September 8, 2024 • 30 mins
Jan Allen Ackley, author of "Searching for Change," shares his journey from growing up in impoverished rural Ohio to becoming a successful corporate finance executive. He highlights the impact of mentors who guided him and the transformative experience of joining the Air Force. Ackley emphasizes the importance of leadership, advocacy, and personal growth. He discusses his 35-year career in finance, his memoir's 11-year writing process, and the value of mentorship. Ackley encourages others to seek discomfort and new experiences for personal development. His book is available on Amazon, and he invites readers to contact him for advice.
Loved talking to Jan! He reminds us that the right mentors can make all the difference, and we do not have to stay with generational patterns.
Jan advised us "Don't just be comfortable. Put yourself in a place that makes you uncomfortable, where you have to stretch and grow."
Jan first started his book Searching for Change: A Memoir of Growing Up in Appalachia," as a guidebook for his grandkids, with all the things he had learned in his life recorded for them. He soon realized that his grown children and others could learn from his life lessons and ended up publishing his memoir. It is currently available on Amazon.
You can also reach out to him directly at: Jan.Ackley@gmail.com
THANK YOU FOR LISTENING!
Check out my Facebook group -- The Storied Human.
The Storied Human is on YouTube now-- check it out:
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLIHYKJ0fBDIF7hzWCu7b396GMJU-2qb7h
Have a story? DM me on instagram: lthompson_574
Drop me an email: thestoriedhuman@gmail.com
See all my links on Linktree:
https://linktr.ee/StoriedHuman/
Also see all episodes on my new website: https://www.podpage.com/the-storied-human-what-is-your-story/episodes/
Keep in touch!
Original music "Saturday Sway" by Brendan Talian (for all interviews before 2025)
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Unknown (00:20):
Music. Hello and welcome to the storied human
today, I have a really coolguest, Jan Allen Ackley, he's
the author of searching forchange, a memoir of growing up
in Appalachia. His book is atestament to his resilience and
ability to overcome obstacles,find happiness and inspire
(00:42):
others. Jan's natural humorweaves through discussions of
success, hardship and overcominglife's obstacles. Jan is a multi
talented individual with animpressive track record spanning
34 years as a commercial financeand economic executive with over
three decades of corporatefinance experience, Ackley has
(01:03):
established himself as a go toperson for companies across the
United States, seeking to solvecomplex banking and finance
problems. He rose to leadershipand positions within the banking
industry developingrelationships with companies
across the United States.
Welcome, Jan. It's so great tohave you. That's
great to be here. Thankyou for excited to hear your
(01:24):
story. I just have to say your Ato Z is pretty spectacular. Oh,
thanks. Yeah. Your beginningsare, you know, we're kind of
humble, right? And you grew upin a in an impoverished rural I
mean, I'm I'm assuming it wasimpoverished or close to a rural
area, probably, in some ways, abeautiful way to grow up,
because I love being in nature,and I, believe it or not, I live
(01:46):
in New Jersey, but I'm in a verybeautiful rural area right near
the Delaware River. Why don'tyou tell me, though, how that
shaped you, what that was like?
Yeah, it's, I like to talk aboutit. You know, I grew up in
Eastern, southeastern Ohio, youknow, fairly close to the West
Virginia border. And it's in,you know, kind of, I call it the
(02:09):
the North Central Appalachiaarea. And grew up in a in a
single parent. I have twosiblings, both older than me. My
mother was divorced when I wasvery young, when I was a baby,
and so. So growing up prettyfinancially poor, but also not
(02:33):
just financially, you know, it'slack of fathers in the home. You
know, my both grandfathers werewere killed in the coal mines or
died in the coal mines in the30s and 20s. Even my mother grew
up in an orphanage. And so itwas a lack of, you know, just
(02:54):
the lack of security of havingtwo parents in the home and not
knowing what to do. You know, asI grew, you know, when I was
young, and then when I grew intobeing a teenager, you know,
it's, it's hard for for a kid inthat atmosphere to find their
way forward. I can't imagine,because most of us, we have some
(03:18):
kind of safety net or familysupport. You know, you mentioned
even your grandparents, yourgrandfathers were gone, we take
it for granted. You know that wecan have we have a fallback,
people who will catch us, andpeople who guide us. Without
those support systems, it's hardto find your way. Oh, how did
you What did you do? Like, wasthere a mentor who helped you,
(03:38):
or someone in your family who,like influenced you? Yeah, you
know, I it's a it's a greatquestion, because a mentor is
what I really needed. And when Iwas, I want to say when I was
about 16 years old, I startedgoing to a local church and a
local church there in in thelittle town called Zanesville,
(04:01):
Ohio, had some, had some men init that were just really good
men. And they saw this poor 16year old kid with no dad, and
they kind of took me under theirwing. And I had never really
been around men before. Then themen that I, that I was around,
(04:22):
you know, weren't that good ofmen, but these were good men.
And it and it showed me thatthere were men in the world that
were that were good, and theyhad families, and they were
successful in business and soon. And they, they really
mentored me and opened mythoughts, the things I had never
(04:43):
thought about before, that's sogood. There usually is someone,
you know, that's what I findwith stories like this. There's
somebody like my mother, had areally tough childhood, but
there was someone in her family,one particularly strong person
who made the difference. And Ithink. So cool that there were
those good men that that sharedit with you, that showed you
(05:04):
like we were able to model onthem. We don't need our family.
We just need somebody. We needsomebody, somebody decent,
right? And God bless my mother.
God bless my mother. She shetried, but you know, she was
limited in what she could do.
She she grew up like, I say, inthe 20s and late, late 20s and
(05:27):
30s and so on, with no dad andin a foster home and and so her
way of thinking was limited aswell by her background. So it
was kind of a generational thingthat that my family dealt with,
I think that's such a goodpoint. It's so hard to break out
of that sometimes, because youhave so few resources, it's
(05:51):
about just surviving that.
That's absolutely true. And whenyou're in that mode, Lynne,
it's, it's, that's all you thinkabout your world is very small,
because that's all you thinkabout, and you don't think about
the things of life that are,that are like possibilities.
