Have you ever met someone whose life radiates the possibility that comes from unwavering positivity and grit? Deb Wiegers, the co-founder of Wiegers Financial and Benefits, embodies just that. Her journey from a small-town girl to a successful entrepreneur is awe-inspiring. In this episode, Deb opens up about her fearless leap into the unknown with a can-do attitude that's contagious. From her early days of figure skating and retail work to co-founding her company, her story is a compelling illustration of how a positive mindset and resilience can revolutionize your life and career.
Confronting skepticism head-on and turning doubts into fuel for ambitions, Deb recounts pivotal moments of her life, such as the shift from a misaligned career path to flourishing in the insurance industry. Her candour about navigating the complexities of working with a spouse and evolving within a family business offers a real-world perspective that's as enlightening as it is practical.
Deb's insights remind us that change is a constant, but with a foundation of positive thinking and mutual respect, the path to success—with all its twists and turns—can be navigated with confidence and grace. Join us for a narrative that's rich with change, determination, and the indomitable power of positivity.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Welcome to.
So you Want to Move to theCountry and Raise Goats?
This is a podcast about change.
Change is all around us andsometimes we're ready for it and
sometimes we're not.
When it overwhelms us, well, wejust want to move to the
country and raise goats.
This podcast features storiesfrom people who have gone
(00:20):
through change.
We hope that their insightswill help you better understand
and deal with the changes inyour life.
I'm Peggy Koenig and, alongwith my co-host, katherine
Greiba, we chat with insightfulpeople with interesting change
stories.
We hope you enjoy our podcast.
Speaker 2 (00:43):
Vamp Uyghurs is our guest today today and she is the
owner of Wiegers Financial andBenefits, a company she started
with her husband.
She never could have guessed,and nor did she plan, that
success would look this way forher.
Deb grew up in Tisdale, a smalltown in Saskatchewan, where she
excelled at and coached, figureskating.
(01:05):
She didn't really have a planfor what she would do after
graduating from grade 12, butthat didn't stop her from
packing up a U-Haul and leavingon the last day of school.
Deb moved to Saskatoon withzero plans.
She had saved enough money tolive for a couple of months to
hold her over as she looked forjobs.
(01:26):
No job was too small for herand she went door to door
looking for employment.
But here's the thing While Debhad no concrete plan, no formal
education, no real supports, shehad made up her mind that she
was going to think positivethoughts and not negative.
She decided she had the choiceto think positive and put every
(01:50):
negative thought out of her head.
It was a decision that servedher well.
In our podcast, deb talks abouthow she became a self-made woman
, making the very best of thechanges in her life by deciding
on her training, working for acompany, starting her own
company and then taking a stepback as a business owner to
(02:14):
raise their four children andthen getting back into the
business.
Deb's story is one of changeand incredible resilience.
One of change and incredibleresilience.
Our guest today is Deb Wiegers,and Deb is one of the founders,
along with her husband, ofWiegers Financial and Benefit, a
long-standing, very successfulcompany in Saskatoon.
(02:37):
And, deb, I've known you for afew years.
We currently serve on a boardtogether but one of our
conversations that we had is Ilearned that you came from a
small town and quite involved inactivities in a small town.
So how did a small town girlfrom Tisdale make her way to be
(02:58):
an owner of a financial andbenefits company?
Fascinating.
Speaker 3 (03:02):
Well, you know, catherine, I think it started
with the fact that I knew I'dnever be able to work as a
waitress in a restaurant becauseI couldn't carry food nor
coffee if I tried, and I knowthat everybody used to feel
sorry for me, but I figured thatwas my first sign to say it's
time to exit a small town.
No, I'm laughing about that,but because we do, we do have
(03:24):
these standing jokes at home.
Do you know I'm laughing aboutthat?
But because we do.
We do have these standing jokesat home.
Do you know?
I think one of the reasons forme wanted to move away.
If you can remember, back tothe 80s I know I'm dating myself
Things weren't all that easy inthe work world and that's when,
unfortunately, a lot offamilies were sending their
children to Alberta and they'resaying there's just not many
(03:46):
opportunities, you know.
So that obviously is weighingon us.
I never did have any desire tostay in a small town, loved it,
loved growing up in a small town, met and had a lot of great
experiences.
But I think, like many, it wasjust.
There was so much more out there, and you know, my father was
(04:07):
probably my, my, I think mybiggest hero in that.
As much as we had our toughtimes at home, um, there was one
thing that we learned really,really well and if you want to
be successful and you want to beum able to, you know, carry on
and have a career, beentrepreneurial.
Entrepreneurial um, you need tofigure what that looks like,
and I think that's where I saidI'm not going to get it in a
small town.
I think I've got biggeropportunities somewhere.
(04:28):
I didn't know what they lookedlike, I had no idea.
I just waited to jump into thewater.
Speaker 2 (04:33):
So you finished high school and then you just knew
I'm not staying in Tisdale, notmarrying the local farmer, not
going to be a career waitress insmall town Saskatchewan.
So did you move to Saskatoon?
Speaker 3 (04:47):
The last day of school Literally had the U-Haul.
In fact, I think that was ourgraduation gift we had a U-Haul
and it was parked on thedriveway and I took whatever
belongings I had, which was allof just a bedroom, my two by
fours that made my bookshelf,and I just said I'm just going,
(05:09):
I'm going to figure this out,and I stayed with my sister for
a little bit of time and then Iwas able to, you know, find a
little space on Victorian MainStreet and happy to say that I
just absolutely loved the wholesense of just being independent.
It was amazing.
Speaker 1 (05:27):
So, Deb, I mean I find it so funny that you got a
U-Haul for your graduation.
When I graduated, it was awhole set of luggage.
Speaker 3 (05:39):
Isn't that the truth?
It was one or the other.
Oh my gosh.
Speaker 1 (05:42):
Yeah.
So this, this little seed of,was there a seed for
entrepreneurialism, back whenyou were growing up, like what,
what was your like as a child?
Did you see other businesspeople around you?
Like what got you interested inthat?
Or maybe you didn't getinterested in that right away.
(06:04):
It was much later.
Speaker 3 (06:06):
You know I think Peggy would have been later I
think one of the things that Iprobably would put a lot of
weight on in terms of thingsthat I've learned along the way
was the experience I had withthe skating space, right?
So when I say that, you knowwhat I mean.
I was, I think, 10 years oldwhen I went home from school and
they were sending up the littlenotes and I said, hey, mom and
(06:28):
dad, I'd like to figure skate,because what else do you do in a
small town?
It's hockey or skating, right?
I was excited to reallychallenge myself, to want to be
able to advance in the skatingspace.
I was very okay.
It was a little bit stressful,but when you went out to summer
camps and you stayed withdifferent families, right, and
(06:49):
you were billeted, I think Ijust look at all those things as
an experience and every timeyou took one of those steps, it
just further created theconfidence that you could take
the next step, whatever thatnext step might look like.
So the teaching, the figureskating teaching, was one big,
bold step, in that I always sayit wasn't difficult working with
(07:12):
the children, it was thedifficult part working with the
parents and how do you managethese relationships and how do
you start to have, you know,these conversations?
I mean, you're with your littlechildren on the ice, so pretty
sensitive conversation, right.
So I think, the more I got tolearn that I had that ability to
converse with people, it reallytook me to some of those next
(07:33):
steps without even reallyknowing that that was going to
take me somewhere.
And, to be honest, my retailspace the time I took in doing
retail, selling clothes, it'sjust that, in combination with
teaching and working with theparents and the children,
started to make me realize thatI had an ability to create
relationships.
(07:54):
So where it would take me atthat moment in my life I had no
idea.
I just knew that I had theability to connect and create
relationships.
Speaker 1 (08:03):
That's so interesting , deb, because I, you know, I
always tell young people that asthey're sort of working their
way through some of those jobsearly on, there are just so many
things you can learn, you know,from selling clothes, from
getting involved in the skatingclub, and it sounds like those
(08:23):
are things, those types ofactivities really helped you
realize what your gifts werelike, what you were really good
at yeah, absolutely, and evenyou know it's funny because the
laughing joke is uh, back in thedays when they had the max
confectionery, I don't know, isthere even a max confectionery
open anymore?
