April 8, 2025 • 47 mins
In this heartfelt and insight-packed conversation, Angela and Sami sit down with longtime client, coaching partner, and friend Jonathan Janacek. Jonathan opens up about the journey from sweeping job sites as a kid to purchasing and running the family remodeling business.
This episode is a goldmine for second-generation business owners, parents preparing for leadership transitions, and anyone navigating the tension between honoring legacy and carving a new path forward.
Jonathan shares what it was like growing up in a business-focused family, how he set intentional boundaries between work and home, and the hard-earned lessons that come with evolving a business while staying true to your values.
What They Explore:
- The shift from “babysitting on job sites” to leading the company
- How calling your dad “Tim” at work changes everything
- Navigating loneliness, perfectionism, and high expectations in leadership
- The emotional weight of rebranding the family business
- Owning your mistakes—and the healing that follows
What You’ll Learn in This Episode:
- How to transition from employee to owner in a way that builds trust and confidence
- Why boundary-setting is crucial (and tricky) when your coworkers are also your parents
- How to balance honoring what was with building what could be
- Insights on leading authentically—especially in a business that bears your last name
- Why vulnerability and honesty are leadership superpowers in generational businesses
Why You Should Listen:
Whether you’re stepping into leadership, working with family, or learning to own your role without losing yourself, this episode is your reminder that growth is messy, legacy is complicated, and it’s all part of being freaking awesome.
Connect with Us
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
SPEAKER_01 (00:00):
Here at Be Freaking Awesome, we believe that life is
too short to be anything lessthan extraordinary.
Join us as we explore what itmeans to live authentically,
grow continuously, and have ablast while doing it.
Let's get started.
(00:21):
Welcome everyone to this week'sepisode of Be Freaking Awesome.
I'm one of your hosts, AmyKinison, here with Angela
Belford.
And today we are joined by dearfriend, business, client,
coaching, relationship, superfan, Jonathan Janicek.
And we're really excited to getto have a conversation with you
today, Jonathan, on our podcast.
(00:41):
I feel like you have been a partof the journey in a lot of
different ways and beenfollowing us and supporting us
in so many different things.
And so I'm excited to get tobring you here to this side of
the conversation and talk todaymore about second generation
business owners and those uniquechallenges that come with that.
SPEAKER_00 (01:00):
Uh, Jonathan also has another claim to fame, which
is that I finished my book justbefore his, uh, well, I say
finished, like it was stillneeded the final edit before he
got on a plane to go on theother side of the world.
And so I'm like, Hey, you needsomething to entertain yourself
while you're on like 18 hours offlights, nine hours, nine hours
back, whatever number it wasanyway.
And so he did read my book, afirst draft on a very long, uh,
(01:24):
transition.
And he's one
SPEAKER_01 (01:27):
of the endorsements on your latest book, Traveling
SPEAKER_00 (01:29):
Lane.
Yeah, absolutely.
SPEAKER_01 (01:31):
So
SPEAKER_00 (01:31):
welcome, Jonathan.
Thank you for joining us.
Do you want to tell us just alittle bit about you?
SPEAKER_03 (01:36):
Yeah.
So, well, first of all, thanksfor having me on.
Yes, I have been a longtimeclient of the Belford Group and
also coaching with Angela.
And that's something we'll talksome more about.
So a little bit about myself.
I grew up in kind of a typicalfamily.
My dad was an entrepreneur,started our business in 1987 as
(02:00):
a handyman, and continuouslygrew the company doing remodel
work.
So that's what we specialize inat Janacek Remodeling.
I started off when I was a youngkid, probably nine years old,
picking up nails, trash, I wasreally excited when my dad
(02:20):
decided that I wasn't reallyearning my keep.
In other words, my cost of mylunch every day tagging along
with him.
So he wanted me to be moreproductive.
So he offered to start paying me$5 a week.
And man, I thought, in fiveweeks, I can have a video game.
And that was my goal andintention.
(02:42):
I
SPEAKER_00 (02:42):
love it.
SPEAKER_03 (02:43):
So I kind of did this all during the summers and
high school and spring break andstuff.
And when I got into high school,I realized I didn't want to
sweat for my paycheck.
So I was going to go to college,went to college for one
semester, realized it wasn't forme.
And I came back home.
I worked in corporate Americafor two years and realized I
didn't like that either.
(03:04):
And so in the year 2002, Istarted remodeling with my dad,
swinging a hammer and slapping apaintbrush.
I started off just like everyother person would.
And the fortunate thing was mydad was not my supervisor.
So I had another supervisor Ireported to.
And that's probably why I stayedon for the first two years, at
(03:26):
least, because I didn't have toreport to him.
My mom was also part of thebusiness.
She did our bookkeeping andoffice management.
I slowly progressed to learn allthe trades, eventually started
doing a little bit of projectmanagement, and then I got into
sales, and sales led to designand estimating.
(03:49):
I did that for a while, and thenI went back to project
management, which I reallyenjoy.
until I grew enough that thecompany needed me to step into a
bigger role.
And so I became the vicepresident of operations about
six years ago.
And then three years ago, Ibecame the president of the
company.
(04:10):
And a little over a year ago, Ipurchased the business from my
parents and allowed them tofinally retire.
So that's kind of my whole storyin a nutshell.
SPEAKER_00 (04:20):
Hey, you know what I was thinking is, since we do
your website, I was thinking,ooh, I'm going to snippet that
video because that's thecleanest I've ever heard you
tell that story.
So we're going to snippet thevideo and add it on the About Us
page.
Bonus content.
That's full circle, all the wayfrom picking up nails at nine
years old to now the owner ofthe company, which I absolutely
(04:45):
adore.
And...
whenever I think about talkingthrough executive coaching, this
is exactly the, the situationthat so many second generation,
um, business owners findthemselves in, you know, like
I've done this literally.
I interviewed, we had a gal workfor us for a while that
(05:07):
interviewed her.
And she's like, I went to workfor my, my parents' company.
I think she was like seven,eight years old.
Yeah.
Doing the same thing you'redoing.
Because honestly, you know, yourparents would probably call it
babysitting.
They just didn't put you incamps.
You had to take a son to workday, right?
But that is quite a transition.
(05:29):
And talk through the guy thatwas your supervisor.
Has he stayed with the company?
Obviously, that's been a minute.
But let's talk about what that'slike for how first the other
employees treat you in thatjourney.
SPEAKER_03 (05:46):
Yeah, so I think one of the best advices that my dad
actually gave me when I startedwith the company was not to call
him dad, to call him by hisfirst name.
And that was a couple of areasthat that affects.
One, that your perception withthe team that you're working
(06:10):
with, when you start calling himdad, people see that there's
this favoritism and That's notsomething we really want to
happen.
You know, it's it's I wanted towork.
I didn't want to have I don'twant it easy like some people
get.
And I didn't want any nepotismgoing on.
And secondly, with our clients,it was kind of funny when I
(06:35):
would talk to clients and say,you know, Tim, this and Tim,
that people would start lookingat me and they'd squint their
eyebrows for a second.
They go, is he your dad?
And it was always kind of funnywhen they would get that moment
that they'd figure it out.
And I'd be like, yeah, he's mydad.
But this is how we maintain arelationship during the business
(06:57):
hours that we can havedisagreements and we can have
fights.
And for many years, our officewas right behind my parents'
house.
And so we'd have fights andarguments in the office.
And then we would go inside thehouse.
And as soon as the door closedin the house, it was like, OK,
father, son.
family time.
And it was a way for us todisconnect from being upset or
(07:22):
angry at something in a worksituation that we didn't bring
it to the Thanksgiving table.
SPEAKER_01 (07:29):
Jonathan, I do the same thing as well whenever
working with my parents.
And even on this podcast, thepodcast feels like the blend for
business and personal, which iswhy it gets weird sometimes
where I'll be like, Angela, whatdo you think?
Mom, what do you think?
I...
I also sometimes have noticedmyself now because I am still
(07:49):
actively working with myparents.
Occasionally I will use the namethat I use to indicate what kind
of response I'm needing.
And so one time I distinctlyremember being, I got off the
phone with a client and I lookedup at my coworker sitting next
to me and I said, Hey dad, Icould really use a moment to
(08:14):
debrief from that call.
And just, I just really needsome comfort right now.
And then can I talk to Barryabout what we need to do about
this call?
But like, I need, first I needdad and then I need Barry.
Can you help me with that?
And even Angela, I noticed thismorning, I was texting my
husband and I said, hey, AB saidthis thing about a weekend
(08:37):
thing.
And I was like, oh crap, I meantto tell my husband that.
mom said this thing about ourweekend plans.
Like, but AB is the textshorthand for Angela said, do
anything at work.
And so now I'm telling myhusband, AB said, we got to go
do this thing.
And I was
SPEAKER_02 (08:52):
like,
SPEAKER_00 (08:53):
anyway, in our, in our agency, um, if, if this is
the way we do things and you dosomething outside of that, as
long as you put per AB, thenlike, that's like the get out of
jail free card.
And I remember when, uh, causeit's like, you've taught,
somebody has talked to me and Ihave overridden the policy or
whatever, or vetoed the clientis typically where it is.
(09:18):
Well, I remember especially whenSammy started working, she's
like, he doesn't understand perA, B.
He thinks that this is still upfor debate.
I don't understand what ishappening.
The rest of the team is like,oh, per A, B.
Okay, done.
Let's go.
Anyway.
That's a
SPEAKER_03 (09:38):
good point.
I like that.
I'm going to have to put that into affect my business as well.
SPEAKER_00 (09:41):
Yes, it's super helpful because it's like, you
know, it's just a shorthand forI talked to Angela.
This is what she decided.
Blah, blah, blah, blah, blah.
And just pretty.
SPEAKER_01 (09:51):
Well, and then, Jonathan, my other thing that is
similar but different is I whenclients find out that I am
Angela's daughter, it takes themlonger sometimes it takes them
longer because I married andhave a new last name.
And then sometimes they look atme and it's like, it's uncanny
that you and the CEO of yourcompany like looks so similar.
