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Join NABR in partnership with Corp! Magazine for our CEO & Executive Thought Leadership Series, where Jennifer Kluge sits down with C-Suite Leaders to get their insight and expertise.
NABR is a service organization igniting greatness in companies and their people.
00;00;00;02 - 00;00;27;01
Jennifer
Hello everyone, and welcome to another episode of CEO Thought Leadership. I'm your host, Jennifer Kluge, and today we have a very special guest, Art Betancourt. He is the founder and CEO of AEBetancourt. and so you all know, AEBetancourt is a national professional placement, a recruiting firm, that works with organizations from small businesses to fortune 500 companies.
00;00;27;03 - 00;00;41;07
Jennifer
Art started the company in 2015, and it has had some rapid growth. are your firms also been named as Fortune's 5000 Fastest Growing Companies? It's a pleasure to have you here. Welcome.
00;00;41;09 - 00;00;43;20
Art
Thank you. It's great to be here.
00;00;43;22 - 00;01;03;08
Jennifer
I always like chatting with the CEOs that are the founders. It's a completely different perspective because you founded it and now it's very successful. One of the fastest growing companies. Can you give everyone a brief overview of Penghu Court and, tell us your your story. Tell us how you started and why you started.
00;01;03;10 - 00;01;38;17
Art
Yeah, absolutely. So, yeah. Jennifer, like you mentioned, and again, thank you for, having me today, it's a great, it's a great podcast. and just love being a part of, the, the best and brightest family. you know, as you mentioned, we're a national, recruiting and talent strategy firm. and our specialization is really helping organizations, learn, how to, find the right talent, finding them for them, keeping them, and anywhere from, all professional placement.
00;01;38;17 - 00;02;07;17
Art
So executive search to, salespeople across a variety of a variety of different industries. our vision as a company is to be a top three recognized brand in the nation for talent strategy, and we've grown a lot, but we still have a have a long ways, to, to grow, my background and, you know, starting a bank, you know, before startingAEBetancourt I worked at a just a boutique M&A advisory and consulting firm.
00;02;07;19 - 00;02;26;15
Art
that's where I first got my introduction to recruiting and talent strategy. and what I like to tell people is, in, 2015, I, made some crazy life decisions, and, startedAEBetancourt went back to school, got my MBA at the University of Notre Dame, and had a fourth kid all at the same time.
00;02;26;15 - 00;02;45;15
Art
So it was, it was a crazy time. And I don't know, I don't know that things have gotten any, any less crazy. but, you know, I really started it, the company out of a passion for helping businesses, thrive. by and achieving their goals, by bringing the right people to them to help them do that.
00;02;45;15 - 00;03;23;05
Art
You know, I have a strong belief, and something, that, that is really focused on the power of an individual, to drive value to, to an organization. and just in general, the value that employment brings, to companies, to the community, and the individual. And so really, our success has come from identifying, you know, why our clients choose us over our competitors and really being hyper focused on that value.
00;03;23;08 - 00;03;48;21
Art
and, you know, one of the biggest challenges that we had, early on, was building trust in a very competitive Artet. You know, the recruiting industry, low barrier to entry. Anybody can get, get into it. but by understanding the client's needs and what they were missing, and consistently exceeding their expectations, that's really how we're able to grow rapidly and early on in the organization.
00;03;48;21 - 00;04;10;09
Art
I remember, I, I, I knew what I believe that that made us different. and I had never done it before. And so I'm starting it based on this idea. And what I like to joke about is, like, my my sales pitch was, hey, you don't know me. I don't know your industry. I've never hired for the role.
00;04;10;09 - 00;04;31;18
Art
As for that, you need help with. And I'm doing a new model. but, then I've never done before, actually, but trust me, it'll work. and, I obviously that took a while to, to get going. And what I found that was when people asked me, well, yeah, when I got lucky enough was somebody said, well, what's that different model?
