Latest / Finding God at Work / 11: Love Made Visible (Joe Slawek of FONA International)

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11: Love Made Visible (Joe Slawek of FONA International) · Finding God at Work

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(Transcribed by TurboScribe. Go Unlimited to remove this message.) Hi there.
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Before we get started, I just wanted to
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give you a heads up.
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We're taking a two-week little summer break
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from the podcast.
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So after today's episode, the next episode will
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come out on Thursday, July 30th.
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Hope you get a chance to rest and
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refresh sometime this summer.
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And with that, here's today's episode.
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Hi, I'm Chris.
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This is Finding God at Work.
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Just a reminder that Finding God at Work
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isn't just a podcast.
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It's also an online course.
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Check it out at findinggodatwork.org.
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Our current series is A Mysterious Business, bringing
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ministry and marketplace wisdom together.
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And today we have a special guest, Joseph
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James Slawek.
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He is the founder of Fona International, a
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full service flavor company that has been one
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of the fastest growing private companies in the
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U.S. Joe is a 2011 Ernst &
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Young Entrepreneur of the Year and also a
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member of the Chicago Area Entrepreneurship Hall of
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Fame.
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He has since sold Fona International, but remains
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active as a mentor to others in both
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life and business.
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He's the author of a book called Ingredients
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for Success, 10 Best Practices for Business and
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Life, which we'll talk about a little.
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And most importantly, he is husband to Mary
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and the father of three children and 10
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grandchildren.
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Joe, thanks so much for being with us
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on Finding God at Work.
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Thank you, Chris.
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And I just want to jump right in
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with a bit of the story of Fona,
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which is an acronym Flavors of North America.
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I have a personal connection because I work
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at Northern Illinois Food Bank, which is literally
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next door to the Fona building.
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But back in 1987, what moved you to
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start this new flavor company?
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Yes, well, I think I came to observe
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life's kind of in four quarters.
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The first one, we get educated, always on
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someone else's curriculum.
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I don't know about you, but I haven't
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used that trigonometry.
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Right.
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And so we get educated on someone else,
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on what somebody else thinks is important.
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And it gets you into the right college,
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university, gets you to that next level.
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Second quarter of life is usually where we
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learn our profession, our industry, where we start
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as young rookies.
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And I started as a rookie salesperson.
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And believe me, I wasn't good at it
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last place, you know, when I began, because
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you come in sort of last.
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But in my 20s, I learned, I took
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courses, learned, you know, how it works.
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Learned really people because what you really need
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to do is people.
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And by the time I was twenty nine,
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I was the second place salesman and quickly
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became the first place salesman in my 30s
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and had about, I don't know, by that
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time, early 30s, 10,000 sales calls behind
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me.
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Yeah.
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So that second quarter of life is also
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challenging because maybe you're beginning your family then,
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you know, and so not only are you
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learning work, you're learning how to be mom,
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dad, you know, how to pay a mortgage.
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That's a real busy time in life.
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Income's low, effort's high.
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And, you know, you're in the game, but
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you're beginning to find out both what you
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don't like and what you do like, you
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know.
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And I tell that because at the end
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of my second quarter, maybe the beginning of
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my third quarter, I started FODA when I
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was thirty seven.
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I'd been in sales on the executive team,
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knew the business well, understood how it worked
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and said, hey, maybe I could do this.
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And that was the beginning when FODA was
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founded in 1987.
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And so I just bring that up.
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I'm going to come back and talk about
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the types of entrepreneurs.
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But I was one of five types opportunistic.
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I'll just mention the fourth quarter where I
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am now.
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The focus is on, you know, your children,
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grandchildren, mentoring on Chris, you, you know, giving
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back, reinvesting all the wonderful things that God
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did for us, you know, and so and
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I'll just talk about entrepreneurship as long as
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I brought it up for a second.
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There's five types and all of them are
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great.
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First of all, there's a hobbyist.
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There's a friend of my wife, Mary's, who
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makes I don't know how to say it,
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macaroons or macarons.
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Yeah, yeah, yeah.
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Beautiful cookie things, you know, she makes them.
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They're perfect.
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She packages some gift boxes and we have
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them at every holiday.
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You call her up and hey, well, yeah,
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I'll make some and I'll have them.
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She drops them off or sometimes Mary picks
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up.
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But it's a hobby.
