Ted Tuesday: Success, Failure and The Drive to Keep Creating with Elizabeth Gilbert

"Know your purpose and it becomes your rock in the good and bad times"

Good Morning Folks,

Elizabeth Gilbert was once an "unpublished diner waitress," devastated by rejection letters. And yet, in the wake of the success of 'Eat, Pray, Love,' she found herself identifying strongly with her former self. With beautiful insight, Gilbert reflects on why success can be as disorienting as failure and offers a simple — though hard — way to carry on, regardless of outcomes.

Her message: "Stay true to yourself. Possess your passion, indulge your passion. Do it for yourself and live with the results whatever they may be."

Please enjoy her TED Talk about finding your way back home again when you feel like you run out of your creative juice.  

She’s funny. She’s passionate. She talks about rediscovering “whatever in this world you love more than yourself”. And with over 15 million YouTube and Ted views between her talks, she's proven to be well worth a listen.


With assistance and graphics from Chris Donner and great thanks to Ted and to you for watching.

Have a fabulous, productive day filled with love and inspiration.  

Cheers!

Mitchell D. Weiner
Chief Happiness Officer

Ideas are not set in stone. When exposed to thoughtful people, they morph and adapt into their most potent form. TED Tuesdays on MitchWeiner.com highlights some of today's most intriguing ideas. Look for more talks on Technology, Entertainment and Design -- plus science, business, global issues, the arts and much more— HERE. 

TED Tuesday: Got a wicked problem? First, tell me how you make toast with Tom Wujec

(re) Imagine! Tom's collected a bunch of best practices. and so you can learn how to run a workshop here, so the seemingly trivial design exercise of drawing toast helps us get clear, engaged and aligned.

Good Morning Folks,

When customers approached us before we went back into the Outsourcing business as Future State Outsourcing in 2010, they were fed up with the status-quo: Onsite Outsourcing as usual.

Though a great idea at its inception, Onsite Outsourcing became complacent and less innovative over time. So we set out to re-invent a business my co-founders had essentially invented. As our successors to those businesses, merged or got acquired, providers had become big, bloated behemoths incapable of making fast decisions and innovating, it was clear that customers wanted something different. Something more. And we (re)Imagined it.

Had I known of Tom Wujec back then, I could have described the process of (re) Imagination as being akin to he telling me how we make toast.

Filmed June 2013 at TEDGlobal 2013, this short TED talk that since has been viewed millions of times, showcases a simple design exercise that helps people understand and solve complex problems, and like many of these design exercises, it kind of seems trivial at first, but under deep inspection, it turns out that it reveals unexpected truths about the way that we collaborate and make sense of things.

Making toast doesn’t sound very complicated — until someone asks you to draw the process, step by step. Tom Wujec loves asking people and teams to draw how they make toast, because the process reveals unexpected truths about how we can solve our biggest, most complicated problems at work. Learn how to run this exercise yourself, and hear Wujec’s surprising insights from watching thousands of people draw toast.

The simple act, Tom describes, of visualizing and doing over and over again produces some really remarkable outcomes. What's really important to know is that it's the conversations that are the important aspects, not just the models themselves. And these visual frames of reference can grow to several hundreds or even thousands of nodes. So, one example is from an organization called Rodale. Big publishing company. They lost a bunch of money one year, and their executive team for three days visualized their entire practice. And what's interesting is that after visualizing the entire business, systems upon systems, they reclaimed 50 million dollars of revenue, and they also moved from a D rating to an A rating from their customers. Why? Because there's alignment from the executive team. So Tom's now on a mission to help organizations solve their wicked problems by using collaborative visualization, and on a site that he's produced called drawtoast.com.

Tom's collected a bunch of best practices. and so you can learn how to run a workshop here, so the seemingly trivial design exercise of drawing toast helps us get clear, engaged and aligned.

So next time you're confronted with an interesting challenge, remember what design has to teach us. Make your ideas visible, tangible, and consequential. It's simple, it's fun, it's powerful, and I believe it's an idea worth celebrating. Here's Tom: 



Thanks to TED and to you for listening.

