EVERYTHING is Changing

Change is the one thing (besides death and taxes) that you can be certain of in life. Yet most people are hard-wired not to want to change. Comfort, familiarity, and ease of doing things make the prospect of changing less desirable for all of us, myself included. Unfortunately, I don’t have the luxury of not changing myself. As a business owner, I must adapt to an ever changing world while also leading my organization to embrace change. Because the one thing you can be certain of in running your own company today is you can either change or go away.

In 23 years of running Aquascape, my role has changed quite a bit. I went from the field to the office to traveling the country to spread the water feature gospel. As my role evolved, so did the company with me. Today is no different. But today EVERYTHING has changed. With the convergence of technology and social media, how I and subsequently Aquascape interacts with the world has changed. No longer do I need to go on the road to spread the good word of water features at seminars, lunch and learns, and over dinners with clients. Now I can preach their merits for contractors, retailers, and even consumers through our YouTube channel (4 million views and counting.) Today when a customer or a consumer has a question, compliment or complaint, I learn about it almost immediately from Facebook or Twitter. No longer do I need to talk on the phone or even email to respond to an individual when I can respond to them and the masses over social media.

You know how big and far reaching the implications of being able to communicate in this fashion is for our business AND for yours?!

EVERYTHING is changing because of what technology and social media creates for us and for you. Our once defunct magazine Aquascape Lifestyles is now alive and better than ever thanks to the revolutionary technology developed by Flipboard. And now with social media everyone can share it with anyone which changes EVERYTHING for all of us! Are you kidding me?!

I do miss the good old days of traveling and visiting customers. I won’t miss the hotel rooms with crappy gyms, meals on the road and being away from my family. But now with the Aquascape Academy, we can train you or your new foreman from your laptop late at night or even in the cab of your truck on your smart phone at lunch. And because of that I don’t need sales guys on the road trying to find a time to meet when you’re not busy. EVERYTHING changes when we can meet you wherever you are whenever you want! Who says all change is bad?! This is game changing, career changing, life changing.

More jobs will be created, more jobs will be eliminated when EVERYTHING changes. If you’re selling ads for the Yellow Pages, consider yourself warned. If you’re still taking ads out in the Yellow Pages, consider yourself doubly warned! Because whether your job is being eliminated or created is a direct result of whether the company you work for or run is willing to change.

Carpe Change,

The Pond Guy