What does it mean to turn pain into purpose? Join us for an awe-inspiring conversation with Auntie Anne Beiler, the visionary founder and CEO of Auntie Anne's Pretzels, as she reveals the depth of her journey from a simple Amish upbringing to creating an international pretzel empire. Anne's early life, spent baking pies and cakes for her family's market, planted the seeds of responsibility and perseverance that would later define her leadership style. Her story is a powerful reminder that our foundational experiences shape our destiny in unexpected ways.
Anne's narrative takes a poignant turn as she bravely shares the heart-wrenching loss of her 19-month-old daughter and the subsequent years of enduring abuse. Rather than succumbing to despair, Anne and her husband channeled their grief into creating a 125-acre community center that offers counseling, daycare, and spiritual support. This chapter of her life underscores a profound truth: out of pain can emerge a mission that not only heals oneself but also serves the broader community. Anne’s journey is an embodiment of resilience, showing how personal struggles can lead to transformative community-focused endeavors.
As we wrap up our conversation, Anne dives deep into the distinctions between management and leadership, shaped by the wisdom of figures like John Maxwell and a supportive pastor. She discusses the importance of placing the right people in the right roles and the invaluable impact of making employees feel genuinely valued. Anne's experiences and insights offer a masterclass in leading with empathy and purpose, providing listeners with practical wisdom on nurturing both personal and professional growth. Tune in to be inspired by Anne's compelling story and invaluable lessons on leadership, faith, and resilience.
To learn more about Auntie Anne Beiler and her impactful work, visit her website at [www.auntieannebeiler.com]
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
And those years robbed me of so much.
But on the other hand, john,those years caught me so much
and out of our pain, out of mypain, my husband's pain, our
purpose was born.
It's hard to explain all thatbut it's in my book and I can
tell you right now.
(00:20):
If I would not have experiencedthat, I can't imagine being my
age and having any compassionfor people, if I would not have
gone through my own pain andtrauma and disappointments.
Speaker 2 (00:38):
Hey, uncommon Leaders , welcome back.
This is the Uncommon LeaderPodcast, and I'm your host, john
Gallagher.
I've got such a treat for youtoday, as I had the chance
recently to have an insightfulconversation with Auntie Ann
Beiler, a remarkable leader whoshares her journey of resilience
, faith and purpose, as told inher book Overcome and Lead, from
her humble upbringing in anAmish community to the
(01:00):
challenges and rewards of beingthe founder and CEO of Auntie
Ann's Pretzels, and opens upabout overcoming pain and trauma
to find her true calling.
Join us as she shares herinspiring story of
transformation, leadership andthe power of sharing one's
struggles.
Stay tuned as we uncover thewisdom and lessons that Auntie
Anne has to offer on becomingthe leader that God created you
(01:21):
to be.
Speaker 1 (01:22):
Let's get started, ann Viler, it's so great to have
you as a guest on the UncommonLeader podcast.
How are you doing today?
I'm doing great and I'm soexcited about being here with
you today and your audience.
Speaker 2 (01:40):
I can't wait to have the conversation Before we hit
the record button.
I know there's some fun thingswe're talking about.
I always get nervous abouthaving those conversations
because I don't have the B-rollto add it in.
I'm like, no, let's not talkabout that.
That'll be great for thepodcast, but it was fun getting
a chance to know you before that.
I do want to start you out thesame way.
I want to start all first-timeguests with the same question,
(02:00):
and that's to tell me a storyfrom your childhood that still
impacts who you are as a personor as a leader today.
Speaker 1 (02:08):
Wow.
So you know, I grew up in theAmish community and so my
childhood was pretty idyllic and, I would say, very simple,
secure.
I knew nothing about the realworld, but I think what really
impacted me.
I want to say two things.
Number one my mom and dad wentto.
We were farmers and poorfarmers, and so there was always
the.
(02:28):
There was always a need to havea cash crop or something else
that would provide cash, and somy mom and dad took went to the
farmer's market in Philadelphia,pennsylvania, and we lived in
Lancaster County, pennsylvania,which was about two hours away.
So during that time that I feellike something happened in my
(02:50):
heart, in my head, that I didn'tunderstand at the time but, as
I look back, pivotal and veryimportant to who I am today.
And that was number one when mymom and dad would go to market
on Thursday, and they would goFriday and Saturday, but my mom
would go along on Thursday, Iwould come home from school and
mom would have a note on thekitchen counter saying
(03:10):
Annabeth's, which was my namewas Anna and she her pet name
for me was Annabeth's, and shewould say Annabeth's.
And here's the list of pies andcakes I want you to make
tonight for the farmer's marketin the morning, friday morning,
and mom was at market and Iwould come home and see this
list and I remember clearly,john, as I read the note from my
(03:33):
mom there were 60 to 70 pies orcakes and both combination that
mom had was asking me to bake.
I would walk down into mybasement I could almost I feel
it right now and I would just,uh, I remember the loneliness
because mom wasn't there.
That's the only time in my lifethat my mom was not there and
(03:54):
that was that went on for abouttwo years.
And um so, going down into thebasement by myself.
My siblings are eight of uskids.
I don't know what they weredoing, but all seven of them
were out somewhere doingsomething, either in the field
or in the garden or cleaning.
I don't know what it was, but Iasked them not too long ago am
I telling this story correctly?
(04:14):
Did any of you help me bake inthe basement?
And they all said are youkidding?
No, so it's true.
I would walk down those stepsvery often wipe the tears from
my eyes, and the reason I saythis is important to my adult
life is because I began to feelthe responsibility At a very
young age to be productive, toplease mom and dad.
(04:38):
And then the result of that wasmom and dad didn't say, oh,
you're amazing, or we love you,or any of those kind of things,
but the next morning I would doall of this by myself, like from
scratch you know all the piesfrom scratch, the dough,
everything.
And my dad would come down thenext morning and I would help
(05:00):
him, before I went to school, toload up the pies in a pie case
and he would say to me you know,annabeth, these really look
nice.
And so I would go to marketthen on Saturday and my dad
would brag about I don't knowabout brag, but he would tell
everybody that these pies andcakes were made by my daughter.
And so I felt a pride for mydad.
(05:20):
I felt great satisfaction, butI knew what I learned there was
that I never got paid foranything, but my reward was
satisfaction.
And to get to that reward I hadto persevere and persevere.
My definition of that is verysimple it simply means you do
(05:40):
what you don't feel like doing,just keep going.
And I learned that at the ageof 11 and 12.
And the result of that.
My dad was just just let meknow that somehow in in by the
way he acted and by what he saidto the customers that he was
really proud of me, although henever said that.
And the other thing I learnedthere in that market was my dad
(06:02):
was a hard worker and he lovedpeople.
Now, I didn't know that at thetime, but I would come to the
market on Saturday with him andhe would interact with all the
customers.
It was a very ethnic group ofpeople in Philadelphia.
Back in the day it was my Amishworld and then Philadelphia,
and I didn't understand anythingabout ethnicity or cultures.
But I watched my dad interactwith all kinds of people it
(06:25):
didn't matter black, white,jewish, it just it didn't matter
and he would laugh with them,he would talk to them, he would
act like they were his friendsand I remember standing by my
dad thinking how can he do this?
He doesn't even know thesepeople.
But even that John impacted meto the point when I grew up and
(06:46):
experienced life and eventuallystarted Auntie Anne's, I
remembered my dad and that'spowerful to me and I think that
family of origin that we grow upin really does set us up for
life, whether it's good or badbad and in my case, it was so
(07:08):
good to be brought up in theAmish culture with parents that
loved me and taught me about Godand taught me how to work hard
and taught me how to loveeverybody.
Speaker 2 (07:16):
Wow, I could go so many different routes with that.
As I listen through the thingsyou're talking about
perseverance, hard work, faith,affirmation and care and one of
the quotes that came to my mindMaya Angelou's quote about
people remember how they madeyou feel, not necessarily what
they said or what you did, buthow you made them feel and he
(07:37):
clearly made you feel.
To a certain extent that washis way of sharing his love what
I hear from you there and thathe was able to make you feel
loved in that space where youwere.
My mom is a big fan of my Amishcountry.
