Alan Goodman: The Zenquest of Leaders with Jess Ollenburg

Today we’re talking about great things coming together in Leadership, Quality Excellence, Lean Six Sigma and evidenced practices in Youth Development. We’ll be dropping some Structured Methodology for Problem Solving. While Ollenburg LLC enjoys work with so many industries, services and nonprofits, much of our practice over the years has featured in depth job analysis for manufacturing and automation. We’ve so enjoyed touring client facilities to study and design operations, flow, innovation and getting the right people in the right seats with the right resources; and these are mutual passions of today’s host and guest.  Contact and topic info are at: Alan Goodman - The Zenquest of Leaders Podcast — zenquest.online.

When we speak of problem-solving methodology, We can’t help but sing the praises of Appreciative Inquiry, The 5 Whys, SWOT Analysis and deBono’s Six Hats of Thinking. In fact, when we presented Six Hats at Johnson Controls International Headquarters in the technology showcase for FUEL Leadership Bootcamp, the JCI leaders were so enthusiastic about what Six Hats can do, they synched up the showcase lighting to mirror and transition with the color of the hat we were describing. 

Our guest is Alan Goodman! Our conversation today will also highlight Entrepreneurial risk, Zen via the Emotional Lap, Getting Past Failure and Adventures in Dishwasher Loading. 

We met Alan through Marquette University’s 707 Hub, when Ollenburg LLC sponsored Rev Up MKE by delivering coaching to the winning startup. Alan won that competition and returned the following year as a judge.

Here’s a little intro on today’s guest…

• Alan is the Founder and King of Desserts for the award-winning A Goodman’s Desserts. He counts the Milwaukee Bucks, Marquette University and nationwide dessert lovers as his clients. His business has been featured on WISN, TMJ4 and national news.
• Alan is also the Department Chair of the Quality Engineering program at Milwaukee Area Technical College, where the focus is on teaching Operational Excellence. Leaning into his 20+ years’ experience as a Lean Six Sigma Black Belt, Alan is launching into the Consultant space where he coaches businesses through his Operational Excellence and Lean Bootcamps. 
• He is a Faculty Member for the SPARC small business accelerator program at Scale Up MKE. 
• He earned BS and MBA in Finance from Hampton University and Temple University,  and he is a lifetime member of Kappa Alpha Psi Fraternity
• A Philadelphia native, Alan has resided in Milwaukee Wisconsin  for almost 20 years with his wife Lisa and their three children. Alan believes in following your dreams and is a fellow champion of the human spirit. 

Transcript

Jessica Ollenburg: 1:15

Today we're talking about great things coming together in leadership, quality excellence, Lean Six Sigma, and evidenced practices in youth development. We'll be dropping some structured methodology for problem solving. While our executive consulting practice today enjoys work with so many industry services and nonprofits, much of our practice over the years is featured in depth job analysis for manufacturing and automation. I've so enjoyed touring client facilities to study and design operations, flow, innovation, and getting the right people in the right seats with the right resources. These are a few of my lifelong passions. When we speak of problem-solving methodology, We can’t help but sing the praises of Appreciative Inquiry, The 5 Whys, SWOT Analysis and deBono’s Six Hats of Thinking. In fact, when we presented Six Hats at Johnson Controls International Headquarters in the technology showcase for FUEL Leadership Bootcamp, the JCI leaders were so enthusiastic about what Six Hats can do, they synched up the showcase lighting to mirror and transition with the color of the hat we were describing. Our guest is Alan Goodman. Our conversation today will also highlight entrepreneurial risk Zen via the emotional lap, getting past failure and adventures in dishwasher loading. We met Alan through Marquette University 707 hub when Ollenburg LLC sponsored Rev Up Milwaukee by delivering coaching to the winning startup. Alan won that competition and returned the following year as a judge. Here's a little intro on today's guest. Alan is the founder and King of desserts for the award winning A Goodmans desserts. He counts the Milwaukee Bucks, Marquette University and nationwide dessert lovers as his clients. His business has been featured on WISN, TMJ4 and national news. Alan is also the Department Chair of the quality engineering program at Milwaukee Area Technical College, where the focus is on teaching operational excellence leaning into his 20 plus years experience as a Lean Six Sigma Black Belt. Alan is launching into the consultant space where he coaches businesses through his operational excellence in Lean boot camps. He is a faculty member for the SPARC small business accelerator program at Scale Up MKE. He earned a BS and MBA in finance from Hampton University and Temple University. And he is a lifetime member of Kappa Alpha Psi fraternity. A Philadelphia native Alan has resided in Milwaukee, Wisconsin for almost 20 years with his wife Lisa and their three children. Alan believes in following your dreams, and is a fellow champion of the human spirit. Thank you, Alan, for joining us today. Welcome. Tell us about a Goodman's desserts, and how our listeners can get these fabulous treats.