(10:13):
And I was like, well, I don'tknow if it's uncanny or if it's
genetics because she is my mom.
Like I try to give them thequick out.
I'm not going to just be like,whoa, I wonder what you mean.
SPEAKER_00 (10:24):
Well, and you meet people networking all the time.
You're like, you seem sofamiliar.
And she's like, you probablyknow my mom.
I do know your mom.
SPEAKER_01 (10:34):
I have also had recently a couple of times, it's
at least been twice now, wheresomebody will be like, Sammy,
it's a pleasure to meet you.
I've known your parents for areally, really long time.
And I'm like, I always want toknow, what does that mean?
Does that mean we have a goodrelationship?
Does that mean we have a badrelationship?
I just need more context.
Like, I don't know.
A really long time.
(10:55):
Like, I don't get it.
I don't know how to...
okay, great.
Well, I have a new face, make anew relationship
SPEAKER_00 (11:00):
with me.
So, okay.
So that is how you guys, I askedhow employees treat you, but you
both answered how your parentstreat you.
Um, so is there any clarity onthat?
I liked you did hear, I heardyou say, I didn't want it easy.
Um, I don't know that we alwayshear that from, from owners
kids.
UNKNOWN (11:20):
Um,
SPEAKER_00 (11:21):
And that's what I call them.
Like there's preacher's kids,there's owner's kids.
Those okays, what are you goingto do about them?
Right.
And so talk about what that waslike.
SPEAKER_03 (11:30):
And I fall in that age group where, you know, I had
analog in my life and I haddigital.
And so I was able to blend thetwo together.
So I grew up in a time of like,you work hard to get things in
life.
Right.
And so that's where I've alwayslooked at it is, is I didn't
want somebody to just say, no,I'll do it for you.
(11:52):
Cause you know, the boss wantsme to do it.
No, I want to learn how to doit.
So that way I don't have to goask somebody next time.
Um, but the whole relationshipwith employees, I think is
really important to remember.
Um, you need to have someboundaries with them and, you
(12:13):
know, you as as a person thatwill one day hopefully maybe be
running the company you kind ofhave to like i can be associates
and i can be somewhat friendsbut i can't be like best friends
with employees and that'ssometimes a hard thing to to
transition especially when youenjoy the people you work with
(12:34):
but um really i've always triedto keep um a friendly work
relationship with everybody andnot take it to like, hey, what's
going on this weekend?
Let's go to a game together typeof deal.
It's been challenging, but alsoat times it's a little bit
lonely in that regards too.
I
SPEAKER_01 (12:55):
would agree.
I think that you don't get to bein the same category as every
other employee and it's okay.
It does come with advantages.
It means that you're more likelyto be consulted if there's a big
decision that the quote ownersget to be involved in.
And you're not an owner, you'rean employee, but the owners, AKA
(13:18):
your parents are more likelygoing to ask you for your
opinion and your take on things.
But you are right.
Like you're not going to get thejuicy gossip about everything
going wrong in the companybecause you are an insider on
the team, on the leadershipteam.
And I think that's fair.
I think that that makes sense.
I think that it is a downside.
(13:38):
It does make things a little bitmore lonely.
On the other side, you treat thework like it's your own, even
though it's technically not yourcompany yet.
Like I'm not doing shortcutsbecause I know the people who
I'm like screwing over are myparents and that's not what I'm
doing.
And, and I think like when I
SPEAKER_03 (13:56):
went, yeah,
SPEAKER_01 (13:57):
go ahead.
SPEAKER_03 (13:59):
Let's say at the same time, you're, you're
screwing over your future.
Right.
Right.
You know, it's like, this is oneday what you're going to be.
And, and I know like, Sammy is alittle different word for you at
the last name, not being thesame anymore.
But for me, it was like, this ismy last name.
SPEAKER_02 (14:15):
You know,
SPEAKER_03 (14:15):
it's not just my parents.
It's my extension.
And then maybe one day my son aswell, or my daughter.
Um, and those are those thingsthat you, you internalize a bit
more when you are an employee ofthe company and yeah, the child
of the company.
SPEAKER_00 (14:34):
Sammy used to love to say, um, Actually, they
weren't a group until it was me.
I'm the one that made them agroup.
They were the Belford couple.
I made them the Belford group.
SPEAKER_01 (14:45):
I mean, it is true.
I also think that I took thatmentality when I worked
elsewhere.
And that's probably what made mereally valuable during my
corporate days is that I didn'tknow anything different than to
treat the business like it wasyours.
That was just the way it was.
Of course, you're going to dothat.
And so I Interestingly enough, Ithen went into corporate being
like, no, we're not going toshortcut things.
(15:06):
Like we're screwing somebodyover.
Like somebody is going to seethis downside.
Of course, I'm going to do itthe right way.
Of course, I'm going to like be,I don't know.
There's just, it was an innatebuy-in to the company and not
everybody else had that.
And I'm trying to figure out howto say this in a way that
(15:26):
doesn't sound insulting topeople.
SPEAKER_03 (15:28):
You know, the expression of a company man, you
know, it's very far and fewbetween that I see that.
And, you know, obviously, unlessyou're the owner.
But when you do find that oneemployee that has that complete
buy-in, like, I don't care ifit's Friday night.
(15:49):
If it's something that has toget done for the betterment of
the company, we're going to doit.
And that's just like, In myposition, it was always that
way.
Every single day, it's I'm 100%company man, whatever there is.
And that's kind of the part thatit's oftentimes hard because you
(16:10):
want every employee to have thatsame mentality.
You want every manager, projectmanager to have that same
mentality about every singlething, but they don't.
And so you just have to acceptthat.
that you're not going to getthat out of every person.
SPEAKER_00 (16:28):
Well, and so since I, I'm going to pause y'all
because the, I happen to know,and I don't think I'm speaking
out of turn.
I think anybody that knows you,Jonathan knows that you struggle
with perfectionism.
And so do you, Sammy, Sammy'stalked about a lot on the
podcast.
Y'all both struggle withperfectionism.
And so how, where's the balancein that, um, idea of i you know
(16:56):
i don't want to mess up myfuture company i want to do it
just right it's friday night andthere's one more thing like how
have you what strategies haveyou learned so far because i
know you're both we're all onour journey right but what have
you learned so far to help youum not let that go too far
SPEAKER_03 (17:16):
yeah that's that's a great question what i One of the
things that you were saying thatI realized that is part of that,
I think, comes innately from notwanting to disappoint your
parents.
Oh, yeah.
And that, you know, I almostfeel that anybody that is
serious about being a part of abusiness just naturally has that
(17:39):
inclination to not want to dothat.
And there has to be a balanceabout that, about not projecting
your desires and your wants ontoevery single person.
And it takes a lot ofconversations and pushback
sometimes from the employees tosay, no, I've got plans.
I'm not going to be able to dothat.
(18:00):
And you being OK with that.
And then at
SPEAKER_00 (18:04):
times,
SPEAKER_03 (18:06):
yeah, absolutely.
And then, well, that's familyalso helps do that, too.
So my wife has been really goodabout that and saying, hey,
look, I know you got work to do,but your kids need to go to bed.
And they want their daddy timeto be able to put you down.
And I also believe that there'sphases of life that you can give
(18:27):
a lot more at certain phases.
And then you also have torecognize, all right, this is a
different phase of life.
I got to slow down andreprioritize.
I
SPEAKER_01 (18:36):
remember having a conversation once with my
husband that he and I said, bothof us likely would be just crazy
workaholics if we did not haveour family.
Like, what else would I do?
Like if I didn't have a familyto come home to, of course, I'm
going to stay at work till likeseven or eight because what am I
supposed to do?
Go home and like watch TV.
And so I can appreciate then theaccountability that my family
(18:59):
gives me to make sure to havebalance, to make sure I don't go
off the deep end.
And I think that point you madeabout disappointing your
parents.
I mean, like, oh, that is thegut punch for me.
I wrote an article that I'm veryproud got published in a fast
company magazine.
on their website specificallyabout, I was presenting a
project to my boss and then myboss said, nope, it's not good
(19:22):
enough.
It's not, it's not up to snuff.
I think is what she said.
She didn't say the words.
It's not good enough, butsuddenly I'm an 11 year old girl
hearing her mom tell her you're,this isn't enough.
And I disappointed you and allthese things.
And I'm like, I, it was veryhard to separate my boss telling
me you need to put more into it.
(19:42):
And my mom telling me, this, I'mdisappointed.
And it was like, oh my gosh, I'mgoing to break down now.
And I think that, I don't knowthat I have figured that out.
I don't know that I figured outhow to not disappoint my parents
or how to be okay with thepossibility that I could
disappoint them.
I'm in that, in the middle ofthat journey.
(20:02):
And I tend to now just workreally hard to try to not
disappoint them.
And that's my tool.
SPEAKER_00 (20:11):
Well, and I will say that I think that The advantage
you have, Sammy, is that becauseI am on my own journey of
workaholism and perfectionism,then I work extra hard not to
express that disappointment.
And I don't actually think Isaid up to snuff because that is
(20:32):
not something I do say.
But I think what I said wasthat's a great first draft.
you need to continue to developyour idea.
And she starts crying.
Not my brain, not my brain nerd.
No, sure.
And I mean, there's probablymore words to it, but I remember
sitting there and I was like, ifyou were an employee, I would
(20:53):
just sit here quietly with youand let you pull yourself
together because I have hademployees crying in my office,
26 years in business.
You know, that happens.
I'm like, As your mom, I want tooffer to hold your hand, give
you a hug, do whatever.
Can you please help meunderstand what you need right
now?
And it was weird what I, I'mjust going to brag on my own
(21:16):
growth because I tell plenty ofmessy middle stories on this
podcast.
I'm going to own a good one.
But I remember sitting there andjust knowing deep in my soul,
this was not me.
I didn't do this.
This is part of her journey thatshe had to go on.
And I could just sit therecalmly and quietly without the
(21:38):
voices in my head going, Oh myGod, you might do good.
