From Medical Sales to Senior Care: One Couple’s Leap into Franchise Ownership

Meg
Hello, everybody, and welcome to or welcome back to my podcast. This is the free agent where the discussion is all about free agency and taking control over your financial future. The mission of my show is to share inspiring conversations with real people who took the leap into self employment, business ownership, franchising, and freedom from corporate refugees and executives tired of the desk job, to entrepreneurs and investors looking to share camaraderie and inspiration through their own business journey.

My podcast aims a spotlight on real people who stepped into the unknown, took control over their destiny, and became their own boss. Today I have John and Cami Griffith from Minnesota. And we were able to work together last year, a time when John was in transition. So welcome to the show. First of all, thank you both for making time. I know you’ve got kids and things are really busy with business, but thank you for making time today.

John
We wouldn’t miss it. Thanks for having us, Meg.

Meg
Well, okay, so we had so much fun working together. I did. I had a blast working with the two of you. Take the audience back in time to when did this idea start to percolate for you about owning your own business? And if it started years ago, what were, what were the predicating factors that told you? Yeah, last year was really the right time?

John
Yeah, that’s. That’s a good question. You know, I, I guess being I’ve been in medical device sales now for almost 12 years, working with a few different companies from, you know, your Fortune 500, just recognizable organizations, to, you know, a complete startup based out of Silicon Valley. And, you know, like you said, we’ve got three young kids under the age of eight. So I think it’s always, it’s always been in my mind for years. I just having, you know, a young growing family and, you know, being in the roles that I was in, I just never really had the capacity to really sit down and think through, like, how would I even. What does that even look like? I don’t have a specific idea of, you know, a product or a business per se over the last course of all those years of thinking about it.

So I never really dug heavily into, you know, what does that actually look like up until last fall. Like you said, when I was in transition, I was laid off in November of 2024. And funny, prior to that I was with a startup that ran out of money going through their series C round of funding. So not once but twice within two years. Yeah, so November is kind of a trigger for me right now because it happened on both Novembers. But so it happened once, you know, I had to kind of try to land on my feet quickly just cuz we’ve got three young kids, Cammie’s a stay at home mom.

So I didn’t necessarily have that, that burning feeling of like this is the right time. Um, it only, it was the first time it ever happened to me and then after the second time it was like, all right, pump the brakes a little bit, take a, take a step back. You know, I, you can sit and kind of be frustrated and mad for a little bit, but at the end of the day I’ve still got I’m mortgage to pay and everything else. So. But after the second time I really, I had a little bit more of intentionality. Like you know, this is almost, you know, is this a sign? Not sure. Started just kind of going down the rabbit hole of business ownership and I still didn’t have that. Like this is what I want to do specifically.

And I don’t know, whatever it was. I was scrolling on LinkedIn early in the morning one day and an ad for franchising had came up. And honestly I had never even thought about franchising even in my mind over the last however many years of wanting to be a business owner. Because you know, most people on the outside, like I was think of franchising as Dunkin Donuts or just the big conglomerates that, you know, for me in my head it’s like, well, you need tens of millions of dollars to get one of those.

So ad comes up on LinkedIn about franchising, I start just kind of digging in a little bit deeper and I don’t know how. Whatever you believe in, to me it was God putting me in front of you. Somehow, some way we got connected through that ad and yeah, from the moment I met you, learning about your story and you know, how you’ve got your own little empire now in Wisconsin, every time we were talking I was inspired and encouraged more and more that this could be a very viable option.

And going through your process of, you know, kind of my interests and investment level and just kind of getting into the weeds on, you know, could it be an option? I just. Yeah. Committed to that process and wanted to see it through and what options might be out there. And I don’t know, for whatever reason, it just. It was amazing timing and. Yeah. That led us to here.

Meg
Well, and timing wise to make a slight correction here. We three got connected before you lost your job in November.

John
Sure.

Meg
And so. And so I didn’t know about the prior. I didn’t know about the prior year, but I do know about medical sales and what a total freaking grind that that is now. Cami, as a stay at home mom, you’re so much more than that. The two of you are so fun to work with because of this dynamic between the two of you. Cami, talk about you and some of the things, interesting things that you’ve done in your own past.

