In this episode, John and Dina will share a bit about themselves, when they worked together, and their family. The “why” they started this podcast and what Simon Says Inspire, a podcast about Life, Leadership, and Building Legacies, is all about.
Transcript
John Simon Sr. 00:06
John, welcome to Simon Says, inspire a podcast about life, leadership and building legacies. I'm John Simon, and with me is
Dina Simon 00:15
Dina Simon, your daughter in law, and I'm excited to be a part of this podcast with you, and
John Simon Sr. 00:22
I'm excited the fact that we're not only going to bring all of our family members into the podcast, but we're also going to bring friends and and relatives and old associates that we met throughout the years.
Dina Simon 00:35
Exactly, yep, we have some customers and other leaders that we know and community people that we know that we're excited to get on our podcast, and I think our family some are excited, some might be a little nervous that we're asking them to be on a podcast with us, but we wanted to take the opportunity, you know, so I worked for you in my early 20s, and you were the president of a company that I worked for, so I have a tremendous amount of respect for you as a leader. We've been able to work with some really cool people. And just we wanted to take the time, you know, with the words Simon Says, inspire, and the podcast about life, leadership and building legacies, you know, just our opportunity to bring people to the table to help tell those stories well. And
John Simon Sr. 01:20
a number of the people that I've talked to about joining the podcast as we go on, they said if they can inspire one person, they would do it in a minute.
Dina Simon 01:29
I love that. Yeah. So we're excited. We thank our listeners for joining the podcast, and that's what it's about. It's about bringing stories of our lives, our family's lives, our friends lives, and we'll talk a little bit about leadership, and then we feel that building legacies is, you know, what we get to do every day, it's we don't leave just our legacies behind, but we live our legacies out while we're living and those will be the stories that we'll be bringing to you. Dina,
John Simon Sr. 01:55
let's take a second to talk a little bit about yourself and how we met and what inspires you? Yeah,
Dina Simon 02:02
well, and I think we had to go back and kind of figure out what year we think it was probably around 1990 9119
John Simon Sr. 02:11
91 is what I came what I came up with when I did some thinking about it in Madison, Wisconsin.
Dina Simon 02:16
Yep, I was going to college, and I was waitressing at Chili's. Me and both of my college roommates, we all waitressed at the Chili's in Madison, and that's actually where I ran into some of your colleagues, and then also you down the line. But Charles Waterloo used to be a very regular, and he'd come in, and we knew how to take care of him with a big picture of iced tea. And then the rest of you kind of followed suit, and we got to know who you were, and just got talking, and then had an opportunity to join the associates while I was still in college, and that's where we met, because you were the president of associates leasing at that time.
John Simon Sr. 02:53
And I think you met a young lady that worked in human resources, Laura Doyle,
Dina Simon 02:58
yep, I met Laura. So I think Laura was actually the one. So we got to know Charles, got to know Laura like I started to learn all the all the associates, people that would frequent there, especially on lunch, because it wasn't that far. And Laura absolutely was the one that said, Hey, we've got a position open. You should take a look at it. Well, that's
John Simon Sr. 03:16
great. And from there it was. You worked there. And in 1993 we relocated the company to Dallas, Texas, and you moved down here, so it ended up being a great career for you and for the associates.
Dina Simon 03:30
Yeah, it did, and it'll be fun throughout our podcast. Just you know, you and I have built both been very fortunate to work for some pretty amazing companies and the people that we had around us, but me as a very young you know, in my early 20s, what an awesome opportunity it was for me to work with people like yourself and the other leadership team, and just the experience that I had been given, and I see like now with Mandy, my daughter, at the same age, working her job as she's going to college, she's being exposed to some of those great things that it's super exciting.
John Simon Sr. 04:03
Well, I do know one thing. You weren't from Madison, Wisconsin. I
Dina Simon 04:06
wasn't. No, nope. I am a St Paul, Minnesota girl born and raised and I went to the University of Minnesota my freshman year, and one of my best friends growing up had gone to Madison, and I went to pick her up. I think I must have gotten done early and had a car, so I went and picked her up at Madison to bring her home at Christmas time. And I never been to Madison. I never really thought about going to college outside of Minnesota. And when I went to Madison, I fell in love with Madison, and then I was there that next June, as
John Simon Sr. 04:37
most people do to whenever they go there, yeah, so be being from Minnesota. Tell us a little bit about your family,
Dina Simon 04:44
yeah. So I am the middle of three sisters, so my older sister Debbie, and then my little sister Susie, and we are very fortunate to have a cousin who was an only child. Her name is Kristen, and Kristen is like a. Sister to us. So it was Debbie four years later, Chrissy, four years later, me and four years later, Susie. So we all grew up pretty close as sisters, and now you know, unfortunately that our parents generation is no longer living in the Twin Cities, so we're the older generation now here in town,
John Simon Sr. 05:16
but you're all back in the Twin Cities, with the exception of your youngest sister, Susie,
Dina Simon 05:22
yeah, yeah, yeah. So just fun to be back home as Rich and I moved back. It's been almost 20 years, which is crazy, and
John Simon Sr. 05:28
Mandy, at the time, was about what, two years old. Yeah. We
Dina Simon 05:32
had just celebrated our second birthday in August in California, and then we were here in October.
John Simon Sr. 05:37
Wow. It's amazing how things change, but then they become the same, because you're born and raised there, and now you're back there again. And I'm sure you're planning on being there for a lot longer.
