So on my final leg of my 2009 Front Line all-store training tour I stopped back through Salt Lake City and wrapped in Georgia. At the original store in the Gateway Mall in SLC (shown left) I was up on the ladder minding my own business, changing light bulbs when members of two competetive high school choirs coincidentally converged on the LoveSac store to get out of the cold. Chaos ensued. I was worried there would be blood....there was. Definately worth watching all the way through. Hard to believe how quickly choir kids can get out of hand:
Wait until you see this crew from Atlanta's store video. Let's just say they know how to ride the Sac. And I mean that in the most literal, innocent, southern-hick-of-a-way as possible. (LoveSac Lenox, right. LoveSac Mall of Georgia, left...on the SuperSac they mastered riding)
GO BUY A LOVESAC! It's the gift that gets bigger, and bigger, and bigger.
For YEARS now we at LoveSac have wanted to expand beyond just Sacs & Sactionals to include some other comfy stuff too. For many reasons it has eluded us....until NOW. Let me introduce to you LoveSac's BRAND NEW line of these products called..........wait for it........."Other Comfy Stuff." More importantly (and this is no exaggeration) THIS IS THE NICEST, MOST WELL DESIGNED STUFF WE'VE EVER MADE. I am telling you: if you want to give someone you love a truly unique, extremely high quality, expensive-feeling gift this Christmas you MUST watch this video and then check out these amazing products at lovesac.com.
This is just me, in my living room, showing you up close and personal how special these things are:
This will be my 7th year touring all of the LoveSac stores on what we at LoveSac call: Operation Front Line, 2009. After running the first LoveSac store day in and day out for months before we began to open more and build the company, I decided that I never wanted to get shut up in the office and lose touch with the customers who have made this company great. Not to mention our AMAZING Sac'rs who are out on the front lines making the sales, paying the bills, and who are ultimately responsible for LoveSac's success. So each year, just before the Holidays, I get out on the road and (mostly) drive to all of the LoveSac stores in the country. From LA to Boston, with each stop I am reminded of just how special our products are in our customer's lives and how great our band of young, capable, hard-working Sac'rs are at running this biz. [ABOVE LEFT: Natick MA LoveSac crew. RIGHT: Kyle & John, Sac users for years who now own Sactionals with multiple Covers]. BTW, COME FIND ME ON OP FRONT LINE AND SAY "SHAWNY D. SHOW ME THE MONEY,".....I'LL HOOK YOU UP.
This year, with so much going on, I will only make it to 2/3 of our stores before Christmas, but plan to catch the rest in the spring. [ABOVE LEFT: Bridgewater NJ crew]
At each stop I make sure that I'm not just dropping in to say "Hi" and point out shortcomings. I get to know every Sac'r by name, see who really tears it up and where our next Market Managers might be in the system! I work the store floor for hours, try to get my fair share of helping customers. I actually do the sales training while working the floor, with real customers; no role-playing here. They watch, I work. I usually make a sale or two and spend every other moment working with the store managers on merchandising training and setting their store right. [RIGHT: Columbia MD Sac'rs at the end of the 12 hour training. LEFT: Tyson's Corner D.C. crew - top selling LS staff!]
Each stop presents something new. I've wired lights, painted, re-located fixtures, hung posters, done light construction work...whatever needs doing. A typical "Front Line" day begins at 10am, sometimes noon, and runs until midnight, with all of the sit-down, hardcore training done after the store closes. We end the night by making ridiculous videos which live in infamy on the back walls of every LoveSac store and on the web forever, in the form of the LoveSac Store videos which you'll see playing in every one of our stores. Most customer's favorite part of these videos are the sections made by the Sac'rs on the Front Line visits....some better planned than others. I usually then drive on to my next location to the wee hours in the morning, wake up and do it again.
At each stop I take a new sidekick with me - usually a Manager or Assistant Manager from some other LoveSac market, with the purpose of getting to know them and further develop their skills at the Sac. They also work the floor when I'm back de-briefing the staff on the customer I just helped. I think it is always good for them to see other stores, other Managers, other ways of doing things. [RIGHT & LEFT BELOW: the new look of LoveSac, 2009 Columbia MD] NOBODY is too good at LoveSac to get their hands dirty, paint, clean, scrape, unload, setup, and go unil Midnight--or sometimes work for days straight, if necessary.
