Protecting Your Energy Investment in Business

Scott Schaper: Hey everybody, welcome to the Spirit Health and Hustle podcast. Today we have a guest on and I'm starting with this quote, where focus goes, energy flows. In this episode, Brian and I chat with Janine Akers, a business and people expert. Janine sold her company data file in 2021 and went on to found Crackerology with a couple of friends over card night. We look forward to all the finer details of that night and the details of that journey.

Brian McMaster: Welcome to the spirit health. with the quote where... That was a good ⁓ We're gonna have a quick conversation about.

Scott Schaper: We're going to have a fun conversation about the investment of personal energy that founders and entrepreneurs into their business day in and day out. To Janine tell it, energy is definitely a key component of making the business work clearly, but it's not talked about enough and it's really a true measurable, but it's one of the most important investments made by owners. So let's not any time. We'll start with some introductions, starting with my co-host, Brian McMaster. Man, tell us you are. What are you doing right now?

Brian McMaster: Thank That was terrible by the way you don't get any better at the interim Kansas City, Missouri I do warehousing and logistics pickpacking ship. So ⁓ ⁓

Scott Schaper: Awesome. And my name is Scott Schaper with RSM Marketing. do digital marketing ⁓ And welcome to the show. Take a few minutes to go into your business history. I only know you from data filing and crackology. How'd you get here and what happened before all that?

Janine Akers: I don't know that there was a before all that. So, like, don't know. You know, ⁓ I an undergraduate degree in mathematics. And when I graduated college, you my family, my parents were so proud. And I certified to teach like seven through 12 high school and grade school. I never taught like an hour and half.

Brian McMaster: You

Scott Schaper: No, that's...

Janine Akers: And I remember I went to, do you guys remember Kelly Temp Services? So I remember telling my mom I was going to go to Kelly Temp Services. And I went and I took this typing class and I typed really fast with low error. And I was like, great. Well, I didn't know anything about business. my mom was like scared, She's like, you you just got this college degree and now you're just going to go answer phones. And I was like,

Scott Schaper: Yeah.

Brian McMaster: ⁓ yeah.

Janine Akers: I figured out mom and so that's I started and ⁓ I am. ⁓

Scott Schaper: And you eventually bought data file, right? When was that?

Janine Akers: I did. Yeah, I bought DataFile because I wanted to own my time. So what I bought was four little customers, some laptops with some roller bag scanners, and a copy machine lease that I didn't know I was getting because I didn't do my diligence well. And I wanted to own my time. And I built that. And when I sold it, we had 400 employees. And it was awesome and a great ride.

Brian McMaster: It's a joke.

Scott Schaper: 400 employees, that's how big you built it to?

Janine Akers: Yeah. Well, it was a service business. So our business was people.

Brian McMaster: service business.

Scott Schaper: Yeah, wow. That's amazing. And so then you sold, so how long between, how long did you own that?

Janine Akers: Yeah. 15 years.

Scott Schaper: Okay, 15 years. And then 2021, so you made it through, you're selling during COVID, you're selling the business essentially and completed that sale in the spring of 2021, is that right? Spring of 2020. Right at the beginning of COVID, you snuck in under the wire.

Janine Akers: Spring of 2020. Yeah, like right, like COVID like right at beginning. Yeah.

Scott Schaper: Wow, that's crazy. And then you took a little time off and you found yourself at card night just wondering why can't we find good snacks that goes with that pairs with wine.

Janine Akers: ⁓ made this red wine and rosemary shortbread cracker. It's like a nod to the British biscuit, our friends across the pond, and for my for a long time. And I used to like to show up places and make little canapes, ⁓ little sneaky snacks. The ⁓ bite-size and the better. kind of, I don't know I had ⁓ positive following in my friend's circle if some of my friends made fun of me.

Brian McMaster: Thank

Janine Akers: Either way, same thing. And so I was sort of yearning to do something. My husband, the big joke was he was like, you got to find something to do. And I was like, I don't really know what to do. I was really kind of lost after selling Datafile. COVID was weird. Life was different. And so all of a sudden I was just like, we should start this cracker company.

Scott Schaper: Yeah.

Janine Akers: My friends were like, okay, and we said, well, let's meet and talk about it, because we do nothing about starting a food business.

Scott Schaper: Has it been fun? Has it been fun for you?

Janine Akers: Yes, it's fine. It's hard.

Scott Schaper: Yeah, I bet. there's a phrase that has never come up in 15 episodes of this podcast, and that's owning my time. I I love that phrase, and I think it I think could blend into today's theme of investing energy into the business. ⁓ When you own my time, could you like delve into that a little bit more for our listeners?

Janine Akers: Yeah, I've used that phrase for a long time. I feel like the most valuable thing we have is time. how we spend that time, who we spend it with, is most powerful freedom there is. You know, when I talk with people and they don't feel they have that freedom, you know, whether they're tied to a job or they're tied to relationships, they don't like whatever that is, it always makes me sad.

Brian McMaster: Thanks.

Janine Akers: And I always want to explore that more. Like, how can you feel that you control your time?

Scott Schaper: Yeah. So there's this other phrase, time is money. Do you think that those are related? And is it just a money thing, or is it really about feeling fulfilled in the moment that you're choosing to be in?

Brian McMaster: You know.

Janine Akers: You know, I kind of, I guess I probably more think about it in owning my time from a financial business perspective because I have, it's sort of ingrained in me that my friends and my family are the people I want to hang around. I don't surround myself with people that I don't want to. And so I don't feel.

Scott Schaper: Okay, yeah.

