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Kim is one of the graphic designers here at Marketing Ideas For Printers. Her creative eye for design and artistic talents have been instrumental in our direct mail content for the past two decades. A Unique History Kim first learned about what would someday become Marketing Ideas For Printers when she attended some of the Express Press Walk of Fame events in downtown Fargo throughout the 80s and 90s. The Walk of Fame was a concrete walkway outside of Mike Stevens’ Express Press print shop where celebrities would press their hands and feet in the wet cement and greet fans when they were in the area. Seeing Stevie Ray Vaughan at the Fargo Walk of Fame in 1990 was something I’ll never forget. I went to work for Mike Stevens at Ink Inc. in 1997, and Marketing Ideas For Printers evolved some time after. A Worthy Craft Currently, Kim uses her talents on the direct mail packages, the custom design projects that come in, and our own in-house marketing. She is also playing a role in the built-in marketing that Odyssey, our new Print MIS, will offer. I see printing as a craft or art form capable of stirring emotion and

Mowing your yard or planning a vacation: that’s the kind of project you can accomplish on your own. Sometimes, though, a project is bigger than one person. A recent LinkedIn article, Growing More Than I Realized!, talked about the importance of teamwork in super-size projects. Here’s the key takeaway from that article: When your vision is grand, you have to let go and trust the team around you to carry out your vision. Trusting your team is an important part of the equation, but it’s not the only part. ENCOURAGE YOUR TEAM Just expecting your team to perform isn’t enough. You have to provide the environment, the guidance, and the inspiration for your team to make their own choice to join you on the journey. The world is filled with leadership techniques about that very topic. Leaders have poured days, weeks, and months into developing complex ecosystems around their teams. There’s a place for that, but there’s also a place for the simple day-to-day activities. Here’s a simple activity I do to help inspire the team around me. I take a few moments to scribble out a sincere hand-written note of encouragement to someone on my team. That’s it! That one simple activity can provide a big boost

One of my favorite times of each week is when coworkers share their weekly Highs and Lows with me. It’s a pretty simple ritual: I send out an email to all of the Marketing Ideas For Printers coworkers on Friday morning sharing one of the high points of the week, and a low point. I then ask the coworkers to do the same and share their highs and lows with me. The topics could be anything! The topics are often work-related, but they don’t have to be. In fact, it’s often the personal stuff that provides the greatest insight into each team member’s “mental energy” for the week. Send Publicly, Receive Privately My highs and lows go out publicly for everyone on the team to see, but the replies from my team come back privately to me. This, of course, helps encourage more open and honest feedback from the team. I also make a habit of including at least one additional “High” … I want to make sure that “High” always wins in the battle of High and Low! Don’t Forget to Add This There’s one more important step to do to make the most out of this weekly ritual. When I