I place the hearts and potential of staff and leadership into two categories: protégés and parasites. A parasite wants to be a part of what you have to offer, because of what you have in your hand. Parasites may have strong education backgrounds and a resume with large corporate  names on it. They seek information on how they can draw resources from the company for their pleasure or benefit. A protégé wants to be a part of your company, because of what is at the heart. They are interested in how you are driving the business. A protégé wants to understand and be infected by the passion you have for the company. Protégés are typically happy people and desire instruction. Parasites are typically wound tight and are defensive. Protégés are interested in discovering ways for the company to excel, while parasites are there to put your past into Excel. Take a few minutes to think of some examples that you know of that fall into either of these categories. These two personality types aren’t difficult to discern.

I have been a part of the development of a business new to Gaston County for several years. Because of time and talent constraints, the business  struggled  in the beginning. We had the concept and passion, but we made a quick hire from a resume in the beginning, putting management in place that proved to be a parasite. We learned quickly from this mistake and in time realized we needed to seek out a protégé. That time invested in seeking a protégé has well paid off. The protégé position has developed into a partnership. This person sought and caught the vision and is now the President of the company. Many of you in Gaston County have experienced the positive effects of this right selection of leadership.

Apply this principle as you grow and your business and our local economy are sure to benefit from the results. If you are seeking a position in a local company, consider what you have to offer the company. Businesses don’t hire to benefit you; they hire you to benefit the business. While you are seeking out employment, examine and discipline your mentality be that of a protégé.

Deborah: I’m from Upstate NY; Syracuse. I went to a local business school where I earned my Associates degree in Interior Design.  I am married, and my husband and I have a sweet Rottweiler named Wylie, who was named after his first fishing trip. My husband Robert always says he is second in line after Wylie.

GA: Tell us about Innovations Home Design. What do you specialize in?

Deborah: We are a full service home design firm, specializing in kitchen and bathroom design.   We opened the doors in January of this year, and we cater to builders and remodelers. But we also help a lot of homeowners, from do-it-yourself folks or those that need a lot of help, to some that just need a little added advice. We are a much more intimate place than a big box store. The good thing is you always get me- I care about your project, and will work with you to ensure that your experience is a good one.

GA: Do you primarily do kitchens, baths, both? Do you do anything else?

Deborah: We do a mixture of both. We also do outdoor kitchens, lighting, plumbing, flooring, counter tops and hardware. Our outdoor kitchens have really gotten popular.

GA What are you doing the most of right now?

Deborah: Right now we are doing a lot of bathrooms. By that I mean that folks are fully updating, taking out tubs, adding walk in showers, updating fixtures from polished brass to oil rubbed bronze or brushed nickel, and adding large tile and natural stone products.

GA: What is your background?

Deborah: I have 18 years experience in the construction industry, and I’ve worked on both residential & commercial projects. Kitchens are my favorite- I think it stems from my love of cooking. When I design a customers’ kitchen I visualize myself cooking there. I think it helps me make practical decisions regarding the placement of appliances, storage, & prep areas.

GA: Since we are talking about kitchens, what is your best or favorite recipe?

Deborah: Gosh, I love to cook a variety of things, and I usually cook from scratch. Ask the guys in here- I am always bringing them my “experiments”. I start with a recipe and put my signature on it.

GA: What is the biggest mistake home owners make, or biggest misconception they have when considering a remodel?

Deborah: That it is too expensive and is will take forever to complete. We’ve all heard the horror stories from our friends and family about their experiences. We have proven with experienced planning and execution of a project, that we can keep the customer on budget and complete a job in a reasonable amount of time.  We really can save you time and money. We do that by making sure we have everything lined up and ready, we estimate properly, and we have subs that bend over backwards and do things fast for us because of our reputation.

GA: Tell us about a recent project.

Deborah: I am working with a local business executive and his family on their new home. We helped them with all their cabinets, lighting, and plumbing fixtures, and took what was a rather plain kitchen and really jazzed it up. We consider how many people will actually be in the kitchen, do the husband and wife both cook, do they entertain, do they eat in the kitchen or prefer more formal dining, do the kids do homework in the kitchen, etc. The kitchen is often the hub of activity in the house.