She's probably more on the Ohioside in terms of where she
lives.
We grew up in northernPanhandle, west Virginia, and
(07:57):
she understands that andappreciates that so much,
especially the service side ofthat as well, the customer
service side.
Now, again, going deeper thanthat, it's just how you treat
people and I'm sure you tookmany of those things to Auntie
Anne's as you guys started,which that led ultimately this
story, and we'll get a chance togo backward into that story.
(08:18):
But into your book we'll get achance.
You wrote came out last yearOvercome and Lead.
So it's really about your storygoing through and I kind of I
gave you a heads up beforehand.
I wanted to start before thatbecause you've not been the CEO
of Auntie Anne's for a littlewhile, you've got out of the
business a while back and youcould have retired.
(08:38):
But one of the points orbasically checked out if you
will and it just wasn't in yourblood and one of the points you
make right in the book is finishwell at the end.
We live in a world that needsan uprising of people who are
overcoming and becoming.
Ironically, finishing wellmeans never really being
(08:59):
finished.
As long as you're alive, aslong as there's breath in our
lungs, we have influence a voice, a moment in time that holds
the potential for impact.
We have influence a voice, amoment in time that holds the
potential for impact.
So what have you had going onsince you retired from being a
CEO of an unbelievablysuccessful company?
And you are still making animpact.
Speaker 1 (09:14):
Well, so, yeah, the day we sold the company and the
day we settled for Auntie Anne'swas a very, very there was an
emotional day, feeling quite,feeling quite accomplished, but
also, um, feeling a great loss.
Um, uh, you know, when you,when you find, when you, um, uh,
(09:38):
when you birth, I want to say acompany, uh, and all the people
in it, you know, you, just,you're very, very connected to
the people there and I loved, I,I loved our people, and so that
that, in a sense, it was, itwas a very good ending for Aunt
Tans, but it was also a verydifficult.
But I knew even then, eventhough I didn't know exactly
(10:00):
what, but I knew even then I wasnot finished.
There's nothing in my bones,even today, that would feel like
I'm finished.
And sometimes, you know, whenyou feel that way, you almost
feel a little weird, like all ofmy friends, but many of my
friends, my family there's eightof us kids and 16 with the
in-laws and all of us are stillalive.
(10:21):
And while we're all now in ourlate 60s and 70s, all eight of
us and most of them, are stilldoing little jobs.
I mean, they have things to do.
But every now and again,somebody asks me when are you
going to quit?
And I can't explain that.
I really don't have an answerfor that because I don't know.
But I can tell you when you'rea person of purpose and passion,
(10:46):
you can't quit.
It's not like you have to keepmoving, but something inside of
you will keep you going.
And so when we sold the company,we bought a 125 acre farm.
We on that farm, our purposewas then to build a community
center, a service that we couldprovide to our community, to the
(11:08):
in the area and also beyond thearea.
A counseling center.
We had a, we had a church there, we had a cafe, we had a
daycare, so it was a 55,000square foot building.
So so from Antigone, we wentinto that.
We began to feel a passion forthe community and we wanted to
(11:28):
serve people who were lessfortunate emotionally,
spiritually or financially, andthat was always a part of who we
were at Antien's.
So we just took what we wereand what we had into this next
season of our lives, and that'swhen I began to understand I
need to write a book.
And that's when I wrote ourfirst book in 08 or 09, called
(11:51):
Twist of Faith, and that's ourmemoir which is timeless.
It's our whole story.
It's more than you probably wantto know it's a full story and I
began to realize then that, wow, there's a whole lot more that
I can do.
And Auntie Anne's although itwas life-giving, I mean, it was
an amazing journey.
I began to almost feel like,wow, I couldn't do this if I was
(12:15):
still part of Auntie Anne's.
So when we sold the company, itactually gave me freedom to
continue in the purpose that Iknew God had for us and that was
to help marriages and theneventually write a book and then
going into public speaking andthat has been pretty much my
life since then.
It's been a journey and a joy.
Speaker 2 (12:40):
I'm taking note there just for one second.
So I love that.
I mean again and I shared astory with you beforehand a
gentleman I knew that you knowhe retired and he had been
writing for years a newsletterevery Friday and he retired and
stopped.
I'm like no, no, no, you haveto write more now.
You have to get the opportunityto continue to share so many,
(13:00):
too many stories of individualswho decide to retire and at that
point they stop adding value.
And really one of the thingsthat we learn and I'm sure
you've done this through both ofyour books and now your
cookbook that's coming out, Iwant to talk about that just a
little bit as well is understandthat and it is more powerful
(13:23):
for you to kind of help thatperson that you used to be with
some of the words that you wrote.
And so when folks read yourstories, I believe they hear
that in terms of how you'veovercome and the things that
Harvard, mba or whatever it wasthat many people who run
(13:47):
successful businesses would saythat you need.
But you had to overcome many ofthose things.
I want to touch on just a quoteyou had on there because I
think it's more about you thanit is the business.
But you said, out of our pain,our purpose can be born.
Is that something that youexperienced in terms of going
through and how you ended up?
You know being successful withAnnie Ann's and being successful
as a writer and as a speaker aswell.
Speaker 1 (14:09):
I, of course, at the time I would never have known
that, but hindsight is 2020.
And I clearly see out of our,out of our pain, our purpose was
born because I think that andpart of our pain was our 19
month old daughter was killedaccidentally, and killed
instantly, when she was.
We were young, married I was 27at the time and soon after that
(14:33):
, and that in itself changedeverything about me.
It changed the way I felt aboutthe world.
It changed my I mean, it almostlost my faith, although it was
strong and it was really tightinside of me, but it started to
begin to almost unravel.
And then, soon after that, mypastor came to me and invited me
(14:57):
to his office and when I gotthere, I was relieved because
I'm like, wow, okay, I canactually talk to somebody about
my grief, which I really triedto isolate myself.
I didn't want anyone to knowhow bad I was feeling, and so,
before I left his office, hetook advantage of me physically
and I knew nothing about abuseof any kind and I walked out the
(15:18):
office door and I stood therefor a little moment and I
thought, wow, okay, for a littlemoment and I thought, wow, okay
, we lost Angie, my life is in acrazy place right now.
Just so much grief.
I don't know what to do withthis.
But one thing I do know I haveto keep this a secret, and so
(15:38):
what I really talk about quite abit today is that whether it's
a business setting or a churchsetting, it doesn't matter to me
.
I want people to know thatsecrets will actually kill you.
They keep you from becoming whoyou need to become.
And that day, standing thereoutside of his office, I decided
to keep a secret because I feltlike it was the only choice I
(15:59):
had to make.
And who would I talk to?
Who would understand, who wouldbelieve me?
It was my pastor, and that onesecret then kept me in the world
of abuse for nearly seven years, and I call it the dark world
of abuse of every kind.
I lost myself.
We had two daughters at thattime.
I was an absent mother.
(16:19):
I was there physically butemotionally abandoned my
children for all those yearsbecause I was trying to survive.
(16:39):
And so I tell that part of mystory, john, because so many
people that I know.
Today, as I go out and I speak,countless people come to me,
and I know that they have neverbeen able to resolve the pain or
disappointment or the trauma intheir life.
And so I tell that story evento your listeners, to anyone
who's missing right now, to justlet people know.
Let you know, it matters whereyou're at in life, but I can
(17:01):
tell you that you can overcome.
It sounds almost like a fairytale, I guess, but I'm telling
you you can overcome it all.
And how do you overcome it all?
Well, it's a journey, but itstarts with a choice, another
choice that I made.
The one choice took me into thedark world.
(17:23):
Seven years later I madeanother choice, and that choice
I made to tell my husband mydeep, dark secret that I thought
was mine to keep.
I would go with it to my gravewith his secret, because it was
too bad and too evil.
But I made a choice that day,and there's a whole story in my
(17:45):
book about going to tell myhusband my secret.
And obviously my husband and Iwere married.
Now We'll be 56 years inSeptember.
Speaker 2 (17:57):
It's amazing to me.
Speaker 1 (17:59):
It's amazing Only because I know my story.
Okay, I'm just saying I know mystory story and I know how hard
it's been and those yearsrobbed me of so much.
