 10s on integrity, generosity, perseverance, passion, optimism, excellence,, negotiation and Knowledge. the rest averaged 8s, except the following: Relationships-6, friendliness-6 and Communication 7. Now the communication was expected because I can be a little ADD to say the least. (I'm working on it, OK). But HOLY CRAP! Friendliness and relationships. what the Heck! I pride myself on our company culture. Friendliness and relationships are everything. We literally wrote a book about it ( Brewing A Creative Culture). The worst part is I received some 2s and 3s and some 9s and 10s on the same traits. Which means that there are dramatically different perceptions within the company on friendliness and relationships. Well I have my marching orders. I feel like this was a great exercise and I'm glad I did it. Time to get more friendly to EVERYBODY and cultivate better relationships with EVERYBODY! I recommend this to anyone. You never know what you'll find out.

Cool Quote

“This coffee falls into your stomach . . . sparks shoot all the way up to the brain. From that moment on, everything becomes agitated. Ideas quick-march into motion like battalions of a grand army to its legendary fighting ground, and the battle rages. Memories charge in, bright flags on high; the cavalry of metaphor deploys with a magnificent gallop; the artillery of logic rushes up with clattering wagons and cartridges; on imagination’s orders, sharpshooters sight and fire; forms and shapes and characters rear up; the paper is spread with ink—for the nightly labor begins and ends with torrents of this black water, as a battle opens and concludes with black powder.”

–Honore de Balzac

The Champs Of Dodgeball

We started a monthly dodgeball game today at Dillanos. We value company culture here, it's a huge priority, but I had no idea how fun a simple game of dodgeball could be. Now, I tend to get a little competitive, so I usually stay out of company games, but I couldn't resist. I was the captain of one of the sides and we picked the team old school playground style one by one. There ended up being about 22 people on each side. When we said go I could tell that we were in for a real battle. We were playing 2 out of 3, but there was no need for the third game. My team kicked butt 2 games in a row. One of the guys on the other team was a champion in a dodgeball league. I didn't even know there were dodgeball leagues. He was tough, but our side got the job done. See that's my competitive side getting the best of me again. In reality the whole experience was a wonderful team building event and a great time for everybody. All this for a few bucks worth of balls and an hour of time. So get you're people together out of the job environment once in a while. You'll be amazed at the results. Pictured on the right is my winning roster. DJM

Dillanos Blog Launch

Dillanos new blog will officially launch tomorrow at dillanosblog.com. we will be talking about marketing, promotions and of course coffee. it will be updated on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays. Check it out! DJM

The Page Of History Turns

Waking up early today. it's inauguration day 2009. Barack will take office in a few hours and a new page will be turned in history. Although not aligned politically(at all) with the new Commander in Chief, I wish him the Best. On the positive side (which I'm trying to think about) there is a renewed hope in America, and we elected an African-American into the highest office in the land. Amazing. So I pray for our Leader and wish him total success. DJM

NWRBC

The Northwest Regional Barista Champion is upon us. Located in Tacoma, WA, this year promises to be a good one. I checked out the scene last and the Temple theater is a perfect spot.
I got to see some old friends and some new ones too. what's up, Stephen, Nicholas, Rob, Roberto, Gianni, and Julian. Some Press has gotten messed up because of our flooding, (how could they pick natural disasters over professional baristas,what's wrong with those tv stations?) but overall we've gotten some good write-ups. the competition is today and tomorrow and it's gonna be sweet. see you at T-Town. http://tinyurl.com/6tx5tb