Michelle Micalizzi, Artist
(All Rights Reserved)
My muse this week is Joshua Farley. Joshua owns Redline Electric & Solar, LLC. Redline is a full service electrical, lighting, and solar contractor serving the entire state of Arizona.
WHY JOSHUA QUALIFIES TO BE ONE OF THE 2017 FEARLESS THIRTEEN.
Joshua came to my 2016 show at the Walter Gallery as a guest of Derek Herndon, the owner of Arcadia Signarama. Long story short, Derek and Joshua have been tremendous supporters of the Art of Fearlessly Doing Business (AoFDB) project and of me personally. I love it when I get to meet good male friends who both happen to be entrepreneurs. Being comrades in entrepreneurship is a bond that I think only those who have risked it all can understand. Derek and Joshua are also extremely devoted husbands and great fathers. I admire these two qualities above all else in good men.
Joshua and I sat down at lunch one day and compared stories. He and I both had entrepreneurial fathers. Joshua’s dad was an electrician and when Joshua was a teenager he was quick to put him to work to show him what he was really made of. If Joshua had a different father he would have had a very different story. One of the things across all the interviews that I have found be true is that many of the business leaders I have interviewed have had a central figure in their life who influenced them; and more often than not, that figure is a hard working entrepreneurial father. I get it. I have a dad just like Joshua’s who taught me everything I ever needed to know about creativity and hard work!
What I most like about Joshua is his willingness to recognize that in order to become a better businessman, he has to make a commitment to develop himself so that he can do what is best for his family, his company and his employees. Humbly, he admits that up until last year, he was an electrician who just gave his own invoice to his customers rather than giving the customer his employer’s invoice. He had not yet really made the leap in his mind from technician to business owner. He eventually realized that in order to be a great business owner he had to up his game and take a leap into unknown territory. He achieved this by educating himself by reading everything he could get his hands on and participating in programs like the SBA Emerging Leaders Program. and the Entrepreneurs Organization (EO). He knows that he can only learn from successful business people of all industries who have gone before him in the business world.
The three biggest things that impress me the most about Joshua are:
- His complete commitment to self-improvement and development.
- His genuine sense of camaraderie.
- His ability to create something from nothing by doing what needs to be done as life shows up.
FEARLESS INTERVIEW
Joshua took a few minutes to answer the five Art of Fearlessly Doing Business Questions.
WHAT CAN WE LEARN FROM JOSHUA ABOUT BEING FEARLESS?
1. Rock Star Earnings are Kinda Cool
Rita Devenport said that, “Money isn’t everything…but it ranks right up there with oxygen.” Joshua’s Dad was a smart man who led by example and put his young teenage son to work. He empowered him by demonstrating that smart hard workingmen earn a great living; a lesson Joshua embraced. He saw early on in his life that he could out earn his peers by excelling in a purposeful skill that he was good at. These facts are much more powerful than hanging out and getting into trouble. Joshua picked up what his father was laying down and made something of himself. I am proud of Joshua for choosing the higher road and genuinely admire his dad for showing him the way!
2. Bumps are Opportunities
All entrepreneurs know that when one door closes another one opens. We acknowledge the tough breaks and figure stuff out. “Problems” show up and we do not have a safety net so we move forward by trial and error to find solutions that get us to the next day. We also know that business relationships change and smart business owners know when it is time to change direction or prune business components, are both good for the company and its individuals. Some days quite frankly, too much gets dumped on our plates, or in Joshua’s case, gets dropped off, in the driveway as a mountain of twenty-nine palettes containing lighting fixtures. I love that he remembers exactly how many palettes there were. In the moment, we have to find a way to move each mountain that gets in our way. We had no idea before that moment the mountain showed up that it even existed. Nor do we know how we will move it, climb it, or walk around it as we stand there staring up at it scratching our heads. We just know that something will eventually come to us – the light bulb will turn on and we will get things done. When we fail? No big deal; we get through that too. There is no way around life experience; we just have to deal with it and sometimes that experience leads us to even better things!
3. Growing is a Good Problem to Have
The business people that I interview are in growth mode. They are not at the end of their run; they are far from it. In fact, they are about to hit their full stride. You can smell it when you meet them – the sweet smell of impending wild success. Like elite athletes, making that leap from good to great takes a huge amount of effort and additional outside help. Joshua knows that if he is going to take that next step he has to get coaching, mentorship, guidance, and inspiration so that he can stare at this particular mountain called GROWTH and move it in the right direction. Being ready to grow is an excellent problem to have. I have no doubt that Joshua will figure out the perfect growth formula!