Janine Akers: stuck in anything like that. So I can only relate it to how do I want to spend my time with business. But I would imagine other people it could go either way.

Scott Schaper: Yeah. Yeah. your time goes back as an investment in yourself. It's and there's, you know, there brings to mind another phrase. I don't know if I'll get this right, but the saying goes, you're either going to spend your time making your come true or spend your time making someone else's dreams come true. And there's some truth to all of that. I don't want to demonize for a and working for other people at all, because there's everywhere to be found. Brian, what kind comments do you have about that?

Brian McMaster: I don't have any comments. I'm just kidding. I'm just kidding. ⁓ yeah, I was I was actually just thinking about so in one of my CEO other CEOs groups not Vistage is Dan Martell, he wrote a book called By Your Time Back. And it reminded me right away. Because ⁓ when I that book was when I hired Rhonda, my assistant. And, know, I toiled with that

Scott Schaper: First time ever.

Brian McMaster: I toiled with that for 10 years and I don't know what I did for the last 10 years. I obviously missed some opportunities probably, but you know, ⁓ I've focused a lot on time lately. So it resonates with me what you're saying, Janine. It's like, know, you can be efficient with your time, but you can also those things. I think I said this once in the podcast, sell your strengths and buy your weaknesses. ⁓

Janine Akers: Thank

Brian McMaster: And what am I good at? And am I spending my time on? And when I went that exercise, it was like, wow, 80 % of my time I'm spending on things I'm not good at and I don't enjoy. And it's really buying life back. It's a profound thing people don't, want it, but they don't really spend a lot of time working on it. So, applaud you, Janine, for doing that.

Janine Akers: you

Scott Schaper: I have a trivia question. I'm going to go into a trivia question. The quote that I started with, where focus goes, energy flows, it emphasizes the direct link between where you direct your attention and where your energy naturally flows. Any who said that? Where focus energy flows?

Janine Akers: Yeah, it's kind of top of mind for me all the time. No, I've heard it, but I don't know. Maybe we just could give it to you if nobody claims it.

Scott Schaper: Brian, I'm directing this at you, I bet you know.

Brian McMaster: Yeah, well I know where I've heard it from the most is Tony Robbins.

Scott Schaper: Yeah, knew you'd get that. Awesome. Good job. That's funny.

Janine Akers: thought we didn't know collectively and we were just going to assign it to you, Scott, but now we know. Okay, Tony.

Brian McMaster: He's using chat GPT.

Scott Schaper: So after data file, did take a year off? How long was that?

Janine Akers: You know, was about a year before we actually launched, but we probably started ideating and noodling on the company. It was maybe only about six months.

Scott Schaper: So they're really, like, were you itching? Like, I'm dying to come up with another idea. Or was crackers always in your mind because of the Rosemary creation for

Janine Akers: It was never in my mind prior to when it hopped in and I set it up.

Scott Schaper: Going from food service, no, from kind of a tech service to food manufacturing is, those different things. My brother owns a frozen food manufacturing company and we are ⁓ different. all, you're saving costs in different ways. What was the, what did you underestimate from an energy standpoint about manufacturing?

Janine Akers: Well, I underestimated all of it. But I don't know about from the energy standpoint, or I consider energy. The biggest was probably the resource of money. I mean, when you start service business, it's a little bit easier to sort of self-fund it. get a client, you hire. ⁓

Scott Schaper: Hmm.

Janine Akers: behind not every service industry, but my experience. But this is an expensive barrier to entry to get into food manufacturing and all the safety and all that thing. And we don't even manufacture ourselves. We use commands and such, but it's still a big entry. When I talk about energy the business that you and I were talking about, Scott, that I don't think is talked about a lot, or the resource, you can measure time and you can measure money pretty easily. But the resources in successful or successful entrepreneurship that I think you can't measure are the that make people successful. meaning the energy you use to do things, most importantly, the things you don't want to do or to your point, Brian, you're not good at. you got to do it anyway or ⁓ a way to do it or whatever that is. you so in food compared the service, I think the thing that I did not count on is the is the financial ramp and the financial investment. So.

Scott Schaper: Can we dive into that a little bit more? think a lot of our listeners, think, we always want to kind of like pass off of the lessons, the hardships that people didn't know were coming. And we to like give them those tools, kind of like being in VISTA, just like you're getting information that you don't have to learn on your own, learn from other people. So dive into kind of expense categories or those monies, because you a budget and then it goes way over. What were the categories?

Janine Akers: Yeah.

Scott Schaper: you just were surprised or that you off guard. ⁓

Janine Akers: Well, our product, mean, we a shelf stable product that has a pretty decent shelf life as far as it's not like we're not fresh cheese or, you know, fresh flowers or something that really has a pretty short shelf life. your supply chain, have to really understand your supply chain to get your product moving. But even for our product,

Scott Schaper: Yeah.

Janine Akers: You know, had a lot of waste ⁓ not managing that shelf life or not getting it to the consumer fast enough. It's not like the product went bad because we didn't know how it would last. You know, we didn't. We made too much versus what we could sell versus, you know, that supply chain kind of thing. So I would say that I would say just overall brand awareness.

Scott Schaper: Mm. ⁓

Janine Akers: is probably the biggest category. So whether that brand awareness is telling the story or getting you to know who we are or tasting it. I listen to a lot of like this was made or how I built this type, you know, ⁓ podcasts shows and I always seek out the food ones. And the biggest thing in food manufacturing is you got to get people to taste it. you know, assuming if you're a new brand and then we weren't just a new brand in a new of a new product category, you know, we're a cracker, but we're a savory shortbread biscuit type product. Yeah, yeah. ⁓ then you add to that we're a kit.

