Once Upon a Time in Jorts

Yesterday, Make It Work got together at our partner South Bay Mini’s offices to discuss our achievements, our challenges and our future…we called it “Launch to the Moon, 2010.” There were 50+ Minis parked in a row, that was cool! It was an amazing day. The team was energized. We ate great food, we chatted, we listened to Jeremy Anticouni’s 38th broadcast of CBS/KNX Tech News (powered by Make It Work) and I presented to the team. While I wasn’t at my best (up all night with my lovely bride who is 5 months pregnant), I got the team fired up and we had a blast, together.

Eric and Jeremy, co-founders, circa 1997

My presentation began with a “moon” themed, song-filled slideshow of the history of the company. The first slide was entitled, “Once Upon a Time in Jorts” as I found an old picture of myself and Jeremy Anticouni (we’ve worked together for 14 years, 3 companies) and sadly, I was wearing a pair of jorts. No offense to those that wear jorts, just stop now. It then went on to show our first Mini Cooper, logoed with “Computer Plumber,” our former name. Next, there were a few pics of our first office (my 3rd bedroom), our first server farm (also in my 3rd bedroom) and our first two “Make It Work” Minis. The seven minute piece went on to showcase many of our accomplishments as a company, including the awarding of Services Company of the Year in 2006 by the Tech Council of Southern California and our back to back wins of “Best of Computer Repair” in Santa Barbara, voted on by readers of the Independent. We finished with a focus on our radio show, Tech News, which is on the leading news station, KNX1070 in LA (a CBS Radio station) and hosted by our CTO, Jeremy Anticouni.

After the slideshow, we chatted about Make It Work’s culture, specifically, our philosophy of “employees first, customers next” and our dedication to Delight. We talked about “ON IT,” as a means to responding NOW to every customer request. We also chatted about the MIW 3Es: Extreme customer service, Extraordinary ability and Excitement about what we do and how we do it.

Then, we spent the rest of the time talking about the “Employee Bill of Rights” as created by the staff of MIW:

At Make It Work, all employees have the right to:

1. be ourselves…not robots!
2. listen to whatever music we want!
3. dress casually and comfortably!
4. have fun…while working!
5. wear flip-flops…or go bare foot!
6. bring our pets to work
7. snack at our desks…or in the conference room!
8. actually get along with our co-workers…really!
9. drive a cool company car
10. bring your child to work…any day of the week!
11. Facebook…when caught up with our work!
12. Rockband…when caught up with our work!
13. be happy and comfortable

As with all Make It Work Boot Camps, we all left our business cards at the door. In fact, I threw my wallet at the door in the middle of my presentation. I took my shoes off too. Not sure why, but it was funny at the time. The goal of the day was to listen and engage, learn and build new friendships, discuss issues and make the company a little better. The team fed me with great ideas. I shared a few. I even agreed to change the color of our Dickies’ uniform pants from light grey to dark grey. They asked, I agreed.

I closed my presentation with an announcement about “Eric Greenspan’s OSN101 Conferences” (coming soon) and our new focus to help our customers take advantage of the real-time Internet. We took a bunch of pics and wrapped.

Heather Burlesci, MIW Director of Flow

After the event, the gourmet ice cream truck showed up and all of our staff ate edible paper wrapped “Make It Work” ice cream sandwiches.

It was a “rad” day and Make It Work is a little better now!

Now I (@ericgreenspan) must focus on tomorrow, the #140conf LA Meetup. I’m co-hosting and emceeing the event with @jeffpulver. 245 people registered, Yahoo! is sponsoring and hosting at the their HQ in Burbank, and Make It Work is hosting the AFTERPARTY at Burbank Bar and Grill. I’ve made a ton of new online friends in the process and I can’t wait to meet them at the event. Must sleep well tonight!

Notes to self: Get to know the presenters, practice presentation, call Yahoo!, thank sponsors, thank attendees, thank volunteers, thank Jeff, thank MIW staff, make sure the food is delivered on time, leave SB early, tweet about the event a half a dozen times, email attendees, make sure AV is working, call afterparty venue, check weather, talk to Jeff, shave, have only one cocktail at afterparty, bring biz cards, charge video camera/iPhone/Blackberry/Cinemin Swivel/laptop/camera/Kindle, replace batteries in presenter clicker, kiss wife and rub her belly, pet dogs, text son, call mom and dad, burn jorts.

Tagged as: customer service, mini cooper, social media, training, Twitter