Are you living the Seven Fs dream?

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The word “rêve” means dream in French. Cirque du Soleil brought the Rêve concept to life in full living color on stage with daring acrobatics and balancing acts. That accurately describes my friends Kristin Pardue and Brad Von Bank – a husband and wife team who are raising a family and running a business together.  They own a daringly fresh strategy, technology and change management firm – with an academy to help inner city kids dream with purpose. Fittingly, their business is called Rêve Consulting.

Brad and Kristin are the first husband and wife speakers at the Good Leadership Breakfast — this Friday, April 19.  Will you join us?

By now, readers of this personal leadership blog know I don’t believe in the concept of “Work/Life Balance.”  Rather, I coach, speak and write about the concept of “blending” as a source of goodness. By that I mean blending together our personal and professional lives and blending the Seven Fs: faith, family, finances, fitness, friends, fun and future.

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Brad and Kristin didn’t always know this was their path. Kristin was the first to venture into small business, using her vast corporate experience to build a consulting firm to help organizations embrace both the “head and the heart” as they navigated through change. “She was having so much fun,” Brad said, ” I asked her if I could quit my corporate job and join her!” Today, they are beyond the survival stage of entrepreneurial risk and they are living the dream. Rêve.

In many ways, Brad and Kristin could be the poster image of blending the Seven Fs 24/7.  They live together. They own and operate the business together, with offices side by side. They raise children together and their company cars have license plates that say: Reve 1 and Reve 2. They express their faith and their commitment to future through their work.  Their children, Connor and Tyler, can’t really remember life before Rêve.  The boys passionately claim the mission, strategies and tactics as their own – and one of the boys is already negotiating a professional role in the business…ten years from now!

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When Delane and I visited the colorful Rêve offices last week, we were impressed by the sophisticated branding and the freshly written exercise schedule on the white board.  Every  hour, on the half hour, the whole firm takes a two-minute exercise break. “My arms are sore from the work we did yesterday on our shoulders!” Kristin said. Hmm…fitness at work!  Rêve, Rêve.

But the Seven Fs clean sweep is completed with their wildly successful Rêve Academy.

“Brad has always had a passion for north Minneapolis,” Kristin explained. “We started Rêve Academy as an out-of-school program to help kids from north Minneapolis build a bright future for themselves by understanding business and the internet.” Brad explains. “Our purpose is to help them dream with direction.” The non-profit academy is bursting at the seams, funded primarily by their consulting business and grants. Rêve, Rêve, Rêve.

Good leaders make a habit of focusing on living their dreams.  And they embrace the undeniable forces of positive momentum that call the Seven Fs into action.

Please consider my invitation to join us for the Good Leadership Breakfast this Friday, April 19, to hear Brad and Kristin share their story about living the dream.

Then share with us: what would you do, if you knew you could not fail?[/fusion_builder_column][/fusion_builder_row][/fusion_builder_container]