Erich Stauffer

Category: Self Development

  • The Idea Tree

    Imagine a logo of one of your favorite brands. More likely than not, it has changed slightly over time, but maintained some elements about it, as if it is on an evolutionary path. Rarely, if ever, is the brand and logo wholly re-invented to look and feel different.

    Now there are many branding and marketing reasons for this having to do with brand recognition and goodwill, but it’s a great metaphor for when this type of effect happens in other areas of our everyday lives.

    Once an idea is first introduced it often mutates and grows from that first introduction and rarely if ever gets readjudicated or reasoned back from first principles to reimagine it. In this way, the idea is like a tree that once planted, only has one “trunk” and is rarely if ever “replanted”.

    I call this “The Idea Tree”.

    This concept is a form of idea entrenchment or conceptual path dependency. Both terms describe how ideas, once established, tend to grow and branch without returning to their roots for reevaluation.

    Ideational inertia is another way to think of this concept, which borrowing from physics, when objects are in motion, they tend to continue along their established paths unless acted upon by a force (such as critical reassessment).

    In either case, without “replanting” ideas, they often keep expanding from a single, possibly outdated “trunk”. This is why reimagining from first principles (and other heuristic thinking methodologies discussed later) are so valuable.

    Idea Entrenchment

    Idea entrenchment describes the process by which ideas become firmly established and resistant to change. Once an idea becomes entrenched, it’s often taken as a given and rarely questioned, leading people to build upon it without re-evaluating its initial assumptions. This can occur due to familiarity, tradition, confirmation bias, or even from heuristic shortcuts themselves.

    Changing foundational ideas requires significant effort.

    In psychology and sociology, this concept is linked to cognitive rigidity, where thinking patterns become fixed. In organizations or societies, entrenched ideas might lead to institutional inertia, where the established ways of thinking or acting persist even if they no longer serve the original purpose.

    The Remedy

    So what’s the remedy for this? We can look to mental shortcuts, ideas from a heuristic way of thinking to occasionally reimagine from first principles – but another method is to occasionally ask yourself: what could we stop doing, start doing, or change?

    This is often referred to as a “stop-start-continue” analysis. This framework is widely used in personal reflection, team retrospectives, and strategic planning. It prompts a person to reevaluate their current actions, identify new opportunities, and retain valuable practices, making it a powerful tool for breaking entrenched ideas and routines.

    When paired with reimagining from first principles, stop-start-continue can help a person systematically identify areas for improvement or innovation, creating a balanced approach to rethinking entrenched ideas that have gained ideational inertia. It offers a structured way to question and adjust practices without the overwhelming task of reinventing everything at once.

    Revisiting from first principles and the occasional stop-start-continue analysis can help teams and individuals see whether their initial “trunk” of an idea tree still aligns with current goals or whether “replanting” could yield something more impactful.

    However, you may find that some ideas do not need to be revisited, but still do get revisited due to a lack of institutional knowledge or a bias against established systems and processes. We’ll cover that in the next chapter.

    This is chapter 1 of Think Again, available on Amazon Kindle.

  • Think Again

    Rethinking, Refining, and Communicating Ideas That Stick: A Guide to Understanding, Shaping, and Sharing Ideas with Clarity and Purpose

    What makes an idea stick? Why do some ideas grow and evolve, while others get rejected outright? And how can you communicate your ideas in a way that makes them truly resonate?

    In Think Again, you’ll explore the life cycle of ideas—from their inception to their acceptance or rejection. Drawing on concepts like The Idea Tree, The Simplicity Paradox, and initial rejection bias, this book reveals the hidden forces that shape how we think about and share ideas.

    Discover practical tools for rethinking entrenched ideas, reimagining from first principles, and overcoming biases that block innovation. Learn how to craft your ideas for maximum impact using strategies like stop-start-continue analysis, mental scaffolding, and Feynman-inspired clarity. Whether you’re solving a problem, designing a brand, or presenting a vision, Think Again provides the mindset and methods to refine and share your ideas with confidence and simplicity.