Dina Simon 05:47
Yes, yes, we love to be here a lot longer. It depends on, depends on what Mandy does one day. But yes, we do. We do enjoy it. We we didn't care for this winter, but we sure enjoy being here. Well, that's
John Simon Sr. 05:58
great. So you've been involved in a number of corporations you you were in the staffing business for quite some time. Tell us a little bit about that. Yeah,
Dina Simon 06:09
so when I left Madison, is because I got engaged to your son, and we moved to Arizona for him to go to graduate school, and I actually kind of fell into staffing. I answered an ad for a position at a small mom and pop staffing firm in Tucson, Arizona, and that's where I really kind of fell into it. And I started as a recruiter and then a selling branch manager, and then was lucky to get picked up by a large national staffing firm that I was able to run very fast in as far as leadership roles that I was able to step into. And so the staffing industry was an amazing industry about learning how to, you know, supply companies with their greatest asset, and that's people. So it's a real, really awesome just industry to grow up in. And every day was different because you were dealing with different clients, companies that needed different types of people every day too, and
John Simon Sr. 07:06
in a very short period of time, you went from just being a staff person there to moving up in top management within the corporation. I
Dina Simon 07:14
did, yeah. I was very ambitious, and wanted to have a vice president title by the age of 35 and I did. So yeah, worked really hard just within two different large staffing organizations, is where I spent most of my career, and again, just the opportunities that were presented that I could step into, but also amazing leaders that believed in me and continued to support me as I as I grew, and
John Simon Sr. 07:39
from all that you created, the other opportunities that you have with Simon says give Simon Says leap. Simon says lead, yeah,
Dina Simon 07:49
absolutely, yeah. So when I was turning 40, I had done, as I said, kind of climbed that corporate ladder, and was unfortunately traveling a lot, and Mandy was seven at the time, and I decided that I wanted to not have that, like travel all the time, and left my big corporate role. So I went out on my own. And that was really kind of when Simon Says lead. It wasn't named that at that time. It was Simon and Associates, when I started that and started just doing things on my own, and then shortly after, is when Mandy presented her business plan for us to start. Simon says, Give. And so thank you for the last name Simon, and I'm sure we'll talk about that at some point, but I definitely have been able to capitalize on that. So Simon says give. Simon says lead. Simon says, inspire. And we own the rights to a few other Simon Says names too.
John Simon Sr. 08:44
Well, it's great that you can use the name. Yeah, absolutely. It really adds more to the legacy of everything that can tie your last name into it.
Dina Simon 08:53
Yeah, absolutely, you asked the question about what inspires me earlier, when you wanted me to tell Yeah. So I think what inspires me really is helping people lead. And so that's not just in business, but lead through, you know, problems they're having, and that's why I love coaching with people. But really, what inspires me is is my family and my friends and the cool people that I get to work with on a regular basis, so just the really collector of people, and the people that I get to spend my time with is what inspires me
John Simon Sr. 09:24
well, and it's abramowski at business, how, especially the way you run your business, you're in a position where you're meeting a lot of high level management people, and how sometimes you have to coach them along, also, because not everyone has that leadership ability,
Dina Simon 09:41
right, right? And a lot of people have moved up in their career and maybe haven't had examples of really great leadership. So they they've had bad examples, and they know that, but they don't know what good leadership looks like.
John Simon Sr. 09:53
And as we all know, good leadership comes from good people, and it all stems with working hard and. And and really listening to people, because people will tell you what they need and how you can help them if you give them a chance to tell you
Dina Simon 10:08
absolutely, yeah, yeah. And so, um, so I think we should share a little bit too, like, where why we're doing this, and how it came about. And so I'll kind of kick that story off, and then you can add, if you'd like, sure, yeah. So we were just a few months ago. You were here in Minnesota visiting, and we were sitting at our dining room table, and we, as we get into all the time, because Mandy sure has, has heard those stories throughout her life. We got talking about stories from from the old days, from when you were working and I was working with you, but then also just the stories of people you know, that I know. And we had my nephew, Jake, your grandson, Jake, who was sitting at the table with us. He was here in Minnesota, and Jake was like, I haven't heard any of these stories. And so I said, well, and I actually took his cell phone away, if you remember, because I wanted him to listen to the stories. Yeah,
John Simon Sr. 11:03
I remember the night very well. It was a Friday during Lent, and sitting at the table, you made three different fish for dinner, and Jake, he loved all of it. We sat there, and we get started talking about the past, and Jake said, Gee, never heard any of this. And that's what I think made the whole thought of putting this together you and Rich talked about it, it inspired you to start the Simon Says, aspire, yeah. And so that someday the kids could have the hear these stories and and know how everything came about.
Dina Simon 11:38
Yeah, absolutely. And as we talked like your you were fortunate enough to retire very early, we also think you retired too young, because you obviously have so much still to give back in business and leadership, but you all of the grandkids knew you just as grandpa. They didn't know you as as a president of a major organization, and know all the accolades that you had from being a business leader. So we are excited to be telling some of those stories and bring some of your old friends into life in our podcast as well.
John Simon Sr. 12:10
Well, that's great, because a lot of those stories come about through business, and some of the friends that we've made over the years that ended up were customers, and they ended up becoming friends of ours, yeah? And I think that's really a testament to a good organization and just good people you're working with. They're not only customers, but they become your friends too.
Dina Simon 12:30
Absolutely, yeah, yeah, yeah. And you got a daughter in law out of it, and you got a daughter.
John Simon Sr. 12:37
What more could what more could you ask
Dina Simon 12:41
for? Oh, boy, I think you thought you were in trouble when Rich and I started dating. So there you go.