4. Sharpen the Saw
“Sharpen the Saw means preserving and enhancing the greatest asset you have–you. It means having a balanced program for self-renewal in the four areas of your life: physical, social/emotional, mental, and spiritual.” Stephen Covey, Seven Habits of Highly Successful People
As I said earlier – Joshua has a commitment to not only sharpen the saw but as he said himself, to toss out the saw he was using and trade it in for a better saw. I find this ironic because I just bought my first power tool for this project a few days before my interview with Joshua – a miter saw. I needed to buy a quality saw to cut the wood in perfect right angles for the panels my husband and I are making for this show as well as for the other shows I am creating this year. I recall having an anxiety attack as I paid for the saw. I texted my best friend and said – “I have risked it all and invested hundreds of thousands of dollars in other peoples dreams but to buy this new saw for my own dream – I am having a heart attack….” Sometimes the scariest thing we can do is to invest in ourselves. To make a decision that we are going to invest in ourselves and grow no matter how uncomfortable is an earth shattering decision.
5. Get Outta your Head
I took the Dale Carnegie course about ten years ago and one of the tools Carnegie suggests is a question that Joshua asks new business owners to consider. “What is the worst that can happen?” The idea is to actually imagine the very worst has happened and to deal with it in your mind. What this exercise does is teach us that nothing is insurmountable. No matter how bad we fail there is always a way up and out. When we truly know these facts we become fearless. He also says something else that I think is very wise and so hard to do. “Get out of your own head!” I had a friend who used to say that he would be walking down the street and out of nowhere his head would attack him. Being stuck in your own head is like being lost in a bad neighborhood. One should never go into a bad neighborhood by them selves. This is the reason why Joshua reads, develops himself and has strong comrades like Derek Herndon – he knows that he is stronger when he feeds himself with good information and surrounds himself with quality people. His dad taught him that as a young man and he still reminds himself every day. This is how real heroes do it – one decision at a time to get out of our own way and do what must be done and make life happen.
Thank you so much Joshua for taking the time to be one of the Fearless Thirteen! I look forward to seeing you again at the Art of Fearlessly Doing Business Art Opening on May 5th at {9} the Gallery from 6-9PM.
Note from the Artist
JOSHUA’S ILLUSTRATION STORY:
There were a few ideas that I picked up on right away in my interview with Joshua. “I got a new saw.”, “Get out of your head.” and the image of the mountain of lighting fixtures “twenty nine palettes” tall – which makes me laugh because the light bulb is my symbol for entrepreneurship. The fixtures do not have bulbs in them yet but they will. Just like I know that Josh scratched his head and figured it out that day. As I painted the twenty nine boxes they also started to remind me of solar panels, which is a big part of Joshua’s business. The Light bulb is a head figure with the top of the head opened. Now did the “new saw” cut the head open or did the saw come from an open mind? I will let you decide. That is the thing about personal development, an open mind and new tools – which comes first the chicken or the egg? The shoulders are melted with the background to show how much Josh is part of his business.
THE ART OF FEARLESSLY DOING BUSINESS III – OPENING
Fearless Art Works at Spanish Village
7211 E Ho Rd, #17
Carefree, AZ
Friday, May 5th
6-9 PM
Optional RSVP: Facebook Event or EventBrite Event.
CHARITY: The Contemporary Forum, a support organization for the Phoenix Art Museum
FUTURE EVENTS: Fearless Art 2017 Schedule
SPREAD THE WORD: Event FLYER.
RECOMMENDED READING THIS WEEK
Seven Habits of Highly Successful People by Stephen Covey
Feel free to email me and suggest a book that you have found particularly helpful!
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Michelle Micalizzi is a creative entrepreneur. She balances her businesses mind and creative skills in all that she does not only professionally with her business Fearlessly Deliver as a Visual Journalist, Curator & a Business Executor but in her life. Her strong belief in community and collective engagement lead her to found the Art of Fearlessly Doing Business and Fearless Pop up Projects. Michelle’s latest exciting endeavor the Fearless Art Works is an art gallery and a space for good works of all kind that connects Art + Community + Business! You can work with Fearlessly Deliver by either accepting an invitation to participate in a Fearless Art Project or by applying to be a custom business project execution client.
michelle@fearlesslydeliver.com
480.526.2609
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