We’ve always believed that forming a strategy is impossible until your clear on what your values and principles are. Without values and principles to guide you, making decisions can seem impossibly difficult. Given how important setting values and principles is to decision making we asked folks we admire to tell us about the values or principles that matter most to them.

Molly Soderstrom | Executive Director

One of our main values is: People over platforms. We are in the business of people, and don’t want to uplift ourselves as the main leaders or figure heads of The Brook, , but want to equip and empower others to be leaders as well. So many organizations are based around one person, so when something happens to that person, the organization dies. Our vision is that our Visio will continue on because we are building in to others to be leaders in their own life and community. I always tell people, we give away leadership quickly. Read more>>

Zonya Saranya Dawson | Entrepreneur

Everything you do, do with a purpose. My purpose for starting my own business has always been to be my own boss, to meaningfully support my family overseas, and most importantly to support and assist my own community. I believe you can have all the money and success in the world but if you did not care for your family and community it wasn’t worth it and it wasn’t enough. I grew up relatively privilege, until we moved to the U.S., where I became my mother’s interpreter, financial advisor, sometime lawyer at the age of 14. I saw the struggles and sacrifices my parents had to endure and I knew not only did I want to make them proud, I had to continue to support and uplift other immigrant families like us. Read more>>

Paula Friedland | Lifecoach, Counselor, Corporate Trainer, Speaker & Performing Artist

Since I was a kid, I think you could say that “authenticity” was one of the most important things. I didn’t necessarily have the word for it at the time, but i just know I couldn’t stand when people were fake, or surface level or dishonest. Superficiality was like Kryptonite to me, and still is. First of all, I like to know where I stand; and if someone is not authentic in their interactions with me, I feel off center, and i don’t feel I can trust them. I would always rather have someone be brutally honest than to sugar coat something. That is why I chose to go to New York City rather than Los Angeles, because New Yorkers (both those in “show business” and those you would encounter in daily life) will tell you to your face how they feel. Secondly, I value deep conversation about what really matters in the world, and when people are superficial, it just feels like a waste of precious time, and is also just plain boring to me. Read more>>

Jaimie Mackey | Owner

Our strongest value as a company is community – so much so that even the name of our restaurant, The Assembly, speaks to the idea of both being part of and creating a community. We care for our community by offering competitive wages, building relationships with local suppliers, partnering with local non-profits, and proactively implementing sustainable business practices. As residents of a small town in Colorado, we knew that we wanted the business we created to play an integral part in the place we call home. Eagle is incredibly close-knit, and we wanted The Assembly to be a place where our community could gather and come together over globally-inspired food and thoughtfully-produced wines. We also wanted the business itself to exist as a community. As husband and wife business owners with a 1-year-old who was born just 2 days after we signed a contract to purchase the real estate (Jaimie went into labor that night!), The Assembly is first and foremost a family business. Read more>>