Scott Schaper: Yeah, right. It's kind of cookie-ish with some of the flavors.

Janine Akers: You know, like we add, we're like a charcuterie kit where you have the cheese and the jam and the nuts and all the fun things with it. that just blows people's mind, which I had no idea would be so mind blowing. But like, it's a kit and they're holding it. They tasted it. And then they'll look me right dead in the eye and say, well, what cheese do I put with it? And I'm like, the cheese is in the kit. And so it's obviously something, it's just So.

Brian McMaster: But

Scott Schaper: Yeah. ⁓

Brian McMaster: Educating ⁓ how to use your product, right? So yeah, the packaging can be the best. All the can come together, but if they look at it and they don't know how to use it, that's a challenge. That's tough.

Janine Akers: Yeah.

Scott Schaper: I love the name crackerology.

Janine Akers: So that's kind of been the journey is just education and brand awareness. Yes.

Scott Schaper: So also, when I run into the product, it's always in a very small and intimate venue like a coffee shop, a real local coffee shop. Is that, I mean, that's the business of people. That's forming just lots of relationships for distribution. Do look at it like that? Like just people business, that people side of it? Because that's a lot of investment energy. ⁓

Janine Akers: Well, it is, in our particular business, not sustainable from the manufacturer to the coffee shop, to point. So there are brokers, distributors, there's a lot of in the supply chain along the way. mean, Brian, you're part of that supply chain, so you know that. And so to go from us and story,

Scott Schaper: Mm-hmm.

Brian McMaster: Yeah.

Janine Akers: I mean, you guys know me, so you have a straight line into Crackerology. I can get you as much as you want and often as you want, just for you two. Okay. But for everybody else that is like, as we know, nationally, if we go into different venues, we have to be able to transfer that story either in the packaging or...

Scott Schaper: Mm-hmm.

Brian McMaster: ⁓ We're gonna take you up on that.

Janine Akers: at the moment of you know, for a snack. Like now, our biggest... Channel and reorder channel of success has been like what we call on-prem, meaning you eat it there. Wineries, micro-buries, distilleries, places like that where you want an experiential, you're enjoying, you're with a date or a family or a spouse or whatever and you're having a nice time and it's time to have some snacks.

Scott Schaper: Mmm. Mmm. And I'd imagine that that's the first experience of getting it into people's mouths so that they're like, do we get this? They're looking it up and going to their local to pick it up. ⁓

Janine Akers: Yeah. Yeah. And that's a, there's a lot of, of sales channels like that, a lot of marketing, a of like, a lot of gift basket companies tout that brand awareness and that promotional to just get people knowing what it is and trying it. So.

Brian McMaster: So Janine, do you brand for people? Like a winery said, hey, I wanna put my winery's name on here, do you do that as well? ⁓

Janine Akers: You know, we haven't done, open to that. We'd like to do more of it. Trying figure out the volume and kind of learn that has, you been first kind of go here, but yeah, we're totally open to that.

Scott Schaper: Well, we're going to take a little break right now with this is our area usually right around 15 minutes where we do our wisdom drop or service recommendation. we basically ask, what are you using, eating, trying or reading right now that we can. And for Brian, it's always what's sitting on your desk that you're that what crazy health product are using that you can pass on. And I'll just go first. Mine is I'm read I'm in the right in the middle of spare the autobiography by Prince Harry. I'm so I'm so charmed by. different of a life to have British royals grow up in. And you just don't hear enough of it. ⁓ All would get is news snippets. But this such an intimate ⁓ portrayal of life from the time he was a kid to dealing with his death and the rest. ⁓ So I'm right in middle it. I would recommend it. I'm listening to it while I out in the morning. So I'll probably be, I got 15 to go. So it's going to take me another month to get through it. But that's mine, Brian, you got anything handy?

Brian McMaster: I I do I had like I just got back from Ireland so I have like 16 packages on my desk, but so This thing this can't I can't believe I'm show this but this thing is called a carbohaler so it Hooks an bottle up to it, which I have sitting next to me that got shipped. So it's inhaling carbon dioxide Which doesn't sound pleasant does it?

Scott Schaper: Okay.

Brian McMaster: So there's, I we've talked about this on a couple of podcasts, but stress in the body, hormetic stress is a thing as long as it's not, you you don't get in an ice bath for 50 minutes, you get in an ice bath for three minutes, you know, kind of thing. So at my desk 10 minutes, maybe 15 minutes every day, maybe every other day, I'll inhale carbon dioxide and actually stresses your system. So it. creates new blood cells, reduces stress. I mean, been around for a little while, but I've been wanting to try it for a while, so I just got my unit. ⁓

Scott Schaper: It sounds so opposite because we're always exhaling carbon dioxide. So inhaling it does the opposite and forces a body adaptation that is healthy.

Brian McMaster: Yeah, so imagine starving yourself. It's almost like hypoxia. You starve yourself of oxygen for a little while, you know, not to the point of having an issue. And then as soon as your body takes in oxygen again, floods your cells with oxygen. So it can be an uptick in oxytocin. It's just a, yeah, I'm looking forward to trying it. So, Jeanine, I'm I'm nuts. Just to let you know. ⁓

Janine Akers: No, I don't spend enough time with you. I'm just, I need all the tips and tricks. So.

Scott Schaper: So Janine, you're on the spot. do you recommend these days besides crackers?

Brian McMaster: Well, I can help you.