That is just our culture: this laid back, easy-going, fun company whose "laid back" people actually work harder, go longer, and are more capable than any other store in the mall....period. I love these guys. It is these people to whome we owe our deepest gratitude and respect. I dedicate this and every Front Line Tour I'll ever make to those who are really running this company, the Sac'rs on the Front Lines.
-- Shawny D.
BTW, COME FIND ME ON OP FRONT LINE AND SAY "SHAWNY D. SHOW ME THE MONEY,".....I'LL HOOK YOU UP WITH A LOVESAC GIFT CARD. Noon to Midnight... Nov 20th: Westroads, Omaha NE. Nov 22: Dallas Galleria, TX. Nov 23: Stonebriar, TX. Nov 29: Gateway Mall, SLC, UT. Nov 30: Northridge Mall, CA. Dec 1: Glendale Galleria, CA. Dec 2: Tyler Galleria, CA. Dec 6: Arizona Mills, Tempe AZ. Dec 7: Sunset Galleria, Henderson, NV. Dec 8: Layton Hills Mall, UT. Dec 10: Lenox, Atlanta GA. Dec 11: Mall of GA, Atlanta GA.
THE WINNER of this year's Halloween costume contest gets a (brand new) KING BLANKET by LoveSac, worth $300 (hit stores in 2 weeks!!!) THE BEST STORE overall all get a pair of (brand new) PHUR FEET Slippers by LoveSac....a prize to be coveted, no doubt. So I'll show you all the pics (in no particular order), then I'll tell you who won at the end, then YOU please COMMENT and tell me whether we got it right. ALL comments welcome.
Westroads NE
Mims!
No shirt to work!?
Luigi
asdf8r
King of Prussia! PA
Northridge CA (red walls)
Nerd & Rainbow Bright at Columbia MD!
AZ Mills
Flatiron Eddie & his world famous jacket!
Tyler Galleria
Ladies Man-agers
sadf25l
asdf30r
Georgia, Jersey, & Pittsburgh girls.
Layton discofied (again)
Casey & Josh spread the word in sin city!
Hung over in SLC.
More holiness.
Weirdos.
asdf46l
asdf47r
asdf48l
asdf49r
asdf51r
asdf52l
Christiana DE opens on Halloween! Alex as El Hombre LoveSac Magnifico, I'm inked up, Libby is doctor hottie, Brian really should grow a mullet, Batman. Batman....and the legendary Jizamm as a Pink Lady.
My Lucky lady-bug, her furry friend & Tiffany added together make for a "whole lotta woman." Clearly adding to my hardcore image.
Today I spoke in LA at an event with Richard Branson as the headliner and Christian Audigier (Creator: ED HARDY shown BELOW) as the closer....what a lineup! The "Perfect Pitch 2009" seemed to be a huge success to me. With hundreds of aspiring entrepreneurs and investors in attendance I know that I was inspired by all of the success stories and information shared. I love these events. The greatest thing about these entrepreneur events is also the most humbling: hearing SO MANY incredible stories of success, over-achieving and ridiculous wealth creation--all under one roof. THAT is America at its best - no matter what Michael Moore says about it. Capitalism breeds unbridled innovation - God bless America. (GOTTA see the vid below though!)
I spoke on a panel with Apprentice (2nd Season) winner, Kelly Perdew. It was fun to rewind a bit and recant some of my experience from the old Rebel Billionaire days. I was reminded of just what a rare opportunity that was. God bless America. (Me and Kelly Perdew shown right)
One of the coolest entrepreneur presentations ("pitches") of the day came from the founder of Icon Aircraft. I was blown away by his concept for a "Sport Plane," meant to tap into the "Power Sports" market (Sport Cars, Sport Bikes, Sport Boats, etc)...but for planes. This plane is SICK. Checkout: http://www.iconaircraft.com/ It will only cost about $140k and anyone can fly it, on land or on water...and tow it home on a trailer.