What can I do? Yeah, what are mywhat are my abilities that that
(06:16):
you don't really discover unlesssomebody helps you discover
them. That's such a good point.
You don't dream big, right? No,you don't know exactly, right?
Yep. So I'm just so struck bythose men. Thank goodness for
men like that. Yes. So what didyou end up doing? Like, did you
(06:38):
go to college after that? Didthey encourage? Yeah? So, yeah.
So, you know, really, it was,you know, high school was really
hard for me, just, you know,just not having a, you know, you
know, a lot of I had closefriends, but it wasn't this
broad friendships that you wouldtypically have. And it was just,
(07:04):
it was just a an odd time inlife, and these men showed up at
the at a really good time. Iknew I needed to do something
different than what my this iswhere my limited abilities, but
that I had those but I was smartenough to know what I lacked,
(07:25):
and I saw from these men a lotof things that I knew I lacked
discipline and a lot ofdifferent things like that. So I
in my senior year of highschool, I enlisted in the Air
Force, and then Ohio NationalGuard, because I knew it was
something that that could betaught to me, and I needed that
(07:49):
in my life at that time, and itturned out to be one of the best
things I could could do, becausethe military taught me a lot of
things that I didn't, did notknow, and I needed to
experience, and that was thestart of of an important time
for me. That's so good. We werejust talking about that the
(08:10):
military offers so manybenefits, and sometimes the only
path out for for students, it'sa great way to start your
journey. It is, and it wasn'tGo ahead. Sorry, no, the
discipline thing too, I didn'teven think about that. But you I
mean, how would you know that?
Right? How would you know thatkind of discipline? And they,
they really instill those valuesthat it's hard to get those
(08:34):
for anybody, I thinksomebody like me, that the only
thing I knew is that I needed tochange the director or the
direction of where I was headed.
You know, my my past, thegenerations before me, were very
limited, and it was like, it'skind of like being on this old
dirt road, and it's acomfortable road, but that's all
(08:58):
the road that I knew and but Iknew I had to get off of this
exit ramp onto the major highwayof life. And I don't know how
else to explain it, butsomething dramatic needed to
happen for me to get off of thatroad, which I knew led to a
certain place. And it wasn'tthat exciting. It was what my
(09:19):
generations before me, knew verylimiting. So the military was
that off ramp for me, thebeginning of the off ramp for
me, which led into a lot ofother things beyond that, but
that was the ramp that I took tobuild into me some things that I
knew I needed at the time as an18 year old, that's so great.
(09:44):
And now look at you. I mean, I'mpretty impressed with your your
corporate career and your authorthe book sounds wonderful. When
did you write the book? Well, Iwrote the book just about this
whole topic, because I I wrotethe book about 12. 12 years ago,
and it really wasn't a I didn'tstart out writing to make it a
(10:06):
book. I started out my I haveeight grand, I have five
children, and I have eightgrandchildren. Oh, how
wonderful. 12 years ago, theoldest granddaughter, the
grandchild, was born, and I wasin the hospital, and I was
sitting out in the, you know,kind of the waiting area and,
and I remember sitting therealone, thinking, I, you know,
(10:27):
what do grandfathers do? I hadlearned how to be a dad over the
years by trial, right? And, butI didn't know what a grandfather
never thought about being agrandfather. But here I was,
there. I was in this in thisroom, and I thought, you know,
the only thing that I could comeup with at that time was, I just
(10:50):
want my granddaughter to know ofthese lessons that I learned
over since I was a little kidand and I'll put those down on
paper. And so I started takingnotes. I found a pad and pen in
the hospital. I just startedtaking notes and reminiscing
about things. And one of thecool things I did when I was
(11:14):
starting at about 18, I startedkeeping a journal. At the time,
I you know my my wife, and Iknew each other since the
seventh grade in junior high,but we started dating when I was
18 and and so she gave me thisjournal. She said, Jan, you
ought to write some things thatare important to you as you go
(11:36):
day to day. So I started to dothat, and I kept the journal for
a lot of years. So I reflectedon those right. I looked at
those and more, more memoriescame out from that. And I just
kept writing these notes for mygranddaughter. And then I
thought, well, you know, my kidsdon't know these stories either
(11:57):
the all my adult children. Andso I started to tell some people
about what I was doing at work,and they said, Jan, you have a
really unique, interestingbackground. You really ought to
let other people read aboutthis. You should think about
writing a book. So that's so ittook me 11 years to write a book
because of my limited time.
Yeah, I, I am a business writer,not a or I was a business
(12:21):
writer, not a writer that of ina way that people would be
interested. So I had to getcoaching. So I I found some
coaches in English that helpedme to write. Gave me some good
advice on this book. And, youknow, I had it fully written.
They ripped it apart, took manychapters out, kind of
(12:41):
reformulated it, but it was a,you know, quite the journey to
get from point A to point B on.
In writing this book took 11years, and I published it a year
ago, year and a half ago, that'sfantastic. It's on Amazon. It's
getting decent reviews and soon, but I think it is a story
(13:03):
that many people need to hear.
It's a great story, and it's sosmart of you to get coaches.
Because I have a friend who'swriting a book right now, and
I've talked to other people thatsay sometimes, even if you are a
writer, you don't have thatobjectivity about your about
your stuff, or you don't evenknow how it looks should go
together. Yeah, yeah. So that'sso smart of you to do that,
because people need your storyand it, it's it's better because
(13:25):
of that coaching. And I thinkit's so interesting how many
different kinds of coaches wecan have now, somebody I just
spoke my last interview, wasthat I just published, was a
money life coach, Whitney Ellis,she coached. She wanted to be a
life coach, but she had her ownreally intense experiences with
money and and not being goodwith money, and so she, yeah,
(13:47):
she grew something out of that.
So I just think it's great whenpeople support each other like
that. So yeah, sure, yeah, goahead. I was just going to say
to your point, Lynne, it's, youknow, one of the traits that I
do have that's been very helpfulis is a little bit of humility.
