Lynnpro - February 2020

Lynnpro - February 2020

Life Have you seen the famous Bill Murray movie, “Groundhog Day”? It’s a classic this time of year, when the real-life groundhog is getting ready to pop out and look around for his shadow. A lot of people who like that movie watch it because they get a chuckle out of Murray getting frustrated living the same day over and over and looking like he’s going to blow his top, but for me, there’s actually a lesson in it: the value of time. The further Cheri and I go in our work with Strategic Coach, the more apparent it becomes that time is a precious commodity. Unlike money, time feels almost free — you wake up and you have 24 hours, just like that — but it’s still precious. Time is always coming and going, like water running from a faucet. It seems like we have a lot of it, almost an endless supply, but the truth is you can get money back, but I’ve never known anyone who has gotten back even a second of time. With that in mind, over the years I’ve come up with a unique strategy for managing my time, and making sure I can balance work, fun, and family. It’s simple: Every day, I make myself a to-do list, and it can only have three things on it. Just the other day, this was my list:

HOWMUCH IS YOUR TIMEWORTH? THE LOGIC BEHIND MY ‘THREE TASKS PER DAY’ RULE

people, and I’m done doing it! Now, my time is for my wife, my kids, and my grandkids. My employees get some, too, because they’re good people and I care about them and the work we do, but they don’t get so much that I go home feeling too burnt out to get on with the fun part of living. If you’ve been paying attention to this newsletter, you know that Cheri and I love to travel, hike, go to concerts, and push ourselves to our physical and mental limits. Well, you just can’t do that with half an hour of personal time and four hours of sleep. These days, if you offered to pay me

$200,000 to work weekends from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. for a year, I’d turn it down stone cold.

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Mop and vacuum the shop

When I implemented my three-tasks list, people told me I’d start falling behind. In fact, I’ve found that by staying away from the office and doing less I’m getting more done. By stepping back and refusing to hover, I’ve given my employees the freedom and confidence to do things themselves, and they’re happier and more efficient because of it. –Jeff Saxby

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Make sure the air compressor gets fixed

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Meet with my financial advisor

That’s it. To a lot of you, this list idea probably sounds crazy. You’re likely thinking, “Jeff, how the heck can you run a business if you only do three things per day?” Well, the answer is that I delegate. I spent years working 70- and 80-hour weeks. I’ve worked enough for a dozen normal

“With that in mind, over the years I’ve come up with a unique strategy for managing my time, and making sure I can balance work, fun, and family. It’s simple: Every day, I make myself a to-do list, and it can only have three things on it.”

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Meet the Women Who Pioneered Motor Sports

If you’re a cyclist living in Alabama, odds are you’ve heard of the Glassner Autumn Challenge, one of the state’s biggest annual cycling events! According to Ride Director Robert Traphan, the challenge draws as many as 500 cyclists of all ages and abilities to Montgomery each year. And since 2012, they’ve all worn LynnPro T-shirts. “My wife and I found LynnPro when we took over as ride directors,” Robert says. “The previous directors were using local vendors, but it seemed like the pricing was getting more and more expensive every year. We wanted to see what other options were out there, and we discovered LynnPro during an internet search. They’ve been doing our ride T-shirts ever since.” The Glassner Autumn Challenge dates back to the early 1980s, making it one of the longest-established rides in the cycling world. Back then, it was simply called the Autumn Challenge, but it was renamed in 2002 in honor of bike club member Dr. Jim Glassner, who was killed in a collision while cycling. Now, one of the event’s objectives is to raise awareness for the importance of sharing the road. During the ride, participants can choose from multiple routes for leisure riding, ranging from a 5-mile route for families and beginners, to an epic, 126-mile double metric century ride. Every rider who registers on time gets a ride shirt printed by LynnPro, and, over the years, Robert has also ordered out embroidered hoodies, caps, and racing bibs. THE GLASSNER AUTUMN CHALLENGE CUSTOMER SPOTLIGHT: JANET GUTHRIE Janet Guthrie had her sights set on the stars from day one. A skilled aerospace engineer, she began her racing career in 1963. After taking home two class wins in the famed 12 Hours of Sebring endurance race, Guthrie became a well-known figure among racing gurus. In 1976, she became the first woman to compete in the NASCAR Cup Series when she finished 15th in the Coca-Cola 600, then called the World 600. To date, Guthrie’s storied career has landed her in the International Women’s Sports Hall of Fame, the International Motorsports Hall of Fame, and the Automotive Hall of Fame. While Danica Patrick and Courtney Force are well known as modern faces in motor sports, they’re far from the first women to cross the finish line. Since the early 1900s, women have been a constant fixture of automotive racing, including the following three who each left their marks on the sport. SHIRLEY MULDOWNEY Shirley Muldowney is professionally known in the drag racing community as “The First Lady of Drag Racing.” In 1973, she was the first woman to earn a Top Fuel license from the National Hot Rod Association (NHRA) and, despite backlash from competitors, went on to win the NHRA Mello Yello Drag Racing Series an unprecedented three times. Twentieth Century Fox documented her trials and accomplishments in the 1983 biopic “Heart Like a Wheel.” Muldowney famously loathed her own characterization but still lauded the film as required viewing for anyone interested in the sport of drag racing.

DOROTHY LEVITT Dorothy Levitt is known for her driving skills on both land and water, setting the first water speed record and an early women’s world land speed record. Her motor racing career started slow in 1904 due to illness and various car troubles, but Levitt eventually went on to garner a reputation for her speed and earn the nickname “The Fastest Girl on Earth.” When she wasn’t racing, she spent her time writing. In her book “The Woman and the Car,” Levitt recommended that women carry a small mirror with them for driving in traffic, effectively inventing the rearview mirror five years before it went into production. If you want to learn more about these women and others in motor racing, pick up Todd McCarthy’s book “Fast Women: The Legendary Ladies of Racing.”

