Subscribe
Share
Share
Embed
Creating connections is essential to building a community. It’s even more important when the people you’re trying to connect with aren’t in the same location. Businesses and companies have always found geographic distance to be a challenge to building a really great community-oriented culture. At Empowered Ventures, the same challenge holds true, which is why we decided to start Empowered Owners, the podcast that takes you inside Empowered Ventures.
In each episode, CEO Chris Fredericks will have a discussion with one of our employees to discover and highlight their distinct personalities, perspectives, and skills while also keeping you in the loop with exclusive news, updates on company performance, and a glimpse into the future plans of Empowered Ventures. Not only is this an opportunity for Chris to learn more about our amazing employee-owners, but it’s also an opportunity for you to hear regularly from Chris and others from within Empowered Ventures.
00:00:00:09 - 00:00:25:17
Chris Fredericks
Hello everybody, and welcome to another episode of Empowered Owners, the community Building Podcast by and for the employee owners of Empowered Ventures. Join us as we take you inside the world of employee ownership, discovering the stories, insights, and sometimes surprising adventures in a family of businesses where everyone's an owner. Now let's dive in. I'm excited today to welcome Rachel Wolfe to Empowered Owners.
00:00:25:18 - 00:00:27:14
Chris Fredericks
Welcome to the show, Rachel.
00:00:27:16 - 00:00:28:11
Rachel Wolf
Thank you.
00:00:28:13 - 00:00:47:24
Chris Fredericks
Yeah, absolutely. So I'm excited to chat with you today. You work for one of empowered portfolio companies, Paramount Plastics, in Elkhart, Indiana. And maybe to start. Why don't you share a little bit about how you ended up at Paramount? Who you are and what you do for the company today?
00:00:48:01 - 00:01:10:15
Rachel Wolf
Well, I guess I'll start with what I do for the company. I'm the director of finance and strategy. So I'm responsible for all the financial aspects of the business. Preparing those financial statements. And I also help with the strategy for our growth plan and the culture at empower at Paramount Plus. Yeah. And I'm responsible to for the subcommittee and all that goes into that.
00:01:10:17 - 00:01:16:12
Rachel Wolf
How I got here is quite a story. I don't know if we want to start at the very beginning or.
00:01:16:14 - 00:01:18:01
Chris Fredericks
Wherever you want.
00:01:18:03 - 00:01:40:09
Rachel Wolf
Sure. So my parents started a business or got the opportunity to buy a franchise of Stanley Steemer Carpet Cleaning when I was probably 12. We were originally from Indianapolis, and then we moved up to northern Indiana to run a Stanley Steemer franchise, and I helped them do that, obviously from 12. Oh boy. We were there for I want to say I was 20.
00:01:40:11 - 00:02:00:21
Rachel Wolf
So it was quite a length of time there that gave me a really unique opportunity to see what owning a business is like, for the better or worse. And we could we could go into that now if you want or not. But after that, I went and worked for an e-commerce company here in Elkhart. I moved up to Elkhart, Indiana because I went to college here at ESB.
00:02:00:23 - 00:02:17:12
Rachel Wolf
Graduated college, started working as an accounting assistant for a medium sized e-commerce company right down the road. And then I worked my way up there to eventually be a director of operations and accounting there. And then I pursued this opportunity here at Paramount. And so now I'm here.
00:02:17:14 - 00:02:21:00
Chris Fredericks
That's great. And when did you joined Paramount? How long ago?
00:02:21:02 - 00:02:25:03
Rachel Wolf
That would have been February of 24. So almost two years.
00:02:25:05 - 00:02:45:01
Chris Fredericks
That's great. Yeah. Yeah. Well, I'm glad you pursued the opportunity. It's been a honestly, it's been a joy getting to know you. And I'm just really excited that you're at Paramount and for the work you're doing. Yeah. Let's circle back to your your childhood experience. You know, kind of in the family business. You said you. For you that started when you were 12 years old.
00:02:45:01 - 00:02:53:17
Chris Fredericks
Has that what you said? Yeah. So what what were those eight years like and what lessons did you personally take away from from that experience?
00:02:53:19 - 00:03:12:02
Rachel Wolf
It's actually it's kind of I think cool. And also like I said, there's pros and cons. So being a part of it was a very small franchise. We only had maybe 4 or 5 people that worked with us. But my mom and dad always my dad, one of the opportunity to run a business the way that he felt like people should be treated right.
00:03:12:04 - 00:03:29:02
Rachel Wolf
Not to say that the businesses that he worked for prior were bad or anything, but you know, you hear stories and your friends have experiences that are negative. And he really wanted to have an impact on people in a positive way. And that's been instilled in me for a very long time. And my mom obviously wants to, you know, go where my dad wants to go and that obviously they're a team, right?
