As if running a small business wasn’t hard enough, now we’re dealing with a pandemic. At this point, no one has any idea what that will mean for second-stage companies (between 10 to 99 employees), so we sit and wait. Waiting is not something we do well as business owners. Here is what we know: […]
Is there a better title for a blog? I might get it as a tattoo, it’s kind of my life motto. I love books, I’ve had a love affair with them as far back as I can remember. I used to go into my parent’s bedroom and pull Clive Cussler, Robert Ludlum, W.E.B. Griffin books […]
Today I cried in front of my staff. Me, Kim Bode…queen of abrasive, broke down. Be vulnerable. The reason why isn’t important, most of you will put the pieces together soon enough. What is important is the hard time my little furry family is going through and the despair, grief and sadness I am experiencing. […]
I’ve been running a business for around 13 years, if there is one thing I hate above all else it is the questions women are asked that no one would even think to ask a man. First, let me define sexism for readers. Merriam-Webster defines it as: 1: prejudice or discrimination based on sex especially: discrimination against […]
I don’t talk about my faith. I shouldn’t be ashamed, but I am. I’m a progressive Christian, something that apparently goes against everything organized religion stands for and I openly condemn the current presidency. It is not a popular opinion among family and I’m very much the black sheep. The church can’t seem to reconcile […]
I get such a f**king kick out of the holidays, it is nauseating. I don’t know when this love of Christmas took over my life, as a little kid my brother and I would spend hours looking through the JCPenny catalog marking pages and picking out toys that we just had to have. Does anyone […]
The holiday season is upon us and it comes with all the fun and stress. I’m not an expert on navigating the holidays, but I’ve survived so far and I’m pretty good at managing chaos, so here are my tips for surviving the holidays. Just as a reminder, always put your mental health first, you […]
What is it about that name? If your name is Karen, my apologies. My sometimes partner-in-crime, Chris Andrus, wrote this great blog about standing up to customers in defense of your employees. I can’t imagine how hard that is in the service industry, maybe you will read this and be less of an asshole to […]
Every Veterans Day, I reflect back on the men and women that have served, are serving and have given the ultimate sacrifice. I have read extensively on WWII, I truly believe unless we remember history and educate ourselves on our past, we are doomed to make the same mistakes in the future. Today, I want […]
For a recent event I was involved in, I was asked to facilitate a roundtable on communicating across generations – Baby Boomers, Generation X, Millennials and Generation Z. For transparency reasons, 8THIRTYFOUR employs Millennials and Generation Z, I am the only Gen X’er in the company. Yay me. I did some in-depth research (ok I […]