00;04;31;21 - 00;04;55;19
Art
I would say something and it wouldn't resonate with them. And so I really had to go do a deep dive and go, I know this is right, but what isn't resonating? What is it that people really want? And then when I was able to connect those two things, that's where we really started. seeing, that hypergrowth, and then what's sustain us is really building a strong company culture, that acknowledges our team members.
00;04;55;22 - 00;05;23;07
Art
on the front lines are delivering what actually makes us great. So we invest in them, we support them. We strive to make even what a great place to be. and, you know, our advise, you know, the same for, for organizations. I remember when I first started the company and this is, you might not believe this, but I remember I sat down and I said one day and it's in this tiers to hiring first employees.
00;05;23;09 - 00;05;51;10
Art
But one day we're going to win a best and brightest, best and brightest places to work in West Michigan to work. And so before I even had any employees, I knew that was a that was a goal, an achievement of mine that I wanted to accomplish. So I knew the importance of investing in our team members. And that's really what's, you know, what our focus was and starting the company, how I started it, and some things on what's actually gotten us to to where we are today.
00;05;51;13 - 00;05;57;22
Jennifer
So we see all that hardware back there. So you're obviously very successful here.
00;05;57;25 - 00;06;06;06
Art
Yeah, I just, I, I think I have to set this up. I got the West Michigan and the National Brightest Awards. I'm very, very proud of them. And we display them in our.
00;06;06;09 - 00;06;25;29
Jennifer
And I, I do want to talk about your culture. yeah. Before we before we do that, let's talk about the rapid growth, a lot of entrepreneur areas, a lot of executives say exactly what you say. I have a goal. I am a target. Target. This is where I want to be. But they struggle to get there.
00;06;25;29 - 00;06;41;29
Jennifer
They plant. So. Or are they flatline? It only goes so far. how did you grow so fast? Was it organic? Was it private investors? what was the methodology there that others can learn from?
00;06;42;01 - 00;07;05;24
Art
Yeah. So, you know, speaking as a CEO, and just the basics of, you know, the fundamentals of business growth. And, you know, I think the stats are something like, you know, 50% of small businesses fail, you know, within a couple of years, and then only like 20% of those ever grow to be, more than a million.
00;07;05;24 - 00;07;48;08
Art
And our growth has been all has been all organic. and, the one of the big things that I learned at Notre Dame and my MBA program that really resonated with me is there's two primary reasons why companies fail, why or why startups never get off the ground, lack of sales and lack of cash. And so, you know, I, I am a sales person at heart, you know, that's that's that's where I've always been great at, and, and the, the finance piece was not something that I was strongly and that's why I went back, to Notre Dame.
00;07;48;10 - 00;08;14;25
Art
and so fundamentally, we built this, our business model to be able to grow organically, to focus on going out and selling and then making sure that we had a, a, a, a financing model that actually created enough cash quick enough in order to make sure that to to fund that organic growth. Now, that doesn't mean that, you know, that we that we didn't take a lot of risk.
00;08;14;25 - 00;08;53;19
Art
And I'll, I'll talk about some of that in a little bit and stretch and get out over our skis sometimes. and, you know, there, there was, you know, some funding, some personal funding that, that we had to take on, early on, which I'm happy to get into, I think we were talking about that in a little bit as well, but, but ultimately all those things had to align, and then I had to be able to focus on, again, going back to understanding our Artet, being agile, knowing where our core competencies competencies are and investing in that over and over and over again and
00;08;53;19 - 00;08;55;02
Art
demanding excellence in those sense.
00;08;55;03 - 00;09;15;03
Jennifer
You wonderful. I would add to your formula of sales, cash and risk. I would add elbow grease, you know, lean chicken beat up a little bit too. I'm, I'm sure there's the stores that said no for a while. We beat you up and you learn from it, right?
00;09;15;05 - 00;09;36;04
Art
Oh, yeah. Well, I mean, you know, sales is kind of like, you know what they say? There's like a saying, they, you know, a baseball player that bats, you know, 300 or, you know, that, that that misses two out of three. What do they call him? They call him a Hall of Famer.