GA: What are the trends in kitchens and baths right now?

Deborah: The environment is playing a key role in peoples choices. As a society we are becoming more aware of our impact on the earth, and our selections of products reflect that. Consumers are asking for Green Certified products, which we proudly endorse and provide.

GA: It sounds like you guys are great at what you do, and are very creative and fast, so I have to ask-are you expensive?

Deborah: We can help folks on a modest budget to someone that has been saving for years for their dream kitchen or bath. I tend to be fairly conservative with my money, so I try to be careful with customer’s money.

GA: Have you done any purple or zebra striped kitchens?

Deborah: Not yet! But I look forward to the challenge.

If you were to ask that question to Cliff Homesley, one of the partners in the law firm of Homesley, Goodman, & Wingo, PLLC, he’d probably tell you why not?

After all, Homesley and his law firm host an event they call ‘Blues & Burritos’ each year on the front lawn of their office on South Main Street in Downtown Mooresville. The event, now in its 10^th year, is known for bringing many of the area’s top blues performers.  And this year is no different, as they plan on featuring the music of The Part-Time Blues Band with special appearances from Bob Margolin, Robin Rogers, Max Drake, Shelia Carlisle and Pat “Mother Blues” Cohen.

The event, which started out initially as a client appreciation celebration has quickly transformed into a community-wide event.  It’s a way for Homesley and his partners to give back to many of the charities in the area.

A night of blues music, dinner, and drinks could be an expensive night out.  However, the firm underwrites the cost of the entire event, and instead encourages those in attendance to make a donation to a selected charity.

This year, the event will take place on Friday, Sept. 17.  All donations collected will go to support two local charities that are in major need due to the current economic recession – The Healthreach Community Clinic in Mooresville, and the Mooresville Soup Kitchen.

Homesley is a big believer in supporting the local economy.  The burritos are made fresh by Pueblo Grande, which is right across the street from the law firm.  Beverages are also locally made by the popular Mooresville brewer Carolina Beer & Beverage Company, makers of Carolina Blonde.

But even better than that, all of the musicians are local.  Homesley and his partners could bring in any national blues act they wanted for this event.  But Homesley says why bring in others, when you have such great talent in your back yard.

Only this time, the music will be performed in the front yard, for everyone to enjoy.

The 10^th annual Blues & Burritos will be held on Friday, Sept. 17 on the front lawn of Homesley, Goodman, & Wingo, PLLC, located on 330 South Main Street in Mooresville.  Shows begins at 6:00 p.m.  More information is available online at www.lakenormanlaw.com/comingevents.

Who do you allow to influence you? Are you being influenced by people that you would consider worthy of mentoring you in your business? Make sure that you are entertaining information from people that are familiar with and are supportive of your business. The absolute worst thing to do is adhere to the advice of a dominating and opinionated friend giving you information at a weekend cookout or in most cases, your hair stylist.  Seek information from people who have proven themselves in your particular  industry.

What are you listening to? What are you filling your mind with? Are you a computer guru that while waiting on the next repair to enter your business you sit around reading the National Enquirer? You would be surprised how the information that you put into your mind affects your focus and conversation. I am an incredibly busy and don’t have the time I want at this stage in my business to commit to reading,  so I always have a book or series on CD that I listen to in my travels. I can’t begin to tell you how this has influenced me over the past 12 months.

When do you decide to adhere to instruction? Are you a procrastinator? You don’t want to get a good glimpse of an up coming trend in your industry and wait to implement or market it until all of your competition has been doing it for six months. People are looking for businesses that are current. For a store front or retail business, it is said that you should change your look as often as every 7 years. I can’t tell you the amount of businesses in the South that are perfectly clean, but are uninviting due to the artificial plants, paneling, and green carpet. Don’t wait until you have lost half of your clientele to embrace change.

Where are you gathering your information? If you are always the smartest person in the room, I would suggest that you are hanging out in the wrong places. A bar stool to boast from may be an ego boost, but isn’t really doing anything for your business. You need to seek opportunities to be influenced by people that have proven to be more successful than you. I have a couple local mentors that I love to spend time with. One is in his 80′s and has been extremely successful in property investments and the machinery business. Often times he will call me to go take a ride with him. When he calls, I adjust my schedule and make time to spend with him. He will usually take me to a destination to discuss a project, but my reward is in the travel time when he shares with me wisdom and stories of success and failure. These opportunities must be sought out.

