Inside The Berenstain Bears Studio

If you own any Berenstain Bears books, you’re going to want to take a closer look at them after you listen to this! AmericaAtWorkStories.com

Mike Berenstain, son of Jan & Stan Berenstain – creators of the popular Berenstain Bears books and resulting entertainment empire - talks about the rewards and challenges of working in this amazing family business and reveals a fun little studio incident that resulted in a change in the Bears that will have you pouring thru your well worn collection to spot it yourself! (Hint: it has to do with how they look)

Mike remains a down-to-earth guy amidst the growing number of endeavors the Berenstain Bears have fostered. Besides the seemingly endless variety of children’s books, there are CD’s and DVD’s, a TV show, clothing items and relations with children’s museums across the country.

I had the pleasure of voicing the media campaign that launched the first permanent Berenstain Bears exhibit at Strong National Museum of Play in Rochester, NY. The exhibit is called Down A Sunny Dirt Road and is almost like a theme park; interactive and entertaining!

I invite you to listen to the story of the very real people behind those loveable Berenstain Bears.

Today's Sketch: " T"

What Type Of Entrepreneur Are You?

This is one of those “heard it from a friend of a friend” kind of things and I thought visitors to A@W would find it interesting. It addresses the recurring question I get asked about whether or not there is a difference between a small business owner and an entrepreneur? To be quite honest, up until this point, I have been fairly casual about using the ‘titles’ interchangeably, falling back on the dictionary definition of entrepreneur which is: “a person who organizes and manages a business undertaking, assuming the risk for the sake of the profit.” So yes, small business owners are entrepreneurs.

However, after reading Vivek Wadhwa’s guest blog post on LocalTechWire, I may start breaking it down a bit further. Vivek sites input from the Kauffman Foundation, which makes the following distinction:

“Replicative entrepreneurs”, who constitute the vast majority of small businesses, and “innovative entrepreneurs,” the rare few who bring new products/services to market or who pioneer new production methods. “ It’s a good read, check it out here: Defining who is real entrepreneur – It’s not black and white

Vivek Wadhwa is a Visiting Scholar at UC-Berkeley, Senior Research Associate at Harvard Law School and Director of Research at the Center for Entrepreneurship and Research Commercialization at Duke University. Follow him on Twitter at @vwadhwa.

Journey of a Children’s Book Author

It doesn’t matter how long we’ve been in business or how long we’ve been doing something, we’re always drawn to stories about how someone got to where they are, how they did what they did. Knowing seems to serve one or more purposes: • provide inspiration and motivation to do something ourselves  • illume our imagination as to the possibilities  • or simply give us satisfying confirmation that ‘our way’ was much better.

Most likely someone else’s path is not the path we’ll be taking because everyone brings along a different set of circumstances, but another person’s journey can prepare us, give us ideas, and alert us as to what to watch for.

Juliana Morgan is a bundle of energy, positive attitude and pure joy and I’m pretty sure those characteristics played a big part in her publishing success. She is now the author of two children’s books: Zach's Tracks: A Yorkie's Adventure and Buddy Gets A Second Chance.

Zach’s Tracks – A Yorkie’s Adventure is her tribute to a cherished family dog and is based on one of his real-life adventures

Buddy Gets A Second Chance follows the trail of floppy-eared toy rabbit after it is accidently donated to church yard sale

Listen to Juliana Morgan’s Journey to becoming a children’s book author and get to know a little bit about her personally. It’s her voice, telling her story in her words. The internet and social media allow us to connect to thousands of people, but it’s that “personal touch” that we look for and value.

Hey, speaking of personal touches… I’ve decided to add a personal touch of my own to every one of my blog posts: a sketch or a painting. Yep, I made a pledge to myself (and now to any reader that happens to stumble here) to illustrate this A@W Blog with one of my sketches or paintings. It’s not completely unrelated to my focus on the stories and personal profiles of small business owners and entrepreneurs (although it stretches the limits). SMB owners do all kinds of things outside of their main business to keep themselves fresh, creative and fulfilled. One of the things I love to do is sketch and I’m getting back to oil painting too, so really, this is just another aspect of America At Work! Plus it can’t hurt to have original images on my blog.

Today’s Sketch: Adirondack Fisherman by Deb Stamp

Now What?

For many reasons (which will reveal themselves), take the 35 minutes to watch this short film: Lemonade.

This.... is America At Work!

5AM Has Such Potential

There are plenty of mornings when 5am seems the perfect time to just roll over, reposition, and fall back asleep. But if you choose to rise, you’ll definitely shine.

What on earth can you possibly do that early in the morning, you may ask? (aside from lovingly nudging your partner or catching an early flight) Well, the possibilities are endless – after a nice hot cup of coffee.

Depending on the weather and where you live, you could follow in Jefferson’s footsteps and take a short walk: “A little walk of half an hour in the morning when you first rise is also advisable. It shakes off sleep and produces other good effects…” Yoga is great way to get the blood moving. Why not write for your blog, update your social media sites, read the paper, flip thru a magazine, or just watch the sun rise? Hey, bakers know it’s a great time to start some bread. You could do a sudoku puzzle, sort thru all those emails, upload those pictures you’ve been meaning to share.