00;09;36;04 - 00;09;53;24
Art
Right. And you know, in sales, you have to be especially starting up a business. You have to be willing to fail for it. Right? You got to put yourself in, an opportunities to be told no, to learn from them, to keep moving forward. you're going to get a lot of. No, that's that's just part of it.
00;09;53;24 - 00;10;22;17
Art
I can't you know, I think six months ago we closed a and started working with an account that was, one of the very first prospecting meetings that that I ever had eight years ago, you know, and, and six months ago, they worked with us, for the first time. And I remember it's easy when you're in that moment and there's something called having an MVP, minimum viable product to get caught up, and everything has to be perfect.
00;10;22;17 - 00;10;40;01
Art
So I went back and actually looked at the presentation that we gave to that company in, eight, 7 or 8 years ago or whatever. And it was like it was embarrassing. But, but at the time, I was very proud of it, you know, and, but I wouldn't have if I wouldn't have put myself out there.
00;10;40;01 - 00;10;42;22
Art
We wouldn't have learned, how we are today.
00;10;42;29 - 00;11;09;08
Jennifer
So. Well, that's another good example of where nos, I like to say, are temporary and conditional. Yeah. A no is the conditions that are presented and temporary. If you go back a year or two years, in your case, eight years later, it might turn into a yes. Yep. yeah. Wonderful. So, let's talk about your area of expertise for a hot minute here.
00;11;09;16 - 00;11;34;12
Jennifer
There's so much going on in the talent space. other leaders like yours. In fact, I just came off of a phone call with with other leaders, and they said the talent coaching is of concern for them. yeah. And they're trying to define, how to prevent that from happening. So tell us what advice. You're the one that goes and coaches, right?
00;11;34;15 - 00;11;41;15
Jennifer
Well, what advice would you give other leaders about protecting your team from being poached?
00;11;41;18 - 00;12;15;28
Art
Yeah, that's a great question actually. I have a whole presentation that I do on that, and it's called How to Recruit Proof Your Business. Right. Recruiter proof your business. so really kind of summarize it. if you want to keep talent engaged and prevent poaching, you need to know the one powerful question that we use as recruiters to, potentially, create an opportunity for somebody that, that, that we're, that we're talking with, I'll refrain from use the word poaching.
00;12;15;28 - 00;12;48;02
Art
But yes, from, from poaching talent. and this, this, this question, was, you know, I first read about it, by an individual, he's a consultant in the recruiting industry. His name's rather, you know, he wrote what I consider the Bible of recruiting. and, and, and we use this. And the one question that we ask everybody at the very beginning is, would you be interested in an opportunity if it was clearly superior to what you're doing today?
00;12;48;05 - 00;13;09;14
Art
And, if we want to relate that specifically to how you retain your industry, how do you or your your talent, how to recruit or proof your business? The best way to do it is, to understand what motivates your team members, and ensure that they are fulfilled by their role. So that caught off guard when a recruiter approaches them with that question.
00;13;09;14 - 00;13;33;15
Art
So you got to have regular communication. You have to align their roles with, you know, their personal and professional goals. and you have to continually communicate with them. And you know what? You know, you are you're not always going to be able to retain everybody. You know, sometimes people are going to outgrow you, and that's okay.
00;13;33;17 - 00;13;56;19
Art
and I can't tell you, how many organizations and company leaders that I ran into that, that are scared to do these things because they feel like, oh, man. Then, you know, if we invest too much of them, then we'll lose them and they'll go somewhere else. And, and what I would say is you're at greater risk of losing them if you don't invest in them.
00;13;56;19 - 00;14;18;04
Art
And imagine the impact, if you are able to invest in that way, if you are able to understand those questions, be invested in their their personal goals and their professional goals, how much more they are committed to you and when they get that call from a recruiter, even if it's for for more money, they know that the opportunity that they have for that is greater than than anything less that they're looking at.
00;14;18;06 - 00;14;41;20
Jennifer
Well said out. And so many supervisors don't put enough emphasis on the personal goals. So it's not only the professional goals is the personal goals. Do they want to buy a boat one day? Do they, want to go on a fantastic trip to a place on their bucket list? Those things and helping people get there, is important for a supervisor.
