The Collaborative Group Blog

On January 22, Camille Jayne, President and CEO of The Community House, spoke about creating a more vibrant life for individuals and businesses.

“What I hope to do is help everyone be better in the business background. Your personal effectiveness plays a huge part in that,” said Jayne, who focused on the tools that form the foundation of business effectiveness and ensuring sustainable success. It starts with your frame of mind, which Jayne said includes the following:

• Be motivated to do what others haven’t done before
• Be motivated to get expected results in a faster timeframe
• Be motivated to exceed on time

She focused on the motivation as it ties to individual effectiveness in business. She also shared her personal motivation to help others commenting, “When I wake up in the morning, I think about achieving small miracles for other people.”

Jayne also talked about the importance of building relationships, getting what you want, strategic planning, and business planning, all of which tied together in one main idea: a motivation to serve others.

“It takes a lot of heart and a lot of brain to get all of this right. If you follow everything I’ve laid out here, I feel you’ll be successful,” Jayne said in conclusion. She urged attendees to continue their business and individual growth by attending her nine-part Bulletproof lecture series. Learn more about how you can participate at http://tchbulletproof.org/.

New member Tom Mark has led the Detroit-based Detrex Corporation, a worldwide specialty chemical company, for the past 17-years through a series of operational and legacy environmental challenges. Outside of work, developing and mentoring people to bring out their best talents is one of his driving ambitions. Learn more about Tom’s passion for giving in our interview below.

What attracted you to the Collaborative Group?

I love southeastern Michigan for its grit and determination.  The Collaborative Group embodies the “help yourself and re-build” spirit that is the essence of this region today.  This new spirit has emerged after too many years of an entitlement mentality based on momentum from past success.  I believe that The Collaborative Group will help me participate with people who want to make positive things happen in this community.

How do you contribute to the entrepreneurial community in the Detroit area?

While this area has a huge number of fledgling companies and support organizations, I have spent quite a bit of time with one of my favorite charitable causes, Goodwill Industries of Greater Detroit. This agency focuses on preparing people for jobs and any endeavor that creates jobs.  Having been born in Sweden, The Swedish American Chamber of Commerce is another organization that I enjoy working with because of its focus on networking Michigan and Swedish companies to promote mutual interests and trade.  I have also been a member of Vistage (formerly TEC Detroit) for over 20 years.  This is an organization of business executives from diverse industries that meet in small groups to provide advice and support to one another.

What excites you about Challenge Detroit?

Challenge Detroit crystalizes the spirit of rejuvenating Detroit by attracting and retaining fresh talent and energy to downtown.  I have not engaged in activities yet, other than providing funding support, but I hope to spend time on the mentoring side in the future.

“Tonight, you’ll get pumped. Tonight you’ll get excited. Tonight you’ll laugh. But the brutal reality is that 95% of you will wake up tomorrow and do nothing with what you learned tonight,” said Kim Yost, CEO of Art Van Furniture, at a speaking engagement held at The Collaborative Group recently.

What Yost was talking about was the will and determination of everyone in the room. He challenged everyone to be a part of the 5% of people who would wake up the next day and make a difference with their business.

Yost’s presentation consisted of a 68-day challenge, dubbed “The Ultimate Jumpstart,” which served as the blueprint of creating an awesome 2013. “20% of your next year is your first 68 days. You have to make a difference and set the tone then,” said Yost whose presentation consisted of 6 phases:

Phase 1 – Set goals/objectives (January 1st – 15th)
• Make a commitment
• Listen to Jim Rohn’s CD “The Art of Exceptional Living”
• Develop new habits
Phase 2 – Build the game book (January 16th – 31st)
• Read three books i.e. “Traction” “Serial Innovator” and “The Re-inventors”
Phase 3 – Complete the game book (February 1st – 15th)
• The 10 step process
• Commitment & buy-in
Phase 4 – Execute of be executed (February 16th – 28th)
• Daily follow-up
Phase 5 – Measure and adjust (March 1st – 8th)
• What’s working? What’s not?
• Focus on prioritizing
Phase 6 – Celebrate/reward (March 9th)
• Have a great dinner with the team
• Buy yourself a big gift

Yost believes that there needs to be time to think and reflect on the things that you’ve done, the mistakes you’ve made, the successes that you’ve had, and the work that has been accomplished. “If you can see it in your inner mind, you can believe it in your outer world,” Yost said. He emphasized how important each phase was and how instrumental following the timeline was to becoming successful.

