For parents, this time of year is filled with mixed emotions.  It’s the start of a new school year. There’s a dose of excitement, some anxiety, and a whole lot of questions. 

How will I get to work by 8:00 when I need to wait at the bus stop until 7:45?

How can I get three kids ready and in the car by 7:30 so I can drop them off at three different schools and get to work by 8:30?

How will I live up to my promise to be a room parent when I probably won’t be able to convince my boss to get the time off?

It’s 3:30 and I haven’t heard from my child yet - did she make it home okay?

What will I do if my child gets sick as much this year as last year?

And if the stress of these questions isn’t enough, take a look at this statistic from the 2000 Fight Crime: Invest in Kids report:

“On school days, the prime time for violent juvenile crime is from 3 p.m. to 6 p.m.  The crimes that occur then are serious and violent, including murders, rapes, robberies, and aggravated assaults.  These are also the hours when kids are most likely to:

• Become victims of violent crime
• Be in, or cause, a car crash (for 16-or 17-year-olds) - the leading cause of death for teens
• Be killed by household or other accidents
• Get hooked on cigarettes
• Experiment with other dangerous drugs.”

This post is not meant to cause your stress level to rise even more.  This is a plea to managers.  Read that statistic again.  Then think of how many employees you have that are physically there, but worrying about where their kids are and what they’re doing.  If they’re getting the job done, why make them sit in a cube until the clock says 5?

The plea - we’ve made it before and we’ll make it again: Focus on whether your employees are delivering results, not on how they choose to spend their time.  Not on whether they come in at 9:30 or leave at 2:30.  You’ll get better results (in some cases, more results) and you’ll have happier employees. 

Coming from the HR world, we know firsthand how ROWE can make the lives of HR professionals in an office environment much more purposeful and much less stressful.  Here are some of our favorite things that change for HR folks once ROWE becomes a reality for them and the teams they support:

1. You won’t need to enforce the Tardiness Policy anymore.
2. You won’t need to hound people for their vacation requests, when all they want to be doing is preparing for their vacations and making sure everything is taken care of or covered.
3. You’ll get to focus on business strategy the way you want to - because you won’t be in the muck of “So-and-so has come in 10 minutes late for the last week and is leaving early, too.  Can’t you do something about that?”
4. You won’t need to send out 17 e-mails reminding people to complete their goal-setting before the year begins.  Employees will actually be begging to set clear goals with their managers - we’re not kidding!
5. You won’t be the brunt of the Why We Hate HR conversations anymore.  Because you’ll be part of making work not suck - instead of making it suck more.

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Event news: The Twin Cities Human Resources Association, in co-sponsorship with Ideation Consulting, is presenting a great event for managers and HR professionals on Sept. 11th.  We’ll be doing the closing keynote and Marcus Buckingham is opening the day.  To learn more, click here.

Five Minutes Late

Employee: Good morning, Boss.

Boss: You’re late.

Employee (checking watch): It’s five after.

Boss: I know! Now that we’re on a compressed work week, getting in on time is even more important.

Employee: I can see that, but—

Boss: What you need to do is build a bigger time cushion into your morning. Try leaving leave the house a half hour earlier than you do now.

Employee: But then some days I’ll be ridiculously early.

Boss: Better than being late, right?

***

End of the Day

Employee #1: What time is it?

Employee #2: You’re not going to believe this. It’s five.

Employee #1: These ten-hour days are brutal.

Employee #2: I know. I stopped working at four. There’s only so much you can do in one day.

Employee #1: I spend more time pretending to work than I do actually working. It’s exhausting.

Employee #2: Speaking of pretending, the boss is coming. You only have to look busy for another hour. Get off that shopping site and flip that spreadsheet up on your computer.

***

The Idea

Boss: What are you doing here?

Employee: Hi, Boss. I was out running some errands and I had an idea for the project we’re working on, so I just stopped in to work on it for a minute while it was still fresh in my mind.

Boss: You’re not supposed to be here today.

Employee: Like I said, I had this idea and—

Boss: I appreciate your dedication, but if you’re here on days when you’re not scheduled to be here, then it kind of defeats the purpose of having a compressed week, right?  You drove here and we’re trying to help you save on gas - not to mention give you a chance to have more work/life balance.

Employee: Okay. I’ll stick to my day off.

