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Explore the world of business and entrepreneurship in Wichita. Learn from local business owners from a variety of industries as they share their experiences with hosts and Evergy leaders, Don Sherman and Ebony Clemons-Ajibolade, who are also small business owners. You’ll learn how they have built and grown their companies and the challenges and opportunities they encountered along the way. This podcast is brought to you by the Wichita Regional Chamber of Commerce and is powered by Evergy.
Ep128_JeffTurner_full
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Don Sherman: [00:00:00] We just had a great episode with Jeff Turner and it was so good. We're gonna make it a two part series, so make sure you check it out.
Welcome to another exciting edition of the WCBA. Powered, of course, by Evergy.[00:01:00]
First, thank you for listening. Don't forget to like us, love us, share us. We truly appreciate you checking us out in the house today. TNW Group, E.
Ebony Clemons-Ajibolade: Yes, that's what's up, Don. I'm really excited. We have our friend Jeff Turner in the house.
Don Sherman: He's my friend.
Ebony Clemons-Ajibolade: Well, that's true. It's Don. We'll, we'll let you'll, we'll let you claim. He
Don Sherman: gonna let me have one.
Ebony Clemons-Ajibolade: Okay. All right. Don's friend, Jeff Turner. I'm
Don Sherman: Out of 140 episodes. I got one.
Ebony Clemons-Ajibolade: I dunno if you'll agree with that, but we'll just, we'll let it go. Mr. Turner, how are you?
Jeff Turner: I am just fine. Thank you.
Ebony Clemons-Ajibolade: So happy to have you here.
Don Sherman: Excellent.
Ebony Clemons-Ajibolade: If you would, you know, our listeners, everyone in this region and probably the world knows the name of Jeff Turner, but if you would tell us who you are and what you do.
Jeff Turner: Well, I am a lifetime Wichita resident except for a couple times, once for school and once for work for a couple years. I am a grandfather, father, and a grandfather, and I spend as much time [00:02:00] as I can with my grandkids and my kids. I worked most my entire, almost my entire career in the aviation industry, worked for Boeing
and had the wonderful privilege of leading the transition to Spirit Aerosystems
Don Sherman: How many grandkids?
Jeff Turner: Six.
Don Sherman: Yeah.
Jeff Turner: They go from one is almost 17 and the other one is four months old,
Ebony Clemons-Ajibolade: Wow.
Jeff Turner: On each end, so.
Ebony Clemons-Ajibolade: Do they call you granddad, grandpa
or Papa?
Jeff Turner: Papa or the older ones now that like to call me Gramps. Because they think it irritates me.
Don Sherman: Yeah. That would irritate
me
Jeff Turner: I act like
it irritates
me and it just,
Ebony Clemons-Ajibolade: what I don't care. That's pretty awesome. That is cool. So from the aviation industry, you know, leading and spearheading a company in the transition to spirit which thank so [00:03:00] now you do something a little different with TNW group.
Jeff Turner: I do the T is for Turner.
The N is for Nichols, and the W is for Williams. You know, we spent a lot of money getting that branded, but it's my son Bryce and I, and then Lynn Nichols and his his son Andrew.
And his son-in-law, Zach. And then Mike Williams, who Mike Williams and I worked for years together at Boeing and then Spirit.
And so the group makes investments and tries to support small startup businesses in Wichita. And then I do quite a bit of work with startup businesses just on my own.
Ebony Clemons-Ajibolade: Let's talk about that. Yeah. So, you know, you, you, you left from a very large company [00:04:00] right now, you have decided that we need to invest in small business.
Why?
Jeff Turner: Well, before I left Spirit I was involved in the, Greater Wichita Partnership. Charlie Chandler and I were co-chairs of that back when it was getting started, and, and there were multiple areas that we thought. Were important to economic development for Wichita.
And one of 'em, one of 'em was to, to create an entrepreneurial environment. And not, not to create one, but to, but to foster one. There, there was, there's always a entrepreneurial environment, but we thought we could do a better job in the community supporting that kind of environment.
And that kind of got me sucked into and interested in helping, helping people if I could with with startup It's, it's a challenge. What is it? There's, there's statistics that say, you know, 90% of startup businesses close within [00:05:00] within 10 years.
Don Sherman: Yep.