Cami
Yeah, no, I mean, kind of how we got here too, is so I prior to being home, I was a personal trainer and I coached CrossFit. And I always say it was a blessing in disguise that I didn’t get a, you know, quote unquote, real job because I was able to support John and move to Washington, move to Utah, and just support his career, you know, kind of taking a step back on. I do love the fitness industry. I can do that anywhere, Right?

Meg
Yeah.

Cami
So then we lived. Yeah. In Washington. Our firstborn was born in Utah back in 2016. And then as soon as, you know, we had Bennett, I just said, John, get us home. I don’t care what you do, just get us back home by grandma and grandpa. And he did, and we’re here. And then most recently, I’ve been coaching CrossFit to 60, 70 and 80 year olds. So seniors in our community, which has been such a blessing.

And that’s kind of how we got to where we’re at with Hallmark home care and the franchise. And just when John brought it to my attention last fall after he had lost his job, it was like, oh, my gosh, like, yes, we can do this. You know, And I’ve prayed for God to use us somehow, somewhere. And the timing has been crazy because I never expected to be a stay at home mom. And then within two months or so, business owner. Um, but we’re all in. I mean, when he brought it to my attention, I was like, yes, like, we have to do it. I can’t. I would. We talked about me going Back to work eventually, because our youngest is two now. And, you know, the more kids you have, the less expectations and it just gets easier. So we’re like, yeah, you know, I can get back to work eventually. But it. We just weren’t sure what I was going to do.

So, yeah, the more John talked about the franchise and just different options, it’s like, oh, my gosh, we could actually, like, really do this and take that leap of faith and take the risk. And John’s always good at taking the risk. I mean, he’s. He’s good at being uncomfortable, and you just kind of have to do that. Yeah. So we’re just along for the ride, and it’s been great so far. I mean. Yeah, that’s just kind of how we got here.

Meg
I remember talking to both of you. Well, John, you have a voice that’s, that’s easy on the ears. The first time we, we talked, we didn’t zoom. I was just having a conversation with you, and I can see why you’re good at what you do. You have a. You have a tone, you have a cadence that makes you very approachable.

And then, Cammie, you had a personal story. Was it your grandparents? I think with companion care. And so then I got to know you because, of course, I always like to talk to both spouses. And there was that pivotal moment where we could move away from some of the other things that we were considering for you, Cami. But it really became poignant because of a story that involved your grandparents.

Cami
Yep.

Meg
And now here you are in the companion care industry. Talk about Hallmark home care and what the business does and how it operates.

Cami
Yeah, I mean, I just got goosebumps thinking about it. Just with it. Yeah. Just even a situation at our gym. The, you know, man, in the 70s that I coach, hearing about, you know, just the amount of money they’ve spent on in home care, what agencies are charging. But do you want to touch base on. Yeah, just Hallmark.

John
Yeah. So just to give you a high level overview and, and part of the reason why Hallmark kept coming back is, you know, Cami’s personal experience with, you know, her, her grandmother going through, you know, that and in the assisted living space. And I didn’t, to be honest, we didn’t know much, much about the options and what, what that all entailed.

But, you know, Hallmark at Hallmark, I liked the model because it’s, it’s a little bit disruptive to, you know, because we’re not a traditional home care agency. There’s a lot of different home Care agencies out there and there’s nothing wrong with them. But I liked the kind of disruptive nature to Hallmark being that you’ve got your traditional agency model and then you also have a registry model. Well, Hallmark kind of fits into the middle, being a hybrid of the both.

And so we are essentially professional caregiver recruiters and we match experienced caregivers with frail at risk seniors in the community, providing a more dedicated, personalized approach to the seniors with higher needs. So essentially we’re kind of, we’re taking the middleman out, you know, which would be the agency and the clients. At the end of the day, the clients end up paying less than they would with a traditional agency. And caregivers actually get paid more per hour because the clients don’t have to pay all the extra agency fees.

So the client actually hires the caregiver directly. And we’re essentially kind of like the e Harmony for caregivers. So we kind of, we are constantly recruiting and interviewing experienced caregivers. So we want really the, the cream of the crop caregivers. And then we also work with clients and understand their needs and we can kind of bridge that gap and really make a, a perfect match based on the caregiver skills, experience, personality and match them up with the clients.

So we don’t, we don’t just fill shifts. We don’t just tell a caregiver, here’s where you’re going today. We really want that consistency in the home for the clients. And it’s great. Honestly. We, we’ve only been doing this for two and a half months, but fortunately we’ve got a couple clients and we’ve seen it firsthand on how to this personalized approach where we can understand the client’s needs and their personality and what they’re looking for and then go into our registry and the people we’ve interviewed and make that connection or for the clients.

