What was something you learned at K-State that you still use to run your business today?

One area of focus that I gained a lot of knowledge on during my time at K-state was around creating a value proposition. This really goes to the idea of perceived value past our costs and desired Margin. I remember one specific example from class around a monitor/control for a gas pipe line. And the overall premise was that this device did not cost that much to install/manufacture, however because of what it did it could save the pipe line 100x its cost. The perceived value was exponentially higher than its cost so it was sold at a huge multiple of costs opposed to a standard industry mark up. This taught me that we can really charge whatever we want/need as long as we focus on the value we are creating behind it to our customers.

What inspires you?

Each day I wake up I strive to become better. Understanding that I as one person can only focus on a small number of things to work on at once I have learned what is important to me. One area I focus on is my relationships. This goes from my wife and children to clients and many in between. By focusing so much on relationships it creates many opportunities to impact lives in small incremental ways which helps others grow and pushes me to grow. That is my biggest inspiration and focus.

If you could give a new entrepreneur one piece of advice, what would it be?

I would say the biggest piece of advice would be do not be afraid to go the other way. It is really easy to look at your peers and competition and mold your self and company to fit around areas of success. But I think its really important to understand what they are doing, but then go the other way. This creates opportunities, outside of the box thinking, and allows a greater clarity of your goals by separating them from the status que.