Free Tools To Get Your Business Back On Track
From blog posts to book reviews and recommendations – and everything in between – Lodestone offers you free resources to educate, motivate and inspire you.
We are avid consumers of great ideas. On this page, we have curated the best classic and contemporary thinking into these categories – people, operations, leadership, business tips, videos and library/books review.
All Resources
3 Things to Know Before You Grow Your Business
"Can business growth be a bad thing? Here are three things you're going to need to know before you grow. Mark Whitmore, head coach, Lodestone True North Let’s talk about something that Jim Collins pointed out in his book, Good to Great. He showed that most businesses...
The 80/20 Rule
"Mark Whitmore here, head coach at Lodestone True North. I want to talk to you for a minute about how to stimulate growth in your business. First of all, let's go over a couple things by what we mean by growth, or what sorts of things should, could, or ought to grow....
How Much Does Business Coaching Cost?
"So you may be saying to yourself “How much does this cost?”, and I am going to answer that in this blog. Mark Whitmore, head coach, Lodestone Truth North. We are backing the bus of the business owner and putting them back in the driver's seat. So how much does it...
What Is the Role of a Business Coach at Lodestone True North?
"You may be wondering what Lodestone’s role is in your business. I am Mark Whitmore Head Coach Lodestone True North, and my role in your business has four parts: Coach The first is the coach. Coach just means calling out the best in folks. Coaches come alongside high...
3 Ways to Stimulate Business Growth
"Mark Whitmore, Head Coach, Lodestone Truth North. I want to talk to you about 3 ways to stimulate growth in your business.1. Pruning The first is pruning or by trimming things off. Less is more. There’s lots of ways to prune your business and often we get stuck in...
I Don’t Have Time
"If you’re saying to yourself, “I just don’t have time to do this”, I want to talk about that for a minute. My name is Mark Whitmore and I am the head coach at Lodestone True North, backing the bus off of business owners and putting them back in the driver's seat. If...
Drive by Daniel Pink: Pt 2
"It's Mark Whitmore here with Lodestone True North... I want to talk to you about something I discovered in this book by Daniel Pink called Drive. Over history, there have been 3 eras of motivation, or 3 ages, if you will. Motivation 1.0 Motivation 2.0 Motivation 3.0...
I Can’t Afford Business Coaching
"In this blog I want to talk to you about the statement, “I can't afford this,” or “I think this is too expensive.” My name is Mark Whitmore, head coach Lodestone Truth North and here at Lodestone, we’re backing the bus off the business owner and putting them in the...
Drive by Daniel Pink: Pt 1
"Mark Whitmore here with Lodestone True North... I want to talk to you about this book by Daniel Pink, Drive. Drive is a great book and a great read. If you own a business, if you have employees or if you have people that you're leading, trying to motivate, trying to...
My Business Is Different
"I want to talk to you about the question or statement, “Hey Mark, my business is different”, or “My organization is different, we’re really unique.” I want to address that in this blog. My name is Mark Whitmore, head coach of Lodestone True North, backing the bus off...
Can I Run My Business on My Own?
"You may be asking yourself, “Hey can I just do this on my own? Can I get a book and just implement an operating system on my business, on my own?” In this video I want to help answer that question for you. My name is Mark Whitmore and I’m the head coach at Lodestone...
Ideas into actions
So you've decided to get up out of your box, the one in which your compadres reside, and you've opened your eyes to the realities and viewpoints and fresh angles and new perspectives gained from outside your old position. Now what? Reduce it down to it's essential...
Spring Cleaning
For me, Spring is the best time to set new resolutions, not the new year. This is when everything starts to come alive. The daylight is longer, and brighter. Spring is infectious. January is, well, depressing. This is the time to look at your organization and tune it...
A Little Bit On Maps
I've been working on my family budget. Tax time is a great opportunity to revisit your strategies and make sure you're on track. On track with what? With your plan. Your strategy. You know, the one you wrote down clearly and carefully. The one that has all the good...
More On Accountability
Let me try bring some clarification to the term 'Accountability.' There are several ways to use this word. One way refers to being held responsible for certain actions or outcomes. Like your tax bill. You are being held accountable by the IRS. If you don't hold up...
Accountability
Many of us escaped the 'Boss' and the 'J.O.B.' because of the pressure coming from up the chain. Or because of the ridiculous management style, or company culture, or downright stupidity emanating from 'The Man.' We hoped to escape some form of toxic accountability,...
Tunnel Vision
Residing inside an organization, like a family or a business, can be much like inhabiting the inside of a pipe. Hard to know what is going on outside of it. Pipes have two parts, the inside and the outside. You can’t be in both places at the same time. How often have...
On Purpose
Intentionality. This is a big idea. We make decisions, and take action. We decide things. We do things. We pursue, and risk, and reach out from our current place on which we stand. We try to do things that are undone, and try to undo things that are done incorrectly....
Drunk On the Daily Grind
They intoxicate themselves with work so they won't see who they really are- Aldous Huxley Down in the trenches. On the front lines. Nose to the grindstone. We've heard this before, and done this before. And while working hard is by no means a bad idea, let's not...
A Little Leverage
Carl Jung once said, "We always require an outside point to stand on, in order to apply the lever of criticism." As I've said before, objectivity. An outside view, an observer who is not inside the organization, or the family, or the mind of an individual. So here...
The Destination
The fundamental definition of a leader is a person who leads others to a destination. Key words LEAD and DESTINATION. Where exactly are you going? Too often we lead for the sake of leading. This amounts to a cruise ship going around in circles. Not too hateful if the...
Trust
To be trusted is among the greatest privileges we can walk under. And conversely, to lose that trust becomes the most expensive relational loss, and regaining it is near impossible. As business leaders, we can be given, with little question, much trust. By our...
On mentoring
An often overlooked quality necessary to being a good leader is humility. And one place in which that humility becomes essential is in the area of mentoring. Dads and moms mentor. Coaches mentor. Bosses mentor. Pastors and community leaders and CEO's and PTA's and...
The flame of creative thought
Ideas, seminal thoughts, and the unique handmade truths of original thinking are a small flickering candle flame in the window of the mind. When you open it to the world, the winds of popularity quickly blow it out. These small flames are lit in the quiet rooms behind...
Creativity
What exactly is creativity? Fuel in the engine of an artist? Voices in the head of a musician? It's easier than that. And more accessible and attainable to all of us, not just the 'creative' types. Essentially, it is the ability to see what others do not. When an...
Where?
Navigation. The ability to discern the twists and turns, pitfalls and vistas that we come across on the journey to a particular destination, and make necessary course corrections to keep us on target. Often this is something we try to do by ourselves, for ourselves,...
Lodestone Team of Business Consultants Speak Your Language.
Because they are all entrepreneurs, they understand the pain of running a business. They are trained to lead sessions so you can learn how to get back on track, and rediscover why you want to succeed.