I always look for the thingsthat I can improve upon or don't
(14:11):
have to help me get where I wantto go. And these men, when I was
a teenager, I knew what Ilacked, or I had a good idea
what I lacked. Then I went intothe military, but with this
book, I knew I needed a lot ofof coaching and English people
that were able to write well inthat vein of telling a story,
(14:35):
it's different. Do theyliterally
have classes on memoir writing?
I mean, I'm a writer, a poet,creative writer, a technical
writer. I would not attempt amemoir without help. It's a it's
a specific kind of writing, andthere's, you know, there's rules
and formatting, and there's,like, a way to spin your story.
It's so cool. A lot of peoplethink they're fine, though,
without a coach. So I commendyou for for saying, you know, I
(14:59):
need some help. But I keepthinking of this quotation when
you say that you saw what thosemen in church could offer you,
you saw that you had lack. Andit just reminds me of this
quotation, if you do whateveryone else is doing, you'll
have what everyone else has. Andthat's sort of what you did. I'm
so impressed with that becauseyou did it young. You looked
(15:19):
around and said, My family hasbeen, you know, doing this
hamster wheel kind of thing foryears, right? And it gets it
gets them here. So if I don'twant to go here, I have to do
something different. And that's,um, you know, pretty brilliant
at 18 to even, like, grasp that.
So that's I didn't have much, Ididn't have much brilliance in
me, Lynne, but I did havecertain things that I look back
(15:42):
now on, and I am so glad that Idid it that way. Yeah, because
sometimes in life, little,little things make all the
difference. And those, thosecouple, two, three men that I
got to know. I mean, they, theyhad no reason right to associate
(16:03):
with me. They were one of themwas a very successful
businessman in town, and hecalled me up, and I didn't know
who he was and and anyway, hecame over a couple times a
month, for a lot of months, andjust to talk to me. And I always
(16:23):
thought that was interesting,that I had nothing to offer him.
I'm this 1617, year old kid in asingle parent household poor,
and he was the exact opposite.
But I'm glad that he tookinterest in me and wanted to at
least help me in any way hecould. And he gave me a lot of
(16:44):
great advice. So good. He sawsomething in you, and he wanted
to help develop those things.
Yeah. So tell me about how yougot into corporate finance. Was
that like, did you major infinance or economics? Okay, I
did. I majored in finance andeconomics at Ohio State, and the
interesting story about thatgoes back to when I was about
(17:06):
five years old, my mother hadbeen a bank teller in we didn't
have, you know, there wasn't alot of things to do at home, but
she would play with us, and oneof the games that she used to
play with us. We called it bank.
Let's play bank. And so she madeup this, you know, cut out money
(17:30):
and drew with crayons thedenominations of it and
everything. She taught me how tocount change back. She was very
precise, you know, you know,today's world, you just get a
handful of money back from thefrom the person at the, you
know, restaurant or the fastfood place back in the day, you
had to count that change. Iremember, yeah, she was very
(17:53):
precise about that. And we didthat all the time, and it was
her way. And looking back now,is her way to keep my brain
thinking about things. And wenever had money. And so as I got
older, I thought, you know, Ireally need to learn. It's one
of these things that I knew,what I lacked. I really need to
(18:13):
understand money, because Idon't have any. My mother never
had any, and I don't want myfam, my future family, to worry
about, you know, the stuff thatI worried about. And so when I
when I I finished, or I got Iwas in the military, and I got
some of those educationalbenefits. The first day I walked
(18:36):
into Ohio, I went to Ohio State.
The first thing I did, I majoredin finance, and it that was
another thing that I justthought it was really cool. And
when I entered, when I graduatedfrom the bank or from the from
Ohio State, I startedinterviewing. I interviewed with
all the different banks and gotinto their one in particular was
(18:59):
in Detroit. Comerica Bank movedto Detroit, yeah, and I had two
little kids and my wife at thetime, when I graduated and we
moved to Detroit, and I startedin their commercial banking
program, went to school withthem. They had a little several
months of training, and theircorporate banking training
(19:23):
program. So that's how I gotinto it.
That's so great again. Thankyou, Air Force, because you had
those educational benefit, youknow, they kind of, yeah, they
did good by you so and you justkept going, and now you're
pretty impressive. Your careerhas been pretty impressive.
(19:43):
Yeah, and you know, it's I wason the just before our call I
was on, I was doing some somecalls with a couple of
companies, but I've been doingthis for 35 years now, and
experience. This is a, you know,it's not like, I'm this genius,
(20:04):
right? It's just like, grindedthrough 35 years of seeing all
sorts of things. And when yousee things for 35 years, you you
know, people come to you andsay, What do I do here? Well, I
saw that 20 years ago. And let'sfigure this out. It's great.
That's why you want to go to adoctor who's done a lot of
operations, yeah, that'sexactly right. That's so cool. I
(20:25):
noticed that too. It's just,I've been working, you know,
almost 35 years, and I just mostof the things people present me
with at work, I have a story.
I've done it, you know, I don'talways tell them the story. I
have to stop myself. But, youknow, it does help to have those
examples, all those examples inyour in your work life, and it
gets easier. I mean, you justreally have a lot to pull upon.
(20:47):
And I love that you do you, whatdo you do? As far as leadership,
one of your questions, thesuggested question, was about
what makes a good leader. I havea feeling you you're a mentor. I
just have a feeling that youare, yeah, it's, it's something
I give back, you know, becauseof what happened to me, I know
the value of being a mentor. Iknow the value of of and the
(21:10):
ability of what a leader does.
And it, and it's, it's not beingthe person that orders others
around it's being a facilitatorof learning and growth. And so
those that work for me even now,you know, I don't, I tell them,
(21:32):
hey, look, we're not in thebanking business. We are in the
we solve problems for people, wecreate opportunities for people,
and we learn along the way, andmy job is to help that go
forward and that you're in aworld where you're learning and
growing and you're helping otherpeople to solve financial
(21:54):
problems, but that's what aleader does. They're in the
trenches with the folks, butthey're there to help make sure
that they keep moving forwardand are getting everything out
of their abilities that theycan. I love that. My best, my
favorite, managers, have alwaysbeen supportive managers, and
you know, they get it like theythey solve your problems and
(22:18):
they're with you instead ofthat's right from above,
that's right, that doesn't work.