00;14;41;23 - 00;14;42;04
Jennifer
Really?
00;14;42;10 - 00;15;04;29
Art
Yeah. Thank you. And you know, the interesting thing that is mentioned in our employer reviews that that we've, developed here and we, help organizations with as part of our talent strategy arm. One of the sections is on goals, and we want every employee to have at least a personal goal, a professional goal, a big bag, which is a big, hairy, audacious goal, and a long term goal.
00;15;05;02 - 00;15;23;18
Art
And because we know that, you know, we by understanding those things, you know, somebody wants a boat, they're not going to go, you know, I'm never going to go buy it for one of my employees. But knowing that, knowing what's important to them, you or you can be shocked as a leader how you can tie those things back to your organization.
00;15;23;18 - 00;15;33;24
Art
And you can have both great organizational health and growth and performance, just by investing and helping the people, helping your team members get to where they want to be and in both areas. Right?
00;15;33;27 - 00;15;51;11
Jennifer
Yeah, we see that with the best and brightest. Many of them do do that. let's keep talking about industry and industry trends. what do you predict the next six months of talent looks like from now to the end of the year?
00;15;51;13 - 00;16;19;06
Art
Yeah. I mean, to predict the future. So future that's important to look at what's going on, you know, now in the industry, you know, national unemployment has risen, you know, about, you know, a half a bit to 4.1%. so that does suggest that there's a larger candidate pool available. so we'll start to see, you know, some roles, some roles, not not all of them.
00;16;19;09 - 00;16;45;09
Art
but that he maybe wouldn't get a, a lot of applications for just from a job posting. You might see that. Be a little be a little bit more active. labor participation rate is good. So there's, you know, stability, in the Artet, we're looking at trends with regard to, inflation and wages. Those are going to continue, I think, to just kind of remain, where they're at, you know, nothing crazy.
00;16;45;09 - 00;17;13;12
Art
We're still continuing to see trends. You know, Salesforce recently has changed their, their, their work from home policy. and I think what you're going to start to you're going to continue to see that trend more and more because what what you're finding in organizations is a lot of younger talent is coming in, and they're missing out on key mentorship and collaborative work environments, and they don't feel like they're getting what they need.
00;17;13;15 - 00;17;33;12
Art
and, and that oftentimes has to be provided by the older, more experienced people, that they're working with. So you're missing you're missing a lot of that stuff. What I will say is, you know, I get asked that question a lot, whether it's, you know, the next six months for the next year or, hey, unemployment is high or low.
00;17;33;14 - 00;18;03;20
Art
what? You know, where thing. You know, where, you know, how is that impacting your business? The reality is, and this is really important to understand, as a leader in your organization, that finding great high performing talent is always a challenge. You always have to be committed to it. It rarely falls in your lap. and, no matter what Artet trends happen over the next six months, that is going to continue to remain, steady.
00;18;03;23 - 00;18;23;14
Jennifer
So thank you. Thank you for those wise words. so speaking of young people, let's say you had 500 future CEOs sitting in front of you. what advice would you give them?
00;18;23;16 - 00;18;49;08
Art
Yeah. Stay curious. Never stop learning. this is a big one for me, and I've done it early on and continue to do it over and over and over again. Surround yourself with a strong network of mentors and peers that can provide guidance and support, especially as a leader. You know, the the the more you grow as a leader.
00;18;49;10 - 00;19;21;04
Art
the more difficult, it can become. You can start to feel a little bit isolated. You know, some people will say that the the CEO role is like the loneliest, you know, job. and, you know, you can agree with that or not across it, but. Yeah. the the important thing is, is that you're that you're active in a way that's where you're, you're proactive so that it's not a lonely position, whether that's either, internally or externally that you're bringing the right people, into your life.
00;19;21;06 - 00;19;45;03
Art
and then, you know, most importantly, I would say maintain it's their vision and purpose for your business and stay true to who you are and your values. the final thing I would say the most, one of the most influential things that I've read and that I've the tier two and what I would encourage all young entrepreneurs to do is go out and buy a book.
