Episode 18 - Growth Mindset Through Learning from Failures with Jennifer Tangeman

[00:00:00] Alright everybody, it's Libby with Fearlessness. So what is Fearlessness? It's that underlying grip

[00:00:06] that we have as entrepreneurs that helps us keep forging ahead. Even when hope seems distant,

[00:00:13] it's the courage to walk through those fires of hell knowing that we'll come out stronger and

[00:00:17] better on the other side. Stay tuned and learn how to get Fearlessness. I'm your host, Libby,

[00:00:24] and I have a great guest today and Jennifer or Jen, why don't you introduce yourself to our listeners,

[00:00:32] tell them a little bit about yourself, how long you've been in business, and we can get started.

[00:00:36] Awesome. Hi, I'm Jen Tangeman. I own a Clean by Design, a residential cleaning company. We've

[00:00:43] been in business for 15 years. I also own a campground. It's our family business. And we've

[00:00:51] been in business there since the late 60s. I am a single mother of three. You might see my children

[00:00:57] here in the background. And yeah, that's me. That's okay. I have Yaya over on the side so you

[00:01:05] could hear her. So I love that you own multiple businesses. I think that is super cool. And

[00:01:15] I think that it's a struggle that until you own multiple businesses, you have no clue what it is.

[00:01:25] What would you say probably is your biggest struggle owning multiple businesses?

[00:01:31] It is a struggle. One is a family business and working with family has its own set of struggles.

[00:01:40] And then I think the most challenging thing is the balance and finding the balance between the two,

[00:01:49] especially when there may be a storm brewing in both areas and choosing which is going to get

[00:01:55] your attention first. And then creating a space where you can organize and attend to those

[00:02:03] issues in the way that's best for everyone. Awesome. For me, I have multiple and I found that

[00:02:12] I have a lot of struggles. One is the amount of tech, the different technology that they both run

[00:02:19] in. I'm like, Oh, there's so much tech like just CRMs and communication platforms and different

[00:02:28] email logins. The tech really brought me down like it was one of my biggest struggles having to keep

[00:02:36] up with the technology side. But I think for me, then my next struggle was the capacity to switch

[00:02:46] on and off to go from like organize it needs this. And then someone will slack me about

[00:02:54] what recruit and they need that. But like the amount of time it would take me to like

[00:02:59] change my thought process or go back to my service company, then go back to the software.

[00:03:05] Also weighed me down and I started to really look at time blocking and saying like this whole

[00:03:13] half a day is only for this company. And then the second half a day is for that company or

[00:03:18] this whole day is only this company and then the next day will be the other company.

[00:03:21] Even if fires were happening, it was like I couldn't task switch my brain wouldn't let me do it so often.

[00:03:29] So I had to really compartmentalize my time and then my percentage of time.

[00:03:35] Yeah, it's been really challenging. I mean, it's the lucky part for me is that one of the

[00:03:40] business is a seasonal. So I'm able to compartmentalize it that way. But it's always,

[00:03:47] but it's always, I've watched a year over year that there's a season that is busy for both the

[00:03:53] cleaning company like spring, which is also preparation for opening season for the campground.

[00:04:00] So I am doing a little bit of the time blocking and a little sad that my weekends may become

[00:04:08] weekend for one business and weekdays for the other. So that's definitely a challenge.

[00:04:15] Absolutely. Right now, I work nights in the evening for one of the businesses because I don't

[00:04:22] have enough time during the day. So that's that struggle right now because we're launching a new

[00:04:27] location and sometimes you have to put in those extra hours. I said whoever, you know, that the

[00:04:31] book, the four hour work week, we know that the people that only read the title are the ones

[00:04:35] that believe it. If you actually read the book, you would know. You would know it's not really that.

[00:04:43] So out of the two businesses, what would you say like, could you share a great learning lesson?

[00:04:50] You can pick either business, your service business or the campgrounds.

[00:04:55] You know, is there one moment that really stands out as a

[00:05:01] powerful lesson that you learned since starting them?

[00:05:04] Oh, so many powerful lessons. I think the most powerful lesson is to seek a community

[00:05:16] who can support you specific to the industry before owning the cleaning company and taking

[00:05:25] over the campground our family business. I did marketing consulting where I helped small

[00:05:31] businesses start and one of the best pieces of advice that I thought I gave those companies is

[00:05:37] to find someone in their industry and call and ask for help, ask them questions,

[00:05:43] ask them, you know, to tell you about their journey so far and the things that they've learned.