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She kind of does it, you know, in
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her kitchen during the day.
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You know, maybe the kids are in school
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or something and she just loves it.
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It's a hobby, but she's so good at
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it.
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You know, people that, you know, word of
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mouth travels or she goes to a farmer's
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market and, you know, she's grown that business
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and and it's satisfying.
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In fact, that type of entrepreneurship, you do
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entrepreneurship for two reasons.
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Personal satisfaction.
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I feel good and also financial.
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Well, in the case of a hobby, you're
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not worried too much about the money, but
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you are worried about, hey, this fulfills me
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somehow.
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The next type of entrepreneur is lifestyle and
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a lifestyle one is maybe, you know, somebody
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works.
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I'll make it up.
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Caterpillar works there 30 years.
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He runs the IT department, has finally retires,
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but they say to him, you can't leave.
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We need you.
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He said, well, I love fishing, but I'll
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work for you two days a week as
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a consultant.
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And so the LLCs form, the paperwork's formed
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and, you know, the employee identification number, all
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those kind of things happen.
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He's the happiest guy in the world.
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Personal satisfaction remains high, maybe not as high
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as a hobbyist because you've got people to
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interact and report to.
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And but the financial reward's a little better.
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You know, it's his his fractional job.
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So, you know, but he's paid well for
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it.
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Let's him go fishing.
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Life's great.
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Very common.
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The most common, however, is the third type.
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And it's craftsmen.
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Hey, I'm a carpenter.
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I've been building houses.
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Maybe I want to be a general contractor
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and that general contracting, you know, shoot.
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I got to go learn QuickBooks, you know,
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or his wife helps him.
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He can build houses.
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He can craft anything.
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But he probably before this venture couldn't balance
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his checkbook.
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And maybe his wife did.
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But, you know, he has to all of
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a sudden adapt to to a, you know,
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financial constraints.
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However, the reward is greater.
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So little less satisfaction, a little higher reward.
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And if he can delegate his books or
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if he can do something else, he's got
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a wonderful, a wonderful pathway.
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And that includes all kinds of craftsmen.
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And there's more than you might think.
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But everything from carpenters to maybe dentists.
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Yeah.
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We just interviewed a massage therapist.
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Similarly, it's like she's got her craft and
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then had to figure out the business side.
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Yeah, right.
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Exactly.
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And some people gravitate towards QuickBooks, but some
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people get their wife to do it.
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But that's if there's going to be a
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spot, they're already a great therapist.
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They're already a great.
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It's the business part that may that's riskier
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for them.
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And they probably don't like it much either,
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because, you know, they just love working with
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their hands, you know, and and I've got
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a techie son, Kirk, who does audio, video
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and everything else.
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It's so wonderful to watch him work because
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he cares about a beautiful production, a beautiful
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product and everything.
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Not quite so fond of the accounting duties
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and things like that.
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But he has people you have to delegate
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a little harder for craftsmen.
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Next opportunist, I kind of covered it, but
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they see white space in the marketplace and
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they seek to build that.
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But they're not a craftsman.
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They have to hire them.
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But the one thing, a little less satisfaction,
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personal, because now you're like the craftsman, by
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the way, you're working 80 hours a week.
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It's not like lifestyle.
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It's not like it's 80 hours to be
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successful.
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And and in a way, Chris, you're probably
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leaning towards that opportunist, filling that white space
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that you see.
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And you're probably familiar with 80 hours a
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week.
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Well, by God's grace, not every week.
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But yeah, definitely that sense of seeing where
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is nobody else doing this and wanting to
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pursue that definitely motivates me.
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Yeah, right.
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And fill in that need.
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So a little less maybe personal satisfaction, a
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little more rewards after after time.
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There were no rewards in the early days
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of any entrepreneur, but the rewards as you
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go on, as you scale.
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Most important thing an opportunist can do, he
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has to become conventionally bankable.
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In other words, you run out of friends,
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family, neighbor money.
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You have some capital from some institutional backers.
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Yeah, right.
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You have to have a bank to finance
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your inventory and and they'll only give you
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money when you don't need money.
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So, you know, you have to scale.
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So scale and bankability.
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The last type is somebody who starts his
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own.
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I'm going to be a financial advisor and
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I'm going to help people manage 401Ks.
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I'll just use this as an example.