Jeff Turner: And, and so you, you know, we had a thing around here for a while, may still be here called Startup Grind.
Because startup is a grind.
So I, I just kind of got hooked on that. I, I thought about, you know, what would I do? Would I work with nonprofits? Would I, you know, teach what I, what would I do? But I, I love business and I love people.
I love the idea of somebody willing to take enough of a risk to try to start a business. I thought, you know what? I'm. A lot, awful lot of people helped me through the years and it's just maybe one of my ways to give back.
Ebony Clemons-Ajibolade: I love that because that is so important to ecosystem. You have to have small business and startups in order for it to become a big business, right?
Don Sherman: Mm-hmm.
Ebony Clemons-Ajibolade: I mean, that's normally
Don Sherman: Yeah, exactly. Exactly.
Ebony Clemons-Ajibolade: So when you talk about that, at what point do you, do you I guess advise because you, I, I presume you [00:06:00] advise, council, coach and invest, that's all a part of the strategy of this group right?
Jeff Turner: Try to, yeah.
Ebony Clemons-Ajibolade: Okay. When would someone when do you help them?
Is it at the very beginning when it's just an idea or a, a concept or is it after what, what period?
Jeff Turner: Really at any time, Ebony, I tell people my advice is free. And it's worth every penny you pay for it. And
Ebony Clemons-Ajibolade: I like that.
Jeff Turner: I'm willing to dispense it.
So, so really, i,
Don Sherman: oh my
Jeff Turner: I mean, any, anybody can call me and I'll try to find time to sit down and talk to him.
There are, there are some ideas that resonate with me. And, and some ideas that don't. Mm-hmm. And, and so it's not a guarantee that I would be interested enough to invest. I've got enough going now and I've made enough investments that I, I really need some of 'em to start paying back so I can, I [00:07:00] call it, so I can continue to feed my habit,
Don Sherman: Mm-hmm.
Jeff Turner: You know?
But but I talk to a lot of people over to, sometimes I only talk to 'em once, you know, sometimes relatively frequently. I find a lot of people, a lot of people have ideas, a lot of people have the desire to be highly successful, but not too many people really understand the grind of going from an idea to a, to a thriving business.
Ebony Clemons-Ajibolade: It's more than just an ocean.
Don Sherman: Mm-hmm.
Jeff Turner: way more.
I, I had one person come and say, they wanted my advice, they were thinking about, I think it was a franchise. They were thinking about buying a franchise and starting it here in, here in Wichita. And I ask him, why, why do you want to do that? And this person said, well, I have a family and I want spend more time with my family.
Don Sherman: [00:08:00] No, no.
Jeff Turner: And that was, that was kind of, that was kind of my reaction.
My reaction was, look, if you have three kids, if you have three kids you wanna spend more time with those three kids, you do not go out and and get more kids. Because more kids take more time.
And I said, your business is like, you start a business and it's like having an infant.
That will not sleep.
It's 24 7. And if you grab some, should I, you'll wake, you'll wake up thinking about your business and, and that's the way you gotta think about startup business is it's. It's a 24 7 kind of a thing. And if, if people won't approach it that way, then the chances of it being successful go way I mean, I know [00:09:00] entrepreneurs who have just, just worked their fingers to the bone for years and that particular venture wasn't, wasn't successful because there's hundreds of things that can get in the way.
You know, not the least of which is timing. I mean, if your timing's wrong,
Ebony Clemons-Ajibolade: timing is key.
Ooh. So those are the, some of the things that you're looking at when you have these conversations, right? You're looking for drive passion and if they have that grind mentality.
Jeff Turner: Mm-hmm.
Ebony Clemons-Ajibolade: Yeah. Yeah. I, I can see that.
Jeff Turner: And even then you can't, I don't go into it. I probably should, but I don't go into it with the idea that this must make money.
I go into it with the idea that I would really like for it too. And I would really like for, for entrepreneurs that I work with to, to see a level of success. [00:10:00] Mm-hmm.
But, you know, frankly, one of the things is, And, and some of 'em will be successful at some level and some of 'em won't. But what what's important is, I think the human side of it. The, the learning, the acceptance, the, the value of humans. So, so whether you're an entrepreneur and are successful, Or you're an entrepreneur and your business does not succeed. It doesn't detract from your value as a human. In fact one, one of my favorite podcasters to listen to is a
Ebony Clemons-Ajibolade: Don Sherman,
Jeff Turner: is a guy named Timothy Keller
Don Sherman: he won't,
Jeff Turner: who was a minister in New York City and, and.