Why are you applying the instruction you receive to your situation? There is balance to applying information. You must take time to think through the information that you have received before you apply it. Is it relevant? I know of a local business that I have had the opportunity to work with on several occasions that will bring anything and everything into their storefront to sell, just to try to make a buck. This works great for a General Store, but not for a business named with a specific target. You will never find snacks and t-shirts for sale in my salon. I probably could make a couple extra bucks, but it isn’t the emphasis of the salon. Also, you will never find me selling or serving coffee in my salon. Why? My neighboring business is a coffee shop. Just because he is making money selling coffee, doesn’t justify me doing the same. The relationship that we have to influence our clientele as neighboring businesses is far more valuable.

Take time to think about the relevance and results of the instructions that you are seeking and applying to your business. Those instructions that you follow will determine the future that you will create.

Brian:  I grew up in Mississippi, and lived in NC for ten years.  Married to Cheryl for fourteen years and we have four kids:  TJ, Nathan, Corinne and Elea.  I do enjoy those things.  I also like good coffee, time with friends, and anything with an Apple logo on it.

GA: Tell us about the staff at Exodus Church, and how many folks do you have as members?

Brian: I serve as Lead Pastor.  Nathan Chapman serves as Pastor of Worship and Community.  We have a tremendous team of volunteers who work in areas from Exodus Kids to Audio/Visual teams.  We are blessed with so many who want to serve.

GA: You and Nathan seem like you make a great team…

Brian: Nathan and Casey are a tremendous blessing to Exodus.  We have known one another for years.  Nathan and I met in Mississippi and have stayed connected.  His contagious passion for Jesus fuels our worship gatherings and his heart for people deeply influences our sense of community.  We are so blessed to have Nathan and his family at Exodus.

GA: You guys seem to cultivate sort of an “alternative” image-would you agree with that?

Brian:  I think we try to be who we are and worship Jesus as He is.  If that’s “alternate”, then we are ok with that.  But, alternate is a pretty relative term.  Churches that criticize all aspects of culture (music, fashion, etc) really fail to recognize that they have created their own culture as well (music, fashion, etc).  Both church culture and the culture at large have been created by men and therefore have to be examined through the Bible’s lens.  At Exodus, we try to express timeless truth in a way that connects today.

GA: How did the church get started?

Brian:  Exodus Church was planted from Parkwood Baptist Church who was very generous toward us by sending out people and other resources to help us launch.  Other churches have partnered with us as well including Venture, Flint Groves Baptist Church, Providence Church (Denver) and others.  We began meeting in my house in November 2008 sharing our vision for a new church planting church.  We held our first public service in March 2009 and began meeting weekly in June 2009.

GA: If  you had to describe Exodus Church in “ non-church” language to a non- member, what would you say?

Brian:  People tell me a couple of things when they visit with Exodus for worship.  First, they tell me how friendly our people are.  We really work on that…making our environment as friendly and open as possible.  Second, they tell me that they hear the truth about Jesus clearly communicated in the message and music.

GA: I know you guys look for ways to plug into the community-tell us about that.

Brian:  As we look around, we see that the community is doing a lot of things – Gharibaldi Festival, Friday Night Live, etc.  Rather than try to have our own things as Exodus, we try to be involved in what is already happening around us.  So, we had about 60 of our members serving at the Gharibaldi Festival to serve our community.  We are a young church, but we are actively trying to find more ways to invest in our community.

GA: Who is your congregation?

Brian:  We have a pretty diverse congregation.  We have singles, young families, not so young families.  We want Exodus to look like our communities and reflect the demographics of our community.

GA: What is the one thing you would most want people to know about Exodus Church?

Brian:  That we care deeply about Jesus and His Word.  We are a friendly, open place.  We want to be a place were its ok not to be ok.  But all of that is a result of caring deeply about Jesus and His Word.