Well, I guess if you know, ifyou have enough fear, and you're
you're afraid, but who needssomebody who's afraid, right?
You just,it's much more fun to all be in
it together.
We're in it together, and we allgrow together.
(22:38):
I just love that, and I can'thelp but think that you are, you
know, you're doing what theytaught you way back when those
men, you're one of those. Now,exactly right. Yes, it's exactly
right. Circle movement.
It is. It is full circle. And I,and I do love it. I I'm, I've
trained a lot of bankers overthe corporate bankers over the
(23:00):
years and and it's, it's reallyinteresting and fulfilling to
see a younger person that istrying to make their way and
have somebody they can go to asa mentor. And, you know, it's,
(23:21):
very important to have a mentor.
That's why young kids, I talk alot about this in my book, the
importance of fathers in thehome, and, and, and because I
know what it's like to not havethat, and it's important to have
those fathers that areadvocates. I use the word
advocate a lot, an advocate fora little for a child from their
(23:41):
father is so important it letsthem be okay to expand their
horizon and their thinking andtry things that are maybe hard,
but with a little push from thedad and the mom, they achieve
things that they didn't thinkwas possible. Yeah, that's a
great thought. It's so true, andit makes such a difference. You
(24:05):
can see, when people don't havethat, how they struggle. Yeah,
you know, very true. We knowsome friends of our our kids,
you know, they just had atougher time. It's funny, too.
When your kids grow up and theyturn around and say to you, wow,
we didn't realize you guys werepretty good parents. We weren't
anything special, but we wereinvolved. You know what I mean?
(24:27):
Like we were on their side andsupportive, and we put in a lot
of time. And I always say youcan't take credit if you have
good kids, because then you gotto take credit if you don't have
good so they're going to growthe way they grow, but we tried
really hard to support them, andthey they came to that
awareness. It was such a sweetmoment when they both said it.
They both went to college, andthey said, we've heard some
(24:50):
stories, you know, yeah, someparents just aren't, aren't.
Maybe ready to be parents. It'slike, well, that's right, you
know, the same thing that you'resaying. Saying, you wish those
parents had had support. Youknow, I always say when I meet
someone, I can see they, theywere raised by loving people. I
can tell, you know, by how theytreat people, by how they are.
(25:10):
And you know, it's certainlytrue of you, like you could just
see your the influences comingthrough. And what a what a
beautiful testament, you know,the way you came around now and
became one of those mentors. Ithink this is an A plus story,
yeah, and I appreciate that.
Yeah, my wife has been asinfluential because we've been
(25:31):
together. We started we've knowneach other since the seventh
grade. We started dating rightat the end of our senior year in
high school, I love that she'sshe's been with me and the MO I,
I confidently say she's been themost influential person in my
life because of her family. Wecame up, we grew up on different
(25:53):
sides of the tracks, if youwill, and and so I'm shocked
that she married me, but she hasbeen very influential, and not
only to me, but to our kids andand the grandkids that we now
have. And so it's it's not justmen. Men were very influential
to me because it didn't have anyin my life, but Right, my wife
(26:16):
then became influential inshowing me things about the
world that I didn't know. And soit's very important for the
spousal relationship to be tiedlike a knot. And I think it's
just so good if you're a team,because that, yeah, that works
so well for the kids, andobviously work well for you
(26:38):
guys. Is there anything elseyou'd like to share with us? Is
there anything we didn't coverthat you'd like to add? Well, I
the only thing I would add is,you know, as people live their
lives, I think the you know,people try and be as comfortable
as they can in their life, butthat's the opposite of what
needs to happen. I I had to dothings, the more I did hard
(27:00):
things, and it stretched me tothe point where I was very
uncomfortable. I learned to dothat. It was the best thing for
me. So people just need to notput themselves in everyday
comfort, put yourself in in aplace that makes you
(27:21):
uncomfortable by stretchingyourself to do good things, try
things you've never triedbefore, and gates, doors open up
when you do that.
That's such good advice, andI've heard that elsewhere. I
really, really impressed withthat piece of advice, it just
(27:41):
seems like you can't grow unlessyou're, you know, on the edge of
being uncomfortable,that's what leads, leads to
growth.
And I think I want to order yourbook. We can get it on Amazon.
Get it on Amazon there it's onyou can get it on it's on audio.
You can get a hard copy. Or youcan get it on an audio version
(28:04):
of it. It's really good on anaudio so either one, fantastic.
And also, how can people get intouch with you? I mean, I'll put
all this in the show notes, butsome people like journal. I just
want to make sure they hear howto get in touch with you. Yeah,
and this is, this is animportant question. Also, I'm
always willing to help people,and so it's very simple, Jan, J,
(28:26):
a n, dot Ackley, A, C, K, L, E,y@gmail.com, that's my personal
email. If you get anybody thatwants to email me with a
question comment, need someadvice,
anything like that. Email away.
That's great.
(28:48):
All right. Well, thank you. Ireally enjoyed talking to you,
and I know people will beinspired by your story, and you
just never know who's listening.
I appreciate it. That's why I dothese is because life could be
hard and, and it is hard for alot of people and and everyday
people, you go through periods,and I just want to do a little
(29:08):
bit if, if, if I can to helpsomebody. I think that's great.
You know, one of the reasons Istarted this podcast is I, I was
like, you go through somethingand you learn something, what's
the point if you don't share it?
You know, like, that's thebeauty of it, you share it
exactly, right? That that'sreally the best. You know that's
(29:30):
the next step, right? Becauseit's not as fulfilling. It's not
as fun if you can't share whatyou learned. And yeah, and I
firmly believe you can learnfrom other people's mistakes.
You don't have to make everysingle mistake yourself, and
it's so true, I've made so manymistakes. And I try and tell my
kids, before you do that, ask mefirst, because if there's some
(29:50):
error to be made, I made to tellyou, yeah, because I've been
there, I've done them all right.
