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The stories from the places where people gather.
Dana Kadwell (00:00)
And today we are here with a quick chat talking about our conversation with Ian Ramirez from last week from Madera Estates. If you haven't already listened to the episode, make sure you go and check it out. It is a wonderful episode. I was joking with him before he hopped on and we when we talked about hey, let's talk about family business. It's like I think I've avoided this for a year and a half because I've had plenty of people on that have
own their businesses with their families and open their venues with their families and just haven't really dug into it. But it was a great conversation. honestly, I wish I had heard this 11 years ago. It would have been so helpful in understanding the dynamics of the family business and partnerships and whatnot. So if you haven't listened to it, make sure you go and check it out. just like I say this every single time when I'm on a quick chat that I could have picked a ton of things that we talked about. But there are two things that I really want to focus on.
and the first one is today, and that was his piece of advice. he gave the advice that said, if I asked if you could give a piece of advice to any venue owner, what would it be? And his answer was don't be complacent. And he actually mentioned this early on in the podcast where he said that if you think that you've made it and you kinda start that kind of coasting, then that's when you stop growing and that's when you stop developing.
And I really want to talk about this in in a couple of different ways. The first one is obvious, right? If you and what his example that he was giving was, if you feel like you've made it, if you feel like you are coasting, then you stop trying to learn, you stop trying to educate yourself. And so you're gonna miss out on trends and things that are gonna help move your business forward. And I really firmly believe this. And I
I didn't understand this concept until we had opened the venue. And it was really when we opened the venue, we pri prior to we had the the planning company. And we just really grew that super organically. And then once we opened the venue, we're like, hey, we have all this money invested in this. we have got to expand our network. And so we joined NACE. And we all know I'm like I love NACE and incoming national president or whatever. And so it definitely
Got super invested in it. But what I loved about it was a couple of things. The first was the education. Every meeting had an educational component to it. And and not every meeting was like a slam dunk, but over half of them were incredible speakers, incredible educational seminars. And that first year, we the things that I took home from that and just and I would implement my business right away made such a huge difference. So I became
almost addicted to education. hey, let's go to this conference, let's go to this conference, let's do this thing, let's listen to this podcast, let's go to this, meeting, so on and so forth, because I saw the power that education had. And for me it was really interesting seeing people from different markets bring in, what they're seeing and realizing that where we are, what's happening on the West Coast hasn't even made it to the East Coast. So if you have somebody on that side that's saying, I'm seeing this coming down the pipeline, I know that
truly in nine to twelve months I'm gonna be seeing on the East Coast. And sometimes that flip-flops here or there, but it was really it was really cool getting an outside perspective when sometimes it feels like you get stuck into your own market bubble. so the education for sure was the thing. And then the other part was really the community. I don't think I realized how lonely I had r we had been and how lonely it had felt. and
When you have a community around you, you are bolder, you have more room for growth. And for us, our referrals just skyrocketed that next year. So I am such a huge believer in that. and I think that if we had approached the venue as my God, we made it, we built this venue, everyone has to come to us. that definitely we would not have been successful. But I also look at it from a perspective, I can think about a time when
I genuinely thought that we had made it. And I think it was it was towards the end of the Bradford. And I we were felt like we were coasting. And I remember I woke up in the middle of the night one night, just panicked, my heart pounding, and just overall in this panic. And I was telling my husband the next morning, I was like, I have I'm so anxious. And this was twenty-three, twenty-four. He's like, What are you anxious about? I'm like, I don't really know. it's just this, just said this.
I just have this sense of just anxiety over me and it's I said and I know it's related to the business and I and I can't pinpoint what it is. And so I spent some time and really thought, thought about it and really just tried to get to the bottom of it. And ultimately what I felt like at that point in our business was that we stopped learning. We were I wouldn't even say we were coasting because I don't feel like that was the case. we still were trying different things and trying different,
organizations, reorging and all that stuff. But it felt like we were stuck. And and especially in twenty four, it felt like we were super, super stuck. And so I really threw myself into trying to learn more, be around more people. And that was the those last two years, even though it was a tough on our partnership for me, it was where I started really behaving like a CEO.