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And now you're in the biggest financial pressure
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and you're trying to get great rewards.
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But satisfaction is kind of hard because even
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if it's your brother in law and you're
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a financial advisor, I have this scene in
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my mind.
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It's Thanksgiving dinner.
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You've hired your wife's brother to manage your
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401K and, you know, you're at Thanksgiving.
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Their families are together.
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And he says, hey, Tom, by the way,
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you know, we only made 5% this
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year.
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We're going to move our account to Fidelity
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the first of the year.
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I just wanted to mention it to you
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and pass the gravy.
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Would you?
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Yeah.
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And so you have this little more painful
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performance.
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If you don't finish in the top quartile,
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you have the stewardship obligation.
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So so I just, you know, when sometimes
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you're asked to talk about entrepreneurship, you know,
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everybody thinks I want to invent a computer.
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I want to invent something so gigantic.
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Actually, you're probably better off inventing a cookie.
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Yeah.
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Yeah.
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Mrs. Fields or a pretzel, Andy M's pretzels,
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you know, all hobby kind of businesses that
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somehow scale.
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Yeah.
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I really I really like that kind of
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different categories that you've identified.
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It's like a like a taxonomy of entrepreneurship,
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you know, just like biologists look at like
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taxonomies of species and things because it gives
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people a sense of who am I, where
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do I fit?
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Maybe I don't fit here, but I do
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fit here.
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Like you definitely had that opportunistic mindset of
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where is that overlap between technology and service
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in the flavor industry?
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Like that's a very specific niche, but somebody
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else might be a little different.
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And like just running a dental practice really
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well for 40 years might be a great
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fit for them.
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And so, you know, there's there's different options
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and God creates us differently.
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And by the way, the same person can
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be in different spots, right?
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So so many I happen to like aviation.
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So we own some aircraft.
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Believe me, you never make money.
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It's a hobby.
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Right, right.
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But personal satisfaction is very high, you know.
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And so, yeah, in your book, Ingredients for
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Success, there is another place where you kind
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of talk about finding yourself and kind of
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throughout the book you use Matthew 25.
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And there's several different parables in that chapter
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of the Bible.
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And you talk about all three of them.
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But the parable of the talents or sometimes
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translated parable of the bags of gold, you
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talked about kind of coming to the conclusion
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that you were a two talent president in
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your work at Fono.
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What did you mean by that?
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So, yeah, you remember there was one with
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five talents, one with two talents, one with
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one talent.
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So I'll describe in my industry or, you
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know, you probably look at Wall Street.
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Hey, there are five talent guys and, you
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know, and here's how you know.
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Oh, yeah.
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I went to Harvard Business School.
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I then got my law degree from Columbia
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or whatever else like that.
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I now head up a large Fortune 500
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company and and they're very good at what
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they do.
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And, you know, and they're very gifted.
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And the pressure on them is, you know,
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if you know, if they made a million
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this year, well, more like a hundred million.
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They've got to make 200 next year.
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That's doubling that that talent.
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You remember the one who had one talent
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but buried it and even put it in
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the bank for interest.
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You know, God doesn't like us to waste
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talent.
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So I was very delighted.
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In fact, I was thrilled to be a
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two talent CEO, president, owner.
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Also, I had to do was double what
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God got me.
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And in our industry, our sales cycle, it
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took about four years, which about 19 percent
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growth compounded, you know.
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And so I was delighted to be a
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two talent.
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I wasn't going back to Harvard Business School.
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I didn't wasn't going in the stock market.
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I very happily owned a privately owned company
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without the pressures of the stock market or
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whatever.
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And I think that speaks to this.
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And we told our people, hey, I don't
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know what will happen, but here's where we're
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going.
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I don't know what will happen this week,
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but here's where we're going to end up.
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We're going to be we're now a 50
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million dollar company in 2030.
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We're going to be a hundred million dollar
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company.
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And we were able to achieve that rate
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of growth.
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But prior to the money, part of it
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is you.
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If you're going to double your talents, you
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have to have new exposure, new education.
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So at Fona, we required every employee to
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take at least a week of outside training
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or a college course or do something that
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gave them more skills.
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So if you can grow your people, they'll
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grow your customers' businesses and your customers' businesses
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will grow you, which is like a Wankel
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engine, that triangular engine that grow our people,
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our people grow our customers, our customers will
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grow us.
