Pray Always.

#doctrineandcovenants  @brotheranthonysweat
  

Tips from Cofounder of Omniture and Observepoint, John Pestana

John Pestana is a familiar name in Utah, he cofounded Omniture which sold for over 1.8 billion dollars. And he more recently cofounded observe point 6 or 7 years ago, he is the cofounder and chairman of the board. He plays more of a business development and product role.  He helps with long term vision of the product by creating connections and networking. 

They help a company have quality data, data that they can trust.  The platform looks at their data implementations, all of their marketing techniques, and make sure that they are all functioning properly. Whether its on their website, video or mobile platform they just make sure their data is being collected properly.  It is a business to business market.

What is a big difficulty you have faced in this business,  and how did you overcome this difficulty?

“One of the hardest things is finding the qualified people into the company and finding skilled developers.  Building a good product has come pretty natural to us because we are already very familiar to the market that we are in.”

How did you find the top developers or team members?    

“Basically reaching out to my network and the people that I already knew.  Although none of these people I had actually personally met before.  Many of them were references that I received from people that I knew.  I always tried to reach out to my network and look for leads.”

What tip would you give an entrepreneur? 

“Just start, I think everyone waits for the perfect scenario.  And I think if you want to be an entre you just need to start and the opportunities will come. You will start seeing clearer and know what you need to do, and what you shouldn’t do.  Like with Omniture we just started making websites for people and then we tired X, Y, and Z and created different products and then actually a friend of mine came and said Hey have you guys thought about making this tracking app.  And that’s how we started into it.  But if we hadn’t gotten out that and started making those basic websites none of that would have happened.”

If there is anything that you would have changed in your entrepreneurial journey what would that be?

“I haven’t second guessed that many things.. Nothing ever goes perfect right?  I don’t know even the bad decisions guide you into better decisions. And if you were to take away those experiences I don’t know if I would have learned as fast.  There’s no real big thing that sticks out in my mind that I wish I wouldn’t have done.  There were a lot of tough times but I think we were able to make good decisions in the moment.”

Story of Piper & Scoot

Piper & Scoot was started by Nate and Kylee Middleton.  They started off by selling used clothes on Instagram and then they used that money to bootstrap their way to where they are today! Piper and Scoot sells exclusively online and ships worldwide. 

Like many start ups they have had their share of difficulties, unfortunately one of the major difficulties they have had is untruthful competitors who have stolen their clothing lines, blogger contacts, and some have gone after them personally, etc.. This has taught them a lot of patience. All you can do is hope that eventually they will stop or that somehow people will see that they are not being genuine. Kylee has learned that more than striving for sales, she should strive for customer loyalty. "Since there isn't much that is proprietary about what we do as a company, that doesn't mean I can't set my company apart by the way I market and use my voice to capture customers."

Kylee and Nate Middleton

 Another difficulty they have had to overcome is keeping enough inventory in stock. They have learned how to better estimate how much stock they can handle as they have been in the business longer. It has come down to a lot of trial and error, but going into their second year of business, "I would say we have really worked hard to improve upon this." 

"If I could give one tip for entrepreneurs, I would say to set a goal and stick to it. I didn't originally start Piper & Scoot thinking it would be a big deal one day--a big deal meaning it can employ both me and my husband (that's a big deal to me!)--so I didn't have a solid goal in mind. But as my husband and I have set goals, I have seen our company really start to take off. It takes a lot of perseverance and there were tons of times that I thought about just liquidating all my inventory and hitting the road, but I am glad I didn't. I couldn't see the potential that Piper & Scoot had at the beginning and I hope it continues to grow, but its not without a lot of hard work, which can sometimes be super annoying when you feel like its all you ever do."

"If there was anything I could have changed in my journey thus far as an entrepreneur, I wouldn't have let the copycats get to me. They were just wasting my time and setting my company back. I had a hard time separating my emotions from my work, but now I feel like I've learned to channel my passion into something that actually helps me achieve my goals."

Jeff Pedersen (Del Sol & Cariloha)

Taylor Brasher

Del Sol started up as a very small family business.  In 2000 Jeff and his wife got into the business by moving to St. Marks and working on the front lines.  Jeff started as an intern (increasing sales by 30%) and moved his way up the ladder from store manager, to VP of sales, to partner and eventually CEO of the company.

Jeff bought out his partners in 2003 and 2006 and then in 2007 started up the sister company Cariloha.  Cariloha’s introduction was rough, they had a hard time getting traction with their product.  That is when Jeff asked his team if they could create a fabric out of bamboo.  They were creating their own marketplace and saw that this idea was incredible.  They started with 5000 shirts and they all sold out in less than 3 weeks, since that time they have had incredible success.

