Have you ever thought about how you might look back on what you’re doing in your business today?

Will you be full of regret or grateful and satisfied? Or something else? 

On the day he sold Inovabed, his 23-year-old contract furniture business, I talked with my good friend, Loren Sherman -- set designer turned inventor turned therapy dog handler -- about, among other things, what he’d learned in the laboratory of his 3 careers.

We turned that conversation into 2 episodes for the Marketing Mentor Podcast: 

#501 The Throughline in 3 Creative Careers

In Part 1, Loren articulated the throughline of his 3 creative careers (so far, that is). He started as a set designer on Broadway, became an inventor and furniture designer and now he is a therapy dog handler with the lovely Lina. 

We also talked about what I think of as “business baggage” – that stuff we drag from childhood into our adult life and that gets worked out (or not) in business. That’s often what I mean when I talk about using your business as a laboratory for your personal growth: working through and getting rid of that baggage. (I do think that’s possible for all of us.)

Listen to Part 1 here and below:

#502 Looking Back Lightly with Gratitude

In Part 2, we pick up the story with the prototype for a bed that doubles as a dining room table (or a sofa) and its dream launch at a big trade show that couldn’t have gone better – except that Loren was, as he says, "monumentally unprepared." Still, he managed to get the bed onto the Oprah Winfrey show and that’s not nuthin’! 

But most important, Loren shares how he is looking back lightly on the mistakes he made. He shares an idea for how to think about those mistakes while they’re happening. Heed his wise words so you don’t have to waste too much time beating yourself up about yours. 

I loved this conversation, which I think you can probably hear in my voice. I hope you do too.

Listen to Part 2 here and below:

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