GA: What is the one thing you don’t want people to know? (just a little humor here…)

Brian:  That we are not a perfect church…Because I have a tendency to worship image and perception, I want people to think Exodus is a perfect place.  But it’s not…because people are there.  If you are looking for a perfect church, you are on an impossible quest.

So how about some Sorbets, Sherbet, Granitas and Ices. As a general class these all are frozen fruit puree mixed with something and frozen. If you have an ice cream maker great if not it can still be made just in your freezer. An ice cream maker is easier and will develop a smoother consistency than the freezer method.

What is the difference between a Sorbet and Sherbet? A Sorbet is lightened with egg white, and a Sherbet is mixed with either milk, cream or yogurt. A Granitas has a more granular texture because they are not churned and an Ice is like a Sorbet, but without the egg white which makes it dense and more intensely flavored.

Basic frozen Ice recipe

2 pounds of fresh fruit (Peaches, Nectarine, Plums, Orange, etc) 1/2 cup of sugar (this can be Splenda for low cal or a Turbinado sugar for a richer flavor) 1/2 cup of water

Peel and pit the fruit as necessary. Heat the water and sugar mixture till all crystals are disolved. Let simple sugar mixture cool. Blend the fruit and sugar mixture till a fine puree. If using a small seed fruit like blackberry run the mixture through a sieve to removed seeds. Place mixture in the ice cream maker till frozen consistency reached.

For Sorbet add 1 egg white to fruit and sugar mixture For Sherbet add 1 cup of yogurt to fruit and sugar mixture

For a Granita pour the mixture into a large shallow container cover and freeze for 2 hours. Break up the forming ice crystals with a fork and continue to freeze for 2 more hours stirring the crystals every 30 minutes. After the final stir freeze at least an hour before serving. (try this will strong coffee vs fruit for an after dinner treat).

There is room for lots of creativity here, lemon and spicy pepper diced very fine, watermelon, the zest of limes or lemons, spices like clove or cardamom. Once made the ice can be kept in the freezer in an airtight container for weeks. Stay cool fall is on the way!

Ciao

Glenn and Glenn

Everyone may not enjoy sports, but there’s no question that everyone enjoys being entertained.  And no one does it better on a grand scale than the National Football League.

Take a look at the Super Bowl.  It’s more than just a football game.  The game just happens to be the focal point. What makes the Super Bowl what it has become today is the extras and excess that goes along with it including the two-weeks of hype, the over-the-top commercials, and the juiced-up halftime show.

If the Super Bowl were solely about football, it would only have a fraction of the viewers.  Instead, the NFL glosses and glams up its annual signature event in an effort to garner additional viewers and spectators.  And it’s worked – for over 44 years.

That’s why I like what Jesse Cole is doing. He is the general manager of the Gastonia Grizzlies – a wooden-bat baseball league offering collegiate players a chance to showcase their talents and skills during the summer months.

Cole’s thinking bigger than just baseball.  And as a result, he’s seen a dramatic increase in attendance in Grizzlies home games since adding more pomp and circumstance to the games.

Sims Legion Park, the home of the Gastonia Grizzlies, is more than just a baseball park. In Cole’s eyes, it’s an entertainment venue. His goal is to make sure there is something for everybody. Even for music lovers.

So when Cole told me about his plan to have bands to play during the entire game, it caught me off guard. Having a band play during the entire baseball game is a new concept.  Not just between innings – but during the entire game.

Every Saturday night home game this season will feature a band.  They set up near the beer garden and will play to the crowd hanging out in that particular area.

According to Cole, the first Saturday night baseball game had 2700 in the park.  Of that, approximately 450 folks were hanging out in the beer garden listening to the sounds of the Caleb Davis Band.

More Saturday night concerts are scheduled through the remaining season.

The Grizzlies have decided to get into the entertainment business.  So if you enjoy baseball, or live music, or perhaps both, then a Saturday night at a Gastonia Grizzlies game is just for you.

Which gives a whole new meaning to the old saying that you can’t beat fun at the old ballpark!

* * For more information on the Gastonia Grizzlies, visit them online at www.gastoniagrizzlies.com.

Remaining Schedule

7/3 – Below The Belt

7/17 – Coldshot

7/24 – Matt Stratford Duo

7/31 – 74 Southbound