Show Notes:

2:52 – From engineer to operations expert. “So on paper, I’m an industrial engineer. I liked numbers, I liked math, and I knew I didn’t want to be a teacher, so my options were kind of being an actuary or an engineer. I got a full ride for engineering and did industrial engineering, so that’s me on paper. I did that for a couple of years, but I realized very quickly that being in steel toe boots and hard hats, going through warehouses in the Midwest while trying to sell something was not for me. Fortunately, industrial engineering has a lot to do with processes, so when I made a switch from there it was a very parallel switch.”

9:20 – An ideal duo. “I think anyone who works together really closely needs to be able to complement each other, while not being the same. At Crisp, we use tons of assessments, and whether people are visionaries or they’re more operationally structured, we know that we need variety there. I think also a really important aspect is the fact that you love sales and marketing so much. You’re a sales and marketing visionary, but I didn’t want that. I think something about a person in this position is that they have to really be okay being number two. They have to actually love being number two. I don’t envy you or anything that you do every day.”

15:53 – How to find your own Jessica. “You have to find someone who is okay challenging you. I think that is a big thing that we’ve seen with a lot of people who come in from a leadership perspective. It’s very easy for a visionary to say, ‘I’ve got all these ideas. Let’s run with them.’ But I would say one of my biggest strengths is actually being able to poke holes in things and being able to say, ‘No, this is not good,’ or, ‘What if this happens?’ I know all you visionaries are probably thinking, ‘No, those people are going to slow me down. Those people are going to be so defensive, and they’re not going to want to make any progress’ — but it is not defensiveness. I just look at every scenario that could go wrong before we implement. I’m not saying don’t do it. I just want to have every potential cage — a barrier everywhere to protect it.”

22:05 – Building a business with your spouse. “It is not for the faint of heart. It is not for everyone. I would actually say really look deep inside your soul if you are ever considering this. Again, you and I never had the intention of this spanning across many years. We thought it was going to be for 30 days, but there’s a lot to this. I think the pro, of course, is that you’re not going to trust anyone as much as you would like your significant other — being in the business and being the one running payroll, or being the one who’s mindful of budgets and how much money you’re spending, and all of that. But at the same time, there has to be some level of separation, and I will admittedly say that before we had a child, that separation was pretty non-existent.”

28:00 – Teamwork makes the dream work. “Everyone has off days. Everyone has low days, high days, whatever that might be. We have this understanding in terms of morale or whatever you want to call it, that we both can’t be down at the same time. That’s one thing, in terms of whether it’s at home, it’s at work, or anything — one of us has to be the stronger one who’s able to carry things through, because sales and marketing and operations is just this little circle of things, and there’s always a place that needs attention. So one of us is always more stressed than the other.”

41:18 – Being a game changer means being selfless. “Being a game changer, especially in my role, is really being a selfless individual. I would actually say in the most humble way that I am selfless to a fault. It’s being able to literally put everyone else in front of you, because when you are building a foundation for a company and you’re hiring and you’re training and you’re firing and you’re doing all of those things, you’re always always thinking of what is the best interest of the company, what is the best interest of this person — and if I don’t do this, am I doing a disservice to that person? Being a game changer is being a very selfless person.”

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