Hello LinkedIn folks! I hope that anyone who reads this will know by the end if I'm the type of person you would enjoy working with or not. Promise I won't take it personally either way, but since you are here, I do hope you take something + away :-)First, I believe to know if someone is potentially a good fit for your business, you need to know more about their thought processes and values. Not just the positions they have held or the certifications they possess. This can be a challenge due to most people's fear of transparency. Like dating someone, the only way to know if they are worth pursuing is to know if your core values and beliefs align. If either does not, it will lead to failure. Unfortunately, this is the case with a large percentage of relationships (business or otherwise). I believe in the power of goodness, honesty, integrity, education (from higher learning and hard knocks), and always being true to yourself. My jam is empowering others through shared experience, knowledge, kindness, compassion, and a general love & respect for our planet, our universe, and our flawed, wonderful human commonalities. My childhood was in the coal mine areas of Appalachia in Southeastern Kentucky, spending most of that time in my dad's garage. My adult life has been spent as an entrepreneur, and occasionally at corporations at differing levels, but every position I have held has had one commonality...service. Sometimes that service was tangible, intangible, customer-facing, or behind the scenes. I believe to be a good leader and to serve others well, you must be able to directly empathize with your team and customers. Invest in your people, training, support, health, tools, and work/life balance and they will invest in you 10-fold. You can not effectively create, sell, or support a product or purpose to its full potential if you do not have a complete understanding of it or your audience. You may "succeed", but truly, could you be doing better? These are basic ideas, yet I see so much missing from companies every day. Too many "leaders" are so detached from those who are at the hearts of their businesses, their frontlines, and their customers, that they can no longer see which way is up. It's all theory, spreadsheets, and $ no real-world knowledge, no real-world solutions. My goal, whatever I do, is to bring the heart back to business.As my life and career continue, you will find me working with companies and people who share similar ideals. So, if you're still here, shoot me a message, maybe we should work together, the rest can't fit in this box!