Well, you have a great day.
Thanks again for sharing yourstory. My pleasure. Sure,
thanks. Lynne, see ya
Music. Hello and welcome to the storied human
today, I have a really coolguest, Jan Allen Ackley, he's
the author of searching forchange, a memoir of growing up
in Appalachia. His book is atestament to his resilience and
ability to overcome obstacles,find happiness and inspire
(00:42):
others. Jan's natural humorweaves through discussions of
success, hardship and overcominglife's obstacles. Jan is a multi
talented individual with animpressive track record spanning
34 years as a commercial financeand economic executive with over
three decades of corporatefinance experience, Ackley has
(01:03):
established himself as a go toperson for companies across the
United States, seeking to solvecomplex banking and finance
problems. He rose to leadershipand positions within the banking
industry developingrelationships with companies
across the United States.
Welcome, Jan. It's so great tohave you. That's
great to be here. Thankyou for excited to hear your
(01:24):
story. I just have to say your Ato Z is pretty spectacular. Oh,
thanks. Yeah. Your beginningsare, you know, we're kind of
humble, right? And you grew upin a in an impoverished rural I
mean, I'm I'm assuming it wasimpoverished or close to a rural
area, probably, in some ways, abeautiful way to grow up,
because I love being in nature,and I, believe it or not, I live
(01:46):
in New Jersey, but I'm in a verybeautiful rural area right near
the Delaware River. Why don'tyou tell me, though, how that
shaped you, what that was like?
Yeah, it's, I like to talk aboutit. You know, I grew up in
Eastern, southeastern Ohio, youknow, fairly close to the West
Virginia border. And it's in,you know, kind of, I call it the
(02:09):
the North Central Appalachiaarea. And grew up in a in a
single parent. I have twosiblings, both older than me. My
mother was divorced when I wasvery young, when I was a baby,
and so. So growing up prettyfinancially poor, but also not
(02:33):
just financially, you know, it'slack of fathers in the home. You
know, my both grandfathers werewere killed in the coal mines or
died in the coal mines in the30s and 20s. Even my mother grew
up in an orphanage. And so itwas a lack of, you know, just
(02:54):
the lack of security of havingtwo parents in the home and not
knowing what to do. You know, asI grew, you know, when I was
young, and then when I grew intobeing a teenager, you know,
it's, it's hard for for a kid inthat atmosphere to find their
way forward. I can't imagine,because most of us, we have some
(03:18):
kind of safety net or familysupport. You know, you mentioned
even your grandparents, yourgrandfathers were gone, we take
it for granted. You know that wecan have we have a fallback,
people who will catch us, andpeople who guide us. Without
those support systems, it's hardto find your way. Oh, how did
you What did you do? Like, wasthere a mentor who helped you,
(03:38):
or someone in your family who,like influenced you? Yeah, you
know, I it's a it's a greatquestion, because a mentor is
what I really needed. And when Iwas, I want to say when I was
about 16 years old, I startedgoing to a local church and a
local church there in in thelittle town called Zanesville,
(04:01):
Ohio, had some, had some men init that were just really good
men. And they saw this poor 16year old kid with no dad, and
they kind of took me under theirwing. And I had never really
been around men before. Then themen that I, that I was around,
(04:22):
you know, weren't that good ofmen, but these were good men.
And it and it showed me thatthere were men in the world that
were that were good, and theyhad families, and they were
successful in business and soon. And they, they really
mentored me and opened mythoughts, the things I had never
(04:43):
thought about before, that's sogood. There usually is someone,
you know, that's what I findwith stories like this. There's
somebody like my mother, had areally tough childhood, but
there was someone in her family,one particularly strong person
who made the difference. And Ithink. So cool that there were
those good men that that sharedit with you, that showed you
(05:04):
like we were able to model onthem. We don't need our family.
We just need somebody. We needsomebody, somebody decent,
right? And God bless my mother.
God bless my mother. She shetried, but you know, she was
limited in what she could do.
She she grew up like, I say, inthe 20s and late, late 20s and
(05:27):
30s and so on, with no dad andin a foster home and and so her
way of thinking was limited aswell by her background. So it
was kind of a generational thingthat that my family dealt with,
I think that's such a goodpoint. It's so hard to break out
of that sometimes, because youhave so few resources, it's
(05:51):
about just surviving that.
That's absolutely true. And whenyou're in that mode, Lynne,
it's, it's, that's all you thinkabout your world is very small,
because that's all you thinkabout, and you don't think about
the things of life that are,that are like possibilities.
What can I do? Yeah, what are mywhat are my abilities that that
(06:16):
you don't really discover unlesssomebody helps you discover
them. That's such a good point.
You don't dream big, right? No,you don't know exactly, right?
Yep. So I'm just so struck bythose men. Thank goodness for
men like that. Yes. So what didyou end up doing? Like, did you
(06:38):
go to college after that? Didthey encourage? Yeah? So, yeah.
So, you know, really, it was,you know, high school was really
hard for me, just, you know,just not having a, you know, you
know, a lot of I had closefriends, but it wasn't this
broad friendships that you wouldtypically have. And it was just,
(07:04):
it was just a an odd time inlife, and these men showed up at
the at a really good time. Iknew I needed to do something
different than what my this iswhere my limited abilities, but
that I had those but I was smartenough to know what I lacked,
(07:25):
and I saw from these men a lotof things that I knew I lacked
discipline and a lot ofdifferent things like that. So I
in my senior year of highschool, I enlisted in the Air
Force, and then Ohio NationalGuard, because I knew it was
something that that could betaught to me, and I needed that
(07:49):
in my life at that time, and itturned out to be one of the best
things I could could do, becausethe military taught me a lot of
things that I didn't, did notknow, and I needed to
experience, and that was thestart of of an important time
for me. That's so good. We werejust talking about that the
(08:10):
military offers so manybenefits, and sometimes the only
path out for for students, it'sa great way to start your
journey. It is, and it wasn'tGo ahead. Sorry, no, the
discipline thing too, I didn'teven think about that. But you I
mean, how would you know that?