Janine Akers: Gosh, I did see this in your outline and I should have been a little more prepared. guess something recently I've started doing that there's this local vanilla company called Vain Vanilla and I started putting that vanilla in my coffee and it's brought me great joy and happiness. So, ⁓ I should have, I have a little bottle in the other room.

Scott Schaper: Really? Uh, spell it for me. What was that?

Janine Akers: could have had it right here, VAIN, vein, phenylba. Yeah.

Scott Schaper: Wow, I love that. I'll put that in a link with the one the podcast publishes. I'll put that in a link ⁓ your recommendation.

Janine Akers: And you put a little bit in your coffee and it just, it's, it's joyful. So it's just, it's just pure vanilla. I mean, you can use it, you can bake with it and all kinds of things. And so it's not the added sweetener or the syrupy or, you know, any bad stuff. It's just, it's, it's ⁓ high quality. That's the big difference. High. You can tell a difference. One of those things, if you use super high quality. Yeah. So I'm, I'd recommend it.

Scott Schaper: Huh, is it like a creamer or just a pure flavorer? Yeah.

Brian McMaster: This is.

Scott Schaper: Yeah. Okay. Excellent.

Brian McMaster: Hey Scott, hey before we move forward I want to have a burning question that I wanted to ask but I of and think it benefit our listeners quite a bit. So Janine when you sold your business that six month to 12 month period did you have like any kind of feelings ⁓ of am I gonna do now? You know I can't believe I'm not going into the office every day. any kind of like refrain from what did I do? Because I think some people think, hey, I sold my business, I made a million dollars, I made $20 million, whatever. And it's like, everything's hunky dory now. And I think as entrepreneurs, that's not the case. So I'm just curious what your thoughts are on that.

Janine Akers: Well, mine was really weird because it was COVID also. So I literally sold my business on March 27th of 2020, which anybody that wants to go Google that, that was the day the CARES Act was signed. So it was bizarre a world for everyone. And then you pile on, I was definitely... prepared, I was gonna be different. wasn't gonna feel those feelings that you're talking about. And was not any different. I was very weird. Yes, I was very lost for a short. ⁓

Scott Schaper: Mmm.

Brian McMaster: How did you cope? How'd you cope? What'd do?

Janine Akers: we drank a lot of red wine.

Brian McMaster: That's where the crackers came from. That's where the new idea came from.

Janine Akers: That's what the Craggers gave us. Yeah, you know, was, I taught, I mean, I talked a lot, you know, about it. I did, you know, a lot of prayer. I was soul searching, like, it was not regret because that is different. You know, I'm, you know, I'm I didn't have that. But it was different. had to figure out how to do it different. My kids were, that whole summer they were home because that was the COVID stuff. So it was, there was a lot of that talk going on. Mom, don't you have anywhere to go? I'm like, no, no, I don't know where to go.

Scott Schaper: Mm-hmm. Right.

Brian McMaster: Yeah. it. Love it. Love it. Awesome. ⁓

Scott Schaper: That's amazing. Yeah, was great question. ⁓ we need to put a section in our podcast called Burning Questions. love that. Kind of Grant started talking. We started when Grant was on here, we started talking about that as part of his business. So, Janine.

Brian McMaster: Yeah.

Scott Schaper: You know, I thought so much about this energy topic and I had never confronted it as a topic to explore. Like said, I was thinking in terms of money, time, but it's this energy, morning, noon, and night, ⁓ 3 a.m., where like, even last night, I'm like, here I am, ⁓ investing energy in company as a health risk, almost like not sleeping. And so where do we start to think about energy investment an entrepreneur who just got started or someone who's 10 years in and starting to kind like think about why the hell did I do all this? Where do you start thinking about this energy investment? How did you start thinking about it?

Janine Akers: I started thinking about it when, after some success in datafile, I get asked to speak a lot. I'm fortunate enough people enjoy the story. I ⁓ like to myself people that are always wanting to learn and talk with people like you guys. mean, you reached out to me and I was like, heck yeah, man. Getting on this, talking with these guys would be great. But a few years into some success at Data File, people would always ask me, how are you doing it? How do you do it? Or how did you do it, whether it was present tense or past tense? And so then I really had to reflect on, OK, well, what were the things that made it successful, or me successful, or the business successful, or whatever that was? And one of the things that came around as a theme was this idea that I was willing do things that didn't necessarily want to do or I wasn't necessarily great at, but I did anyway, type of thing.

Scott Schaper: Mm-hmm.

Janine Akers: And I use an example that can understand. So it has nothing to do with business. So let's just say that everybody their home has a set of chores that they are choreographed to. ⁓ So you have a spouse, maybe you live alone, whatever it is. Everybody has something that's their default. Let's just it's the... Let's just do an example for the three of us. If we were going to clean a house together, OK, and your choice is you can either vacuum and do the floors. You can clean the kitchen. Or you can do laundry. What you do, Scott?

Scott Schaper: I'll do kitchen. I'll take the kitchen and the dishes.

Janine Akers: So you'll take kitchen dishes. What about you, Brian?

Brian McMaster: Is it an option to hire it out to another third party?

Janine Akers: Not in this, not in this. It's just the three of us. We're the only three there. Okay, laundry. So I would also do kitchen, Scott. So if you asked 100 people, everybody would have a different thing. I mean, there are people, they would plug in a vacuum before they would ever clean out a closet or they would ever mow a lawn or whatever it is. Everybody has a natural thing that takes less energy to do. Okay?

Brian McMaster: I do laundry.

Scott Schaper: Okay. Mm-hmm.