Alan Goodman: 4:57

Sure so and thank you for that introduction. A Goodmans Desserts I started back in 2018. And you know, and it's weird when I when I say weird. It's interesting when I think about it, it's four decades of baking. We're over four decades I've been baking, and I guess it makes me an expert. So, so I was entrusted with the family recipes. (And that's a lot of trust.) Yeah, absolutely. Absolutely. Because you know, the desert is always the culmination of every event, right? You know, you wedding, baby, shower, cookout, whatever it is, that dessert is what everybody remembers, because that's the last thing you have. So it's really important. I learned that throughout the years of baking, but I didn't really think about putting it into a business until I'd spent 20 years in corporate working long hours and on somebody else's dream. And then I decided that you know what, I want to put this into my passion and follow my dream and do this as a business. And so our specialties are a sugar glaze butter cookie, which was invented with my kids when they were going to school, they needed something to take for their birthdays. And so they We made up this recipe and a based on what I've learned and a variation of a family recipe. And we took that in. And And I'll never forget, one day a teacher sent me a picture of three teachers sitting outside of a classroom waiting for the extra cookies. And that was a sign for me that okay, you know what I think I need to be, you know, selling these cookies, if I can, if I can create a line at a school, than I think it's a good thing.

Jessica Ollenburg: 6:45

Proof of concept.

Alan Goodman: 6:46

Yes. Yes. The other product that I specialize in is a bread pudding, so either a bourbon, or vanilla rum, bread pudding. And I noticed at another entrepreneur's house, good friend of mine, Dr. Bruce Hamilton, who has a dentist's office down on MLK. I took some bread pudding to his house, and this is before my business, and I shared it with everybody. And he just grabbed my shoulder and said, Just come over here for a second, I want you to just look at everybody eating the bread pudding. And so I noticed that the first bite, you know, created conversation and smiles and enjoyment and chatter. And he's like, you know, when people appreciate and enjoy something that you've made, he said, That's a gift, you need to turn that into a business. And so with that confidence behind the bread pudding, and the cookies, I launched into a business. And so you know, people can find my desserts on my website AGoodmansDesserts.com. I'm a different type of business in that I don't have a brick and mortar. But anybody with Wi Fi or internet, or a smart device can buy my desserts from anywhere, and then I'll get it to you. So that's coming a whole lot more common these days, though, if someone can do this better and faster and more efficiently that I can, that I'll have them do it because I'll sacrifice a little bit of margin, but what I'll say is time, and, and my well being I could actually get some sleep. There's some other things I'd like to do.

Jessica Ollenburg: 8:32

Let's talk about education, learning young, and our mutual experiences with youth learning programs. Both of us have long standing relationships with multiple organizations, including Junior Achievement, I had the good fortune to meet Bob Galvin, at my very first All-TEC meeting, which is now Vistage. Bob was the prior CEO and then Chairman of Motorola, and really impacted me in that I identified so much with his core beliefs and one of his important stressors. Bob stressed the importance of youth learning. And that youth leadership development should be in place by age 14. And Bob and Motorola very much accredited success at that time to six sigma. So I'm thinking, Alan, these are things that you can really gravitate toward, you are a Six Sigma Black Belt. And we share that love for continuous improvement, operational design, quality, excellence, lean. Tell us about how you're seeing the landscape change, and what you are recommending for business owners, as well as for young people entering the field.