[00:05:50] And if it wasn't for the support that I've gotten in the communities I found related to

[00:05:56] my industry, I'm not quite sure how I could navigate any of it all by myself.

[00:06:02] So I think the powerful lesson is you're not alone. There are other people out there

[00:06:09] that are experiencing the same struggles that you are and they are happy to save you

[00:06:16] some grace and falling on your face repeatedly by sharing their experiences with you.

[00:06:21] So I have really, really grown through the communities that I found related to my industry

[00:06:30] and the support from those communities. Absolutely. I would say probably without CBF

[00:06:38] I would have struggled tremendously with my cleaning business because I knew nothing about

[00:06:42] the industry, nothing. Same thing with my software. I'm in a software group, mentorship,

[00:06:50] and you can really see that the growth of my business when I joined just double in revenue.

[00:06:58] So love that advice. I think it's very powerful. I also think

[00:07:04] that a lot of us, especially when you're just starting out, we may not see the value

[00:07:10] of investing in ourselves, investing in those groups because typically some of these groups

[00:07:16] cost a decent amount of money. But what you're doing is you're propelling yourself forward

[00:07:23] and you don't have to figure it out. It's not going to take you 20 years

[00:07:27] and you're paying to learn from other people's mistakes. So you get to skip. It's like a game

[00:07:33] of leapfrog. You can skip over that mistake. And I find it so interesting when I see people

[00:07:39] on Facebook saying, oh, I don't want to pay for that. I'm just going to figure it out myself.

[00:07:47] Exhausting to figure it out by yourself. And I mean, in my cleaning business,

[00:07:52] I went 14 years of trying to figure it out by myself. And I really did think at one point

[00:08:01] that what else could I learn? How many more times could I fall on my face?

[00:08:07] And then that moment when you realize there's so much more you don't know. And

[00:08:14] there are so many things that already exist. You don't have to recreate the wheel.

[00:08:18] And you can gather that information and that intel by masterminding with other

[00:08:25] successful business owners and even masterminding with those that may have a business that

[00:08:30] isn't at the level of your business, we have so much to learn from each other.

[00:08:34] Yes. I love that topic because again, I feel like we don't see the value in 14 years

[00:08:47] is a long time to try to figure it out yourself. And I think that that's why we end up having such

[00:08:55] burnout for our business sometimes is we're trying to figure it out and figure it out.

[00:09:01] And there is a side, it's like the other side of the rainbow that you get to with your business

[00:09:09] because a lot of people ask me they're like, when does it get better? Because it doesn't feel

[00:09:12] like it. Like when does where's the light at the end of the tunnel? And I really don't think

[00:09:19] or you're going to have a hard time finding that light until you're really ready to kind of

[00:09:25] get serious about learning, masterminding, having an open mind. No matter if you agree or

[00:09:31] disagree, but just taking that information in is so powerful. And I love that you said,

[00:09:38] what else could I learn? Because let's just talk about cleaning because I own a cleaning company too.

[00:09:45] Cleaning is the easiest part of it.

[00:09:47] The actual cleaning part is the easiest part. And sometimes the smaller business

[00:09:55] is so focused on the cleaning side. And that's the easiest part. It's like the easiest part.

[00:10:03] It's all the other things that we don't know how to do, which is the business part.

[00:10:08] Right. That I found so interesting, especially me, I was that's what I was focused on is

[00:10:14] like, how can I make the cleaning better, cleaning better, cleaning better. And that was the least

[00:10:18] important part of trying to grow and scale. And that's where all my emphasis was. I was like,

[00:10:24] Oh, my organizing side came out, said, Oh, I'm going to make this great manual and this training.

[00:10:29] And I had no clue what I was doing. If only we could go back in time and

[00:10:36] teach ourselves what really mattered. You know, I was so focused on quality and

[00:10:42] the results of the clean. And now I'm much more focused on connection with the client,

[00:10:49] connection with the team. So that's going to lead me into another question then.

[00:10:56] You know, what would you tell the younger version of yourself? Like what advice would you give

[00:11:00] the younger version of Jen that you know now that you wish you knew when you're like 20?

[00:11:06] Because we're not going to listen when we're like 15 or 12 or 18, maybe 20, 25.