    Perfect for creatives, leaders, and thinkers, this book is your guide to understanding the power of ideas and mastering the art of effective communication in a world where clarity is king.

    Buy Think Again on Amazon Kindle.

  • Deliberate Practice

    Psychologist K. Anders Ericsson, a professor of Psychology at Florida State University, has been a pioneer in researching deliberate practice and what it means. According to Ericsson:

    People believe that because expert performance is qualitatively different from normal performance the expert performer must be endowed with characteristics qualitatively different from those of normal adults. […] We agree that expert performance is qualitatively different from normal performance and even that expert performers have characteristics and abilities that are qualitatively different from or at least outside the range of those of normal adults. However, we deny that these differences are immutable, that is, due to innate talent. Only a few exceptions, most notably height, are genetically prescribed. Instead, we argue that the differences between expert performers and normal adults reflect a life-long period of deliberate effort to improve performance in a specific domain.[3]

    One of Ericsson’s core findings is that how expert one becomes at a skill has more to do with how one practices than with merely performing a skill a large number of times. An expert breaks down the skills that are required to be expert and focuses on improving those skill chunks during practice or day-to-day activities, often paired with immediate coaching feedback. Another important feature of deliberate practice lies in continually practising a skill at more challenging levels with the intention of mastering it.[4] Deliberate practice is also discussed in the books Talent is Overrated by Geoff Colvin[5] and The Talent Code by Daniel Coyle,[6] among others.

    Two recent articles in Current Directions in Psychological Science criticize deliberate practice and argue that, while it is necessary for reaching high levels of performance, it is not sufficient, with other factors such as talent being important as well.[7][8]
    Behavioral versus cognitive theories of deliberate practice

    Behavioral theory would argue that deliberate practice is facilitated by feedback from an expert that allows for successful approximation of the target performance. Feedback from an expert allows the learner to minimize errors and frustration that results from trial-and-error attempts. Behavioral theory does not require delivery of rewards for accurate performance; the expert feedback in combination with the accurate performance serve as the consequences that establish and maintain the new performance.

    In cognitive theory, excellent performance results from practising complex tasks that produce errors. Such errors provide the learner with rich feedback that results in scaffolding for future performance. Cognitive theory explains how a learner can become an expert (or someone who has mastered a domain).[4]
    Deliberate practice in medical education

    Duvivier et al. reconstructed the concept of deliberate practice into practical principles to describe the process as it relates to clinical skill acquisition. They defined deliberate practice as:

    repetitive performance of intended cognitive or psychomotor skills.
    rigorous skills assessment
    specific information feedback
    better skills performance[9]

    They further described the personal skills learners need to exhibit at various stages of skill development in order to be successful in developing their clinical skills. This includes:

    planning (organize work in a structured way).
    concentration/dedication (higher attention span)
    repetition/revision (strong tendency to practice)
    study style/self reflection (tendency to self-regulate learning)[9]

    While the study only included medical students, the authors found that repetitious practice may only help the novice learner (year 1) because as expertise is developed, the learner must focus and plan their learning around specific deficiencies. Curriculum must be designed to develop students’ ability to plan their learning as they progress in their careers.

    Finally, the findings in the study also have implications for developing self-regulated behaviors in students. Initially, a medical student may need focused feedback from instructors; however, as they progress, they must develop the ability to self-assess.
    Practice as maintenance

    Skills fade with non-use.[citation needed] The phenomenon is often referred to as being “out of practice”. Practice is therefore performed (on a regular basis) to keep skills and abilities honed.

  • Successful People Balance the Big-Picture with the Details

    One of the biggest challenges in life is balancing the “big picture” with the details. You have to have a macro and a micro view of your life at all times.

    In life as in film editing, when you’re working on some minor detail, you have to be thinking about how it fits into everything that has happened before and after.

    Everyone intuitively understands that years are actually made up of days and days are made up of minutes, but those people who are able to take those minutes with the year in mind – those are the ones who are the most successful.