Speaker 2 (08:40):
I don't know yeah I think there's.
I think there might be one, notmany though.
Speaker 3 (08:45):
I was on.
I was on the west side of thecity by myself and doing all
those functions right.
You opened up in the morning,you cleaned, you washed up the
washrooms, you stocked theshelves, you worked the till you
cashed out.
You did all those things,locked up and went back and did
the same thing and I thoughtwhat a great way to learn a lot
of things in one space and tolearn that you have the
(09:09):
capability to do that right.
Speaker 2 (09:13):
You know, deb, and it sounds like you never, ever
thought that a job was beneathyou, that you were never just
working at a confectionery, youwere learning merchandising, you
were learning stocking, youwere learning stocking, you were
learning cash control All thesethings that would serve you
well going forward, and I thinkthat's such a positive mindset
(09:33):
to have, and is that part ofyour DNA, your positive outlook
on life?
You're looking for what you cando and what you're not, what
you're not doing.
Speaker 3 (09:44):
I would.
Yes, Catherine, I would thinkso.
I mean, hey, don't get me wrong, I have my days where I'm just
like you want to close thecloset on me too.
But one of the things that youknow, we've always learned and
even when I got into theinsurance space and just the
whole idea of the positivemindset is what your brain can
do, and your brain can only haveone of two thoughts.
(10:06):
It's either going to have apositive thought or it's going
to have a negative thought.
So you know what we do?
A lot of amazing things when itcomes to our mental well-being
and the tools and resources.
But I always tell even mychildren I said, brain can only
take one or two thoughts,positive or negative.
So if you're going to give it anegative conversation,
conversation, it's going to takeyou down a negative path.
Every see everything you see infront of you.
You're going to look at itnegatively.
(10:28):
If you're going to have apositive thought, it's going to
take you down a positive paththat come natural to you, or do
you?
Speaker 2 (10:35):
do you work at that?
Do you?
Are you mindful and consciousof any negative thoughts that
pop into your mind?
Are you or that's just reallynatural to you to do that?
Speaker 3 (10:48):
um, I think it's something I probably learned to
get better at harnessing overthe years, when I was a young
teenager.
I mean, let's not kid ourselves, teenager life is tough.
You start to learn a lot ofthings, it's scary, you make
mistakes, you're hard onyourself, um, and I think, um,
for me, uh, I could have takenmyself down that path, and
(11:10):
sometimes I I did.
But what I did realize is thatI and I would always, you know,
talk about it.
You know, when I say to my kids, I said, I think about myself
being in the well.
And I said you know, you canallow yourself to go down the
rope, but the minute you let gois the minute you've given up.
And I said so it's up to you tohave all the strength you can
to climb back up that rope, andso you have to do that.
(11:33):
You have to get back up to go.
Okay, I did this.
It made sense.
At home, our space wasn't overlypositive.
Growing up in the family world.
My father was a farmer, so youcan only imagine how things
would get quite stressful atcertain times of the year, and
(11:54):
he didn't have any familybackground and finance support
to get him through that.
So I think maybe, looking atthat, it was almost like I don't
want to be that person.
I don't want to be that personbecause it drains me and I don't
want people to look at me going.
You're draining me now.
(12:14):
I got to move away because wecan make those choices today,
right?
Speaker 1 (12:20):
So, deb, a little earlier you said something that
sort of caught my attentionabout how you realized how much
you loved independence, how muchyou loved independence.
So when you came up toSaskatoon, did you come up to go
to university or did you comeup to get a job?
Like, how did you thrive inthat independent environment?
Speaker 3 (12:50):
I had zero plan, peggy.
I had zero plan.
All I know is I saved enoughmoney from my figure skating
days that I could payroll myselffor a couple of months.
And I came up to the city.
And well, first I came upwithout moving all my furniture.
I payrolled my way to find anapartment.
I said, first things first Igot to find a place to live.
(13:10):
So I lived on my sister's couchfor a while.
That's not going to last long.
And then I found my apartmentand then I furnished it with my
bedroom furniture.
So in other words, I had noliving room.
I did not have a kitchen table,I mean.
But why did you need all thesethings?
I just had a bed.
Life is grand.
My clothes were all good, andthen I, just, in the back of the
(13:33):
days, the star of phoenix.
I just started looking for jobs.
I just started looking for jobs.
I was teaching skating forabout three seasons and it's
only winter time, right.
So then I would pack my stuffup.
It will go to the city.
I would try to find a full-timejob.
Very tough in the 80s.
I tried a little bit in Regina,but I did want to make
Saskatoon my home and then Ijust honestly, I went door to
(13:56):
door, I went everywhere.
So that's how I managed withthe job for the um federated and
I was able to get a temporaryjob.
I was happy with that.
It was just the first step.
I needed to get to the nextstep.
Speaker 1 (14:10):
Do you have any support surround you to to get
you through all of this, to keepyou propped up or did like was
there family around or did youhave a lot of friends around
Like?
What were your supports?
Speaker 3 (14:24):
Zero and I'm not and I don't want to make this the
wow, Wow, Like this is.
I want to tell me you can do it, If your mind is made up that
you can do it.
I didn't have someone thatmarched me to the bank to figure
out how to get a bank.
I just had to figure this stuffout.
I even bought my first car andI went and this is I went and I
got a standard and I wasprepared to put my loan together
(14:50):
for my first car.
But I've never drove a standard.
But I liked that car.
I even had the salesman take meout at Milo Honda down by
Costco.
I went out there on the backroad and he taught me in one
hour how to drive a standard andI drove away with the new car.
So I don't.
And then his tip was just makesure when you hit hills don't
(15:12):
get nervous when everybodystarts to honk at you.
Just stop, Just take a breath,Start all over again.
But honestly, I don't.
I didn't.
My mom just kind of.
You know she had her own thingsthat she was working on.
My dad was too busy running hisbusiness.
My sisters and I have a littlebit of a uh, a challenging
(15:32):
relationship, um, and so youknow what it was?
kind of just a sink or swim,that's really what it was for me
, yeah so how did you?
Speaker 2 (15:43):
because there must have been, because sounds like
you swam a lot, but there musthave been a few times when you
thought, how am I gonna do this,this, how am I going to keep
going or not?
Did you just?
That was never an option not tomake it.
Speaker 3 (15:57):
It just wasn't an option.
I mean, my father was, you know.
I just didn't want the stringsattached to it.
He was prepared to send me toSaskatoon and pay for my
education, but I just didn'twant the strings.
So Debbie would rather do itthe hard way, and so I came to
Saskatoon.
When I got my job at Federatedthey allowed me to take classes
and get reimbursed if I passed.
So I started businessadministration, got that down
(16:22):
and then slowly found my wayinto the insurance business,
which is in itself a veryinteresting story.
But it's almost that you had tokind of take the attitude that
where you are at that point inlife, it it's going to take you
into places and maybe, for lackof a better word, you manifest
it Right and you, just becauseit wasn't about getting up in
(16:42):
the morning and go like, oh myGod, I feel like a loser.
I think I'm going to go backhome and live with mom and dad
and work in the restaurant.
It just was never.
It was an option that given tofrom my parents.
It's just an option I neverwanted.
I wanted to move forward.
Speaker 1 (16:58):
So, if I can summarize, I mean, you are a
self-made woman.
You, you did this based on yourdrive, your, should I say,
stubbornness stamp.
Should I say?
Speaker 3 (17:16):
Probably a little bit of that Feisty.
I like the word feisty.
Speaker 1 (17:21):
Yeah.
Do you think there's still roomin this day and age for people
to actually do those things?
Can you still do?
Speaker 3 (17:29):
that I would so want to see, that I think that's the
thing that we've lost is, youknow what, when you you girls
know, when you accomplishsomething, that just that
feeling, but that pride that youhave instead of thinking, why
should I have to?
Right?
Right, the world will take careof me, perhaps the parents will
take care of me, perhaps Ideserve more, perhaps, but
(17:52):
wouldn't you want to mastersomething and and have the
ability to take pride in that?
Because that, to me, is whatpushes you to that next step.
And I always, you know, thinkback to the insurance days and
the strangest, how I got there,but I my.
One word that I always came outof that was that.