Right? How would you know thatkind of discipline? And they,
they really instill those valuesthat it's hard to get those
(08:34):
for anybody, I thinksomebody like me, that the only
thing I knew is that I needed tochange the director or the
direction of where I was headed.
You know, my my past, thegenerations before me, were very
limited, and it was like, it'skind of like being on this old
dirt road, and it's acomfortable road, but that's all
(08:58):
the road that I knew and but Iknew I had to get off of this
exit ramp onto the major highwayof life. And I don't know how
else to explain it, butsomething dramatic needed to
happen for me to get off of thatroad, which I knew led to a
certain place. And it wasn'tthat exciting. It was what my
(09:19):
generations before me, knew verylimiting. So the military was
that off ramp for me, thebeginning of the off ramp for
me, which led into a lot ofother things beyond that, but
that was the ramp that I took tobuild into me some things that I
knew I needed at the time as an18 year old, that's so great.
(09:44):
And now look at you. I mean, I'mpretty impressed with your your
corporate career and your authorthe book sounds wonderful. When
did you write the book? Well, Iwrote the book just about this
whole topic, because I I wrotethe book about 12. 12 years ago,
and it really wasn't a I didn'tstart out writing to make it a
(10:06):
book. I started out my I haveeight grand, I have five
children, and I have eightgrandchildren. Oh, how
wonderful. 12 years ago, theoldest granddaughter, the
grandchild, was born, and I wasin the hospital, and I was
sitting out in the, you know,kind of the waiting area and,
and I remember sitting therealone, thinking, I, you know,
(10:27):
what do grandfathers do? I hadlearned how to be a dad over the
years by trial, right? And, butI didn't know what a grandfather
never thought about being agrandfather. But here I was,
there. I was in this in thisroom, and I thought, you know,
the only thing that I could comeup with at that time was, I just
(10:50):
want my granddaughter to know ofthese lessons that I learned
over since I was a little kidand and I'll put those down on
paper. And so I started takingnotes. I found a pad and pen in
the hospital. I just startedtaking notes and reminiscing
about things. And one of thecool things I did when I was
(11:14):
starting at about 18, I startedkeeping a journal. At the time,
I you know my my wife, and Iknew each other since the
seventh grade in junior high,but we started dating when I was
18 and and so she gave me thisjournal. She said, Jan, you
ought to write some things thatare important to you as you go
(11:36):
day to day. So I started to dothat, and I kept the journal for
a lot of years. So I reflectedon those right. I looked at
those and more, more memoriescame out from that. And I just
kept writing these notes for mygranddaughter. And then I
thought, well, you know, my kidsdon't know these stories either
(11:57):
the all my adult children. Andso I started to tell some people
about what I was doing at work,and they said, Jan, you have a
really unique, interestingbackground. You really ought to
let other people read aboutthis. You should think about
writing a book. So that's so ittook me 11 years to write a book
because of my limited time.
Yeah, I, I am a business writer,not a or I was a business
(12:21):
writer, not a writer that of ina way that people would be
interested. So I had to getcoaching. So I I found some
coaches in English that helpedme to write. Gave me some good
advice on this book. And, youknow, I had it fully written.
They ripped it apart, took manychapters out, kind of
(12:41):
reformulated it, but it was a,you know, quite the journey to
get from point A to point B on.
In writing this book took 11years, and I published it a year
ago, year and a half ago, that'sfantastic. It's on Amazon. It's
getting decent reviews and soon, but I think it is a story
(13:03):
that many people need to hear.
It's a great story, and it's sosmart of you to get coaches.
Because I have a friend who'swriting a book right now, and
I've talked to other people thatsay sometimes, even if you are a
writer, you don't have thatobjectivity about your about
your stuff, or you don't evenknow how it looks should go
together. Yeah, yeah. So that'sso smart of you to do that,
because people need your storyand it, it's it's better because
(13:25):
of that coaching. And I thinkit's so interesting how many
different kinds of coaches wecan have now, somebody I just
spoke my last interview, wasthat I just published, was a
money life coach, Whitney Ellis,she coached. She wanted to be a
life coach, but she had her ownreally intense experiences with
money and and not being goodwith money, and so she, yeah,
(13:47):
she grew something out of that.
So I just think it's great whenpeople support each other like
that. So yeah, sure, yeah, goahead. I was just going to say
to your point, Lynne, it's, youknow, one of the traits that I
do have that's been very helpfulis is a little bit of humility.
I always look for the thingsthat I can improve upon or don't
(14:11):
have to help me get where I wantto go. And these men, when I was
a teenager, I knew what Ilacked, or I had a good idea
what I lacked. Then I went intothe military, but with this
book, I knew I needed a lot ofof coaching and English people
that were able to write well inthat vein of telling a story,
(14:35):
it's different. Do theyliterally
have classes on memoir writing?
I mean, I'm a writer, a poet,creative writer, a technical
writer. I would not attempt amemoir without help. It's a it's
a specific kind of writing, andthere's, you know, there's rules
and formatting, and there's,like, a way to spin your story.
It's so cool. A lot of peoplethink they're fine, though,
without a coach. So I commendyou for for saying, you know, I
(14:59):
need some help. But I keepthinking of this quotation when
you say that you saw what thosemen in church could offer you,
you saw that you had lack. Andit just reminds me of this
quotation, if you do whateveryone else is doing, you'll
have what everyone else has. Andthat's sort of what you did. I'm
so impressed with that becauseyou did it young. You looked
(15:19):
around and said, My family hasbeen, you know, doing this
hamster wheel kind of thing foryears, right? And it gets it
gets them here. So if I don'twant to go here, I have to do
something different. And that's,um, you know, pretty brilliant
at 18 to even, like, grasp that.
So that's I didn't have much, Ididn't have much brilliance in
me, Lynne, but I did havecertain things that I look back
(15:42):
now on, and I am so glad that Idid it that way. Yeah, because
sometimes in life, little,little things make all the
difference. And those, thosecouple, two, three men that I
got to know. I mean, they, theyhad no reason right to associate
(16:03):
with me. They were one of themwas a very successful
businessman in town, and hecalled me up, and I didn't know
who he was and and anyway, hecame over a couple times a
month, for a lot of months, andjust to talk to me. And I always
(16:23):
thought that was interesting,that I had nothing to offer him.