Alan Goodman: 9:59

Yeah, so I'm glad you brought this up. So I'm a Lean Six Sigma Black Belt, been in the field for, you know, 20-25 years. And so I realize the importance of problem solving at any age in any discipline. And so, you know, we share a love for Junior Achievement. I did that when I was back in Philadelphia, and a little bit here. And I love the way the education is in a module is very structured, all the way from kindergarten all the way up through high school. Right and, yeah, you know, you don't need to be an expert to deliver it because it gives it gives you everything you need to you know, to kind of get this information out to students on financial literacy and entrepreneurship. And so, I think Lean and Six Sigma particularly lean, it gives you a structured methodology to solve problems. And we start that with younger children. Even thinking back to we give him the little table with the blocks and you know, you kind of got to fit the block into the right shape and you know, and you kind of we let the we let the kids try to fit this square peg in the round hole and on it and then they fit figure it out, right and, and, but what happens is that and this is no fault of schools now, when they get to middle school, the focus is really on passing or doing as well as you can on the state test until state exams. And so there's not as much time to really focus on problem solving, it's more of making sure that you're at the right level as far as your, your reading and math scores. And so any, this would only come in perhaps in an after school camp, or some sort of other module outside of the regular school day. And so by the time students get to high school, they don't really have that mindset, and really impacts a lot of things, particularly when they get into the workforce is that now you have very few people that can solve problems, you have people who can do jobs, and that's great. But when something goes wrong, now you don't have someone who can really figure out a way to identify a problem and solve it. And so I think, when I talk to different employers, that's what they're missing. They're missing people who can come in and solve problems. But even even back to, you know, being a teenager, there's a lot of conflicts that you run into a college student as well. And you really, you know, we have, we have a lot of problem pointers, where, where they're like, hey, there's a problem here. Somebody needs to fix that. But how wonderful would it be, we have more people to say, you don't actually know how to fix that, let's use, you know, Plan Do Check Act, or let's do a five why's or, you know, let's just look at let's just find some waste here. I think those things are going to be sorely needed in our industry. And it also make the student or the the potential employee just not the potential.

Jessica Ollenburg: 13:06

And my guess is you were a problem solver very young. And it was perhaps a family role and something that you gained pride and even caretaking skills in doing that. I think it's really ingrained in you.

Alan Goodman: 13:24

Yeah. I think so you know, and I think it, it's funny how this all ties together. So, you know, problem solving, and baking go together, right? In a way because, you know, you even be an experienced Baker like I am, I mean, I still have cakes that fall, or at the I'd still occasionally burn some cookies, and it'll turn out the way they're supposed to. And so then you go down this path of"what happened." if the cake falls was there too much moisture in the kitchen? Was the butter too soft? You know, did you mix things too long? Like, what exactly happened? And so, you know, when I look back on why I loved baking it, you know, you kind of follow this process of your recipe, something happens, you look back at the recipe in your process and figure out what happened. What did I do wrong here? And then you change it and then you come back and say, okay, all right. Now the cake didn't drop this time. So we solve this problem. So I incorporate those things into my business. But I see now, it makes sense that I'm a process person. And I like to bake because they kind of go together

Jessica Ollenburg: 14:31

Further talking about problem solving... And I also think that this goes back to teaching leadership development. Leadership requires problem solving, whether you're a people manager or a task manager, at some point, you've got to break through and lead to a different result; lead to a different outcome or you're not leading. So that is inherent. It requires some problem solving. We spent so many years designing, developing and validating problem solving assessments because you learn that there's really nothing less common than sense. While people learn their own level of intelligence relevant to their own experiences, we are so unique as humans. And it's so exciting that we are who who wants us all to be the same, we want to be different. But in doing so we need to recognize the different learning styles of people and kinesthetic has always been a leader. I'm wondering to what extent that might change in the future as we incorporate more and more technology, gamification, etc. into those processes. We're going to need to be studying how learning now is handled and look at that through a different lens and that will be really interesting and something for us to pay some strong attention to. Tell us about your Rocky II casting call.

Alan Goodman: 16:18

Yeah, so this is, uh, this was interesting. So I'm from Philadelphia. And so the casting call for Rocky two was in 1979 (78-79). And my dad took my brother and I, down to the Art Museum, where they were having the casting call. And the most iconic scene in Rocky II to anybody who's seen it is when he's running through the Italian market, and he runs down the long Parkway and up the art museum steps, and he's jumping up and down at the top. But that's the iconic scene. The funny thing about the scene is that it almost didn't happen, because because of some problems on the set. And so one of the one of the problems is that the children kept outrunning him. So it's just alone down the parkway. And so we shot that they I know it was at least three or four times before finally the director, just kind of corralled the kids and said, Listen, this isn't working, because you guys keep out running Sylvester Stallone. And let's be clear, he's slow. Like that, you know, according to the best director said, he said, So how do we fix this? And I gave him a lot of credit for looking at a bunch of kids and saying, how do we fix this? Right? So yeah. And so one, one child was like, Well, why don't we give him a headstart? It's okay, we can do that. He said, What else? And then another kid said, we can just jog. We don't have to really run, we can just jog behind. And he's the director said, Okay, I love it. Let's do that. And it worked. And if you look closely at the movie, you'll notice that the kids are that they're jogging. Like, we're not running full speed, like we're jogging, actually.