You know, I never did like theword persistent, because that's,
of course, in the insurancespace, you get that but I had
(18:14):
tenacity.
I was persistent, but I hadtenacity.
I had the desire to want tojust keep moving forward and it
just was.
You know what.
Not that I had a vision boardor anything, it's just my vision
was success, whatever thatlooked like.
Speaker 2 (18:34):
Right.
So you didn't set out by saying, oh, my goal is, I am going to
be, I'm going to found, find andown a financial and benefits
company.
That was not.
It wasn't that defined.
It sounds like you took Firstof all, you got your business
admin, and then you moved to thenext step and the next step and
(18:54):
you just knew it was going tobe success, whatever that looked
like.
Speaker 3 (18:59):
Totally, I was jumping straight in there.
And you know what?
Again, I always say, whereveryou were, you know what Either
make a decision whether you wantto be in that space.
If you don't, it's only you canmove you out of that space.
And so I had a great five yearsat Federated, because they did
eventually get me on full timeand I was able to move into a
fairly nice salary range andthere was benefits and all those
(19:22):
awesome things that come alongwith it.
Right, it just wasn't me.
I'm a terrible employee.
I like to do things my way.
I don't have any problemworking hard.
I, I'm a terrible employee.
I like to do things my way.
I don't have any problemworking hard.
I just like to work hard on myterms, right?
So I knew that our worlds justweren't jiving.
You have to remember, I grew upin an entrepreneurial, you know
spirited space, so that didn'twork really well in a unionized
(19:45):
environment either.
I just couldn't.
It doesn't make sense to me.
So when?
I you'll probably laugh at this.
So I I had met my level offrustration and physically it
was starting to impact my healthfor sure, and, uh, I decided
after work on a Friday I wasgoing to go next door to the
article dodger with my friendsbecause we were in the mailing
and the stationary departmentand I'd met a lot of friends
(20:07):
before I moved up intoaccounting and we went to the
bar and after a few cocktails Ijust started to share my not so
happy with the world story.
Right, and they just looked atme, this individual, and just
handed me a card and he said yougo see this guy, he'll give you
a job.
Well, when you hear that in thedays where jobs weren't easy to
(20:31):
find, you went, why not tryright, right and and and so, in
my experience, in going to thisnext step, not knowing anything
I didn't even know, catherine,it was insurance.
All I saw it on there was, Iwouldn't say the insurance
company, it just said aninsurance company had no idea
what I was setting myself up for, to be honest, um, and what I
learned in those couple ofinterviews with this individual
(20:54):
is that I needed to be tougherand stronger and there was no
way and excuse my words and hellthat he was going to tell me I
wasn't going to have a career inthis space because I was going
to show him and that was mymission is to show him that you
know what in this space, I mean,you might think it's all about
men.
(21:15):
You might think it's all aboutpeople that are older than the
22 year old.
You might think that justbecause I don't have a natural
market, that I'm going to fail.
But when you, when you said youdidn't think I'd make it, and
my brain I said, oh no, I'mgonna make it it.
And every time I see you at anevent I'm gonna smile.
Actually, that's what I'm gonnado.
(21:37):
So and I know he knows that andif I could, if I could find him
today, I would send him a cardand say thank you very much for
telling me I wouldn't make it,because that's what turned my
jets on, not for everybody, butthat worked for me, yeah yeah, I
also get a sense that, uh, you,you developed a really um in
(21:59):
tune.
Speaker 1 (22:00):
you were very in tune with yourself as far as
self-awareness.
Like you knew, you knew whatyou didn't like, you knew what
you liked, you knew what youdidn't like, you knew what you
liked, you knew what you wanted,right.
And it was sort of like thosethings were the wanting, liking,
knowing yourself, and thosejust all move together for you
(22:25):
and that's just really whatyou're.
Well, I guess that's what yourvision was, because that's
really what drove you right, theself-awareness.
Speaker 3 (22:34):
Well, and one of the things you know, and I'm sure
many can relate to this, is,unfortunately, my mom and dad
didn't have the greatest ofrelationship, so there was just
a lot of turmoil at home, and itwas that's why the sooner I
could move away from that, thebetter I would be as a person,
because it was difficult, forsure.
And my mom when they did, whenI left school, my mom and my dad
(22:59):
separated and it was a nastyseparation for a period of years
because it involves land andproperty, and to this day my dad
will say it wasn't supposed tobe that way, right, I mean, he
understands that this wasn't thebest thing with the children he
was raising either, but my momnever was able to stand her on
two feet right.
(23:20):
He was the guy she quit school,she raised us, but when it came
time for her to move on, shehad nothing to move forward on
and I I said never going tohappen.
I said I will always beindependent, I will always take
care of myself, I will never bedependent on somebody else.
I tell my daughters that I meanrelationships.
(23:40):
Yes, you need to make them work, but in the same token, do you
know that someday, whether youplanned it or not, you might be
on your own.
So what are you going to doabout it?
And I think that was part of mydrive is, I would never want to
have been as vulnerable as mymom was at that time, because at
that time she was a young woman, she was only 46 years old, she
(24:04):
had lots of life to live andshe didn't.
You know, go out after notworking for you know, 15, 20
years, and then try and find ajob not easy she really was a
mentor to you in a way of thisis what I'm not going to do.
Speaker 2 (24:20):
Yeah, yeah, really paid that for you.
Yeah, it's not, it's notfascinating.
So you worked in insurance andobviously were successful of it
because you proved him wrong,and so how do you move from
working in insurance?
Do you then just kind of seethere's an opportunity here to
(24:41):
start a business, and we're justgoing to start?
I highly doubt that you had afully fleshed out business plan,
deb, just from what you'retalking about, to be able to
step into, you know, buying orcreating a business.
But maybe you did.
I don't know zero.
Speaker 3 (24:57):
It's a zero again.
I know I don't have the bestmaster plan in life.
I don't know this, that I'mteaching my kids just like jump
out there and see what happens.
So all I knew, all I knew isthat when he said, the harder
you work, the more money you'llmake, I went sounds like a great
plan, okay, tell me more, right?
(25:19):
And so, um, when I did go in, Ididn't.
I did.
Obviously, through the fewinterviews I do have to add in,
one of the things that thisgentleman had told me also was
that because I was female inthis space, I would never make
it, and that was probably mybiggest motivator, having come
from some of the history thatcame from.
But anyways, I think that youknow what ended up happening is
(25:41):
that when we got there, I gottrained up as everybody would be
on the general insuranceselling process, call it that to
then obviously meet Cliff a fewyears later Well, shorter than
that, I guess, but we workedtogether for a couple of years
and I think at that time,catherine, that's when I started
(26:01):
to create a plan, because Isaid, okay, it doesn't make
sense that him and I are workinga parallel career because at
some point in time one of us isgoing to have to stay home with
children and we can't both beworking night market, which back
in those days that's what theinsurance space was.
Right.
You called and you wanted to gosee, you know, jane and Bob and
the two kids.
At seven o'clock at night Isaid one of us is not going to
(26:23):
be able to do this.
The other part of that was, Iguess maybe maybe it's part to
my ADHD is that I look forquicker results.
You know, this process was Imaybe for lack of.
I didn't have the patience tokind of follow this process.
I just wanted to meet somebody.
Let's talk about what it iswe're talking about and let's
(26:45):
let's fix you and let's move onand we'll find the next
opportunity.
And in the business space youcan do that a bit more Right,
and I could work a daytimemarket and I actually started by
default to really realize thatI loved the space, the lane that
I'm in today.
My discipline call it thatdoing employee benefits and
(27:06):
consulting in this space, inthis space only.
So that's really what I feelkind of created the organization
to have disciplines, not to allof us be doing the same thing,
but to rather be saying this isthe space you're great at, cliff
, you're great in the financialplanning space, right, the other
ones we put into spaces andstay in a lane that you're
(27:27):
exceptional at and then allowthe company to grow by virtue of
the fact that we'recollaborating or, as we say,
share a wallet.
Speaker 2 (27:37):
So how big a change was that for you when you were
used to running your own show.
I mean, you worked as hard asyou needed to to make the money
and you were in charge of yourown destiny.