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I really appreciate how in some sense, like
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in the parable, you know, the one with
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two talents said, you know, you gave me
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two talents here or two talents more.
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It doubled.
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You took that very literally thinking about how
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can we double our company over the course
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of four years.
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But also your attitude isn't comparing yourself to
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other companies and saying like, oh, no, we're
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not like the big leagues.
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You're just like, this is where I am.
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I need to be faithful with what God
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has given me.
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And that freedom from comparison and focus on
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faithfulness, I think, is just really liberating.
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Yes.
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Well, thanks.
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I'm glad I didn't have to deal with
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a five talent CEO on Wall Street does
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with earnings calls.
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It's not quite as pretty as you think
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for those 500 company CEOs.
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On the other hand, unfortunately, you see people.
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Now, you have to be a little careful
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about this one, OK?
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But you don't always have to be successful
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in the workplace.
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Some people go to work to support their
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family, and it turns out they're working on
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doubling their talents of being a dad, a
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baseball coach, you know, invested into their children.
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And hey, I'm happy just at my current
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job.
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You know, oh, yeah, I want to learn
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more.
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I want to do a better job and
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all that.
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But at five o'clock, I'm going to
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teach baseball or coach my son or be
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a better husband or whatever else.
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So doubling of talents also applies not only
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in the workplace, making money, but in relationships,
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you know?
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Yep.
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Well, that's beautiful.
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I love that image that sometimes the fruit
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or the multiplication isn't measured in dollars and
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cents, but in other areas.
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Before we close, there's one other image that
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I just love.
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And we've been using this quote from Dallas
22:03
Willard throughout the series that business is a
22:06
structure of love in the kingdom of God.
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And when I was thinking about your work
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and that word structure, I thought of an
22:13
unusual architectural choice that you all made when
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Fona was getting its own facility in Geneva,
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Illinois.
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What was the architectural choice and why did
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you make it?
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Yeah, well, and again, we had Christian ownership,
22:29
and I believe the workplace is the mission
22:33
field as well.
22:35
So we welcome people of every faith background
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or every atheist we got.
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Sure, sure.
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But on certain occasions, like when we laid
22:47
the foundation for the company, we invited anyone
22:50
who wanted to help to place Bibles in
22:56
the floor with us.
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I don't know.
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Maybe there was 20 of us who walked
23:01
around.
23:02
We put a Bible in the foundation under
23:05
the floor of my office, the executive office,
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under the auditorium.
23:12
We put it in the plant and also
23:17
wanted to make it friendly.
23:18
We had a Hispanic workforce, so we had
23:21
a Spanish Bible and an English Bible.
23:27
And in the conference rooms, any place where
23:31
we thought people would gather and it would
23:34
be a reminder that we want to build
23:37
on God's work, you know.
23:40
And you brought up a great quote, a
23:43
similar one we used, and it is when
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you think of your own lives, work is
23:51
love made visible, because you really don't go
23:57
to work for yourself.
24:00
You go to work for family.
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You go to work for your friends.
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You go to work for your associates and
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your peers.
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And so work is love made visible.
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And I like the quote you gave me
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a little more sophisticated than that one.
24:21
No, that's beautiful.
24:24
Yeah, same idea.
24:26
Yeah.
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Well, I wish we could keep going, but
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for the sake of time, we should probably
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wrap up.
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But could you just pray into that, pray
24:34
for listeners as they're thinking about how their
24:37
work is founded on the Word of God,
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how their work is love made visible, just
24:41
what God might be doing in their lives
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and their work in this season?
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Yeah, I'd be happy to do that.
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Heavenly Father, we invite you into every part
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of our lives, Lord.
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Our work, our family, every part of our
24:59
lives is you.
25:01
And Lord, you have principles that work everywhere.
25:06
They're universal principles.
25:08
They're in your Word.
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Lord, I ask you to set our heart
25:13
on being honoring to you in our workplace
25:16
interactions, in our family interactions, in our community
25:21
interactions.
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And I pray for everyone listening, Lord, you
25:27
know, Monday mornings are wonderful.
25:32
Time to start over again.
25:36
Lord, I just pray for wonderful Monday mornings
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where you look forward to going to work
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and that satisfaction.
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I pray all this in the name of
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Jesus the Christ.
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Amen.
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Thanks for listening.
25:54
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