“For the last three or four years, we’ve really loved LynnPro’s racing bibs with the registration numbers for our riders. I love that they have the ability to customize those and actually put the rider’s number and name on their bib. It adds another personal touch to the event for people we can register early enough,” Robert says.

The 2020 Glassner Autumn Challenge is set for Saturday, Oct. 24. Early registration tickets cost $25–$50 per person and include a ride shirt, a pre-ride breakfast, lavish shacks and drinks at mid-route stops, and a post- ride lunch. This year, a portion of the proceeds will go toward making the Alabama State University campus more bike-friendly. To learn more about the ride, visit MGMBikeClub.org/Glassner.

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EMPLOYEE SPOTLIGHT:

MEET JEFF DYKSTRA! Our warehouse just wouldn’t be the same without Jeff Dykstra! For almost seven years, Jeff has overseen packing, shipping, and receiving for our T-shirts and other printed products. Shirts are his specialty, and they’re the main focus of his workday. “After the shirts have been printed, I put them onto the dryer belt, and they head into the dryer,” Jeff explains. “Then I’m at the back, stacking shirts and going over them for quality, making sure everything looks nice. From there, I pack them in boxes and take them in for shipping. That includes printing the UPS labels and otherwise getting them ready to ship out. When UPS drops an order of our shirts off, I count all of the shirts to make sure they’re all there and ready to be printed.” Before coming to work for Lynnpro, Jeff worked at multiple factories and spent time in the food service industry. At his last job, he was working 12- hour night shifts at a factory and starting to feel burnt out. Here at Lynnpro, he loves his shorter hours, the variation in his daily routine, and being surrounded by art on a daily basis.

different artwork and working to make it perfect. We want everything to look as nice as possible!” When he isn’t hard at work, Jeff spends his time with his longtime girlfriend, Charity, and their blended family. Jeff has a son from a previous relationship, and Charity has two children and one grandchild.

“The grandbaby keeps us really busy!” Jeff says. “Other than that, I’m really into sports, including football, baseball, and hockey. I watch them all the time, and this year, I even went to a Green Bay Packers game.”

“I like seeing the different types of artwork [on the shirts]. It changes all the time, and we print different jobs every day,” he says. “I love seeing the

Jeff, your hard work hasn’t gone unnoticed. From all of us here on the Lynnpro team, thank you for all that you do!

Easy Shrimp Scampi

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INGREDIENTS

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4 tbsp butter 4 tbsp olive oil

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1/2 cup dry white wine 1/4 cup lemon juice 8 oz cooked linguine

1 tbsp minced garlic

1 lb shrimp, peeled and deveined

1/4 cup parsley

1/2 tsp oregano

DIRECTIONS

1. In a skillet over medium heat, melt 2 tbsp of butter with 2 tbsp of olive oil. Add garlic and cook for 2 minutes. 2. Add shrimp and oregano, stirring frequently until shrimp is pink. Remove shrimp from skillet. 3. Add wine and lemon juice to skillet and bring the mixture to a boil. 4. Stir in remaining butter and olive oil and cook until butter is melted. 5. Add cooked shrimp to skillet and cook for 1 minute, stirring occasionally. 6. In a serving bowl, top cooked linguine with shrimp mixture. Garnish with parsley and serve.

AQUARIUS ASH CHOCOLATE CUPID DONOR

GROUNDHOG LOVE PISCES PRESIDENTS ROMANCE

ROSES SKIING SNOWBANK SUGAR VALENTINE

Inspired by The Blond Cook

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inside this issue How I Make Money Doing Just Three Tasks Per Day

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Fearless Women Who Pioneered Motor Sports How Lynnpro Gives 1 School’s Spirit a Boost

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Employee Spotlight: Meet Jeff Dykstra!

Easy Shrimp Scampi

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Learn All About Leap Year

Like the Olympics and presidential elections, leap years only occur once every four years, which is why many people look forward to Feb. 29. But there’s a lot that you might not know about this quirk on the calendar.

leaplings include motivational speaker Tony Robbins, rapper Ja Rule, and singer Mark Foster of Foster the People. However, the most famous leapling is probably Superman. When you invent a super-being, you might as well give him a super- birthday.

WHY

WHERE

To keep the calendar in sync with Earth’s orbit around the sun, an extra day is added to it every four years. Earth takes exactly 365 days, 5 hours, 48 minutes, and 46 seconds to orbit the sun. Those extra hours add up over time, so another calendar day becomes necessary. But a leap year doesn’t occur every four years. Adding that extra day still doesn’t quite keep Earth on track, so the calendar skips leap years that occur during century years not divisible by 400. For example, 2000 was a leap year, but 2100 won’t be.

Anthony, Texas/New Mexico (a single town that straddles the two states’ borders), claims the title “Leap Year Capital of the World.” The city throws one massive birthday party for all leaplings but invites everyone to join the celebration. Two leapling neighbors from Anthony began the tradition in 1988, and it’s blossomed into a festival with thousands of participants every four years. It includes banquets, hot air balloons, a carnival, concerts, parades, and more. When you have four years to plan in between each shindig, there’s time to go big. Celebrate this leap year by doing something unusual or new. It’s a special day that doesn’t occur often, so make the most of it by doing something you’ll talk about for another four years.

LEAP INTO 2020

WHO

FACTS ABOUT THE LEAP YEAR

The odds of being born on Feb. 29 are 1 in 1,461. That means that of the roughly seven billion people in the world, only about five million of them are “leaplings.” The number of leaplings currently living in the U.S. is roughly 187,000. Some famous

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