But on the other hand, john,those years taught me so much
and out of our pain, out of mypain, my husband's pain, our
(18:20):
purpose was born.
It's hard to explain all that,but it's in my book and I can
tell you right now if I wouldnot have experienced that I
can't imagine being my age andhaving any compassion for people
if I would not have gonethrough my own pain and trauma
(18:41):
and disappointments.
But I can tell you, whereveryou're at right now, somewhere,
somewhere of maybe you're in themiddle of horrific
disappointments, maybe you'vemade bad choices, but it's
within your power, it's trulywithin your power to make good
choices.
It's truly within your power tomake good choices.
(19:04):
And my line is the choice youmake today is the life that you
will live tomorrow.
I didn't know that then, butI'm telling you today, it's true
, we can begin to make goodchoices.
As hard as it sounds and asdifficult as it may be, we can
(19:24):
actually begin to make goodchoices.
So, making one good choice totell my husband my secret.
Wow, I thought he would divorceme.
I truly believed that he wouldtell me to leave here.
I am telling my story because ofthe power of grace of God and
(19:44):
the power of one really good manin my life, my husband.
I'm really, I'm humbled that Ican sit here today and tell that
story and to tell yourlisteners don't give up.
And I can tell you one thingright now If I would never have
told Jonas my secret, therewould be no Auntie Anne's.
I can't even imagine a worldwithout Auntie Anne's.
(20:05):
But I came that close to givingup on me, almost through
suicide, almost gave up onmyself.
And that's why I can tell you,listeners, you can pick yourself
up and begin to make goodchoices, and the number one
choice that you need to makeright now is that you will go
and tell somebody what's goingon in your life, your thoughts,
(20:27):
your hurts, your pain, yourdisappointments.
You may even call it sin.
You may have betrayed, I don'tknow what it is.
It's hard, it's rough, it'stough, but you can still find
someone that you can talk to.
And to me that is almost theonly answer out For me.
It was the only answer out forme, it was the only answer out,
(20:48):
and as I did that, then lifebegan unfold.
The shackles began to fall, butit was still very, very
difficult to go from there to bevery difficult.
Speaker 2 (20:52):
where I'm at right now had to be yeah, yeah, and
again it goes back to that story, but the story of you know you
are, you know, perfectlypositioned today to help that
person that you used to be andyou mentioned that in your work
that you do now.
So you talked about being awriter, writer of books, you
talked about being a speaker,but you also talked about you
used the term help marriages aswell.
So is there a story that you umhas been especially impactful
(21:17):
on you after that that you'vebeen able to help someone
without, obviously, without um,taking into account anybody,
anybody's confidentiality, but Imean that that you've been so
happy that you've been able tohelp with what you've done since
you retired.
Speaker 1 (21:29):
Oh, it started at Auntie Anne's.
I mean, you know, I've had wehad a number of employees at
that time, you know, and therules are the rules, you know.
You gotta live by the rules.
As far as you know, we all haveour standards and our values
and our culture within ourcompanies and I love to tell
these stories, not naming names,but just to let employers and
owners of companies know thatyou are an influential person.
(21:53):
That's why you own a company.
It's not about the perks, it'snot about how amazing you are as
the boss or the founder, butit's really about serving your
people.
And I think what I discovered,without the pain that I would
have experienced, I would havebeen, let me tell you, I would
have been a hard-nosed boss,there's no doubt about it.
But because what I experienced,it made me great, it made me
(22:16):
feel gracious, compassionate toour employees and a number of
times we had employees that youknow things happen in the
workplace and we had someemployees that had affairs in
the company and you know, as wemet with the team, I'm like come
on, guys, they're great people,they've contributed to Auntie
Anne's.
(22:36):
I mean, they've been here for anumber of years.
Are we just going to saygoodbye, I'll see you later, or
can we bring restoration?
And I'm happy to tell you thatI think that that's the
influence, and I feel likethat's good leadership Knowing
you know the things that happenin the workplace.
It's hard stuff and, as aleader, I think we're called to
(22:57):
be compassionate but also firm.
You can be firm andcompassionate at the same time,
and so we gathered peopletogether and we came up with
some solutions and resolutionsthat worked.
And so, again, if I would nothave experienced all that myself
, I would have fired thesepeople in a New York minute.
(23:18):
But I feel like as I don't know, I feel like, as leaders in
business, that we're there toserve people and to take them to
another level in their livesemotionally, spiritually,
financially, in whatever waythat we can, and that, to me, is
the role of a good leader.
Speaker 2 (23:39):
Hey listeners, I want to take a quick moment to share
something special with you.
Many of the topics anddiscussions we have on this
podcast are areas where Iprovide coaching and consulting
services for individuals andorganizations.
If you've been inspired by ourconversation and are seeking a
catalyst for change in your ownlife or within your team, I
invite you to visitcoachjohngallaghercom forward
(24:00):
slash free call to sign up for afree coaching call with me.
It's an opportunity for us toconnect, discuss your unique
challenges and explore howcoaching or consulting can
benefit you and your team.
Okay, let's get back to theshow.
I agree, compassion.
It's something that is lacking,no doubt, and you're right,
(24:21):
there are rules, uh, and thereare pirates in there that uh
must play and understandguidelines, uh, when you have to
care for somebody, uh, and Iyou've.
You've talked about that alittle bit more in your book as
well, but you know your storyand and taking a chance on
others as well is is often worth, worth the risk.
Sometimes it isn't, and welearned that pretty quickly and
(24:44):
we need to make changes as aleader, but sometimes it is.
And your story as well, interms of your daughter and then
the experience that you had withthe pastor, as you said, had to
test your faith.
So how were you able toovercome that and still remain
strong in your faith?
Speaker 1 (25:08):
You're asking some very good questions and I know
we have 30 minutes, maybe twominutes right now.
Speaker 2 (25:16):
Yeah, right, we're at 22,.
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (25:19):
Well, you know, again I have to go back to my
foundation.
My parents taught me about Godand faith and the importance of
it in our lives.
And during those years ofdisappointment and just
downright abuse and completehopelessness, and to the point
(25:41):
of suicide, I guess what I didmostly was cry and pray because
I felt like it was the end of.
I could not believe I'm in thisplace.
I hated who I had become.
I couldn't believe this littleAmish girl that was innocent
about life and didn't knowanything about the world.
I mean, you know I wasn'tperfect, but I don't mean that.
(26:06):
But I had no information, noexperience with evil and
darkness, and so when thosethings began to happen, as I
began to work through all thosethings again, I cried a lot and
I prayed a lot.
I often said my seven years ofdarkness.
(26:27):
It's like I wrestled with Godfor seven years because he
wouldn't let me go.
And that's the truth.
He wouldn't let me go.
I wanted to let go.
I wanted to just throw thetowel in and leave Jonas and my
family.
That's what I wanted to do inthe moment.
You know there are easy andquick solutions to our problems,
(26:50):
but if it's easy, it's probablynot the right thing to do.
So I did the hard thing.
I didn't want to, but I did thehard thing by staying and by
trying to just continue to putone foot in front of the other
and keep moving forward.
And I am grateful for AuntieAnne's because I know that
Auntie Anne's, really duringthose, all my trauma happened
(27:13):
before Auntie Anne's, but Icarried a lot of that with me
into the workplace and I knowthat it was heavy for me because
I carried a lot of guilt and alot of shame.
But even then, a number ofyears later, I'm still crying a
lot and praying, like you justgot to get me through the day.
So I'm grateful for AuntieAnne's because I really feel
(27:34):
like the purpose that we hadwith Auntie Anne's.
The purpose was to to beprofitable, so we'd be
charitable.
So we had a purpose that wasgreater than my pain and number
two purpose was to be light inthe world of business.
So I think it's really importantto have a purpose in spite of
the pain and the disappointmentand the trauma that you've
experienced.
Out of that, hopefully, youwill find your purpose and we
(27:58):
find our purpose throughAntaeans.
So getting up every morning,going to work and being
responsible, being a leader of ahuge organization that went
around the world.
I couldn't stay in bed, I hadto get up and go, and so I feel
like it was a gift to me in thatway.