And now you're married and youhave a company, and you're not
the only sheriff in town.
What was that like?
Speaker 3 (27:55):
There must have been some shifts there some shifts
there, usually shifts, um, whatwe did realize at the beginning
and then we kind of strayed away.
But we're kind of bringing itback, actually even today,
because cycle of life brings inraising four children, right.
So when we started we reallyjust I took on this the benefit
space and I kind of took on alittle bit of the marketing
(28:15):
space and clipped in thefinancial and he worked with
clients on the financialplanning space.
So we were almost in our ownlanes.
There was things that we had tocome together and discuss.
So I think the difficulty iswhen he'd want to step into the
marketing lane and I'd want tonot that I ever really desired
much to step in the financiallane.
(28:36):
So there's things that we stillhad to come together on and I
think that's where our conflictswould be obviously right.
Sometimes you can agree todisagree.
Sometimes it's like no, I thinkthat this is where my expertise
is not yours.
So, yeah, stay back right andand.
And I think that obviously itchanged a lot, probably after
(28:57):
the kids were older, becauseduring the period of raising
four children I did need to stayin my career path but I
couldn't be working at the hoursI could before, right.
So I would rely on Cliff to kindof be there to kind of drive
some of those other things and Ijust stay focused on my clients
.
So by default, he kind of wentrunning the show, right.
(29:22):
And then Deb comes back in kidsare older.
Deb comes back in and says Idon't know if I like the way
we're doing this, right, and nowI'm looking a little bit more
like uh, like a little bit ofdisturber, um, but I needed to
get back in.
I think that was our mostchallenging time is that all of
a sudden I come back in and saywait a minute, my, my, I see it
(29:45):
differently and and here's how Iwould like to proceed in this
area and I think that was hardfor him because he was a man
that is very a driven used torun in the show Right.
Speaker 1 (29:59):
So there's some weaning to be to be done so, deb
, it sounds like you and Cliffnever had that conversation, um
prior to you know the kidscoming along.
It just sort of evolved thatway until it wasn't working
anymore when you came back.
(30:20):
So there was never aconversation, it was just sort
of an evolution that happened.
Speaker 3 (30:26):
An evolution that had I not wanted to get back into
the business to the degree andthen like more so, I would have
just kind of just kind of gonealong for the ride.
Right, I'm in this littledepartment, I don't really have
a lot to say.
I can maybe put my hand up oncein a while, but then when I
really wanted to own some ofthose decisions, because I felt
(30:49):
that my brain worked in thatspace better, that's when I
think we had to really take astep back and it just be
probably in the last, like evenfive years, you know, because
I'm now able to focus entirelyon the business, right?
So, um, like this is a standingjoke, I tell Colton I said,
(31:09):
although you're the CEO, youhaven't got rid of me that fast.
Speaker 2 (31:14):
I'm still around.
Speaker 1 (31:15):
I got things to do, yet it's interesting that the
business evolves along with thelife cycle, like with the family
life cycle.
So they've sort of you know,they just sort of evolved
together.
When you had the kids, thingschanged at the business.
When you came back, thingschanged at the business.
Speaker 3 (31:50):
So there is.
It's sort of an interesting ebband flow that I think a lot of
people with family ownedbusinesses may or may not think
about when they first step downthat road that there are going
to be changes.
Yeah, absolutely, Peggy, and Ithink you know it's.
There is no cut and dry Likedepends on the day, depends on
the week, depends on what'shappening at the home front.
If we've got teenage problems,it takes us both to come back
into the family, right?
And you know, and we had alittle bit of a you know kind of
our lanes I guess call it thatbecause I would always be the
(32:11):
one in the morning.
I was always there to say I wantto spend my time with my kids.
In the morning, I go to thework, I work.
A little later I come home andhe'd run in the house about nine
I would take off to the gym.
Right, we had this thing goingright.
And, and because that was mysanity, right, because I went
from kids to work to home, now Ineed to go to the gym and burn
(32:32):
off a little stress and Debbiecould eat a a bowl of popcorn at
an incredibly slow rate,because it wasn't until the
popcorn was gone, the kid, theclip, went to bed, right Cause I
got that two hours to myselfand and that's about all I got.
So I think that that moment Ididn't have the capacity to take
(32:55):
anything else in.
It's when now I start to ownsome of my end of day.
Kids are older.
Now I can spend a little timeat the office, I don't have to
worry about their lunch beingmade.
They're big kids, they can doit, and I wanted to teach them.
As much as I love my kids,because I have three girls and
one son, I wanted to teach mygirls that you too can do this.
(33:18):
It's not easy some days, butyou can do that.
You need to choose to want todo it, right.
But if you want to stay homefull time, you can do that too.
But don't let society make youbelieve that you have one path
to take and only one path,Because, as you well know your
parents, there's always thatguilt thing that goes with women
I should be at work, no, Ishould be at home.
(33:40):
No, I should be at work, Ishould be at home, Right.
We have this constantconversation with ourselves and
I said I think we've got torelinquish that guilt and and
otherwise it's.
You know it's counterproductive.
Speaker 2 (33:51):
Right, so true, so you're right now going through
another shift where your, yourbusiness structure is changing.
You're, you're turning, your,your son has become the ceo of
the company.
You're still involved, but thethe idea is I understand it is
that you'll be, you know, kindof take being less involved so
that you can move into,eventually, full retirement, and
(34:12):
so you're, it sounds likeyou're just starting that, that
whole path I think we've beendoing it a little bit.
Speaker 3 (34:19):
The biggest thing that I said about about being
self-employed and entrepreneuris I have no problem working my
butt off, but when I want toflex my time, that's what I am
working hard for, because I liketo flex around.
What works best for Debbietoday, if it's 30 degrees out
(34:41):
and I want to hop in the car andgo to the lake early, I want to
be able to do that.
So that's why we needed someonelike Colton to help manage that
operations side, to make surethat everything was you know,
you know was working.
They didn't need me here, but Ihave obviously a role and I
have a responsibility and youknow what, in today's space's
space, I mean we can connectwith our clients in a lot of
(35:02):
different ways.
So, yes, love the one and ones,but I also know that we can now
take a zoom call from the youknow another place right and and
so, um, for me it was moreabout being able to have the
flexibility to, to move into.
I wouldn't even want to call it.
I say to me I always thinkretirement is a word for people
(35:23):
that really don't like whatthey're doing today.
Because you're retiring, wouldyou retire from something you
love, or would you retire fromsomething that tires you or
stresses you or drains you?
Because if you love what you do, then to the perfect world is
to make it fit so that you canstart to enjoy some of those
(35:45):
retirement things.
But I can golf when I'm 30.
I don't have to wait till I'm65 to golf, right, I just might
want to golf a little bit more,right, yeah?
Speaker 1 (35:56):
And that makes sense.
I was going to ask you, like Ijust like, what does retirement
look like for Deb Wiegers I, youknow, the word retirement just
isn't the appropriate word atall.
Speaker 3 (36:08):
I just, I just.
To me it brings a negativeconnotation.
It's like I just, I see, we seeit, we see it in our space.
People that have worked hitthis magical, magical age and
either their health is gone orthey just aren't happy because
they don't even know what it isthey're going to do when they
wake up in the morning.
Right, some people have itfigured out.
(36:31):
I've got a girlfriend and sheabsolutely loves to sit at her
easel and paint all day long.
Good for you.
I can only walk so many hours aday, so I can't walk for eight
hours.
Right, I need to do otherthings that will stimulate the
brain and and so this is why Istill find that being at work
allows me to still stay mentallyactive and, in the spaces that
(36:56):
I can refine, to enjoy most, notall of it, I mean.
I mean, we don't have jobs orcareer paths that are perfect.
There's always going to bethings, but if the majority of
that is stuff that stimulatesyou and keeps you wanting to do
it, then I feel that I've beensuccessful.
Speaker 2 (37:16):
Fascinating, Deb.
This has been fascinating.
Thank you so much for sharingyour story with us.
I had no idea on some of this.
It's absolutely wonderful.
So thank you very much.
It's been a really lot of fun.
Speaker 3 (37:30):
Well, thank you, Gals .
I appreciate the opportunity toshare and maybe next time we'll
do kind of part two over aglass of wine, because I walk
for stress release.