00:03:29:02 - 00:03:51:08
Rachel Wolf
So they bought that franchise with the hopes of, you know, being able to make some money and also have an impact on people's lives. And my dad really likes working with people and sort of my mom, obviously, but as, as a sales team or for people who don't know, obviously we we go in clean cubicles, carpets, usually you're doing six or it could be up to six houses a day if your room is set up properly.
00:03:51:10 - 00:04:09:03
Rachel Wolf
So it's a really that was a really cool experience because I got to meet, I don't know how many houses. We tried to do the math. One day on how many houses we've cleaned, you know, and, got to meet so many different people, different walks of life and different where people are in different class structures or economic settings.
00:04:09:05 - 00:04:25:17
Rachel Wolf
We did a lot of pro-bono work too. So it was like, you know, free carpet cleaning. So people that needed it, whether they were going to be evicted or they just don't have the money or the capacity to take care of themselves. And that was super eye opening. And I'm really happy that my dad prioritized that as part of my childhood.
00:04:25:23 - 00:04:46:00
Rachel Wolf
My brother also worked for the company. So we through that whole process, growing up together in the business and then watching my parents and their work ethic and like, that's something that you can teach a lot of that stuff. But being in the environment, I think was really impactful to me. On the flip side of that, I also learned that I probably don't ever want to run my own business solo right?
00:04:46:02 - 00:05:11:00
Rachel Wolf
Because just the grind from zero employees to trying to build that and watching them sacrifice over and over again and you know, dealing with the employees have real life issues too, right? So if they call off, there is no two people working. It's I guess, my dad, you know, he's like, I got to call Rachel and she's going to have to come work on her day off because we otherwise, you know, we don't have money for food.
00:05:11:02 - 00:05:23:06
Rachel Wolf
So yeah, we there is a lot of sacrifices and I think they I don't know, I think they're okay with their decision to do it. But for me it was probably from my perspective one of the best decisions that they did for me.
00:05:23:08 - 00:05:23:24
Chris Fredericks
Wow.
00:05:24:01 - 00:05:49:00
Rachel Wolf
Yeah. And then, they ended up getting rid of the business or walking away from it because my mother got really sick, but. And they moved back to Indianapolis, and I stayed up here because I graduated college. But that's how, you know, I paid my way through college, was having a flexible schedule with my parents. Luckily, I know not everybody gets that opportunity, but I had an opportunity on my parents, on the business, and I paid my way through college working with flexible schedules, you know, and, yeah.
00:05:49:00 - 00:06:12:15
Rachel Wolf
So I'm truly grateful for that opportunity. And like I said, it, it taught me work ethic and the things that I want to do and things that I don't want to do. And got the opportunity with customer service, which I think everybody should do some level of customer service in their life. It, it really teaches you a level of empathy and understanding, and you get to see so many people that you wouldn't see, you know, just a regular office job, right?
00:06:12:15 - 00:06:34:00
Rachel Wolf
You're only going to see the 4 or 5 people around you. And the customer service aspect, I think, teaches you a lot of empathy from my perspective. So that was a lot of my life until I graduated college. Yeah. And then I was, you know, at the point where they hadn't moved yet and I was ready to start my professional career, if you will.
00:06:34:02 - 00:06:40:15
Rachel Wolf
So I pursued an opportunity where I was an accounting assistant at a small e-commerce company up here.
00:06:40:17 - 00:06:41:05
Chris Fredericks
00:06:41:07 - 00:06:42:22
Rachel Wolf
So, yeah.
00:06:42:24 - 00:07:06:01
Chris Fredericks
Were there ever any times during all of that? And thank you for sharing. It's such a an amazing story, honestly, about the challenges and the, you know, beauty of like a small family owned business. Were there any times where you, like, resented kind of being a child and having to kind of have this thing kind of such be such a big part of your, your experience?
00:07:06:03 - 00:07:15:02
Chris Fredericks
I guess, or did you just was it just obvious to you that this was like, almost like a good experience for you to be going through?
00:07:15:04 - 00:07:35:22
Rachel Wolf
It's an interesting question. I would say I went through probably when I was 14. I wasn't on a truck yet at 14. I think my first job was when I was 16 or so, and we went and did a couple night jobs at like commercial buildings, but I would say around 14, my mom kind of sat me down and was trying to educate me because I was getting frustrated.
00:07:35:22 - 00:07:56:13
Rachel Wolf
Right. So all my other friends, you know, have these, like, for example, they can take vacations. Yeah, that's not a thing. Whether it's for money or there's nobody else to run that business, you know, and you can't just take a week off when you're paycheck to paycheck in that phase. So it was selfish 14 year old trying to be, you know, trying to say, like, is this really what you guys want to do?
00:07:56:13 - 00:08:08:23
Rachel Wolf
Because maybe this, you know, we could do something different as a family. We don't have to, you know, watch I don't have to watch you guys kill yourselves every day. Right. And my mom kind of sat me down and was like, you know, this is your this is our thing in our dream, and we want to do it.