Finally, in contrast, I leave you with this thought - which can only be expressed in this real-life, unplanned, un-scripted, spur-of-the-moment little video that I just had to record as I watched TV the other night. THIS is the antithesis of everything that I stand for. I mean, hats off to Bob for his entrepreneurship, but OH, America - don't give in to becoming the unabashed couch potato that this ad implies that you are....
If you're an entrepreneur, or aspire in any way to start-up, create, or run your own business you should really be in LA next week! Next Monday (Oct 26) my old pal Richard Branson is headlining "The Perfect Pitch" entrepreneur's conference in Marina Del Rey. I'll be on one of the breakout panels as well, representing the Sac. A very busy year has gone by since I was last able to spend any time with Richard and this event should be amazing. It is PACKED with heavy hitters and I'm sure it will be more than worth it.
For any of you who might not understand my connection with Virgin's Rebel Billionaire, Richard Branson, just check out these YouTube videos.....
[[SPOILER !!!...]] You see, Richard once gave me a million bucks and made me President of Virgin Worldwide (yep, that actually happened). Definitely one of the more exciting periods in my life. Since then he has remained a friend, investor, and mentor to me. I'm honored to be part of this event with him. CHECK OUT THIS LINEUP:
PerfectBusiness presents The Perfect Pitch 2009 with Sir Richard Branson
Monday, October 26th, 2009
Marina del Rey, CA 90292
ENTREPRENEUR PANEL Tom O'Malia, Orfalea Director's Chair in Entrepreneurship - University of Southern California Steven Lipscomb, CEO / Founder - World Poker Tour Wing Lam, Founder - Wahoo's Fish Taco Jeff Tinsley, CEO / Founder - MyLife.com WISDOM FROM SERIAL ENTREPRENEURS Nolan Bushnell, Founder - Atari, Chuck E. Cheese’s, Tapcode & uWink Holly Han, Co-Founder - MyShape; Principal - 64North; Director of Special Projects - UCLA Anderson School of Management HOW SMALL BUSINESS LENDING REALLY WORKS Alberto Alvarado, District Director - Small Business Administration REALITY TV ENTREPRENEURS Kelly Perdew, Winner of “The Apprentice” on NBC; CEO of RotoHog.com Shawn Nelson, Winner of “Rebel Billionaire” on FOX; CEO / Founder of LoveSac
Hope to see you in LA next Monday!!! I know a few of my fellow friends in business plan on being there. Comment if you happen to be coming. Find me, we'll hang in LA. .
LoveSac lovers...YOU'VE GOTTA SEE THE VIDS BELOW (no, it is not snowing in this pic)....All of our Market Managers LoveSac Stores all over the US came to Stamford for an intensive 3 day training. In true LoveSac fashion: we work hard, we play hard. I'd write more but I couldn't do it justice. To get an idea of the (organized) chaos that ensued, just click on the videos below. First, 3 days in 9 minutes. Next, Sac Diving gets nasty. last, a flickr slideshow of some of my favorite pics of the week. If a picture is worth a 1000 words, a LoveSac video says it all...
MANAGERFEST WRAP-UP
SAC DIVING
FLICKR PHOTO GALLERY SLIDESHOW
Please COMMENT on what you think of our lunacy....good, bad, or ugly!
“WE ARE.WE
ARE.WE ARE.” Screamed Director of
Retail, Alex in his meanest drill sergeant voice (he actually is an Army
Reserve Drill Sergeant one weekend a month in answer to the question: “What is
LoveSac?”…”We are!”
IT IS ALL ABOUT OUR PEOPLE.There is no doubt in anyone’s mind here at LoveSac HQ that
our people are by far our most valuable asset.Like it or not, our products are weird, require demonstration
and explanation, and with all the video, photos, POP displays, etc, there is
just NO SUBSTITUTE FOR AWESOME PEOPLE.Our most awesomest people are all here for 3 days only, at LoveSac world
headquarters in Stamford Connecticut.