Boss: Thanks, and try to turn off that noggin of yours when you’re not at work. We need you fresh and focused when you’re actually here, okay?

***

Something Came Up

Employee: Boss, do you have a second?

Boss: Of course - my door is always open.  What can I do for you?

Employee: Well, something has come up, and next week I need to take Friday off instead of Monday.

Boss: But Monday is your designated day off.  We’ve worked all of our processes around you being gone on Mondays.

Employee: I know, and usually that works out best, but next week—

Boss: Remember that you picked Monday as your day off. You didn’t pick Friday.  We need some kind of order to this whole 4-day workweek thing - I don’t want it to be mass chaos.  People can’t just be changing their days off every week.

Employee: Yes, but—

Boss: We gave you the freedom to choose your day off to avoid just this kind of problem. Otherwise, people would just come and go as they pleased.

Employee: Yes, but—

Boss: If it’s really important that you not be here on Friday, then just take a sick day or a personal day or a vacation day. 

Employee: Yes, but—

Boss: It’s settled then. And remember: the door to my office is always open.

Dear Cali and Jody:

As the new CEO for Girl Scouts of San Gorgonio Council (which serves 15,000 girls and 5,000 volunteers in Riverside and San Bernardino Counties in Southern California), I had been struggling with reconciling 100 years of Girl Scout traditions and “we’ve always done it that way” attitudes with my more modern way of doing business (I’m the youngest Girl Scout CEO in the country and very different from the traditional Girl Scout CEO - most of my counterparts are 10 to 30 years my senior). When I started in my position, I told my staff that I didn’t believe in “butt in seat time”, which was my way of telling them that I knew that simply sitting in their chairs didn’t mean they were being as productive as possible and that I was open to them having more flexible schedules.

We were immediately able to shed some of the old ways of doing things (can you believe our former CEO used to have someone stand at the front door making note of anyone who got to work more than 5 minutes past our opening time?!!!!). But even after making significant changes, I still felt there was something missing - people were still overly stressed, and creativity and innovation just weren’t happening the way I expected.

Then, at the beginning of June, I spotted your book in an airport bookstore - and all of a sudden, I knew I had my hands on a tool that was going to change everything. I read it cover to cover on the plane, and e-mailed my HR Director as soon as I landed telling him that he needed to read your book. He read it that day, and we decided right then that there was no way we weren’t going to do this.

We moved fast (so fast that the ROWE Kit wasn’t even ready yet!) and we met with our management team, got our Board President on board, and talked through all the details of what ROWE would look like for us. Three weeks ago, we rolled out ROWE to our staff with a presentation we called “Hello ROWE!” We had special “Hello ROWE” t-shirts and created a fun PowerPoint that we interspersed with Sludge skits performed by some of the best actors and actresses on staff. I think our 76 staff were in a state of shock at first - when I told them the core concept of ROWE, there was complete silence…and then everyone woke up to what was really happening and it was like being in a room full of 6-year-olds on Christmas morning!

So I’m proud to say that we are now officially…Girl Scouts Gone ROWE! We are the first Girl Scout Council in the country to convert to ROWE (most other Councils don’t even offer telecommuting). We’ve only been a ROWE for three weeks and already the changes for both the company and our staff are truly amazing:

1. ROWE has given my staff their lives back. There isn’t any less work but the collective stress level of all of the employees has plummeted - when someone is exhausted, they sleep; when someone needs to take their kid to the doctor, they go; when someone is brain dead at 4 o’ clock in the afternoon, they stop working. Sounds simple, but before, even with my more flexible work style, there was an atmosphere of “mother may I?” I heard from my HR Director that it took one of my staff three days to work up the courage to ask me if he could leave work an hour early one day a week to attend a college class. Never again! Now my staff send me e-mails of thanks detailing how, for the first time, they were able to attend an awards ceremony for their child or enroll their kid in an afterschool program or even just eat dinner with their family. One of my staff used to complain that she could never be good at both work and family at the same time - when she was excelling at one, the other one always suffered. She recently told me she doesn’t have that problem anymore.
2. ROWE has already improved teamwork and communicaton. My staff talk a lot about how they put more thought into their interactions with their co-workers and that they think about the other members of their teams when they make decisions. When they aren’t going to be in the office, they think about how their absence might have an impact and communicate with them ahead of time. They make sure that more people understand the basics of what they are working on so that all is not lost the second a question needs to be answered and they are not there.
3. Because ROWE is something everyone gets to do, we’ve actually found that there is virtually no Sludge. We had problems before ROWE because there were some people who were given permission to have flexible schedules and some who weren’t. Those who didn’t have flexible schedules were constantly Sludging anyone who came in late, left early, etc. Now, all of that is gone.
4. ROWE saves our staff money. Gas money. Childcare money. Lunch money. One of our staff is already saving $1,000 per month by adjusting her day so she can be with her kids after school so she doesn’t have to pay for childcare.
5. ROWE is making our staff healthier. I didn’t realize how our previous work schedule made it almost impossible for people to get any exercise (we worked four days a week, 8 a.m. to 6:30 p.m. each day). Most days, people had to come to work too early and left work too late to fit exercise in. Now, on top of people getting more sleep, they are exercising and paying more attention to their health. Staff have told me they are now fitting in running, swimming, yoga, healthy meals, and trips to the chiropractor.
6. ROWE is increasing productivity and innovation. With ROWE, there is no motivation to drag a project out over more time than it really needs. People are motivated to get things done because they know they get to choose what they do when they are finished. I can already see people moving more quickly through projects and retaining the same high quality of work. In addition, because people can work when they are most creative, innovative ideas are flowing much more frequently and freely than ever before.

The stories my staff tell me about what ROWE has done for them make me cry. One seemingly small decision has changed people’s lives so dramatically that they say they feel that their prayers and dreams have been answered. I truly can’t believe that we ever worked any other way. People used to tell me that they loved their jobs - now they say that they would never consider leaving.

I thank you - and my 76 staff thank you - for giving us the gift of ROWE.

Best,

Jessica Lawrence

Chief Executive Officer of Girl Scouts of San Gorgonio Council

P.S. Their shirts say “Hello ROWE!” on the front and “Where have you been all my life?” on the back.  Cool.

A recent piece in U.S.News & World Report about telecommuting closes with a piece of advice from Telecommuting for Dummies author Minda Zetlin:

Post a picture of yourself at your office desk with a note that says, “I really am working from home. Call me!”

Here are some more tips in a similar vein:

1. Stop by the office a few times a month and steal somebody’s lunch from the break room refrigerator. Leave a note that says, “Now that I work at home I worry that you have forgotten about me. Bet you’ll remember me now!”

2. Set your alarm so you can wake up every hour all through the night. Send your boss and your coworkers e-mails. No one can compete with someone who literally works around the clock.

3. Call your boss every hour during the day. When she asks why you’re calling, say something cool like “You know, just workin’ . . . just workin’” or something impressive like “You cannot believe how swamped I am today!”

4. Sleep at the office a few times a week. When the first person arrives in the morning say, “What took you so long?” When the last person takes off for the day say, “Leaving so soon?”

5. Call a friend. Speaking in a loud voice, record your half of the conversation and burn it on to a CD. Put the CD in a boom box in your cube. Press play, press repeat and turn the volume up.

6. Pick a morning a few times a month and park across the street from your office before everyone arrives. Bring binoculars. Note anyone wearing weird, inappropriate or trashy clothes. During the work day, call random coworkers and gossip about what you saw.

7. Make a life-size cardboard cut-out of yourself. Have it attend meetings on your behalf. Some will grumble, others will give you credit. Whoever said “face time” had to involve a real live face?

What other tips would you add?  Come on - we know you have them!

*********************************************************************************************

Some fun news: Check out the article we wrote for this week’s issue of BusinessWeek.

We’re on part 2 of our interview with Michael Port, the author of the national bestselling Book Yourself Solid: The Fastest, Easiest and Most Reliable System for Getting More Clients and Beyond Booked Solid: Your Business, Your Life, Your Way - It’s All Inside.  In short, he’s just an all-around great guy who has lots of messages that are right up our alley.  Enjoy!

C&J: In your book, Beyond Booked Solid, you talk about the idea of flow.  Tell us what that’s all about.

MP: Most of us will find the life balance right for us by taking somewhat less extreme measures.  I think about this balance in three ways.  I don’t want to call them “steps.”  Though they follow one from the other, they are more integrated with each other than that.