00:08:08:23 - 00:08:32:17
Rachel Wolf
And her big thing, a lot with teaching me empathy was like a main, main driver for her. And I remember when I was right around that age and I was coming home from school and, and planning, you know, you've got like small, you know, oh, Susie's upsetting me because of whatever. And I remember getting really frustrated because my mom's point of view and my dad's also was always it was never like, yeah, you're right.
00:08:32:17 - 00:08:52:08
Rachel Wolf
She's frustrating. It was always like, well, did you ask Susie, like, why she's upset? Like, maybe you should think about somebody else instead of, you know, it's important to recognize where you're at. But also it gets way easier if you take the opportunity to think about somebody else and what they're feeling, and then funnel that through your own vision and see what she's, you know, you'll come to a better outcome.
00:08:52:10 - 00:09:14:19
Rachel Wolf
So my parents always did that to me. And my mom's big thing was anybody that was always a yes man or didn't push me or didn't pressure me or ask me questions about why I'm behaving a certain way, assuming that that's somebody that you trust and love and respect to, right? And all that. Those are the yeah. You don't ever want somebody in your corner that doesn't do that or isn't close knit with you in that.
00:09:14:19 - 00:09:37:24
Rachel Wolf
In that way, they feel like they can express those feelings to you. So for me, I think I got over that pretty quickly and it felt more like this was our family unit and then even the people that worked with us, this is my family, right? And because when you're that small, it's like, do or die, right? If I call off work that part, I literally know what that person's going to go through because I have to deal with that right now.
00:09:37:24 - 00:09:59:02
Rachel Wolf
I'm going to go out on a truck solo and try and do six jobs and move all the furniture by myself and unload and stack and all this stuff. So it yes, I would say for a half a second. And then my mom, you know, really sat me down and was like, this is an opportunity that now she phrase it as not everybody gets this opportunity right and they don't, it's an American dream to be able to run your own business.
00:09:59:02 - 00:10:26:09
Rachel Wolf
And yeah, so they were grateful. And there were some, some negatives, but I would say all in all and probably their opinion too, what we got out of it as a family like that stuff. You can't you can't just teach anybody. You got to go through that. Right. So probably not other than watching them struggle was hard. But again, I don't think that's me putting that on them right.
00:10:26:11 - 00:10:45:21
Rachel Wolf
They if they think that that's worth it and that's something that they want to do, who am I to say, you know, maybe you guys should take a vacation. I would love to see them happy. Right. And if this is what they want to do, then I'm going to support them in that, whatever that looks like. Yeah. So yeah, maybe it maybe a little bit when I was really young, but that sort of got sorted.
00:10:45:23 - 00:11:06:08
Chris Fredericks
Yeah. So well that's a that's I love that answer. Just thank you again for being willing to share that story briefly here. I mean, I think it's it's obviously a very powerful experience that you went through. And sure, it's it's neat to kind of feel it feels like it's continuing today to kind of influence how you think about.
00:11:06:10 - 00:11:06:22
Rachel Wolf
I hope so.
00:11:07:01 - 00:11:16:09
Chris Fredericks
To lead and, and, and working in a with a group of people. Do you feel like it is still kind of formative or influencing how you how you think today?
00:11:16:11 - 00:11:36:10
Rachel Wolf
Yeah, I would say for sure, even when, when I first my first opportunity out of college with the e-commerce business where I was just an accounting assistant, I, I didn't know what I wanted to do. If I was going to be a big fish in a small pond, all that, you know, I don't know, it's my first outside of my parents business.
00:11:36:12 - 00:11:51:24
Rachel Wolf
And went through a whole bunch of stuff there. But to come to Paramount when I was trying to find a different opportunity at that time, one of the things that Curtis, the president of Paramount Plastics, who interviewed me, asked me is, do you want to be a big fish in a small pond or a small fish in a big pond?
00:11:52:01 - 00:12:12:17
Rachel Wolf
And at the time I, I would say I went through the ten years at my last place, but I was like, I'm okay with either, like, I'll be okay. And Curtis was like, I don't know if that's true. And even now I'm like, I tried to tell myself that I would be okay with it, but I think I, because I had other opportunities are bigger when you call bigger, you know, sure.
00:12:12:19 - 00:12:29:23
Rachel Wolf
Accounting places or you know where I would have multiple people under me or around me, etc., doing similar things. And I think I would be every position I go to, it's like I want it to be a family and I want the close knit, and I want to feel like I have an impact one way or another.
00:12:30:00 - 00:12:56:19
Rachel Wolf
And if I sit down and really think about it, some of those other opportunities where I was would just be doing a function of the accounting that would feel, impactful to the people side. And that to me, is evidently very important because it seems like I cannot stop myself from wanting to like, I don't know, I want to leave a positive impact for people that I work with.