But I also have a coupleglasses of wine for stress
release.
So there you go.
Speaker 1 (37:55):
Thank you.
Please subscribe on Apple orSpotify and share with a friend
this episode recorded via Zoomaudio.
Producers Peggy Koenig andCatherine Greiba.
Executive producer.
Koenig Leadership Advisory.
Theme music La Pompe, writtenby Chris Harrington.
Music publisher Envato Market.
(38:16):
For information on this podcastand to purchase some fabulous
goat merchandise.
Welcome to.
So you Want to Move to theCountry and Raise Goats?
This is a podcast about change.
Change is all around us andsometimes we're ready for it and
sometimes we're not.
When it overwhelms us, well, wejust want to move to the
country and raise goats.
This podcast features storiesfrom people who have gone
(00:20):
through change.
We hope that their insightswill help you better understand
and deal with the changes inyour life.
I'm Peggy Koenig and, alongwith my co-host, katherine
Greiba, we chat with insightfulpeople with interesting change
stories.
We hope you enjoy our podcast.
Speaker 2 (00:43):
Vamp Uyghurs is our guest today today and she is the
owner of Wiegers Financial andBenefits, a company she started
with her husband.
She never could have guessed,and nor did she plan, that
success would look this way forher.
Deb grew up in Tisdale, a smalltown in Saskatchewan, where she
excelled at and coached, figureskating.
(01:05):
She didn't really have a planfor what she would do after
graduating from grade 12, butthat didn't stop her from
packing up a U-Haul and leavingon the last day of school.
Deb moved to Saskatoon withzero plans.
She had saved enough money tolive for a couple of months to
hold her over as she looked forjobs.
(01:26):
No job was too small for herand she went door to door
looking for employment.
But here's the thing While Debhad no concrete plan, no formal
education, no real supports, shehad made up her mind that she
was going to think positivethoughts and not negative.
She decided she had the choiceto think positive and put every
(01:50):
negative thought out of her head.
It was a decision that servedher well.
In our podcast, deb talks abouthow she became a self-made woman
, making the very best of thechanges in her life by deciding
on her training, working for acompany, starting her own
company and then taking a stepback as a business owner to
(02:14):
raise their four children andthen getting back into the
business.
Deb's story is one of changeand incredible resilience.
One of change and incredibleresilience.
Our guest today is Deb Wiegers,and Deb is one of the founders,
along with her husband, ofWiegers Financial and Benefit, a
long-standing, very successfulcompany in Saskatoon.
(02:37):
And, deb, I've known you for afew years.
We currently serve on a boardtogether but one of our
conversations that we had is Ilearned that you came from a
small town and quite involved inactivities in a small town.
So how did a small town girlfrom Tisdale make her way to be
(02:58):
an owner of a financial andbenefits company?
Fascinating.
Speaker 3 (03:02):
Well, you know, catherine, I think it started
with the fact that I knew I'dnever be able to work as a
waitress in a restaurant becauseI couldn't carry food nor
coffee if I tried, and I knowthat everybody used to feel
sorry for me, but I figured thatwas my first sign to say it's
time to exit a small town.
No, I'm laughing about that,but because we do, we do have
(03:24):
these standing jokes at home.
Do you know I'm laughing aboutthat?
But because we do.
We do have these standing jokesat home.
Do you know?
I think one of the reasons forme wanted to move away.
If you can remember, back tothe 80s I know I'm dating myself
Things weren't all that easy inthe work world and that's when,
unfortunately, a lot offamilies were sending their
children to Alberta and they'resaying there's just not many
(03:46):
opportunities, you know.
So that obviously is weighingon us.
I never did have any desire tostay in a small town, loved it,
loved growing up in a small town, met and had a lot of great
experiences.
But I think, like many, it wasjust.
There was so much more out there, and you know, my father was
(04:07):
probably my, my, I think mybiggest hero in that.
As much as we had our toughtimes at home, um, there was one
thing that we learned really,really well and if you want to
be successful and you want to beum able to, you know, carry on
and have a career, beentrepreneurial.
Entrepreneurial um, you need tofigure what that looks like,
and I think that's where I saidI'm not going to get it in a
small town.
I think I've got biggeropportunities somewhere.
(04:28):
I didn't know what they lookedlike, I had no idea.
I just waited to jump into thewater.
Speaker 2 (04:33):
So you finished high school and then you just knew
I'm not staying in Tisdale, notmarrying the local farmer, not
going to be a career waitress insmall town Saskatchewan.
So did you move to Saskatoon?
Speaker 3 (04:47):
The last day of school Literally had the U-Haul.
In fact, I think that was ourgraduation gift we had a U-Haul
and it was parked on thedriveway and I took whatever
belongings I had, which was allof just a bedroom, my two by
fours that made my bookshelf,and I just said I'm just going,
(05:09):
I'm going to figure this out,and I stayed with my sister for
a little bit of time and then Iwas able to, you know, find a
little space on Victorian MainStreet and happy to say that I
just absolutely loved the wholesense of just being independent.
It was amazing.
Speaker 1 (05:27):
So, Deb, I mean I find it so funny that you got a
U-Haul for your graduation.
When I graduated, it was awhole set of luggage.
Speaker 3 (05:39):
Isn't that the truth?
It was one or the other.
Oh my gosh.
Speaker 1 (05:42):
Yeah.
So this, this little seed of,was there a seed for
entrepreneurialism, back whenyou were growing up, like what,
what was your like as a child?
Did you see other businesspeople around you?
Like what got you interested inthat?
Or maybe you didn't getinterested in that right away.
(06:04):
It was much later.
Speaker 3 (06:06):
You know I think Peggy would have been later I
think one of the things that Iprobably would put a lot of
weight on in terms of thingsthat I've learned along the way
was the experience I had withthe skating space, right?
So when I say that, you knowwhat I mean.
I was, I think, 10 years oldwhen I went home from school and
they were sending up the littlenotes and I said, hey, mom and
(06:28):
dad, I'd like to figure skate,because what else do you do in a
small town?
It's hockey or skating, right?
I was excited to reallychallenge myself, to want to be
able to advance in the skatingspace.
I was very okay.
It was a little bit stressful,but when you went out to summer
camps and you stayed withdifferent families, right, and
(06:49):
you were billeted, I think Ijust look at all those things as
an experience and every timeyou took one of those steps, it
just further created theconfidence that you could take
the next step, whatever thatnext step might look like.
So the teaching, the figureskating teaching, was one big,
bold step, in that I always sayit wasn't difficult working with
(07:12):
the children, it was thedifficult part working with the
parents and how do you managethese relationships and how do
you start to have, you know,these conversations?
I mean, you're with your littlechildren on the ice, so pretty
sensitive conversation, right.
So I think, the more I got tolearn that I had that ability to
converse with people, it reallytook me to some of those next
(07:33):
steps without even reallyknowing that that was going to
take me somewhere.
And, to be honest, my retailspace the time I took in doing
retail, selling clothes, it'sjust that, in combination with
teaching and working with theparents and the children,
started to make me realize thatI had an ability to create
relationships.
(07:54):
So where it would take me atthat moment in my life I had no
idea.
I just knew that I had theability to connect and create
relationships.
Speaker 1 (08:03):
That's so interesting , deb, because I, you know, I
always tell young people that asthey're sort of working their
way through some of those jobsearly on, there are just so many
things you can learn, you know,from selling clothes, from
getting involved in the skatingclub, and it sounds like those
(08:23):
are things, those types ofactivities really helped you
realize what your gifts werelike, what you were really good
at yeah, absolutely, and evenyou know it's funny because the
laughing joke is uh, back in thedays when they had the max
confectionery, I don't know, isthere even a max confectionery
open anymore?
Speaker 2 (08:40):
I don't know yeah I think there's.
I think there might be one, notmany though.
Speaker 3 (08:45):
I was on.
I was on the west side of thecity by myself and doing all
those functions right.
You opened up in the morning,you cleaned, you washed up the
washrooms, you stocked theshelves, you worked the till you
cashed out.
You did all those things,locked up and went back and did
the same thing and I thoughtwhat a great way to learn a lot
of things in one space and tolearn that you have the
(09:09):
capability to do that right.