    Jason Cobb said in his video, Your Ideal Day, “When you design that ideal day and you start living it out, you know what starts to happen? You start to have an ideal week. And then you start having a great month. And then you look back and you say, ‘Wow! Look at the year that we’ve had!’”

    You have to be balancing that at all times and just try and keep perspective by going from micro to macro. The people who do that the best are the ones who are the most successful in life.

  • People Who Believed in Me

    Have you ever had someone say something positive about you to you that stuck with you? Maybe it was a teacher, parent, friend, or stranger who saw something in you and felt so strongly about it they told you about it and in doing so, it changed how you thought about yourself for years if not your whole life? These are a few of those stories for me and hopefully, they’ll remind you of some in your own life.

    When I was in elementary school a teacher noticed there was something different about me and recommended me for advanced classes, which I stayed in throughout high school. I was also chosen to be a part of the school play (it wasn’t something that you auditioned for then). Since then I’ve had other people notice things that they feel are special about me in some way. Kudos to them for sharing those thoughts with me in an attempt to lift me up. I have remembered them and I’m documenting them here today.

    When I was in high school I took a psychology class and one of the exercises was to draw in lines around ‘gibberish’ lines on the page in order to make a painting or tell a story. What I saw stood out right away. I drew a picture of Spock from Star Trek by connecting the lines as I saw them. When the teacher saw it, he said no one had ever done that before in all of the classes he’d taught with that exercise. Similarly in that same class, when a right brain and left brain test was given in that class, the teacher told me I answered the test differently than every other person in the class.

    In college, I had a friend (a girl) who liked one of my friends and as a result, we hung out a lot. She once told me that my brain works differently than anyone she had ever met. She was 18 at the time and hadn’t met that many people. I hadn’t met that many people at that time either. She really liked my friend. He didn’t like her as much.

    When I was at Old National, just out of college, I had my name printed on my monitor as one letter off from the home keys like this: RTOVJ. One day an IT guy was fixing something at my desk and asked me about it. When I told him what it meant he said something like, “I can tell you’re going to be a successful person in life.” Looking back, it strikes me that he may have been sarcastic, but I remember his body language as being what I found to be overly impressed. It struck me as odd at the time that he would say that, but since then I have noticed that several people have told me that I think differently than other people.

    One day I was driving home after my last day at First Merchants Bank and I was a little unsure about my career, my source of income, and my life in general. I was now a full-time, independent IT/web consultant and there would be no more regular, biweekly paychecks. As I was pulling into my town, I noticed a man with wood that used to be in the back of his truck had turned the corner and the wood was now laying on the street. I pulled over and helped him load the wood back in his truck. Afterward, he turned to me and said, “Everythings going to be alright for you.” I think he was an angel.

    Shortly after I become a full-time, independent IT/web consultant, I started working more with one of my client’s wife, Joy, and her son. I helped him start an import/export company that eventually became Skinny & Co. Coconut Oil, but before that we worked on fixing her husband’s dentist office. While working with her I got to know her better and one day she said to me, “I’ve never met anyone who thinks like you do” and then later added, “There is no doubt in my mind that you will eventually be a millionaire.” I’m not one yet, but I have a friend who told me he believes I will one day surpass him in income. I believe I can if I change into someone who can.

    If you ever think about these things about others, I encourage you to tell them as it may be something they remember for the rest of their lives. We never know what impact even the smallest comments can make on another person’s life. I’ve heard stories of a single comment changing a person’s goal in life, what college they went to, and what career they chose. And the person telling it hardly remembered saying it. It goes to show we all have an impact on each other. Words matter. They hold the power of life and death. All things begin as ideas in the minds of man and it is only when they are shared that they can take life. Like mustard seeds, they grow.

  • My Body is a House

    This is a story of how a joke from a 3-year old, a 100-year old house, and a rainy afternoon helped me to move on.