Janine Akers: I hate laundry. And so for me, I would be like, ugh, the laundry, you know? So that's just a natural, like it's not even, I mean, could all any, the three of us do any of those things? Of course, right? But you have one that you would rather do. And I think business is like that. If you, let's say you started a business that you were a coder and you built some app, okay? I'm not a coder, I'm not an app.

Scott Schaper: Right.

Janine Akers: Data file, the name of the company was Data File Technologies. Don't be fooled. Doesn't mean I was technical.

Scott Schaper: Right.

Janine Akers: I think you naturally probably always want to hang with the coders. You to do the coding, you sit with the coding. But if you really grow a successful business and you look back on it, you probably spent more time in front of customers. You spent more time with team hiring, things that were not just coding. So I think that for me, when I look back at my success and people ask me about it, I was and able to do things that I didn't, definitely some things I did not want to do. One that's more applicable with business might be when hear people say they don't like confrontation. Nobody likes right?

Scott Schaper: Okay.

Janine Akers: But sometimes you have to confront things you don't want to, whether it's people, customers, vendors, your family, know, it is. I think for me, what I calculate the energy and everybody's energy is different. So ⁓ I was about our conversation in a real life example I'll do right now. I really don't to travel for work. Okay, I don't know if I've as I've gotten older. I just want to nest. I love to travel for not work just so you guys know if we're going somewhere let's go. But I I want to be successful at Crackerology I know I've had to in the last like six months mentally just switch and say I'm gonna have to get on that plane and I'm gonna go I'm gonna do it anyway.

Scott Schaper: Okay. Mm-hmm. Hmm. Yeah. Well, sometimes when you talk about entrepreneurialism, there's 100 things to do every day or every month. you hired employees. Now you only have 96 things to do and four to manage. And so how do you your energy if you're saying yes to everything because ⁓ the accounting has be done, the billing has to be done, the invoices have to go out? The insurance has to be adopted ⁓ and ⁓ implemented. has be driven down, right? ⁓ So how do protect

Brian McMaster: It's if you're saying yes to everything.

Scott Schaper: you said, you don't to travel, but you gotta. ⁓ So the protectionism for yourself in?

Janine Akers: Well, I think everybody's kind of got to figure that out for yourself. So I think when the energy of things that need to be done, certainly not to Brian's point, we got to figure out how to hire this out, right? So then that just takes more money and that's calculatable, you know? So ⁓ mean, another thing Janine Akers is not good at is paperwork. Okay, I am not ⁓ business side, the insurance, just, I mean, I'm like terrible at.

Scott Schaper: Correct.

Janine Akers: paperwork and I can make decisions. I can pay the bills, if you want me to set up the system in the process to ensure that the bills go into the workflow and they're paid on time and all that stuff, I'm not, that's not me for sure.

Brian McMaster: people. know, and just to comment quick, Scott, you know, that's where entrepreneurs get in trouble, right? Overnight, our business goes to from zero to 100. And now it's one invoice, it's 300 invoices. Now it's not one vendor to pay, it's 10 vendors to pay. It's not one phone call coming in from someone else. It's 20 phone calls coming in from someone else. And then all of sudden, we don't have a process. And it's like, okay, now we need processes. So now I need to hire a process guy. And now I need to hire an accountant and now I need to hire an HR person. know, it's that that that's a to your point, Janine, that's a dance and and ⁓ not a dance that we like because I'm not a details person either. And ⁓ you I have to force myself to do details. And what I ended up doing was missing a lot of stuff until I put those, know, today, you know, Amber says this to me all the time. You got a team. Well, I didn't wake up with a team. I had to put a team together. ⁓ And not easy. I mean, ⁓

Janine Akers: And the hardest thing is knowing when the team needs to change.

Scott Schaper: or keep it together. Maintaining a team is... Yeah.

Brian McMaster: ⁓ yeah, absolutely. And changing your team. mean, Scott knows, knows I had to go through that recently too. And it's, it's like, man, you make those hard decisions. They are not, those not days you want to come to work. I mean, and then it's done, then you're like, man, why didn't I do that sooner? But you stress it for a week or two weeks or longer. So yeah.

Janine Akers: The energy to exchange the... Let me, can I ask you guys a question? So another one. So we know what we're gonna do to clean the house, right? So we already covered that one. so what if in a business scenario that we have to have a conversation with a customer, a vendor an employee? Which one would you rather have? You have to have one of them. Which would be the one that would take the least energy from you?

Scott Schaper: I'll do the kitchen.

Brian McMaster: And I'll do the laundry. ⁓ say vendor.

Scott Schaper: I'll go first. I'll go ahead and say I think the hardest one is the employee, but I've gotten pretty good at that and I'll take that.

Janine Akers: Okay.

Brian McMaster: vendor.

Janine Akers: Okay, so we could be a good team because I would take the customer. Yeah, I mean. ⁓

Scott Schaper: Okay. The customer is like, sometimes I'll put the hardest thing in, know, eat the frog, that whole scenario, get that done first, ⁓ then the rest of the day is easy. So, want this is a great point, and it reminds me of reframing, because when, like, just say, ⁓ let's just say I to do the worst, and that is terminate an employee.

Janine Akers: Mm-hmm.

Scott Schaper: That's the, you know, it feels like the worst thing, but I always say I'm not only terminating one employee, I'm protecting 25 others. And when I look at protecting, that's a very protective of my company, my investment, 15 years of building. And so when I think of it as a measure of protection, not just getting one person out,

Janine Akers: ⁓ 100%.