00;19;45;05 - 00;20;10;10
Art
it's called Strategy Mindset 2.0 by Chuck Bamford. And if all the things that I'm talking about in terms of understanding your value, understanding why your customers go past your competitors and come to you, how to build a business strategy, it it's it's all in that book. And, you know, Chuck was actually one of my professors at Notre Dame.
00;20;10;12 - 00;20;31;08
Art
and that's one of the few resources that I almost follow to the letter. Everything else is like, yeah, that's good information. I'm pulling things from here. I'm like, this is our manual here for strategy. and, and so as a young CEO entrepreneur that's trying to start something, go get and read that book, I highly recommend, I have no royalties on it.
00;20;31;11 - 00;20;41;09
Jennifer
In the Strategy Mindset 2.0. And I would imagine that your team leaders also have that book, and you you run. Yeah. You run. Your business approach.
00;20;41;09 - 00;21;24;04
Art
Required reading for all of our employees. So I so when, three part of our onboarding is three weeks after their start date, I meet with them with an expectation that they've come and they've read that book, and we have a conversation of it because what what that book does it really, it, it helps you define again why you're different than everybody else and aligns your whole organization, your mission, vision, values, your, your, your strategy, your business plan, and your your your the way you're organized, with that.
00;21;24;06 - 00;21;40;29
Art
And so one of the reasons why that's crucial for our employees is because we bring them in at that point, even your your day to day interactions with your customers. And now that they learned everything, then we bring it together in that book and say, like, this is where it's all really and this is how it actually all comes together.
00;21;41;02 - 00;21;54;09
Art
Everything that you've learned in the last two weeks is with a purpose, and it brings that purpose together. So, so, yeah, all of our, all of our employees read it and our, executive team, manages to it and builds the business off.
00;21;54;12 - 00;22;15;08
Jennifer
That's fantastic. Is it's it's almost like a football playbook. so thank you for sharing that. And this is a two. And as soon as somebody walks in the door, they know, oh, this is how we do things. and not many businesses have that. This is how we do things from a strategy perspective, client respect.
00;22;15;11 - 00;22;18;10
Art
And they understand the why which is so crucial.
00;22;18;13 - 00;22;38;25
Jennifer
Yeah, yeah. Wonderful. Wonderful. we've all had, monumental moments in our careers, professionally. Some good, some not so good. We seen the negative ones more than the positive. could you share with us a monumental Wellman and and what you learned from it?
00;22;38;28 - 00;23;03;26
Art
Yeah. you know, there, as I kind of reflect on that question, there's so many of them that I can look back on and say, man, you know, if somebody didn't help me in this way, if if our first client didn't take a chance on me. Right. if I would have made this decision instead of that decision.
00;23;03;29 - 00;23;34;28
Art
there's so many monuments there over the last eight years, it's really hard to pick one. but one that I would. One that I will share that that, you know, if I had to pick one, I'd probably pick this one. is really what I call our burn the ships moment. And, you know, we were at a point, as an organization where it was just me and, hey, I, I can make great money as an individual consultant.
00;23;35;00 - 00;23;53;14
Art
but I wanted to build a business. I wanted to build a legacy, and, something greater that had an impact on people's lives and on the community had it. That was a legacy for my family. and part of that was we knew in order to get there that we had to hire our first employee to fuel the growth.
00;23;53;17 - 00;24;15;09
Art
Right. I understood that it's kind of a weird saying, but I had to do less in order for us to do more. And less doesn't mean less work. It just means less of, you know, if if we're going to grow, I can't do all the recruiting work. so that involves hiring one of our our our, our first people, and I'll, but we don't have the capital do that to do that.
00;24;15;09 - 00;24;43;25
Art
So this is what I was talking about earlier in terms of, like, organic growth. I, that that the one time that we got funding was personal funding and went out and took a second mortgage on our house, and this was still the 0809 crisis was still fresh. I had family members that lost houses, you know, and, you know, no matter how much I looked at it from a financial perspective, I was like, this is a can't lose.