You know, the next day Iprobably could have had the same
problem.
Like I could have had adifferent response, but it was
so peaceful in my body and in mymind to just be like, She's got
to, she, this is part of thejourney and this is part of what
she has to do.
Just stay quiet.
Don't try to fix this.
That's what my brain was doingwas coaching me.
(22:00):
Don't try to fix it.
Don't try to like, don't, don'twater down your opinion, like
hold to the standard.
Cause she, when she interviewedfor this job, she's like, I
don't want to be a nepotism.
higher.
And I'm like, well, if you don'twant to be a nepotism higher,
that means I'm not going to cutyou.
I'm going to hold you to thesame standards of excellence
that I do everyone, which by theway, is the antidote to
(22:22):
perfectionism.
People are like, but I go reallyhigh.
I'm like, no, no, no.
You have to define yourstandards of excellence because
you can't achieve perfection,but excellence we can achieve.
And, and I have, Really, that isthat's the journey for me is
like what what is excellent andwhat is too much and what am I
(22:45):
going to if I do this much more,how much more benefit am I going
to get or how much am I takingaway from my family at that
point?
SPEAKER_03 (22:54):
So I want to tell a little story about dealing with
your parents.
my company had the same logo forabout 25 years.
And the angel is laughing onthis one.
And when I took over to owner ofthe company, I realized like we
(23:16):
needed to change this logo.
Like it needed to be updated andmodernized.
And I think we went throughsomething like 15, 20 different
logos that the Belford Group haddrawn up for me.
Not
SPEAKER_00 (23:31):
normal.
Don't think that that's thestandard.
SPEAKER_03 (23:33):
No, it's not.
It was not.
And I paid for some of it.
But every time I would get acopy of the logo, I would choose
the one or two I really liked inthat set of four or five,
whatever it was.
And I would sit down with bothmy parents and I would say, what
do you think?
(23:54):
Because I wanted to honor andbring my parents into something,
even though it was mine.
I wanted to bring them into it.
And every time I would give themsomething, it was this feedback
or this feedback after somethingthat I had, you know, that we
had really worked on hard to getto somewhere where I liked it.
(24:14):
And I'd always get this feedbackor it was like, well, it should
have this.
No matter what you do, it shouldhave this in it.
And so we kept just trying tomake something happen.
And I think it was nine monthsinto the whole process.
Then I finally called up Angelaand I said, we need to have a
call.
(24:34):
And so we talked about it.
And I realized what it was goingon inside me is I wanted their
approval.
And I wanted them to be a partof it.
And I wanted them to be pleasedwith it.
And there was so much of thatjust wrapped up in this
(24:54):
childhood, you know, got to makemom and dad pleased with me.
And, um, we had a great coachingsession about it and I, I cried
a few times in the coachingsession just because it's a lot
of emotion that can come out insituations like that.
And you sometimes don't eventhink that, no, this has nothing
(25:17):
to do with my childhood, butthen like, yeah, there's some
stuff there that I'm, I'mstruggling with.
And, um, And so Angela went backto the drawing board, presented
me with a few more, and the veryfirst one was it.
We made a few minor tweaks toit, but it was the logo.
(25:37):
And that's where we're at todaywith this.
I'm very proud of it.
Every time I see it on my trucksdriving down the road, it gets
me excited.
But when I finally was happywith it, that's when I showed my
parents.
And I didn't ask them, what doyou think about it?
I said, This is the directionour company is going now.
(25:58):
And this is our new logo.
And, you know, it took a fewmonths, but my parents finally
gave me some feedback.
And they were like, yeah, it wasvery hard to receive that.
Because for so long, it was ourcompany, our logo, what we made
and what we as a couple, both myparents developed this logo.
(26:19):
And it was their identity.
And so now this is my, I know itsounds weird, but this is my
identity.
This is my business.
And it was probably one of thehealthiest things for me to be
able to do to kind of make thatbreak and identify it as mine
and not my parents, my parents,my parents.
(26:42):
But it took me 22, 21 years toget to that point.
of working in the business.
And everybody's path isdifferent.
You know, yours can be shortedto five minutes or, I mean, five
years or, you know, 30 years.
But it's a path.
(27:03):
And there's no shortcuts togetting through some of this
stuff.
You just have to wade throughit.
And it's not easy.
So that's my story about
SPEAKER_00 (27:14):
I love it.
SPEAKER_03 (27:15):
Parents and logos.
SPEAKER_00 (27:16):
Well, and I love it so much because I, because you
were a coaching client, I had somuch more patience than I
typically have for justmarketing consulting clients.
I also knew the clock wasrunning.
I'm like, that's fine.
Let's change it again.
Whereas typically we do apackage price.
And anyway, I was just like,okay, more bill of liars.
(27:38):
That's fine.
We'll work through it.
Also, I remember that sessionbecause It really highlights how
I like to what I like about kindof the new role that I'm taking
on, which is like I literallysaid to you, OK, I'm going to
take off my marketing consultanthat now
SPEAKER_02 (27:56):
and
SPEAKER_00 (27:57):
I'm going to put on your coach hat.
And and so I gave you thatmoment to switch gears and we
did have to dive into theemotion, which I love.
I love that we can be like superpositive.
strategic and practical and likelet's get this done and let's
set this up and then we can likego hang on time out new let's
let's let's address thisunderlying stuff first even
(28:20):
though things that you we don'tthink of that are impacting us
work through that and then we'relike okay I'm going to take my
coach hat back off and now I'mgoing to put my marketing
consultant.
And you were like, I think Ijust need to let you do your
job.
And I went, what a great idea.
Yeah.
So much about that session.
(28:41):
I love
SPEAKER_03 (28:42):
that session.
And I said, the only thing I'mgoing to give you for parameters
is it has to have my name in it.
Yeah.
SPEAKER_00 (28:51):
Well, that's funny story too.
Cause I used to, we used to, Iwould come in from client
meetings, new client meetingsand my, One graphic designer
just teased me and goes, didthey get to keep their name?
I was so notorious for beinglike, that name is dumb.
We're changing it.
Anyway, it's not that it's dumb,it's that it's ill positioned
(29:12):
for the marketplace.
And I would shorthand that too.
Anyway, so that was always thejoke.
Did they get to keep their name?
I don't even think I've renamedthat many businesses, but it was
enough.
So that was an importantparameter for you to put on me.
SPEAKER_03 (29:26):
Well, you know, the cost of having you go through
and do all those logos for me,all the revisions that you said
we were on the clock for,there's times in your life that
you're going to feel like afailure when you do those
things.
I never blamed the Velfer group.
(29:46):
It was me.
What I realized, and that wastherapy for me.
SPEAKER_00 (29:52):
It really was.
SPEAKER_03 (29:53):
That helped me get down a path of something I
didn't realize.
And I say that to also say thatyou're going to make mistakes.
We all make mistakes.
And sometimes those are cheaperthan going to therapy.
Sometimes they're a lot moreexpensive than going to therapy.
(30:13):
But we need to make thosemistakes and fall on our face
and learn from them.
And the hard part For parents,because my parents expressed
this to me later on after I'vehad some time away from my
mistakes, was the hard part forthem was to not rush in and want
to fix the problem.
(30:35):
To let me sit in that problemand deal with it.
And I give them so much creditfor that, of letting me make
those mistakes and not justcoming in and fixing them.
Like, you know, money can fixthings or, you know, taking over
and managing somethingthemselves can fix it.
(30:56):
But they're like, no, okay, itbroke.
What are you going to do to fixit now?
Yeah.
And sometimes that did requireasking them for advice, but they
wouldn't offer the advice unlessI asked for it.
SPEAKER_00 (31:09):
Yeah.
UNKNOWN (31:09):
Yeah.
SPEAKER_00 (31:10):
A few weeks ago, we had an episode with Cash from
Icon Foods, and I told the storythat I...
Sammy, you can make the samemistakes I did, but you have to
listen to what I did becausethings change.
And I was saying how one of thethings as a parent, especially
if you made an expensivemistake, it's very tempting to
say, no, we can't try thatagain.
(31:32):
We've tried it before.
And I have to be super cautiousto not...
to realize that technology haschanged a lot since I tried
something, that the world haschanged a lot since I tried
something, you know, business,all the things.
There's so many of the variablesof the experiment that I ran
(31:53):
that that didn't.
And so but if I made a bigmistake, I am and I had to pay
for it.
There is a higher cost of timeand thinking things through for
Sammy.
I try not to like.
I just don't like to pay for thesame mistake twice.
And so then on those particularinitiatives, she has to be a lot
(32:18):
more thoughtful.
She has to have thought things.
She has to have showed me provento me that her experiment is
different.
And here's the parameters thathave changed.
And this, whereas if there'ssomething that she wants to try
that I've never tried before,and wow, that's a good idea.
She might get just an easy.
Yes.
Sure, give it a try, especiallyif it's not going to cost a
(32:39):
whole lot of money and maybeit's just, oh, we're going to
invest some time and we'll givesomething a whirl.
So I think that as a as thefirst generation, as the parent
in this situation, be aware ofwhen you are tempted to say
like, no, no, no, I've triedthat.
It didn't work.
Things might have changed andfigure out for you what it is.
(33:02):
Cause you also don't want to getswing to the opposite side.
And well, just cause I tried it,go ahead.
You can try it now.
Well, they can make a stupidmistake because they don't have
your wisdom.
So, so find that balance.
And I would just say that, watchyour words to like being, I have
to be extra supportive in thosescenarios.
Because oftentimes I tellpeople, if we have a weird
(33:24):
policy, you don't understand, Ipromise I got screwed.
And so now there's a policy,like this is the process.
And so I have to be reallycareful not to bring the emotion
of that mistake I made, thatfailure I had, or how, you know,
it didn't work out to like thisconversation and make you guys
inadvertently feel bad aboutwhen all you're trying to do is
(33:46):
make the business better, youknow?
Well, and Angela, you
SPEAKER_01 (33:51):
are also kind of a visionary and often ahead of
your time.