Have a GREAT Day,



Mitchell D. Weiner
Chief Happiness Officer  

Ideas are not set in stone. When exposed to thoughtful people, they morph and adapt into their most potent form. TED Tuesdays on MitchWeiner.com highlights some of today's most intriguing ideas. Look for more talks on Technology, Entertainment and Design -- plus science, business, global issues, the arts and much more— HERE.  

About FSO Onsite Outsourcing
Recognized on the Inc. 5000 list of the nation's fastest growing companies for the third consecutive year, and lead by industry pioneer, Mitch Weiner, FSO's growth and success can be attributed to making a positive and powerful impact on their clients' bottom lines, as well as their employees' careers and lives.

Speaking of Changing Fall Colors, A Leader's True Colors Are Revealed in Tough Times

"Regardless of where you work, always continue to learn what makes leaders successful and what makes them fail" 

Good Morning Folks,

As I have often reminded our teams, anything is possible. Regardless of where you work, or what you do, always continue to learn what makes people successful and what makes them fail.

Because.. The most important resource in the entire universe is YOU. Products, services, innovation, ideas, breakthroughs – they all exist in your head, your heart and your hands. The output of your thinking, the engaging of your heart and the enlistment of your hands create profound results.

“Successful people do what unsuccessful people can’t do”. Find me anyone with skip, fire and twinkle who wants to learn and grow, and I will promise you a career in my company, never just a job. No one ever sets out to be average at FSO, we need to be the best at everything we do.

I am forever grateful to you all for being such a loyal audience and for the great feedback you've been sending my way. I really appreciate it!

Great leadership seems easy when things are good and everybody's happy. When times grow tough, however, a leader's true colors are revealed.

Ten years ago, a group of U.S. soldiers tasted combat for the first time in Sadr City, Iraq. Bill Murphy Jr. got to know one of the junior U.S. leaders in that battle when he wrote a book about West Point and wartime.  

Murphy chronicles the lives of representative 2002 graduates of the United States Military Academy. A former trial attorney for the U.S. Department of Justice and an army veteran, Murphy was protégé of celebrity journalist Bob Woodward and has military experience that may have helped him connect to his subjects and perhaps encouraged them to be open with him. He also reported from Iraq for the Post. Here's an excerpt from In Time of War that first appeared in INC:

Dave Swanson was a 26-year-old lieutenant then. He's out of the military now, and we talked recently about what he learned by leading 40 soldiers in 82 straight days of combat. Most of us probably won't be taking a platoon into a hail of gunfire anytime soon, but applying these principles can greatly improve your effectiveness as a leader, no matter what challenges you face. 

1. Control your fear.
As bullets whizzed by him for the first time, Swanson says he was very much afraid. However, he realized he had to subdue his fear because his soldiers were looking to him for clues as to how they should react. 

Courage doesn't mean the absence of fear, and of course being a leader certainly doesn't mean charging ahead blindly in the face of adversity. It does mean you can't allow your fear to become contagious. Your team needs to believe you're in control of yourself, if they're to have confidence that you can make smart decisions in tough times. 

2. Remember that the mission comes first.
You owe a lot to your team for giving you the privilege of placing their trust in you. First on the list, you owe them a goal worth dedicating their efforts to, and you need to demonstrate that you're willing to do whatever it takes to achieve it. 

"I say complete the mission at minimal expense to the people," Swanson says. "Every military leader will publicly say that the mission comes first, but we always accomplished the mission with the soldiers in mind."

3. Remember that the mission comes before you, too.
The only way that "mission-first" mantra can work is if your people truly believe that you will put the mission before yourself, too. In a life-imitates-art moment, Swanson says that in the heat of combat, he thought of a line from the 2001 HBO miniseries, Band of Brothers: "The only hope you have is to accept the fact that you're already dead. The sooner you accept that, the sooner you'll be able to function as a soldier." 

In combat, this means being willing to risk your own safety for others in the unit and the mission. In other contexts, it means demonstrating that you'll sacrifice your personal short-term interests for the team's goal. Otherwise, how can you ask them to do so? 