There was one particular podcast where he made a statement, he actually quoted a, a, a woman who was a writer for the Village Voice in New York City. And [00:11:00] she said in essence the the most miserable people she's ever met are people who have made it big.
Ebony Clemons-Ajibolade: Oh wow.
Don Sherman: Mm.
Jeff Turner: And she mentioned three in particular.
And if I mentioned them, you would know their names. They are famous actors and actresses, and she said, I knew them when they were nobody.
Don Sherman: Mm-hmm.
Jeff Turner: And I know them when they're somebody and they are miserable human beings to know when they're somebody.
And, and then related it to this idea that we, we have a deep yearning in our, in our hearts, in our souls for significance and meaning.
And we think when we're entrepreneurs, that success of our business is what will fill that deep yearning. And then when someone is highly successful and the deep yearning is still there.
Don Sherman: Right, right, right. [00:12:00] Mm-hmm. Right.
Jeff Turner: They are highly miserable. And so part of the, that philosophical idea, I, I want to help a few people because I've gone through being moderately successful and I, and I realize from experience, I had a philosophical base that said being highly successful or being moderately successful will not fulfill your deepest longings as a human being.
I mean, I knew that philosophically, but I think experientially I expected business success to fill those yearnings, and it doesn't, you know, it's filled by our relationship with God and others.
Family, kids, friends, acquaintances. So that's a big reason that I do this, is because I think some of these entrepreneurs are gonna be successful.
And when they are, [00:13:00] I don't want 'em to be miserable. Miserable. I want,
Don Sherman: exactly
Jeff Turner: I want 'em to be, be satisfied human beings.
Ebony Clemons-Ajibolade: It's time to hear a word from our sponsors, but we'll be back to hear more from Jeff Turner and TNW Group.
Don Sherman: Jeff, of course we go way back a good 20 years, but you were able to do something in Wichita that. Probably hasn't How d can you just share you took Boeing and [00:14:00] transformed it with your team into spirit big company based here in and kept it here in can you just share what was going through your mind at the time and how you formulated that, you and your team?
Jeff Turner: Yeah. Well, the first thing is there, there was an economic downturn pretty significant one back 2001, September 11th, 2001, when the, when the terrorist events in New York City occurred demand for airplanes, which are, we had an airplane factory. Demands for airplanes went to zero.
The incident, the first airplane hit the trade center, and the reason for that was the, the whole world, air traffic just stopped. If you remember, like for a week, maybe not the whole world, but certainly in the United States, Everything was just frozen in place. And then it [00:15:00] took quite a bit of time for that.
It took four or five years for that to come back, and so demand went to zero. Now, we still had contracts to fulfill and things like that, but real demand went to nothing. And so it, it precipitated a, a pretty steep recession, 2001, 2002, 2003. And the. The, the result of that was Boeing did a number of things that they were already working on, which kind of shifted their strategy.
And their strategy basically was to focus on final assembly customers and major processes within their company. So there were a whole bunch of small, little small Boeing sites around. Tulsa was a little bit bigger, but there, there were multiple places and, and it got consolidated. The Tulsa division was consolidated with the Wichita division.
I was given [00:16:00] responsibility for both. We had four or five places. We had a Georgia plant and a couple other plants, and I was told to divest those, just sell 'em off.
Divest Tulsa, and I saw some strategic planning at the Boeing company and it was like, we know what to do with all these assets, but we don't know what to do with Wichita.
That that isn't what they said. But that's when I looked at it. That's what it said, right? If you were tiny, get rid of it. If you were customer facing, enhance it. But here was this massive plant in Wichita that was integral to every single Boeing airplane, but they didn't know what to do with it.
Don Sherman: Wow.
Jeff Turner: And so I looked at that and I thought, you know what?
We're gonna be starved for capital. We're gonna be competing with other entities that are not part of the Boeing company. We are in a very [00:17:00] precarious strategic position as a plant. And that began the process of us thinking about what do we do? Well, I was given the job of selling Tulsa, as I said, and Mike Williams, the W in TNW, came to me one day and he said, Jeff, we should buy, you and I should buy the Tulsa plant. And I laughed
Don Sherman: Wow.
