A LETTER FROM THE FOUNDERS

When do you have your best ideas?

Ours come to us in the shower, at the end of a long run, or in the handful of minutes between when we wake up and when we crack our eyes open.

Studies, anecdotal reports, and our own experience tell us it’s downtime that tends to be the most generative. Creativity lives in the in-between.

But sometimes you need more than just a few minutes here and there.

Enter, summer. It’s different than when we were kids, when we found ourselves on a forced break. Now, we’ve got to make our own, but it’s well worth the effort.

Some of our biggest revelations about growth and change at Arcbound have come over the past month or so, when we’ve been away from our desks and without an internet signal for at least a day or two.

We’ve broken ground on new ideas that we launched on the plains of Africa, or in the cramped seats of airplanes, or gardening in our yard.

The space and rest created time for thoughts that had been bubbling up for months to surface. They enabled hard conversations about systemic change for future growth.

Consider downtime your business due diligence, a checks and balances system for your brain.

The days are already getting shorter, and we’re feeling the fall closing in. But we’re going to squeeze in some more downtime before that happens, so we’ll be ready for whatever September brings our way.

Have you taken your summer break yet?

The One Away Show 142 & 144

Nanxi Liu: One Leap Away From Success

Nanxi Liu is the co-founder and co-CEO of Blaze, a software company that gives teams and leaders everything they need to create custom web applications and internal tools that supercharge your operations. Nanxi has founded and led multiple companies, including the revolutionary Nanoly Bioscience, a biotech company that has developed polymers that enable vaccines to survive without refrigeration.

In 2012, Nanxi also cofounded Enplug, a rapidly-growing tech company that’s built the leading open software for managing and distributing content on digital displays. Nanxi serves on the board of several non-profits, including National Foster Youth Institute, After-School All-Stars, and Yes2Jobs.

Bob Gower: One Air Mattress Away From Leaving a Cult

Bob Gower is a New York-based author, speaker, and consultant, who cares deeply about creating organizations that are a net positive for the world. His mission is simple: to help leaders align their teams on all levels so they can perform at their best.

Bob is the author of two books: Agile Business: A Leader’s Guide to Harnessing Complexity and Radical Alignment: How to Have Game-Changing Conversations to Transform Your Business and Life. Bob has keynoted gatherings on four continents, as well as lectured at Columbia University, NYU’s Stern School of Management, the Berlin School, and many more. He’s worked directly with leaders at organizations: from multinationals like Ericsson, Ford, and GE to non-profits like New York Public Radio and the Wikimedia Foundation, to innovative new companies like Spotify and General Assembly, as well as numerous startups.

PERSONAL BRANDING

From Nice-to-Have to Must-Have: Personal Branding in a Difficult Economy

The global economic outlook is “increasingly gloomy,” according to Gita Gopinath, the IMF’s Chief Economist in the most recent Monthly Barometer. The news comes as no surprise—it’s been a long time coming. But that doesn’t mean you just have to accept the slump. There are still plenty of opportunities out there.

How do you improve the quality of your life and career despite the difficult economy?

Build a strong personal brand.

The financial challenges we face have taken personal branding from nice-to-have to must-have.

ARCING TOWARD

Tamara Steffens is the Managing Director role at Thomson Reuters Ventures. We’ve had the chance to get to know her and TR Ventures Founding Principal, Joe Dormani, over the past few months thanks to Arcbound Advisor Colleen O’Brien.

Learning about the investing arm of Thomson Reuters and how they’re looking to put money into founders in X industries has been an incredible experience and we are so excited by their journey …

ARCBOUND HAPPENINGS

Brent Funkhouser

Arcbound's Head of Creative Multimedia, Brent Funkhouser, is also a talented musician and vocalist. This summer, Brent's been touring local venues all over the state of Virginia. Fun Fact: Brent can perform hundreds of songs!

Soulbroken: A Guidebook Through Your Journey of Ambiguous Grief by Stephanie Sarazin

Stephanie Sarazin, author of the upcoming book, Soulbroken, shows us that grief isn't always the result of something finite, marking a death or complete end. Soul-shattering grief can also be activated by a dramatic shift in an important relationship, such as a divorce or significant breakup, a life-changing medical diagnosis, or a broken connection with an addicted child. How do we grieve people who are still alive, but no longer who they once were to us?

But First, Inner Peace by Case Kenny

Case Kenny presents: But First, Inner Peace, a one-of-a-kind 60 day manifestation experience designed to give you clarity about what you deserve in life and then show you how to get it. It consists of 60 chapters - part book, part journal - to show you WHY you deserve more, better or different and then through 60 days of perspective and self love prompts... how to make it a reality.

But First, Inner Peace takes a unique approach to the concept of “manifestation” and "law of attraction" by focusing on how inner peace is the foundation for creating and receiving anything your heart desires.

Thanks for letting us play a role in launching your arc.