And some of your ideas, you'relike, I tried that.
And I'm like, I know.
And you were like six years tooearly.
And if we try it again rightnow, I think it's going to
actually work, but you justlike, you wanted everybody to
use QR codes and you were reallyon that train and people were
like, I don't get it.
And now if you're not using a QRcode, yeah, 2010, you were out
(34:15):
there like putting QR codes onbusiness cards.
People thought that was sosilly.
And yeah, It was just ahead ofits time.
Like you were, you were thereearly.
So that's sometimes when
SPEAKER_03 (34:26):
I really want to say it.
Thank you for saying that,because that was something that
I wanted to bring.
Exactly what you said is whatsomething I wanted to bring up,
but it's more powerful comingfrom you
SPEAKER_02 (34:36):
than
SPEAKER_03 (34:38):
it is me because I saw those same things happen to
my parents.
Like, me wanting to do somethingand, and they're like, no, we've
already done that.
It failed.
This is the reason why.
And then there's almost like,yeah, but was there something
else going on that caused thatto fail that you're not looking
at right now that you can't seeyou just, you're internalizing
(35:02):
and feeling the failure of it.
And what do we do with failure?
We, you know, fight, flight, or,uh, yeah, fight, flight, or
freeze.
And, and, I'm trying to look atthis like, yeah, maybe you did
fail on it, but let's talk aboutthe parameters of what caused
that to happen.
So, A, I don't make that samemistake, but also what has
(35:24):
changed between now and then.
And there's another component tothis that I encourage parents to
keep in mind is that your kidsare going to fail.
It's going to happen.
And The hard part is to not holdit over their head, first of
all, especially when it costsmoney.
(35:46):
But secondly, giving them anopportunity to correct it.
And sometimes that opportunitymay not come right away.
It may take a while.
And I'll give an example formyself.
I was looking at a software forrunning our company or
construction projects.
And I was...
(36:07):
I was on board with this, and Iwas a little bit younger.
I don't remember, early 30s.
And the company said, hey, flyout here to Virginia.
We'll give you a three-day crashcourse on it, and then you'll be
all set up, and then you can goback to your company and roll it
out.
Well, the people I was trying toroll it out to was my dad, my
(36:30):
mom, and another project managertheir same age.
And the technology, barrierthere was pretty extreme.
And I did not know how to rollit out to them in a way that
they could understand.
And because as a millennial, itwas real easy for me just to get
(36:53):
into it and start using it.
And so honestly, we probablypaid, I don't know, out of
pocket five,$6,000 for thissoftware, plus my time to drive
there.
We fly there, hotels andeverything.
And it was just a waste.
And then about three years ago,I was like, hey, I want to do
this again, this other software.
(37:14):
And my dad was just like, areyou sure?
How are we going to do thisagain?
I said, well, first of all, allthese barriers that were there
are now removed.
And so I had to explain to himthe things I learned from the
first time to not make thosesame mistakes again.
And it was very helpful becauseit helped me be more intentional
(37:37):
with rolling it out this time.
And it's been a wild success.
We've had a lot of greatprocesses developed and great
results from it.
SPEAKER_00 (37:49):
That's awesome.
What a great example.
Well, and I think the technologychanges so fast that software
probably is even easier now thanit was then.
SPEAKER_01 (37:58):
And I just can't imagine, I was like teaching
family technology classes, itjust adds the extra piece to it.
It's the patience required toteach somebody how to use
technology.
And then that rope is alreadygoing to be a little bit shorter
when you just have more personalrelationships with them.
Yeah, a lot.
(38:20):
Jonathan, thank you so much forthe conversation today, for the
advice and the wisdom that youhave given.
I am sure that I needed to hearsome of the things that you had
to say today and I reallyappreciate it.
And I, I know we've said itbefore, but I appreciate that
you and I are in similar seatsin different timelines and
phases of it.
And so getting to sort of seeyour journey and learn some of
(38:42):
the things from you for my momto see the things that have
happened in your transition andlearn some things as well.
Um, All of those things aregreat.
Anyway, she's rolling her eyesat me.
She's rolling her eyes becauseshe thinks she's never retiring,
but at some point she'll betired of this.
But in any case, thank you somuch for your time and your
(39:02):
wisdom today.
We really appreciate it.
SPEAKER_03 (39:06):
I've learned a lot along my journey and I'd be
happy to sit down with a cup ofcoffee and talk to anybody else
that wants to go down this roadas well.
It's not for the faint of heart.
But the rewards of spending somuch time with my parents, you
know, when I look at my lifeversus my siblings, I see it
that I have spent more time withmy dad and my mom than anybody
(39:31):
else in the world has, exceptfor each other, you know, except
for them.
SPEAKER_01 (39:35):
Yeah.
SPEAKER_03 (39:35):
And so that's a blessing that I get to take with
me for the rest of my life.
SPEAKER_01 (39:39):
That's super cool.
Thank you guys so much forlistening today.
Don't forget to subscribe, like,and share.
And until next time, we hope youguys go be freaking awesome.
Angela, that was such a goodconversation with Jonathan.
Oh my gosh.
And I feel like he was likeprepped and ready to go.
Like I have lessons learned andwisdom that other people need to
(40:02):
know to get in on this.
And oh my gosh, it was really,really good.
I just loved it.
I wanted to follow up and letall of you guys know, listening,
if you are somebody who relatesto where Jonathan is at and
could really use somebody tosupport you in that transition,
wherever you are located, Angelais there for you and she can
(40:24):
help with that process.
And I know that sometimesself-promotion gets weird.
So we're going to take thebenefit.
Let me just tell you, Angela isvery good at what she does.
And she's very good at helpingpeople figure out the business
side of things, the emotionalside of things.
As she said, she'll put on thedifferent hat for the different
moments that are needed.
So if that's something thatyou're interested in, you're
absolutely welcome to reach outto us.
We would be happy to talk withyou more about what that looks
(40:45):
like and how you can get thesame kind of support and
somebody to come alongside youin that transition.
just like Jonathan did.
SPEAKER_00 (40:52):
Well, I'm glad you said that it's anywhere because
I, even people in NorthwestArkansas, they're like, no, no,
no.
I want to be face-to-facecoaching.
I'm like, I'm sorry.
I only do, I only do zoomcoaching.
And the reason why I do that isbecause especially when you are
doing emotional processing, Iwant people to feel comfortable
in their home or in their spaceor in their office.
(41:14):
I can't tell you how many timesI coached Jonathan where he
pulled over on the side of theroad.
We would have our call.
He's like, I'm so sorry.
I'm running late.
I'm just going to stop righthere.
This is our time.
I'm just like, you're hilarious.
Anyway, but I want people to bein their own space.
Because I think the one thingthat is good and bad of therapy
(41:36):
is that you create a safe spacesomewhere else in your
therapist's office.
And so I you can be anywhere andI will coach you and people
think it's not effective.
And, oh, you can't connect withpeople like you absolutely can.
I have done a lot of very deepemotional coaching work.
We're on Zoom.
I love it.
(41:57):
And you heard Sammy mention,Sammy and Jonathan talk about
how lonely it is.
And I would say that it wasn'tuntil today that I really
understood how passionate youwere.
You've always been very emphaticabout starting a group coaching
model.
And I was like, okay, sure, takeit or leave it.
(42:17):
But in listening to you explain,both of you share how it's
lonely when you're in thisopportunity to take over a
business and there's a lot ofresponsibility, but there's not
always, you know, you don't getthe same friends at work kind of
support.
Sammy has started a groupcoaching program for those
emerging leaders.
(42:38):
An emerging leader does not haveto do with how old you are,
right?
Because we have people in thatprogram that are early, early
twenties.
And we have people in thatprogram that are much, much
older than that, right?
And that is an opportunity to beable to share in a safe space
and to be able to unpack some ofthose communication challenges
(43:00):
that can come from working in afamily business.
And it's not just for secondgeneration leaders.
It can also be for people whoare leaders in a family
business.
So someone that is looking tothey just have to navigate all
of those emotional challenges.
Those are also a really good fitfor your group coaching program.
SPEAKER_01 (43:22):
It's been a What if that wasn't true?
(43:43):
And I'm really feeling not thatthis is just about me.
I probably should be talkingmore about the person on the
other side and the client.
That's what all the marketingexperts say.
And I know you guys are all herefor the journey.
It's been really neat for me toget to sort of experience that
joy of coaching and getting tohelp watch people.
see tangible improvements intheir life.
(44:04):
So it's been exciting.
And thanks for supporting me andletting me try something new,
even though you're like, okay,sure.
I don't know.
Anyway, then when we talk aboutthe different ideas and all of
that, because I do really lovethe group coaching model.
It's not just that it'sscalable.
It's that I learn so much fromthe things that other people are
(44:25):
willing to say, and the thingsthat other people bring forward
as their challenges.
And I think that everybody canbenefit.
It's not just me as the expertin the front of the room.
It's the group and thecollective together growing and
improving.
SPEAKER_00 (44:39):
So that means that if you prefer one-on-one, we
have that option.
If you want a group situation,we have that option.
And all of those, we designedthis really...
When we talk about designingyour life and designing your
business, we live it.
So for us, we also have ourfamily business forum, which
(45:01):
looks like we're probably goingto shape up to have at least
twice a year.
And it's an opportunity forpeople in family business to
come together, to network, to beable to meet other people that
are in that same type ofbusiness and It's always growing
and evolving.
What I love is that our formatis that we, in the morning,
we're dealing with emotion andsoft skills and things that are
(45:25):
probably less practical, more onthat.
Well, soft skill, that's theeasiest way to say it.
And then in the afternoon, weare typically dealing with more
tangible, hard, practicalskills.
like AI in business, investingin leadership growth.
We'll have, again, have a paneldiscussion where we will hear
(45:49):
from other business leaders.
And so we've really been veryintentional about designing
those family business forums andwould love for you to join us.
Those are in person.
And so great excuse for you tocome to Northwest Arkansas.