With Yost’s advice, anyone in the room, no matter what kind of business they run or how advanced they are in their profession, can take away the knowledge and leadership from a CEO at a successful company.

“You must have a plan. You will have to work harder. You will have to take risks. You must stay focused. You must be relentless.”

Contributed by Doyle Mosher

The Collaborative Group is engaging on many levels. With Challenge Detroit, we hope to have impact on a community wide scale, but in many other instances the touch points are more intimate. On Friday, November 9, The Collaborative Group partnered with Winning Futures to mentor students at Madison High School in Madison Heights. Collaborative members and friends donated time, support and sage advice.

Winning Futures is an award winning nonprofit organization that makes a difference in the lives of young people through school-based mentoring programs and workshops for middle school and high school students in Southeast Michigan. All of their programs focus on the life skills of character value identification, goal setting, career preparation, and strategic planning. The high school students who are enrolled in Winning Futures have made a commitment to be coached, mentored and advised by a rolling group of leaders within the community. These leaders are from multiple backgrounds and occupations. Each one-hour session includes fun, interactive ways to promote solid advice on principles for success towards studying and life.

Broken into small groups, each lead by a mentor coupled with two to four students, our first assignment was to play a dice game. The game involved a friendly competition and prizes, but most importantly with each roll of the dice was a quick discussion prompted by study cards with meaningful phrases. This was a fun bonding activity which included solid messages to help the students. Next we had each student set one achievable goal (i.e. raising a grade level in one class). As mentors, we helped provide the student five steps towards achieving their goal. These steps were recorded in their work book and quantified by time and measurement.

Between activities the facilitators for Winning Futures reinforced the exercises with reasoning and discussions about accountability. It is clear to see that even an hour of time donated can make a significant difference in both the student’s and mentor’s life. </p

Jim and Nicole Worth are creative geniuses. The co-founders of Formcode Design Group, a custom design firm specializing in creative web solutions, this husband and wife team are the creative curators for both The Collaborative Group and Challenge Detroit, and have been since the inception of both organizations. We’re excited to share our interview with them.

Question: Please tell us about your background.
Answer: We are a husband wife team who have owned and operated Formcode Design Group for 12 years. A collaboration that started just after graduating from College for Creative Studies, our joint passion for design and interactive development is what lead to the creation of a business that prides itself on strong creative expression. We have had the pleasure of working with a variety of clients in the metropolitan Detroit area and across the country.

Nicole is also the owner and designer of the children’s t-shirt brand, Little Trendstar. Her toddler t-shirts are favored, and have been worn by, the children of Gwen Stefani, Tori Spelling, and Jennifer Garner, as well as many other celebrity tots.

Q: What attracted you to join The Collaborative Group?
A: We were lucky enough to be part of the Collaborative Group since its inception. From the first meeting, we were inspired by the idea of a varied group of entrepreneurial thinkers coming together for a common cause.

As the Collaborative Group formed and grew, we continued to enjoy being engaged with forward thinkers and strong-minded business leaders passionate about sharing their knowledge and forthright about helping their community.

Q: How do you contribute to the entrepreneurial community in the Detroit area? What motivated you to have your own company?
A: Formcode is a company based on helping businesses, and the entrepreneurial community, through creative and visual representation. We offer established businesses and startup entrepreneurs alike an impactful and professional way of visually representing their message to their audience by way of web sites, identity and various brand development. Our design group works with all levels of business and we pride ourselves on making sure that each business gets the right solution that will help take their visual message to the next level.

We were motivated to start Formcode because of our passion for great design and our belief in having strong, creative voices heard. We both felt we could offer more as an owner giving us the ability to work directly with business owners and encourage them to think outside the box when it comes to their visual voice. We are strong believers that in this new digital world, an important key to making a business stand out from the rest is to have a visual presence that is unique and custom to the business it is representing.

Q: What excites you about The Collaborative Group’s initiative, Challenge Detroit, and how are you involved?
A: Having lived, worked and studied in Detroit, we have a personal connection with Detroit. We are thrilled to be a part of something that is working towards the sustained growth and rebirth of the city. When asked to be involved with this movement, we were more than happy to donate our time to create and develop the visual face of the Challenge Detroit website. From the beginning concepts, to the finished product, the creation and continued development of the website has allowed us to feel like an important part of the movement. We continue to enjoy helping Challenge Detroit’s voice be heard and bring its messages to the digital forefront.