So I did stay busy and thenwhen I came home I would fall
apart and pray and cry again, sofor many years.
(28:20):
But I'm grateful that AuntieAnne's I almost want to say
Auntie Anne's kept me alive.
Speaker 2 (28:25):
Well, I was just going to say I mean, it sounds
as though Auntie Anne's wastherapy for you to be where you
are today, absolutely, and thatthe, the role that you were in
uh didn't provide you theopportunity to uh be dist, or
maybe it did provide you adistraction that you needed in
that time of life.
That was there more than thepurpose, although the value and
the purpose of Annie and wecould dive into that for a long
(28:47):
time.
But you're right, we keepasking good questions and we uh
miss our time.
So, as we go forward but Iappreciate you sharing that
because I think that's uh easilyuh stories that we have so it's
overcoming uh the grief, it'sovercome their story, but it's
also overcoming uh and stillbelieving uh and having faith
that you know there was, therewas a reason all these things
(29:08):
happen.
That prepared you and God hadalready written that story.
Okay, let's, let's, let's giveyou an easy one then.
Um, so I've read through thefront of your book with the
endorsements and things likethat, and you had some pretty
powerful authors that are inthere.
Were there any specific youmentioned?
Personal development wasimportant to you on your journey
to Anteans and other spaces.
Were there any specific authorsor leaders that you um went to
(29:33):
in terms of influences on yourwriting style, on your
leadership, or maybe someone youtried to emulate in your
leadership?
Speaker 1 (29:42):
I'm not sure about that, but I do know.
At one point when I began torealize, when I understood that
I'm not a manager, I'm a leaderand I write about that, I think,
in the book as well reallyimportant to know which one are
you.
It's not lesser or it's equalin value, but it's important to
know which one that we are.
Am I a manager or I'm a leader?
(30:02):
And I always felt like I was amanager.
So when I understood that, itbecame very clear to me I am not
a manager, Although I thoughtI'm a diehard little Amish girl
that wants to do everything whenI had to shift from doing to
being.
I want to say that a leader isan influencer and is more about
being than it's about doing,although you will do whatever it
(30:25):
takes to get the job done aswell.
But I think at that time, whenI shifted from management to
leadership, I began tounderstand the responsibility,
the, the, the responsibility ofleadership.
And so then I followed JohnMaxwell quite a bit in his books
and, uh, we had him do ananti-im convention at one point,
and um, um, and, and that'swhere I began to uh develop my
(30:49):
leadership, uh, through mostlyreading, because honestly, I
didn't have time.
I mean, in today's world theywould say you have to take the
time but I just didn't have timeto spend a lot of time with
people that had been down theroad further than me.
But books became my great friend, my companion.
(31:10):
I mean I read all the time ontravels, in my travels, on the
planes, all the time onleadership, because I knew if I
was going to be who God wantedme to be, then I had to learn
who I was or who he called me tobe, and I did that mainly
through reading books, and JohnMaxwell was one of the great,
but then there was also manyother books that I read during
(31:31):
that time.
And, yeah, people came into mylife and I think at that time I
had a really good pastor thatreally helped me develop my gift
and my talents, whatever thatwas.
At the time I didn't know whatthat was, but he helped me
understand what my gifts andtalents were.
So, yes, people, along the wayyou were an encourager and an
influencer.
Yeah, that's right, and I hadno idea.
Speaker 2 (31:50):
And I was 48 at the way I told you you were an
encourager and an influencer.
Speaker 1 (31:53):
Yeah, that's right, and I had no idea, and I was 48
at the time.
I had no idea.
So I think that when you findyourself in a role, you may not
understand who you are.
Maybe you have this vision andthis.
You know, I want to be anentrepreneur, but I mean, I hate
to break it to you, but you maynot even know who you are at
the very beginning of yourcompany.
But once you discover that,embrace who you are, whether
(32:16):
it's management or leadership,and then find the people around
you that can add to your team,whether it's if you need a
leader for your company oryou're looking for managers.
It's vital to the health ofyour company and it's also
important to the growth of yourcompany, because if you have the
wrong people in the wrongplaces, let me tell you and we
(32:39):
did sometimes it creates suchfrustration, but when you have
the right people in the rightposition, it becomes like a
well-oiled machine, not withoutits challenges, but everybody is
in the right place, using theirkitchen talents.
And let me tell you when youfind that, the sky is truly the
(33:00):
limit.
We went around the world withgreat people who knew what their
role was, and I'm forevergrateful and I can tell you I'm
not the perfect leader.
Ask my employees, they would behappy to tell you that leader,
as my employees, they would behappy to tell you that.
But I found people that werewilling to come to me, come to
(33:21):
our company, and these people,then they became passionate
about our purpose and theybecame passionate about our
purpose simply, I feel like,because we cared about them.
And if you care for your people, I believe they will care for
your purpose.
And these people, all theemployees at Auntie Anne's,
whether they were there a yearor 15 years, some are still
(33:44):
there.
They carried the Auntie Annemodel around the world.
It's never been about me, it'sbeen about the people and I'm
glad that I know that People areyour greatest gift and your
greatest asset.
Speaker 2 (33:59):
Overcoming Lead is a book that folks could read and
learn about some of thosecompassionate stories that
Auntie Anne's had to help theiremployees go through the times
that they had and to get thelevel of commitment that you had
.
You mentioned putting people inthe right places.
Now you're talking Jim Collinsin the right seats on the bus to
make sure the organization canbe successful over the long
(34:21):
period, which is very importantas well.
At the end you've written amemoir.
You've now written yourleadership book and you have a
cookbook that's out there, whichone was harder to do?
Speaker 1 (34:33):
Well, you missed the one book, which was Secret Lies
Within.
I've written three books and astorybook as well.
We've done some online courses,all of that, but I can tell you
the hardest one I did was theSecret Lies Within, because that
had to do with overcomingmyself, and I wanted to be raw
(34:54):
and real and retemptive withthat story to help people
understand that, yeah, you maybe here today, but you can
become more.
You can overcome, and in orderto overcome yourself, you have
to.
In order to move on, you haveto overcome yourself, and I call
it the.
Overcoming yourself is theinternal life of who you are.
It's the inside of you, theoutside of you is pretty easy to
(35:17):
craft that life.
You know people pat you on theback and they say you're amazing
, you're amazing, you're amazing.
And after a while you're likemaybe I'm amazing, I don't know.
But the internal life is whatwe have to.
I mean, that's where we havewhat we have to pay attention to
.
Who am I only?
And as we learn to do that, Ireally feel like we can then
become.
We open ourselves up then tobecome the leaders that God
(35:39):
really created us to be, andit's a beautiful thing.
Speaker 2 (35:51):
Then we learn what it means to serve your people and
to lead them in ways that willbenefit them as well as it
benefits us.
So great, Auntie Anne.
How do folks connect with you?
Where do they find out moreabout you?
Speaker 1 (35:58):
I'll just go on my website, Auntie Anne Beiler, and
you'll find all kinds of thingsout about me, maybe more than
what you want to know, but thereyou can follow me.
I'll let you know where I'mspeaking and where I'm at and
hopefully, when I come to yourarea maybe I can meet some of
your folks.
Speaker 2 (36:14):
That would be great Antion.
I appreciate you sharing thetime with the listeners of the
Uncommon Leader podcast today.
I'll put the link to yourwebsite in the show notes.
I only have one more questionfor you as I've run over on my
time.
I see that on my clock overhere, but I got to finish you up
the same way that I finished myother first time guests, and
(36:37):
I'm going to give you abillboard and you can put that
billboard anywhere you want to.
Speaker 1 (36:39):
What's the message that you put on that billboard
and why do you put that messageon there?
I'm struggling with that one,john.
So there's two of them.
One is find your purpose andgive it to the world.
The other one is secrets, lie.
Truth frees you to become theperson to be who God created you
to be Powerful.
You can choose.
Speaker 2 (36:55):
Secrets lie.
Love that Just got the chanceto see Zach Williams recently in
concert.
Fear is a liar, but secrets lie, no doubt about that Love him.
Yeah.
So, auntie Anne, again, Iappreciate you investing the
time with the listeners of theUncommon Leader Podcast today.