And it’s been really rewarding to be just of service to people that, I mean, this is a lot more, this industry is a lot more complex. I came from medical device, which is also a whole nother beast. But, um, there’s so many options. And you know, we’ve got aging parents now and just thinking about like the decisions that we may have to, to make at some point. It’s, it’s been really rewarding to kind of be behind the scenes and hopefully be a resource down the road because there’s just so many different things and which way do we go and what’s best for everyone’s different Everyone has different needs. And so yeah, it’s, it’s been, it’s been great so far.

Meg
So yeah, the, the hallmark model, the distinguishing factor to me, just to summarize on my end, is it puts the decision making in the hands of the family rather than it being you saying, cecilia, you’re going over there today, maybe because they get to interview the caregivers, then it’s more of, of an investment on their part. It’s not just money they’re paying, but an investment in people who will fit the personality of the patient or the family dynamic.

John
Yep, absolutely.

Cami
Yep.

Meg
And that’s also where the two of you have such great skills in engagement and interaction and being part of your community. Already you’ve got three kids, so that just automatically forces you to the soccer games and whatnot.

John
Yep.

Meg
So how are you? Well, you’re, I was going to ask you how are you doing in the community and getting leads but you’re not actually done with training yet, right?

John
Correct. Yeah. And that’s, you know, to, to say we have a perfect marketing strategy and outreach and it would just be all false. Right now we’ve, we officially finished training at the end of next week, which we will go to our live training. So we’ll do a lot of hands on, better understand, you know, things that have worked well for marketing and outreach in the community.

We did connect with the local chamber. We’ve got some meetings set up there next week which, you know, in this business it’s, it’s very, it’s a highly networking style of business. So things like that I think will definitely be very helpful just understanding other local business owners and just getting to know more people in our community. I think that’s critical.

But other than that, it’s also a very highly referral type of business. So for example, we had our first client that was from a referral and then she just happened to know somebody at her church that also that family was looking for, you know, a caregiver. And we always just, what we’ve said in these, these conversations we’ve had is we may not be the solution to everyone, but if we can at least be a resource and, and at least lay out like here are some options, we may not be the best fit, but here’s what it would look like to have an in home caregiver based on your schedule, things like that, to, to us, that’s if we can add value that way, that’s fine. Um, so yeah, I, I, it’ll be interesting once we finish training on you know, kind of the game plan for getting into the community, but I think I’ve heard getting in with the chamber and just being out there as much as possible, I mean, this is. That’s what this business is. So Cami is one of the best people to put in front of people. And I’ll just watch her.

Cami
He does the behind the scenes.

John
No. Well. Well, we planned it really, as much as I, just cause I do have another job that I’m managing right now until hopefully we get this to a point where I don’t have to do that. She will be heavily involved in. In the community, and I’ll be out there as much as I can, too.

Meg
Well, and so Cami being a stay at home mom, this is a paradigm shift for you. How are you adapting to. How are you adapting your schedule and your kids to now having a new fun thing to play with, but new responsibilities?

Cami
Yeah, I mean, it’s been really great. And I told John I think just because I love being with people and helping people, that it does. It hasn’t felt like work. It just. It honestly, it’s. It’s felt like it’s been the whole time, which is crazy to say, but. No balancing everything. Yeah. Our kids got out of school for summer two weeks ago. We.

John
It’s a work in progress.

Cami
It’s a work in progress. But I mean, thank the Lord that grandparents live close. All hands on deck. But it’s been really, really good for me to just learn and be in the community and just. I just want to help people. Like, we serve our kids all the time and there’s so much to do in the home, but outside of the home, to just to help people in need in our community and just to learn. Yeah. Like John said, to just be a resource for people, too, and how, you know, kind of guide them in different directions. Where to go, what to do. It’s been really, really great.

Meg
And it is such a snaggle puss. My dad is 93 and my mom is 87, and they moved right before the pandemic into a transitional senior living community. So they’re currently completely independent.

John
Yep.

Meg
But my dad, last year June tripped and fell downtown Chicago outside of the opera House and broke some ribs and got a concussion. 92 years old.

John
Oh, my gosh.