Speaker 2 (09:13):
You know, deb, and it sounds like you never, ever
thought that a job was beneathyou, that you were never just
working at a confectionery, youwere learning merchandising, you
were learning stocking, youwere learning stocking, you were
learning cash control All thesethings that would serve you
well going forward, and I thinkthat's such a positive mindset
(09:33):
to have, and is that part ofyour DNA, your positive outlook
on life?
You're looking for what you cando and what you're not, what
you're not doing.
Speaker 3 (09:44):
I would.
Yes, Catherine, I would thinkso.
I mean, hey, don't get me wrong, I have my days where I'm just
like you want to close thecloset on me too.
But one of the things that youknow, we've always learned and
even when I got into theinsurance space and just the
whole idea of the positivemindset is what your brain can
do, and your brain can only haveone of two thoughts.
(10:06):
It's either going to have apositive thought or it's going
to have a negative thought.
So you know what we do?
A lot of amazing things when itcomes to our mental well-being
and the tools and resources.
But I always tell even mychildren I said, brain can only
take one or two thoughts,positive or negative.
So if you're going to give it anegative conversation,
conversation, it's going to takeyou down a negative path.
Every see everything you see infront of you.
You're going to look at itnegatively.
(10:28):
If you're going to have apositive thought, it's going to
take you down a positive paththat come natural to you, or do
you?
Speaker 2 (10:35):
do you work at that?
Do you?
Are you mindful and consciousof any negative thoughts that
pop into your mind?
Are you or that's just reallynatural to you to do that?
Speaker 3 (10:48):
um, I think it's something I probably learned to
get better at harnessing overthe years, when I was a young
teenager.
I mean, let's not kid ourselves, teenager life is tough.
You start to learn a lot ofthings, it's scary, you make
mistakes, you're hard onyourself, um, and I think, um,
for me, uh, I could have takenmyself down that path, and
(11:10):
sometimes I I did.
But what I did realize is thatI and I would always, you know,
talk about it.
You know, when I say to my kids, I said, I think about myself
being in the well.
And I said you know, you canallow yourself to go down the
rope, but the minute you let gois the minute you've given up.
And I said so it's up to you tohave all the strength you can
to climb back up that rope, andso you have to do that.
(11:33):
You have to get back up to go.
Okay, I did this.
It made sense.
At home, our space wasn't overlypositive.
Growing up in the family world.
My father was a farmer, so youcan only imagine how things
would get quite stressful atcertain times of the year, and
(11:54):
he didn't have any familybackground and finance support
to get him through that.
So I think maybe, looking atthat, it was almost like I don't
want to be that person.
I don't want to be that personbecause it drains me and I don't
want people to look at me going.
You're draining me now.
(12:14):
I got to move away because wecan make those choices today,
right?
Speaker 1 (12:20):
So, deb, a little earlier you said something that
sort of caught my attentionabout how you realized how much
you loved independence, how muchyou loved independence.
So when you came up toSaskatoon, did you come up to go
to university or did you comeup to get a job?
Like, how did you thrive inthat independent environment?
Speaker 3 (12:50):
I had zero plan, peggy.
I had zero plan.
All I know is I saved enoughmoney from my figure skating
days that I could payroll myselffor a couple of months.
And I came up to the city.
And well, first I came upwithout moving all my furniture.
I payrolled my way to find anapartment.
I said, first things first Igot to find a place to live.
(13:10):
So I lived on my sister's couchfor a while.
That's not going to last long.
And then I found my apartmentand then I furnished it with my
bedroom furniture.
So in other words, I had noliving room.
I did not have a kitchen table,I mean.
But why did you need all thesethings?
I just had a bed.
Life is grand.
My clothes were all good, andthen I, just, in the back of the
(13:33):
days, the star of phoenix.
I just started looking for jobs.
I just started looking for jobs.
I was teaching skating forabout three seasons and it's
only winter time, right.
So then I would pack my stuffup.
It will go to the city.
I would try to find a full-timejob.
Very tough in the 80s.
I tried a little bit in Regina,but I did want to make
Saskatoon my home and then Ijust honestly, I went door to
(13:56):
door, I went everywhere.
So that's how I managed withthe job for the um federated and
I was able to get a temporaryjob.
I was happy with that.
It was just the first step.
I needed to get to the nextstep.
Speaker 1 (14:10):
Do you have any support surround you to to get
you through all of this, to keepyou propped up or did like was
there family around or did youhave a lot of friends around
Like?
What were your supports?
Speaker 3 (14:24):
Zero and I'm not and I don't want to make this the
wow, Wow, Like this is.
I want to tell me you can do it, If your mind is made up that
you can do it.
I didn't have someone thatmarched me to the bank to figure
out how to get a bank.
I just had to figure this stuffout.
I even bought my first car andI went and this is I went and I
got a standard and I wasprepared to put my loan together
(14:50):
for my first car.
But I've never drove a standard.
But I liked that car.
I even had the salesman take meout at Milo Honda down by
Costco.
I went out there on the backroad and he taught me in one
hour how to drive a standard andI drove away with the new car.
So I don't.
And then his tip was just makesure when you hit hills don't
(15:12):
get nervous when everybodystarts to honk at you.
Just stop, Just take a breath,Start all over again.
But honestly, I don't.
I didn't.
My mom just kind of.
You know she had her own thingsthat she was working on.
My dad was too busy running hisbusiness.
My sisters and I have a littlebit of a uh, a challenging
(15:32):
relationship, um, and so youknow what it was?
kind of just a sink or swim,that's really what it was for me
, yeah so how did you?
Speaker 2 (15:43):
because there must have been, because sounds like
you swam a lot, but there musthave been a few times when you
thought, how am I gonna do this,this, how am I going to keep
going or not?
Did you just?
That was never an option not tomake it.
Speaker 3 (15:57):
It just wasn't an option.
I mean, my father was, you know.
I just didn't want the stringsattached to it.
He was prepared to send me toSaskatoon and pay for my
education, but I just didn'twant the strings.
So Debbie would rather do itthe hard way, and so I came to
Saskatoon.
When I got my job at Federatedthey allowed me to take classes
and get reimbursed if I passed.
So I started businessadministration, got that down
(16:22):
and then slowly found my wayinto the insurance business,
which is in itself a veryinteresting story.
But it's almost that you had tokind of take the attitude that
where you are at that point inlife, it it's going to take you
into places and maybe, for lackof a better word, you manifest
it Right and you, just becauseit wasn't about getting up in
(16:42):
the morning and go like, oh myGod, I feel like a loser.
I think I'm going to go backhome and live with mom and dad
and work in the restaurant.
It just was never.
It was an option that given tofrom my parents.
It's just an option I neverwanted.
I wanted to move forward.
Speaker 1 (16:58):
So, if I can summarize, I mean, you are a
self-made woman.
You, you did this based on yourdrive, your, should I say,
stubbornness stamp.
Should I say?
Speaker 3 (17:16):
Probably a little bit of that Feisty.
I like the word feisty.
Speaker 1 (17:21):
Yeah.
Do you think there's still roomin this day and age for people
to actually do those things?
Can you still do?
Speaker 3 (17:29):
that I would so want to see, that I think that's the
thing that we've lost is, youknow what, when you you girls
know, when you accomplishsomething, that just that
feeling, but that pride that youhave instead of thinking, why
should I have to?
Right?
Right, the world will take careof me, perhaps the parents will
take care of me, perhaps Ideserve more, perhaps, but
(17:52):
wouldn't you want to mastersomething and and have the
ability to take pride in that?
Because that, to me, is whatpushes you to that next step.
And I always, you know, thinkback to the insurance days and
the strangest, how I got there,but I my.
One word that I always came outof that was that.
You know, I never did like theword persistent, because that's,
of course, in the insurancespace, you get that but I had
(18:14):
tenacity.
I was persistent, but I hadtenacity.
I had the desire to want tojust keep moving forward and it
just was.
You know what.
Not that I had a vision boardor anything, it's just my vision
was success, whatever thatlooked like.
Speaker 2 (18:34):
Right.
So you didn't set out by saying, oh, my goal is, I am going to
be, I'm going to found, find andown a financial and benefits
company.