4. Rely on your preparation.
Swanson spent years preparing for battle. He had been an enlisted solider, he spent four years at West Point, and he trained for nearly two years after graduation. While training alone will never quite prepare you to lead in real life, he says, it's as close as you can get to the real thing. 

The same principle applies in any leadership context. Think ahead of time about how you'll react to tough situations, so you can free your mind in crucial moments to react and adapt quickly. 

5. Be tough, but human.
"To those who have been in combat," Swanson explains, "you live by hardness, intuition, and compassion." 

As an example, he stayed awake and on duty for 60 straight hours at the start of the battle, pushing himself until he physically collapsed, but he also found moments of humanity and even humor in the heat of combat. Your team needs to know that you're tough, but also that you're reacting to the world around you like an engaged leader, not a machine. 

6. Encourage your people.
Business is rarely a matter of life and death, but war certainly is. One of Swanson's soldiers, Specialist Jacob Martir, was killed in action during the months of fighting, and several others were wounded and sent home to hospitals in the U.S. 

"It absolutely ate me alive to lose anyone in the platoon," Swanson says. However, he realized that it fell to him to encourage his soldiers and inspire them to keep going. "They were all special. The next day after any [casualty], I would remind them that each of them had already sacrificed themselves for each other on a daily basis--and how, if required, I would sacrifice myself for any of them." 

7. Communicate effectively.
In the heat of battle, it's easy--almost natural--to shut down everything else and focus exclusively on the job at hand. That's a dangerous inclination, however. It's important to make communicating what's going on a priority as well. Your team and all of your stakeholders need to know what's going on, or they can't contribute. 

"Early on in combat, radio communications weren't always the greatest, but that was no excuse," Swanson says. "When technology fails--and it always does at the worst possible moment--you need to have backup ways of getting and giving information." 

8. Use your resources wisely. But use them.
Especially in the first days of combat, Swanson's unit dealt with destroyed and unarmored vehicles, and insufficient supplies of almost every sort. More important, confusion, combat, and casualties left them critically short of soldiers. 

At the same time, they made full use of everything they had. At the end of the first week of fighting, for example, Swanson reflected that he had personally gone through ten 30-round magazines, meaning he had fired 300 bullets at the enemy. Just about everyone else in his platoon had, as well. 

9. Imitate the leaders who inspire you.
When Swanson had to act in the heat of battle, especially when his soldiers' eyes were on him, he thought back to the lessons he had learned at West Point, and some of the other leaders he had known and respected. He also found himself asking a question that has circulated for years among military leaders as a sort of joke: "What would John Wayne do?"

"Regardless of where you work, always continue to learn what makes leaders successful and what makes them fail," he says.

We have amazing employees, customers and leaders at FSO. Thanks to our employees for all you do for us, and to our clients for awarding us with the privilege of serving you.

Have a GREAT day as I look forward to seeing all of you soon.

Mitchell D. Weiner

Chief Happiness Officer  

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. . . . . . . . . . . 

"Excellence is not an act, but a habit"

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. . . . . . 

Always Do The Right Thing

"It's about how we treat and care about our people. How we motivate them and continue to develop our folks.  Folks do the right thing. Trust and believe in your leadership. Always do the right thing and love life."

Good Morning Folks, 

Greetings to the greatest people in the on site outsourcing business. I hope everyone had an awesome weekend and was able to spend a bit of time relaxing and clearing your mind so you are fresh and ready for another awesome week at FSO.

As we grow and look forward to a prosperous future, we will never forget the Personal, Passionate & Productive mindset from which we began.

We promised you that from the beginning that we will improve service, reduce/control cost and take care of the people. We are taking a step forward to never losing sight of the promise by going back to the basics.

Because our employees are our connections to clients, we need to ensure that they have a clear understanding of what FSO does, stands for and is achieving for you each and every day. That’s why we established Mitch’s Institute of Training (MIT). 