Del Sol has an interesting way of finding its employees.  70% of 

the employees that make up the employee base of Del Sol and Cariloha started working there as interns.  With this method of finding people, their interns work all the way up the ladder and already know how to deal with customers and are familiar with the company.

Some of Jeff’s entrepreneurial tips focused on a very important point: Hiring people to help your dream take off.  You need to love working with them, they should be smarter than you are, and they need to share the same fire/ passion that you have. 

Jeff is a great example of someone who works hard, doesn’t let anything hold him back from reaching his goals, and someone who keeps true to their values.

Entrepreneurial tips from Time-tracker application CEO Jared Armstrong

Taylor Brasher

BUS M 490

Jon Bradshaw

           

Jared Armstrong is the founder of MinuteDock and handles the CEO & CTO roles at MinuteDock. He keeps the business moving forward and his code runs a huge number of MinuteDock's complex backend systems.  Jared Armstrong founded MinuteDock (which will be explained later in the interview) with two fellow colleagues while looking for a solution to one of their time tracking problems. 

Q.  What Demographic do

 you target with your product?

--MinuteDock; CEO Jared Armstrong (center)

A. “Initially we really focused on freelancers, and small 1-3 people businesses.  Over the years we have came to realize that from a business perspective that isn’t such a great demographic because they aren’t willing to pay much more than the minimum amount of money for the product.  At the moment the main demographic is still in the small business space but we are trying to get companies that employ around 10-20 people.  Usually the industries are professional service businesses, such as design agencies, accounting

firms, and developers.

Q. What gave you the desire to start this business?

A.  “MinuteDock was started in mid-2009, and there were originally three of us who made it. What we were at the time was we were software consultants and we were selling our souls for an hourly rate and tracking our time, adding all the details of what we worked on, and being Kiwis we also were on to this new great thing called Xero for our accounting.   Xero doesn’t have time tracking in their product so we thought, “Okay, we just need a basic tool to track our time and get it into Xero.” It sort of grew from there really. We added a whole bunch of other features and worked for around that time-tracking problem to really make tracking time and keeping track of your targets and budgets for clients and customers. It’s really easy and really seamless.”

Q.  How did finance your business, or find investors?

A.  “We are fully bootstrapped, we basically funded it through our contacting work.  For a long time we were working on it part time.  Then once our part time wages weren’t covering expenses we started to contract our clients.  For now we plan to continue private, and in the long run we can go public, but we have not planned for that yet.”

Q.  If you had one tip for new

entrepreneurs what would it be?

A.  “Make sure you choose your fellow founders wisely.  Establish goals and make sure you are all on the same page before you start up the business.  For us in MinuteDock we worked extremely well together for the first few years, and then we started to have a few problems and that’s when I ended up buying out the other founders.  Also to get the best outcome on any business you need to invest everything you have in that particular business and focus on that.” 

  “MinuteDock is an online time tracking software. Essentially it’s built for any small business that has a time component as a key part of their business.  It allows the business to track and bill their time and gives them an easy way to get invoices into their accounting system and send off to their customers. 

            

Life's Lessons

My best friend taught me that it is important to live in the moment, while obviously maintaining moral standards and making goals.  Plans are never 100% reliable, therefore live in the moment, and soak up every little opportunity to experience joy that you have.  This life is filled with trials, but those trials are designed by god to mold us, and help us progress in this life.  There is an amazing quote that was given by the Prophet Gordon B. Hinckley, he said:  "Life is to be enjoyed, not endured."  I LOVE that quote! God wants each of us to recognize the blessings we have in life, take advantage of the opportunities that will contribute to our personal growth, and he wants us to be happy above all else.

In order to be happy we cannot let worries, hold us back.  We cannot allow our weaknesses to limit our ability to enjoy this life. In order to be happy give it our all! Live life to the fullest!  

Pay attention to your surroundings, the blessings you have, the many opportunities granted to you, and live your life without fear..

Summer

Summer officially started almost 3 weeks ago but it didn't even occur to me to to make a blog post about it.  Then I thought about it and realized how important it is to me, and here we are.  Summer can be interpreted many different ways by each individual.

 

1. For the kids in elementary school it means no more homework, no more worries, just playing with their buddies without a care in the world.

2. For the junior high to high school kids it could mean sports camps, jobs, young love, family trips, etc.

3. For the college kids (my age) it means a time of growth, an opportunity to give it your all in everything you do, a time to laugh, love, and enjoy the company of your loved ones. It means travel, adventures, risks, boating, swimming and fun.  