I wish you the best as youcontinue to be on your journey
(37:17):
of development, developingyourself, of helping others with
their marriages and I don'tknow writing and speaking.
I look forward to seeing you inthe future as well.
Speaker 1 (37:26):
Absolutely.
Thank you, John.
Speaker 2 (37:29):
And that wraps up another episode of the Uncommon
Leader Podcast.
Thanks for tuning in today.
If you found value in thisepisode, I encourage you to
share it with your friends,colleagues or anyone else who
could benefit from the insightsand inspiration we've shared.
Also, if you have a moment, I'dgreatly appreciate if you could
leave a rating and review onyour favorite podcast platform.
Your feedback not only helps usto improve, but it also helps
(37:51):
others discover the podcast andjoin our growing community of
uncommon leaders.
Until next time, go and growchampions.
And those years robbed me of so much.
But on the other hand, john,those years caught me so much
and out of our pain, out of mypain, my husband's pain, our
purpose was born.
It's hard to explain all thatbut it's in my book and I can
tell you right now.
(00:20):
If I would not have experiencedthat, I can't imagine being my
age and having any compassionfor people, if I would not have
gone through my own pain andtrauma and disappointments.
Speaker 2 (00:38):
Hey, uncommon Leaders , welcome back.
This is the Uncommon LeaderPodcast, and I'm your host, john
Gallagher.
I've got such a treat for youtoday, as I had the chance
recently to have an insightfulconversation with Auntie Ann
Beiler, a remarkable leader whoshares her journey of resilience
, faith and purpose, as told inher book Overcome and Lead, from
her humble upbringing in anAmish community to the
(01:00):
challenges and rewards of beingthe founder and CEO of Auntie
Ann's Pretzels, and opens upabout overcoming pain and trauma
to find her true calling.
Join us as she shares herinspiring story of
transformation, leadership andthe power of sharing one's
struggles.
Stay tuned as we uncover thewisdom and lessons that Auntie
Anne has to offer on becomingthe leader that God created you
(01:21):
to be.
Speaker 1 (01:22):
Let's get started, ann Viler, it's so great to have
you as a guest on the UncommonLeader podcast.
How are you doing today?
I'm doing great and I'm soexcited about being here with
you today and your audience.
Speaker 2 (01:40):
I can't wait to have the conversation Before we hit
the record button.
I know there's some fun thingswe're talking about.
I always get nervous abouthaving those conversations
because I don't have the B-rollto add it in.
I'm like, no, let's not talkabout that.
That'll be great for thepodcast, but it was fun getting
a chance to know you before that.
I do want to start you out thesame way.
I want to start all first-timeguests with the same question,
(02:00):
and that's to tell me a storyfrom your childhood that still
impacts who you are as a personor as a leader today.
Speaker 1 (02:08):
Wow.
So you know, I grew up in theAmish community and so my
childhood was pretty idyllic and, I would say, very simple,
secure.
I knew nothing about the realworld, but I think what really
impacted me.
I want to say two things.
Number one my mom and dad wentto.
We were farmers and poorfarmers, and so there was always
the.
(02:28):
There was always a need to havea cash crop or something else
that would provide cash, and somy mom and dad took went to the
farmer's market in Philadelphia,pennsylvania, and we lived in
Lancaster County, pennsylvania,which was about two hours away.
So during that time that I feellike something happened in my
(02:50):
heart, in my head, that I didn'tunderstand at the time but, as
I look back, pivotal and veryimportant to who I am today.
And that was number one when mymom and dad would go to market
on Thursday, and they would goFriday and Saturday, but my mom
would go along on Thursday, Iwould come home from school and
mom would have a note on thekitchen counter saying
(03:10):
Annabeth's, which was my namewas Anna and she her pet name
for me was Annabeth's, and shewould say Annabeth's.
And here's the list of pies andcakes I want you to make
tonight for the farmer's marketin the morning, friday morning,
and mom was at market and Iwould come home and see this
list and I remember clearly,john, as I read the note from my
(03:33):
mom there were 60 to 70 pies orcakes and both combination that
mom had was asking me to bake.
I would walk down into mybasement I could almost I feel
it right now and I would just,uh, I remember the loneliness
because mom wasn't there.
That's the only time in my lifethat my mom was not there and
(03:54):
that was that went on for abouttwo years.
And um so, going down into thebasement by myself.
My siblings are eight of uskids.
I don't know what they weredoing, but all seven of them
were out somewhere doingsomething, either in the field
or in the garden or cleaning.
I don't know what it was, but Iasked them not too long ago am
I telling this story correctly?
(04:14):
Did any of you help me bake inthe basement?
And they all said are youkidding?
No, so it's true.
I would walk down those stepsvery often wipe the tears from
my eyes, and the reason I saythis is important to my adult
life is because I began to feelthe responsibility At a very
young age to be productive, toplease mom and dad.
(04:38):
And then the result of that wasmom and dad didn't say, oh,
you're amazing, or we love you,or any of those kind of things,
but the next morning I would doall of this by myself, like from
scratch you know all the piesfrom scratch, the dough,
everything.
And my dad would come down thenext morning and I would help
(05:00):
him, before I went to school, toload up the pies in a pie case
and he would say to me you know,annabeth, these really look
nice.
And so I would go to marketthen on Saturday and my dad
would brag about I don't knowabout brag, but he would tell
everybody that these pies andcakes were made by my daughter.
And so I felt a pride for mydad.
(05:20):
I felt great satisfaction, butI knew what I learned there was
that I never got paid foranything, but my reward was
satisfaction.
And to get to that reward I hadto persevere and persevere.
My definition of that is verysimple it simply means you do
(05:40):
what you don't feel like doing,just keep going.
And I learned that at the ageof 11 and 12.
And the result of that.
My dad was just just let meknow that somehow in in by the
way he acted and by what he saidto the customers that he was
really proud of me, although henever said that.
And the other thing I learnedthere in that market was my dad
(06:02):
was a hard worker and he lovedpeople.
Now, I didn't know that at thetime, but I would come to the
market on Saturday with him andhe would interact with all the
customers.
It was a very ethnic group ofpeople in Philadelphia.
Back in the day it was my Amishworld and then Philadelphia,
and I didn't understand anythingabout ethnicity or cultures.
But I watched my dad interactwith all kinds of people it
(06:25):
didn't matter black, white,jewish, it just it didn't matter
and he would laugh with them,he would talk to them, he would
act like they were his friendsand I remember standing by my
dad thinking how can he do this?
He doesn't even know thesepeople.
But even that John impacted meto the point when I grew up and
(06:46):
experienced life and eventuallystarted Auntie Anne's, I
remembered my dad and that'spowerful to me and I think that
family of origin that we grow upin really does set us up for
life, whether it's good or badbad and in my case, it was so
(07:08):
good to be brought up in theAmish culture with parents that
loved me and taught me about Godand taught me how to work hard
and taught me how to loveeverybody.
Speaker 2 (07:16):
Wow, I could go so many different routes with that.
As I listen through the thingsyou're talking about
perseverance, hard work, faith,affirmation and care and one of
the quotes that came to my mindMaya Angelou's quote about
people remember how they madeyou feel, not necessarily what
they said or what you did, buthow you made them feel and he
(07:37):
clearly made you feel.
To a certain extent that washis way of sharing his love what
I hear from you there and thathe was able to make you feel
loved in that space where youwere.
My mom is a big fan of my Amishcountry.
She's probably more on the Ohioside in terms of where she
lives.
We grew up in northernPanhandle, west Virginia, and
(07:57):
she understands that andappreciates that so much,
especially the service side ofthat as well, the customer
service side.
Now, again, going deeper thanthat, it's just how you treat
people and I'm sure you tookmany of those things to Auntie
Anne's as you guys started,which that led ultimately this
story, and we'll get a chance togo backward into that story.
(08:18):
But into your book we'll get achance.
You wrote came out last yearOvercome and Lead.
So it's really about your storygoing through and I kind of I
gave you a heads up beforehand.
I wanted to start before thatbecause you've not been the CEO
of Auntie Anne's for a littlewhile, you've got out of the
business a while back and youcould have retired.