Meg
And yeah, even though they’re in a full care facility, they’re in independent living. So even for them living in. Within this community, there have been so many uncertainties about what to do next. And it’s really eye opening too, how little Responsibility the medical community will take for advising a patient’s family.

Cami
Right.

Meg
Clearly he should have had his car keys taken away.

Cami
Yes.

Meg
They’re not going to do that. So I imagine you’ll find yourself in some interesting.

Cami
Yeah.

Meg
Conversations with your families.

Cami
No, it’s so true. And I always tell people like, it’s similar to like after you have a baby, you leave the hospital with no guidance. Right. It’s just, here’s good luck. Right. And that’s what we’ve heard in situations around here. Like, you know, this just happened to my father or my grandpa. But they don’t give you any resources. Nowhere to go, nothing to do. So these families are scrambling like, okay, the norm is to go to an assisted living. The norm is to go to a nursing home. But you don’t get individualized, personalized care. There you again referring back to like a baby you’re thrown into essentially maybe a daycare. You know what I mean?

And yeah. You’ve got however many different people with one or two people that work in the assisted living place. And yeah. So that’s why. Yeah. We’re super fired up about the Hallmark models because we can, you know, get more affordable care with personalized care because you’re in the woman.

Meg
It’s not a one size fits all and it does depend on the budget. How many. All the stories of people who are basically housed in an assisted living facility because they don’t have the money or resources to.

Cami
Right.

Meg
And needless to say, that’s easily discoverable by typing it into your search bar. What horrific things happen there. So being able to take care of a, a family member.

Cami
Yeah.

Meg
With the care they need.

Cami
Yes.

Meg
Breaking a leg or breaking a hip at 87, it’s not the same outcome for everybody. If you’ve got a one floor apartment, great. If you’ve got a three story house, for sure.

John
Might not make sense. Yeah. And that’s part of this process, this journey of, you know, looking at different concepts, which was amazing, by the way, just to see what else is out there. And there’s so many good concepts. But we kept coming back to Hallmark for all the reasons we just discussed. But then you think about like, I kind of put myself in that position, you know, 35, 40 years down the road, like if I had the option and it made sense, not it doesn’t make sense for everybody to stay in their home, but if I had the option. Yeah. If all things considered, I would love to age in place and not have to be sent somewhere that’s unfamiliar that doesn’t have any of my personal memories or belongings, then I would love to be able to do that.

And again, I don’t know if that’s possible. Every situation’s different. This is not to bash any assisted living facilities because there is also amazing facilities out there that I know personally. So I guess what I’m saying is like, when I’m out there speaking to clients and working with these caregivers, like it’s, it’s also very meaningful. And it’s more than just. We didn’t want to just buy ourselves a job with a business. We wanted to, you know, just, this is more just of a mission for us and helping people, whatever that means, whether it’s directing them to a facility locally that we know and people we’ve met, great. If it’s in home care that we can give a client who is worried about cost a better option and also pay the caregiver more, that’s a win, win too. So, yeah, yeah, it’s been great.

Meg
You’re going to become a trusted resource. I think very much like I am. What I do is it’s not the right fit for everybody. Maybe it’s the right fit at some point, but not right now. And so to be able to go to your network and say, I’m not the right resource for you today, but here, then, then they look at you like, oh my God. He told, they told me the truth. They did try to shove me into a, a square peg, into a round hole. They, these people listened and actually gave me an option. That’s. Yeah.

John
One of the things you, you brought up a core memory of mine. Early in medical device sales, I was down in a, a very big, well known facility in southern Minnesota. I was there supporting a cardiac procedure and one of my physicians, I was there supporting, I was in one of his cases and he, he had asked for, he had asked to use my drug eluting stent for a coronary procedure. And he, he, he just asked, if I could go grab, you know, the, the right size that he needed for the artery.

And I paused for a second in the room because that’s, that’s typically what they do. And as a rep, you go get the stent and you bring it in and you help the tech set it up and prep it and all that. And this particular procedure, my stent was actually off label because of a specific area that he needed to place the stent. And so I went in the back room, I grabbed my competitor stent and mine, and I walked back into the room, and I said, hey, just an FYI, this particular stent that I have is off label, but I brought the comparable that is on label for this procedure.