Jessica Ollenburg: 18:02

Where do we find you in that shot, if we're watching that?

Alan Goodman: 18:09

I still haven't found me. I had an afro. And there are a bunch of kids there. I'm still looking hard. I'm not unfortunately, not getting any SAG credits for this. But yeah, but but it was, it was fun being a part of that. It just remembering that moment of problem solving and how it just illustrates how children can really think through things very effectively and say, you know, we need to do this, all we need to do is he already does listen to it. And we'll we'll get some solutions. So I thought that was that was pretty powerful, just thinking back on it. And being involved in that,

Jessica Ollenburg: 18:42

once again, the powerful of the powerful youth mind.

Alan Goodman: 18:46

Absolutely. Absolutely.

Jessica Ollenburg: 18:49

Let's talk a little bit more about your experience as an educator, a mentor, a leader, how would you characterize your leadership style,

Alan Goodman: 18:59

I would say, collaborative, definitely, to a point though, and sick as a leader every day can be kind of different. And when I trust people, I can let them go and do what they need to do, I can check in. But if we have some recurring issues that I need to, to kind of put be a little more micro with it. But I don't really like to do that. I like to spend more time mentoring people than I do managing. And that's what I learned in some of my corporate roles having a team is that I enjoyed the mentoring part, and really pouring into the high potential folks than managing the whole team. I didn't I didn't enjoy it, but that way.

Jessica Ollenburg: 19:42

And I agree that that is the most rewarding certainly, and the most validating so that you can really checkpoint progress. When you have a participative or as you say collaborative style. I'm hearing from you a little bit of situational leadership, which is where most people need to be. Right? Not everybody is the same type of follower, if at all. And the mentorship, the servant leadership style, these are all fabulous tools that are just underutilized. However, they don't work for everybody. You know, it does require that the student is going to willingly engage.

Alan Goodman: 20:37

Yeah, yeah, I agree. And so I think leadership when I think about the term, well, everyone has a different approach. There's still some factors, I think that need to, to come into play when you're leading. And a discipline is part of that too. Because you have to know some people need discipline to be told, like, hey, this isn't the right way to do this. And maybe that's part of this mentorship, too, but some people need that to say like, Hey, look, this wasn't done correctly. Let's let's figure out what you did. And and let's, you know, let's figure out how we can do it better. A lot of times, I would say, 90% of time, it's actually the process itself. You know, it's, then it's not really this thing today, I would think. So it's more of let's work together figure out how we can improve this result. But, you know, like I said, some, there are some people who, you know, you have to accept that you're only gonna have a smaller percentage of people who are superstars. everybody's not going to be a superstar. This doesn't work that way.

Jessica Ollenburg: 21:44

We don't need everybody to be a superstar... and we don't need to define everybody by the same measurement of success either.

Alan Goodman: 21:52

No, absolutely not. Absolutely not. I think the biggest thing for leadership is to you want to empower people you want inspire people to be better, and help them to get there. And the ones that want to be, you know, the ones that move up and progress, like you want to really pour into them, because they're the ones that are that are really listening, and help them to get to where they where they need to be. In my mid days, which seemed like a long time ago, you know, at the time that the theory is that you hire people who are going to take your job, which is, which now, like you don't really hear much, but that was the goal is to hire somebody, by the high potential, train them, mentor them, so that they take your job, and you move up and take somebody else's job. Like that was really that was the goal. And I thought that was a great environment for for building leaders at that time. Because you get all the experience that you want to build you up for the next role that they've kind of helped identify. And so I got great experience. And it really forced me to stretch myself into a role that, you know, maybe I didn't really think I can do, there was a good example of mentorship where my my boss at the time, I think I was I was probably like a year into my role. And he said, Well, what do you want to do next? And I said, Well, you know, I'm gonna look. And he told me what kind of experience he thought I needed. And I went out about a couple roles and said, he was often said, put them on the desk, he said, these are the two roles I am looking at. And he said, Okay, which one could do you? Are you comfortable that you can do? And I was like, oh, you know, this one roll? I'm pretty comfortable. I can do that. He said, Okay, he balled up threw in the trash and said, You're gonna go for this other one. So why is it because that roll scares you? Doesn't it? So he does. He said, Yeah, that's, that's the one you need to have. Because that that's the role that's going to stretch you. And that really, that advice probably was some of the best advice I've ever gotten that time really stuck with me to to think beyond what I what I thought I was capable of at the moment. That didn't really indicate what I could grow to do and learn in this new role. And so I said it was great advice I still keep in use to this day, in a you know, probably was what inspired me even to open my business, because it's something that seems it's different than what I'm used to. It's definitely a risk and a challenge. But thinking back to that advice, I'm like, hey, I can I can do this, I have experienced I've run a business before in corporate, I can do this.