19 of the best Sac’rs in the world have been flown, driven,
and trained up to New York City then on to our offices just up the road in
Stamford….a banking town.LoveSac
is most certainly the weirdest business in this town.No suits here.Surrounded by high-rises filled with tie-wearing finance geeks, we’ve
borrowed the empty space beneath our tiny office where we can all gather around
one long conference table with the purpose of elevating our collective
LoveSac-abilities.
The day begins early, at the Stamford Inn.Who knows what goes on after hours with
19 Sac’rs locked up under one roof – I don’t wanna know.But we woke everyone up playing “HI-LO”
where everyone lines up from high to low according to the category called.
We all crammed into our cars (the LoveSac Bus is, um, busy
right now), rolled over to the office where the day of fun began.It’s “wear your favorite T-shirt day
for this first long day of training.Powerpoint presentations….YEAH.Vision training, mission training, financial training, inventory
training, supply-chain training, book-club knowledge sharing, etc, etc, etc.
For lunch we had some wicked-good carnitas tacos from our
favorite neighborhood taco joint….and get crackin’ on the staff-wide Guitar
Hero single elimination tournament in the infamous "Rockstar Room" at LoveSac HQ. Katie, Casey, Mims, Dave, Brian, James, and Torin advance to the next
round of Guitar Hero glory…Tashia, Andy, Eddie, Libby, Svi, Hellen, Amy and
JesAnne were ELIMINATED. I’m not
saying they sucked….but it WAS entertaining.Overall, I’d have to say that those from the field are
better than those from HQ…even though WE’RE the one with the RockStar Room
right here in the office.(Shows
you how much it gets played).It’s
all a show.LoveSac isn’t really
fun…..but we like to pretend we are.(ok, its kinda fun).
Now back upstairs for dinner in the office, then right back
downstairs for more presentations after dinner….goin’ till 11 pm tonight.LoveSac is…...FUN!
Hey, who's that hottie rockin' with the baby in tow? -- Shawny D.
Just arrived in Prescott, Arizona for the Prescott Rally. I get adrenalized just thinking of driving rally...easily the wildest thing I've ever done. 12 hour drive down here. Not at all glamorous and we have a problem - possible spun bearing in the motor. Don't know how long it will last. BUT I race Friday afternoon (night driving!) and Saturday. Follow the results of each stage (8 stage, 100+ mile race, 4 stages per day) at this link:
In my endless travels China is one place I have been to dozens of times now. It is still a picture-a-minute. Of all the many accidents I've seen (and been in) in China, this is the first time I've ever seen a milk truck disaster. I love the Chinese version of a semi-truck. Always open-air with a massive net over the top. Clearly not so effective this time.
Just another reason to back up traffic.
Now of all the burning cars I've seen (and I've seen many), this is the first burning car I've seen in China. For some odd reason, when I used to live in California I swear I saw a flaming vehicle once a month. In fact, one time I even saw the car in front of me catch on fire...I actually dialed 9-1-1 for them! Then, when they pulled over and got out, we just sort of watched it burn.
I mean, what do you do? It's an oil fire and unless you have a fire extinguisher, the flames shooting out from underneath the car, threatening the fuel tank, are pretty much gonna do their thing. In this case, the car must have gone up fast...not even a fire-truck on the scene yet.
China really is a picture a minute.
The past few weeks at LoveSac have really just been all about the grind. TONS of new product development work and office work...not much to write home about. So I just thought I would share these weird photos I took on my trip. Hope you enjoy.
Look. It is a giant gold dog and a giant silver dog on the back of a flat-bed semi-truck.
Look. This is actually my absolute favorite China vehicle (see my blog about 10 posts previous for the entire list). If you CLICK ON THE IMAGE it will enlarge and maybe you can see what is going on here.
It is a raw internal combustion engine driving the front two wheels directly, pulling the cab and truck bed behind it. Much like a horse-drawn carriage, only pulled by a crude ode to the modern man, instead of a horse. The best of these motor-carriages are actually turned by giant handle-bars that the driver holds onto, turning the whole direction of the entire motor/front-wheels part of it, pulling the driver behind. THIS is the kind of thing that in another 5 years will be totally gone from the ever-modernizing China.
Finally, there was this fish. This fish is very LoveSac.
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