00:12:56:21 - 00:13:19:00
Rachel Wolf
And that was one of the eventual things. Obviously, when you first get started with Paramount, we could talk about that and how that has changed over time. But having this opportunity where every time an hour that I put into the business means is I like when we refer to legacy, right. One of the benefits of having your own business is that you could potentially leave a legacy for your kids.
00:13:19:02 - 00:13:46:11
Rachel Wolf
And at the last place I didn't exactly have that, it took me a while to figure out that I didn't have that, and I was missing that. But here I have that opportunity because it's employee owned and the longevity of it is there. And every hour that I put in means something to someone else. So for me, at the last place, when I was just working again, I noticed I've maybe rolled this out in the wrong order, but it was working so many hours, you know, and mimicking my parents.
00:13:46:11 - 00:14:08:00
Rachel Wolf
Without this actually owning the business. But and at the end of it felt like, boy, I put in a lot and gave a lot of myself. And now I don't have control or the ability to take care of people in the way that I want to, and this doesn't feel like I need it to. So having paramount where maybe I don't I don't have the level of impact where if it was my own business.
00:14:08:02 - 00:14:24:20
Rachel Wolf
But I know that every hour that I put in benefits 50 other people and then and then some, right. So every effort that I make to making sure that the financials are better at continuous improvement or directly, I'm I'm lucky in the sense that I have a leadership position here where I have the ability to make decisions that actually can help people.
00:14:24:22 - 00:14:42:14
Rachel Wolf
But even if I didn't and I had just been a controller, which was the original position that I was hired for, and I just did the finances every hour I put it makes a difference. And if I leave here or something happens, I know that my work here meant something and to me that is irreplaceable. I would say that's awesome.
00:14:42:16 - 00:14:46:19
Chris Fredericks
I want to dig in a little bit to, you know, being an accountant.
00:14:46:21 - 00:14:47:06
Rachel Wolf
Yeah, yeah.
00:14:47:09 - 00:15:00:10
Chris Fredericks
Like maybe like when did you realize and I'm curious if it was back at Stanley Steemer, you know, with your parents, when did you realize you had like an acumen for, for the books and the numbers and stuff?
00:15:00:12 - 00:15:24:05
Rachel Wolf
I'm not so sure that I actually figured it out. Honestly, my parents did not have an argument for the books or the numbers. They had passion. They had work ethic, they're intelligent, but they learned through environment and not necessarily the education. My dad went to college to be a cartographer. And my mom was a nurse. And how they ended up the steamer is amazing.
00:15:24:05 - 00:15:45:01
Rachel Wolf
But they weren't super skilled at it. And it was that I was the legacy there would be that I would run that business eventually. So my mom and dad were like, you know, you're smart, kid. You're good at math, which I think I was formally trained. You know, that there's very little there's math, but it's more about how your brain processes the numbers or the seeing patterns and critical thinking than it is the math.
00:15:45:03 - 00:15:58:14
Rachel Wolf
But at the time, I was like, that's true. I'm good at math, I can do math. And if that's all it takes, you know, at 14 or whatever I was, if that's all it takes to be good at, you know, being an accountant, I can do that. And they wanted me to go into HR as well, because there's a lot of, you know, legal stuff.
00:15:58:14 - 00:16:14:04
Rachel Wolf
And mom and dad knew that if I ran my own business, much like they cannot afford a separate accountant and an HR person. So if I could learn those skill sets, I would be way off. Way better off than they were in their opportunity. Whether that would be saying like my or my own business at some point.
00:16:14:04 - 00:16:36:13
Rachel Wolf
So they were the ones who pushed me into it. And I, I don't think that I ever knew I was particularly good at anything. And I would say, I'm not sure that I have any or that I did have any innate talents. Some people were just really good at certain things. I would say all of mine is from practice.
00:16:36:15 - 00:16:53:06
Rachel Wolf
So the one thing that I guess, which is I don't know that it's unique, but it is maybe unique to my work ethic, is I'm not particularly good at things when I get to them, it's that I practice them. And then I put the work in and I'm, you know, one of those other things that my parents always made sure I knew was that we don't quit.
00:16:53:08 - 00:17:12:00
Rachel Wolf
So if you start something or you say you're going to do something, you do it right. So I just got good at it and assessed where I needed where I was weak at on certain things. And then I practice those things and they get better. So it wasn't that I was like, boy I really love this accounting cutting.
00:17:12:00 - 00:17:25:11
Rachel Wolf
It was more like I need this, I'm going to need this as a skill set. And so I'm going to learn it. Same with like they don't teach you how to manage a credit score in high school. And I was like, my parents are not very good at this. I need this. I'll just Google it and figure it out.
00:17:25:16 - 00:17:42:16
Rachel Wolf
Yeah. Yeah, stuff like that. So I it turns out that I really enjoy it and I like the one of my favorite parts about cleaning carpets is you can see the progress that you're making. And then when you're done, you get to stand back and say, look what I you know, this is nice, right? And I made somebody else feel comfy in their home and all this kind of stuff.