1. Be in line with your purpose.  What do you want to do with your life?  Who do you want to be?
2. Pay attention to the harmony in the world around us.  Are you and your actions harmonious with your purpose, with others, and with the broader world?
3. Find flow in your business and in your life.  The more flow there is in how you work and how you live, the more time you will spend in what’s called “the zone” - that place where hard things become easy, rough things smooth.

The idea of flow was first introduced in Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi’s book Flow: The Psychology of Optimal Experience.  Since then, many others have built on the idea of flow and the zone.  Athletic coaches in particular have picked up on the concept and it’s not uncommon to hear an athlete describe an experience of being in flow, of being in the zone during a particularly important and challenging event.  But flow is not just about sports, it’s about your whole life, professional and personal.  In business, it’s about creating a level or even work flow, so that our business grows smoothly and we have time for the other parts of our life.  It’s what my latest book is about.  Learning how to remove and apply constraints, create systems, and do projects with other people are the tools by which you can establish the level work flow.

Balance, level flow will make you better at what you do (in other words, it’s good for business!).  It is the pursuit of mastery.  A Master in martial arts doesn’t get tired to the degree that a novice does, no matter how grueling the battle.  Why?  Because the Master is always in flow.  It’s what makes a Master.  Level flow is about eliminating the need for all-nighters.  It is finding the way to work and to live that doesn’t exhaust us and others.  Your level workflow will not only help your business because you are working more efficiently and effectively, it allows you to develop other people without burning them out.  It allows you to treat customers better, and to deliver your services better; because you are not burned out.  You’ve probably seen how it can happen - an entire organization can shift into adrenaline mode, because a few key people are working that way, instead of working in flow.  We’ve heard the stories about surgeons operating on the wrong limb.  We don’t want this in our business or in our lives - and certainly not in the operating room.  It’s not balanced.

C&J: In our travels, we find that people have a difficult time keeping their creative juices going.  It seems like you’ve found a way - do share.

MP: The challenge is to inspire yourself and others around you to sustain the right disposition.  Creativity (a creative disposition) is a big part of the answer to that challenge.  For many of us. the more creative we feel, the more able we are to face obstacles in our life.  When we feel creative, problems no longer look insurmountable.  Creativity better equips us to find solutions and it can positively influence our mood.  Creativity is both a source and an outcome of curiosity.  Creativity expands ambition.  It is seeing new ways of accomplishing things, and new things to accomplish.

We need to nurture both our own creativity, and the creative instincts or disposition of those around us, to succeed.  The great thing about it is that creativity is one of those things that feeds on itself; the more creative we are, the more creative we will be.  I would go further and say - the more creative we perceive ourselves to be, the more creative we may be.  Do you see yourself as creative?  Some people may seem to have been born with more than their share of creativity, but creativity is in all our genes.  It is born of a host of factors, many of which are in our control.  Creativity can be as simple as changing the route you take home from work once in awhile.  Creativity can be anything from telling a story to your child, to cooking a dish you’ve never made before without a recipe, to developing a new marketing strategy, to inventing a new product.

C&J: Tell us more about how creativity actually plays out for us every day.

MP: There are a myriad of ways that we manifest creativity in our lifestyles and in our work.  I can almost guarantee that if you’ve had success, you’re creative.  You couldn’t have achieved what you have without some creativity.  It’s a matter of consciously identifying your creative acts and harnessing that energy.  Because creativity can be a source of energy, and energy is what you need to maintain your curiosity and ambition.  Being creative creates its own momentum.  Each time you solve a problem or overcome a challenge. think about how energized you feel by your victory.  That’s the kind of creative energy that perpetuates itself, and that will help you stay on track as you innovate in your business.

Learn to recognize the effects of creative energy when you are experiencing it, so you can harness that energy for the future.  Creativity in an of itself is not enough.  It can lead you off track, down blind alleys.  It’s not just a matter of, “Oh, I’m being creative - leave me be.”  That’s the beauty of understanding our own creativity.  By identifying how and when we are creative, we can begin to shape our creative force, to direct it where it’s needed.  Self-management and self-awareness are key.  You need to think and behave intentionally about the future.  Scott Berkun, author of The Myths of Innovation, says that ideas are combinations of other ideas and creative people are those who come up with more combinations of ideas, find interesting ones faster, and are willing to try them out.  He goes on to say that innovation is nothing more than a practice, or a set of habits.

C&J: Your latest book, Beyond Bookd Solid, is a great resource for learning how to unleash your own creativity.  What would you like to leave our readers with?

