Happy holidays! Thanks to everyone who’s voted on a title for the book. We’ve had an overwhelming response and are excited to post the results and official title soon! In the meantime, please feel free to continue to vote. As we finish out 2008, I’ll wrap up Rich and Ron’s story to-date then start blogging sections from the book the first week in January.

Looking back over even the past few months, I can’t believe how far we’ve come – in the business and with the book. We already have five New York Times best-selling authors endorsing the book and word of what we are doing is spreading. CastleWave is continuing to grow and increase momentum as well.

After the merger with the New York office that officially changed the company name to CastleWave, everybody kept working hard to keep the customers happy. One fun example of this - once, one large client challenged Rich: “I bet you one bagel you can’t get these words for $.35” (referring to search engine optimization keywords). Rich proceeded to not only get the words, but earn first $100 then all the way up to $15,000 revenue/day for that client. Let’s hope that was one tasty bagel!

Such attention to clients is part of the principle of acting big and behaving small. You want to show that you are established, secure, and stable so that your customers trust you, but at the same time maintain a personal connection with customers and awareness of their needs that earns their repeated business. The rewards for doing business like that will be a lot greater than just one bagel!

Starting next week we’ll kick of blogging the sections of the book , so stay tuned for that!

Let me start by introducing myself.  My name is Sharon Larsen and I first became associated with Rich Christiansen and Ron Porter a little over three years ago when I started working for Rich.  I had just finished my bachelor’s degree in International Politics and was looking for a meaningful job opportunity where I could get my feet wet.  Without really knowing what I was getting into, I accepted the job as an account manager with Rich and completely changed my life’s trajectory.  The next several months were a whirlwind of highs, lows, and everything in between that is associated with working in a small business.  After about 15 months, Rich decided to sell/close the 3-4 businesses we were running and take a break (more on this story later) and I had the opportunity to try something new.  My experiences with the businesses and Rich’s encouragement led me to pursue an MBA in finance.  I’m now in my second year of school and will be graduating in April.  I recently joined Rich and Ron’s team again; it’s a new business with new faces in the office, but the same passion and drive for success that drew me in three years ago. 

During the time that I was in school and away from the office, Rich and Ron began writing a book documenting the precise process they follow to create a new business, something Rich has done about 27 times.  As they wrote, Ron challenged the principles in the book and insisted they start a business to prove it.  The resulting company, CastleWave, made over $1 million in its first year of business and is continuing to grow.  The book is recently completed and will soon be going to press.  Over the next few weeks until the book comes out, I’ll be blogging the story behind the book because it’s so fascinating and I think you’ll enjoy it.  If you’ve had a chance to watch the video that’s posted on the website, you know a little about the book and the basic story behind it.  If you haven’t, I would encourage you to watch it – it’s a captivating story!

 While my involvement in this story started three years ago, the roots of the venture go back much further than that.  Rich had strong entrepreneurial tendencies even in college but, as he puts it, didn’t think that he had the nerve, background, or funding to start his own company.  After getting an executive MBA, Rich discovered that he had an aptitude for business even though his background was in engineering.  Rich and Ron first became acquainted while they were both working for Novell and then solidified their relationship when they served together in ecclesiastical positions for their church.  They become such an effective team that they could basically read each other’s minds and finish each other’s thoughts.  Even while I was first working for Rich, he and Ron had a side-business going that they later sold for a modest profit.  Little did they imagine, I assume, the partnership that would evolve in the future…