Jessica Ollenburg: 24:43

So absolutely. Inspiring. Thank you for sharing that.

Alan Goodman: 24:50

And I try to like to try to share that with other with other people, to get them to understand that you don't have to be perfect and fit, check every box for a role. It's more about your willingness to learn and to work at it and to grow into it.

Jessica Ollenburg: 25:04

And to your point, about people not coming into coming to work to sabotage the project. I mean, certainly we're not going to say that there are no humans that would do that. But the point is that when you are an effective leader and someone who possesses your dedication to the leadership style of mentoring, and really creating those light bulb moments and treating your students as mentees that you are responsible for their learning, and I'm hearing all of this dedication in you and I see it all the time. And it's one of the biggest reasons I think we connect so well are it's just the sheer enjoyment of the light bulb moment.

Alan Goodman: 26:00

Absolutely. Absolutely. And I take this, that advice that I just mentioned, where I was talking to a co worker and she was looking at some she's a little younger than me and she was looking at some different roles that she wanted to apply to in her company. And what she said was, she said, I want this role, but I don't think I'm ready for it. So I'm gonna take this other smaller role. And, you know, I basically repeated that story and said, Well, why not you? I said, Why? Why can't you take this role? And we kind of had a conversation about this, the skill sets needed. And I was like, you have all that? What? So So what's the problem? And I don't think she was expecting to hear the feedback like that, I'm like, Look, you know, you can do the roll, I've seen your potential, the company senior potential, they want to promote, you go for the role. The worst thing could tell you is no. But if they tell you yes, that means that you're going to grow, you're going to stretch, you're going to learn things that you wouldn't normally learn in this other smaller role. And so, she ended up going for it. So and that's, for me, that's, that's, those are the lightbulb moments that I like to see when someone believes in themselves. And, and sometimes you need to hear from somebody else, which which I did, you know, back home early in my career.

Jessica Ollenburg: 27:26

It's true. And we are shaped by our experiences to such a degree that it shapes our intrinsic motivation. And that can be very difficult. So when we can create light bulb moments, for those who didn't trust that there was a light bulb moment available, it's extra special.

Alan Goodman: 27:49

Yeah. And in some cases, we need to think like a child would think. And so when I do these Lean camps with kids, the younger the child, the less boundaries that they put on their thinking, right? And so, you know, if you were to ask the child today, like a young child, like, you know, they're wearing a cape, and they're like, oh, I can be, you know, a superhero and that sort of thing. And anyhow, it's great, you know, they have a great imagination, but they don't have any, they haven't, they don't have these... I'll call these bruises of experience and scar tissue of all the stuff we've gone through to kind of block their, their progress or their worldview. And so when I do these lean camps, and we talk about problem solving, you know, the kids have all kinds of different approaches to solving problems and different ideas. I do this, this is tennis ball exercise with, with adults where they have to transfer three tennis balls from one container to the other. And, and so it's it's really sort of a Kaizen approach, where it's like, you have to quickly think about how we're going to do this, how we can do it quickly. And I tie them and I keep cutting their time in half. They got to figure out quickly, like how to how to do this transfer. But what I want your kids I mean, they, you know, kids are, like, Hey, we should pilot this, Hey, we should we should, you know, perhaps we should adjust the way we're in line. Or we should adjust the way we move the balls. I mean, like the kids come up with more ideas than adults. And it makes me laugh, because when I do this with adults I always challenge them and say, well, the kids did this in two seconds. I'm like, Well, you know, they didn't have any boundaries on the possibilities of getting it done. And so we need to approach things as a child would, with their, their innocence, and we need to put our, our failed experiences and some cases to the side and say, okay, you know what, let's really talk about how we can get this done.

Jessica Ollenburg: 29:50

It's so true. And individuals, were told that humans are at the most intelligent, pure IQ, if you want to still use that term, but the raw intelligence is highest at birth, and the ability to sponge information. Fear is learned; boundaries are learned. Again, more reasons to really pay attention to developing skills and problem solving, at young age.

