Marriage

My son says to write about what I know and have experience with so I feel qualified to talk about marriage with my 27+ years experience with my best friend Lisa.  My nephew is getting married in less than 2 weeks and just felt lead to share this for not only him but for anyone who reads this.  You will notice I didn’t say I was an expert or even that I was great at marriage, only that I have experience both good and well let’s just say challenging.  Lisa and I have known each other since we were 1 and 2 years old and are now well into our 40s so it may surprise you to hear we are still learning about each other.  We all change over the years and we need to be careful that both husband and wife notice and understand the changes that we undergo be it emotional, spiritual or whatever else.  That’s why honest, loving, transparent communication is so very important and you should practice it daily because when the storms of life blow, and they will, we need that foundation to weather it.  And speaking of foundation for us God is our cornerstone.  Hasn’t always been that way I will admit but again when the winds come if He is not in His rightful place we are in trouble.  The way I see it is marriage is not just a contract but a covenant with God and that my friend is not something to mess with.  We all make mistake’s, we’re human and forgiveness, either giving or getting can be a bear but is it possible?  Yes, it’s just not always easy.  So what works for us?  First making sure that individually we are walking right with God and then making sure He is at the center of our Marriage.  And second that we communicate with each other often and with total transparency. So to my nephew Brandon and his soon to be wife Tiffany, this is my gift to you (yes I will still bring a wedding gift), love each other with all your heart, soul and mind and make sure God is at the center of everything you guys do.

Communication

Well as you can see no video blog yet.  Our newest store in Canada has been so successful that my personal IT guy (Jeremy) has been there for almost 2 weeks now so you will just have to wait a little longer. 

What do you think about when hear the word Communication?  Do you think about how you relate with your spouse or significant other, your parents, kids, friends or co-workers?  It’s key to any successful relationship as you know.  This topic has been written about, preached on and discussed for centuries but never has it been more important in my life than right now, today.  When I evaluate  my own communication skills I must admit that  I am not the poster child for this topic.  You see it’s a 2 way street, you give and you receive this all important commodity.  I receive a lot of information and correspondence from many, many people and to be honest I am lousy at keeping my end of the deal and that’s giving the feedback necessary to actually call it communication.  I have seen the side effects of poor communication in my marriage, friends and family, church and business and I need to own my responsibility for this.  I need to somehow figure out a better way to manage my in-box that now has over 1000 e-mails in it and then there’s my church account also.  Returning calls, setting appointments etc are all forms of communication that I struggle with.  Have I bitten off too much with so many stores and in 2 countries? Am I sitting on too many Boards and spending too much time in meetings?  Should I have committed to the church as much as I have?  These are all questions I have asked myself while on this little journey.  I want to use this blog as a tool to better communicate with everyone I come in contact with and my hope is that by reading this, it will help to fill in the blanks I leave in the days and weeks to come.

Customer Service?

While My wife and I were out of town this week we were able to go to one of my favorite Steak House’s that we don’t get to very often.  While the food was great as usual, the service that we received was very disappointing.  What happened to the attitude of “The Customer is Always Right”?  You’ll notice I said the attitude of, and not that the customer is always right because we all know that fact.  Most restaurants today are struggling just to survive in this economy and to drop the ball on customer service is simply unforgivable.  Being in the business I understand that things happen;  someone calls in sick, it gets busy an hour before you have most of your staff scheduled, etc., but on this day none of those excuses applied because not only was it not busy but they had staff just standing around while we waited for someone to wait on us.  Oh, and where was the Manager?  We didn’t see one the entire time we were there!  When it comes to making a dinner choice next time I am in a city that has this particular chain of restaurants, I will have to remind myself not to paint a portrait from a snapshot, meaning my last experience was just 1 hour in the history of that place and hopefully not a true reflection.  My overall issue is that customer service, in general, seems to be slipping.  Not just in restaurants but at the bank, coffee shop or hardware store.  I hope the employees of our company take note of this and realize that our customers can get a pizza just about anywhere now days.  Papa Murphy’s has been voted Best Pizza Chain of the Year 6 years in a row so it’s no secret that we are the best.  Let’s not screw it up by providing less that excellent service at any of our stores.  Take on the attitude of “The Customer is Always Right” and take pride in being the best.

Here I go

I can’t believe I’m doing this. I have been forced into this by my 2 kids who think that I have something interesting to say. It’s ironic because as teenagers they thought I didn’t know what I was talking about. My name is Tom Lovelace and I am first and foremost Lisa’s husband of 27+ years and proud father to 2 great kids, Jeremy & Jenn. I just celebrated my 47th birthday the best possible way, with my family.  Here is a picture of my family on a recent trip to Scottsdale, AZ. 

Lovelace Family Pic

 I try my best to serve the Lord Jesus Christ with all I have, I’m not perfect just forgiven. We have a family business that my brother and I started almost 19 years ago in Vancouver, Washington that includes 30 Papa Murphy’s Pizza Franchises in Washington State and we just opened our 13th store in British Columbia, Canada.  You can see some pics from the opening here: Papa Murphy’s Facebook Fan Page.  I am both blessed and challenged to have both of my kids working along side of me in the business. Blessed because they are very mature young adults that really care about our 2 most important assets, our employee’s and our customers. Challenged because I am their father and their employer. Wearing those 2 hats can be tricky and sometimes I don’t do a very good job of transitioning between boss and dad, but I’m working on it. 

So what’s next?  Jeremy has bought me a Flip HD video camera and says I need to be video blogging so look forward to that coming soon, possibly next week.  You know I thought I was doing pretty good just having a blackberry but now blogging, facebook and tweeting, well my head kind of hurts.