    Carmina’s Joke

    “Daddy, there’s a cow in the sunroof,” my 3-year old daughter said to me as we were driving through the country to see my brother and parents for Thanksgiving. Not knowing what to expect, I slid open up the sunroof to hear, “Mooo!” from the back seat. I quickly shut the sunroof as to not let out the cow.

    “Daddy, there’s a pig in the sunroof,” she continued. Again I slid open the sunroof and a new sound emerged from behind me, “Oink, oink, oink!” she squealed in joy. Not knowing exactly how many barn animals were up in my sunroof, I again quickly shut it, which silenced the pig. She paused to think.

    “Daddy, there’s a house in the sunroof.” Based on the previous two farm animal sounds I had no idea what to expect when I slid open the sunroof, but nonetheless, just as I cracked it open, my 3-year old in her lowest, deadpan voice said, “A house.” It was a good memory and a fun story to share.

    The House in Tipton

    For the first 15 years of our marriage, my wife and I lived in a tiny town called “Tipton” in north central Indiana. The house was built in 1919 and at the time was nearly 100 years old. My wife’s parents had owned it before her dad died. Soon after we got married, my wife’s mother got remarried, moved out, and we bought the house.

    In the time we lived there, we went from having no children to 6 of them. Magdalena was our first child. Carmina, the one who told the joke, was our second. We then had two boys, Kevin and Samuel, followed by another two girls, Amalia, and Lilianna. We had many Thanksgivings and Christmases there. We had many good times and bad.

    At some point while living there I realized that despite all that had changed in my own life and in my family’s lives since living there, from the vantage point of the house, after nearly 100 years, it had already seen many families come and go, rise and fall, grow and die, come together, and break apart. Our time was just one among many.

    Jordan Peterson’s 7 Epochs

    Jordan Peterson is a clinical psychologist and Professor of psychology at the University of Toronto, a post he has occupied since 1998. He previously served as a professor at Harvard University. He has authored two books: Maps of Meaning & 12 Rules For Life: An Antidote to Chaos. He also has a popular YouTube channel, Jordan Peterson Videos.

    In an online course called Self Authoring, professor Peterson guides you through writing a story of your life. One of the exercises is called “Past Authoring” and in it are exercises where you divide your life into seven different time periods or epochs, identify the most significant events, and describe how those experiences shaped who you are today.

    I had heard about professor Peterson only through his appearances on the Joe Rogan Podcast, but it was only when a friend of mine sent me info about the Self Authoring course that I discovered it. My wife and I both signed up one rainy afternoon but before I started the program, I went up from my basement office to my bedroom to reflect.

    Watching the Bluff in the Rain

    In 2017 my wife and I moved from Tipton, Indiana to La Crosse, Wisconsin. It was a new house and a new start. We went from seeing nothing on the horizon but corn cobs and windmills to tree-lined bluffs and bountiful rivers. The town of La Crosse sits nestled in a coulee region between steep, rocky bluffs and the Mississippi River.

    When I lay down in my bedroom I can see the bluff out over the tops of the houses in a way that is reminiscent of Norman Rockwell’s November 5, 1949 cover of the Saturday Evening Post where a man is hanging his new TV antenna while a church cross towers in the background. In this afternoon, it was raining, so I opened the window.

    While I listened to the rain and stared out the window, looking at nothing in particular, my eyes settled on the roofs of the houses between our house and the bluff. It’s at that moment that I remembered our house in Tipton and how we had only lived there 15 out of its nearly 100 years and I wondered what other stories these houses had to tell.

    The T-Shirt

    I make t-shirts and because of Carmina’s joke, I had wanted to make a t-shirt for myself that just said, “A HOUSE“. I figured I would be the only person to buy it, but I wanted to buy it so I made it and published it on Amazon to sell. I just happened to make the shirt the same day I heard about Jordan Peterson’s course and went upstairs to reflect.

    As I laid there staring at the tops of the houses and thinking about the house in Tipton and thinking about the Self Authoring course I had just bought and the shirt I had just designed, I realized that there was a common theme and that’s when I had my epiphany. That’s when I realized that my life was a series of stories in my body, “A House”.