[00:11:14] So much advice. I would advise myself to

[00:11:24] listen better, listen to my clients, listen to my team, to be humble and supportive,

[00:11:34] to ask questions, to ask clarifying questions so that I fully understand

[00:11:42] what the need is of an individual. I have a very strong personality and I'm thankful for it because

[00:11:50] I think it got me this far. But if I could go back and talk to my younger, younger self, I'd

[00:11:56] settle down, settle down and find humility. And you're going to learn so much by asking questions

[00:12:05] and seeking understanding of those that you are collaborating with.

[00:12:11] Awesome. I just look at my kids because I have a 25 year old. They're all fixing it.

[00:12:17] All their birthdays are going to fall in the next three weeks. So they're 25, 15 and 5.

[00:12:22] They're all going to be 26, 16 and 6 very soon. But I look at my 25 year old and my 15 year old

[00:12:28] and I'm like, oh my God, I wish they would listen to me so that they could then skip all my mistakes.

[00:12:41] But the 15 year old doesn't, he's 15. He doesn't want to listen to anybody.

[00:12:45] He's a great kid. He's just 15. But it's been really interesting because my 25 year old has been

[00:12:52] seeking out more and more just collaboration with his mom, which I find interesting.

[00:13:01] So at 25, I see him turning that point of like maybe my mom does know a little bit about what

[00:13:06] she's talking about. And it's so thankful for that. And I just, if you're a child and listening or a

[00:13:15] young adult, listen to people that have been through that because if you could skip my mistakes,

[00:13:26] you would have what I have right now at, you could have it at 25 or at 30 instead of I'm in

[00:13:33] in my 40s. Like, oh my gosh, if we only know what we knew, we would be reaching our goals because on

[00:13:40] my phone it says $100 million CEO. I'm like, I would get there sooner if I would have

[00:13:48] been open minded more open minded and patient. I don't know if it's what it is in me,

[00:13:55] but when I was the younger version of myself, absolutely no patience.

[00:13:59] Same. None. And I've experienced this with my children. My children are 14 and 21 months apart.

[00:14:09] So for 51 days of the year every year, like soon I will have a 17, 18 and 19 year old.

[00:14:16] Wow. Yeah. And my 19 year old hopes to take over the family business and I hope him to

[00:14:24] do it sooner than later. That's great. I've spent the last two years coaching him

[00:14:30] through the opportunity and how much I wish I had the support that I hope to give to him

[00:14:38] from my parents because the road to where I am was much bumpier than the road I'm trying

[00:14:44] to pay for him. And same concept, I want to spare them from some of the brutal lessons

[00:14:50] that I learned at their age. But I also approach them in the way I wish someone would have

[00:14:57] approached me, which is here's the information. My intention is to share it with you out of love

[00:15:05] because I want it to be helpful and I trust that you'll take the parts of this

[00:15:09] that work for you now that you can apply right away and then maybe later

[00:15:14] you know the memory of this experience will help guide you through something when I'm not there.

[00:15:20] And I'm very much low pressure with all of that insight because I know how I operate is no one's

[00:15:28] going to tell me anything. I'm going to learn it all the hard way. And so it's exciting

[00:15:34] to offer that opportunity for them to skip some of the lessons, but I'm also very aware

[00:15:41] that they may too still go through those lessons and that's okay. In that event I tell them I'm here

[00:15:47] to support you when you fall, I'm here to pick you up every time and we'll get through this one way

[00:15:52] or another. That's amazing. We do the same thing. We give them the information and they can do with

[00:15:58] it what they want but absolutely no pressure. So you know talking about being able to do

[00:16:07] these things for our kids and sharing those moments you know as far as business goes what would

[00:16:15] what moment would you say you're the most in business? In either business or in both? Either one.

[00:16:25] With the family business I was most proud the first season that I was able to completely

[00:16:30] take it over and implement the strategies, the software, the things that I had learned through

[00:16:38] running my own cleaning business and apply them to our family business. So what I should say is the

[00:16:43] first year that my parents I was able to retire my parents and the success of that year watching

[00:16:52] the business run successfully create profit and afford the operations of the business.

