Saturday, March 17, 2012

What "Bounce Forward" Means to me

In the midst of re-creating our business brand, I put a stake in the ground.  I claimed the title Bounce Forward Expert.  Many people may wonder why I chose the brand "Bounce Forward" (TM).  I get asked as many questions as to what it means to me and how I implement it.  There is a, not short but, simple explanation and I would like to share it with you today.

When considering what stake I would claim I thought about the results I hoped to achieve with my clients, and what I want to be remembered for in my business.  The ideas, words, and values quickly spilled from my brain to the paper.  In an effort to make sense of this brain dump, a theme emerged.  I wanted to leave any business that I worked with better off than it was before we met.
Through my professional speaking, training, facilitation, consulting and mentoring services, I hoped that businesses and teams would become more resilient and inspired.  I figured if those two results became a reality, teams could pretty much survive (or even thrive) during change, challenge, adversity and crisis.
Our new brand "Bounce Forward" (TM) implies a sense of energy, movement and action, which are all critical to business success.
Life and business are really full of moments...moments that define you, moments that challenge you, moments that make you grow.  What we do in these moments really counts.  What we don't do in these moments also counts.  Any action, including no action, sets the stage for what comes next.
In essence, to "Bounce Forward"(TM) is to stand up, brush your knees off, and move forward when life's moments cause you to stumble or fall.  It is more than simply recovering or returning to the original state, which is how resilience is usually defined.  You can probably list numerous situations that you would never want to return to or simply recover from.  Recovering doesn't mean we are any better off.  Bouncing forward does!
So, in answer to why I chose the brand "Bounce Forward"(TM); I chose it for all the people and businesses that I would be working with that needed to reconcile the battles of change, challenge and adversity in order to step forward into their futures as resilient individuals and teams.