    Aside from major events in your life, even if you did nothing, the cells in your body will mostly replace themselves every 7 to 15 years, while some cells, such as neurons in your brain, are never replaced. In this way, your body is more like a house where cells come and go. In the same way, different epochs take place in your body, which is just “a house”.

    Who Are You?

    You may have heard that you are the sum of all of your past choices. An often-used anecdote is that “You are what you eat” or what you think about comes about. What I have found is that I often feel trapped by past choices or condemned by them. Sometimes I have done things I regret and other things I regret having happened to me.

    When I had my epiphany that afternoon and I started to think about my body as “a house”, I realized that, like families who move in and out of houses, the house looks the same from the outside, but the insides are different. And the house may contain scars on the inside from previous dwellers, it has no care or further connection to them.

    In thinking of my life in terms of epochs with specific endings and my body as “a house”, I was able to disassociate my current reality from past realities and stop reliving bad memories over and over. While I may look the same from the outside, there is a new ‘family’ living inside me now, a new set of cells making new choices and living a new epoch.

  • 2017 Year in Review

    O God, Thou sellest all good things to men at the price of effort.” -Leonardo da Vinci

    This year was about getting re-settled and getting re-situated. The main themes of the year were moving the family to La Crosse, selling the house in Tipton, the ramping up of t-shirt sales, and the ramping down of client work.

    The work I was doing was different. Instead of making blog posts I would make over 1000 t-shirts. Instead of listening to podcasts on my way to and from work, I would spend more time with my wife eating out or taking the kids to the park.

    January

    At the beginning of the year I lived alone in a one-bedroom, studio apartment.

    I designed t-shirts and sold them on Amazon when I wasn’t at Marine Credit Union.

    One day in January, Jason and I went to the ice caves with his family.

    And towards the end of the month I went up on Grandad Bluff to take a selfie.

    February

    In February I went to Kansas City to meetup with my wife and my aunt Peggy in Garden City.

    Later on that month my boys visited me in La Crosse and took them to the quarry.

    I’d go on walks along the La Crosse river during breaks at work.

    And I kept making new t-shirts. This is from a bumper sticker my Grandpa Wade had on his truck.

    March

    In March, Suzanne and Carmina visited me and we went to the Mall of America. We haven’t been back since.

    After they left I played Minecraft with Samuel remotely online.

    Jason and I explored the coffee shop on the corner. It was the only time we did that.

    April

    In April I went back to Tipton to visit for Easter.

    I took the kids to the park for one of the last times.

    My brother, Mitch, came over and I gave him a t-shirt.

    We took the kids to see their Grammy.

    I went for my first bike ride of the year.

    Jason and I went to Taco Bell.

    I went to a payments conference in Austin, Texas with Jason.

    I saw my aunt and uncle in Austin while I was down there.

    I hiked the Balanced Rock Trail along Devil’s Lake.

    And then Carmina came to help me move out of the apartment.

    May

    I rode my bike across the Mississippi for the first time. It was an odd feeling doing that from my house.

    I continued walking on the trail at work. The leaves were starting to come out now.

    We celebrated the lives of Joe and Helen O’Banion, my wife’s grandparents, in Tipton.

    I was back at home alone. I mowed the yard for the first time.

    June

    I had to make my own breakfast.

    But then I met this guy at Taco John’s. He recognized me from Instagram.

    But at home I was still all alone in an empty house.

    But then the kids arrived (along with a lot of help from my Mom, Dad, Mitch, and Jennifer)!

    Magdalena setup her workstation in the basement.

    July

    I took the kids out for hot chocolate at the Root Note.

    The Cobb’s came over for ice cream.

    And we met new friends, the Miller’s, at Ranison’s for ice cream.

    Samuel enjoys building things. We sold the house in Tipton. Suzanne drove back to sign the papers.

    I went on a Dragon Boat race with Jason and Marine Credit Union.