And we have them in the springand in the fall, which are two
of the most glorious times tocome to Northwest Arkansas.
So we'd love to have any of youthat are in family
SPEAKER_01 (46:11):
business.
Join us.
We also, for this next upcomingevent, for the first time, we're
going to have the familybusiness awards.
So if you know somebody whomaybe you're not in the family
business at all, and you know,somebody doing great work and
that they are crushing it outthere, go to our website and
nominate them.
We'll make sure that all of thelinks are in the show notes and
(46:32):
we'll make sure that on the befreaking awesome website, you
can get to the family businessforum information as well.
Thank you guys so much forlistening.
We so appreciate every singleone of you tuning in each week
and being a part of our growthjourney and joining in the
community.
So until next time, we hope youguys go be freaking awesome.
Here at Be Freaking Awesome, we believe that life is
too short to be anything lessthan extraordinary.
Join us as we explore what itmeans to live authentically,
grow continuously, and have ablast while doing it.
Let's get started.
(00:21):
Welcome everyone to this week'sepisode of Be Freaking Awesome.
I'm one of your hosts, AmyKinison, here with Angela
Belford.
And today we are joined by dearfriend, business, client,
coaching, relationship, superfan, Jonathan Janicek.
And we're really excited to getto have a conversation with you
today, Jonathan, on our podcast.
(00:41):
I feel like you have been a partof the journey in a lot of
different ways and beenfollowing us and supporting us
in so many different things.
And so I'm excited to get tobring you here to this side of
the conversation and talk todaymore about second generation
business owners and those uniquechallenges that come with that.
SPEAKER_00 (01:00):
Uh, Jonathan also has another claim to fame, which
is that I finished my book justbefore his, uh, well, I say
finished, like it was stillneeded the final edit before he
got on a plane to go on theother side of the world.
And so I'm like, Hey, you needsomething to entertain yourself
while you're on like 18 hours offlights, nine hours, nine hours
back, whatever number it wasanyway.
And so he did read my book, afirst draft on a very long, uh,
(01:24):
transition.
And he's one
SPEAKER_01 (01:27):
of the endorsements on your latest book, Traveling
SPEAKER_00 (01:29):
Lane.
Yeah, absolutely.
SPEAKER_01 (01:31):
So
SPEAKER_00 (01:31):
welcome, Jonathan.
Thank you for joining us.
Do you want to tell us just alittle bit about you?
SPEAKER_03 (01:36):
Yeah.
So, well, first of all, thanksfor having me on.
Yes, I have been a longtimeclient of the Belford Group and
also coaching with Angela.
And that's something we'll talksome more about.
So a little bit about myself.
I grew up in kind of a typicalfamily.
My dad was an entrepreneur,started our business in 1987 as
(02:00):
a handyman, and continuouslygrew the company doing remodel
work.
So that's what we specialize inat Janacek Remodeling.
I started off when I was a youngkid, probably nine years old,
picking up nails, trash, I wasreally excited when my dad
(02:20):
decided that I wasn't reallyearning my keep.
In other words, my cost of mylunch every day tagging along
with him.
So he wanted me to be moreproductive.
So he offered to start paying me$5 a week.
And man, I thought, in fiveweeks, I can have a video game.
And that was my goal andintention.
(02:42):
I
SPEAKER_00 (02:42):
love it.
SPEAKER_03 (02:43):
So I kind of did this all during the summers and
high school and spring break andstuff.
And when I got into high school,I realized I didn't want to
sweat for my paycheck.
So I was going to go to college,went to college for one
semester, realized it wasn't forme.
And I came back home.
I worked in corporate Americafor two years and realized I
didn't like that either.
(03:04):
And so in the year 2002, Istarted remodeling with my dad,
swinging a hammer and slapping apaintbrush.
I started off just like everyother person would.
And the fortunate thing was mydad was not my supervisor.
So I had another supervisor Ireported to.
And that's probably why I stayedon for the first two years, at
(03:26):
least, because I didn't have toreport to him.
My mom was also part of thebusiness.
She did our bookkeeping andoffice management.
I slowly progressed to learn allthe trades, eventually started
doing a little bit of projectmanagement, and then I got into
sales, and sales led to designand estimating.
(03:49):
I did that for a while, and thenI went back to project
management, which I reallyenjoy.
until I grew enough that thecompany needed me to step into a
bigger role.
And so I became the vicepresident of operations about
six years ago.
And then three years ago, Ibecame the president of the
company.
(04:10):
And a little over a year ago, Ipurchased the business from my
parents and allowed them tofinally retire.
So that's kind of my whole storyin a nutshell.
SPEAKER_00 (04:20):
Hey, you know what I was thinking is, since we do
your website, I was thinking,ooh, I'm going to snippet that
video because that's thecleanest I've ever heard you
tell that story.
So we're going to snippet thevideo and add it on the About Us
page.
Bonus content.
That's full circle, all the wayfrom picking up nails at nine
years old to now the owner ofthe company, which I absolutely
(04:45):
adore.
And...
whenever I think about talkingthrough executive coaching, this
is exactly the, the situationthat so many second generation,
um, business owners findthemselves in, you know, like
I've done this literally.
I interviewed, we had a gal workfor us for a while that
(05:07):
interviewed her.
And she's like, I went to workfor my, my parents' company.
I think she was like seven,eight years old.
Yeah.
Doing the same thing you'redoing.
Because honestly, you know, yourparents would probably call it
babysitting.
They just didn't put you incamps.
You had to take a son to workday, right?
But that is quite a transition.
(05:29):
And talk through the guy thatwas your supervisor.
Has he stayed with the company?
Obviously, that's been a minute.
But let's talk about what that'slike for how first the other
employees treat you in thatjourney.
SPEAKER_03 (05:46):
Yeah, so I think one of the best advices that my dad
actually gave me when I startedwith the company was not to call
him dad, to call him by hisfirst name.
And that was a couple of areasthat that affects.
One, that your perception withthe team that you're working
(06:10):
with, when you start calling himdad, people see that there's
this favoritism and That's notsomething we really want to
happen.
You know, it's it's I wanted towork.
I didn't want to have I don'twant it easy like some people
get.
And I didn't want any nepotismgoing on.
And secondly, with our clients,it was kind of funny when I
(06:35):
would talk to clients and say,you know, Tim, this and Tim,
that people would start lookingat me and they'd squint their
eyebrows for a second.
They go, is he your dad?
And it was always kind of funnywhen they would get that moment
that they'd figure it out.
And I'd be like, yeah, he's mydad.
But this is how we maintain arelationship during the business
(06:57):
hours that we can havedisagreements and we can have
fights.
And for many years, our officewas right behind my parents'
house.
And so we'd have fights andarguments in the office.
And then we would go inside thehouse.
And as soon as the door closedin the house, it was like, OK,
father, son.
family time.
And it was a way for us todisconnect from being upset or
(07:22):
angry at something in a worksituation that we didn't bring
it to the Thanksgiving table.
SPEAKER_01 (07:29):
Jonathan, I do the same thing as well whenever
working with my parents.
And even on this podcast, thepodcast feels like the blend for
business and personal, which iswhy it gets weird sometimes
where I'll be like, Angela, whatdo you think?
Mom, what do you think?
I...
I also sometimes have noticedmyself now because I am still
(07:49):
actively working with myparents.
Occasionally I will use the namethat I use to indicate what kind
of response I'm needing.
And so one time I distinctlyremember being, I got off the
phone with a client and I lookedup at my coworker sitting next
to me and I said, Hey dad, Icould really use a moment to
(08:14):
debrief from that call.
And just, I just really needsome comfort right now.
And then can I talk to Barryabout what we need to do about
this call?
But like, I need, first I needdad and then I need Barry.
Can you help me with that?
And even Angela, I noticed thismorning, I was texting my
husband and I said, hey, AB saidthis thing about a weekend
(08:37):
thing.
And I was like, oh crap, I meantto tell my husband that.
mom said this thing about ourweekend plans.
Like, but AB is the textshorthand for Angela said, do
anything at work.
And so now I'm telling myhusband, AB said, we got to go
do this thing.
And I was
SPEAKER_02 (08:52):
like,
SPEAKER_00 (08:53):
anyway, in our, in our agency, um, if, if this is
the way we do things and you dosomething outside of that, as
long as you put per AB, thenlike, that's like the get out of
jail free card.
And I remember when, uh, causeit's like, you've taught,
somebody has talked to me and Ihave overridden the policy or
whatever, or vetoed the clientis typically where it is.
(09:18):
Well, I remember especially whenSammy started working, she's
like, he doesn't understand perA, B.
He thinks that this is still upfor debate.
I don't understand what ishappening.
The rest of the team is like,oh, per A, B.
Okay, done.
Let's go.
Anyway.
That's a
SPEAKER_03 (09:38):
good point.
I like that.
I'm going to have to put that into affect my business as well.
SPEAKER_00 (09:41):
Yes, it's super helpful because it's like, you
know, it's just a shorthand forI talked to Angela.
This is what she decided.
Blah, blah, blah, blah, blah.
And just pretty.
SPEAKER_01 (09:51):
Well, and then, Jonathan, my other thing that is
similar but different is I whenclients find out that I am
Angela's daughter, it takes themlonger sometimes it takes them
longer because I married andhave a new last name.
And then sometimes they look atme and it's like, it's uncanny
that you and the CEO of yourcompany like looks so similar.
(10:13):
And I was like, well, I don'tknow if it's uncanny or if it's
genetics because she is my mom.
Like I try to give them thequick out.
I'm not going to just be like,whoa, I wonder what you mean.
SPEAKER_00 (10:24):
Well, and you meet people networking all the time.
You're like, you seem sofamiliar.
And she's like, you probablyknow my mom.
I do know your mom.
SPEAKER_01 (10:34):
I have also had recently a couple of times, it's
at least been twice now, wheresomebody will be like, Sammy,
it's a pleasure to meet you.
I've known your parents for areally, really long time.
And I'm like, I always want toknow, what does that mean?
Does that mean we have a goodrelationship?