Alan Goodman: 30:31

Yeah, absolutely. Yeah. And, and I will say to, you know, with problem solving, when you're solving problems as a business owner, in some cases, you know, we we call it different things, we call it problems, but some people call it failures, right? And so you're, you're really you're failing and you try to figure out like, how that happened and what you can do to improve it. Well, we don't really talk about those like how much failure can hurt it's so it's kind of like this thing where you kind of like you average your business you failed, you just get up in the you know, and it's like, that's doesn't really happen especially especially as you're like getting older, you know, get more experience. You know, for kids, you fail beat me cry it out. they'd like you know, 10 minutes later you're like, okay, it's fine. But as you as you get older failures, not necessarily. So it's that easy, as easy as it sounds to kind of bounce back from that. And so having some sort of structured method of bouncing back from that is important. I am, I work out at home and one of my trainers in my head, because he's because he's trainer for a lot of people, you know, alive, there were better. But he has brilliant phase called taking it emotional lap. And I, you know, during the workouts, he's like, Okay, I'm sure you're tired. Look, just take an emotional lap, and then we'll get a jump back in, I think I thought that was brilliant, because it fits pretty much any scenario, right? And so you fail, and you should have some approach to say, okay, you know, what, I'm going to take this lap, I'm going to think about what happened, I'm going to take a breath, and then have a come back, renewed and ready to jump back in again. And, you know, but but having a method to get through the failure is important. And I'll credit my wife because I had a experience where I presented to some executives, and, and I kind of bombed it, and I got some really harsh feedback that I can't repeat here. Haha. And, you know, my wife describes as I came home, and I just kind of laid on the bed, the fetal position, like, you know, like, like, I just took a gut punch. And she came into like, Okay, I'm gonna give you 24 hours to mope, to curse and whatever you got to do. And then after that, we're gonna come back and put together strategy to get back, get back on track. And that's what we did. So I came back, set out, laid out a strategy. And then by the next presentation, which was three months later, my boss pulled me to the side and said, What did you do? Like, that was amazing. But I had a plan. And so, you know, when we talk about failure, failure can be traumatizing. It can be hurtful. It can totally derail what you're trying to do. Unless you have some sort of method, or structure that you can rely on to say, Okay, this is how I'm going to get back. I'm going to, I'm going to cry and do whatever I have to do the next 24 hours. And then step one, okay, now I'm gonna go back and do this. And so I think that's something that that's not really talked about

Jessica Ollenburg: 33:49

That's very true. It does need to be in the plans. And I agree with you. I think there's good reasons that we don't talk about it. We don't want to set up expectations and plant seeds for failure, or make people more afraid than they need to be about failure because they might not fail.

Alan Goodman: 34:06

Right? Right. Absolutely.

Jessica Ollenburg: 34:07

So why bring the terror? (Haha) But there does have to be a plan in place for what happens and how do we recover from that? Yeah. And that if we have that, and if we have that worst case scenario planning in place, then we can feel that much more comfortable, or at least that much less uncomfortable about the event. And we all know, it's the relaxed mind that's the more productive and more onpoint mind. So we don't need our brains lying at us when we're going at different problems.

Alan Goodman: 34:51

It's funny, cuz you asked earlier while I was calm, and I think some of that is is it's part of it that you know, it's like, you know, I know what I'm going to do. I just need, I just need to take that lap first. And like, okay, the plane is here, but I'm not ready for it yet. Let me take an emotional lap. Let me take a breath. Let me do all this stuff. And then okay, now I'm ready. Now I'm gonna follow this path to get back to where I need to be.

Jessica Ollenburg: 35:17

Good stories. Good stories, Alan, thank you. I want to share. I want to share a lightbulb moment that you really inspired me to talk about very much along the lines of what you what you teach and how you teach it. Decades ago, I was approached to develop a statistical process control training and certification program, especially for hosco international suppliers in their commitment to quality excellence. The task was to break down SPC learning, so that even those who don't like math could get it. So, we helped a family owned Model Tool and Dye and then another company as well after being referred by HUSCO International. We did help them learn and pass the certification. We created curriculum that allowed them to confidently learn and get past their fears about what they might fail at, build up their confidence, and stuck with them. And I think HUSCO... they relied on HUSCO. They really needed that done. And we were also thrilled to see that then HUSCO began to refer us to other people, because they had liked how we had helped their suppliers. But the real light bulb moment came again, years later, when Ken Kochan, who was the father and president of Model Tool & Die, passed away, and his son, Mark tracked me down all these years later, to say, thank you, you, you saved our family business, my father credited you with saving his love for his family business and his happiness. And I just wanted you to know what an impact you made for our family. That's awesome. And it's just something when you hear those words, it fuels you to even want to work with more people who if they want to learn, that is the biggest hurdle. Right? Right, fear of not getting it is easier to overcome. But if they don't buy into why they should learn, that's when people might start to sabotage the effort so that they can deflect from their own unwillingness or feeling an ability to get engage. And when you are a good trainer, and a great mentor, such as you, Alan, people who want to learn are going to seek you out. And they will continue to do that. And I wish that for you, because that's who you deserve to work with. And that's who deserves to work with you.