And I’ll never forget, it was just a core memory, because I remember him looking back at me like, are you really trying to sell me a competitor stent right now? I want to help you out and use yours. And the way that you said that, it just. It brings back. You know, it totally changed the way I sell, because at the end of the day, yeah, I didn’t get the sale that day, but everybody in the room, including the surgeon and the text, they all kind of looked at me like, he’s not just here trying to sell something. He’s genuinely here to help that patient and the best outcome for that patient.

And it just changed everything I did moving forward, because I didn’t get it that day. But I’ll tell you, it my volume and business grew astronomically with that particular account because those physicians talk. And, you know, for whatever reason, this guy’s not interested in just selling a widget or making a sale that day. He was focused on the patient, and they can trust you, and you just become a trusted advisor. So I’ve carried that on throughout everything else.

Meg
I’ve done well, and that’s why I knew with this particular brand, you both would do so well. In my seat, I have to be very careful about balancing passion with actionable, monetizable outcomes. And it’s great when we can get a blend of what you’re good at and what you’re passionate about, which you’re a solution seller, not an item seller.

And then, Cami, you’re working with individuals to get the best possible outcome at their age with the right exercises so that they can. Everyone has the best possible outcome for sure. And that’s why I knew you would do so well in a business like this.

Cami
Yeah. Here’s to you, Meg.

John
Yeah. If you hadn’t taught me, like we talked about that, too. When you’re looking at these businesses, don’t just follow your passion. And again, that might be down the road, future plans, if this goes well, that will start to dive into different concepts and maybe a little bit more geared towards something related to a passion. And that’s great, but it was just really helpful, you. That you talk through, you know, finding something more of a blend. Don’t just stick with or find something that is only your passion. Let’s look at the, the monetary benefit as well, because if I had it my way, I’d probably open up a golf simulator, you know, or something that. But it has to make sense financially because, you know, we’re just, we’re not in this for to volunteer either. So. It was just all those things you helped coach me on and Cami, it was, it was amazing.

Cami
Yeah. I always tell people you do the dirty work for us. You, you know, you. Yeah, we’re such a huge help. And you have the calming Voice. You’re the one that has the.

John
Yeah. Don’t you remember when we called you.

Cami
And you saw the ledge, like, I can’t do this. And I was like, John, your voice, her voice is so calming.

Meg
Well, yeah, thank you. I appreciate. I do get those calls. And you know me, I take my phone, I say this thing right here. Once you’re mine, you’re always mine. I’m always right here. And what’s great that you trust me is that I’ve got seven different businesses and I see the world of business through so many different eyes, including mentoring startup companies.

And it’s just amazing how many of those founders are really not visionaries and they’re not really thinking about the big picture as much as, hey, I, I see a problem and I think I have a solution. So it’s fun for me to, to be able to give you different alternatives. I know we course corrected a couple of times and that’s fun for me as well. But what makes it grounded is that you two did your homework and could come back to me and say, here’s why these won’t work. The ballet and the swim school. And yeah, great, we’ve got kids and totally see the input or the execution of it, but you could give me factual reasons why it. It wasn’t ringing the bell for you. And then when we found Hallmark, it was like, ding, ding, ding. Now, now we know.

John
Yeah, it checked all the boxes. You know, aside from just more of the mission behind it, you know, looking at. I love the process of going down the franchising route because we got to meet the founders and look at the P. Ls from, you know, through the FDD. And. And that’s what we did, is we compared and contrasted and how quickly could we scale this? What’s the overhead? We don’t have a lease payment. It’s not a brick and mortar. Which down the road, maybe we will. But how do we mitigate the risk as first time business owners to you know, what is the ability to scale this as quick as we can. And Hallmark is certainly there, you know.

Meg
Yeah. So as you look at. All right, so you’ve got training and then you’ve got. I would say the first six to 12 months are always those. Whoa. Never saw that coming. Or good or bad. They’re going to be surprises there. Cami, how are you looking at. Because John’s got his other job at. How are you looking at utilizing your time? Your little one is two and a something. So a bit still before she’s ready to.

John
She.

Meg
Right.

Cami
Yep. She. Yep.

Meg
So how do you want to use your time as your time frees up with your kids being in school?

Cami
I mean, my plan is to be out in the community as much as possible. Luckily, like I said, we have grandparents really close that they’ll come over and hang out with Ainsley, our youngest, because our older two will be in school now full time. But my plan is to just be out in the community and just, you know, talking to people with. For referral partners. Caregivers. Yeah. We’ve got ads out on. Indeed. So that’ll be busy. That’s been keeping us busy.

