Blake Kohler and Remington Rainey, co-founders of Pulse For Good, filed into the sound-absorbing box of a room. The booth was lit in a vibrant pink, the blue padding on the walls reflecting the light so it turned their faces a gentle purple. They sat down in the red chairs and put headphones over their ears.

“How far back can I talk?” Blake said as he leaned away from the microphone to test the audio. He quickly leaned in closer. “Not that far back.”

They brainstormed how to start the podcast. A voice came from a laptop sitting on the table. “Let’s do Pearl Jam music,” the third co-founder Marc Weaver said. Living in a different city than the other two co-founders, Weaver was not able to be a part of this appointment but was able to join virtually.

The co-founders took the time to film a podcast cleverly titled “Candid Conversations” to talk about their newly released book, Candid; the Psychology of Safe Feedback.

This first episode was to introduce the release and publication of their book. They talked about why they decided to write a book and what readers can look forward to.

“We have to re-explain to people how we’re related. That might be best starting off with Marc. Marc explained it best and that’s how I use it,” Rainey said.

“Should I introduce you guys as my brother-in-laws?” Weaver asked. “They both married my sisters.” A look of confusion came on Weaver’s face. “Is that good English?” The other two helped recover Marc’s grammatical blunder.

“I married the older sister,” Rainey said.

“I married the younger. To make it even more complex,” Kohler added, “Marc and I have been best friends for I don’t know how many years.” Abashed to show their age, without revealing the exact time, they estimated they’ve been friends since elementary school. The three guys employ mostly college-age kids and are thoroughly reminded of the age gap.

The birth of their company Pulse For Good came from an ongoing idea they kept talking about. Only until coaxing from their wives did they become serious about starting up the company. Ten years later, they are able to publish a book from the expertise they’ve gained on how to gather feedback.

“I don’t think we ever talked about writing a book together but we did read a lot of books together,” Weaver said. “Maybe it’s just like everything in our life has led us to this point of writing Candid.” They reminisced about going over to the other’s house to read books from their library. Kohler said that writing a fantasy book together would have been more true to their character.

Pulse’s greatest outreach is going to conferences. Attendees can get a demonstration of our services in person and learn what Pulse does. They found themselves saying the same phrases for every demonstration to “make a paradigm shift” in how they view feedback. They realized that the world of feedback had a serious lack.

By interacting with organizations that have struggled and researching the psychology of gathering feedback for a decade, they decided to write a book detailing how important it is to implement feedback. They have incorporated scholarly sources and their own experiences in their book, along with real-world events that can be connected to gathering feedback.

In the first episode of the podcast, they talked about the stunning feat of Florence Chadwick. Chadwick was an American swimmer who was the first woman to swim the English Channel in both directions. She was also the first of many other accomplishments, but the co-authors found her first attempt swimming the English Channel applicable to their line of work.

In Chadwick’s first go at swimming the English Channel, she was in the water for 14 hours before tapping out. Only then did she realize that she was so close to accomplishing the entire stretch but, due to the fog surrounding her during her swim, she wasn’t able to tell how close to the end she truly was.

The co-authors related Chadwick’s story to the feedback loop. When gathering feedback, it goes through this cycle where it is given, received, then implemented. Kohler related Chadwick’s failed swim to not being able to close that feedback loop. In attempting to make an effort of change, Chadwick followed through and began the swim. However, in not reaching the end because of her limited sight, she could not finish that loop, which Kohler has seen in a lot of organizations when it comes to improving their services through feedback.

“We’re often times closer to the mark than we think we are,” Kohler said.

You can listen to more insights from the co-authors on our podcast “Candid Conversations” and learn why the three co-founders of Pulse For Good are passionate about surveys and gathering feedback.

To learn more about Pulse For Good’s services, visit our website at pulseforgood.com.

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