00:17:42:18 - 00:17:59:08
Rachel Wolf
And the accounting, you sort of get that when you're like, I figured it out and all the things balance and it's all gravy. And this looks reasonable. Yeah. And then the fun part about the accounting, which I didn't know was a thing until I got into it, which is okay. So I've done all these numbers. Now what can I do with these.
00:17:59:10 - 00:18:20:16
Rachel Wolf
Right. Who who could benefit from me explaining what this is? Because not everybody knows how the financials work. So yeah, I wouldn't say that I ever eventually it dawned on me when I got to my first job, the, the one that I was at before this, and I was like, oh, I, I might actually be decent at this and not just out of necessity.
00:18:20:18 - 00:18:38:18
Rachel Wolf
But it was, it was never really like it was more a necessity to be good at it because I know I need money and I know I'm going to have to, you know, there's, I'm going to have to be good at it. So I don't lose my job. It's out of necessity. Yeah. And then it grew into a passion, I guess.
00:18:38:20 - 00:18:38:22
Rachel Wolf
Yeah.
00:18:39:00 - 00:18:47:08
Chris Fredericks
That's great. That's great. It does. I have a feeling you might be selling yourself a little short on the skill side, but I do. I let it pass. Okay.
00:18:47:10 - 00:18:50:17
Rachel Wolf
I get it. All right.
00:18:50:19 - 00:19:09:05
Chris Fredericks
But I do wonder, you know, you mentioned a shift in there that I think it's actually more than a it's kind of a big deal, which is, you know, the classic accounting job is like you mentioned, like, do the books, close the books. The numbers are accurate. They're backward looking. It's like, here's how we how we did.
00:19:09:07 - 00:19:36:07
Chris Fredericks
And a lot of kind of typical accountants would just kind of feel great about that. They they'd bounce the books, you know, they did the work and then but you mentioned a mind shift towards kind of, well, what do we do with these numbers now? And I noticed on your LinkedIn, like you talk about strategic finance or strategic forward accounting, what for those that don't know what that really means, like how do I guess before we go to that?
00:19:36:07 - 00:19:43:24
Chris Fredericks
Like how did you did you did you where did you learn that. Because that's not necessarily obvious to all. Accountant.
00:19:44:01 - 00:20:05:04
Rachel Wolf
Sure. Yeah. That would have been my I suppose you probably could have drawn it all the way back to the beginning with Steemer, which is like my parents not knowing how inventory works or how to how to strategically purchase things. And even if we had the numbers. Okay, well, now like this is helpful, I guess. But what does this mean?
00:20:05:06 - 00:20:22:16
Rachel Wolf
There's got to be something more to like. People are not, 16. Right? My opinion was people are not putting all this stuff together to do nothing with it. There's got to be another stage of this accounting thing. And then when. But I didn't know enough or know how to do it or what to do with really any of those numbers, obviously some of them are straightforward.
00:20:22:16 - 00:20:42:05
Rachel Wolf
I know what revenue is at 16, but I don't know, you know, I don't know gross profit I don't know. Yeah. So the first real job that I had I guess in accounting, which would be the admin assistant when I got there, the one of the biggest struggles that they had was there. They were an e-commerce company where they're dealing with 10,000 transactions a day, but they're small.
00:20:42:07 - 00:21:02:23
Rachel Wolf
So Amazon, eBay, Walmart, all those places they used to sell online for. And you would just get a listing of, here's 10,000 payments, you know, here's some fees, here's taxes sorted. All out. And at the time they didn't have somebody with the it acumen to like, be able to figure out. And they didn't have anybody who knew how to do that.
00:21:03:00 - 00:21:23:24
Rachel Wolf
So like, do you think that maybe with your computer stuff you might be able to get in here and figure this out? Like, yeah, sure. Why not? I could take a stab at it because believe in it back then, which I know wasn't that long ago, but PayPal and all those places didn't give you, like, hi Rachel, here's your sale one and it was $2.
00:21:23:24 - 00:21:45:03
Rachel Wolf
It's very convert. Back then it was very convoluted and they didn't have decimal points for reasons I'll never know. And the way that you would track things was transaction IDs, but they wouldn't tell you that. So I had to do a whole bunch of research and digging on that figure, all that stuff out, and again, to the point of, that's just once I did all of that, I'm like, okay, well, now what?
00:21:45:05 - 00:22:01:11
Rachel Wolf
Right. Because I've spent a lot of it came out of I don't have enough to do, once I fix all the things are, we start reporting the things. Now, I've got another two weeks, right of what can I do? Is it forecasting that we should do? Should I look at what the sales are going to be produced?
00:22:01:11 - 00:22:21:22
Rachel Wolf
Budgets for people try and hold people accountable to those budgets. Do we need to assess those budgets on the gross profit for the parts? Is this where we're comfy yet? Do we like 60%? Do we like 10% on this one? And why super important? Or why is this one? If we thought that it was going to be a 10% margin, why isn't it at that first e-commerce job?