The Collaborative Group recently hosted the Center for Michigan’s Courtney Thompson, who facilitated a community conversation about the education system in the region and state. During the conversation, each member of the audience casted votes based on a series of questions asked by Courtney who then led discussions based on the results of the vote.

Courtney asked the group to grade the schools locally and statewide, analyze the importance of teacher and school quality, discuss options for teaching styles to improve student learning, and review the importance of early childhood development and education.

Overall, there was a strong consensus that change is necessary for the education system to get better across the state. One hot button issue is assessing learning and teaching styles to take into account things like creativity, innovation, and creative thinking. Several members of the audience also thought holding educators to strict standards will set the bar for improved education. A majority of the audience said it is crucial to expand early childhood programs to begin preparing our youth for the future beginning at an early age.

The group also discussed public investment priorities for education. Many feel that education is underfunded, and some even believe that money needs to be spent more wisely. But the overarching consensus is that Michigan needs to spend more money and invest more into the future rather than to take any more steps backwards.

For more information on the Center for Michigan, check out – http://thecenterformichigan.net/.

“When it comes to education, we are living our invention,” said Dan Varner, Executive Director of Excellent Schools Detroit (ESD) at a recent speaking engagement at The Collaborative Group. “We are not meeting with the times.”

Dan talked about education not only in Detroit, but also across the nation sharing that:

• In 2011, only 61% of Detroit Public School graduates did it in 4 years accounting for 35% of the kids in Detroit.
• In 2011, only eight elementary schools were above state reading levels in 3^rd grade.
• On some standardized tests, results were so poor that students could have gotten better scores if they had closed their eyes and simply guessed.

The education system in Detroit is struggling, and that’s something that Dan would love to turn around.

“There is no better time than right now to reinvent education,” said Dan upon revealing some of these statistics. One of the most important things that Dan reiterated was that it doesn’t matter what kind of school it is. Public, private, or charter. They all need help.

Since beginning at Excellent Schools Detroit last year, Dan has been working towards organizing institutional stakeholders to effectively work together. Another of his goals is to organize the individuals who care about Detroit’s education system and prioritize educating the youth of the city.

“Schools need to be rated not only on performance, but also growth and qualitative measures,” Dan mentioned. “This includes new school models of teaching and learning. Their mastery level, not their grade or age, should group students. Linked learning models should be utilized.”

ESD is hoping to set the bar higher for the youth. Dan encouraged everyone to get involved and help him create a better future for these students today.

“Every great success story begins with a crazy idea. This is our idea.”

Learn more about Dan Varner or Excellent Schools Detroit – http://excellentschoolsdetroit.org/.

Bobby Smith is the epitome of a “social entrepreneur.”   He is the founder of En Garde Detroit, an organization focusing on athletic recreation, competition, community outreach, youth development and mentoring related to the sport of fencing. Bobby is a community leader and advocate passionate about coming together with like-minded thinkers and doers as a member of The Collaborative Group.  We’re excited to share our interview with him.

Q: Please tell us about your background and how you contribute to the entrepreneurial community in the Detroit area.

A: I’m a social entrepreneur based in Detroit working on developing sustainable solutions to health and education problems affecting youth. I was born in Kingston, Jamaica and raised up and down the east coast. Along the way, a non-profit providing non-traditional sports options to inner city children taught me the sport of fencing. I was transformed for the better both culturally and academically, ultimately receiving an athletic scholarship to Wayne State University.

I contribute to the entrepreneurial community by instigating, leading and consulting on sustainable solutions necessary for our future in this region. Currently, I lead Sports Dreams, a 501c3 organization dedicated to funding competitive travel and high level training for underrepresented youth with Olympic and NCAA dreams. Partnered with the US Olympic Committee, we provide options for youth with limited possibilities, and connect these youth with community ‘Heroes’ who act as mentors.

Q: What attracted you to join The Collaborative Group?

A: I joined The Collaborative Group because I saw a group of concerned business leaders, community leaders, and martyrs for Detroit. I joined because of the valuable information and interaction with like mined individuals. Nothing is more appealing to a leader than a group of seasoned “doers.”

Q: What excites you about The Collaborative’s new initiative, Challenge Detroit, and how do you plan to get involved?

A: I have personally been involved with the Challenge Detroit group this year. The cohorts attended a cultural dinner for Detroit Harmonie, a Detroit based non-profit addressing the racial divide in our region. As a board member of Detroit Harmonie, I had the pleasure of welcoming and engaging this group. They blew everyone away as sharp, passionate, and committed individuals. The Challenge Detroit group makes it easy to be a membership ambassador; I look forward to facilitating future events and networking opportunities for the cohorts. 

