A Work-Life Balance Worth Framing (From "On The Job" with Avery Thompson)

For the 8th season of "On The Job," host Avery Thompson shares stories of folks making pivots in their professional - and personal - lives. Whether it's a successful athlete transitioning into a new career off the field, a fly fishing tour guide trying to introduce a new segment of folks to the joys of the outdoors, or a stadium beer and hot dog hawker who doubles as the CEO of a red-hot start-up, we'll find out what drives them, how they've managed their pivots and what lies ahead. Strap in for eight more entertaining and heartfelt stories of people finding their life's work. "On The Job" is brought to you by Express Employment Professions.

On today's episode, Navy vet John Bethell starts over in a small town, yet finds himself in a familiar, and gratifying, role. https://piedmontprintandframe.com

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:03):
Welcome to on the Job. On today's episode, we're headed
up to the Granite State to speak with John Bethell, who,
after years of service to his country as a Navy chaplain,
re entered the civilian life as a small town shop owner.
But as different as the two livelihoods are as well hear,
John discovered they actually had quite a few things in common.

(00:27):
When John Bethell was in the Navy for two years,
he was stationed on the Greek island of Crete. Being
in a distant land poses challenges, especially when you forget
your wallet.

Speaker 2 (00:40):
It was my second day in the village. I was
explaining to him, like, hey, my wallet's there, I'll be
right back. He goes, no, no, no, you're the American. You're
in the yellow house. We know where you are. And
he's the only taverna. Taverna's a little restaurant. You're the
only Tavarnah in the village. He's like, you know where
youre going to go?

Speaker 1 (00:54):
And John, who's originally from New York City, found this
small town trust amazing. And that's not the only thing
he loved about life in Greece.

Speaker 2 (01:04):
I was very attracted to the way that it seems
as though they scheduled stuff stuff. Things are open and
closed as they're opening, closed and figure it out. And
I remember when I first got there, I thought, how
do these people live like this? But then after two
years of it, the question I was asking myself was
what do I have to do to live like this?

Speaker 1 (01:23):
A big part of the reason that John was so
enamored of this Greek way of doing things was that
it was so completely foreign to him. But as a
Navy chaplain, he never really had any time off.

Speaker 2 (01:34):
With my job as a department head, and I had
a duty phone with me. I had that phone with
me everywhere. If I wanted a vacation, it wasn't really
vacation because I had to have that phone in me.

Speaker 3 (01:42):
I was the only chaplain for the whole piece.

Speaker 1 (01:45):
So after two years of being stationed in Greece, John
was feeling an inkling to try something new. And ever
since John was a kid, he had this idea of
opening a print shop.

Speaker 2 (01:56):
I've always loved printing as a hobby. I was just
going to open up a print shop at first, So
I was just going to do a letterpress printing shop,
you know, online or through an Etsy shopper.

Speaker 1 (02:03):
Through the website, so he starts bringing it up in
conversation with some of his shipmates, saying, you know, I'm
thinking about getting back to the civilian life, ideally in
some small town in the US where I could replicate
this Greek village way of living and lo and behold.
One of his shipmates says, hmm, that sounds like where
I'm from, Laconia, New Hampshire, and immediately John's ears perk up.

(02:29):
But like a lot of the people that spend their
summers in New Hampshire, they don't tend to stick around much.
Later into the year, Laconia was far from thriving, but
despite its current condition, John could see the potential. So
we put on his snow boots and went around town,
introducing himself to some of the local business owners to
get a feel for the place, and very quickly he

(02:52):
experienced that small town charm.

Speaker 2 (02:54):
I said, hey, when he kind of want to do this,
and the cobbler said, you know, we have a cobbler.

Speaker 3 (02:58):
That's the kind of uh downtown Disney we have.

Speaker 2 (03:02):
The cobbler said, well, the frame shop is gonna he's
trying to sell it. Went and talk to the guy
and he said, yep, you can have it for a song.

Speaker 1 (03:09):
Probably the hardest part for John about walking away from
his Navy career were the relationships he built as a chaplain,
a position that brought John incredibly close with people, But
it turns out his new role as a shop owner
still involved dealing with people in their times of need.

Speaker 3 (03:26):
I tried for the first.

Speaker 2 (03:27):
Six months of telling absolutely nobody that I was with
an episcopal priest.

Speaker 3 (03:30):
I was like, nope, I'm a shop owner. That is it.
I'm not doing any of that stuff.

Speaker 2 (03:34):
And eventually who you are and what you're supposed to be,
he starts seeping out of you for wanting to walk
away from being like an active priest. It has not stopped,
because people don't frame things that are not important to them.

Speaker 1 (03:48):
After three years in operation, Piedmont Printon Frame is doing
well well enough that John has taken on a coworker
and some interns to help him meet the now steady
work orders. With the extra help around the shop, John
now has more time to be part of the community,
time to be the new chaplain at the Laconia Firehouse,
time to volunteer with the local youth hockey team, or

(04:11):
simply just time to stroll around his adopted hometown of Laconia,
New Hampshire, saying hi to his neighbors.

Speaker 3 (04:18):
It's nice. It's just it's nice, like you feel like
you belong somewhere.

Speaker 1 (04:23):
For on the job, I'm Avery Thompson.

Speaker 4 (04:29):
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