00;24;44;00 - 00;25;08;22
Art
You know, you there's no way I can't win on this. emotionally, there was so much to that. And our burning the ships moment was I just remember sitting on the credit union and with my wife. and God bless her, she's so supportive, and in so many ways. but when we sign that paper, I knew there's no turning back.
00;25;08;24 - 00;25;33;08
Art
you know, that was the, we're we're all in. We're committed to it. We're either going to re they're going to win or we're going to die trying, and, you know, you know, in addition to that, you know, for especially for young entrepreneurs that for me that it was pivotal and really kind of underscored the importance of commitment and taking calculated risks, which which you mentioned earlier.
00;25;33;10 - 00;25;59;05
Jennifer
Yeah. Well, that's a doozy. And having the support of family is so critical to an executive. We don't talk about that very much on the program. But I know my husband supported me. He was a stay at home dad for, for several years. couldn't have done this without him being supportive. And your wife supported that big signing of the loan.
00;25;59;07 - 00;26;28;07
Jennifer
you know, we do need to credit our family members and our children. You know, we go home, were stressed some days, and they're supportive, you know? So thank you for sharing that. That's that's a doozy. And I rephrase burning the ship. What it. Oh, gosh. so so let's talk about your wonderful culture. I know it, but those listening don't, describe your your culture there.
00;26;28;07 - 00;26;37;08
Jennifer
Why does somebody want to work there? And then what is your role? What specifically do you do to uphold the culture? Personal.
00;26;37;10 - 00;27;06;12
Art
Yeah. That that's that's a I love that question. you know, our, you know, our culture that we're, that we're, that we have here, that we're trying that we try to build every single day is, one of, if you think about it, the difference between a consumer and a career. And we do it we do lots of amazing things here for people to consume.
00;27;06;14 - 00;27;28;14
Art
our culture is really built for people, not to just consumers, but to be creators within the organization and to grow. Whether it's a, hey, I have an idea for business growth, or something that I want to be involved with that can fulfill what I do to help, really, folks, be a creator with driving our mission, vision and values forward.
00;27;28;17 - 00;27;51;08
Art
and where that is most tied to how you can be the creator within our organization is actually and our company values, which goes deeper into defining who we are. And so really, you know, our value statement is that we're passionate about and following that and the impact and value that it has for individuals, our community in organizations.
00;27;51;10 - 00;28;16;28
Art
And we demonstrate that every single day, by investing in people. And we have a whole strategy for how we invest, in people in our own organization from anything from fun things. We do something called 44 eight that would be happy to talk about, to professional development, all kinds of things. So investing in people, taking our own advice, which is if we if we're tell somebody that they should do something, we better do it ourselves internally.
00;28;16;29 - 00;28;41;19
Art
Right. acting as partners or organizing that, that our clients are not. We're not on this. We're not on the opposite side of the table for that, that we're on the same side of the table helping them to achieve their goals. and then the final one is asking for business, and that, that it, specifically defines our commitment to, to the community.
00;28;41;22 - 00;29;15;28
Art
And we actually, incentivize our employees as part of, we, we give our employees production credit for work, monthly, three hours a month where they volunteer for any cause, in the community that is related to, an employment cause, it could be helping your uncle with their resume. It could be, you know, going to kid's food basket, which we just did yesterday, and stuffing apples into bags, because we know that students with full bellies are going to learn better.
00;29;15;28 - 00;29;49;23
Art
And there and plan outcomes are going to be greater in the future. and, and, and so that's part of who we are. Those are part of our, our values, and, and our culture. And so the way that we, really, implement that within our organization is that, you know, if you want to, to grow in the organization, if you want to be promoted in the organization, you really have to be a creator that's bringing those ideals, to the organization.
00;29;49;23 - 00;30;08;28
Art
And on a daily basis myself, I have to be committed to its hiring to and giving those values forward. But the most important thing is that our team members need to know that, that they can hold everybody in our organization accountable to that, including myself. Right. and that we're all committed to that.