Across FSO USA, we have been making great strides in our commitment and the Power of Focus to impact the Client Experience and ensure that we execute and deliver operational expertise. These past two weeks have been packed full of strong activity, great meetings and the launch of the MIT will be one of if not our strongest commitments and training tools to ensure everyone across FSO is continually learning and growing

One thing we know and that is momentum is how businesses thrive and grow, and our momentum is rocking – so Train the Trainer is in full motion through our MIT and we begin the next phase. Just imagine ONE TEAM across FSO that know everything about the company there are part of and what we stand for and what and how we sell and why clients bought us and why prospects buy us and how that carries forward from our sales front end to perfect execution and delivery on the back end through operations – our Promise to Promise – our re imagine – our Solutions and our Ideas, Innovation and client Cost Saves. 

The first MIT meeting allowed for our employees to walk away with eye-opening insights. The floor was opened to exchanging stories of success, to getting to know each other better and to finding inspiration in the powered of shared experience. Missy Adriazola, our Director of Training put it this way:

"We kicked off MIT 2 weeks ago with Mitch sharing his vision of FSO- past, present and future.  It is crucial that everyone plays their part for the future and growth of FSO.  But, with that comes learning about what we do, and how we do it.  Last week, with Round 2, Bomsi shared a little more detail about the company history and the expectations ahead.  And, since we’ve all learned “what” we do, who FSO is and Mitch’s vision, it’s time to get to work on the “how to” portion of training.

As head of training at FSO, I could not be more excited to share that there are great things in the works for the next round of MIT.  The promise to practice from the training team is that we ensure that you all have the tools you need to perform at your best and teach your teams to do so each and every day.  We are ONE team made up of individuals who CARE about each other and our clients. This is a huge differentiator in the marketplace and how FSO sells and closes deals daily.  We hire those who have the DNA of fire, skip and twinkle.  We look for those who are hospitality driven and go above and beyond every day." 

As we continue to build our company culture together, which you know includes positive energy, honesty, trust, respect, integrity/ethics, warmth, transparency, and CARE. You will only be able to achieve success in your role through solid communication - but talk is cheap. The question is: do your words matter and influence the outcome? Do you really connect with your team? Can we be doing better?

• How the operation could run better, more efficient?
• Are there better ways we can be organizing our areas better?
• Are there ways we can order things like supplies and equipment to save our clients’ money?
• Can we be more productive in the way we maintain the cleanliness of all areas?
• Service with a Smile means just that and how are we ensuring every contact with an end user or guest is perfect and special?
• What ways can we improve Hospitality?

There is nothing to wait for or direction needed from our clients in finding ways to (re) Imagine and make things better – your ideas and expertise is exactly why we are entrusted to run our clients operations – they outsourced to us and we must take the opportunity to show them why their decision was the best they ever made and we will deliver on our Promise to Practice.

You will know you've connected with your team when: they go the extra mile and always give the extra effort, they say positive things and provide unsolicited appreciation, they demonstrate trust and have an unguarded openness, they express themselves and communicate frequently, they feel good about their role and their value to FSO, they have positive energy, and you have growing team synergy. 

Our company is all about PERSONAL. Love our employees and love our clients.. and we should never stop thinking of how to wow them. The Power of Focus and the Power of Positive Energy will always be key to our future success. 

MIT presents us with an opportunity to take time and (re) IMAGINE the services we provide to our clients, and the road we pave for our employees —with the idea that we are one team, one family.

Thank you for your partnership and continued support. We look forward to sharing our success as the MIT program moves forth and grows.

Have a great week and thanks for being a part of our amazing journey.

Mitchell D. Weiner

Chief Happiness Officer  

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
“Example is not the main thing in influencing others. It is the only thing" ~~ Albert Schweitzer

. . . . . . . . . .. . . . . . . . . . . . .  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. . . . . . . 

"His lips drink water but his heart drinks wine” ― E.E. Cummings

Tagging along to scout President's Club accommodations in Napa Valley last week with Mrs. Weiner. Stephanie's company, Experience Napa, is renowned as the the most informed and inspired resource for visitors to “the Valley.” With abundant passion and a highly personal touch, Stephanie procures the most carefully considered and uniquely custom-created getaways, each detail in place and extraordinary elements of surprise. Check out ExperienceNapa.com 

Good Morning Folks,

I hope everyone had an awesome weekend and was able to spend a bit of time relaxing and clearing your mind so you are fresh and ready for another awesome week at FSO. 