John Simon Sr. 12:47
It. It took me a while to figure out that it all worked out. It all worked out in the long run. Yes, exactly. Yeah. You can. You can remember the times when the boys would come up to the office in Madison and the first thing you'd say, whatever, whenever they left, is, well, how much money did they need today? Exactly, yeah, that was, that was always some, some fun times. Exactly,
Dina Simon 13:10
yeah, seems, it seems like yesterday, but also seems like a long time ago,
John Simon Sr. 13:15
exactly. And you mentioned a few minutes ago, you know when you were 40, and I can remember when you were 20, so it's a you sit there and you wonder, where the years, where the years go by, and I was, I was in my 40s, yeah, at the time, and now I'm in 74 so the years, the years fly by. And you don't realize it, until you wake up one day and you say, Wow, weird. Yeah, where did all the time go exactly,
Dina Simon 13:41
exactly. So Can I switch gears and ask you some questions? Sure. Okay, so tell us a little bit about you. So tell us. Tell us your story, your family and growing up a little bit to where you are today.
John Simon Sr. 13:57
Well, it's, it's a pretty interesting story, at least to me, anyhow. Was raised in a small town outside of Pittsburgh called Braddock, Pennsylvania, and I was one of the five children. I was the second I have an older sister, Vic, and then myself, and then my brother Ed, my brother Bill and my sister Chris, and we, we had a really interesting childhood, because again, five kids, my mom and dad, we lived in a two bedroom home with one bath, and you sit there and say, How did you make it? And you didn't know any different. Everything, everything worked that fine, and you got into a routine. And I really got my first break in Pittsburgh, I was working for the Hertz Corporation, and I met a couple of people there who really liked the way I did things and the energy that I put into my job. And as time went by, I got promoted a few times and ended up moving from Pittsburgh to Chicago to work in the region office. And I was there for four years, and then. And from there, I was promoted to move to the world headquarters at 660 Madison Avenue in in New York City. So it was an interesting career. And then when I left in 1978 I started with the associates, and I was there until I retired in 2001
Dina Simon 15:16
Yeah, wow. 2001 Okay, I can't remember what year it was, yeah. Of it, yeah. And where are you now? Where do you reside now? We
John Simon Sr. 15:24
were just, we're just north of Fort Worth in Texas. A little time card, Argyle, Texas. We moved here from Madison, Wisconsin in 1993 so we've been here for 30 years this year. Oh, wow, isn't that crazy? Well, the interesting thing is, the longest we've ever lived anywhere, because Jeannie and I, we were both born and raised in Pittsburgh, and we moved away in 1974 to Chicago. So since 74 we've been on the road, I'll say, but we've enjoyed everywhere that we lived. Yeah, absolutely. And really, when you work for a corporation, like, like the Hertz Corporation and the associates, that's just part of the jobs, you know, moving whenever you have to and and that's really what would spurs you if, if you do a good job, if you work hard, you'll be rewarded for it, yeah, and it happened with With associates. When I started in 1978 I was actually working in South Bend, Indiana, where the auto leasing operation was headquartered. And the mission was to move it from South Bend into Chicago, because we wanted to grow the organization, and we didn't feel we could grow it the way we needed to in South Bend, Indiana. And so we moved it. I started initially as director of purchasing. From there, I worked my way up to a vice president, then a senior vice president, and then, and then the presidency. And one of the customers one time asked me, how did you get to to be the president? I suppose, pretty easy. I just stayed longer than anybody else.
Dina Simon 17:00
That's that's not all true, but yes, you did stay I love it. And then family so So tell, tell, tell the listeners about your kids and grandkids.
John Simon Sr. 17:11
Yep, we have three, three children, John Jr, Richard and Shannon. And John lives here in Texas, and of course, Richard and you live in Egon, Minnesota, and Shannon and her husband, Jonathan. They live in Durango, Colorado. And we have five great grand, or five, I'll say great grandchildren, even though they're not great grandchildren,
Dina Simon 17:30
meaning they're great they're great kids. Yeah, they're just great
John Simon Sr. 17:34
kids. Exactly. We have Maddie, Who's the oldest. She's in college right now getting ready to graduate with her master's degree. We have Simon, who just he's in Durango, Colorado. He just got his pilot's license for helicopters, and he'll be an interesting interview next week whenever we talk to him, because he's had to make some major changes in his life. For a 21 year old young man, yes, and that is that will be a very interesting story, yep. And then we have our granddaughter, Amanda. And of course, Amanda's at the University of Nebraska, where she's just finishing up her sophomore year, or, I think, as they say now, second year of school. And Jacob, who was up Minnesota for his freshman year at the Hamlin University. And then Lucy, she's getting ready to go to the University of Hawaii, yay, probably in August, which would give us all a great place to visit.
Dina Simon 18:29
I know I can't wait. Yeah, so you, your baby granddaughter is just graduating from high school, going off to college, and your oldest granddaughter, so all the grandkids, it's kind of fun the ages. Your oldest granddaughters is graduating with her masters.
John Simon Sr. 18:42
Yep. And it's amazing how fast the time goes, whenever, whenever they start school, and then she's already finished, and right getting ready to start her career. Yeah, see and leadership, exactly,
Dina Simon 18:55
yes. And I've heard from from friends of mine that would say, Oh my gosh. If I knew being a grandparent was going to be so much fun, I would have done that first. Yeah, very, a little bit different, right?
John Simon Sr. 19:10
It's a whole lot different. Yeah, you know what happens with your own children? You're a lot stricter. And when you have grandchildren, yeah, you know you're you as you get older, you become more lenient, well, and also it's more fun. Yeah, it's more fun. You can do the good things, and you don't have to discipline them twice as much, quite as much and and most of the time that you spend together, especially when you moved around, like we have, we get to we get to spend time with Mandy, and we get to spend time with Simon and Lucy, but the quality time that you get to spend with them is special.