That was not.
It wasn't that defined.
It sounds like you took Firstof all, you got your business
admin, and then you moved to thenext step and the next step and
(18:54):
you just knew it was going tobe success, whatever that looked
like.
Speaker 3 (18:59):
Totally, I was jumping straight in there.
And you know what?
Again, I always say, whereveryou were, you know what Either
make a decision whether you wantto be in that space.
If you don't, it's only you canmove you out of that space.
And so I had a great five yearsat Federated, because they did
eventually get me on full timeand I was able to move into a
fairly nice salary range andthere was benefits and all those
(19:22):
awesome things that come alongwith it.
Right, it just wasn't me.
I'm a terrible employee.
I like to do things my way.
I don't have any problemworking hard.
I, I'm a terrible employee.
I like to do things my way.
I don't have any problemworking hard.
I just like to work hard on myterms, right?
So I knew that our worlds justweren't jiving.
You have to remember, I grew upin an entrepreneurial, you know
spirited space, so that didn'twork really well in a unionized
(19:45):
environment either.
I just couldn't.
It doesn't make sense to me.
So when?
I you'll probably laugh at this.
So I I had met my level offrustration and physically it
was starting to impact my healthfor sure, and, uh, I decided
after work on a Friday I wasgoing to go next door to the
article dodger with my friendsbecause we were in the mailing
and the stationary departmentand I'd met a lot of friends
(20:07):
before I moved up intoaccounting and we went to the
bar and after a few cocktails Ijust started to share my not so
happy with the world story.
Right, and they just looked atme, this individual, and just
handed me a card and he said yougo see this guy, he'll give you
a job.
Well, when you hear that in thedays where jobs weren't easy to
(20:31):
find, you went, why not tryright, right and and and so, in
my experience, in going to thisnext step, not knowing anything
I didn't even know, catherine,it was insurance.
All I saw it on there was, Iwouldn't say the insurance
company, it just said aninsurance company had no idea
what I was setting myself up for, to be honest, um, and what I
learned in those couple ofinterviews with this individual
(20:54):
is that I needed to be tougherand stronger and there was no
way and excuse my words and hellthat he was going to tell me I
wasn't going to have a career inthis space because I was going
to show him and that was mymission is to show him that you
know what in this space, I mean,you might think it's all about
men.
(21:15):
You might think it's all aboutpeople that are older than the
22 year old.
You might think that justbecause I don't have a natural
market, that I'm going to fail.
But when you, when you said youdidn't think I'd make it, and
my brain I said, oh no, I'mgonna make it it.
And every time I see you at anevent I'm gonna smile.
Actually, that's what I'm gonnado.
(21:37):
So and I know he knows that andif I could, if I could find him
today, I would send him a cardand say thank you very much for
telling me I wouldn't make it,because that's what turned my
jets on, not for everybody, butthat worked for me, yeah yeah, I
also get a sense that, uh, you,you developed a really um in
(21:59):
tune.
Speaker 1 (22:00):
you were very in tune with yourself as far as
self-awareness.
Like you knew, you knew whatyou didn't like, you knew what
you liked, you knew what youdidn't like, you knew what you
liked, you knew what you wanted,right.
And it was sort of like thosethings were the wanting, liking,
knowing yourself, and thosejust all move together for you
(22:25):
and that's just really whatyou're.
Well, I guess that's what yourvision was, because that's
really what drove you right, theself-awareness.
Speaker 3 (22:34):
Well, and one of the things you know, and I'm sure
many can relate to this, is,unfortunately, my mom and dad
didn't have the greatest ofrelationship, so there was just
a lot of turmoil at home, and itwas that's why the sooner I
could move away from that, thebetter I would be as a person,
because it was difficult, forsure.
And my mom when they did, whenI left school, my mom and my dad
(22:59):
separated and it was a nastyseparation for a period of years
because it involves land andproperty, and to this day my dad
will say it wasn't supposed tobe that way, right, I mean, he
understands that this wasn't thebest thing with the children he
was raising either, but my momnever was able to stand her on
two feet right.
(23:20):
He was the guy she quit school,she raised us, but when it came
time for her to move on, shehad nothing to move forward on
and I I said never going tohappen.
I said I will always beindependent, I will always take
care of myself, I will never bedependent on somebody else.
I tell my daughters that I meanrelationships.
(23:40):
Yes, you need to make them work, but in the same token, do you
know that someday, whether youplanned it or not, you might be
on your own.
So what are you going to doabout it?
And I think that was part of mydrive is, I would never want to
have been as vulnerable as mymom was at that time, because at
that time she was a young woman, she was only 46 years old, she
(24:04):
had lots of life to live andshe didn't.
You know, go out after notworking for you know, 15, 20
years, and then try and find ajob not easy she really was a
mentor to you in a way of thisis what I'm not going to do.
Speaker 2 (24:20):
Yeah, yeah, really paid that for you.
Yeah, it's not, it's notfascinating.
So you worked in insurance andobviously were successful of it
because you proved him wrong,and so how do you move from
working in insurance?
Do you then just kind of seethere's an opportunity here to
(24:41):
start a business, and we're justgoing to start?
I highly doubt that you had afully fleshed out business plan,
deb, just from what you'retalking about, to be able to
step into, you know, buying orcreating a business.
But maybe you did.
I don't know zero.
Speaker 3 (24:57):
It's a zero again.
I know I don't have the bestmaster plan in life.
I don't know this, that I'mteaching my kids just like jump
out there and see what happens.
So all I knew, all I knew isthat when he said, the harder
you work, the more money you'llmake, I went sounds like a great
plan, okay, tell me more, right?
(25:19):
And so, um, when I did go in, Ididn't.
I did.
Obviously, through the fewinterviews I do have to add in,
one of the things that thisgentleman had told me also was
that because I was female inthis space, I would never make
it, and that was probably mybiggest motivator, having come
from some of the history thatcame from.
But anyways, I think that youknow what ended up happening is
(25:41):
that when we got there, I gottrained up as everybody would be
on the general insuranceselling process, call it that to
then obviously meet Cliff a fewyears later Well, shorter than
that, I guess, but we workedtogether for a couple of years
and I think at that time,catherine, that's when I started
(26:01):
to create a plan, because Isaid, okay, it doesn't make
sense that him and I are workinga parallel career because at
some point in time one of us isgoing to have to stay home with
children and we can't both beworking night market, which back
in those days that's what theinsurance space was.
Right.
You called and you wanted to gosee, you know, jane and Bob and
the two kids.
At seven o'clock at night Isaid one of us is not going to
(26:23):
be able to do this.
The other part of that was, Iguess maybe maybe it's part to
my ADHD is that I look forquicker results.
You know, this process was Imaybe for lack of.
I didn't have the patience tokind of follow this process.
I just wanted to meet somebody.
Let's talk about what it iswe're talking about and let's
(26:45):
let's fix you and let's move onand we'll find the next
opportunity.
And in the business space youcan do that a bit more Right,
and I could work a daytimemarket and I actually started by
default to really realize thatI loved the space, the lane that
I'm in today.
My discipline call it thatdoing employee benefits and
(27:06):
consulting in this space, inthis space only.
So that's really what I feelkind of created the organization
to have disciplines, not to allof us be doing the same thing,
but to rather be saying this isthe space you're great at, cliff
, you're great in the financialplanning space, right, the other
ones we put into spaces andstay in a lane that you're
(27:27):
exceptional at and then allowthe company to grow by virtue of
the fact that we'recollaborating or, as we say,
share a wallet.
Speaker 2 (27:37):
So how big a change was that for you when you were
used to running your own show.
I mean, you worked as hard asyou needed to to make the money
and you were in charge of yourown destiny.
And now you're married and youhave a company, and you're not
the only sheriff in town.
What was that like?
Speaker 3 (27:55):
There must have been some shifts there some shifts
there, usually shifts, um, whatwe did realize at the beginning
and then we kind of strayed away.
But we're kind of bringing itback, actually even today,
because cycle of life brings inraising four children, right.
So when we started we reallyjust I took on this the benefit
space and I kind of took on alittle bit of the marketing
(28:15):
space and clipped in thefinancial and he worked with
clients on the financialplanning space.