00:22:21:22 - 00:22:47:22
Rachel Wolf
That's very convoluted and the once you know it, it's not so bad. It's just tedious then. But in the beginning we were buying from multiple platforms with different commission fees and different advertising fees. There's a nexus in all 50 states that I had to do. There's the shipping from one state to another, and whether that's UPS, USPS or Fedex, I have to know everybody's different pricing strategies and they're all different.
00:22:47:24 - 00:23:04:08
Rachel Wolf
And then how do we optimize the gross profit on every sale? Because it's hard to get new sales. It's easy for me to optimize. Well, easy, right? I have data. If I have the data and we can go through it and make sense of it, then we can improve the business and then I can take those profits and distribute them.
00:23:04:08 - 00:23:05:22
Rachel Wolf
Hopefully.
00:23:05:24 - 00:23:32:08
Chris Fredericks
No, that makes a lot of sense. And that's that's such a great yeah anecdote for like why having accurate numbers is the beginning of what it's like finance basics to provide. So that's awesome. All right I want to dig into some other stuff with Paramount. So okay. When you first came to Paramount, what was your experience of the company employee ownership like what were your impressions initially and then how have those changed over time?
00:23:32:10 - 00:23:53:03
Rachel Wolf
When I first, so my impressions might not be fair, but the first impression is interviewing for a probably a similar size to what I was coming from, and it was manufacturing, which is what I was most excited about because I had done distribution, basically buying goods from someone else. My cost of goods is the purchase price, right?
00:23:53:03 - 00:24:12:08
Rachel Wolf
And then landed maybe, and then shipping. But I wanted to get into manufacturing accounting and I thought, well, this is great, right? This is a medium sized company with a lot of opportunity for myself. And it seems they say that it's, you know, family driven or I wouldn't want to even use word family, but there's this Esop thing and I didn't know what it was.
00:24:12:10 - 00:24:29:19
Rachel Wolf
There were, I don't know, not red flags, but they felt like red flags at the beginning because it was held by another company. Right. And one of the things that I was always passionate about was sort of to my dad's point, which is I want to be able to have the impact. And I want to be able to, you know, make calls for the people.
00:24:29:19 - 00:24:47:22
Rachel Wolf
And I don't want somebody that's eight years away that has the idea. Yeah. And like trying to tell my employees, you know, whether it's a point policy or whether it's how they should be or how many people they feel like I need or something, something as simple as whether or not we should have this break room here or that.
00:24:47:22 - 00:24:53:20
Rachel Wolf
Right? And obviously Curtis was like, you know, that's not what they do. I
00:24:53:22 - 00:24:55:04
Chris Fredericks
Yeah, I believe that when I.
00:24:55:07 - 00:25:05:22
Rachel Wolf
Heard that before. Yeah. Nobody does. Yeah. And I think you guys had or Paramount had been recently, I mean recently, you know, I think 2022 or 2021. Yeah. So we're in there. Yeah.
00:25:05:22 - 00:25:07:07
Chris Fredericks
Late 2021. Yeah.
00:25:07:08 - 00:25:25:14
Rachel Wolf
Yeah. And I was like well it's still so like new but I don't know. And so I went home and googled what an Esop was and then realized that it was, you know, there's some protections in here. This is not going to be like an Enron. Right. So I had concerns about that because the the wealth building sounds really amazing.
00:25:25:14 - 00:25:29:21
Rachel Wolf
But also it's like, yes, it does sound amazing.
00:25:29:23 - 00:25:31:23
Chris Fredericks
To a little to be true maybe.
00:25:31:23 - 00:25:46:08
Rachel Wolf
Yeah. So I, I had a million questions that luckily I was able to get answered. And that made me feel better. And once I got started, I mean, I thought, well, worst case scenario, you know, if this is not what it is, then I guess I can go somewhere else. And obviously pretty quickly figured out that's not the case.
00:25:46:08 - 00:26:16:05
Rachel Wolf
Right? And, there's full transparency on the way that it operates. And if I had questions, I'm able to ask literally anybody, which is something that doesn't happen at other companies. So the initial hesitancy of like, is this real? Is this actually they say these things, but is this true? You know, and then it quickly that going away and then joining the subcommittee and being like, okay, this is this has potential here to be something that really aligns with what my ideals would be.
00:26:16:07 - 00:26:51:08
Rachel Wolf
Right. Or are. So yeah, it's been it's been really nice. And I really have not had the opportunity to work with people that I have here, like some of the diversity and just everything from culturally. And it's just a really unique, cool place to work. And everybody is so supportive and I don't that is, I would say that I had that on my last place and I did, but that was so hard to build without having employee ownership culture just be something that's in the bylaws.