The only downside to summer is that September comes too fast (even though it's a great month, JDR) Before we know it we are back into the school/work grind, the sun starts to set earlier, and we realize that the summer dream has come to an end. Until next year. 

Fortunately for us we still have another 2 and a half months!  Carpe Diem!

8 Benefits to living a POSITIVE life!

When I was younger I heard the question: "Do you think the glass is half empty or half full?" I answered "Half full."  Being positive is a very important aspect of life, here are 8 benefits of living a POSITIVE life:

1.  POSITIVE people who regularly express POSITIVE emotions are more resilient when facing stress, challenges and adversity. (Several Studies)

2. POSITIVE people are able to maintain a broader perspective and see the big picture which helps them identify solutions where as negative people maintain a narrower perspective and tend to focus on problems. (Barbara Fredrickson)

3. POSITIVE people aren't negative!  That means they are enjoyable company.

4. POSITIVE emotions such as gratitude and appreciation help athletes perform at a higher level. (Heartmath.org)

5.  POSITIVE, optimistic sales people sell more than pessimistic sales people. (Martin Seligman)

6.  POSITIVE work environments outperform negative work environments. (Daniel Goleman)

7. POSITIVE People Live Longer – In a study of nuns, those that regularly expressed POSITIVE emotions lived on average 10 years longer. (The Nun Study)

8.  POSITIVITY is contagious!


Live a POSITIVE life!

3 places I would love to visit!

I decided that I would write about a few places I would like to visit during my life.  Hopefully they will interest each one of you, and inspire you to be creative with your "traveling desires" as well.

1. I need to go to New Zealand, I went when I was a senior in high school and absolutely loved the trip!  They have a very unique culture that is extremely oriented around recreation.  The food is delicious, and it is beautiful beyond belief! I would love to revisit to be able to surf, bungee jump, tour the caves, eat the food, and relax.  I will also need to bring along my best friend.

2. I would also love to travel to Europe! If I could choose the two countries to go to they would have to be Spain and Italy.  Spain would be important because of the deep spanish culture that originates from this country.  Italy, because of the amazing food, and the cool little towns.

3. Last but not least I would like to revisit Argentina, I was lucky enough to serve my mission there.  I would love to be able to visit some of the sights I wasn't able to go to as a missionary, and also be able to do a service project or some sort for the people down there.

There is a huge list of places I would love to visit, but these were three of them that I thought of in the moment!  

Here is a link to another traveler's blog that is a good example: http://www.nomadic-habit.com

2014 World Cup!!

There are few things that can end wars, calm conflicts, and bring together nations that hate each other.  The World Cup can accomplish such a feat!  It brings together the world's best soccer teams that will spend a month going head to head in the biggest soccer tournament the world has ever seen.  Soccer isn't nearly as popular as basketball, or football here in the United States.  But in other areas of the world, such as Europe, and South America, "futbol" is a religion.  This soccer craze hit me as well, during my service as an LDS missionary for 2 years in Argentina.

Argentina's very own Lionel Messi is one of the world's best soccer players!  The World Cup does not only give us a chance to forget the conflicts of the world, but also an opportunity to enjoy the sport of soccer at its finest! Tune in to: http://www.fifa.com/index.html to appreciate these epic soccer matches!

La comida mexicana

Anyone who knows me well enough know that one of my passions in life is Mexican food.  I die for this stuff!  In a regular week I usually eat a burrito, or a burrito salad at least five times a week.  So here are my top three favorite Mexican restaurants, so that you can go out and enjoy what I have been enjoying my whole life!  

My favorite without a doubt is Barbacoa: 

The burritos from Barbacoa are perfect, from the succulent chicken, flavor blasting black beans, refreshing tomato salsa, to the crunchy lettuce, and perfectly steamed rice.

Coming in second would have to be Cafe Rio!  Their salads are amazing!

And third goes to Chipotle!

If 1 o'clock comes rolling around and all you can think about is Mexican food, you're just like me! So here's a list for the next time you are out searching for your next delicious burrito! 

DONUTS!

America has had a long love affair with with something essential to our history as a nation. DONUTS!!!! Yes this sweet, soft pastry has become one of our most prized possessions. Look at them:

These tender treats were first made without the hole and were the size of a walnut, thus the name: "nut".  Here in the United States we are lucky enough to celebrate one day a year totally centered around donuts!  This special day falls on the first Friday of June every year.  But these delicious treat are too perfect to only have once a year...

So if you missed it this year, do yourself a favor and go out and buy a donut!  You won't regret it.

Acting without being asked

I remember when I was 12 years old one of my young men's leaders shared a quote with the young men in our ward.  I have remembered this quote ever since then, and it has always reminded me to act without being asked.  Do what others expect of you, without them requesting you to do so.