(08:38):
But one of the points orbasically checked out if you
will and it just wasn't in yourblood and one of the points you
make right in the book is finishwell at the end.
We live in a world that needsan uprising of people who are
overcoming and becoming.
Ironically, finishing wellmeans never really being
(08:59):
finished.
As long as you're alive, aslong as there's breath in our
lungs, we have influence a voice, a moment in time that holds
the potential for impact.
We have influence a voice, amoment in time that holds the
potential for impact.
So what have you had going onsince you retired from being a
CEO of an unbelievablysuccessful company?
And you are still making animpact.
Speaker 1 (09:14):
Well, so, yeah, the day we sold the company and the
day we settled for Auntie Anne'swas a very, very there was an
emotional day, feeling quite,feeling quite accomplished, but
also, um, feeling a great loss.
Um, uh, you know, when you,when you find, when you, um, uh,
(09:38):
when you birth, I want to say acompany, uh, and all the people
in it, you know, you, just,you're very, very connected to
the people there and I loved, I,I loved our people, and so that
that, in a sense, it was, itwas a very good ending for Aunt
Tans, but it was also a verydifficult.
But I knew even then, eventhough I didn't know exactly
(10:00):
what, but I knew even then I wasnot finished.
There's nothing in my bones,even today, that would feel like
I'm finished.
And sometimes, you know, whenyou feel that way, you almost
feel a little weird, like all ofmy friends, but many of my
friends, my family there's eightof us kids and 16 with the
in-laws and all of us are stillalive.
(10:21):
And while we're all now in ourlate 60s and 70s, all eight of
us and most of them, are stilldoing little jobs.
I mean, they have things to do.
But every now and again,somebody asks me when are you
going to quit?
And I can't explain that.
I really don't have an answerfor that because I don't know.
But I can tell you when you'rea person of purpose and passion,
(10:46):
you can't quit.
It's not like you have to keepmoving, but something inside of
you will keep you going.
And so when we sold the company,we bought a 125 acre farm.
We on that farm, our purposewas then to build a community
center, a service that we couldprovide to our community, to the
(11:08):
in the area and also beyond thearea.
A counseling center.
We had a, we had a church there, we had a cafe, we had a
daycare, so it was a 55,000square foot building.
So so from Antigone, we wentinto that.
We began to feel a passion forthe community and we wanted to
(11:28):
serve people who were lessfortunate emotionally,
spiritually or financially, andthat was always a part of who we
were at Antien's.
So we just took what we wereand what we had into this next
season of our lives, and that'swhen I began to understand I
need to write a book.
And that's when I wrote ourfirst book in 08 or 09, called
(11:51):
Twist of Faith, and that's ourmemoir which is timeless.
It's our whole story.
It's more than you probably wantto know it's a full story and I
began to realize then that, wow, there's a whole lot more that
I can do.
And Auntie Anne's although itwas life-giving, I mean, it was
an amazing journey.
I began to almost feel like,wow, I couldn't do this if I was
(12:15):
still part of Auntie Anne's.
So when we sold the company, itactually gave me freedom to
continue in the purpose that Iknew God had for us and that was
to help marriages and theneventually write a book and then
going into public speaking andthat has been pretty much my
life since then.
It's been a journey and a joy.
Speaker 2 (12:40):
I'm taking note there just for one second.
So I love that.
I mean again and I shared astory with you beforehand a
gentleman I knew that you knowhe retired and he had been
writing for years a newsletterevery Friday and he retired and
stopped.
I'm like no, no, no, you haveto write more now.
You have to get the opportunityto continue to share so many,
(13:00):
too many stories of individualswho decide to retire and at that
point they stop adding value.
And really one of the thingsthat we learn and I'm sure
you've done this through both ofyour books and now your
cookbook that's coming out, Iwant to talk about that just a
little bit as well is understandthat and it is more powerful
(13:23):
for you to kind of help thatperson that you used to be with
some of the words that you wrote.
And so when folks read yourstories, I believe they hear
that in terms of how you'veovercome and the things that
Harvard, mba or whatever it wasthat many people who run
(13:47):
successful businesses would saythat you need.
But you had to overcome many ofthose things.
I want to touch on just a quoteyou had on there because I
think it's more about you thanit is the business.
But you said, out of our pain,our purpose can be born.
Is that something that youexperienced in terms of going
through and how you ended up?
You know being successful withAnnie Ann's and being successful
as a writer and as a speaker aswell.
Speaker 1 (14:09):
I, of course, at the time I would never have known
that, but hindsight is 2020.
And I clearly see out of our,out of our pain, our purpose was
born because I think that andpart of our pain was our 19
month old daughter was killedaccidentally, and killed
instantly, when she was.
We were young, married I was 27at the time and soon after that
(14:33):
, and that in itself changedeverything about me.
It changed the way I felt aboutthe world.
It changed my I mean, it almostlost my faith, although it was
strong and it was really tightinside of me, but it started to
begin to almost unravel.
And then, soon after that, mypastor came to me and invited me
(14:57):
to his office and when I gotthere, I was relieved because
I'm like, wow, okay, I canactually talk to somebody about
my grief, which I really triedto isolate myself.
I didn't want anyone to knowhow bad I was feeling, and so,
before I left his office, hetook advantage of me physically
and I knew nothing about abuseof any kind and I walked out the
(15:18):
office door and I stood therefor a little moment and I
thought, wow, okay, for a littlemoment and I thought, wow, okay
, we lost Angie, my life is in acrazy place right now.
Just so much grief.
I don't know what to do withthis.
But one thing I do know I haveto keep this a secret, and so
(15:38):
what I really talk about quite abit today is that whether it's
a business setting or a churchsetting, it doesn't matter to me
.
I want people to know thatsecrets will actually kill you.
They keep you from becoming whoyou need to become.
And that day, standing thereoutside of his office, I decided
to keep a secret because I feltlike it was the only choice I
(15:59):
had to make.
And who would I talk to?
Who would understand, who wouldbelieve me?
It was my pastor, and that onesecret then kept me in the world
of abuse for nearly seven years, and I call it the dark world
of abuse of every kind.
I lost myself.
We had two daughters at thattime.
I was an absent mother.
(16:19):
I was there physically butemotionally abandoned my
children for all those yearsbecause I was trying to survive.
(16:39):
And so I tell that part of mystory, john, because so many
people that I know.
Today, as I go out and I speak,countless people come to me,
and I know that they have neverbeen able to resolve the pain or
disappointment or the trauma intheir life.
And so I tell that story evento your listeners, to anyone
who's missing right now, to justlet people know.
Let you know, it matters whereyou're at in life, but I can
(17:01):
tell you that you can overcome.
It sounds almost like a fairytale, I guess, but I'm telling
you you can overcome it all.
And how do you overcome it all?
Well, it's a journey, but itstarts with a choice, another
choice that I made.
The one choice took me into thedark world.
(17:23):
Seven years later I madeanother choice, and that choice
I made to tell my husband mydeep, dark secret that I thought
was mine to keep.
I would go with it to my gravewith his secret, because it was
too bad and too evil.
But I made a choice that day,and there's a whole story in my
(17:45):
book about going to tell myhusband my secret.
And obviously my husband and Iwere married.
Now We'll be 56 years inSeptember.
Speaker 2 (17:57):
It's amazing to me.
Speaker 1 (17:59):
It's amazing Only because I know my story.
Okay, I'm just saying I know mystory story and I know how hard
it's been and those yearsrobbed me of so much.
But on the other hand, john,those years taught me so much
and out of our pain, out of mypain, my husband's pain, our
(18:20):
purpose was born.
It's hard to explain all that,but it's in my book and I can
tell you right now if I wouldnot have experienced that I
can't imagine being my age andhaving any compassion for people
if I would not have gonethrough my own pain and trauma
(18:41):
and disappointments.
But I can tell you, whereveryou're at right now, somewhere,
somewhere of maybe you're in themiddle of horrific
disappointments, maybe you'vemade bad choices, but it's
within your power, it's trulywithin your power to make good
choices.
It's truly within your power tomake good choices.
(19:04):
And my line is the choice youmake today is the life that you
will live tomorrow.
I didn't know that then, butI'm telling you today, it's true
, we can begin to make goodchoices.