Alan Goodman: 38:27

I appreciate that. I appreciate it. You know, it's interesting. From the operational excellence talks that I have with the SPARC program, I did have one person who was opening up a bakery. And she from our discussion, she wanted seven, eight minutes, and I'm gone. You know. So that's important to have that, that flow, that customer service. That consistency is really important.

Jessica Ollenburg: 39:01

It certainly is. And the things that you're talking about are such great ways of both teaching and collecting data at the same time and controlling that chaos, pulling the fear out of it, you've got the metrics, now you've got the tool sets to make better plans. And you've made everybody feel more confident in it.

Alan Goodman: 39:25

Yeah, absolutely. And then to your to your other point to it also. It made me feel happy that I can offer that kind of service. Because initially, you know, I was talking to the whole group, but I said like, hey, if anybody wants me to stop, I'll, we weren't a lot more than willing to stop by and I didn't really plan for that. It just turned into a conversation based on my experience to say, okay, you know what, from my press eyes looking at this, here's what I see. And I really enjoyed that. And again, it kind of revolves back to the all the teaching that I do in the mentoring. I really enjoy that. And I learned throughout my years that when you get to this phase of your career, the you know, the where I have more gray in my beard that I have a black robe here. You want to do you want to do those things that you're good at and that you enjoy. And so this phase, my career is, you know, teaching, it's mentoring, it's coaching, and baking. And so all things I love to do and just lean hard into that and, and it'll be it won't feel like work.

Jessica Ollenburg: 40:34

Absolutely, absolutely. I love that. And I'm too at a point where this is actually the first time in my career where I can architect my career. Yeah, it's always been need. It's always been family need when what do you need to learn? And it's been a lot of shut up and hang on. And when you get to a point that you can decide what you want to do. It absolutely. needs to follow your passion.

Alan Goodman: 41:09

Yeah, yeah. And I think when you're doing something that you Love and you're good at it, I think that's when your light really shines, and other people see you. I never envisioned teaching, you know, taking over the program MATC and would lead to doing some consulting and coaching. But it would also lead to getting invited to speak at national conferences. I, you know, I just got invited to my second one. And I never saw it that I never saw it leading to that. And so, but I really excited I enjoy the teaching and sharing this information. And so I think it's important for everybody to lean into what they do well, what they really want to do. And I think that they'll be better for it. I think we're in I think we're seeing some of that to where you see it more people go into business for themselves, which, which again, isn't it's not an easy thing. But you know, what, another piece of advice I got, when I was looking into starting my business was a friend said to me, like, what's your hesitation? I was like, well, it's gotta be hard. You have never, you know, I'm used to my pay coming every other week. As a business owner, that's not necessarily the way this works. You know, I was used to that consistency. And he said, Okay, let's look at it a different way. He said, If you don't start this business, if you don't try it, how will you feel? And I was like, I probably would feel I would feel bad and wonder what would happen? He said, so you need to start it. As like, Okay. I mean, I you know, that's, you know, he said, If it works great. If it doesn't, you've tried it. So yeah. So that's what I needed to hear. And, like I said, I've enjoyed the challenge, you know, every day is not easy. But I didn't really sign up for everyday being easy, either. I want to make sure my brain is working, I'm solving problems and figuring out strategy, and all those things to make the business successful. And so it keeps me on my toes.

Jessica Ollenburg: 43:13

learning every day. Yes, absolutely. It's always more to learn and to your point, to the same extent, we don't know what we don't know, sometimes. Sometimes we don't know what we know. Yeah. To your point that you were able to contribute something that you didn't realize, might not have been common information.