MP: It’s all about keeping the “why” of what you’re doing, and for the sake of “what”, in the forefront of your consiousness and directing energy toward that end.  Know where you’re going.  Create the path that takes you there.  My friend, Hal Macober, says, “Innovation is a simple act.  All it entails is producing something new that others can ask for.  Becoming innovative requires a commitment to mastery.”  As a student of business (and life, not to mention other things like Aikido, a martial art from Japan), there are few things more rewarding than pursuing mastery.  Innovation is sure to energize you.  And so is Beyond Booked Solid.

We were on a teleseminar for Why Work Sucks a couple months ago with Michael Port. We had such a blast with him that we wanted to introduce him to all of you, just in case you aren’t aware of him already.

Michael has been called “a marketing guru” by the Wall Street Journal and is the author of the national bestselling Book Yourself Solid: The Fastest, Easiest and Most Reliable System for Getting More Clients and Beyond Booked Solid: Your Business, Your Life, Your Way - I’ts All Inside. His next effort is due out in Sept. 08. It’s the highly anticipated Contrarian Effect: Why It Pays To Take Typical Sales Advice and Do The Opposite.

Michael’s messages for entrepreneurs and business owners are right in line with ROWE, and we love that he’s down to earth and passionate about what he does. You can learn more about him at www.michaelport.com and here, in Part 1 of our interview with him:

C&J: So, Michael, there are so many things an entrepreneur or business owner needs to do to be successful. What’s one of the most important things to remember as a business is evolving?

MP: What is your destiny, inside and outside of your business? If you serve others, but don’t serve your own destiny, things are going to fall apart. Often, people get trapped into doing a job, providing a service that they’ve been praised for, but that they don’t enjoy. They continue to “serve”, because they think it’s the “right” thing to do. But they are just using their skills, without being true to their purpose.

It isn’t easy having both, a successful business and a rich personal life, but it is possible if you are aligned with your larger goals and your vision for your life. You can have your business, and your life…your way. There will be times when you push hard at work, but there need to be times when you put energy into other areas of your life. Ultimately, the goal is to not push too hard on one (usually the business) and completely neglect the other. Implementing systems for your life, call it a “life-model”, can be used as a guideline that will enable you to achieve your destiny. Your dream was never to work every waking minute with no time for family, friends, hobbies, health-promoting activities, or holidays, was it? Creating systems for your business will ultimately free up your time. Learn how to use your free time wisely.

C&J: That’s hard to do - especially if you’re a person that has started a business and now all of your time is essentially your own. No one is dictating how you need to spend your time anymore. Do you have an example of someone you know that has learned to use free time wisely?

MP: A couple, who I know from my acting days, are an interesting example of the lengths we can go to - to find balance. She was an actor and writer. He was a hugely successful financial type. First they lived in London, where he worked obsessively. Then he was offered the chance to run a hedge fund in Bermuda (with a financial package they thought he couldn’t refuse), and they moved there. So he could continue to work obsessively. He wasn’t happy, just obsessed. Finally, she said she wanted to move back to the U.S. with the kids. Amazingly, he quit his job to go with her, because he realized his life balance had gotten too far out of whack if he was going to lose his marriage and family. He wasn’t serving his destiny and things were falling apart.

Long story short, he followed his dream to become a farmer, investing what he’d made working in the financial business into an organic cattle farm. And I don’t mean he became a gentleman farmer who sips martinis and surveys his land from afar. He became the kind of farmer who gets up at 5 a.m. and spends his time with the animals. He saved his marriage and his relationship with his kids. Now he and his wife work together on their marriage. Because of his ability to change and recognize that things were out of balance, he is doing something he loves and so is his wife. In other words, he’s now happy as a pig in…

C&J: We’ll stop you there!

In Part 2 of our interview with Michael, we’ll talk with him about “flow” and the secrets to sparking creativity in all areas of your life…

There are many you that have recognized how ludicrous it is to be doing virtual work in a prescribed physical location.  You’ve even realized that you could be more effective and productive if you made the decisions about when and where you worked, as long as the work gets done.

Once you’re in this mindset, it’s difficult to adhere to the rules that dictate where you need to work and when you need to be there.

Ready to take action and start pushing the envelope?