Dina Simon 19:46
Yeah, absolutely, because I think too what I've noticed even just with my own daughter going off to college, right? So I'm still working, but my life seems so much less stressful as I've gotten older. Um. And so just I feel as I'm older, I have more time that I didn't have to give her when she was younger, because there were different stresses and pressures and stuff. So it's a really different relationship. Well, we will eventually have all of your grandchildren, I'm sure, the podcast, because they adore both you, which we call you pap, Pap, and they adore granny as well, but you have a very special relationship with all of your grandkids, and I know they'll be excited to be guests on our podcast. We
John Simon Sr. 20:29
really do. And you know, the an interesting thing that you're finding out right now how empty the house becomes, yeah,
Dina Simon 20:37
absolutely. You had a few of us come back a few times, though, some some, well, right? Yeah, we've, we've come back, yeah,
John Simon Sr. 20:46
for a short time, yeah, yeah, yeah. But it's amazing when, when the kids leave. How, as I said before, yeah, I grew up in a house where there were seven people. We had two bedrooms and one bath and and now granny and I live in a house with four bedrooms and three baths, and we have two people. So it's amazing how things change, and you're going through the same thing right now with you and rich and big house and just the two of you living in it, it seems pretty empty at times.
Dina Simon 21:15
Yes, exactly. So I'll ask you the same question, what inspires you? I,
John Simon Sr. 21:21
you know, I'm the type of a person that I wouldn't say, a perfectionist, but I like when things go smoothly and and, and I like when, when you sit down and you you're working on a project, and even to this day in retirement, I'm always doing something, and whether it's involved in the church or charity or something, but I'd like to see things go smoothly. And so many times, people do things maybe halfway, and you really you need to do them right the first time, and when you do them right the first time, you don't have to go back and redo them again. So it inspires me when, when I when I get to see something start and then come to a conclusion. And everything works. Whenever it comes to the conclusion of
Dina Simon 22:10
it nice, absolutely, that perfection piece is also there's a lot of planning that comes into things. So, like you're a planner. So Mandy, she is such a planner that, like, she'll go, she'll start planning. And she was asking us, what, what about something at Labor Day weekend? And we're like, can we just get through Memorial Day weekend? Like, like, just get through finals. But that's so funny. And now that I now, I'm like, Huh? I actually might have gotten that from you, John, but the planning piece and then, you know, just even you and I getting ready for the podcast, we spent time, you know, making sure we were set up and stuff, because we wanted things to go smoothly,
John Simon Sr. 22:49
I had to learn a whole lot of different things about hooking up the computer and the microphone and the headset and all that there. But I'm a little challenged when it comes to electronics, but we were able to figure it out with all of your help and everything. And I think that's what's going to make this podcast really interesting, because we'll be doing this with a lot of people, and hear a lot of their stories, not only about the family, but what they did in life, and really, and a lot of times, what they're looking for, what's the what's the future have to bring in. All the years that I was with the associates our chairman, Maurice Overcash, he used to, really, he had three he called them the three eyes. And it was integrity, intelligence and intensity. And if we, if you lift those three eyes, you can, you can be pretty successful.
Dina Simon 23:47
Yeah, love that. Love that. I forgot that. Yeah, that's awesome. Um, so anything else you want to share for our kickoff podcast?
John Simon Sr. 23:54
Well, other than the fact that I'm really looking forward to talking with everyone and hearing, hearing stories and telling stories. Say, I they always kid me that I tell way too many stories whenever I get involved in something. But to me, little stories, to me, I like telling him, and sometimes people like hearing them. Yeah, I you know, the stories are really I hear stories about my when I was growing up, stories about my grandparents and stories about my father and mother and my siblings. And, you know, sometimes they get forgotten about. And I think through things like the podcast, they don't get forgotten about exactly things the future generations can can take a look at and early Take a listen to, yeah, and have an idea of really, what life was like in the year 2023
Dina Simon 24:43
Yeah, exactly. Well, and I echo that. I'm super excited to doing this passion project with you, and we're gonna have a ton of fun. So also, thank you. You were super excited and leaned right in when we talked about doing this, so I'm excited to partner with you on it.
John Simon Sr. 24:59
Well. It was good because it, like you said, it all came about because Jacob wanted to know. Yeah, exactly.
Dina Simon 25:04
So thanks Jake for the wanting to know and and he and he truly did, and so that was the inspiration behind it. And always love just sharing, sharing stories with you as well. I believe that that that, again, is kind of our living out our legacies while we're still here, is sharing those stories. So an awesome opportunity to have them recorded. It's going
John Simon Sr. 25:25
to be wonderful. Looking forward to it. And again, as you said before, it'll not only be family, but it'll be friends and colleagues and people that we used to work with, yeah, people that you know, that we've known for years,
Dina Simon 25:38
exactly yes. And so when we launch, there will be ways for people to, you know, to send us notes to get involved, and so there'll be some calls to action. But we're always open for other guests of even people that we don't know. We'd love to meet new people along this journey as well. So thank you, John, for doing this with me. I'm very excited.
John Simon Sr. 25:59
It was great, and I look forward to our next interview.
Dina Simon 26:03
We thank our listeners for joining the podcast, and that's what it's about. It's about bringing stories of our lives, our family's lives, our friends' lives, and we'll talk a little bit about leadership. And then we feel that building legacies is, you know, what we get to do every day, it's we don't leave just our legacies behind, but we live our legacies out while we're living and those will be the stories that we'll be bringing to you.
