Swift Straw Blog

Our new Green Industry Greatness blog brings you advice and insights from some of the best that the Green industry has to offer.  This week features Brian Wester who is the Regional VP at Yellowstone Landscape Company.  I hope you enjoy!

“For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels or demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.”  Romans 8:38-39

There was a little boy that created a habit of losing his temper. After a while, his father told him that every time he lost his temper, he needed to take a nail outside and nail it to the fence post. After 30 or 40 visits to the fence post, the boy’s awareness helped him to control his temper....

In order to truly understand something you must be able to explain it in a few sentences so that an 8-year-old can get it. Simplicity and deep understanding go hand in hand. If you find yourself bogged down in details, try seeking simplicity and clarity of purpose to help keep perspective. Be...

Tony Robbins is the most successful life coach of our time. At the age of 58, he is able to lead multi day events that typically will go non stop for over 16 hours per day. He attributes much of his ability to always stay so “Up” to his morning ritual. He starts with a breathing excercise and then...

We all have a strong, inbuilt bias against loss. Said another way, aversion to failure of not accomplishing a goal is much stronger than the desire to achieve it. Since missing an audacious goals feels like a loss, many of us are tempted to set small goals we can easily reach. We accomplish less in...

We just shared an epic New Years weekends down at the farm with over 50 close family and friends. I feel so fortunate to have such wonderful people to share life with. While spending some time with my grandfather this weekend, he said, “It is like heaven on earth here. We get to spend time with all...

I recently read an article by Alex Vann addressing the “challenges” with the next generation, the “Smart Phone” generation.  The bottom line is that you can’t contain or control change but you can leverage it.  What this next generation is missing is simple: principled living.