As hard as it sounds and asdifficult as it may be, we can
(19:24):
actually begin to make goodchoices.
So, making one good choice totell my husband my secret.
Wow, I thought he would divorceme.
I truly believed that he wouldtell me to leave here.
I am telling my story because ofthe power of grace of God and
(19:44):
the power of one really good manin my life, my husband.
I'm really, I'm humbled that Ican sit here today and tell that
story and to tell yourlisteners don't give up.
And I can tell you one thingright now If I would never have
told Jonas my secret, therewould be no Auntie Anne's.
I can't even imagine a worldwithout Auntie Anne's.
(20:05):
But I came that close to givingup on me, almost through
suicide, almost gave up onmyself.
And that's why I can tell you,listeners, you can pick yourself
up and begin to make goodchoices, and the number one
choice that you need to makeright now is that you will go
and tell somebody what's goingon in your life, your thoughts,
(20:27):
your hurts, your pain, yourdisappointments.
You may even call it sin.
You may have betrayed, I don'tknow what it is.
It's hard, it's rough, it'stough, but you can still find
someone that you can talk to.
And to me that is almost theonly answer out For me.
It was the only answer out forme, it was the only answer out,
(20:48):
and as I did that, then lifebegan unfold.
The shackles began to fall, butit was still very, very
difficult to go from there to bevery difficult.
Speaker 2 (20:52):
where I'm at right now had to be yeah, yeah, and
again it goes back to that story, but the story of you know you
are, you know, perfectlypositioned today to help that
person that you used to be andyou mentioned that in your work
that you do now.
So you talked about being awriter, writer of books, you
talked about being a speaker,but you also talked about you
used the term help marriages aswell.
So is there a story that you umhas been especially impactful
(21:17):
on you after that that you'vebeen able to help someone
without, obviously, without um,taking into account anybody,
anybody's confidentiality, but Imean that that you've been so
happy that you've been able tohelp with what you've done since
you retired.
Speaker 1 (21:29):
Oh, it started at Auntie Anne's.
I mean, you know, I've had wehad a number of employees at
that time, you know, and therules are the rules, you know.
You gotta live by the rules.
As far as you know, we all haveour standards and our values
and our culture within ourcompanies and I love to tell
these stories, not naming names,but just to let employers and
owners of companies know thatyou are an influential person.
(21:53):
That's why you own a company.
It's not about the perks, it'snot about how amazing you are as
the boss or the founder, butit's really about serving your
people.
And I think what I discovered,without the pain that I would
have experienced, I would havebeen, let me tell you, I would
have been a hard-nosed boss,there's no doubt about it.
But because what I experienced,it made me great, it made me
(22:16):
feel gracious, compassionate toour employees and a number of
times we had employees that youknow things happen in the
workplace and we had someemployees that had affairs in
the company and you know, as wemet with the team, I'm like come
on, guys, they're great people,they've contributed to Auntie
Anne's.
(22:36):
I mean, they've been here for anumber of years.
Are we just going to saygoodbye, I'll see you later, or
can we bring restoration?
And I'm happy to tell you thatI think that that's the
influence, and I feel likethat's good leadership Knowing
you know the things that happenin the workplace.
It's hard stuff and, as aleader, I think we're called to
(22:57):
be compassionate but also firm.
You can be firm andcompassionate at the same time,
and so we gathered peopletogether and we came up with
some solutions and resolutionsthat worked.
And so, again, if I would nothave experienced all that myself
, I would have fired thesepeople in a New York minute.
(23:18):
But I feel like as I don't know, I feel like, as leaders in
business, that we're there toserve people and to take them to
another level in their livesemotionally, spiritually,
financially, in whatever waythat we can, and that, to me, is
the role of a good leader.
Speaker 2 (23:39):
Hey listeners, I want to take a quick moment to share
something special with you.
Many of the topics anddiscussions we have on this
podcast are areas where Iprovide coaching and consulting
services for individuals andorganizations.
If you've been inspired by ourconversation and are seeking a
catalyst for change in your ownlife or within your team, I
invite you to visitcoachjohngallaghercom forward
(24:00):
slash free call to sign up for afree coaching call with me.
It's an opportunity for us toconnect, discuss your unique
challenges and explore howcoaching or consulting can
benefit you and your team.
Okay, let's get back to theshow.
I agree, compassion.
It's something that is lacking,no doubt, and you're right,
(24:21):
there are rules, uh, and thereare pirates in there that uh
must play and understandguidelines, uh, when you have to
care for somebody, uh, and Iyou've.
You've talked about that alittle bit more in your book as
well, but you know your storyand and taking a chance on
others as well is is often worth, worth the risk.
Sometimes it isn't, and welearned that pretty quickly and
(24:44):
we need to make changes as aleader, but sometimes it is.
And your story as well, interms of your daughter and then
the experience that you had withthe pastor, as you said, had to
test your faith.
So how were you able toovercome that and still remain
strong in your faith?
Speaker 1 (25:08):
You're asking some very good questions and I know
we have 30 minutes, maybe twominutes right now.
Speaker 2 (25:16):
Yeah, right, we're at 22,.
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (25:19):
Well, you know, again I have to go back to my
foundation.
My parents taught me about Godand faith and the importance of
it in our lives.
And during those years ofdisappointment and just
downright abuse and completehopelessness, and to the point
(25:41):
of suicide, I guess what I didmostly was cry and pray because
I felt like it was the end of.
I could not believe I'm in thisplace.
I hated who I had become.
I couldn't believe this littleAmish girl that was innocent
about life and didn't knowanything about the world.
I mean, you know I wasn'tperfect, but I don't mean that.
(26:06):
But I had no information, noexperience with evil and
darkness, and so when thosethings began to happen, as I
began to work through all thosethings again, I cried a lot and
I prayed a lot.
I often said my seven years ofdarkness.
(26:27):
It's like I wrestled with Godfor seven years because he
wouldn't let me go.
And that's the truth.
He wouldn't let me go.
I wanted to let go.
I wanted to just throw thetowel in and leave Jonas and my
family.
That's what I wanted to do inthe moment.
You know there are easy andquick solutions to our problems,
(26:50):
but if it's easy, it's probablynot the right thing to do.
So I did the hard thing.
I didn't want to, but I did thehard thing by staying and by
trying to just continue to putone foot in front of the other
and keep moving forward.
And I am grateful for AuntieAnne's because I know that
Auntie Anne's, really duringthose, all my trauma happened
(27:13):
before Auntie Anne's, but Icarried a lot of that with me
into the workplace and I knowthat it was heavy for me because
I carried a lot of guilt and alot of shame.
But even then, a number ofyears later, I'm still crying a
lot and praying, like you justgot to get me through the day.
So I'm grateful for AuntieAnne's because I really feel
(27:34):
like the purpose that we hadwith Auntie Anne's.
The purpose was to to beprofitable, so we'd be
charitable.
So we had a purpose that wasgreater than my pain and number
two purpose was to be light inthe world of business.
So I think it's really importantto have a purpose in spite of
the pain and the disappointmentand the trauma that you've
experienced.
Out of that, hopefully, youwill find your purpose and we
(27:58):
find our purpose throughAntaeans.
So getting up every morning,going to work and being
responsible, being a leader of ahuge organization that went
around the world.
I couldn't stay in bed, I hadto get up and go, and so I feel
like it was a gift to me in thatway.
So I did stay busy and thenwhen I came home I would fall
apart and pray and cry again, sofor many years.
(28:20):
But I'm grateful that AuntieAnne's I almost want to say
Auntie Anne's kept me alive.
Speaker 2 (28:25):
Well, I was just going to say I mean, it sounds
as though Auntie Anne's wastherapy for you to be where you
are today, absolutely, and thatthe, the role that you were in
uh didn't provide you theopportunity to uh be dist, or
maybe it did provide you adistraction that you needed in
that time of life.
That was there more than thepurpose, although the value and
the purpose of Annie and wecould dive into that for a long
(28:47):
time.
But you're right, we keepasking good questions and we uh
miss our time.
So, as we go forward but Iappreciate you sharing that
because I think that's uh easilyuh stories that we have so it's
overcoming uh the grief, it'sovercome their story, but it's
also overcoming uh and stillbelieving uh and having faith
that you know there was, therewas a reason all these things
(29:08):
happen.