I stopped getting into that, getting involved in that day to day and really started going into that strategy and that vision and seeing okay, what what do we see down the pipeline? And and what was super interesting about that is is having a property, especially property that has a lot of land, you could go anywhere with it, right? And so there were all these ideas thrown out and I there's some I really wanted to latch on super quickly and be like, Yes, yes, yes, let's do it. But then I was like, Well, let's do the research. let's
Talk to other people. Let's see what's the market doing, what's trending, what's coming down the pipeline to determine is that actually the right product and a good product. and vice versa, where there's things where we tried that and it didn't work. It's like, well, maybe because it wasn't the right time for it, maybe it'll work now. and I really loved that role. And I and I never felt, in those last few years, I never felt complacent. I felt like I was constantly evolving, I was constantly growing, I was
constantly developing. I was pushing the envelope, I was pushing the team, striving for that excellence. And and I really think that that is, having that mentality is what helps make businesses grow and helps them, get to that next level. so I really, really loved that piece of advice that he gave.
but I also looked at it from a different perspective too. So, obviously we were talking about your venue, talking about business, but I also think that complacency shows itself in a lot of different ways. it shows up personally in my personal life. it shows up in even interactions with my employees. it's not just about complacency when it comes to business growth. It's just complacency in almost the passion of life in a lot of ways. So
Personally, I can talk about this like where you get complacent with assuming somebody's always gonna show up or someone's always going to be there or that relationship is always gonna be okay, but you at the same time you believe that, but you're not doing anything to secure that. You're not working at it, you're not trying to learn more about that person, you're not investing in that relationship, you're not texting, you're not calling. And for me
I think what's been really hard for me over the past 18 months is I can recognize that and I can see that, but that's the only way that I've acted is this assumption that when all this craziness is d said and done, there are people on the other side that are still gonna be there. And while that is mostly true, it's not all of it's not true, because I was complacent in my relationships and I was complacent in
investing in other people and I didn't respond to text messages and so on and so forth. And I can hear people on the other side saying it's not always fifty fifty and relationships ebbs and flows. And I get that. And I understand that. And I don't like fault myself for it. I I I did the best that I could with that what I had. I don't fault anyone else for it. But I also look at it from a perspective of when there's things that you really, really genuinely care about and love.
It's hard to let it's hard to be complacent. And I know that's controversial because at the same time you can look at something and say, I love this, I care for it, I've invested so much in it, therefore I've bought the complacency in some ways. but for me
I think that there are flags, red flags that go off all the time that are telling you my gosh, danger, Will Robinson, you need to invest in this, you need to text this person, you need to call this person, you deal with this. And I see it the most, absolutely the most, in my marriage, where there's a lot of times I take for granted all the work that Sam does on with the kids at home and I get complacent thinking that'll just happen, that'll get done, or I don't need to say thank you, or I don't need to recognize it, or I don't need to invest.