John Simon Sr. 26:26
I think it's going to be a perfect podcast. You.
John, welcome to Simon Says, inspire a podcast about life, leadership and building legacies. I'm John Simon, and with me is
Dina Simon 00:15
Dina Simon, your daughter in law, and I'm excited to be a part of this podcast with you, and
John Simon Sr. 00:22
I'm excited the fact that we're not only going to bring all of our family members into the podcast, but we're also going to bring friends and and relatives and old associates that we met throughout the years.
Dina Simon 00:35
Exactly, yep, we have some customers and other leaders that we know and community people that we know that we're excited to get on our podcast, and I think our family some are excited, some might be a little nervous that we're asking them to be on a podcast with us, but we wanted to take the opportunity, you know, so I worked for you in my early 20s, and you were the president of a company that I worked for, so I have a tremendous amount of respect for you as a leader. We've been able to work with some really cool people. And just we wanted to take the time, you know, with the words Simon Says, inspire, and the podcast about life, leadership and building legacies, you know, just our opportunity to bring people to the table to help tell those stories well. And
John Simon Sr. 01:20
a number of the people that I've talked to about joining the podcast as we go on, they said if they can inspire one person, they would do it in a minute.
Dina Simon 01:29
I love that. Yeah. So we're excited. We thank our listeners for joining the podcast, and that's what it's about. It's about bringing stories of our lives, our family's lives, our friends lives, and we'll talk a little bit about leadership, and then we feel that building legacies is, you know, what we get to do every day, it's we don't leave just our legacies behind, but we live our legacies out while we're living and those will be the stories that we'll be bringing to you. Dina,
John Simon Sr. 01:55
let's take a second to talk a little bit about yourself and how we met and what inspires you? Yeah,
Dina Simon 02:02
well, and I think we had to go back and kind of figure out what year we think it was probably around 1990 9119
John Simon Sr. 02:11
91 is what I came what I came up with when I did some thinking about it in Madison, Wisconsin.
Dina Simon 02:16
Yep, I was going to college, and I was waitressing at Chili's. Me and both of my college roommates, we all waitressed at the Chili's in Madison, and that's actually where I ran into some of your colleagues, and then also you down the line. But Charles Waterloo used to be a very regular, and he'd come in, and we knew how to take care of him with a big picture of iced tea. And then the rest of you kind of followed suit, and we got to know who you were, and just got talking, and then had an opportunity to join the associates while I was still in college, and that's where we met, because you were the president of associates leasing at that time.
John Simon Sr. 02:53
And I think you met a young lady that worked in human resources, Laura Doyle,
Dina Simon 02:58
yep, I met Laura. So I think Laura was actually the one. So we got to know Charles, got to know Laura like I started to learn all the all the associates, people that would frequent there, especially on lunch, because it wasn't that far. And Laura absolutely was the one that said, Hey, we've got a position open. You should take a look at it. Well, that's
John Simon Sr. 03:16
great. And from there it was. You worked there. And in 1993 we relocated the company to Dallas, Texas, and you moved down here, so it ended up being a great career for you and for the associates.
Dina Simon 03:30
Yeah, it did, and it'll be fun throughout our podcast. Just you know, you and I have built both been very fortunate to work for some pretty amazing companies and the people that we had around us, but me as a very young you know, in my early 20s, what an awesome opportunity it was for me to work with people like yourself and the other leadership team, and just the experience that I had been given, and I see like now with Mandy, my daughter, at the same age, working her job as she's going to college, she's being exposed to some of those great things that it's super exciting.
John Simon Sr. 04:03
Well, I do know one thing. You weren't from Madison, Wisconsin. I
Dina Simon 04:06
wasn't. No, nope. I am a St Paul, Minnesota girl born and raised and I went to the University of Minnesota my freshman year, and one of my best friends growing up had gone to Madison, and I went to pick her up. I think I must have gotten done early and had a car, so I went and picked her up at Madison to bring her home at Christmas time. And I never been to Madison. I never really thought about going to college outside of Minnesota. And when I went to Madison, I fell in love with Madison, and then I was there that next June, as
John Simon Sr. 04:37
most people do to whenever they go there, yeah, so be being from Minnesota. Tell us a little bit about your family,
Dina Simon 04:44
yeah. So I am the middle of three sisters, so my older sister Debbie, and then my little sister Susie, and we are very fortunate to have a cousin who was an only child. Her name is Kristen, and Kristen is like a. Sister to us. So it was Debbie four years later, Chrissy, four years later, me and four years later, Susie. So we all grew up pretty close as sisters, and now you know, unfortunately that our parents generation is no longer living in the Twin Cities, so we're the older generation now here in town,
John Simon Sr. 05:16
but you're all back in the Twin Cities, with the exception of your youngest sister, Susie,
Dina Simon 05:22
yeah, yeah, yeah. So just fun to be back home as Rich and I moved back. It's been almost 20 years, which is crazy, and
John Simon Sr. 05:28
Mandy, at the time, was about what, two years old. Yeah. We
Dina Simon 05:32
had just celebrated our second birthday in August in California, and then we were here in October.
John Simon Sr. 05:37
Wow. It's amazing how things change, but then they become the same, because you're born and raised there, and now you're back there again. And I'm sure you're planning on being there for a lot longer.