So we were almost in our ownlanes.
There was things that we had tocome together and discuss.
So I think the difficulty iswhen he'd want to step into the
marketing lane and I'd want tonot that I ever really desired
much to step in the financiallane.
(28:36):
So there's things that we stillhad to come together on and I
think that's where our conflictswould be obviously right.
Sometimes you can agree todisagree.
Sometimes it's like no, I thinkthat this is where my expertise
is not yours.
So, yeah, stay back right andand.
And I think that obviously itchanged a lot, probably after
(28:57):
the kids were older, becauseduring the period of raising
four children I did need to stayin my career path but I
couldn't be working at the hoursI could before, right.
So I would rely on Cliff to kindof be there to kind of drive
some of those other things and Ijust stay focused on my clients
.
So by default, he kind of wentrunning the show, right.
(29:22):
And then Deb comes back in kidsare older.
Deb comes back in and says Idon't know if I like the way
we're doing this, right, and nowI'm looking a little bit more
like uh, like a little bit ofdisturber, um, but I needed to
get back in.
I think that was our mostchallenging time is that all of
a sudden I come back in and saywait a minute, my, my, I see it
(29:45):
differently and and here's how Iwould like to proceed in this
area and I think that was hardfor him because he was a man
that is very a driven used torun in the show Right.
Speaker 1 (29:59):
So there's some weaning to be to be done so, deb
, it sounds like you and Cliffnever had that conversation, um
prior to you know the kidscoming along.
It just sort of evolved thatway until it wasn't working
anymore when you came back.
(30:20):
So there was never aconversation, it was just sort
of an evolution that happened.
Speaker 3 (30:26):
An evolution that had I not wanted to get back into
the business to the degree andthen like more so, I would have
just kind of just kind of gonealong for the ride.
Right, I'm in this littledepartment, I don't really have
a lot to say.
I can maybe put my hand up oncein a while, but then when I
really wanted to own some ofthose decisions, because I felt
(30:49):
that my brain worked in thatspace better, that's when I
think we had to really take astep back and it just be
probably in the last, like evenfive years, you know, because
I'm now able to focus entirelyon the business, right?
So, um, like this is a standingjoke, I tell Colton I said,
(31:09):
although you're the CEO, youhaven't got rid of me that fast.
Speaker 2 (31:14):
I'm still around.
Speaker 1 (31:15):
I got things to do, yet it's interesting that the
business evolves along with thelife cycle, like with the family
life cycle.
So they've sort of you know,they just sort of evolved
together.
When you had the kids, thingschanged at the business.
When you came back, thingschanged at the business.
Speaker 3 (31:50):
So there is.
It's sort of an interesting ebband flow that I think a lot of
people with family ownedbusinesses may or may not think
about when they first step downthat road that there are going
to be changes.
Yeah, absolutely, Peggy, and Ithink you know it's.
There is no cut and dry Likedepends on the day, depends on
the week, depends on what'shappening at the home front.
If we've got teenage problems,it takes us both to come back
into the family, right?
And you know, and we had alittle bit of a you know kind of
our lanes I guess call it thatbecause I would always be the
(32:11):
one in the morning.
I was always there to say I wantto spend my time with my kids.
In the morning, I go to thework, I work.
A little later I come home andhe'd run in the house about nine
I would take off to the gym.
Right, we had this thing goingright.
And, and because that was mysanity, right, because I went
from kids to work to home, now Ineed to go to the gym and burn
(32:32):
off a little stress and Debbiecould eat a a bowl of popcorn at
an incredibly slow rate,because it wasn't until the
popcorn was gone, the kid, theclip, went to bed, right Cause I
got that two hours to myselfand and that's about all I got.
So I think that that moment Ididn't have the capacity to take
(32:55):
anything else in.
It's when now I start to ownsome of my end of day.
Kids are older.
Now I can spend a little timeat the office, I don't have to
worry about their lunch beingmade.
They're big kids, they can doit, and I wanted to teach them.
As much as I love my kids,because I have three girls and
one son, I wanted to teach mygirls that you too can do this.
(33:18):
It's not easy some days, butyou can do that.
You need to choose to want todo it, right.
But if you want to stay homefull time, you can do that too.
But don't let society make youbelieve that you have one path
to take and only one path,Because, as you well know your
parents, there's always thatguilt thing that goes with women
I should be at work, no, Ishould be at home.
(33:40):
No, I should be at work, Ishould be at home, Right.
We have this constantconversation with ourselves and
I said I think we've got torelinquish that guilt and and
otherwise it's.
You know it's counterproductive.
Speaker 2 (33:51):
Right, so true, so you're right now going through
another shift where your, yourbusiness structure is changing.
You're, you're turning, your,your son has become the ceo of
the company.
You're still involved, but thethe idea is I understand it is
that you'll be, you know, kindof take being less involved so
that you can move into,eventually, full retirement, and
(34:12):
so you're, it sounds likeyou're just starting that, that
whole path I think we've beendoing it a little bit.
Speaker 3 (34:19):
The biggest thing that I said about about being
self-employed and entrepreneuris I have no problem working my
butt off, but when I want toflex my time, that's what I am
working hard for, because I liketo flex around.
What works best for Debbietoday, if it's 30 degrees out
(34:41):
and I want to hop in the car andgo to the lake early, I want to
be able to do that.
So that's why we needed someonelike Colton to help manage that
operations side, to make surethat everything was you know,
you know was working.
They didn't need me here, but Ihave obviously a role and I
have a responsibility and youknow what, in today's space's
space, I mean we can connectwith our clients in a lot of
(35:02):
different ways.
So, yes, love the one and ones,but I also know that we can now
take a zoom call from the youknow another place right and and
so, um, for me it was moreabout being able to have the
flexibility to, to move into.
I wouldn't even want to call it.
I say to me I always thinkretirement is a word for people
(35:23):
that really don't like whatthey're doing today.
Because you're retiring, wouldyou retire from something you
love, or would you retire fromsomething that tires you or
stresses you or drains you?
Because if you love what you do, then to the perfect world is
to make it fit so that you canstart to enjoy some of those
(35:45):
retirement things.
But I can golf when I'm 30.
I don't have to wait till I'm65 to golf, right, I just might
want to golf a little bit more,right, yeah?
Speaker 1 (35:56):
And that makes sense.
I was going to ask you, like Ijust like, what does retirement
look like for Deb Wiegers I, youknow, the word retirement just
isn't the appropriate word atall.
Speaker 3 (36:08):
I just, I just.
To me it brings a negativeconnotation.
It's like I just, I see, we seeit, we see it in our space.
People that have worked hitthis magical, magical age and
either their health is gone orthey just aren't happy because
they don't even know what it isthey're going to do when they
wake up in the morning.
Right, some people have itfigured out.
(36:31):
I've got a girlfriend and sheabsolutely loves to sit at her
easel and paint all day long.
Good for you.
I can only walk so many hours aday, so I can't walk for eight
hours.
Right, I need to do otherthings that will stimulate the
brain and and so this is why Istill find that being at work
allows me to still stay mentallyactive and, in the spaces that
(36:56):
I can refine, to enjoy most, notall of it, I mean.
I mean, we don't have jobs orcareer paths that are perfect.
There's always going to bethings, but if the majority of
that is stuff that stimulatesyou and keeps you wanting to do
it, then I feel that I've beensuccessful.
Speaker 2 (37:16):
Fascinating, Deb.
This has been fascinating.
Thank you so much for sharingyour story with us.
I had no idea on some of this.
It's absolutely wonderful.
So thank you very much.
It's been a really lot of fun.
Speaker 3 (37:30):
Well, thank you, Gals .
I appreciate the opportunity toshare and maybe next time we'll
do kind of part two over aglass of wine, because I walk
for stress release.
But I also have a coupleglasses of wine for stress
release.
So there you go.
Speaker 1 (37:55):
Thank you.
Please subscribe on Apple orSpotify and share with a friend
this episode recorded via Zoomaudio.
Producers Peggy Koenig andCatherine Greiba.
Executive producer.
Koenig Leadership Advisory.
Theme music La Pompe, writtenby Chris Harrington.
Music publisher Envato Market.
(38:16):
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goat merchandise.
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