    Because we live close to work now, Suzanne would come bring me lunch and we’d go to the park to eat.

    For my mom’s birthday, we drove back to Indiana to see her. My aunt, Mary, also drove to see her from Missouri.

    But then my Aunt Peggy got sick so I went and visited her before she died.

    August

    The family came together for a meal in Garden City.

    We celebrated my Aunt Peggy’s life.

    See also Peggy’s 50th Birthday Party from August, 2006.

    It was good to get the family together for a time.

    I took a selfie with my two brothers.

    And with my dad.

    Back in La Crosse we went for a walk along the marsh.

    We also walked to the Mississippi River.

    Suzanne continued growing her essential oils business while I continued making t-shirts.

    The kids went on a plane ride around La Crosse.

    They were all very excited.

    The girls were growing up.

    The lights were going out.

    It was a very exciting time.

    September

    In September I went kayaking with Jason.

    I visited my mom in Franklin.

    While I was there I visited my friend, Hans.

    I recreated the Shog logo in Adobe Illustrator and turned it into a t-shirt for me and Samuel to wear.

    Amalia learned how to ride a bike.

    The kids really got into LEGO building.

    And at the end of the summer we finally made it to the beach.

    October

    We went kayaking again. It was getting darker again.

    Jason and I went to Minneapolis to see a graphic designer and tour the city.

    I visited my mom and took a picture of my dad’s bookshelf.

    Suzanne’s aunt Kathy visited us in La Crosse.

    Suzanne and I visited New Glarus Brewery south of Madison.

    Magdalena started swimming and I went to one of her swim meets for the first time.

    We dressed up for Halloween.

    November

    I hung out with Hans in Franklin.

    Kevin started a hot cocoa stand.

    Carmina was in a ballet.

    Suzanne and I started going on more dates.

    December

    I visited the Pearl Street Brewery.

    Jason and I made a podcast.

    I kept walking on the trail by work.

    The kids had a good Christmas. I was glad to have everyone in the same place.

    Like Andy Bernard says in the television show, The Office, “I wish there was a way to know you’re in the good ole’ days before you’ve actually left them.” Well, maybe there is. Sometimes you just have to stop and pay attention to the moments you’re in and be thankful for them. They may never happen again.

    Never thought we’d get old, maybe we’re still young
    May we always look back and think it was better than it was
    Maybe these are the moments
    Maybe I’ve been missing what it’s about
    Been scared of the future, thinking about the past
    While missing out on now
    We’ve come so far, I guess I’m proud
    And I ain’t worried about the wrinkles around my smile
    I’ve got some scars, I’ve been around
    I’ve thrown some pain, I’ve seen some things, but I’m here now
    Those good old days -Macklemore

  • 2015 Year in Review

    This is what I have observed to be good: that it is appropriate for a person to eat, to drink and to find satisfaction in their toilsome labor under the sun during the few days of life God has given them—for this is their lot. Moreover, when God gives someone wealth and possessions, and the ability to enjoy them, to accept their lot and be happy in their toil—this is a gift of God. They seldom reflect on the days of their life, because God keeps them occupied with gladness of heart.” Ecclesiastes 5-18-20

    Erich Loves Donuts

    In January I helped Jason renovate his great room. I occasionally do carpentry on the side and Jason needed trim installed. During that time I discovered Jack’s Donuts. I was beginning to build out my ‘breakfast brand’ persona online.

    Erich at the Bean in Chicago

    I also got a chance to go to Chicago for a HVAC tradeshow. GoServicePro had a booth there and I helped tell people about the system in hopes of getting some demos scheduled back at the office. It worked.

    In February, my kid’s mom and I went to Nashville for the iTHRIVE conference, which is a Young Living Essential Oils business conference. I watched the baby during the day and we hung out together at night.

    Erich Stauffer Advance 3

    In March, my kid’s mom and I went to Kansas City to attend an essential oils conference for men. While out there we had the opportunity to have dinner with my aunt, Peggy. It was good to catch up with her and see her again.