Can I tell you how great it was to take a long weekend off and spend it in my favorite place Napa Valley? Not to mention the great wines I tasted and sent home.

Napa offers lots to do and has a lot to be proud of. In addition to truly beautiful scenery, this small area of Northern California boasts some of the world’s best wine and food. The combination of excellent soil and weather conditions makes fertile ground for olives, nuts, fruit, and of course wine, including all the French varietals and the region’s prized grape, Cabernet Sauvignon. 

Despite how many times I've been there and how much I thought I knew about Napa, last week I discovered so much great wine, food, natural beauty, and more. 

Few venues not only leave you so rested and relaxed, but also in awe of the friendly hospitable people and their can-do spirit that attends to your every need, makes you feel welcome and special as if you are their only guest. It's because your pleasure is truly their passion. It's the same high standard for service our FSO Rockstars set for ourselves, and you. Rockstars who treat the company as if it were theirs. 

Rockstars who find ways to proactively improve systems, creating positive change even when not yet asked for it. Rockstars who see and create their perfect future, and also bring others along. Rockstars who exude positive energy even in stressful times and share it around, making for a happier office.

The main themes I takeaway from Napa from a business perspective are innovation, making a personal connection, embracing your culture, and learning drives top business performers and company profitability. All through the power of HOSPITALITY!


Culture is so important - and, as a manager, it is critical that we ensure that everyone is on the same page and working towards the same common goal and purpose; truly show that we CARE about our employees and clients!

We spend more than half our lives at work (isn't that a crazy thought!) so why not make it FUN? The Happiest place to Work! 

That in mind, it is hard to believe we are concluding the first four months of the year. And lots of great "stuff" lol has transpired this year. As I worked cross country and now this morning I just cannot stop thinking about all the amazingly opportunity that exists for us out there. I have been and always will be the most positive. Inspiring and motivating support factor our sales engine and all those who support the journey each and every day

So whether Napa, Disney, FSO or your organization… remember YOU can make a difference every single day in every single interaction you a have...you just have to make the decision to do so! 

Love your people. Love your clients. Thank someone for doing a great job or for just being who they are. Catch someone doing something good and tell them you noticed. Give a stranger a smile...it really is the little things that make a world of difference.  

Have an awesome week - I look forward to seeing many of you Thursday evening at our MIT program. 

Love Life!



Mitchell D. Weiner
Chief Happiness Officer

.....................................................................................
“Unity is strength. . . when there is teamwork and collaboration, 

wonderful things can be achieved" ~~Mattie Stepanek

.......................................................................................

When Times Grow Tough, A Leader's True Colors Are Revealed

"Regardless of where you work, always continue to learn what makes leaders successful and what makes them fail" 

Good Morning Folks,

As I have often reminded our teams, anything is possible. Regardless of where you work, or what you do, always continue to learn what makes people successful and what makes them fail.

Because.. The most important resource in the entire universe is YOU. Products, services, innovation, ideas, breakthroughs – they all exist in your head, your heart and your hands. The output of your thinking, the engaging of your heart and the enlistment of your hands create profound results.

“Successful people do what unsuccessful people can’t do”. Find me anyone with skip, fire and twinkle who wants to learn and grow, and I will promise you a career in my company, never just a job. No one ever sets out to be average at FSO, we need to be the best at everything we do.

I am forever grateful to you all for being such a loyal audience and for the great feedback you've been sending my way. I really appreciate it!

Great leadership seems easy when things are good and everybody's happy. When times grow tough, however, a leader's true colors are revealed.

Ten years ago, a group of U.S. soldiers tasted combat for the first time in Sadr City, Iraq. Bill Murphy Jr. got to know one of the junior U.S. leaders in that battle when he wrote a book about West Point and wartime.  

