Blog

I’m at the grand opening of Goodwill’s new outlet bin store in Charleston with Jamon Schmidt. He runs marketing and communications for Goodwill and explains why they shifted this location from a traditional store to a bin store, a concept that hasn’t been common in West Virginia. Instead of racks with price tags, the floor is lined with bins, and staff rotates rows about every 15 minutes, so the shopping moves fast and feels like a hunt. You pay by the pound, not by the tag, and he tells people to jump in, grab a cart, and start digging. We talk marketing lessons too, and he comes back to the idea of acting early and pulling the trigger when you think something will work, then reviewing results after. We also address what people miss about Goodwill: the mission is employment, and the retail side supports services that help people get into jobs and careers.

I’m at the 2600 meetup at KDE Technology in downtown Charleston. Tony Brown explains it’s a cybersecurity and tech community meet that happens the first Friday of every month from 5 to 7 or 8, and it connects to an international 2600 network that started in 1984, with meetups happening around the world the same night. Lee Ayers frames it as a place to bring the community together, including people who are not in cybersecurity but want to learn. The room covers everything from lock picking to Active Directory, and we talk about hacking history that starts with phone phreaking before personal computers. Tony breaks down what people misunderstand about security: the best defense is basic habits like long passwords, password management, not reusing or sharing passwords, and using two factor authentication. When I ask Lee for a principle he stands on, he lands on zero trust, which means giving only the permissions needed and treating security as a concept, not just code. Tony closes by sharing how to visit at 111 Hale Street and follow the KDE Technology Facebook page for monthly event posts.

I chat with Ursulette Huntley Ward, executive director of Unlimited Future in Huntington, a business incubator and economic development center based in the Fairfield community. She explains how they help people in transition, including those coming out of incarceration, aging out of foster care, graduating without a plan, or dealing with major life changes. We talk about a mistake from her own journey when she lost a training program on a thumb drive, and how it pushed her to stay organized, keep backups, and rebuild the program better the second time. She breaks down the challenges she sees most, like limited resources and people feeling punished for old decisions they cannot forgive themselves for. She also calls out a misconception that nobody will help, even though support exists through nonprofits and community organizations, and we agree pride keeps a lot of people from asking. She shares that her best investment is putting money into other entrepreneurs and watching them reach their goals. Right now she is working on fundraising and telling Unlimited Future’s story. Her advice is to talk about your offer with care, without dollar signs in your eyes, and her rule is to stand by your word.

I talk with Bob Bliss about delegation and why leaders stay stuck doing everything themselves. He points to fear and control as the root problem, and he makes the case that a CEO has to delegate or the business stalls and turnover goes up. He shares a practical method: give someone real authority while you step away, do not let them call you unless it’s an emergency, then review what happened when you return. Mistakes are part of the process, so feedback matters. He avoids yelling, recognizes what was done right, and treats small errors as learning, not punishment. He also pushes for ideas from every level of the company, because the people closest to the work often see what leadership misses. When an employee’s idea changes a plan or procedure, he gives them public credit to build ownership. For smaller crews, he recommends easing people into responsibility one step at a time, learning who they are beyond the job, and building a foreman through repeat chances instead of a sudden handoff.

I talk with Sonia Gonzales about her product AlxRX, a dual-chamber drink pouch built for pre-workout on the go. The pouch keeps powder and water separate with a vegetable seal, then you press it to mix and drink through a one-way valve that helps prevent spills. She explains how a pivot into the fitness version around September or October makes the launch feel close, with production expected in the next 6 to 8 weeks. We get into the real cost of learning fast when she shares a $40,000 mistake on the film material that could handle heat but would not take the fragile seal the manufacturer needed to apply. Her biggest challenge now is that she can’t find anyone who can fill both powder and water in a dual pouch, so she is building her own manufacturing setup and racing to find a facility with high ceilings for tall equipment.

Today I push one question for every business problem: “How was this my fault?” I take a stoic approach. I cannot control other people or outside events, but I can control my response and what I do next. I use rain as an example. Yelling at the sky does nothing, but planning for rain and adjusting does. I apply the same thinking when a client calls angry because an employee made a mistake. If I yell back, I lose the job and any referrals. If I take responsibility, I can fix the system. This is not about beating myself up. It is about ownership so I can improve. I walk through four areas to diagnose the real issue: clarity, communication, constraints, and capability. I talk with the employee, ask what they thought I meant, and look for missing tools, missing info, or missing skill. I drop the “should” mindset, remove ego, and use humility to correct the process so the problem does not repeat in 2026.