Alan Goodman: 43:38

Sure. Sure. Yeah. And it's really not I mean, it's it's even just thinking about from a business owner perspective. You know, the first thing is always what problem are you solving. And as I talked to people, I realized that you know, this this problem solving discipline is not it's not common, it's a specialized group. And you know, that like one of the conference's I went to, I mean, a roomful you know, 200 people, and we're talking about Lean and Six Sigma. But yeah, obviously, is a captive audience, because we're all we're all preaching to the choir, they say it's like, it's all we're all the same people as far as they experience, but when you when you leave that room, you realize that this is not widespread, thinking, you know, it's more of who's going to solve the problem. And working in corporate, I realized that when there was a problem, usually, unless that company was mature, in Lean Six Sigma and problem solving, they would call me because I'm the only one that could do it. They're like, hey, Alan, we need you to come look at this. And and so that just reinforced to me how valuable it is to have this and, and of teaching it younger will make our our children more versatile and more valuable in their jobs and just better able to deal with conflict. So that's why that's why I think it's important is to share this and give them a structured method to solve any problem from improving their study habits. to choosing a college to you know, doing a work process, right, you can work with pretty much anything. I will say that my kids probably get tired of me saying it because I tried to coach my daughter on a quicker way to clear the dishwasher. Yeah, she's like, No, I'm gonna I'm gonna do it the same broken way. They've always done it. So she's she's a little stubborn, but I was like, Alright, fine. I'm just gonna. We can't We can't approve everything. I was gonna let you have that. That's fine.

Jessica Ollenburg: 45:25

The dishwasher is a touchy subject in every home.

Alan Goodman: 45:30

(Haha) Yes, yes, it is. Yes, it is. Yeah, I try. But I'm like, okay, you know, it can't win every battle. I will let you have that. I just won't watch while you're doing it because it's just yeah. Okay.

Jessica Ollenburg: 45:41

Fair enough. Fair enough. Okay. Here's a question for all of our Zenquesting leaders out there. We've learned that to optimize our capacity, we need to actively refuel. Yes, we need to refuel our tanks as humans before those tanks run dry. What do you actively do to refuel and recalibrate when needed? Alan, how do YOU zen?

Alan Goodman: 46:08

Yeah, so I think some of it comes back to taking an emotional lap, which I think is a great phrase that I'm going to keep with me. Where, you know, sometimes it's needed to just take a walk, and clear your head and figure things out. So whether that's, you know, I was taught in one of my corporate jobs this breathing technique that I would do, when I, when I came into the office, you know, close my door, and kind of do just like a few minutes of just breathing like deep breathing. That was one, I would also say, I like to exercise that helps. And so, you know, my wife, my daughter, and I, that's like our thing we thrift. And sometimes when I'm having a long day, or a tough day, you know, retail therapy is real, it's I'll go out and, you know, say, you know, what, I'm just gonna spend maybe, you know, 20 minutes in Goodwill, or whatever is kind of thrift, you know, or a consignment shop, and so that that's helpful, along with the, you know, breathing, and it also gets you outside, you're kind of breathing, you know, you kind of get some sun, it's all those things are helpful. And I think they all kind of go back into, and I would say prayer, too, as well. Praying is definitely something I do as well. And it all comes back to this, you know, emotional app, you know, it's like, what do you need to do to kind of calm yourself down to kind of get back to Zen. You know, I think that phrase kind of catches all of it.

Jessica Ollenburg: 47:46

Fantastic. Thank you for sharing that. All good tips.

Alan Goodman: 47:50

Thank you. Thank you.

Jessica Ollenburg: 47:52

All good tips. Lastly, how can businesses contact you to engage you? You've told us about all the fabulous things you do. How do we find you? How do our listeners find you to engage you? We've got some wonderful business owners out there who could definitely tap into your talents for betterment on their side.

Alan Goodman: 48:14

Oh, thank you. Yeah. So right now, they can contact me at Alan@AGoodmansDesserts.com. I'm actually in the process of starting my consulting arm... but right now you can get in touch with me through my dessert business as well. So those are two ways to get to me. But, you know, it's I look forward to serving and helping other business owners who just, you know, just just anyone in general who wants some assistance,

Jessica Ollenburg: 48:57

we thank you for all you do for all you do for the community for all you do for mentorship and youth training, teaching, the ethic and dedication that you bring. It's inspiring. Thank you. Thank you for being here today. Thanks for all of your insights. And I look forward to our next opportunity to talk.

Alan Goodman: 49:22

Absolutely. Thank you for having me. This has been a pleasure as always.

Jessica Ollenburg: 49:25

Thank you so much, Alan.

Alan Goodman: 49:27

We'll have to catch lunch at some point.

Jessica Ollenburg: 49:30

Yeah, we will! Let's do that. Absolutely. All right. Have a great afternoon.

Alan Goodman: 49:37

All right, you too. Take care (you, too).