Colfax Elementary yoga kids featured on KWGN’s Daybreak

On Monday four fourth graders from Denver’s Colfax Elementary School got a behind-the-scenes tour of the KWGN studios for a segment on Daybreak with Natalie Tisdale. The kids were there to demonstrate some yoga poses they’ve learned at school, so other Denver families could see just how easy it is to practice yoga.

It’s all part of an initiative driven by a nonprofit organization, The Wellness Initiative, to incorporate yoga into Colorado’s schools. The Wellness Initiative is funded in part by a grant from the Colorado Health Foundation, a GroundFloor Media client. 



Yoga instructor Allyson Levine has been teaching kids at Colfax Elementary for more than five years. At this amazing school, every student gets yoga instruction every week. Yoga in schools has many health benefits including improving physical fitness, helping maintain a healthy weight and even helping kids focus during the school day. But Allyson says the best part about teaching yoga as part of the regular PE curriculum is that students can incorporate the stress-busting benefits of yoga into their daily lives. The kids at Colfax Elementary have told us those stressors include standardized testing, bullying and even angst about their parents having to deal with the effects of the recession.

We’re thankful people like Allyson and the rest of the gang at The Wellness Initiative for not just believing in this great cause, but for dedicating themselves to helping make Colorado’s kids healthier every day.


The Colorado Health Foundation learned about Colfax Elementary's yoga through its Colorado Kaleidoscope project, a statewide storytelling campaign designed to shine a bright light on the good work of its grantee partners and the people whose lives they impact. Watch this inspiring video to learn how two Colfax Elementary School students, Zulema and Liam benefit from the yoga.


~ Claire

An Emerging Trend for 2012: The Collision of Social Media and Crisis Communication

The most frequent questions I encountered in 2011 included: what should we do when a detrimental story about our company breaks online? How do you respond to social media posts or comments from angry customers, or even disgruntled employees? Or do you avoid response and consider deleting comments? Worse, how do you stop the spread of misinformation, or blatantly false claims about your CEO, company or its products?

It used to be that the worst-case scenario for a business going through a crisis was a story appearing on an evening network newscast or in the morning paper. Today, the greater risk is what happens to that story, or any unfavorable story for that matter, when it is broadcasted across social networks. In the era of social media, not only does the public have the opportunity to say, report and offer opinions at will, but they are able to do so without any type of factual check and balance. And all of that information lives online in perpetuity, eroding reputations that took years to build.

A quick search for “crisis communication” on Mashable turns up a lengthy list of situations and case studies that played out over the past year: Taco Bell being under fire for the ingredients in its ground beef, the reaction to NetFlix’s price increase, and there were plenty of political figures who had their issues. As you can imagine, the list is quite extensive.

During 2011, GroundFloor Media saw a large increase in the number of clients that were looking for answers to the “what if” social media crisis questions, and even a few clients who experienced the intersection of crisis communications and social media firsthand. We expect this trend to continue in 2012 as more and more individuals, companies and their customers continue to expand and engage in social networks.

In December, GroundFloor Media launched its proprietary Online War Room™ to help prepare businesses and organizations for scenarios that can, and will, occur on social networks. This secure tool allows our Rapid Response and social media teams to work with clients to customize training sessions and mimic online crisis and issues management situations and conversations, in real time. We all know that preparation is key in any crisis situation, and the Online War Room allows our clients to discover what they need to include in their social media response plan, test their existing response plans, refine the processes for reacting and responding to negative sentiment and misinformation, and even put executives more at ease with communicating in the social media space.

In most cases, the first 120 minutes of a crisis can determine the public’s perception of an organization, and social networks exponentially emphasize the need to be prepared for any number of public conversations and crisis-related scenarios. What are your company’s plans to effectively manage its online reputation in 2012?

~ Jim Licko

An inspiring tale of one's quest to become healthier

Do you ever read a blog that gives you the extra push you need to make something happen? Most recently, I enjoyed a post from our client, Bob Mook, at the Colorado Health Foundation. His post, "To health and back again," focused on his quest to live a healthier life - for him and his family - and offered some key advice: While health-focused organizations like LiveWell Colorado encourage and promote healthy living, "revolution also begins at home – as in your home."

Just like me, Bob's post, might give you the extra push you need to walk, run or venture to the gym this weekend.



~ Jennifer

GFM is 10!

Celebrating 10 years of what matters most ~ our people.

The cupcakes have been delivered. The custom beer has been brewed. A proclamation has arrived from Mayor Hancock declaring Aug. 26, 2011, as GroundFloor Media Day, and Governor Hickenlooper has sent us a congratulatory letter. The team is busy posting videos of our clients singing “Happy Birthday” on YouTube, and there are (unfortunately) pictures of each one of our team members appearing on Facebook from when we were all 10 years old. Although we may be most thankful for the fact that our hairstyles and wardrobes have seen a marked improvement since the 60s, 70s and 80s, what I believe we are truly thankful for is the fact that we actually have a reason to celebrate tonight.

When I started the company a decade ago in my unfinished basement in Boulder, it was truly out of desperation (I had recently moved to Colorado, bought a house, was weeks from getting married and was without a job due to the recent dot-com bust) and a desire to be the type of company that others were not. I realize it doesn’t sound like a well thought out business plan, and trust me, it wasn’t. My business “plan” was outlined on the back of a napkin at a bagel shop in Boulder. It contained three critical points: 1) I wanted to work with people that I truly enjoyed being around; 2) I wanted to offer a flexible, blended work environment; and 3) I wanted to be able to make enough money to give back to the community. Do you thinkHarvard Business Review called? Not so much. Regardless of my lack of planning, I feel proud of the fact that 10 years later, we have not waivered on any of these principles.