    Erich Stauffer on Periscope

    In late March, Twitter released Periscope and I had some fun making live videos with it. Making more videos was one of my resolutions for the year. I wanted to ‘do the things I asked my clients to do’ and one of those was make videos.

    Samuel and Daddy

    In April I started a new company with Matt Geddie and Rahul Sahni. It’s an import/export company that connects buyers and sellers around the world. I had to learn about Alibaba and international trade. We ate a lot of food together.

    Erich, Matt, and Rahul of RMI

    I also started creating more videos of myself in order to document more of my day-to-day life. I started posting them on Facebook and YouTube. I got a lot of weird questions and comments, but I was trying to practice what I preach.

    I called the videos “1-minute updates” and started creating a new video every weekday. I would record them on my way to work while driving in the car. I told people it was “practice” for making videos.

    Erich at Skinny

    In May, I started working nights and weekends at Skinny and Company more. My daughter, Amalia, had a birthday. She turned 2. On Mother’s Day we all went up to the Indiana Dunes State Park. It was a cold, fun day. We have lots of neat pictures.

    Indiana Dunes Trip 2015

    Jason and I held a Minecraft Conference for the kids. They got to play Minecraft together and teach other about what they had been learning. Jason and I also went to a concert in Fountain Square. While I was waiting on Jason to show up I made a video.

    kids-fishing

    The boys wanted to go fishing so I bought some fishing rods from Wal-Mart and we headed down to my parents house. This was their first time fishing, but the only thing they caught was a frog. It made me realize I still don’t like to fish.

    In June, coworkers at GoServicePro (Hans and Chris) and I started doing weekly ‘food challenges’ where we would go get a similar food and do ‘blind taste tests’. We started with subs and moved on to various foods throughout the month like dark sodas, hot dogs, and gourmet hamburgers. This was all practice shooting and editing video using iMovie on my iPhone.

    Exploring Boys

    Kevin and Carmina finished up Soccer. I had fun watching them play and going on walks with the other kids along the river behind the soccer fields. I even got to play one game against Kevin. Afterwards, I took the boys to get ice cream.

    ice-cream-kids

    My kid’s mom wanted me to help her landscape the yard so we started trimming back old bushes and tearing down vines that had grown up against the house. Eventually we took down the back deck, too. It was hard work, but it looked better when done.

    landscaping-stauffers

    I attended another “Dude’s Game Night” at Jason’s house with some guys that are friends with Jason who have become friends of mine including Cullen, Chris, and James. Sometimes Hans comes too. Jason’s wife makes lots of good food. It’s a good time.

    me-and-my-mom

    Carmina and I both have birthdays in June. My mom came up for Carmina’s birthday party. Jason took me out for waffles on my birthday and then we went on a “Tour of the North” another day. We went to Marion, Huntington, and Upland.

    erich-tree-marion

    At the end of the month, we went up to the Indiana Fiddlers Festival with my parents. The kids enjoyed listening to the music and walking the trails. At work, Michael, a new guy started. Michael had a beard too and he appreciated my beard.

    Erich Stauffer, Full-Stack Marketer

    In July I celebrated my brother’s birthday with a trip to Steak n Shake with his daughters. During this month my kid’s mom, Suzanne started doing Periscopes for her business. Jason and I went to a Foxing and Mewithoutyou concert in Indianapolis.

    And then we found out my mom had cancer.

    sue-steve-stauffer

    My brother, Scott, and I celebrated my mom’s birthday at Red Lobster. My kid’s mom, Suzanne, attended a Young Living convention in Texas for a few days, leaving me alone at home. Here’s what we talked about before she left:

    My daughter, Magdalena, made me salsa. It was good. When Suzanne got back, she started making bars of soap and shampoo for Skinny and Company. August is our wedding anniversary. My brothers, Mitch and Scott, got together at BW3s to discuss family matters.

    mitch-and-scott

    Later on that month my mom had us all down to her house to take group, family photos. Back in Tipton I took my two sons to their first high school football game. The baby, Amalia, has started to grow up and is going on more walks with us.

    erich-iu

    In September, Jason and I took a road trip down to Bloomington and walked around the IU campus. I had a dream about a ‘red caboose’ restaurant in Tipton and then Noblesville’s train museum gave out caboose rides at the Pork Festival.