Dina Simon 05:47
Yes, yes, we love to be here a lot longer. It depends on, depends on what Mandy does one day. But yes, we do. We do enjoy it. We we didn't care for this winter, but we sure enjoy being here. Well, that's
John Simon Sr. 05:58
great. So you've been involved in a number of corporations you you were in the staffing business for quite some time. Tell us a little bit about that. Yeah,
Dina Simon 06:09
so when I left Madison, is because I got engaged to your son, and we moved to Arizona for him to go to graduate school, and I actually kind of fell into staffing. I answered an ad for a position at a small mom and pop staffing firm in Tucson, Arizona, and that's where I really kind of fell into it. And I started as a recruiter and then a selling branch manager, and then was lucky to get picked up by a large national staffing firm that I was able to run very fast in as far as leadership roles that I was able to step into. And so the staffing industry was an amazing industry about learning how to, you know, supply companies with their greatest asset, and that's people. So it's a real, really awesome just industry to grow up in. And every day was different because you were dealing with different clients, companies that needed different types of people every day too, and
John Simon Sr. 07:06
in a very short period of time, you went from just being a staff person there to moving up in top management within the corporation. I
Dina Simon 07:14
did, yeah. I was very ambitious, and wanted to have a vice president title by the age of 35 and I did. So yeah, worked really hard just within two different large staffing organizations, is where I spent most of my career, and again, just the opportunities that were presented that I could step into, but also amazing leaders that believed in me and continued to support me as I as I grew, and
John Simon Sr. 07:39
from all that you created, the other opportunities that you have with Simon says give Simon Says leap. Simon says lead, yeah,
Dina Simon 07:49
absolutely, yeah. So when I was turning 40, I had done, as I said, kind of climbed that corporate ladder, and was unfortunately traveling a lot, and Mandy was seven at the time, and I decided that I wanted to not have that, like travel all the time, and left my big corporate role. So I went out on my own. And that was really kind of when Simon Says lead. It wasn't named that at that time. It was Simon and Associates, when I started that and started just doing things on my own, and then shortly after, is when Mandy presented her business plan for us to start. Simon says, Give. And so thank you for the last name Simon, and I'm sure we'll talk about that at some point, but I definitely have been able to capitalize on that. So Simon says give. Simon says lead. Simon says, inspire. And we own the rights to a few other Simon Says names too.
John Simon Sr. 08:44
Well, it's great that you can use the name. Yeah, absolutely. It really adds more to the legacy of everything that can tie your last name into it.
Dina Simon 08:53
Yeah, absolutely, you asked the question about what inspires me earlier, when you wanted me to tell Yeah. So I think what inspires me really is helping people lead. And so that's not just in business, but lead through, you know, problems they're having, and that's why I love coaching with people. But really, what inspires me is is my family and my friends and the cool people that I get to work with on a regular basis, so just the really collector of people, and the people that I get to spend my time with is what inspires me
John Simon Sr. 09:24
well, and it's abramowski at business, how, especially the way you run your business, you're in a position where you're meeting a lot of high level management people, and how sometimes you have to coach them along, also, because not everyone has that leadership ability,
Dina Simon 09:41
right, right? And a lot of people have moved up in their career and maybe haven't had examples of really great leadership. So they they've had bad examples, and they know that, but they don't know what good leadership looks like.
John Simon Sr. 09:53
And as we all know, good leadership comes from good people, and it all stems with working hard and. And and really listening to people, because people will tell you what they need and how you can help them if you give them a chance to tell you
Dina Simon 10:08
absolutely, yeah, yeah. And so, um, so I think we should share a little bit too, like, where why we're doing this, and how it came about. And so I'll kind of kick that story off, and then you can add, if you'd like, sure, yeah. So we were just a few months ago. You were here in Minnesota visiting, and we were sitting at our dining room table, and we, as we get into all the time, because Mandy sure has, has heard those stories throughout her life. We got talking about stories from from the old days, from when you were working and I was working with you, but then also just the stories of people you know, that I know. And we had my nephew, Jake, your grandson, Jake, who was sitting at the table with us. He was here in Minnesota, and Jake was like, I haven't heard any of these stories. And so I said, well, and I actually took his cell phone away, if you remember, because I wanted him to listen to the stories. Yeah,
John Simon Sr. 11:03
I remember the night very well. It was a Friday during Lent, and sitting at the table, you made three different fish for dinner, and Jake, he loved all of it. We sat there, and we get started talking about the past, and Jake said, Gee, never heard any of this. And that's what I think made the whole thought of putting this together you and Rich talked about it, it inspired you to start the Simon Says, aspire, yeah. And so that someday the kids could have the hear these stories and and know how everything came about.
Dina Simon 11:38
Yeah, absolutely. And as we talked like your you were fortunate enough to retire very early, we also think you retired too young, because you obviously have so much still to give back in business and leadership, but you all of the grandkids knew you just as grandpa. They didn't know you as as a president of a major organization, and know all the accolades that you had from being a business leader. So we are excited to be telling some of those stories and bring some of your old friends into life in our podcast as well.
John Simon Sr. 12:10
Well, that's great, because a lot of those stories come about through business, and some of the friends that we've made over the years that ended up were customers, and they ended up becoming friends of ours, yeah? And I think that's really a testament to a good organization and just good people you're working with. They're not only customers, but they become your friends too.
Dina Simon 12:30
Absolutely, yeah, yeah, yeah. And you got a daughter in law out of it, and you got a daughter.
John Simon Sr. 12:37
What more could what more could you ask
Dina Simon 12:41
for? Oh, boy, I think you thought you were in trouble when Rich and I started dating. So there you go.