00:26:51:08 - 00:27:08:20
Rachel Wolf
You know what I mean? Yeah. And here it's it's almost implied. It doesn't. It's not that it's easy. It takes work to build and we work on it every day. But it's it's definitely the foundations there already, which is nice. I don't feel like I'm fighting an uphill battle. Yeah. So yeah.
00:27:08:22 - 00:27:33:07
Chris Fredericks
What is your a personal experience been kind of understanding your own leadership style and being comfortable with that, especially maybe in the context of a, a blue collar, you know, manufacturing company. Like how do you think about what it means to lead with your personal kind of from your, from your orientation and who you are?
00:27:33:09 - 00:27:51:19
Rachel Wolf
I think for me, trying to lead the corporate way would be unusual. Because I came from clean and carpets and working with my hands the whole way through, and even at the last job that I started, I was in an office, but that did not last long. And I started working on the floor, which is how I moved into the operations side.
00:27:51:21 - 00:28:18:11
Rachel Wolf
It seems inevitable that I cannot prevent myself from doing that. Yeah, there's something to be said about doing the financials and then seeing it on the floor, you know, so maybe I'm not answering the question, but for me, I wouldn't know any other way except for to lead with my hands and be on the floor with the people, and I can trim and parts here, I, I still I want to learn the vinyl loving and the forming of it and all this stuff.
00:28:18:13 - 00:28:42:05
Rachel Wolf
And it's not just because, like, I want to be able to do it, it's because not only for the financial point, there's things there that are maybe blank spots that I might be able to see and improve. But for the quality of life for the employee, right. Sometimes as a leader, if you don't see those or you don't see them firsthand or you don't go experience, it is too easy to just say, yeah, it's probably not worth spending X amount of money on.
00:28:42:07 - 00:28:59:20
Rachel Wolf
Right. Or maybe there's a communication gap between people on the floor and the office staff if you will. And I that is a, that's a real thing that happens at every business that I would love to see go away. And the only way I think you can do that is do the job yourself and be on the floor with the people and do the job with them.
00:28:59:22 - 00:29:22:12
Rachel Wolf
I don't get to do that as much as I want to, because there's so much strategic and accounting and stuff that we have up here. But for me, I think leading by being on the floor and asking them what they need and trying to be there, that voice for them is something that's important to me. And I don't know that I would probably, as much as I told myself I could go work for a corporate situation, I'm not so sure that I could.
00:29:22:14 - 00:29:39:09
Rachel Wolf
I would probably kick me out. I I'd be very frustrating for them. So yeah, it's been really nice here. Then everybody on the everybody that works here has been really open to talking to me about, you know, this is a struggle, this is a thing. And maybe we can't do this because of resources, but it's something that gets added to a list for us to look at.
00:29:39:13 - 00:29:42:20
Rachel Wolf
Right. So yeah.
00:29:42:22 - 00:30:00:13
Chris Fredericks
That's great. Thank you. I'm I, I think I could ask you all we could keep going on and on about Paramount and other things that you that you're, you're working on and the progress that's been made in the last year. But I think we're running a little low on time. So no, this apologize. This has all been awesome.
00:30:00:13 - 00:30:19:22
Chris Fredericks
So thank you. To wrap up, I think we have a fun finishing topic here. So what's, I like to do a mount Rushmore sometimes with, with our guests. And I'm curious what what came to mind for you. And when we asked you about that, that question and what's the topic of the day, I guess, for this, for this question.
00:30:20:02 - 00:30:45:17
Rachel Wolf
For me, I was torn between two things that were my Mount Rushmore because I recently, within the last four years or so, really got into weightlifting and training and strength training. So I was like, well, maybe I could do that. But that felt, I don't want to say unoriginal, but somewhat unoriginal. So I was like the other passion that I had outside of work, and there were other ones, but one of the ones that I have, that I've had since I was a kid with my little brother and my dad, is video game.
00:30:45:19 - 00:31:04:23
Rachel Wolf
Just video games in general. Yeah. So I made a mount Rushmore of my most impactful video games that have taught me some skill sets because I feel like video games get a bad rap. And I Curtis had told me that if I had put that on my resume, maybe he would not have interviewed me like, that's because you don't know Curtis.
00:31:04:23 - 00:31:24:23
Rachel Wolf
You don't appreciate, but there are some skills that you that I've learned through those. And just to give some, there's some pros and cons of video games. Right? There are the negatives associated with them, and those are real. But just for any parents out there, it's not it's not all so bad. Right. You know, and there's a lot of social aspects to them too.
00:31:24:23 - 00:31:29:12
Rachel Wolf
And yeah, so I made a mount Rushmore of the video games that have taught me some skill sets throughout my life.
00:31:29:14 - 00:31:37:20
Chris Fredericks
Yeah. That's awesome. That's awesome. So what are the top four for you video games that have helped you have, applicable life skills?