00;30;09;00 - 00;30;37;03
Jennifer
Well, what I really like and what I want our listeners to take away from this is that it's very clear the moment you walk through the door what the expectations are for performance. And it's very clear in your culture what the expectation is on what is expected of them. But then you combine it with the wonderful culture, the wonderful experience that they had in knowing their personal and professional goals and helping them get theirs.
00;30;37;04 - 00;31;02;24
Jennifer
It's beautifully done. Thank you. as those best and brightest crystals behind you, demonstrate. so let's shift gears. I like to demystify, the seat of the CEO. You know, a lot of people are intimidated by the title. You're the founder. That could be very intimidating. there's the human element behind the. That title is very important.
00;31;02;26 - 00;31;08;00
Jennifer
Yeah. do you do you have any daily rituals that keep you focused?
00;31;08;03 - 00;31;28;05
Art
Yeah. Well, you know, first of all, I'd say one thing to remember about, you know, being a CEO or that title, but maybe two things. One, if you want to be CEO, just go press your business card, put CEO on it for business. But all CEOs, whether it's a CEO of a fortune 500 company or a small business, we we all put our shoes on the same way in the morning, right?
00;31;28;05 - 00;31;54;19
Art
We're all people. in terms of daily rituals. And I'm not really a ritualistic, you know, type of guy. but I would say what keeps me going for, on a daily basis and kind of when you think about, like a ritual, something that I'm trying to do on a, on a daily basis is a commitment to moving the needle forward every single day and making consistent progress towards our goals.
00;31;54;22 - 00;32;15;27
Art
So, you know, it's not ritualistic in the sense of, you know, I do this exactly for five minutes a day, but it's ritualistic and I have to have the same commitment every day to some, no matter, no matter what the state of the business is, if we're having a difficult time, if Covid hits and you lose half of your business, you know, overnight, you got to you got to be committed to moving forward every single day.
00;32;15;27 - 00;32;27;03
Art
And sometimes moving forward every single day is I remember there is times during Covid where it was like my moving forward was first just moving my foot out of the bed, right.
00;32;27;05 - 00;32;27;19
Jennifer
Right.
00;32;27;19 - 00;32;33;01
Art
So now and moving forward. Exactly. Yeah. Many forms of that.
00;32;33;03 - 00;32;40;03
Jennifer
in stressful times. Do you how do you relieve stress? Do you exercise, read books? What do you do?
00;32;40;06 - 00;32;46;00
Art
Not the best at relieving stress. but I know it comes in fifth.
00;32;46;02 - 00;32;54;04
Jennifer
I know, I know what the stress. But, thank you for being not there.
00;32;54;06 - 00;33;14;23
Art
absolutely. but I, you know, I would say, my when I'm able to do it, my, my go to, and, and honestly, I don't always do it intentionally. It's just, you know, it, after it happens, I realize, like, oh, that was nice. And release and stress. Well, when I find the thing that does that the most is activities that require my full focus right?
00;33;14;23 - 00;33;37;13
Art
So, whether that's, golf, you know, cooking, you know, doing something with your hands, you know, if, if you want to see my full focus, see me at Disney, Disney World with my family, I'm like, let's go. We're getting all the rights. And that's what I'm thinking about, you know?
00;33;37;19 - 00;33;40;11
Jennifer
Yeah. Well, planned out this.
00;33;40;13 - 00;33;54;12
Art
and the last one I would say is like, scheme. I'm terrible at it, and I need to do it. My son is really into it. But when I would say that's particularly effective because I feel at any moment, you know, I could fall and die. So, so, so I have to.
00;33;54;14 - 00;33;55;25
Jennifer
That you probably.
00;33;55;27 - 00;34;01;01
Art
You know, my age too. Like I don't recover like I used to. So I, you know, I don't want to get hurt.