Lori Williams, our first Member Ambassador, is a leading attorney and small business owner in the greater Detroit area. Read about her business and background on Lori’s website at www.bestlegalresource.com.  She is passionate about being a part of The Collaborative Group and we’re excited to share our interview with her:

Q:  Please tell us about your background and how you contribute to the entrepreneurial community in the Detroit area.
A:  As a lifelong Metro Detroiter, I have owned and operated my own businesses the last 23 years in Oakland County.  I have been a licensed attorney during that entire time. I practiced law the first 14 years in my own practice, and for the last 8 years I’ve owned and operated a legal referral and legal consulting service called Your Legal Resource. In addition to being an entrepreneur myself, I have helped entrepreneurs in startup mode with their legal and business needs by referring them to legal specialists to assist with intellectual property protection, entity formation, contracts, legal disputes and any other area of law pertaining to their business or personal needs.  I have also worked with funding sources that help capitalize startup businesses.  I’ve assisted startups through GLEQ as a coach for their Spring Competition a few years ago, and have been on the advisory board and a member of the Smart Women’s Coaching Idea Lab where we provided a monthly think tank environment for entrepreneurs.  Over the years, I have been a member of various organizations focused on entrepreneurs and small businesses, and am currently an Ambassador for the Birmingham Bloomfield Chamber.

Q:  What attracted you to join The Collaborative Group?
A:  I view this organization as comprised of top-level executives and decision makers in a variety of industries.  It gives me an opportunity to meet people in other sectors besides the legal field, who I otherwise wouldn’t have an opportunity to meet. I really liked Doyle’s vision of revitalizing Detroit.  I figured, “I’ve lived here all my life and don’t want to be talking about the good old days.  I want to be part of the rebirth and talk about future good days, too.”   What drew me in the most was Challenge Detroit, because it was a cause we could all rally around, despite our diverse backgrounds, and all help or contribute with our contacts and ideas to further the cause.  It has been really amazing to watch the Challenge Detroit vision become reality. 

Q:  What excites you about our philanthropic initiative, Challenge Detroit, and how do you plan to get involved?
A:  I continue to share about The Collaborative Group and the Challenge Detroit initiative with entrepreneurs and business owners large and small. I have helped bring on new members and corporate sponsors through my network and continue to engage in outreach and building awareness of our organizations.

Q: If you have a few sentences to write about your role as the membership ambassador, please describe below.
A: As a Member Ambassador for The Collaborative Group, I’m excited to further connect new and existing members with one another.  It can be daunting to come into a group as a new person, not knowing anyone.  I hope to make new and existing members feel comfortable and to facilitate them getting to know one another.  I think as our membership continues to grow, we will need to work to become more proactive about creating alliances with one another. 

This summer, I am working at Teach for America (TFA) through an organization called Education Pioneers (EP). EP exists to identify, train, connect, and inspire a new generation of leaders dedicated to transforming our education system so all students receive a quality education. One of the ways this is accomplished is through a Graduate School Fellowship, a program for current graduate students or those who have recently earned a graduate degree.

Similar to Challenge Detroit, EP places Fellows at partner organizations; however, all of EP’s partners are education-related entities (e.g. school districts, charter schools and nonprofits). Through EP, I am working at TFA’s Washington DC National Office on projects focused on further developing Science, Technology, Engineering and Math (STEM), and Early Childhood Education (ECE) Initiatives.

Both EP and TFA have afforded me the opportunity to connect with key leaders in the education space, as well as the chance for some travel along the East Coast – namely Newark, Philadelphia and New York City. Visiting these places and seeing real transformation taking place makes me even more excited to begin Challenge Detroit. I am pumped to bring back:

• Experience working at a non-profit – TFA is the first non-profit where I’ve formally worked and the experience will certainly be beneficial in my new Challenge Detroit role at Focus: HOPE
• A stronger understanding of the unique connection between education and economic development – This will help inform my decisions on how to best do my part in rebuilding Detroit
• Ideas – From the EP and TFA structures on how to have fun in our city and develop great relationships with my fellow participants!

I’ve been telling everyone here in Washington DC about Challenge Detroit and the reactions have been very positive and uplifting. I can’t wait to apply the knowledge I gained this summer to embark upon my next journey: revitalizing my hometown.