[00:17:01] For me that was like getting my trophy, being able to say this business ran

[00:17:09] the revenue covered all the expenses there was a profit it created this many jobs it

[00:17:16] created entertainment and recreation for this many families and for me that was something to

[00:17:24] celebrate. For my cleaning business let's see a moment that I'm most proud of

[00:17:33] I think I'm most proud of our transition from being what I thought was a business

[00:17:45] to becoming an actual business so you know working remotely to having an office having

[00:17:51] subcontractors to having employees and really bringing together the pieces that make the

[00:17:59] cleaning company a business more so than just this you know winging it type style that I had

[00:18:07] been operating in for so many years and so to see how many things we implemented in the

[00:18:13] period of time that we implemented them I'm very proud very proud of that very amazing it's done

[00:18:20] for my employees yeah absolutely amazing so you know all that being said what do you find is

[00:18:30] has been the most challenging part right that was the most proud what's what has

[00:18:36] what what's been the most challenging I think the most challenging thing is that

[00:18:41] I am a leader and so having to be prepared at any moment for anything all the time

[00:18:53] that is the most challenging thing I consider myself strong and resilient

[00:19:00] but sometimes it's exhausting and as I've gone through the last few months challenges

[00:19:07] it has been very challenging for for my business the last few months and as I'm you know going through

[00:19:14] and navigating one problem and solving the next I just remind myself that I've been there before

[00:19:21] and I've also experienced those those things that I'm proud of and those moments that were

[00:19:26] more relaxing in those weeks that I could just leave and things continued to run well without me

[00:19:33] and so yeah that just maintaining the strength to get up and try again every single day no matter what

[00:19:46] and so that's kind of where this podcast had spun from was it's you know it was my husband who said

[00:19:55] that's some sort of fearless you have this fearlessness inside of you that

[00:20:00] every time you get knocked down it doesn't matter you just get up and you do it again

[00:20:04] and you do it again and you could be upset because he has seen me go through like

[00:20:11] you know times when I first started you're like oh my god I don't know if I can make payroll

[00:20:16] to oh my gosh I have to fire an employee to just that growth over the last you know

[00:20:23] we've been together 12 years and it's that fearlessness we have inside of us that it's hard to explain

[00:20:31] to a non-entrepreneur it's hard to explain to our spouses if they're not an entrepreneur or

[00:20:37] our partners and even to our employees when maybe we have to do things in the best interest of the

[00:20:44] business and you know I will agree with you I had a long journey leading up to for a little while I

[00:20:55] had to have I called it my work personality and my regular personality that you had to go in every

[00:21:01] day to work and smile and ask people how they are and you can't just blurt out a bunch of demands

[00:21:08] because my remember I said I wasn't patient I had no patience to eventually that personality

[00:21:16] evolving into who I am now and I'm patient in the way I take care of my kids raise them

[00:21:24] how we handle employees to how we handle crisis I think the more and more we go through for our

[00:21:30] listeners like the more and more we go through and we don't give up and we keep pushing ahead

[00:21:36] the we're conditioning ourselves to get stronger and stronger and stronger

[00:21:43] we can't let it knock us down yes I've cried many times before or gotten mad

[00:21:52] but it's just that moment and you can't let it knock you down you have to get up

[00:21:56] and you have to dust yourself off keep smiling and keep pushing ahead because each time we do that

[00:22:02] we build it's like interval exercising we're building up the ability to handle more and more pressure

[00:22:10] more and more stress more and more issues where it doesn't tend to affect us so negatively emotionally

[00:22:21] we know how to process it walk ourselves through the steps and handle it and it doesn't emotionally

[00:22:26] wreck us it's it's when we're when we're first starting it's it's because it's emotionally

[00:22:36] just wrecking our our day or our week or how we're feeling it's exhausting but I

[00:22:42] just want to give you the advice if you truly want to keep pushing through this as an entrepreneur

[00:22:47] that's how you get stronger it's funny people asked us like how did we get through the

[00:22:56] hurricane like they watched me because I kind of documented it on facebook

[00:23:02] and then how did we get through covid and then how do we get through certain things and

[00:23:06] I went through the hurricane irma and then ian and it's funny because I result I take it all back to

[00:23:17] all of the things I had to go through with all of my past life like my past relationship my

[00:23:24] I had an exesbin who was alcoholic who was horrible you know after the alcohol got so bad

[00:23:31] but all those little things led me up to being able to handle

[00:23:35] the every crisis it's it's funny you you speaking about that brought up for me I remember