"This is a little story about four people named Everybody, Somebody, Anybody, and Nobody.

There was an important job to be done and Everybody was sure that Somebody would do it.

Anybody could have done it, but Nobody did it.

Somebody got angry about that because it was Everybody's job.

Everybody thought that Anybody could do it, but Nobody realized that Everybody wouldn't do it.

It ended up that Everybody blamed Somebody when Nobody did what Anybody could have done."

Lets do our part, and not rest on the fact that "somebody" will do it for us, because in many cases "nobody" will.  Whether our part be physical service, the opportunity to serve someone, or just everyday work, don't wait to be asked, just do it.

Californiacation!

A week ago I was lucky enough to go to Laguna beach California!  We road tripped for a total of 24 hours in five days.  From the start we had planned to stay in California for four days to make it back for work on Tuesday.  Long story short, it was a great trip from day one until the last day. Then we were hanging out on the beach the last day.

It was a perfect day to be in the ocean, we were taking advantage of the good weather by messing around in the waves, then my friend Taylor suggested that we skim-board for a little while.  I went and grabbed the skim board from our spot on the beach and skimmed once, then I handed the board to my friend Taylor.  He grabbed the board and started running to start his skim, but just as he laid the board down on the sand he caught his foot in the sand and tripped. I fell down laughing, but soon realized that he was bleeding all over his leg!  We rushed him to the E.R. and he had to get 15+ stitches in his foot. Looking on the bright side, our trip was extended another day!

   

Although there were a few setbacks to this trip, we made a lot of great memories!

Last week I got the chance to go to the wedding of one of my really good friends! My favorite part of the whole experience was seeing them enjoy eachother's company and not even noticing the hundreds of people surrounding them.

 It's really cool to think that we can with someone for eternity.  One of my favorite parts of the restored gospel of Jesus Christ is the knowledge that we can live with our loved ones for eternity.  There is something more after this life, and for me that wipes away so many fears that envelope the world today of this life being all we have.  All of that begins with the decision we make to marry someone and commit ourselves to them forever.  I love that god allows us to make these covenants with him and gives us the opportunity to enjoy blessings that can only be experienced through obedience.

The hardest job there is..

I have heard of a many different jobs that are demanding and time consuming but this job is by far the hardest job there is..

The definition of selfless service is motherhood.  They virtually sacrifice their own lives for the lives of their children, and the only payback they ask for is to see their children's happiness.  Like it said on the video, the hours for this job are very flexible, the job is "135 hours - unlimited hours a week, and there are no breaks available."  

 Let your mom know she is important, tell her you love her, write her a note, spend time with her, ask her what you can do to help out.  I promise you she's worth it.

 The gift of motherhood is a gift from God, and it is the highest, and holiest calling.  Most mothers face an overwhelming schedule and are pushed to the extremes.  Our mothers are willing to do just about anything to help us be happy. What are we willing to do for them?  I love my mother and I am grateful for all she does for me. 

"Either you let your life slip away by not doing the things you want to do, or you get up and do them."

This week was great! I had school, work, and many other activities that made the week fly by. In the years of our youth, life seems to go by slower, because we are fascinated by every new experience. Our daily ventures into the unknown keep us occupied and our days are filled with adventures.  Most people seem to lose this excitement and the drive to enjoy their experiences as they age.  It is a sad reality, but losing this adventurous attitude lets our life slip away before our eyes.  We need to love life and all of the experiences that come with it, whether they be fun, hard, new, or old!

This past week I was able to go up fishing with my 2 brothers, a friend, and our grandpa.  The fact that I have been fishing many times throughout my life did not take away from the fun I was willing to have.  It was a simple trip, we caught fish and we were laughing the whole time, enjoying ourselves and the time we all had together. 

Its as simple as this:

"Either you let your life slip away by not doing the things you want to do, or you get up and do them." 

-Roger Von Oech

Finishing up finals and going against the odds!

Finals at BYU are officially over for now!  That means I had about a week to go mess around with my buddies until summer classes started up.  That's right my summer was 5 days long this year!  But I was still extremely excited for the chance to go out and mess around on the dirt bikes for a day out in northern Utah.  The odds were not favoring us as we woke up at 6 in the morning to head out, it was pouring rain, my buddies bike's seat was broken, it was freezing, there was no room in the truck, when we started filling up the gas tanks the digital screen typed in 666 all on its own, and many more signs that we shouldn't carry on with the trip presented themselves.  But we decided to do it anyways!  Long story short, we had a blast out there, pushing it to the limits and having a great time, even though all of us came home injured from the days adventures it was still worth it in my opinion! "You've got to risk it for the biscuit!"