it'll be fine if we don't see each other, if we don't have our cigar in bourbon Sunday. It'll be okay if we don't have that date night, it's fine. So that that complacency. And then there's these red flags that happen and you can feel that friction. You can feel that that that missing of one another, the missing, seeing one another, being around one another, and it it causes friction, right? So
I really resonated a lot with that. And at the same time, it's not just about being complacent with time and whatnot, but it's being complacent about not trying to learn who that person is anymore. So I told a story often about me and Sam met super young. We were in high school. And then I would have and when I taught high school, they were like obsessed and they like, my God, how'd you guys meet? And whatever. And I would always we met in high school. And then they'd be like, my God, this is me and my boyfriend. And
My gut reaction would be like, No, that's not how it works. we were just lucky that we grew into people that we loved. And I think I actually read a a newsletter about this. and that's totally unfair. It's unfair to all the work that we've done. It wasn't luck. It took a lot of work to it, a lot of work of it. And it took us not being complacent and learning who this new new person is. And the other night we were sitting down eating dinner and he said, Do you ever think about who you were ten years ago? And I was like, What do you mean? And he's like
Or twenty years ago, I think is what was. I said two thousand six, I was twenty two and we had just got married. I was a teacher and he's like, Do you ever think about who that person is? And I said, No. I really don't. I don't think about it. And he's like, 'Cause I don't even recognize that girl. He's like, the person sitting in front of me is such a different person and and of course I was like, Good or bad. He's like, my God, so good. He's like, But it's been really neat getting
to know this person and see this person and watch this person evolve and grow in real time. And I think that is such an indication of somebody in my life who is not complacent, who has continually tried to learn who I was and wasn't didn't just bank on the fact that I that we love each other, right? And that it would work out and it'd be fine. I don't know. So that just made me think of it when he said not to be complacent and that the personal side of things, right?
And I think to, you can look at it from a CEO standpoint, not being complacent and growing your business and thinking you've made it in coasting. You can be complacent in your personal life with, spouses and friendships and whatnot. But then I also see the complacency in employees, like where you can be complacent in who you've hired, how you've hired, and not really figuring out how to not not sorry.
And not really taking the time to understand who your employees are now. And as that changes from the first time you hire them to six months to a year or whatnot. And my issue that I have right now, I can tell you in this exact moment, is that it's almost like I swung the pendulum the other way, where I am completely the opposite of complacent, where it's like something isn't working and I'm afraid.
to let it linger. So I'm like, let's make the change. And I was joking with somebody. I was like, I feel like I put everyone through whiplash and they're like, that's pretty accurate. yes, that's true. And so I think that there is this really interesting balance of like where you want to absorb all the information and you want to continue to learn. You want to continue to evolve and you want to continue to pay attention to the trends and to make these decisions. But at the same time
That's just information gathering, right? It's not necessarily taking all that stuff and having an action to it because I think it can go completely the opposite way. And so to me, it's finding that balance of you're not complacent with being okay with it, with it where everything is. So you're constantly gathering information, you're staying curious, which is one of my favorite phrases. So grateful that Ted Lasso gave that to us. You're staying curious. You are
learning about the other person, you're learning about the job, you're learning about your business, you're learning about the market. But then you're taking that and you're sitting with it. And sometimes you're gonna take a little bit of that piece of information. Excuse me. And sometimes you're gonna take a little bit of that piece of information and you're gonna actually execute and you're gonna pivot and you're gonna put it into your business. You're gonna put it into your relationship. You're gonna actually do something with it. And sometimes you're just gonna know that,
sometimes the information you get is just confirming that what you're doing works, right? And you're gonna know. And what that does for you is it tells you when you see that new shiny object over here, you can say, no, I I actually know this is the right path that I'm going down, right? Because I've done the research, I've taken the time, I haven't been complacent and trying to and assuming that I know everything and assuming that everything is perfect. I've actually asked the hard questions and sometimes luckily those conversations, those
those questions come back as answers of, yeah, you are doing the right thing. but yeah, I just I just love that conversation so much. I love that he said that because it's something that I feel so strongly about that complacency is what kills businesses. It's what kills relationships, and it is absolutely what creates these plateaus in business. It's not sales. It's not that you don't have sales. It's not that
it's not even that you don't have the right person. It's just that typically you have somebody who is just stopped staying curious and stopped asking questions. And I can see how you get there. it's exhausting. everyone knows it's exhausting. It's so tiring to think and I sometimes I just wish, can I just put this thing in and can I just say, can I just set it and forget it? Can I just please, for the love of God, just set it and forget it. And the answer for entrepreneurship is no. It's never an option. You gotta continue.
You gotta continue to evolve. You gotta continue to change. so, anyways, love that conversation with Ian. It was wonderful. if you haven't, like I said, if you haven't listened to it, go take a go take a listen. It's great. and we will be back next week with another quick chat.