I'm this 1617, year old kid in asingle parent household poor,
and he was the exact opposite.
But I'm glad that he tookinterest in me and wanted to at
least help me in any way hecould. And he gave me a lot of
(16:44):
great advice. So good. He sawsomething in you, and he wanted
to help develop those things.
Yeah. So tell me about how yougot into corporate finance. Was
that like, did you major infinance or economics? Okay, I
did. I majored in finance andeconomics at Ohio State, and the
interesting story about thatgoes back to when I was about
(17:06):
five years old, my mother hadbeen a bank teller in we didn't
have, you know, there wasn't alot of things to do at home, but
she would play with us, and oneof the games that she used to
play with us. We called it bank.
Let's play bank. And so she madeup this, you know, cut out money
(17:30):
and drew with crayons thedenominations of it and
everything. She taught me how tocount change back. She was very
precise, you know, you know,today's world, you just get a
handful of money back from thefrom the person at the, you
know, restaurant or the fastfood place back in the day, you
had to count that change. Iremember, yeah, she was very
(17:53):
precise about that. And we didthat all the time, and it was
her way. And looking back now,is her way to keep my brain
thinking about things. And wenever had money. And so as I got
older, I thought, you know, Ireally need to learn. It's one
of these things that I knew,what I lacked. I really need to
(18:13):
understand money, because Idon't have any. My mother never
had any, and I don't want myfam, my future family, to worry
about, you know, the stuff thatI worried about. And so when I
when I I finished, or I got Iwas in the military, and I got
some of those educationalbenefits. The first day I walked
(18:36):
into Ohio, I went to Ohio State.
The first thing I did, I majoredin finance, and it that was
another thing that I justthought it was really cool. And
when I entered, when I graduatedfrom the bank or from the from
Ohio State, I startedinterviewing. I interviewed with
all the different banks and gotinto their one in particular was
(18:59):
in Detroit. Comerica Bank movedto Detroit, yeah, and I had two
little kids and my wife at thetime, when I graduated and we
moved to Detroit, and I startedin their commercial banking
program, went to school withthem. They had a little several
months of training, and theircorporate banking training
(19:23):
program. So that's how I gotinto it.
That's so great again. Thankyou, Air Force, because you had
those educational benefit, youknow, they kind of, yeah, they
did good by you so and you justkept going, and now you're
pretty impressive. Your careerhas been pretty impressive.
(19:43):
Yeah, and you know, it's I wason the just before our call I
was on, I was doing some somecalls with a couple of
companies, but I've been doingthis for 35 years now, and
experience. This is a, you know,it's not like, I'm this genius,
(20:04):
right? It's just like, grindedthrough 35 years of seeing all
sorts of things. And when yousee things for 35 years, you you
know, people come to you andsay, What do I do here? Well, I
saw that 20 years ago. And let'sfigure this out. It's great.
That's why you want to go to adoctor who's done a lot of
operations, yeah, that'sexactly right. That's so cool. I
(20:25):
noticed that too. It's just,I've been working, you know,
almost 35 years, and I just mostof the things people present me
with at work, I have a story.
I've done it, you know, I don'talways tell them the story. I
have to stop myself. But, youknow, it does help to have those
examples, all those examples inyour in your work life, and it
gets easier. I mean, you justreally have a lot to pull upon.
(20:47):
And I love that you do you, whatdo you do? As far as leadership,
one of your questions, thesuggested question, was about
what makes a good leader. I havea feeling you you're a mentor. I
just have a feeling that youare, yeah, it's, it's something
I give back, you know, becauseof what happened to me, I know
the value of being a mentor. Iknow the value of of and the
(21:10):
ability of what a leader does.
And it, and it's, it's not beingthe person that orders others
around it's being a facilitatorof learning and growth. And so
those that work for me even now,you know, I don't, I tell them,
(21:32):
hey, look, we're not in thebanking business. We are in the
we solve problems for people, wecreate opportunities for people,
and we learn along the way, andmy job is to help that go
forward and that you're in aworld where you're learning and
growing and you're helping otherpeople to solve financial
(21:54):
problems, but that's what aleader does. They're in the
trenches with the folks, butthey're there to help make sure
that they keep moving forwardand are getting everything out
of their abilities that theycan. I love that. My best, my
favorite, managers, have alwaysbeen supportive managers, and
you know, they get it like theythey solve your problems and
(22:18):
they're with you instead ofthat's right from above,
that's right, that doesn't work.
Well, I guess if you know, ifyou have enough fear, and you're
you're afraid, but who needssomebody who's afraid, right?
You just,it's much more fun to all be in
it together.
We're in it together, and we allgrow together.
(22:38):
I just love that, and I can'thelp but think that you are, you
know, you're doing what theytaught you way back when those
men, you're one of those. Now,exactly right. Yes, it's exactly
right. Circle movement.
It is. It is full circle. And I,and I do love it. I I'm, I've
trained a lot of bankers overthe corporate bankers over the
(23:00):
years and and it's, it's reallyinteresting and fulfilling to
see a younger person that istrying to make their way and
have somebody they can go to asa mentor. And, you know, it's,
(23:21):
very important to have a mentor.
That's why young kids, I talk alot about this in my book, the
importance of fathers in thehome, and, and, and because I
know what it's like to not havethat, and it's important to have
those fathers that areadvocates. I use the word
advocate a lot, an advocate fora little for a child from their
(23:41):
father is so important it letsthem be okay to expand their
horizon and their thinking andtry things that are maybe hard,
but with a little push from thedad and the mom, they achieve
things that they didn't thinkwas possible. Yeah, that's a
great thought. It's so true, andit makes such a difference. You
(24:05):
can see, when people don't havethat, how they struggle. Yeah,
you know, very true. We knowsome friends of our our kids,
you know, they just had atougher time. It's funny, too.