That prepared you and God hadalready written that story.
Okay, let's, let's, let's giveyou an easy one then.
Um, so I've read through thefront of your book with the
endorsements and things likethat, and you had some pretty
powerful authors that are inthere.
Were there any specific youmentioned?
Personal development wasimportant to you on your journey
to Anteans and other spaces.
Were there any specific authorsor leaders that you um went to
(29:33):
in terms of influences on yourwriting style, on your
leadership, or maybe someone youtried to emulate in your
leadership?
Speaker 1 (29:42):
I'm not sure about that, but I do know.
At one point when I began torealize, when I understood that
I'm not a manager, I'm a leaderand I write about that, I think,
in the book as well reallyimportant to know which one are
you.
It's not lesser or it's equalin value, but it's important to
know which one that we are.
Am I a manager or I'm a leader?
(30:02):
And I always felt like I was amanager.
So when I understood that, itbecame very clear to me I am not
a manager, Although I thoughtI'm a diehard little Amish girl
that wants to do everything whenI had to shift from doing to
being.
I want to say that a leader isan influencer and is more about
being than it's about doing,although you will do whatever it
(30:25):
takes to get the job done aswell.
But I think at that time, whenI shifted from management to
leadership, I began tounderstand the responsibility,
the, the, the responsibility ofleadership.
And so then I followed JohnMaxwell quite a bit in his books
and, uh, we had him do ananti-im convention at one point,
and um, um, and, and that'swhere I began to uh develop my
(30:49):
leadership, uh, through mostlyreading, because honestly, I
didn't have time.
I mean, in today's world theywould say you have to take the
time but I just didn't have timeto spend a lot of time with
people that had been down theroad further than me.
But books became my great friend, my companion.
(31:10):
I mean I read all the time ontravels, in my travels, on the
planes, all the time onleadership, because I knew if I
was going to be who God wantedme to be, then I had to learn
who I was or who he called me tobe, and I did that mainly
through reading books, and JohnMaxwell was one of the great,
but then there was also manyother books that I read during
(31:31):
that time.
And, yeah, people came into mylife and I think at that time I
had a really good pastor thatreally helped me develop my gift
and my talents, whatever thatwas.
At the time I didn't know whatthat was, but he helped me
understand what my gifts andtalents were.
So, yes, people, along the wayyou were an encourager and an
influencer.
Yeah, that's right, and I hadno idea.
Speaker 2 (31:50):
And I was 48 at the way I told you you were an
encourager and an influencer.
Speaker 1 (31:53):
Yeah, that's right, and I had no idea, and I was 48
at the time.
I had no idea.
So I think that when you findyourself in a role, you may not
understand who you are.
Maybe you have this vision andthis.
You know, I want to be anentrepreneur, but I mean, I hate
to break it to you, but you maynot even know who you are at
the very beginning of yourcompany.
But once you discover that,embrace who you are, whether
(32:16):
it's management or leadership,and then find the people around
you that can add to your team,whether it's if you need a
leader for your company oryou're looking for managers.
It's vital to the health ofyour company and it's also
important to the growth of yourcompany, because if you have the
wrong people in the wrongplaces, let me tell you and we
(32:39):
did sometimes it creates suchfrustration, but when you have
the right people in the rightposition, it becomes like a
well-oiled machine, not withoutits challenges, but everybody is
in the right place, using theirkitchen talents.
And let me tell you when youfind that, the sky is truly the
(33:00):
limit.
We went around the world withgreat people who knew what their
role was, and I'm forevergrateful and I can tell you I'm
not the perfect leader.
Ask my employees, they would behappy to tell you that leader,
as my employees, they would behappy to tell you that.
But I found people that werewilling to come to me, come to
(33:21):
our company, and these people,then they became passionate
about our purpose and theybecame passionate about our
purpose simply, I feel like,because we cared about them.
And if you care for your people, I believe they will care for
your purpose.
And these people, all theemployees at Auntie Anne's,
whether they were there a yearor 15 years, some are still
(33:44):
there.
They carried the Auntie Annemodel around the world.
It's never been about me, it'sbeen about the people and I'm
glad that I know that People areyour greatest gift and your
greatest asset.
Speaker 2 (33:59):
Overcoming Lead is a book that folks could read and
learn about some of thosecompassionate stories that
Auntie Anne's had to help theiremployees go through the times
that they had and to get thelevel of commitment that you had
.
You mentioned putting people inthe right places.
Now you're talking Jim Collinsin the right seats on the bus to
make sure the organization canbe successful over the long
(34:21):
period, which is very importantas well.
At the end you've written amemoir.
You've now written yourleadership book and you have a
cookbook that's out there, whichone was harder to do?
Speaker 1 (34:33):
Well, you missed the one book, which was Secret Lies
Within.
I've written three books and astorybook as well.
We've done some online courses,all of that, but I can tell you
the hardest one I did was theSecret Lies Within, because that
had to do with overcomingmyself, and I wanted to be raw
(34:54):
and real and retemptive withthat story to help people
understand that, yeah, you maybe here today, but you can
become more.
You can overcome, and in orderto overcome yourself, you have
to.
In order to move on, you haveto overcome yourself, and I call
it the.
Overcoming yourself is theinternal life of who you are.
It's the inside of you, theoutside of you is pretty easy to
(35:17):
craft that life.
You know people pat you on theback and they say you're amazing
, you're amazing, you're amazing.
And after a while you're likemaybe I'm amazing, I don't know.
But the internal life is whatwe have to.
I mean, that's where we havewhat we have to pay attention to
.
Who am I only?
And as we learn to do that, Ireally feel like we can then
become.
We open ourselves up then tobecome the leaders that God
(35:39):
really created us to be, andit's a beautiful thing.
Speaker 2 (35:51):
Then we learn what it means to serve your people and
to lead them in ways that willbenefit them as well as it
benefits us.
So great, Auntie Anne.
How do folks connect with you?
Where do they find out moreabout you?
Speaker 1 (35:58):
I'll just go on my website, Auntie Anne Beiler, and
you'll find all kinds of thingsout about me, maybe more than
what you want to know, but thereyou can follow me.
I'll let you know where I'mspeaking and where I'm at and
hopefully, when I come to yourarea maybe I can meet some of
your folks.
Speaker 2 (36:14):
That would be great Antion.
I appreciate you sharing thetime with the listeners of the
Uncommon Leader podcast today.
I'll put the link to yourwebsite in the show notes.
I only have one more questionfor you as I've run over on my
time.
I see that on my clock overhere, but I got to finish you up
the same way that I finished myother first time guests, and
(36:37):
I'm going to give you abillboard and you can put that
billboard anywhere you want to.
Speaker 1 (36:39):
What's the message that you put on that billboard
and why do you put that messageon there?
I'm struggling with that one,john.
So there's two of them.
One is find your purpose andgive it to the world.
The other one is secrets, lie.
Truth frees you to become theperson to be who God created you
to be Powerful.
You can choose.
Speaker 2 (36:55):
Secrets lie.
Love that Just got the chanceto see Zach Williams recently in
concert.
Fear is a liar, but secrets lie, no doubt about that Love him.
Yeah.
So, auntie Anne, again, Iappreciate you investing the
time with the listeners of theUncommon Leader Podcast today.
I wish you the best as youcontinue to be on your journey
(37:17):
of development, developingyourself, of helping others with
their marriages and I don'tknow writing and speaking.
I look forward to seeing you inthe future as well.
Speaker 1 (37:26):
Absolutely.
Thank you, John.
Speaker 2 (37:29):
And that wraps up another episode of the Uncommon
Leader Podcast.
Thanks for tuning in today.
If you found value in thisepisode, I encourage you to
share it with your friends,colleagues or anyone else who
could benefit from the insightsand inspiration we've shared.
Also, if you have a moment, I'dgreatly appreciate if you could
leave a rating and review onyour favorite podcast platform.
Your feedback not only helps usto improve, but it also helps
(37:51):
others discover the podcast andjoin our growing community of
uncommon leaders.
Until next time, go and growchampions.
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