Murphy chronicles the lives of representative 2002 graduates of the United States Military Academy. A former trial attorney for the U.S. Department of Justice and an army veteran, Murphy was protégé of celebrity journalist Bob Woodward and has military experience that may have helped him connect to his subjects and perhaps encouraged them to be open with him. He also reported from Iraq for the Post. Here's an excerpt from In Time of War that first appeared in INC:

Dave Swanson was a 26-year-old lieutenant then. He's out of the military now, and we talked recently about what he learned by leading 40 soldiers in 82 straight days of combat. Most of us probably won't be taking a platoon into a hail of gunfire anytime soon, but applying these principles can greatly improve your effectiveness as a leader, no matter what challenges you face. 

1. Control your fear.
As bullets whizzed by him for the first time, Swanson says he was very much afraid. However, he realized he had to subdue his fear because his soldiers were looking to him for clues as to how they should react. 

Courage doesn't mean the absence of fear, and of course being a leader certainly doesn't mean charging ahead blindly in the face of adversity. It does mean you can't allow your fear to become contagious. Your team needs to believe you're in control of yourself, if they're to have confidence that you can make smart decisions in tough times. 

2. Remember that the mission comes first.
You owe a lot to your team for giving you the privilege of placing their trust in you. First on the list, you owe them a goal worth dedicating their efforts to, and you need to demonstrate that you're willing to do whatever it takes to achieve it. 

"I say complete the mission at minimal expense to the people," Swanson says. "Every military leader will publicly say that the mission comes first, but we always accomplished the mission with the soldiers in mind."

3. Remember that the mission comes before you, too.
The only way that "mission-first" mantra can work is if your people truly believe that you will put the mission before yourself, too. In a life-imitates-art moment, Swanson says that in the heat of combat, he thought of a line from the 2001 HBO miniseries, Band of Brothers: "The only hope you have is to accept the fact that you're already dead. The sooner you accept that, the sooner you'll be able to function as a soldier." 

In combat, this means being willing to risk your own safety for others in the unit and the mission. In other contexts, it means demonstrating that you'll sacrifice your personal short-term interests for the team's goal. Otherwise, how can you ask them to do so? 

4. Rely on your preparation.
Swanson spent years preparing for battle. He had been an enlisted solider, he spent four years at West Point, and he trained for nearly two years after graduation. While training alone will never quite prepare you to lead in real life, he says, it's as close as you can get to the real thing. 

The same principle applies in any leadership context. Think ahead of time about how you'll react to tough situations, so you can free your mind in crucial moments to react and adapt quickly. 

5. Be tough, but human.
"To those who have been in combat," Swanson explains, "you live by hardness, intuition, and compassion." 

As an example, he stayed awake and on duty for 60 straight hours at the start of the battle, pushing himself until he physically collapsed, but he also found moments of humanity and even humor in the heat of combat. Your team needs to know that you're tough, but also that you're reacting to the world around you like an engaged leader, not a machine. 

6. Encourage your people.
Business is rarely a matter of life and death, but war certainly is. One of Swanson's soldiers, Specialist Jacob Martir, was killed in action during the months of fighting, and several others were wounded and sent home to hospitals in the U.S. 

"It absolutely ate me alive to lose anyone in the platoon," Swanson says. However, he realized that it fell to him to encourage his soldiers and inspire them to keep going. "They were all special. The next day after any [casualty], I would remind them that each of them had already sacrificed themselves for each other on a daily basis--and how, if required, I would sacrifice myself for any of them." 

7. Communicate effectively.
In the heat of battle, it's easy--almost natural--to shut down everything else and focus exclusively on the job at hand. That's a dangerous inclination, however. It's important to make communicating what's going on a priority as well. Your team and all of your stakeholders need to know what's going on, or they can't contribute. 

"Early on in combat, radio communications weren't always the greatest, but that was no excuse," Swanson says. "When technology fails--and it always does at the worst possible moment--you need to have backup ways of getting and giving information." 

8. Use your resources wisely. But use them.
Especially in the first days of combat, Swanson's unit dealt with destroyed and unarmored vehicles, and insufficient supplies of almost every sort. More important, confusion, combat, and casualties left them critically short of soldiers. 