00;34;01;04 - 00;34;20;23
Jennifer
Yeah. Well, for some of us, a busy brain is a happy brain. Yes. and I can relate to that. So I hear you, and I do it by cooking. I love cooking, it keeps your brain busy. what's a decision you made in your life? Not in your business that you consider a game changer?
00;34;20;25 - 00;34;31;00
Art
Oh. Let's see. In my life, not in my business. That that would be a game changer. Let's go.
00;34;31;03 - 00;34;36;19
Jennifer
And being low for.
00;34;36;22 - 00;35;08;26
Art
Yeah. I mean, the biggest one, of course, is starting this business. you know, one that really comes to mind, and, you know, this is a shameless plug here is, is the University of Notre Dame, right? and, you know what? What I found and going there was, you know, not just a great university, a great education, but it's really about being something more.
00;35;08;26 - 00;35;47;25
Art
And it's about the individuals, the community, the relationships of those that are part, of, of the Notre Dame family. And I didn't really understand, that, I thought I understood it when, when I first became a part, of the university. but, but but ultimately in, in hindsight, to see how that's impacted, you know, my life and the life of my family and, and the businesses that we have today, you know, making that decision to go back and get that education, was, was a was a massive game changer in my life.
00;35;47;26 - 00;35;54;01
Art
And that's hard to do, you know, in your, you know, in your, in your mid 30s. but but it was the right thing to do.
00;35;54;03 - 00;36;18;02
Jennifer
That seemed to be the catalyst for you to start the business was to going and getting that master's degree and finding that community of support. and, and finally, who in your life has left a lasting impression on you can be anyone, a speaker, family member, friend.
00;36;18;05 - 00;36;44;29
Art
Yeah. I mean, there's there's so many people, in my life, as I mentioned, earlier, you know, mentorship has been something that is incredibly important for me, and I'm constantly seeking out opportunities to learn from others, constantly finding those people that, that, that can speak to me and be influential. And sometimes that's, sometimes that's an actual live person in front of you that you meet.
00;36;44;29 - 00;37;14;07
Art
And sometimes those are people that you learn about. So, you know, I love reading Walter Isaacson biographies, to really learn and, and understand people, but I think I'll go way, way back, you know, I, you know, part of my story is I, I barely graduated from high school. You know, I was a young kid that was making really bad decisions, in my life, and was going in a very different direction.
00;37;14;10 - 00;37;33;29
Art
And, I did I got into some trouble, and thankfully, my mom was like, hey, you got to do you got to do some things. Otherwise there's going to be some major consequences. And one of those things was, I had to go to church. and I remember to bring the program back with me and show it to her.
00;37;34;01 - 00;37;55;23
Art
and, when I would say, like, the most massive fork in my road was, I was I was standing there in the lobby of the building one day, and this guy came up to me. His name is Todd McIntyre. and, he was he was a pastor and a minister there. That was over, over the years.
00;37;55;25 - 00;38;17;07
Art
and I was standing there like I didn't want to be talked to. Come to find out later, his wife, me, him come talk to me. but he decided to seek me out and speak into my life. And no matter how big of a screw up that I was, he believed in me. And. And he was the first real, mentor that I had, and I didn't even seek him out.
00;38;17;07 - 00;38;41;20
Art
He saw he sought me out, and he constantly pushed me to to to realize that there was something greater from my life and that I could accomplish great things. And I need to strive for that. and I, I would say like that was the biggest, most clear, distinct fork in the road, of my life. And if it wasn't for, for Todd, I certainly would not be anywhere where I'm at.
00;38;41;21 - 00;38;43;17
Art
I'm at today.
00;38;43;19 - 00;39;08;19
Jennifer
what a wonderful story. And that just reminds all of us that we can be Todd for others. yeah. And how how we should pay that forward to young people and inspire them. Beautiful way to end our discussion today. thank you so much for being on the program and our homework assignment. Everyone is to go and be Todd or someone else.
00;39;08;21 - 00;39;16;15
Jennifer
I'm always be curious, as you said. keep shining bright and thank you, everyone. We'll see you next time. Bye, everybody.
00;39;16;18 - 00;39;16;29
Art
Thank you.