Scott Schaper: that I've reframed the problem in my head because then the other thing is I always know that we're gonna able to from that termination and hire somebody better for us and gonna be an upgrade in about a month or six weeks for us ⁓ and that person is learn from their last job ⁓ and they're gonna be six months from now they're gonna be like I'm kind of glad you booted me because I just totally upgraded my life ⁓ I know that that's happen

Janine Akers: ⁓ 100%.

Scott Schaper: And so I look at it, I tend to reframe problems as let's make this better and just wade through this mud puddle for five minutes. So I tend to be a reframer.

Brian McMaster: Chances are though, and Janine, I know you've been through this before too, and this is worth saying, because Janine might be 25, but Scott and I are over 50 now. we have experience, right? We're seasoned, and it's worth mentioning Vistage, when you gotta do one of these difficult things, whether it's an employee, a vendor, or a customer, you have that support, because a lot of our listeners are probably

Janine Akers: I'll leave it.

Brian McMaster: thinking about entrepreneurship or new entrepreneurs. you know, the we have difficulty going through it, even though we've learned some of the ropes and finding like that's important to ⁓ not put the energy drain on yourself. But, you know, when I listened to Scott, you know, kind of going through his I'm sure that when you were 18 years old and you were venturing out into business, you probably didn't have a lot of those tools in your toolbox. So ⁓ you know, comes with time and it's okay to make mistakes. think that's worth saying as well.

Janine Akers: reframing that energy. So the example I gave that, you know, right now, traveling for work isn't, you know, top priority for, you know, it's not something I naturally love to do. But I love to read. And I love to read, listen to books or read books. And I'll everything from ⁓ or business books down to trashy romance novels. I don't discriminate. ⁓ like to read cookbooks. I'm this opportunity to... I've started to used bookstores and buying bags full of books. I always have something and I use that and it makes me happy. I'm like, ⁓ I'm going to sit on a plane for three hours and ⁓ goody, I get to read guilt-free because I can't doing laundry because I

Scott Schaper: Mm-hmm. ⁓ There you go.

Janine Akers: know, so. ⁓

Scott Schaper: Yeah. So here's a question for both you guys. Every business is a journey. ⁓ in it with kind of different, a whole chemistry, different businesses, service types, commercial, B2B, whatever. something daily for of you that is a must when it comes to your energy, protecting yourself? What's daily thing that you choose to do to make sure that you stay full?

Brian McMaster: Go ahead, Janine.

Janine Akers: No, yours is going to be really good. I'm going to go next.

Scott Schaper: pass back to Brian.

Brian McMaster: That's an anticipated comment. So Scott, you know this about me, my routine. So my morning routine and just getting back from this event that I did in Ireland as well, just solidified the fact that you gotta have a solid foundation to start your day. And if I, it doesn't even have to be the workout. A lot of people put a lot of emphasis on workout, but I think just getting up, journaling, thinking about

Janine Akers: Brian, go first.

Brian McMaster: how I'm improving myself, kind anticipating what the day is gonna bring and kind of the things I wanna do. I also do this where I write five things on a card. These are the top five things I wanna do. And I find that as long as I don't let anything infiltrate that, ⁓ I to more done and get the hardest ones out of the way first. But to kind of

Scott Schaper: Hmm.

Brian McMaster: My morning routine and spending time with myself in the morning is sacred. when get into my day, it's like I've already been up since 4.35 o'clock. I start my day at nine and I got a lot of things out of the way. I've thought about things. I've put a lot of thought into my day. So I think that solid foundation is very important for me.

Scott Schaper: I will start with... I'll start...

Janine Akers: I've always admired that about you. It's not my, I'm a little more squirrely. ⁓ don't the machine-like routine. ⁓ I some, but I'm not as good as you for sure. I would say for mine, I gotta have a really, I have to have really good capture tools, what I call capture tools. Meaning whether ⁓ it's, ⁓ a to-do list, but some of it is, you know, not the top five things for that day. I have a couple of different things, but I can't have it running around in my head like, I got to remember. ⁓ I got to remember. Because first of all, thanks for thinking I'm under 50, but I'm not. I'm, you know, like you gentlemen, little bit over 50 and can't remember nothing. So if don't ⁓ when I get from my capture tools, you know, whether it's my phone, whether it's a one note list, whether the note, whatever the tool is, It could be paper, you know, those people that have their paper calendar, man, I those people. But for me, I have my capture rocking and rolling for days, weeks, month over end, and I'm not trying to remember things, I'm just in a better shape.

Brian McMaster: Okay.

Scott Schaper: Mm-hmm. Mine, it's become a must, but Suzanne and I, we work out together every day. We go to the gym. We're out the door at 6 a.m., up at 5.30, and having a coffee together. It's a groggy morning, but probably or three times a week, we'll just stop at the local coffee shop, which is right by the gym, and sit for 20 minutes and just, how's your day? Are you gonna be late today? Just kind of go over each days for a minute. ⁓

Janine Akers: Instead of going to the gym? Instead of going to the gym?

Scott Schaper: and on the, what's that? No, we'll go to the gym and then to the coffee shop, just depending on the morning meeting schedule. ⁓ coordinate, go. Yeah, we're over, we're always at Black Dog and Lenexa. I met my director of ops there today because we had a, we a EOS meeting today.

Janine Akers: ⁓ I would go with you guys if we could just go to the coffee shop.

Scott Schaper: So I got my black dog in. don't know if Suzanne went over there or not, but that has become a energizing routine is to have the two of us together. feel like I got a partner, we're going at it together, and that definitely gives a lot of energy ⁓ physically then just kind of mentally kind of fills my heart a little bit. ⁓ So

Brian McMaster: That's awesome.