[00:23:44] I don't know if it was in the last year or two but I remember

[00:23:47] being so excited about what was coming next and when I say what's coming next I mean what

[00:23:54] challenge is coming next like I can't wait to wake up and fall on my face today because I know

[00:24:01] I'm going to learn so much from it and it's going to change you know the direction of

[00:24:07] everything else thereafter that I'm just I'm excited to wake up and see what goes wrong

[00:24:12] today because this isn't happening to me this is happening for me and I'm going to learn from it

[00:24:17] and it's going to make me and my business and everything that we do better and I remember

[00:24:23] some of my friends looking at me like she is crazy she just she just can't wait for the next thing

[00:24:30] to go wrong but I just couldn't wait to learn learn more and going back like to your to

[00:24:38] your previous question about what I would tell my old self I would say get excited about every

[00:24:44] single challenge that you are going to endure because you're going to come out on the other

[00:24:49] side stronger than ever and more equipped for for what you're going to experience because

[00:24:55] it's a roller coaster you're going to have moments where you are at the top and you're

[00:25:00] able to see these beautiful views and you're going to have moments where you feel like

[00:25:05] you'll never get to the top again but you will and you'll do it through the lessons and the challenges

[00:25:10] that you that you can push through I'm excited now I love that because I mean I'm sure you can

[00:25:19] relate how many times have we seen or have we heard even from our employees oh my god I hate

[00:25:26] Mondays like oh it's Monday and I had said on a mission that I didn't even want my employees

[00:25:34] to have that mindset let alone like other business owner friends or entrepreneurs or even myself

[00:25:43] we have to get out of that mindset that's like oh my god I don't want to wake up and look at the phone

[00:25:48] like what who called out today what disaster do I have to deal with

[00:25:55] and you know essentially it's all the things that we have to learn we have to go through this

[00:25:59] you have to go through it you can't just be and I'm not a hundred million dollar CEO yet but you

[00:26:04] can't be a hundred million dollar CEO if you've never experienced any of those pains because

[00:26:09] I'm not going to learn the lessons I need to build to that and so it isn't happening to us

[00:26:15] it's happening for us what lessons can we learn um but we have you have to go through it and

[00:26:25] it's you have to be cut from a different cloth to be okay with it um but you have to go through

[00:26:33] those callouts people you know messing up stuff bad quality issues firing hiring promoting

[00:26:45] and you have to go through them otherwise you know you're not building

[00:26:52] to the entrepreneur muscle you need to grow to a million and beyond right it's like interval

[00:26:59] exercising look at every one of those mistakes like it's conditioning you to be that millionaire

[00:27:05] that that you want to be yeah the sprints you ran for the volleyball team yes absolutely

[00:27:13] so I love that you shared this with us um you know before we wrap up because we're approaching

[00:27:21] 30 minutes what is next for you like what can our expector our listeners expect we'll make sure to

[00:27:28] put in the notes how they can reach out contact you how they can find your businesses but what's

[00:27:34] next for you do you have anything brewing in the works I don't have anything brewing in the

[00:27:40] works um I at at one point 10 years ago I think my goal was 10 businesses by the age of 40 that's

[00:27:48] what my goal was yeah I wanted to be one heck of a serial entrepreneur now that I have two

[00:27:57] I just want to completely set up the one that I plan to pass to my son to be successful and

[00:28:04] run well for him coach him mentor him um and then I hope that in two years time I can step

[00:28:11] completely away from the cleaning company and that that will create a space for me to start something

[00:28:18] something new and I don't have that plan mapped out yet um but whatever I'm doing will hopefully

[00:28:24] be seasonally in a much warmer place than Michigan oh yes I'm sure it's freezing today

[00:28:31] yeah at least in about three inches last night okay because I'm in Georgia today and it's freezing here

[00:28:39] yes awesome so I want to thank Jen for being a guest on the Fearlessness podcast

[00:28:46] and to our listeners thank you so much for listening if you want to find more episodes

[00:28:50] you can visit Libby D.com or the fearlessness.com and guys that's a wrap today into the heart of

[00:28:56] Fearlessness remember every step we take is a move towards our own strength and courage

[00:29:02] keep walking through those fires because on the other side lives a version of yourself that's

[00:29:06] unstoppable I'm Libby reminding you to embrace your fearlessness until next time stay brave

[00:29:11] stay bold and keep pushing forward