Does that mean we have a badrelationship?
I just need more context.
Like, I don't know.
A really long time.
(10:55):
Like, I don't get it.
I don't know how to...
okay, great.
Well, I have a new face, make anew relationship
SPEAKER_00 (11:00):
with me.
So, okay.
So that is how you guys, I askedhow employees treat you, but you
both answered how your parentstreat you.
Um, so is there any clarity onthat?
I liked you did hear, I heardyou say, I didn't want it easy.
Um, I don't know that we alwayshear that from, from owners
kids.
UNKNOWN (11:20):
Um,
SPEAKER_00 (11:21):
And that's what I call them.
Like there's preacher's kids,there's owner's kids.
Those okays, what are you goingto do about them?
Right.
And so talk about what that waslike.
SPEAKER_03 (11:30):
And I fall in that age group where, you know, I had
analog in my life and I haddigital.
And so I was able to blend thetwo together.
So I grew up in a time of like,you work hard to get things in
life.
Right.
And so that's where I've alwayslooked at it is, is I didn't
want somebody to just say, no,I'll do it for you.
(11:52):
Cause you know, the boss wantsme to do it.
No, I want to learn how to doit.
So that way I don't have to goask somebody next time.
Um, but the whole relationshipwith employees, I think is
really important to remember.
Um, you need to have someboundaries with them and, you
(12:13):
know, you as as a person thatwill one day hopefully maybe be
running the company you kind ofhave to like i can be associates
and i can be somewhat friendsbut i can't be like best friends
with employees and that'ssometimes a hard thing to to
transition especially when youenjoy the people you work with
(12:34):
but um really i've always triedto keep um a friendly work
relationship with everybody andnot take it to like, hey, what's
going on this weekend?
Let's go to a game together typeof deal.
It's been challenging, but alsoat times it's a little bit
lonely in that regards too.
I
SPEAKER_01 (12:55):
would agree.
I think that you don't get to bein the same category as every
other employee and it's okay.
It does come with advantages.
It means that you're more likelyto be consulted if there's a big
decision that the quote ownersget to be involved in.
And you're not an owner, you'rean employee, but the owners, AKA
(13:18):
your parents are more likelygoing to ask you for your
opinion and your take on things.
But you are right.
Like you're not going to get thejuicy gossip about everything
going wrong in the companybecause you are an insider on
the team, on the leadershipteam.
And I think that's fair.
I think that that makes sense.
I think that it is a downside.
(13:38):
It does make things a little bitmore lonely.
On the other side, you treat thework like it's your own, even
though it's technically not yourcompany yet.
Like I'm not doing shortcutsbecause I know the people who
I'm like screwing over are myparents and that's not what I'm
doing.
And, and I think like when I
SPEAKER_03 (13:56):
went, yeah,
SPEAKER_01 (13:57):
go ahead.
SPEAKER_03 (13:59):
Let's say at the same time, you're, you're
screwing over your future.
Right.
Right.
You know, it's like, this is oneday what you're going to be.
And, and I know like, Sammy is alittle different word for you at
the last name, not being thesame anymore.
But for me, it was like, this ismy last name.
SPEAKER_02 (14:15):
You know,
SPEAKER_03 (14:15):
it's not just my parents.
It's my extension.
And then maybe one day my son aswell, or my daughter.
Um, and those are those thingsthat you, you internalize a bit
more when you are an employee ofthe company and yeah, the child
of the company.
SPEAKER_00 (14:34):
Sammy used to love to say, um, Actually, they
weren't a group until it was me.
I'm the one that made them agroup.
They were the Belford couple.
I made them the Belford group.
SPEAKER_01 (14:45):
I mean, it is true.
I also think that I took thatmentality when I worked
elsewhere.
And that's probably what made mereally valuable during my
corporate days is that I didn'tknow anything different than to
treat the business like it wasyours.
That was just the way it was.
Of course, you're going to dothat.
And so I Interestingly enough, Ithen went into corporate being
like, no, we're not going toshortcut things.
(15:06):
Like we're screwing somebodyover.
Like somebody is going to seethis downside.
Of course, I'm going to do itthe right way.
Of course, I'm going to like be,I don't know.
There's just, it was an innatebuy-in to the company and not
everybody else had that.
And I'm trying to figure out howto say this in a way that
(15:26):
doesn't sound insulting topeople.
SPEAKER_03 (15:28):
You know, the expression of a company man, you
know, it's very far and fewbetween that I see that.
And, you know, obviously, unlessyou're the owner.
But when you do find that oneemployee that has that complete
buy-in, like, I don't care ifit's Friday night.
(15:49):
If it's something that has toget done for the betterment of
the company, we're going to doit.
And that's just like, In myposition, it was always that
way.
Every single day, it's I'm 100%company man, whatever there is.
And that's kind of the part thatit's oftentimes hard because you
(16:10):
want every employee to have thatsame mentality.
You want every manager, projectmanager to have that same
mentality about every singlething, but they don't.
And so you just have to acceptthat.
that you're not going to getthat out of every person.
SPEAKER_00 (16:28):
Well, and so since I, I'm going to pause y'all
because the, I happen to know,and I don't think I'm speaking
out of turn.
I think anybody that knows you,Jonathan knows that you struggle
with perfectionism.
And so do you, Sammy, Sammy'stalked about a lot on the
podcast.
Y'all both struggle withperfectionism.
And so how, where's the balancein that, um, idea of i you know
(16:56):
i don't want to mess up myfuture company i want to do it
just right it's friday night andthere's one more thing like how
have you what strategies haveyou learned so far because i
know you're both we're all onour journey right but what have
you learned so far to help youum not let that go too far
SPEAKER_03 (17:16):
yeah that's that's a great question what i One of the
things that you were saying thatI realized that is part of that,
I think, comes innately from notwanting to disappoint your
parents.
Oh, yeah.
And that, you know, I almostfeel that anybody that is
serious about being a part of abusiness just naturally has that
(17:39):
inclination to not want to dothat.
And there has to be a balanceabout that, about not projecting
your desires and your wants ontoevery single person.
And it takes a lot ofconversations and pushback
sometimes from the employees tosay, no, I've got plans.
I'm not going to be able to dothat.
(18:00):
And you being OK with that.
And then at
SPEAKER_00 (18:04):
times,
SPEAKER_03 (18:06):
yeah, absolutely.
And then, well, that's familyalso helps do that, too.
So my wife has been really goodabout that and saying, hey,
look, I know you got work to do,but your kids need to go to bed.
And they want their daddy timeto be able to put you down.
And I also believe that there'sphases of life that you can give
(18:27):
a lot more at certain phases.
And then you also have torecognize, all right, this is a
different phase of life.
I got to slow down andreprioritize.
I
SPEAKER_01 (18:36):
remember having a conversation once with my
husband that he and I said, bothof us likely would be just crazy
workaholics if we did not haveour family.
Like, what else would I do?
Like if I didn't have a familyto come home to, of course, I'm
going to stay at work till likeseven or eight because what am I
supposed to do?
Go home and like watch TV.
And so I can appreciate then theaccountability that my family
(18:59):
gives me to make sure to havebalance, to make sure I don't go
off the deep end.
And I think that point you madeabout disappointing your
parents.
I mean, like, oh, that is thegut punch for me.
I wrote an article that I'm veryproud got published in a fast
company magazine.
on their website specificallyabout, I was presenting a
project to my boss and then myboss said, nope, it's not good
(19:22):
enough.
It's not, it's not up to snuff.
I think is what she said.
She didn't say the words.
It's not good enough, butsuddenly I'm an 11 year old girl
hearing her mom tell her you're,this isn't enough.
And I disappointed you and allthese things.
And I'm like, I, it was veryhard to separate my boss telling
me you need to put more into it.
(19:42):
And my mom telling me, this, I'mdisappointed.
And it was like, oh my gosh, I'mgoing to break down now.
And I think that, I don't knowthat I have figured that out.
I don't know that I figured outhow to not disappoint my parents
or how to be okay with thepossibility that I could
disappoint them.
I'm in that, in the middle ofthat journey.
(20:02):
And I tend to now just workreally hard to try to not
disappoint them.
And that's my tool.
SPEAKER_00 (20:11):
Well, and I will say that I think that The advantage
you have, Sammy, is that becauseI am on my own journey of
workaholism and perfectionism,then I work extra hard not to
express that disappointment.
And I don't actually think Isaid up to snuff because that is
(20:32):
not something I do say.
But I think what I said wasthat's a great first draft.
you need to continue to developyour idea.
And she starts crying.
Not my brain, not my brain nerd.
No, sure.
And I mean, there's probablymore words to it, but I remember
sitting there and I was like, ifyou were an employee, I would
(20:53):
just sit here quietly with youand let you pull yourself
together because I have hademployees crying in my office,
26 years in business.
You know, that happens.
I'm like, As your mom, I want tooffer to hold your hand, give
you a hug, do whatever.
Can you please help meunderstand what you need right
now?
And it was weird what I, I'mjust going to brag on my own
(21:16):
growth because I tell plenty ofmessy middle stories on this
podcast.
I'm going to own a good one.
But I remember sitting there andjust knowing deep in my soul,
this was not me.
I didn't do this.
This is part of her journey thatshe had to go on.
And I could just sit therecalmly and quietly without the
(21:38):
voices in my head going, Oh myGod, you might do good.
You know, the next day Iprobably could have had the same
problem.
Like I could have had adifferent response, but it was
so peaceful in my body and in mymind to just be like, She's got
to, she, this is part of thejourney and this is part of what
she has to do.
Just stay quiet.
Don't try to fix this.
That's what my brain was doingwas coaching me.
(22:00):
Don't try to fix it.
Don't try to like, don't, don'twater down your opinion, like
hold to the standard.
Cause she, when she interviewedfor this job, she's like, I
don't want to be a nepotism.
higher.
And I'm like, well, if you don'twant to be a nepotism higher,
that means I'm not going to cutyou.
I'm going to hold you to thesame standards of excellence
that I do everyone, which by theway, is the antidote to
(22:22):
perfectionism.