Scott Schaper: What do do? How do you recognize what's robbing your energy? Because there are energy robbers in business that you're like, you know, I always feel like when I have a client problem or a vendor problem, I have six. They tend to like spin up. that drives me nuts. I like, I lost the whole week at dealing with this or going here, here, here. And like, never, my problems never ⁓ perfectly spaced one per week.

Brian McMaster: There are energy problems in business.

Scott Schaper: So how do you, what gives you energy or how do you recognize what's robbing your energy?

Brian McMaster: Yeah. ⁓

Janine Akers: That's a good question. For me, usually recognize it when it keeps coming back up, it's not being addressed. I don't feel confident in how to lay it to rest, how to address it or have a plan forward for. how we're going to turn this thing or whatever it is. So I think for me, recognizing it usually, maybe that comes with the experience. I'm pretty quick to know, I don't know what I want to do with this or to do with it. And maybe some of the things I've gotten better at is just I used to. ⁓ probably handle or address more than maybe I needed to. Sometimes maybe it's just knowing to set it aside, not ignore it and, you know, I'm not a sweep things under the rug. But I think as I matured, maybe knowing just to give it a beat and maybe I had a guy, I have a friend of mine who I really like and he always says, nothing is ever as bad as it seems and nothing is ever as good as it seems.

Scott Schaper: Mm-hmm. Yeah.

Janine Akers: And I think that comes with wisdom is overreacting fast, which I historically have definitely a can do.

Scott Schaper: Yeah, man, that was my problem. I've gotten a little bit better at that in the last couple of years is Give a minute. Yeah, that's great. Great advice. What about you, Brian?

Brian McMaster: I had a guy tell me one time, I've used this for a long, it's been a long time, it was probably my uncle, my mentor, that life has ups and downs, you know, so he draws this little up and down thing, and he's like, funny this is like your heartbeat, because if your heartbeat was flat, you'd be dead. So you're always gonna have peaks and valleys, you're always gonna have ups and downs. But you, Janine, you something that resonated with me as well, and that is, writing things down, you know your capture list. I had a period of time a couple weeks ago where I was ⁓ ⁓ so much going on in my head and it's like I'm trying to keep up with it, I'm trying to be strategic about it. And I called our EOS gal that helps us implement our EOS and she's like, you know what, you just need a clarity break. So she said, take 15, 20 minutes or an hour if you want to and just sit down and get everything out of your head down on paper. And matter it is, just write, write, write, write, write, write. And I find that now I schedule those my week where I have a clarity break and I say, okay, I'm going to, I'm just going to get everything out of my head. And find that that helps me not go thing to thing to thing, because I think when we do that, we don't finish anything and then we don't finish anything that really robs our time. So, you know, I've, really found capture to work well for me as well. It just, when you're, you're just going hundred an hour and to your point, Scott. you got a list of things to do and then you come in Monday morning and you got six more to do. It's like going to seminars and people say, hey, I got another book for you to read. It's like, I got 200 books to read already. I don't need another book. So yeah, that's what helps me.

Janine Akers: ⁓ yeah.

Scott Schaper: Well, we're at 45 minutes, so we're gonna go into our section called Speed Round, Janine. You're on the spot to rank these to 10. And is a must. is not very important. This is regarding energy, not how good these things are. So regarding energy and how ⁓ you deal it. And feel free to make a, feel free to just say one through 10 and comment if you want or not. But number one I have is stay in your lane. How is that relatable to energy and your energy kind of output? Did I say speed round?

Janine Akers: You know, I'm... That's hard. Oh, the fast part. Six. Six.

Brian McMaster: Ding ding

Scott Schaper: Six. Okay. Yeah, okay, got it. Delegation.

Janine Akers: Is it going to Brian or it's all me? ⁓ I got you. Okay, delegation. 10.

Scott Schaper: It's all you. Tan delegation, good, I agree with that. Work-life balance? a question mark on purpose?

Janine Akers: I think that's back to Brian's heartbeat up and down. I think people want it to always be balanced. And I don't know that it can always be balanced. It needs to balance, but, you know, today what others won't so you'll have tomorrow what others don't.

Brian McMaster: Please be bound.

Scott Schaper: Yeah, Yeah, that's a good one. think finding your own balance. It's just not hard and fast rule for everybody. It's got to, you got to find your own balance. Four, leaving the office at the office.

Janine Akers: Yeah, so my number's a four. that's... As an entrepreneur, I don't like that because that doesn't allow the flexibility to own my time. ⁓ if I want to go play pickleball in the middle of the day too, then I might have to be responding to emails at eight o'clock at night. And those are the choices I want to be able to make.

Scott Schaper: Correct. Yeah, I think if you're an entrepreneur, that's got to be low priority. If you're a person that protects their time as an employee, I think that could be a high priority. That's a very good point. Prioritizing your time. think this goes without saying, prioritizing your time is a...

Brian McMaster: Thank you.

Janine Akers: Agree. Yeah. Yeah. Three. It's a 10.

Scott Schaper: total 10. How making your business your passion? Is that necessary?

Janine Akers: Ooh, I'm going to, I could get some on this one. think that's low. think three or four, think passion is a weird word. Data was a record company and it was important work that we did. I wasn't passionate about medical records, but I was passionate about being a person of my word. ⁓ If I a customer we were going to do something at a certain level of expectation.

Scott Schaper: Me too. Right.