This morning I put a couple loaves of banana zucchini bread in the oven, put some paint to a canvas, and sent out a VO audition I had been working on (it’s always interesting to look at my paintings or listen to my audio files after a night’s sleep - gives me a whole new perspective).

The point is, you can find the time to enjoy so many things and get a lot accomplished before your daily responsibilities take over. So give the early morning hours a try – your business and your personal life will thrive.

We were filled with visions of poinsettias having strolled among over 30,000 of them at Homewood Nursery in North Raleigh. On our way out, we walked past a man sitting on a garden bench talking with a young boy. The gentleman appeared comfortable and relaxed and for whatever reason, that led me to think he worked there, so I stopped to ask a quick question. I just had to know if they could possibly sell ALL of these poinsettias within the next month!? Not only did he assure us they would sell them all, but he went on to share fascinating information about this very special, signature piece of the nursery’s horticulture business. The more he talked, the more questions I had and he enthusiastically told their story.

- He told us about the various commercial customers that buy large quantities of poinsettias for office displays and events…

- That about 1,000 poinsettia plants leave the nursery every day in the hands of the many walk-in customers that come from miles around - even other states…

- He said they start growing their plants in greenhouses in April from cuttings they purchase, and those cutting grow very quickly so they continue to propagate more plants…

- That they pay royalties per cutting (yep, every variety is ‘owned’ by someone) and it costs about 10-12 cents per cutting. Obviously payment is based on an honor system that is respected in the industry…

- He explained how the natural light conditions Mother Nature provides - beginning in September - triggers the bloom of color on the plants…

- That the 35 acres upon which the nursery sits, helps keep ambient light out of the greenhouses at night. You see, the plants need complete darkness for a certain number of hours per day…

- They even turn their headlights off when they enter the parking lot in the evening or early morning so as not to ‘disturb’ the coloring process

- He told us that his dad started growing poinsettias many, many years ago and would host a little open house, complete with punch and homemade cookies, and folks would stop by to purchase their Christmas poinsettias - a tradition Homewood Nursery carries on to this day on a much grander scale.

And then with a big smile he said, “Well, that was probably much more than you wanted to know!” Oh, quite the opposite. What a treat to learn so much about a family business from the friendly, enthusiastic company president and owner himself!

Nice to meet you, Joe Stoffregen.

Constant Change

Follow a small business owner and get a lesson in resiliency;

stretching, bending, withstanding, recovering.

Expectations? Growing

Best laid plans? Let’s go with ‘Plan B’

Responsibilities? family and work

Employees? Yes

Problems? Solutions

aka Flexible Income

Markets? Fickle

Competition? Bring it on

Products, services and prices? Responsive

Regulations? Enough already

Rejection? Try again

Bankruptcy? A possibility

Now what? How about…

New direction? Sure, why not

Small business (and life) …Changing Constantly

If...

If you want to work 9-5

If you don’t dream

If you know it all

If you won’t ask for help

If you like things easy

If it’s hard to bounce back

If you think customers just buy stuff

If you don’t like to read

If you don’t like to write

If you don’t like to network

If you’d rather watch TV

If it has to be your way

If you need a sure bet

Don’t start a business.

Repurposed

A couple years back I took America At Work for a ‘test-drive,’ hosting a radio show on the internet. Chuck Hester was one of my guests and we had a grand time chatting about the things he loves most. Well, his very first love of course, is his wife, Stephanie (and as a matter of fact, I interviewed her for the second half of that show so it ended up to be the Hester and Hester hour!). But LinkedIn and the Pay It Forward lifestyle were the stars, and Chuck shared great tips and fun stories. I liked that interview – it was chock full of good info for small business owners. So, I decided to ‘sculpt’ it; editing and adding a little narration, to create Chuck’s feature for AmericaAtWorkStories.com.

I’ll be sculpting more of those radio show interviews, so be sure to check back now and then. You'll meet hard working, independent Americans finding personal satisfaction in their work and achieving reasonably attainable levels of success.  And once in a while we'll sprinkle in a celebrity entrepreneur, just because they had to start somewhere too! Plus they love sharing their business journey.

Oh, you know a fun thing happened as a result of the friendship Chuck and I formed. He asked me to write a little ‘blurb” for the cover of his new book, Linking In To Pay It Forward. Hey, does that mean I’m published now as well? 

BTW...you can connect with Chuck directly by going to:www.linkedin.com/in/chuckhester

When you’re a small business owner, you learn by doing.

It’s a combination of personal vision, drive and an accumulation of actual experiences. The stuff of real life, as opposed to “Gee, wouldn’t this be neat”  or “Try this.”

There isn’t an expert, self-help, business book out there that can come close to preparing you for the way you’ll feel when that opening day you’ve planned months for, comes and goes with barely a new customer.  Or you spot a rip-off of your product design in a shop a town away . Or you hold that first copy of your book in your hands.

As dmurrayil@earthlink.net wrote:  “…good stories require tactile human experience, things we can all relate to physically—hard falls, soggy shoes, dry mouths and tired arms.”

Yep, that’s what I love about the entrepreneurs and business owners I talk with and interview… their stories are oh, so real.