So I say the next six months to a year, it’s just always recruiting, always recruiting, always interviewing, just getting the registry full of, you know, the best of the best caregivers, but just getting all the community because our territory, you know, is the eastern Twin Cities. So we’ve got a lot of cities to kind of hit, which will take up a lot of time. But yeah, the Chamber of Commerce is kind of the first place we’re going to start. But, yeah, especially once the kids are back in school come August, just kind of hit the ground running once training is done.

And it’s been really great these last few months. We’ve kind of been thrown into it already because we already have two clients from a referral from actually a caregiver that we had met through. Indeed. So just how things have fallen into place these last few, I don’t know, 6ish or so weeks with the two clients we do have. So it’s nice kind of being thrown into it and then we go to training next week and it’s like, okay, it makes even more sense.

But no, for the next six to 12 months to come, we just. My goal, our goal is like, I want Hallmark home care to be known as, like, this is where we go for like senior elder care, you know, like, I want Hallmark home Care to be known as that. Like, we’re the ones you Call if you want to age in your home. Like, just cut, like just come to us. So that’s.

Meg
I wish you were. Nationwide.

Cami
We are here.

John
Yes.

Cami
John and I aren’t Hallmarks nationwide. John and I are, We’ve, we’ve got.

John
Some, you know, lofty goals in the, in the short and long term with, with this is our starting point.

Meg
So what I really enjoy, Kami, about hearing your point of view that I do hear in other stay at home parents is an element of guilt. You know, I’m here for the kids and I think your kid, it’s your kids seeing you, you know, engaged and excited. I remember that so well with my son. His dad and I separated when he was 7 and I was always there to get him on and off the bus.

Cami
Yeah.

Meg
So that was extremely important to me. But I was beginning to really light up as a business owner because I could plug in in ways that I never imagined for myself.

John
Yep.

Meg
Like John, you were saying, I never had an original business idea in my life, but buying a franchise made, made sense. So I, I like hearing that you, you don’t seem to have a sense of guilt and, and parting with your kids and you’re really ready to take this thing on.

John
Yeah. Like I said, I, I think initially we, we, we didn’t know how things, how we were going to manage it. And you know, things just have a way of making, we just, you figure out ways to make it work. You know, whatever comes at us, we, like Cammie said, we’ve got an amazing support system at home and in close by, amazing neighbors. So yeah, we, one day at a time. But so far so good.

Cami
Meg, I’ll never forget because I think we were on a call and Ainsley needed my attention or something for lunch. And I’ll never forget because you made a comment about your son when you bought your first business. Like you said, you get him on and off the bus, he’s at school, he doesn’t know what I do, those other things eight hours of the day. And I was like, it’s so true. Like, if we can be there in the morning and at night, they don’t know what goes on during the day. Right. And that’s where you build your business, all the things. Right. I was like.

And that really stuck because even Ainsley now is saying, you know, mommy work, mommy work. And it’s, it’s just sweet. And you know, Brooks, our middle one, is proud and Bennett’s proud and you know, we were able to get our Hallmark logo up at the hockey Rink. So just all hands on deck like the kids get it for. To an extent. Right. But yeah, being. Just stay at home fully to this has been, I think, a blessing in disguise. And John always said too, like, it’ll be a healthy. What was the word to use? Healthy. Like separation from our kids, you know, and it already has been. I feel like I’m already a better mom at night. If I’m busy all day doing something, I can fully be like, involved versus you’re just exhausted when you’re home with them all day, you know, so it has been a healthy, you know, little separation for the time being. For the last few months. Yeah. So, no, it’s been. It’s been going really well.

Meg
I’m delighted. And it seems like she’s there right now during the other two.

Cami
The other two just walked in.

Meg
Yeah. It’s a family affair.

Cami
It is always the Griffith, party of five at all times.

Meg
Emphasis on party.

Cami
Yes. Yes.

Meg
Well, the next time I have you on, I will ask you more business development questions. Evolution questions. How has your time shifted and how. How have you implemented changes? John, when you decide to take this new job, you. You were purposeful about taking something that would be less demanding than medical device sales.

John
Is.

Meg
Is extremely demanding. Is. Are you also getting a bit of a break then, but in balancing your new career along with the business?

John
Absolutely.