When your kids grow up and theyturn around and say to you, wow,
we didn't realize you guys werepretty good parents. We weren't
anything special, but we wereinvolved. You know what I mean?
(24:27):
Like we were on their side andsupportive, and we put in a lot
of time. And I always say youcan't take credit if you have
good kids, because then you gotto take credit if you don't have
good so they're going to growthe way they grow, but we tried
really hard to support them, andthey they came to that
awareness. It was such a sweetmoment when they both said it.
They both went to college, andthey said, we've heard some
(24:50):
stories, you know, yeah, someparents just aren't, aren't.
Maybe ready to be parents. It'slike, well, that's right, you
know, the same thing that you'resaying. Saying, you wish those
parents had had support. Youknow, I always say when I meet
someone, I can see they, theywere raised by loving people. I
can tell, you know, by how theytreat people, by how they are.
(25:10):
And you know, it's certainlytrue of you, like you could just
see your the influences comingthrough. And what a what a
beautiful testament, you know,the way you came around now and
became one of those mentors. Ithink this is an A plus story,
yeah, and I appreciate that.
Yeah, my wife has been asinfluential because we've been
(25:31):
together. We started we've knowneach other since the seventh
grade. We started dating rightat the end of our senior year in
high school, I love that she'sshe's been with me and the MO I,
I confidently say she's been themost influential person in my
life because of her family. Wecame up, we grew up on different
(25:53):
sides of the tracks, if youwill, and and so I'm shocked
that she married me, but she hasbeen very influential, and not
only to me, but to our kids andand the grandkids that we now
have. And so it's it's not justmen. Men were very influential
to me because it didn't have anyin my life, but Right, my wife
(26:16):
then became influential inshowing me things about the
world that I didn't know. And soit's very important for the
spousal relationship to be tiedlike a knot. And I think it's
just so good if you're a team,because that, yeah, that works
so well for the kids, andobviously work well for you
(26:38):
guys. Is there anything elseyou'd like to share with us? Is
there anything we didn't coverthat you'd like to add? Well, I
the only thing I would add is,you know, as people live their
lives, I think the you know,people try and be as comfortable
as they can in their life, butthat's the opposite of what
needs to happen. I I had to dothings, the more I did hard
(27:00):
things, and it stretched me tothe point where I was very
uncomfortable. I learned to dothat. It was the best thing for
me. So people just need to notput themselves in everyday
comfort, put yourself in in aplace that makes you
(27:21):
uncomfortable by stretchingyourself to do good things, try
things you've never triedbefore, and gates, doors open up
when you do that.
That's such good advice, andI've heard that elsewhere. I
really, really impressed withthat piece of advice, it just
(27:41):
seems like you can't grow unlessyou're, you know, on the edge of
being uncomfortable,that's what leads, leads to
growth.
And I think I want to order yourbook. We can get it on Amazon.
Get it on Amazon there it's onyou can get it on it's on audio.
You can get a hard copy. Or youcan get it on an audio version
(28:04):
of it. It's really good on anaudio so either one, fantastic.
And also, how can people get intouch with you? I mean, I'll put
all this in the show notes, butsome people like journal. I just
want to make sure they hear howto get in touch with you. Yeah,
and this is, this is animportant question. Also, I'm
always willing to help people,and so it's very simple, Jan, J,
(28:26):
a n, dot Ackley, A, C, K, L, E,y@gmail.com, that's my personal
email. If you get anybody thatwants to email me with a
question comment, need someadvice,
anything like that. Email away.
That's great.
(28:48):
All right. Well, thank you. Ireally enjoyed talking to you,
and I know people will beinspired by your story, and you
just never know who's listening.
I appreciate it. That's why I dothese is because life could be
hard and, and it is hard for alot of people and and everyday
people, you go through periods,and I just want to do a little
(29:08):
bit if, if, if I can to helpsomebody. I think that's great.
You know, one of the reasons Istarted this podcast is I, I was
like, you go through somethingand you learn something, what's
the point if you don't share it?
You know, like, that's thebeauty of it, you share it
exactly, right? That that'sreally the best. You know that's
(29:30):
the next step, right? Becauseit's not as fulfilling. It's not
as fun if you can't share whatyou learned. And yeah, and I
firmly believe you can learnfrom other people's mistakes.
You don't have to make everysingle mistake yourself, and
it's so true, I've made so manymistakes. And I try and tell my
kids, before you do that, ask mefirst, because if there's some
(29:50):
error to be made, I made to tellyou, yeah, because I've been
there, I've done them all right.
Well, you have a great day.
Thanks again for sharing yourstory. My pleasure. Sure,
thanks. Lynne, see ya
Popular Podcasts
On Purpose with Jay Shetty
I’m Jay Shetty host of On Purpose the worlds #1 Mental Health podcast and I’m so grateful you found us. I started this podcast 5 years ago to invite you into conversations and workshops that are designed to help make you happier, healthier and more healed. I believe that when you (yes you) feel seen, heard and understood you’re able to deal with relationship struggles, work challenges and life’s ups and downs with more ease and grace. I interview experts, celebrities, thought leaders and athletes so that we can grow our mindset, build better habits and uncover a side of them we’ve never seen before. New episodes every Monday and Friday. Your support means the world to me and I don’t take it for granted — click the follow button and leave a review to help us spread the love with On Purpose. I can’t wait for you to listen to your first or 500th episode!
24/7 News: The Latest
The latest news in 4 minutes updated every hour, every day.
Crime Junkie
Does hearing about a true crime case always leave you scouring the internet for the truth behind the story? Dive into your next mystery with Crime Junkie. Every Monday, join your host Ashley Flowers as she unravels all the details of infamous and underreported true crime cases with her best friend Brit Prawat. From cold cases to missing persons and heroes in our community who seek justice, Crime Junkie is your destination for theories and stories you won’t hear anywhere else. Whether you're a seasoned true crime enthusiast or new to the genre, you'll find yourself on the edge of your seat awaiting a new episode every Monday. If you can never get enough true crime... Congratulations, you’ve found your people. Follow to join a community of Crime Junkies! Crime Junkie is presented by audiochuck Media Company.