John Simon Sr. 12:47
It. It took me a while to figure out that it all worked out. It all worked out in the long run. Yes, exactly. Yeah. You can. You can remember the times when the boys would come up to the office in Madison and the first thing you'd say, whatever, whenever they left, is, well, how much money did they need today? Exactly, yeah, that was, that was always some, some fun times. Exactly,
Dina Simon 13:10
yeah, seems, it seems like yesterday, but also seems like a long time ago,
John Simon Sr. 13:15
exactly. And you mentioned a few minutes ago, you know when you were 40, and I can remember when you were 20, so it's a you sit there and you wonder, where the years, where the years go by, and I was, I was in my 40s, yeah, at the time, and now I'm in 74 so the years, the years fly by. And you don't realize it, until you wake up one day and you say, Wow, weird. Yeah, where did all the time go exactly,
Dina Simon 13:41
exactly. So Can I switch gears and ask you some questions? Sure. Okay, so tell us a little bit about you. So tell us. Tell us your story, your family and growing up a little bit to where you are today.
John Simon Sr. 13:57
Well, it's, it's a pretty interesting story, at least to me, anyhow. Was raised in a small town outside of Pittsburgh called Braddock, Pennsylvania, and I was one of the five children. I was the second I have an older sister, Vic, and then myself, and then my brother Ed, my brother Bill and my sister Chris, and we, we had a really interesting childhood, because again, five kids, my mom and dad, we lived in a two bedroom home with one bath, and you sit there and say, How did you make it? And you didn't know any different. Everything, everything worked that fine, and you got into a routine. And I really got my first break in Pittsburgh, I was working for the Hertz Corporation, and I met a couple of people there who really liked the way I did things and the energy that I put into my job. And as time went by, I got promoted a few times and ended up moving from Pittsburgh to Chicago to work in the region office. And I was there for four years, and then. And from there, I was promoted to move to the world headquarters at 660 Madison Avenue in in New York City. So it was an interesting career. And then when I left in 1978 I started with the associates, and I was there until I retired in 2001
Dina Simon 15:16
Yeah, wow. 2001 Okay, I can't remember what year it was, yeah. Of it, yeah. And where are you now? Where do you reside now? We
John Simon Sr. 15:24
were just, we're just north of Fort Worth in Texas. A little time card, Argyle, Texas. We moved here from Madison, Wisconsin in 1993 so we've been here for 30 years this year. Oh, wow, isn't that crazy? Well, the interesting thing is, the longest we've ever lived anywhere, because Jeannie and I, we were both born and raised in Pittsburgh, and we moved away in 1974 to Chicago. So since 74 we've been on the road, I'll say, but we've enjoyed everywhere that we lived. Yeah, absolutely. And really, when you work for a corporation, like, like the Hertz Corporation and the associates, that's just part of the jobs, you know, moving whenever you have to and and that's really what would spurs you if, if you do a good job, if you work hard, you'll be rewarded for it, yeah, and it happened with With associates. When I started in 1978 I was actually working in South Bend, Indiana, where the auto leasing operation was headquartered. And the mission was to move it from South Bend into Chicago, because we wanted to grow the organization, and we didn't feel we could grow it the way we needed to in South Bend, Indiana. And so we moved it. I started initially as director of purchasing. From there, I worked my way up to a vice president, then a senior vice president, and then, and then the presidency. And one of the customers one time asked me, how did you get to to be the president? I suppose, pretty easy. I just stayed longer than anybody else.
Dina Simon 17:00
That's that's not all true, but yes, you did stay I love it. And then family so So tell, tell, tell the listeners about your kids and grandkids.
John Simon Sr. 17:11
Yep, we have three, three children, John Jr, Richard and Shannon. And John lives here in Texas, and of course, Richard and you live in Egon, Minnesota, and Shannon and her husband, Jonathan. They live in Durango, Colorado. And we have five great grand, or five, I'll say great grandchildren, even though they're not great grandchildren,
Dina Simon 17:30
meaning they're great they're great kids. Yeah, they're just great
John Simon Sr. 17:34
kids. Exactly. We have Maddie, Who's the oldest. She's in college right now getting ready to graduate with her master's degree. We have Simon, who just he's in Durango, Colorado. He just got his pilot's license for helicopters, and he'll be an interesting interview next week whenever we talk to him, because he's had to make some major changes in his life. For a 21 year old young man, yes, and that is that will be a very interesting story, yep. And then we have our granddaughter, Amanda. And of course, Amanda's at the University of Nebraska, where she's just finishing up her sophomore year, or, I think, as they say now, second year of school. And Jacob, who was up Minnesota for his freshman year at the Hamlin University. And then Lucy, she's getting ready to go to the University of Hawaii, yay, probably in August, which would give us all a great place to visit.
Dina Simon 18:29
I know I can't wait. Yeah, so you, your baby granddaughter is just graduating from high school, going off to college, and your oldest granddaughter, so all the grandkids, it's kind of fun the ages. Your oldest granddaughters is graduating with her masters.
John Simon Sr. 18:42
Yep. And it's amazing how fast the time goes, whenever, whenever they start school, and then she's already finished, and right getting ready to start her career. Yeah, see and leadership, exactly,
Dina Simon 18:55
yes. And I've heard from from friends of mine that would say, Oh my gosh. If I knew being a grandparent was going to be so much fun, I would have done that first. Yeah, very, a little bit different, right?
John Simon Sr. 19:10
It's a whole lot different. Yeah, you know what happens with your own children? You're a lot stricter. And when you have grandchildren, yeah, you know you're you as you get older, you become more lenient, well, and also it's more fun. Yeah, it's more fun. You can do the good things, and you don't have to discipline them twice as much, quite as much and and most of the time that you spend together, especially when you moved around, like we have, we get to we get to spend time with Mandy, and we get to spend time with Simon and Lucy, but the quality time that you get to spend with them is special.