Here’s what we’re proposing:

1. Find a co-worker that shares your desire to be more effective in work and life by breaking out of the mold
2. Choose a day in the next two weeks where you will both work somewhere other than your office building
3. When that day comes, don’t ask permission - just do it and be accessible by phone, text, e-mail, IM, etc.
4. Use the blog comments to report on how your experiment went

In preparation, it will help to review these questions that are likely to come up when you are nowhere to be found in the office, and the next day when you suddenly reappear:

• “It’s 9:30 a.m. - where are you?”  [Possible response: "I'm working at X."]
• “Are you coming into the office today?”  [Possible response: "I wasn't planning on it.  I'm working from X.  What can I do for you?"]
• “I need you here for a 2:00 meeting.”  [Possible response: If this is a meeting you know you don't need to be physically present for, say "What phone number can I conference into?"]
• “Where were you yesterday?”  [Possible response: "Working.  Is there anything you need?"]
• “Did you take a vacation day yesterday?”  [Possible response: "Is there something you need?"]

As you carry out the experiment, you will determine the best way to address these questions.  Just remember: Many of these comments will be Sludge and you want to drive the conversation back to results.  It’s not about where or when you’re doing your work - what matters is that it’s getting done.

What do you think - you up for the challenge?

Find a partner and keep us in the loop.

It was July 2003 when the sparks first flew. We met each other and knew right away that we were up to no good (at least not the kind of “good” that would be rewarded in the corporate structure we were in!). During our first day of conversation, we had decided to walk away from the old game of flexible work arrangements and create what people really wanted in an office work environment. Freedom…to do their work and live their lives the way they saw best fit. Here are a few things you may not know about those early days of ROWE:

1. At the very beginning of the ROWE journey, we didn’t have any presentations or PowerPoint decks prepared when we went to talk to the leaders that eventually ended up giving the green lights to the first ROWE pilot teams. We had two things: our belief that the workplace was broken and our passion for getting ROWE off the ground.

2. When we created the 13 Guideposts and presented them for the first time, we were told the change would never happen if we kept those intact. We came very close to changing them, but stood our ground. Every Meeting is Optional changing to Some Meetings are Optional…we don’t think so.

3. Once ROWE was out in the open, and no longer an underground mission, it was put “on hold” several times. We were each assigned other work and were not supposed to continue with ROWE until “capacity was granted”. All we’ll say is this: if we would have stopped, capacity would never have been granted.

4. As ROWE started spreading at Best Buy, we had people stopping us in the common areas of the headquarters who said “Please don’t stop what you’re doing. We need ROWE and if you stop, it will never come to us.” If you’re reading this and you were one of those people, this is what kept us going through some really tough times.

5. While we were creating ROWE, we were having fun and smiling quite a bit because we were watching people’s lives change right before our eyes. Uh-oh. Too much fun in the work environment. We were told “You’re having too much fun and people are uncomfortable with that. You need to tone it down.” Did we? We’ll give you one guess.

6. Most importantly, we were two everyday office employees that had had enough. Two employees that decided it was time to stand up to the status quo. We knew we had it in us and weren’t going to give up.

And there you have it. A bit of info in return for the wonderful stories you’re sharing with us. Keep them coming.

[The photo here is us with "Phil" from Why Work Sucks.  "Phil" went through one of the very first ROWE migrations at Best Buy and turned into one of our biggest supporters.]

It’s time to give you the scoop on the other half of C&J.  Here are some fun facts you may not know about Cali:

1. Cali was born in Ecuador, South America.  They have the best bananas there, and she doesn’t even like bananas.  But they also grow the most beautiful roses, and roses are her favorite flower.
2. Cali is the oldest child in her family.
3. She has three kids, one dog (Smokey) and one husband (Marty).  Her kids are all boys, which gives us 5 boys between us!  Below, we have Keaton, Jackson, and Trystan in the first photo.  Keaton, 21 months and in the second photo, is devouring Why Work Sucks.  He says “Managers, I’m giving you 25 years to get on board with ROWE before I enter the workforce!”
4. Her dream (before college) was to be a professional dancer.  She started taking lessons when she was 2.5 years old and has been in many, many shows.
5. Cali interned with the Minneapolis Police Investigative Units and was on her way to a career in Criminal Justice before settling down at Best Buy.

So what happened when a violinist/swimmer and dancer/FBI wannabe got together to create ROWE?  Our next post will have details on the behind-the-scenes story…