Meg
Oh, good.

John
I don’t think I dive too much into the background, but, you know, medical device sales is pretty. There’s so many different avenues. You know, there’s. There’s jobs where you’re calling on, you know, offices and labs and things like that. I, I came from very high pressure on call 24 7. You gotta be on all the time type of sales.

So the, the devices I was responsible for, these were life and death situations. And so for me at the time, it was exciting. I wanted to be the guy that physicians would text or call when they needed me. And I’d be there supporting those cases through the night if need be. But it didn’t align well with our. Our family life. You know, frankly, I would come home, being on call, waiting for another phone call. And, you know, I always. I say this to other people that are asking about the industry. It’s. It was so rewarding, but yet I would come home and still be on call. I was meant to, like, physically I was there, but mentally I wasn’t there. I. I’d catch myself in the basement playing with the kids, and I’d be so distracted waiting for that phone to ring that it just Took over my life, essentially.

And so going into this process with you and, and now being with Hallmark, it. It also was a big shift for me because I didn’t, I, I didn’t want another one of those jobs. And so I needed to be intentional about finding something that, you know, was still, you know, in that space, but a totally different call point and products and things like that that allowed me to, when I came home, separate work from. From home. And that’s what it’s. It worked out great. So I’m in a position where, yeah, we’re running two businesses, essentially. You know, I’ve got a job, but also this. But it feels like I have so much more mental capacity to still go to my son’s baseball games every, every time. And I’m coaching hockey for both boys. So. Yeah, it’s just, it’s been a really wonderful transition.

Meg
The smile on Cammie’s face. Yay. I got my husband back.

Cami
Yes.

Meg
But he’s my partner.

Cami
Yeah, but he’s such an involved dad husband, like, without a doubt. He’s phenomenal in everything that he does. So, yeah, I mean, everyone’s happier when dad’s around. So it’s been, it’s been really great.

Meg
I will never forget talking to John the first time and asking about you, Cami, and he’s your biggest flag waving supporter. And this is just me in the way that I look at people like you. When people reveal their pain points and I know they’re solvable, I would also tell you, if it’s not solvable, that owning a business is just going to make things, exacerbate things and make. Make them worse.

Cami
Right.

Meg
But I knew that we could find something where the two of you, because you work so well together, you’ve traveled, you had to move for different jobs, so you’re in such great alignment. But I could. I could sense the pain when I was talking to John. And so that’s what I dialed into was how. How can I help the two of you get to the right answer? What. What lily pad is the right lily pad to land on? And we did it.

John
And kudos to you, Meg. Honestly, like I said, every time we would connect, I looked forward to it between, you know, the week or two that we would, you know, get on the phone and then take a little bit of a break for me to do my research. I spent, you know, countless hours listening to all your podcasts and listening to other business owners. Just continued to inspire me and give me the confidence.

Because honestly, the hardest part about all of this was just taking the leap and committing to it. And then once you get into it, you’re like, wow, this is. I don’t know why I waited this long. And so it was all those little conversations, the, the joy, fun and yes. That you always say I was having no fun. I had little joy and I was making more, more money than I ever made in my life. And it was like, this is so misaligned with my values and I’m not the, the husband and father I want to be. And it just, all of that, all those conversations and encouragement that you provided got us here. So thank you.

Meg
Well, this. I’ve been waiting to do this interview and I thank you both for making the time, especially knowing that your kids are around and having a home office that I’ve got. I’ve got the storm that’s brewing outside. I now have two dogs lying on my feet like, oh, so I’ve got. Mine are hovering as well. Thank you so much for making the time today to do this. This is going to be a good one. People are really going to resonate with what you’ve had to say so many things. And you remember joy, fun and yes, thank you for, for doing, for bringing that up in the conversation as well. So. Wow. I can’t, I can’t tell you enough how, how much fun it was for me to work with you.

Cami
Likewise.

Meg
And I, I want you to stay close and let me know how things are going post training. I’ve got a lot of connections in your market. I do all over the country. But if you need any help or refinement on your networking strategies, just let me know.

John
Thank you.

Cami
Thank you, Meg. You’re wonderful.

Meg
Oh, well, thank you. And I will see you soon. For the audience, I hope you got a ton out of this interview. It’s been a lot of fun for me. So thank you both John and Kami.

John
Thank you, Meg.

Cami
Thank you, Meg.