Dina Simon 19:46
Yeah, absolutely, because I think too what I've noticed even just with my own daughter going off to college, right? So I'm still working, but my life seems so much less stressful as I've gotten older. Um. And so just I feel as I'm older, I have more time that I didn't have to give her when she was younger, because there were different stresses and pressures and stuff. So it's a really different relationship. Well, we will eventually have all of your grandchildren, I'm sure, the podcast, because they adore both you, which we call you pap, Pap, and they adore granny as well, but you have a very special relationship with all of your grandkids, and I know they'll be excited to be guests on our podcast. We
John Simon Sr. 20:29
really do. And you know, the an interesting thing that you're finding out right now how empty the house becomes, yeah,
Dina Simon 20:37
absolutely. You had a few of us come back a few times, though, some some, well, right? Yeah, we've, we've come back, yeah,
John Simon Sr. 20:46
for a short time, yeah, yeah, yeah. But it's amazing when, when the kids leave. How, as I said before, yeah, I grew up in a house where there were seven people. We had two bedrooms and one bath and and now granny and I live in a house with four bedrooms and three baths, and we have two people. So it's amazing how things change, and you're going through the same thing right now with you and rich and big house and just the two of you living in it, it seems pretty empty at times.
Dina Simon 21:15
Yes, exactly. So I'll ask you the same question, what inspires you? I,
John Simon Sr. 21:21
you know, I'm the type of a person that I wouldn't say, a perfectionist, but I like when things go smoothly and and, and I like when, when you sit down and you you're working on a project, and even to this day in retirement, I'm always doing something, and whether it's involved in the church or charity or something, but I'd like to see things go smoothly. And so many times, people do things maybe halfway, and you really you need to do them right the first time, and when you do them right the first time, you don't have to go back and redo them again. So it inspires me when, when I when I get to see something start and then come to a conclusion. And everything works. Whenever it comes to the conclusion of
Dina Simon 22:10
it nice, absolutely, that perfection piece is also there's a lot of planning that comes into things. So, like you're a planner. So Mandy, she is such a planner that, like, she'll go, she'll start planning. And she was asking us, what, what about something at Labor Day weekend? And we're like, can we just get through Memorial Day weekend? Like, like, just get through finals. But that's so funny. And now that I now, I'm like, Huh? I actually might have gotten that from you, John, but the planning piece and then, you know, just even you and I getting ready for the podcast, we spent time, you know, making sure we were set up and stuff, because we wanted things to go smoothly,
John Simon Sr. 22:49
I had to learn a whole lot of different things about hooking up the computer and the microphone and the headset and all that there. But I'm a little challenged when it comes to electronics, but we were able to figure it out with all of your help and everything. And I think that's what's going to make this podcast really interesting, because we'll be doing this with a lot of people, and hear a lot of their stories, not only about the family, but what they did in life, and really, and a lot of times, what they're looking for, what's the what's the future have to bring in. All the years that I was with the associates our chairman, Maurice Overcash, he used to, really, he had three he called them the three eyes. And it was integrity, intelligence and intensity. And if we, if you lift those three eyes, you can, you can be pretty successful.
Dina Simon 23:47
Yeah, love that. Love that. I forgot that. Yeah, that's awesome. Um, so anything else you want to share for our kickoff podcast?
John Simon Sr. 23:54
Well, other than the fact that I'm really looking forward to talking with everyone and hearing, hearing stories and telling stories. Say, I they always kid me that I tell way too many stories whenever I get involved in something. But to me, little stories, to me, I like telling him, and sometimes people like hearing them. Yeah, I you know, the stories are really I hear stories about my when I was growing up, stories about my grandparents and stories about my father and mother and my siblings. And, you know, sometimes they get forgotten about. And I think through things like the podcast, they don't get forgotten about exactly things the future generations can can take a look at and early Take a listen to, yeah, and have an idea of really, what life was like in the year 2023
Dina Simon 24:43
Yeah, exactly. Well, and I echo that. I'm super excited to doing this passion project with you, and we're gonna have a ton of fun. So also, thank you. You were super excited and leaned right in when we talked about doing this, so I'm excited to partner with you on it.
John Simon Sr. 24:59
Well. It was good because it, like you said, it all came about because Jacob wanted to know. Yeah, exactly.
Dina Simon 25:04
So thanks Jake for the wanting to know and and he and he truly did, and so that was the inspiration behind it. And always love just sharing, sharing stories with you as well. I believe that that that, again, is kind of our living out our legacies while we're still here, is sharing those stories. So an awesome opportunity to have them recorded. It's going
John Simon Sr. 25:25
to be wonderful. Looking forward to it. And again, as you said before, it'll not only be family, but it'll be friends and colleagues and people that we used to work with, yeah, people that you know, that we've known for years,
Dina Simon 25:38
exactly yes. And so when we launch, there will be ways for people to, you know, to send us notes to get involved, and so there'll be some calls to action. But we're always open for other guests of even people that we don't know. We'd love to meet new people along this journey as well. So thank you, John, for doing this with me. I'm very excited.
John Simon Sr. 25:59
It was great, and I look forward to our next interview.
Dina Simon 26:03
We thank our listeners for joining the podcast, and that's what it's about. It's about bringing stories of our lives, our family's lives, our friends' lives, and we'll talk a little bit about leadership. And then we feel that building legacies is, you know, what we get to do every day, it's we don't leave just our legacies behind, but we live our legacies out while we're living and those will be the stories that we'll be bringing to you.
John Simon Sr. 26:26
I think it's going to be a perfect podcast. You.