Biz Mix: B2B and the Art of Collaboration – Lonely no more

Running your own business, especially a small business, can sometimes be a lonely endeavor. From the first spark that sets your business in motion, to the day-to-day operations, it often seems like you spend a great deal of time with yourself, your idea, and it can be difficult to feel connected to the larger [...]

Parental Units: Happiest (most crowded) place on earth

T he morning of Dec. 28, 2009, the actor Johnny Depp could not get into Disney’s Magic Kingdom.
I don’t think Depp was upset by the shutout, mostly because he wasn’t there.
But if he had been, he would not have been let in because the park had hit maximum capacity. Imagine that: His likeness is the [...]

Gardening After Five: Growing your own (vegetables)

When asked why they’d rather grow their food when vegetables are cheap and plentiful at the store, all gardeners can do is shrug, smile knowingly, and offer a garden-fresh carrot for the questioner to chew on.  Two bites into that crisp, sweet root and the answer is clear: “because it tastes better.”
Growing your own means [...]

Lisa Trank’s Biz Mix: Looking in the Mirror on Monday Morning

I get a lot of newsletters that land in my email every week. I’ve signed up for them, so I know what I’ve gotten myself into as far as how much “weight” they add to my inbox, which is already bursting at the seam. Most of them I just scan and delete, but once in [...]

Pastimes: In search of county’s old schools

Searching for more early schools in northern Boulder County takes us west, then south of Longmont. At the corner of North 53rd Street and U.S. Highway 36 stands the former Montgomery schoolhouse.  Now a residence, it was built in 1917 by Finnish stone contractor Ernest Loukenen. Loukenen’s nephews Leonard and Reino rode their [...]

Lisa Trank’s Biz Mix: Is it Time to Reinvent? Some ideas on how to weather the economic roller coaster

I’ve been thinking about a great deal lately about reinvention. Not the wheel, or the perfect mousetrap, but how a business, employee or job searcher stays competitive, in business and in demand during a rough economic patch, like we’re experiencing today. In the last week, I’ve read about two local businesses shutting their doors, [...]

Think your sweetie doesn’t want Valentine’s flowers? Think again

My spouse tells me I’m a difficult person to give flowers to because I spend every day immersed in plants.  My job has me talking about blooms daily, poring over everything from design to growing and troubleshooting them.

Though I itch to tell him it’s not wall-to-wall beauty – they’re often diseased or bug-riddled – I [...]

Parental Units: Late-start blues

On Friday, Big Girl E celebrated her 100th day of kindergarten. It’s been a busy 100 days: she’s in school 32 hours a week, takes gymnastics and horse lessons and dabbles in periodic after-school activities.
She enjoys all of it, but school to her is an absolute privilege. She transitioned well from preschool to the rigors [...]

Biz Mix: How to succeed in presenting 101

I ‘ve been asked lately to do a number of presentations on social media Recently, I presented on “Social Media and Insurance Industry Trends” for a group of professionals . I was one of a number of featured speakers and on this occasion, I was lucky enough to be able to sit in on a [...]

Gardening After Five: Cluster flies are an aggravating, but harmless winter guest

T he tell-tale drone of their wings is enough to make the calmest person pick up a swatter and flail about.  As they aimlessly spiral past your face, you lash out, ending up knocking yourself silly instead of taking out the bug.  If the flitting as your sitting is making you buggy, you might have [...]

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