Jeff Turner: and then he said, not only that we should, we should sell Wichita. And I said, and I said, and I quote, Mike, are you outta your mind?
But that was the genesis of the idea of spinning the Wichita division out of Boeing and becoming Spirit. It took a, it took a number of years for everything to unfold, but by January of 0 2 Mike Williams and I and and one other guy, John Pillar, had gone to [00:18:00] Seattle and presented the idea of Wichita being independent from Boeing. And from that it took two or three years. And, but it, but it, but it happened. But, but it was in, in some ways.
The idea was in Boeing, the Wichita plant was kind of at the edge of the strategy. When we made Spirit, when we made the Boeing and Tulsa plants Spirit. We were in the center of the strategy.
Don Sherman: Nice, nice, nice.
Jeff Turner: So when you think about it, you want to be in the center of the strategy.
You don't wanna be at the edges.
Don Sherman: Correct.
Jeff Turner: You wanna be in the center. And so that was the thought process behind it. A lot of people helped but, part of it was, I knew the plant had great equipment, but it had fabulous people. And [00:19:00] over time, if you don't continue to invest all that that plant equipment's gonna get old.
Don Sherman: Mm-hmm.
Jeff Turner: And the people are gonna know that you're not interested in investing in them and they're gonna go other places, or it's gonna be hard for you to attract because you're not in the center of the strategy.
So that's what we did and that's why, and, I gotta tell you a funny story. One morning, so I was 54 years old when this happened in, in boeing, big company like Boeing. When you're 55, you're fully eligible for retirement. Now your benefits will increase through time, but. When you're 54, you are not eligible for,
Don Sherman: Right?
Jeff Turner: for retirement, and I'm standing there in front, front of the mirror, getting ready for work.
One morning I looked at myself in the mirror and I said what are you doing. I, I mean, are you crazy? mean, you are. You are [00:20:00] less than a year away from full retirement eligibility and you're going to jump off this ledge. And, and do something you don't, you don't have any idea what you're doing.
But I, I look back at myself and I said, you know what, I, you're right. It, personally, it probably is more risk than I want to take, but I think for the people, for the plant, for the community, it's the right thing to do. It turned, I mean, it turned out marvelously. It turned out marvelously personally. Turned out, I think great for the city and, and for the employees.
And so it, I mean, it turned out to be the right thing, but it didn't have to
Don Sherman: have to, be.
Jeff Turner: it might not have.
Don Sherman: Wow. that's,
a great, that's a great story. Yes. I mean, to have that happen here in Wichita. So one quick, quick before we go to break. [00:21:00] I mean, you see how Spirit has grown. I mean, what kind of feeling do you have that you were at the forefront of that.
Ebony Clemons-Ajibolade: Mm-hmm.
Don Sherman: To where it is today.
Jeff Turner: When my son was a young kid, we used to watch two or three shows on tv. And one of them, one of our favorites to watch together was the A team.
I don't remember. You probably don't remember.
Don Sherman: I remember the A Team.
Jeff Turner: A team, but, but he would always say, I love it when a plan comes together.
And so what Spirit is and what Spirit has become. And I cannot say enough about Tom Gentile's leadership. I just, and you talk about leadership through difficult times. I mean the times I'd led through were a cake walk compared to what Tom's going through with all the challenges out there. But I'm really. I'm really proud of it. I mean, I [00:22:00] look at it and I, I'm not proud of it from the perspective that, you know, I did that, but I'm proud of it. From the perspective of we did this.
Don Sherman: Yes.
Yeah. Yeah.
I knew that about you.
Jeff Turner: and the day we became Spirit, I looked around the room and I said, you know, John Pillar, you're the youngest executive on the team, all the rest of us will be gone within 10 years. And so you need to do a really good job.
Ebony Clemons-Ajibolade: No pressure
Jeff Turner: of helping us. And you know, sure enough, over the next 10 years We all, we all retired and other people came in and, and took our place, which is the nature of things. But I look at what's been done and you know, are there things you'd do different? A, absolutely. There are things but [00:23:00] did the best we knew how to do and it's turned out to be okay.
Ebony Clemons-Ajibolade: Okay. More than, okay. I tell you.
Don Sherman: Excellent. E I think we need a break. Make sure you come back next week for part two.