00:31:37:20 - 00:31:52:21
Rachel Wolf
Rachel there you go. Yeah. The first one was just nostalgia, because it was the first game that my dad and my little brother played together, and that was, it's called Desert Strike, and it's just like a it's what this is. What would that be? That's almost 15 or 20 years ago now.
00:31:52:23 - 00:31:54:24
Chris Fredericks
I was going to say I played desert. It's been more than that.
00:31:54:24 - 00:32:15:00
Rachel Wolf
Yeah. Did you. Yeah. Yeah, yeah. My dad was trying to show us on the Sega Genesis and, like, just being in the living room on the floor with Dad and Michael was like, really fun experience for me. And that's my first hour. My brother and I was first intro to that. And like, a little bonding thing where my dad and I got to play games together on Saturday instead of watch cartoons, you know, you'd like, show you like, hey, this is what you got to do.
00:32:15:00 - 00:32:36:20
Rachel Wolf
You got to think about the next thing. Anyway. So that was the first one, and then the next one that I started playing was a little game called Green Scape, which is a MMO. So a massive it's basically all online with other people and that I want to, I want to say I started that when I was again like prior to sixth grade or sixth grade or somewhere around there, right when we took over the Stanley Steemer franchise.
00:32:36:22 - 00:32:47:17
Rachel Wolf
And, being able to meet people and talk to people. And that was actually the math part of it. And the strategic, how do I make money? I yeah, yeah, that was.
00:32:47:19 - 00:32:48:15
Chris Fredericks
Kind of but on.
00:32:48:17 - 00:33:08:19
Rachel Wolf
Yeah like yeah yeah, yeah. So it was like if I what's the fastest way for me to make money in this game because I have like a little auction thing. And so I was like doing the math on the back end if I mind, if I can mine six nodes in two minutes, and then I take those nodes and I turn them into this, the smithing thing over here, and then I sell them for this in a matter of two years.
00:33:08:24 - 00:33:13:02
Rachel Wolf
I will be a millionaire in this game. Like, so.
00:33:13:02 - 00:33:14:19
Chris Fredericks
Perseverance. Dedication.
00:33:14:21 - 00:33:34:09
Rachel Wolf
Yeah, yeah. Yeah. Exactly. Yeah. Yes. And then, also some a little bit of social skills. And then I had, I had rune scape in the red rune scape and then I had. Well, well, the Warcraft is another MMO. I started that 1 in 2007 and I've been playing that ever since, so that's quite a commitment.
00:33:34:11 - 00:33:40:17
Chris Fredericks
Warcraft is probably the most one of the most popular games ever. Like it's got to be in the top five, I would think.
00:33:40:17 - 00:34:02:08
Rachel Wolf
I would think so. At one point in time they had millions and millions of players. Yeah. And it's probably not there now because there's such a, you know, wide gap for everybody and everybody plays different things now. But that one I started when I was very young on like a I mean we didn't have I may I probably didn't have dial up, but it was right after dial up and playing and lagging and doing the whole thing.
00:34:02:08 - 00:34:23:22
Rachel Wolf
And that one was also social skills. Same thing. Right? Learning my rotations and social skills and trying to figure out because we had guilds in that game where you would work together to accomplish an end goal and trying to get. I'm never going to put that on a resume, trying to get, you know, 60 people or 40 people coordinated in a way that we can accomplish this end goal together.
00:34:23:22 - 00:34:36:23
Rachel Wolf
And, you know, so-and-so's got kids that they've got to deal with. Well, how do we strategize around that? You know, all that kind of fun stuff that I got to be a part of. And I forgot my other meaningful Zelda. Zelda, I skipped Zelda.
00:34:37:02 - 00:34:38:06
Chris Fredericks
00:34:38:08 - 00:34:57:22
Rachel Wolf
Yeah. So that was that was my second one, and that was with my little brother. So we that one was for sure problem solving and for sure puzzle game. And back then for everybody who doesn't know how old I am back then, you didn't have internet and they barely had strategy books and like, I didn't have the money to go buy the books.
00:34:57:24 - 00:35:15:23
Rachel Wolf
So me and Michael would spend hours and being like, all right, if we flip this switch and the water comes up and then I have to go back down and do the thing. And so between the two of us trying to do problem solving and puzzle games, yeah, I maybe, maybe some of that's innate to me. But I can't help but think between my brother and looking at his skill set and mine.
00:35:15:23 - 00:35:28:00
Rachel Wolf
And I do believe that some of that is for parents relief, doing some puzzle strategy games and working with other people and video games and stuff. It can be positive. Yeah, overall. So yes, there's my Mount Rushmore.
00:35:28:02 - 00:35:34:24
Chris Fredericks
I love it. Thank you Rachel. That's awesome. Thank you again for coming on the show today. Hopefully we will have you back at some point.
00:35:35:01 - 00:35:37:14
Rachel Wolf
Cool. Yeah, I appreciate it. It's been fun. Thank you.
00:35:37:16 - 00:35:38:01
Chris Fredericks
Thanks.