At the same time, they made full use of everything they had. At the end of the first week of fighting, for example, Swanson reflected that he had personally gone through ten 30-round magazines, meaning he had fired 300 bullets at the enemy. Just about everyone else in his platoon had, as well. 

9. Imitate the leaders who inspire you.
When Swanson had to act in the heat of battle, especially when his soldiers' eyes were on him, he thought back to the lessons he had learned at West Point, and some of the other leaders he had known and respected. He also found himself asking a question that has circulated for years among military leaders as a sort of joke: "What would John Wayne do?"

"Regardless of where you work, always continue to learn what makes leaders successful and what makes them fail," he says.

We have amazing employees, customers and leaders at FSO. Thanks to our employees for all you do for us, and to our clients for awarding us with the privilege of serving you.

Have a GREAT day as I look forward to seeing all of you soon.

Mitchell D. Weiner

Chief Happiness Officer  

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. . . . . . . . . . . 

"Excellence is not an act, but a habit"

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. . . . . . 

The FSO Pledge: My Personal Commitment To Excellence and To You

"We are so proud of what our culture represents: A commitment to the Employee & Client Experience starting at the top, with my undivided attention and passion guaranteed."

Good Morning Folks,

Our company is based on some very solid beliefs - training, motivating, and building a career path for the passionate people who consistently do a great job for our clients. 

Everyone is empowered to spot talent and develop future leaders. Our people become a part of the FSO family and are embraced from the moment they walk through our doors for VIP on-boarding and Experience Greatness Training. For FSO, the goal is not just to retain outstanding talent; it's about helping our talent realize their full potential through growth and discovery. FSO takes great people and we make them even better by giving them knowledge, a career path and, most importantly, the confidence to succeed in any environment. For many, we give them hope when they want more but are wondering, "How can I achieve it?"

At FSO, we answer that question by steering, cross-training and developing the teams until they see and experience the success that comes along with our goal-oriented focus. We encourage our people to dream personally and professionally. With programs like our Future Leaders Program we have the chance to hear their voices and ensure that their new ideas are implemented into our organization. 

Nothing is more important to the leadership team at FSO than ensuring the very best employee experience for every single person working within our organization; our revolutionary training & development program is proof of that. As pioneers of taking care of the hourly employee, we literally invented this stuff. By giving our people the tools they need to succeed, we are able to build the most highly trained and motivated team in the industry.

Our FSO Training programs fall into two extensive levels of training: discipline-based and leadership-driven training for all company employees.

Our clients benefit as we continually enhance skill sets of our staff as part of our commitment to ongoing skill and career advancement.

Our training programs ensure that end users receive Total Customer Satisfaction at all times by:

• Delivering world class service levels 
• Implementing best practices at every site 
• Executing succession planning and leadership development of our core talent

We are so proud of what our culture represents: A commitment to the Employee & Client Experience starting at the top, with my undivided attention and passion guaranteed. As our business grows, I remain committed to helping each and every FSO employee grow and develop within our organization so that they can fulfill their greatest dreams.

That is my solemn pledge to them, and my commitment to you.

We are on fire and we are going to LIGHT UP the ON SITE OUTSOURCING BUSINESS. We are not playing in this space. We are here to own it, and will be adding resources proactively and strategically to support our budding infrastructure."

Have a great start to the week, and thanks for being a part of our amazing journey.

Mitchell D. Weiner

Chief Happiness Officer  

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 
“The adventure of life is to learn. 
The purpose of life is to grow. 
The nature of life is to change. 
The challenge of life is to overcome. 
The essence of life is to care. 
The opportunity of like is to serve. 
The secret of life is to dare. 
The spice of life is to befriend. 
The beauty of life is to give." ~William Arthur Ward
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ABOUT FSO:

Recognized on the Inc. 5000 list of the nation's fastest growing companies and ranked among the top 25 of New York's fastest growing privately held companies by Crain's magazine, FSO can proudly boast: 

• 98 % client retention with ZERO displacements 
• 98 % employee retention – twice the industry average 
• 300+ years of industry experience residing in its Senior Leadership Team 
• 120+ corporate support staff supporting our national footprint (HR, IT, Analysts, Subject matter experts etc) 

Led by Mitchell Weiner, the co-founder and pioneer of onsite outsourcing, FSO was created to deliver what the industry has lost sight of – and everything you deserve: 

• An outsourcing experience powered by passionate people. 
• An intimate and personal approach to service. 
• A partnership based on care, trust and mutual success. 
• Involved owners listening to your needs and proposing customized solutions. 