People are like, but I go reallyhigh.
I'm like, no, no, no.
You have to define yourstandards of excellence because
you can't achieve perfection,but excellence we can achieve.
And, and I have, Really, that isthat's the journey for me is
like what what is excellent andwhat is too much and what am I
(22:45):
going to if I do this much more,how much more benefit am I going
to get or how much am I takingaway from my family at that
point?
SPEAKER_03 (22:54):
So I want to tell a little story about dealing with
your parents.
my company had the same logo forabout 25 years.
And the angel is laughing onthis one.
And when I took over to owner ofthe company, I realized like we
(23:16):
needed to change this logo.
Like it needed to be updated andmodernized.
And I think we went throughsomething like 15, 20 different
logos that the Belford Group haddrawn up for me.
Not
SPEAKER_00 (23:31):
normal.
Don't think that that's thestandard.
SPEAKER_03 (23:33):
No, it's not.
It was not.
And I paid for some of it.
But every time I would get acopy of the logo, I would choose
the one or two I really liked inthat set of four or five,
whatever it was.
And I would sit down with bothmy parents and I would say, what
do you think?
(23:54):
Because I wanted to honor andbring my parents into something,
even though it was mine.
I wanted to bring them into it.
And every time I would give themsomething, it was this feedback
or this feedback after somethingthat I had, you know, that we
had really worked on hard to getto somewhere where I liked it.
(24:14):
And I'd always get this feedbackor it was like, well, it should
have this.
No matter what you do, it shouldhave this in it.
And so we kept just trying tomake something happen.
And I think it was nine monthsinto the whole process.
Then I finally called up Angelaand I said, we need to have a
call.
(24:34):
And so we talked about it.
And I realized what it was goingon inside me is I wanted their
approval.
And I wanted them to be a partof it.
And I wanted them to be pleasedwith it.
And there was so much of thatjust wrapped up in this
(24:54):
childhood, you know, got to makemom and dad pleased with me.
And, um, we had a great coachingsession about it and I, I cried
a few times in the coachingsession just because it's a lot
of emotion that can come out insituations like that.
And you sometimes don't eventhink that, no, this has nothing
(25:17):
to do with my childhood, butthen like, yeah, there's some
stuff there that I'm, I'mstruggling with.
And, um, And so Angela went backto the drawing board, presented
me with a few more, and the veryfirst one was it.
We made a few minor tweaks toit, but it was the logo.
(25:37):
And that's where we're at todaywith this.
I'm very proud of it.
Every time I see it on my trucksdriving down the road, it gets
me excited.
But when I finally was happywith it, that's when I showed my
parents.
And I didn't ask them, what doyou think about it?
I said, This is the directionour company is going now.
(25:58):
And this is our new logo.
And, you know, it took a fewmonths, but my parents finally
gave me some feedback.
And they were like, yeah, it wasvery hard to receive that.
Because for so long, it was ourcompany, our logo, what we made
and what we as a couple, both myparents developed this logo.
(26:19):
And it was their identity.
And so now this is my, I know itsounds weird, but this is my
identity.
This is my business.
And it was probably one of thehealthiest things for me to be
able to do to kind of make thatbreak and identify it as mine
and not my parents, my parents,my parents.
(26:42):
But it took me 22, 21 years toget to that point.
of working in the business.
And everybody's path isdifferent.
You know, yours can be shortedto five minutes or, I mean, five
years or, you know, 30 years.
But it's a path.
(27:03):
And there's no shortcuts togetting through some of this
stuff.
You just have to wade throughit.
And it's not easy.
So that's my story about
SPEAKER_00 (27:14):
I love it.
SPEAKER_03 (27:15):
Parents and logos.
SPEAKER_00 (27:16):
Well, and I love it so much because I, because you
were a coaching client, I had somuch more patience than I
typically have for justmarketing consulting clients.
I also knew the clock wasrunning.
I'm like, that's fine.
Let's change it again.
Whereas typically we do apackage price.
And anyway, I was just like,okay, more bill of liars.
(27:38):
That's fine.
We'll work through it.
Also, I remember that sessionbecause It really highlights how
I like to what I like about kindof the new role that I'm taking
on, which is like I literallysaid to you, OK, I'm going to
take off my marketing consultanthat now
SPEAKER_02 (27:56):
and
SPEAKER_00 (27:57):
I'm going to put on your coach hat.
And and so I gave you thatmoment to switch gears and we
did have to dive into theemotion, which I love.
I love that we can be like superpositive.
strategic and practical and likelet's get this done and let's
set this up and then we can likego hang on time out new let's
let's let's address thisunderlying stuff first even
(28:20):
though things that you we don'tthink of that are impacting us
work through that and then we'relike okay I'm going to take my
coach hat back off and now I'mgoing to put my marketing
consultant.
And you were like, I think Ijust need to let you do your
job.
And I went, what a great idea.
Yeah.
So much about that session.
(28:41):
I love
SPEAKER_03 (28:42):
that session.
And I said, the only thing I'mgoing to give you for parameters
is it has to have my name in it.
Yeah.
SPEAKER_00 (28:51):
Well, that's funny story too.
Cause I used to, we used to, Iwould come in from client
meetings, new client meetingsand my, One graphic designer
just teased me and goes, didthey get to keep their name?
I was so notorious for beinglike, that name is dumb.
We're changing it.
Anyway, it's not that it's dumb,it's that it's ill positioned
(29:12):
for the marketplace.
And I would shorthand that too.
Anyway, so that was always thejoke.
Did they get to keep their name?
I don't even think I've renamedthat many businesses, but it was
enough.
So that was an importantparameter for you to put on me.
SPEAKER_03 (29:26):
Well, you know, the cost of having you go through
and do all those logos for me,all the revisions that you said
we were on the clock for,there's times in your life that
you're going to feel like afailure when you do those
things.
I never blamed the Velfer group.
(29:46):
It was me.
What I realized, and that wastherapy for me.
SPEAKER_00 (29:52):
It really was.
SPEAKER_03 (29:53):
That helped me get down a path of something I
didn't realize.
And I say that to also say thatyou're going to make mistakes.
We all make mistakes.
And sometimes those are cheaperthan going to therapy.
Sometimes they're a lot moreexpensive than going to therapy.
(30:13):
But we need to make thosemistakes and fall on our face
and learn from them.
And the hard part For parents,because my parents expressed
this to me later on after I'vehad some time away from my
mistakes, was the hard part forthem was to not rush in and want
to fix the problem.
(30:35):
To let me sit in that problemand deal with it.
And I give them so much creditfor that, of letting me make
those mistakes and not justcoming in and fixing them.
Like, you know, money can fixthings or, you know, taking over
and managing somethingthemselves can fix it.
(30:56):
But they're like, no, okay, itbroke.
What are you going to do to fixit now?
Yeah.
And sometimes that did requireasking them for advice, but they
wouldn't offer the advice unlessI asked for it.
SPEAKER_00 (31:09):
Yeah.
UNKNOWN (31:09):
Yeah.
SPEAKER_00 (31:10):
A few weeks ago, we had an episode with Cash from
Icon Foods, and I told the storythat I...
Sammy, you can make the samemistakes I did, but you have to
listen to what I did becausethings change.
And I was saying how one of thethings as a parent, especially
if you made an expensivemistake, it's very tempting to
say, no, we can't try thatagain.
(31:32):
We've tried it before.
And I have to be super cautiousto not...
to realize that technology haschanged a lot since I tried
something, that the world haschanged a lot since I tried
something, you know, business,all the things.
There's so many of the variablesof the experiment that I ran
(31:53):
that that didn't.
And so but if I made a bigmistake, I am and I had to pay
for it.
There is a higher cost of timeand thinking things through for
Sammy.
I try not to like.
I just don't like to pay for thesame mistake twice.
And so then on those particularinitiatives, she has to be a lot
(32:18):
more thoughtful.
She has to have thought things.
She has to have showed me provento me that her experiment is
different.
And here's the parameters thathave changed.
And this, whereas if there'ssomething that she wants to try
that I've never tried before,and wow, that's a good idea.
She might get just an easy.
Yes.
Sure, give it a try, especiallyif it's not going to cost a
(32:39):
whole lot of money and maybeit's just, oh, we're going to
invest some time and we'll givesomething a whirl.
So I think that as a as thefirst generation, as the parent
in this situation, be aware ofwhen you are tempted to say
like, no, no, no, I've triedthat.
It didn't work.
Things might have changed andfigure out for you what it is.
(33:02):
Cause you also don't want to getswing to the opposite side.
And well, just cause I tried it,go ahead.
You can try it now.
Well, they can make a stupidmistake because they don't have
your wisdom.
So, so find that balance.
And I would just say that, watchyour words to like being, I have
to be extra supportive in thosescenarios.
Because oftentimes I tellpeople, if we have a weird
(33:24):
policy, you don't understand, Ipromise I got screwed.
And so now there's a policy,like this is the process.
And so I have to be reallycareful not to bring the emotion
of that mistake I made, thatfailure I had, or how, you know,
it didn't work out to like thisconversation and make you guys
inadvertently feel bad aboutwhen all you're trying to do is
(33:46):
make the business better, youknow?
Well, and Angela, you
SPEAKER_01 (33:51):
are also kind of a visionary and often ahead of
your time.
And some of your ideas, you'relike, I tried that.
And I'm like, I know.
And you were like six years tooearly.
And if we try it again rightnow, I think it's going to
actually work, but you justlike, you wanted everybody to
use QR codes and you were reallyon that train and people were
like, I don't get it.
And now if you're not using a QRcode, yeah, 2010, you were out
(34:15):
there like putting QR codes onbusiness cards.
People thought that was sosilly.
And yeah, It was just ahead ofits time.
Like you were, you were thereearly.
So that's sometimes when
SPEAKER_03 (34:26):
I really want to say it.
Thank you for saying that,because that was something that
I wanted to bring.