I was once told that people start their own business so they can lead a balanced life. I would like to run into this person again so I could gently tell him that there is no such thing as a balanced life. Your life and work will be intertwined, and there will be no distinct line between the two. There is only one thing to do – make every second of every day count. We tend to call it a blended life around here. Last night I answered an urgent call from a client while my husband pushed our toddler in a stroller, I carried our infant in a Baby Bjorn and we juggled holding the leash so our giant Bernese Mountain Dog could go for a walk before it rained. As I hung up (thankful that we managed to make it through the conversation without any screaming or temper tantrums), I was reminded of how fortunate I am to be a part of a culture that embraces (and even celebrates) this insane lifestyle we all lead.

Someone recently asked me which accomplishment I was most proud of during the past 10 years at GroundFloor Media. It wasn’t the awards, financial stability or the innovations we have helped forge in the industry. It was – quite simply – the colleagues, clients and partners we surround ourselves with each and every day.

For each one of you, I am truly grateful.

~ Laura Love-Aden

A New Take on Decorating for the Holidays

When you are blessed with a wonderful job, a healthy and loving family and many non-necessities (e.g., new car, nice clothes, ski trips), it can be extremely easy to get wrapped up in all the glitter and sparkle of the holidays. And let me be clear, I don’t think anything is wrong with the sparkle – I live for Christmas carols, “Miracle on 34th Street” and gingerbread cookies.

However, just a few blocks from my candy cane lane is a place called Tennyson Center for Children, a treatment center and K-12 school for emotionally and crisis-affected children and youth, particularly those suffering from abuse and neglect. GroundFloor Media’s (GFM) president and founder Laura Love-Aden has been personally involved with Tennyson for more than six years and has introduced many GFM colleagues to the center via local leadership programs, GFM’s Get Giving program or pro-bono PR work. Still being somewhat new to GFM this year I hadn’t had the opportunity to visit Tennyson Center before last week when we decorated one of the kids’ cottages, served dinner and handed out stockings.

From the moment I stepped into the cottage I had an overwhelming feeling of excitement about brightening the kids’ night, paired with a lump in my throat because I simply cannot fathom why those innocent and adorable young children have to cope with such tragic family situations – especially during the holidays.

Not many businesses are staffed by owners and employees who are as passionate about embracing a cause and making it a part of their everyday life as the people of GFM. As I watched the children smile in delight over the most basic presents – candy canes, Silly Putty and lip gloss – I became keenly aware that GFM has invited me to be a part of something special. We get to do great work for incredible clients. We celebrate our successes wholeheartedly and learn and grow from our failures. But none of those attributes of GFM compare to the way we give back together – the support we have from our leaders to step outside of our office to go experience real-world situations and try, in our own little way, to make a difference.

One young girl in particular left a major impact on me during my evening at Tennyson. She quietly said, “it’s okay, nobody likes me,” when I tried to negotiate with another child to let her hang the next string of lights. Later in the evening she walked over to me, carefully holding a snowman ornament that we had not donated. She said it was very special to her and let me help her gingerly hang it above her doorway, carefully testing the hook to make sure it wouldn’t fall. I can only wonder who gave it to her, when she got it, and what it means to her this holiday season – you cannot ask those questions of the children at Tennyson Center because you do not know what memories or feelings it will bring up for the child.

Without naming this little girl here, I want to wish her happy holidays and my deepest wishes for her to have a healthy, happy and safe 2011 and beyond.

~Alexis Anzalone
 

Maximizing strengths in the workplace

Have you ever wondered how you and your colleague think differently? Or, how you both can approach and execute the same project in a different way to achieve similar results? Earlier this week, our team participated in an Emergenetics team building workshop lead by one of the founders, Dr. Geil Browning. Talk about interesting stuff!

In case you are not familiar, Emergenetics is a brain-based psychometric assessment that highlights thinking and behavior. GFM team members Ramonna Tooley, Jim Licko and Barb Jones had all participated in the program during Leadership Denver with the Denver Metro Chamber of Commerce Leadership Foundation. Ramonna was eager to get our entire team in the room to learn about it, and when the opportunity presented itself, she didn’t even think twice.

Most of the team didn’t know what to expect of the all-day off-site meeting. While some of us had anxiety about the “not knowing,” were freaked out when an agenda wasn’t presented at the beginning of the presentation, and were eager for the analytical part of the workshop to end so we could learn about our own profiles, one thing was clear – we were going to learn how to build upon our strengths, preferences and diversity to learn more about each other individually and as a team.

As I sit at my desk today and check the boxes off on my “typical” Jen Wills to do list, I am able to understand why I do some “quirky” things – my personal profile explains it all – and as my husband chuckled to himself while I shared my day and the specifics of my profile, I know he was thinking… “And your profile surprises you, why?”

Bottom line: I walked away with a greater appreciation of my strengths and perspectives, and most importantly those of my colleagues. GroundFloor Media wouldn’t be one of the Denver Business Journal’s Best Places to Work without the unique blend of each team member’s profile. We complement each other, and our clients, to ensure effectiveness in our business. Thanks to all of my colleagues for continually reminding me that it is important (and ok) to step outside of my analytical and structural box to have some spontaneous, laughable fun!

Looking forward to another great year at GFM!

~ Jen Wills