To learn more, please contact our national direct line: 212.204.1193.

VIDEO:

Brief "corporate portrait" video shows who we are and what we can do for you HERE

Live Life. LOVE Life!

The Buddha said, “You have no cause for anything but gratitude and joy.”

Good Morning Folks,

Jonathan Swift wrote, “May you live every day of your life.”  While it is clearly obvious that we are alive—living and breathing human beings, how much of the time we are spending on Earth are we really living? How can we tell?

An entire lifetime can be spent on searching outward for the true purpose of life. There is no right or wrong scenario in the notion that we embark on this journey of self-realization. However, when we refuse to acknowledge our Being as the ultimate truth, we are indeed living, but solely for the betterment of others.

So… How can we live every day of our lives? 

After over a decade of study, best-selling co-author Michelle Rosado, ("Pursuing Your Destiny: How to Overcome Adversity and Achieve Your Dreams), offers a few ways she's learned to live a mindful and peace life:

1. Be Present. 
To live in the present means to BE present in all you do. Observe your thoughts as if your mind was a separate entity from self. Take a few moments throughout the day to be still and honor the time you spend with your higher self. Remember, this moment is the most important one of all.

2. Be Compassionate. 
Hardly any effort can be found in expressing compassion for anyone who is in need of guidance. It is our natural instinct as compassionate Beings to offer assistance in times of need. But when the hurtful words of another creates a lasting emotional scar on one’s heart, the ego can be diffused by showing love and compassion for the one inflicting the hurt.

3. Be Grateful. 
The Buddha said, “You have no cause for anything but gratitude and joy.” When you feel as if there is a lost sense of hope in humanity and receive a “reality slap” from your current circumstance, it is the perfect opportunity to look within. There is much to be grateful for when we are present and aware of our gifts.

4. Be Yourself. 
Many of us have experienced conditioning in our childhood that only accommodate others – in our thoughts, actions and speech. It is by fear that we continue living in this mindset throughout our adulthood, and by choosing to unravel the layers of the past can we truly be free. Make this a daily practice, for being yourself is one of the most precious gifts you can give to others, and to your soul.

What makes this advice so special is Michelle's rise from adversity: Her book, Pursuing Your Destiny: How to Overcome Adversity and Achieve Your Dreams" is the touching true story about how Michelle escaped from the World Trade Center on 911 into the life she never dreamed possible. Together, with her husband Randy, they share the experiences of their chance meeting which brought these two souls together to create one life they share.

Michelle's brush with death on 911 reminds us that time waits for no one. Treasure every moment you have. No one is ever guaranteed tomorrow. To realize the value of a friend or family member: LOSE ONE. 

As I have often reminded our teams, anything is possible. Regardless of where you work, or what you do, always continue to learn what makes people successful and what makes them fail.

Because.. The most important resource in the entire universe is YOU. Products, services, innovation, ideas, breakthroughs – they all exist in your head, your heart and your hands. The output of your thinking, the engaging of your heart and the enlistment of your hands create profound results.

“Successful people do what unsuccessful people can’t do”. Find me anyone with skip, fire and twinkle who wants to learn and grow, and I will promise you a career in my company, never just a job. No one ever sets out to be average at FSO, we need to be the best at everything we do.

We have amazing employees, customers and leaders. Thanks to our employees for all you do for us, and to our clients for all you award us the privilege of doing for you.

Have a GREAT day as I look forward to seeing all of you soon.

Mitchell D. Weiner
Chief Happiness Officer

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“Expect the best. Prepare for the worst. Capitalize on what comes” 
~~Zig Ziglar
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