Exactly what you said is whatsomething I wanted to bring up,
but it's more powerful comingfrom you
SPEAKER_02 (34:36):
than
SPEAKER_03 (34:38):
it is me because I saw those same things happen to
my parents.
Like, me wanting to do somethingand, and they're like, no, we've
already done that.
It failed.
This is the reason why.
And then there's almost like,yeah, but was there something
else going on that caused thatto fail that you're not looking
at right now that you can't seeyou just, you're internalizing
(35:02):
and feeling the failure of it.
And what do we do with failure?
We, you know, fight, flight, or,uh, yeah, fight, flight, or
freeze.
And, and, I'm trying to look atthis like, yeah, maybe you did
fail on it, but let's talk aboutthe parameters of what caused
that to happen.
So, A, I don't make that samemistake, but also what has
(35:24):
changed between now and then.
And there's another component tothis that I encourage parents to
keep in mind is that your kidsare going to fail.
It's going to happen.
And The hard part is to not holdit over their head, first of
all, especially when it costsmoney.
(35:46):
But secondly, giving them anopportunity to correct it.
And sometimes that opportunitymay not come right away.
It may take a while.
And I'll give an example formyself.
I was looking at a software forrunning our company or
construction projects.
And I was...
(36:07):
I was on board with this, and Iwas a little bit younger.
I don't remember, early 30s.
And the company said, hey, flyout here to Virginia.
We'll give you a three-day crashcourse on it, and then you'll be
all set up, and then you can goback to your company and roll it
out.
Well, the people I was trying toroll it out to was my dad, my
(36:30):
mom, and another project managertheir same age.
And the technology, barrierthere was pretty extreme.
And I did not know how to rollit out to them in a way that
they could understand.
And because as a millennial, itwas real easy for me just to get
(36:53):
into it and start using it.
And so honestly, we probablypaid, I don't know, out of
pocket five,$6,000 for thissoftware, plus my time to drive
there.
We fly there, hotels andeverything.
And it was just a waste.
And then about three years ago,I was like, hey, I want to do
this again, this other software.
(37:14):
And my dad was just like, areyou sure?
How are we going to do thisagain?
I said, well, first of all, allthese barriers that were there
are now removed.
And so I had to explain to himthe things I learned from the
first time to not make thosesame mistakes again.
And it was very helpful becauseit helped me be more intentional
(37:37):
with rolling it out this time.
And it's been a wild success.
We've had a lot of greatprocesses developed and great
results from it.
SPEAKER_00 (37:49):
That's awesome.
What a great example.
Well, and I think the technologychanges so fast that software
probably is even easier now thanit was then.
SPEAKER_01 (37:58):
And I just can't imagine, I was like teaching
family technology classes, itjust adds the extra piece to it.
It's the patience required toteach somebody how to use
technology.
And then that rope is alreadygoing to be a little bit shorter
when you just have more personalrelationships with them.
Yeah, a lot.
(38:20):
Jonathan, thank you so much forthe conversation today, for the
advice and the wisdom that youhave given.
I am sure that I needed to hearsome of the things that you had
to say today and I reallyappreciate it.
And I, I know we've said itbefore, but I appreciate that
you and I are in similar seatsin different timelines and
phases of it.
And so getting to sort of seeyour journey and learn some of
(38:42):
the things from you for my momto see the things that have
happened in your transition andlearn some things as well.
Um, All of those things aregreat.
Anyway, she's rolling her eyesat me.
She's rolling her eyes becauseshe thinks she's never retiring,
but at some point she'll betired of this.
But in any case, thank you somuch for your time and your
(39:02):
wisdom today.
We really appreciate it.
SPEAKER_03 (39:06):
I've learned a lot along my journey and I'd be
happy to sit down with a cup ofcoffee and talk to anybody else
that wants to go down this roadas well.
It's not for the faint of heart.
But the rewards of spending somuch time with my parents, you
know, when I look at my lifeversus my siblings, I see it
that I have spent more time withmy dad and my mom than anybody
(39:31):
else in the world has, exceptfor each other, you know, except
for them.
SPEAKER_01 (39:35):
Yeah.
SPEAKER_03 (39:35):
And so that's a blessing that I get to take with
me for the rest of my life.
SPEAKER_01 (39:39):
That's super cool.
Thank you guys so much forlistening today.
Don't forget to subscribe, like,and share.
And until next time, we hope youguys go be freaking awesome.
Angela, that was such a goodconversation with Jonathan.
Oh my gosh.
And I feel like he was likeprepped and ready to go.
Like I have lessons learned andwisdom that other people need to
(40:02):
know to get in on this.
And oh my gosh, it was really,really good.
I just loved it.
I wanted to follow up and letall of you guys know, listening,
if you are somebody who relatesto where Jonathan is at and
could really use somebody tosupport you in that transition,
wherever you are located, Angelais there for you and she can
(40:24):
help with that process.
And I know that sometimesself-promotion gets weird.
So we're going to take thebenefit.
Let me just tell you, Angela isvery good at what she does.
And she's very good at helpingpeople figure out the business
side of things, the emotionalside of things.
As she said, she'll put on thedifferent hat for the different
moments that are needed.
So if that's something thatyou're interested in, you're
absolutely welcome to reach outto us.
We would be happy to talk withyou more about what that looks
(40:45):
like and how you can get thesame kind of support and
somebody to come alongside youin that transition.
just like Jonathan did.
SPEAKER_00 (40:52):
Well, I'm glad you said that it's anywhere because
I, even people in NorthwestArkansas, they're like, no, no,
no.
I want to be face-to-facecoaching.
I'm like, I'm sorry.
I only do, I only do zoomcoaching.
And the reason why I do that isbecause especially when you are
doing emotional processing, Iwant people to feel comfortable
in their home or in their spaceor in their office.
(41:14):
I can't tell you how many timesI coached Jonathan where he
pulled over on the side of theroad.
We would have our call.
He's like, I'm so sorry.
I'm running late.
I'm just going to stop righthere.
This is our time.
I'm just like, you're hilarious.
Anyway, but I want people to bein their own space.
Because I think the one thingthat is good and bad of therapy
(41:36):
is that you create a safe spacesomewhere else in your
therapist's office.
And so I you can be anywhere andI will coach you and people
think it's not effective.
And, oh, you can't connect withpeople like you absolutely can.
I have done a lot of very deepemotional coaching work.
We're on Zoom.
I love it.
(41:57):
And you heard Sammy mention,Sammy and Jonathan talk about
how lonely it is.
And I would say that it wasn'tuntil today that I really
understood how passionate youwere.
You've always been very emphaticabout starting a group coaching
model.
And I was like, okay, sure, takeit or leave it.
(42:17):
But in listening to you explain,both of you share how it's
lonely when you're in thisopportunity to take over a
business and there's a lot ofresponsibility, but there's not
always, you know, you don't getthe same friends at work kind of
support.
Sammy has started a groupcoaching program for those
emerging leaders.
(42:38):
An emerging leader does not haveto do with how old you are,
right?
Because we have people in thatprogram that are early, early
twenties.
And we have people in thatprogram that are much, much
older than that, right?
And that is an opportunity to beable to share in a safe space
and to be able to unpack some ofthose communication challenges
(43:00):
that can come from working in afamily business.
And it's not just for secondgeneration leaders.
It can also be for people whoare leaders in a family
business.
So someone that is looking tothey just have to navigate all
of those emotional challenges.
Those are also a really good fitfor your group coaching program.
SPEAKER_01 (43:22):
It's been a What if that wasn't true?
(43:43):
And I'm really feeling not thatthis is just about me.
I probably should be talkingmore about the person on the
other side and the client.
That's what all the marketingexperts say.
And I know you guys are all herefor the journey.
It's been really neat for me toget to sort of experience that
joy of coaching and getting tohelp watch people.
see tangible improvements intheir life.
(44:04):
So it's been exciting.
And thanks for supporting me andletting me try something new,
even though you're like, okay,sure.
I don't know.
Anyway, then when we talk aboutthe different ideas and all of
that, because I do really lovethe group coaching model.
It's not just that it'sscalable.
It's that I learn so much fromthe things that other people are
(44:25):
willing to say, and the thingsthat other people bring forward
as their challenges.
And I think that everybody canbenefit.
It's not just me as the expertin the front of the room.
It's the group and thecollective together growing and
improving.
SPEAKER_00 (44:39):
So that means that if you prefer one-on-one, we
have that option.
If you want a group situation,we have that option.
And all of those, we designedthis really...
When we talk about designingyour life and designing your
business, we live it.
So for us, we also have ourfamily business forum, which
(45:01):
looks like we're probably goingto shape up to have at least
twice a year.
And it's an opportunity forpeople in family business to
come together, to network, to beable to meet other people that
are in that same type ofbusiness and It's always growing
and evolving.
What I love is that our formatis that we, in the morning,
we're dealing with emotion andsoft skills and things that are
(45:25):
probably less practical, more onthat.
Well, soft skill, that's theeasiest way to say it.
And then in the afternoon, weare typically dealing with more
tangible, hard, practicalskills.
like AI in business, investingin leadership growth.
We'll have, again, have a paneldiscussion where we will hear
(45:49):
from other business leaders.
And so we've really been veryintentional about designing
those family business forums andwould love for you to join us.
Those are in person.
And so great excuse for you tocome to Northwest Arkansas.
And we have them in the springand in the fall, which are two
of the most glorious times tocome to Northwest Arkansas.
So we'd love to have any of youthat are in family
SPEAKER_01 (46:11):
business.
Join us.
We also, for this next upcomingevent, for the first time, we're
going to have the familybusiness awards.
So if you know somebody whomaybe you're not in the family
business at all, and you know,somebody doing great work and
that they are crushing it outthere, go to our website and
nominate them.
We'll make sure that all of thelinks are in the show notes and
(46:32):
we'll make sure that on the befreaking awesome website, you
can get to the family businessforum information as well.
Thank you guys so much forlistening.
We so appreciate every singleone of you tuning in each week
and being a part of our growthjourney and joining in the
community.
So until next time, we hope youguys go be freaking awesome.
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