Janine Akers: then I was gonna work to do that. But the actual work itself, was, it was ⁓ I was good at solving a problem.

Scott Schaper: It's so catchphrase-y to say my business is my passion. It doesn't mean it can't be, but I think what we do is helping companies grow through marketing. It's not a passion project of mine, but I love helping other companies grow and getting other owners there. So I love doing that. Right.

Janine Akers: I mean, Brian, is anybody passionate about pick and pack?

Brian McMaster: No, including me.

Janine Akers: Well, so passion's in my numbers two or three.

Scott Schaper: So we always end, I love it, that's all I had for the speed round. We always end with creating a challenge that someone can do in the next week to make a little bit of change regarding this topic. And all three can answer this. What the challenge we would say, hey, listener, ⁓ go this and to if your week is a little bit different with your energy.

Brian McMaster: always.

Janine Akers: Okay, you guys go first, because I'm the guest.

Scott Schaper: Yeah. I actually didn't give this a lot of thought, but I would definitely say make a short list for yourself in the next couple days of what is obligating you, what forces to in the place you're in, and is it a that's obligating you? Is it a process that's obligating you? Is it a customer that's obligating you? And start to question, do need to be present this? Can this be delegated out? How important is this to that my energy is collapsed right here on this obligation. ⁓ it down and knowing, and I think the key thing is ⁓ writing it down and knowing black white, what are the things that are obligating you today or this week? And just those the week, I think will shed a lot of light on your own energy cycle.

Brian McMaster: I think similar to you, Scott, mine would be I'd recommend this exercise, I've done it a couple of times, where you take your week and you write down what you do, everything that you do, and how much time you associated to it. And then go back through the list and circle the top three most important things and see how much time you're spending. And I think, especially if you're a visual learner,

Scott Schaper: Hmm.

Janine Akers: you

Brian McMaster: When you look at it, I know a visual person and when I looked at my list, I was blown away. I was like, you've got to be kidding me. And typically your top three, you're spending the least amount of time on. So I think it's a good exercise to go through as a realization. And then once you know, then you can start to say, okay, how do I get myself transitioned over so I'm spending more time on things I want to.

Janine Akers: ⁓ true.

Scott Schaper: So take stock, think that falls under take stock for both of our lists. What about you, Janine?

Janine Akers: Well, I'd probably, I'm a spreadsheet girl or a T-chart girl, so I'd probably divide it into three columns. If you're either in a leadership or business, maybe it's your family, I don't know. Let's go back to the simple cleaning situation and look and put everything that has to be done. Like not doing it is not an option. Let's assume. So it has to be done. have to, I put the things in the category that you're willing to do. You're good at, they're easy, you naturally are like, okay, I'm going to do these. And then the second category is, okay, what am I going to do even if it's not my first love, it's not my first, I'm going to get on the plane, I'm going to travel, put those in that column. And then the third column is the things that you're not willing to do. And maybe, guess, maybe they either don't get done or you have to hire them out. You know, I mean, not doing laundry is not an option for very long. OK, not vacuuming the floors. You can probably go a little bit longer, I would assume, in most people's Maybe cleaning the kitchen. I know that sounds like a silly thing, but if you really think about it, at some point, it probably is going to have to be done, especially if you're trying to grow a business or you're trying to grow your position or your career or your team or your whatever it is you're trying to do or change.

Scott Schaper: Great.

Janine Akers: is knowing what you're good at, what you're gonna do, what's easy, what you're not great at, it's not easy, you don't really wanna do, but you're do it anyways. Those are the things that are the difference between success and not, and the things that you just absolutely can't do, you're not gonna do it. business, there's so much opportunity on the weekends for us to be building brand awareness and selling crackers everywhere.

Scott Schaper: Mm-hmm. Yeah.

Janine Akers: markets, shows, things like that, am not willing to do those. And I've had to put that in that category and be like, it's not happening. What else can I do? So.

Scott Schaper: All right, well, this brings us to the end of the podcast. We always end with one thing. How do people get a hold of you if they want to get a hold of you or how do they go enjoy Crackerology? What's the best thing that they can do to go these resources? You're, you know, get some time with you or with Crackerology.

Janine Akers: Yeah, well they can follow me on LinkedIn and reach out. I'm to connect with anyone. Crackerology.com. can find me on there. You can email us, call us. It'll come to me some way, somehow. And look our brand. We'd love your support. We love honest feedback ⁓ about our too. ⁓

Scott Schaper: And when you see it, buy it. Go get the jalapeno ones or the rosemary ones. Go get it. Yeah. Yeah. Get a bunch.

Janine Akers: I mean, buy bags full.

Brian McMaster: We need to work on that, Scott. We need to make sure that when we have a guest on, we get samples so that we can be testing. Because I always like to eat and drink while I'm on the podcast. Scott will tell you that. ⁓

Scott Schaper: Yes. I gave Crackerology as a gift for someone and they were just shocked. were like, these things are addictive. Where did you get these? I found them at a coffee shop in DeSoto, Kansas. I'm like, ⁓ I'm going to get this. And I had the person in mind that was looking for a gift. I'm like, ⁓ why don't I just get these? These are so cute, fun, I just love the rosemary ones, the rosemary shortbread ones. ⁓

Janine Akers: They're like, what are these? So we did win Sophie Award in the food industry, which is at the Fancy Food Show, the best new appetizer. So that was a big deal for us.

Scott Schaper: I saw that. Thanks listeners, Jenny and stick around for a few minutes and we'll see you guys next week. Thank you for listening.

Brian McMaster: Thanks guys.