    I went down to visit my parents in Franklin and my dad gave me a guitar. My kid’s mom went on another business trip, but this time to Utah. I started helping out nights at Bonzi Sports again by helping him setup Opencart. Jason and I kayaked the White River.

    In October I went and saw The Martian and my mom started chemotherapy. iOS 9 came out and McDonald’s started serving breakfast all day. I took a week off from GoServicePro to meet with clients during the day and take a family vacation to see my Aunt Janice and Uncle Dan in Texas.

    We first drove to Chicago where we went to Millennium Park and Lou Malnati’s. The next day we flew to San Antonio where we saw The Alamo and walked the River Walk. We then drove to see my Grandpa Stauffer and then finally to see my aunt and uncle.

    It was the first time I’d flown since June of 2000 when I went to Texas for a wedding. Dan and Janice’s daughter, Amy (my cousin), was getting married. It was good to spend some time with the two youngest children and Suzanne – and to see Grandpa, Dan, and Janice.

    erich-samuel-chicago

    One of my goals on the vacation was to make a decision whether to start a new company (if so, what type) or continue on the path I was on already. I thought about it all week and on the plane ride back to Chicago I finally had an answer.

    erich-jason-breakfast-club-me

    I started Breakfast Club Me as a creative outlet and to practice building a consumer brand and online marketing using social media, email, and video. It would build on the ‘breakfast guy’ brand I had already built up naturally over the years.

    My first product would be a t-shirts that said things like, “Biscuits”, “Waffles”, and “Sandwiches”. I didn’t know much more than that when I started. But to get started I found some similar shirts online and started creating content right away. Within 30 days I had my first product.

    fiber-optics

    In December we got fiber optic Internet installed at our house and we really started ramping up soap production for Skinny and Company. My kid’s mom makes their shampoo bars and I make the wood molds and do the stamping. This is the part of the post where I tell you what I learned.

    samuel-and-me-2015

    Kids grow up. They only ask you for “big jumps” or for you to take them to the park for a short time. After a while, they stop greeting you when you get home and sleep in when you leave in the morning. When a child asks for a hug. You stop whatever you’re doing and give it to them.

  • The Only Way Out is Down

    Sometimes I wonder what life would be like if it was more like Minecraft. I wake up alone in the middle of a foreign, undeveloped terrain full of wild animals and scary beasts. My only tools are my fists. I’ve got 12 hours until sunset.

    Sometimes I fantasize about escaping through tunnels. When I was young I wanted to build a secret tunnel outside my brother’s basement closet wall. I never did, but I wanted to. I still think about digging a hole in my basement floor.

    Maybe that’s because I’m an introvert. At least I am some of the time. I know this because I get energy when I’m alone. But when I’m alone, all I want to do is find things to share with other people. So maybe I’m an extrovert. Who knows.

    The only times I’ve been alone in real life is when I chose to run away. People naturally group together. We are naturally social. It gets harder to make friends as an adult. You have to be more intentional about it, but it’s still possible.

    In elementary I had a wooden fort in my backyard I made from recycled fence material. In middle school I built forts out of osage orange trees and old telephone poles. When I got one fort done, I’d start another. I do the same in Minecraft.

    I go out exploring until I find a good spot to built an outpost. I then spend a few days to a few weeks setting up a small outpost. Sometimes people come behind me and the outpost grows into a town, but by then I’ve moved on.

    I’m a developer. I develop new procedures, new roads, new towns, new ideas, and new products. I help get things started and then I move on. I’m a maker, a doer. Less talking, more action. But enough about me. Let’s move on.

    novaskin-minecraft-wallpaper