Jane and Sarah Blain Gilbertson, leaders of Blain's Farm and Fleet, discussed their experiences with transitioning into the family business and its respective challenges and bonuses. Jane had initially embarked on a career with Macy's, while Sarah targeted a career in psychology before an internship reshaped their career paths. They emphasized the value of early exposure and opportunity in a family business, and Jane also stressed the importance of succession planning for the business as a whole over individual family interests. 

Transcription

Dan: Hey, everyone, welcome to another edition of Never Go Against the Family. It's our Family Business podcast here at UNI and we're excited to have Jane and Sarah Blain Gilbertson with us today. They are gracious enough to give us a little bit of their time. They are 2nd and 3rd generation leaders of Blain's Farm and Fleet based out of Janesville, Wisconsin. Janesville is home to a lot of great family companies actually and some of those other ones we've had speak before as well. Anyway, Jane and Sarah, we're so excited to have you guys with us here for a few minutes this afternoon in advance of you coming to our conference as our keynotes in November. The families are talking a lot about the conference, and I thought maybe we could take a little time to just get to know you here and use this as an opportunity for our families to get to know you guys a little bit better. So, with that said, the first question is probably the most obvious one to me, but I read your background, Jane and it didn't look like you planned on being in the family company right away. You moved, you got out of Wisconsin for a while and I just was curious if you could reflect on that or what you thought your path would be. Then Sarah, if you could answer that same question.

Jane: Sure. Yeah. So I grew up obviously working in the business, especially in high school and college including summer and Christmas breaks. I was getting a retail degree from Miami of Ohio, and I really felt strongly about needing to go work elsewhere. That wasn't part of our family policy, at the time and I frankly wanted to go work for a department store that was “real retail” in my mind. I actually had a number of family members that were already in the business, so that probably made it a little bit easier for me. I have one brother and he was already in the business, I also had cousins and second cousins. So yeah, coincidentally, it was really my mom who supported the idea. My dad really wanted me back at the business and my mom said, go because you can always come back. My dad then reluctantly said, go because when you come back, you'll have this experience. So I went out to work for Macy's in Kansas City to learn how to be a buyer, which I did. It was a great program. They had a premier training program at the time, so I was really fortunate to get that experience. Now I can reflect back on that experience and the fact that what I really was meant to do was learn how not to do business. No disrespect towards Macy's, but I needed to see another world, and I saw how differently they did business than the way I've been raised. A lot of things didn't align with my values like culture, but I wouldn't have known that had I not gone.

Dan: Sometimes the best lessons are the ones about what we don't want to do. Yeah.

Jane: So I obviously did come back. My mother had passed away and Macy's was going through a consolidation as well. Although I still had my promotion that was coming, I felt like it was the time to come back, and join the family business. And so that's how I got back here.

Dan: Ok. Now, how about for you, Sarah? 

Sarah: Yeah. same kind of beginnings. I worked in high school in stores and then, throughout college I went to Iowa State actually. I started as a psychology major so I really did not want to do anything related to business. Then somehow found my way back, after working a couple, one summer here, a couple of summers somewhere else. Then I graduated during the pandemic, so I was living at home, and was lucky enough to fall into kind of an internship with my former boss. I have been here ever since, in a full time position now. I guess I kind of fell into it a little bit.

Dan: Did you think maybe this would be a place for you, when you were in high school or college even? 

Sarah: Yeah, not as much. Honestly, I kind of thought I was gonna do something different. Our parents were very good about not pressuring us and if we wanted to come back, they wanted it to be on our terms. We wanted it to be family owned, but that didn't necessarily mean we had to work in the business. But now as I'm kind of growing up a little bit and working in the business now, I really do feel like there's a home for me here.

Dan: I appreciate you making that great point. I think that you can be a family business and not work in it as well as, being active in it. So I think that that's a good reminder to our listeners as well that, we gotta be careful with obligations that we put on our kids and that kind of thing. With that said, maybe we can talk a little bit now about kind of how maybe Jane, you did your parenting thinking about the way that you were parented. As well as maybe how you would advise other families that are raising kids. Your kids are still in my opinion, relatively young and so I think it's kind of this fresh case study that I have the opportunity to witness here frankly as far as how you've done that and how you would advise other families. Do you have other thoughts on that?

Jane: Yeah. First comment that I share with anybody that I come across in the family business who thinks their kids are too young to be exposed. I disagree, saying I don't care how old they are, take them to work with you, walk the factory floor, be in the retail setting, and just see the business. Most importantly, learn what the people are doing and get to know the people. So, I think there's a misnomer of not doing it until high school or something like that and I absolutely disagree with that. I don't know if my parents did it intentionally but when they went to a store or a trade show they took us with them. So I got exposed to a lot of things just by hanging around even at a very young age.

I think you never know what your kids are absorbing and I think those are good things to absorb. I would say that my mom worked in the business informally and then formally later on. But I saw how they thought about things, how they interacted, how much pride, how much fun they had actually, as well as some of the hardships and I was just taking that all in. So I think that's message one, is they're never too young to just be exposed. I think my husband and I both really tried to be very intentional with both our daughters and saying as Sarah said, we want to provide them with exposure and opportunity. The people were great about working with them when they were in high school and college. But that wasn't our expectation if that's not what they wanted to do, I always wanted it to be their choice. The other thing we always said is, you're gonna have to be good like anybody else. There would be plenty of people to help, support them, to learn the business and to be good in that role, but they don't just get to show up. They always took that very seriously too and I appreciate that it wasn't an entitlement but it would always be an opportunity.

Dan: That's really well put. I assume you've kind of continually gone over those messages with your kids as you're bringing them up and reminding them of potentially, a lens that they might be seen through by other employees or by customers suppliers, whatever it might be. 

Jane: I think the unique thing we share is I was the boss's daughter. Now they're the boss' daughter too, so I get it. I understand what they sort through. I mean, there are those who are gonna embrace you right away and they're excited for you and they're excited for the company to have the next gen in. Then there are others who frankly are gonna be tentative and they're gonna hang back, and there might be others who might try to undermine that, and that's just human nature. You gotta be able to recognize that pretty early on and take it for what it's worth and lean into those who really are sincere about helping you. The girls honestly have a very good sense of that, and they figured that out very early on. It’s just like life, there's always going to be different people you have to navigate.

Dan: I think that's well put. You have the benefit of working with the public on a daily basis, so you know what we're like. When you mentioned how some folks are going to be actually excited to know that there's a next gen, I think that's something that sometimes families overlook. Oftentimes they think about the negative side of how their kids are gonna be potentially treated or looked on by some. But there's also a big group of people that's excited to know that the company is going to go another generation. I think that's really critical because I think a lot of people are working at a company, a family owned company for some of those reasons of values, vision and longevity. So I appreciate you bringing that up. You mentioned that you have two daughters, what about your other daughter? What does she do? Or is she still in school?

Jane: No, no, she's older. She actually grew up in business, high school and college. Then has chosen to leave the company. She actually worked for her first job out of college for Carhartt, so she had a great job with one of our vendors. So that was a wonderful, amazing family business, but she got to see the manufacturer side as a distributor. Right now, she's working for a software company that's based out of Canada. Her and Sarah have been very pointed about wanting to make sure that the business remains family owned. She's always been really focused on providing the best governance, making sure they are supporting our management team, and then we can continue to go forward in the best way as a family owned business. So that's a perfect example of you could do it and not be in the day-to-day business. She's very familiar with our board and attends board meetings and is well up to speed on the business and wants to continue to support it, but just in a different way.

Dan: Yeah, absolutely. I think that's great. Like you said, there are certainly other ways to be involved other than in the day-to-day. I think that's awesome. Going through your own succession from your parents to you and your brother, what have you learned from that firsthand experience that you've gathered through succession planning that you are gonna be making sure to put in place for your own succession plans? And how you have taken that and could spin that as advice to other families.

Jane: Well, I think it's a unique opportunity to run a family business and to own a family business. It is different. We get to make decisions for the long haul. We are not answering to the street, we're not answering to Wall Street. We answer to our shareholders, which in this case is our ourselves. But we talk about answering to our customers to keep them happy, to satisfy them, and try to support them. As you think about succession and what your responsibility is for a family business, the succession of the business is more important than any one person. I look at it at this point, is how do I position the company with the best leadership and the family firmly behind that to make sure that the company succeeds. It's not about me, and it's not about an individual family member. At one point, it was my dad, it was my uncle, my brother, myself, etc.  I think that's where the focus needs to be to make sure that the family business can succeed. The people within the company are thought of first and how our customers will need us next and we position ourselves that way. It's about making sure that the business is positioned to support our neighbors and our associates and then it'll be fine. You know, it'll be fine whether I'm here or any generations after me.

Dan: That definitely brings to mind the word stewardship. I feel like that fits right in there and when you lead the way that you're talking about, that's always an attractor of good people. If you're leading with those values and long term vision and knowing that the business is the focal point of decision making and not the family or not the owners or whatever it might be. That's a culture that people want to be a part of. I love that you shared that. So, this has been great, so respectful of your time. We are excited for you to come to our conference here in November. Our families are looking forward to hearing your story, as well as learning from your lessons and advice. With that, I will wrap up and you've been listening to another edition of Never Go Against the Family, the UNI Family Business Centers Podcast format. 

Katie: Thanks for listening to this episode of Never Go Against The Family, a podcast produced by the University of Northern Iowa Family Business Center. You can find more information about the center membership and upcoming events at https://unifamilybusinesscenter.com. As Vito Corleone advises, never go against the family.