Season 1 of Simon Says Inspire Wrap.
Transcript
John Simon Sr. 00:06
John, welcome to Simon Says, inspire a podcast about life, leadership and building legacies. I'm John Simon, SR
Dina Simon 00:14
and I'm Dina Simon.
John Simon Sr. 00:16
Today, we're recording on Friday, December the 15th, 23 and we thought we would take a little bit of time to go through some of the podcasts that we have produced this year. But before we do that, I'd like to first thank a few people. First of all, someone that I have never met or talked to, and that would be Eric. Eric is our editor and the one who really does a lot of the work in producing podcasts. So Dina, you could probably fill me in a little bit more about Eric, because without him, this wouldn't be possible,
Dina Simon 00:49
right? Yep. So I found ERIC through my friend Jen Fleming, who we've had on the podcast. She uses him for other podcasts that she helps produce, and just recommended him. And he's amazing, as you said, and we are very lucky. We found him because, as you know, it's magic. We send him the file, and he goes through it and makes us sound great.
John Simon Sr. 01:09
Well, you know, the one thing we we tell our guests before we start recording is don't worry about making mistakes or faux pas, because Eric does such a great job of fixing all of the little things that we may do wrong, like talking over each other and things like that. So I just wanted to give a big shout out to him, wherever he is. Yeah,
Dina Simon 01:28
he's in Dallas actually, which is super fun. Okay,
John Simon Sr. 01:34
yeah, so
Dina Simon 01:35
when I'm down there next time, for longer, we'll have to meet him in person. We'll
John Simon Sr. 01:39
have to go do that. Yeah, and the second one is our grandson, Jay, because really, he's the one that made this possible, right?
Dina Simon 01:46
Yeah, he is. He was the one that gave us the inspiration to come together and tell these stories. And so we have to thank him, yeah.
John Simon Sr. 01:54
And finally, you Dina, for everything that you do. You're the one who does all the work behind the scenes. I got to get on five minutes before or 10 minutes before, but you do all the setting up and everything. So I know it requires a lot of your time to do a 30 minute podcast. So thank you for all of that also.
Dina Simon 02:11
Well, you're welcome, but if I can just share right now, this has been so much fun for me. It's been so much fun just to have a weekly connection with you, and bringing our, you know, family and friends and people to the table to have these conversations. So it's truly brought me so much joy, and you have made it so easy also because you have done the research and spent time and worked on questions and stuff. So I actually feel you've probably done more heavy lifting than you think, but it's just been super, super fun.
John Simon Sr. 02:43
It's hard to release. We've done 23 of them already, right?
Dina Simon 02:46
I know, I know, and I think we both have been told that most podcasters start out, they maybe don't get to 20, and they don't keep going. And so I'm super excited. We surpassed that, and we're going
John Simon Sr. 02:58
to keep going. I believe we will. So yes, you know, if we take a look, we did our introduction one in June, and we just kind of talked back and forth about how we met and everything that you've done in life, and the things that I've done. And then our first real guest from Simon donaway, yeah, Simon,
Dina Simon 03:13
and you probably know, more updates, I think it's super fun to just like as we look back in the last six months and all the fun things that have happened to some of our guests. So Simon, in the beginning, he hadn't yet gone back to Alaska, so he's already had done his summer tour on the fishing boat. Yep,
John Simon Sr. 03:31
he did that. I think it was the second year at it, and he didn't get a chance to do any of the forest fires this year, so maybe there weren't as many, which is not a bad thing either, right? But now he's back to college and in helicopter school, so he saw him very well. Yeah, yay. And then we had Amy groves. We did have Amy Grove, a very good friend of yours. Yes.
Dina Simon 03:51
And Amy, her third book, launched on November 1, like she kind of alluded and promised it would. It's, am I enough? So that's her third book, and she's doing awesome things. She's out at places, signing books and selling books, and so that's super exciting, but that's her update,
John Simon Sr. 04:08
and that's that's great for her because of everything that she went through. Yep. Then, of course, we had rich. We did have rich, and he's been promoted since then
Dina Simon 04:17
he has, yeah, so he's been promoted, and he's taken one Europe trip, and he's working on his global plans for next year. As far as going to see some of his people out in the world, I know that even his people in China are eagerly awaiting to see him, because the last trip he was in China was in like, January of 2020, okay,
John Simon Sr. 04:38
so he's been a long Well, since, yeah, pre pandemic, I guess, yeah. And I think I'll probably end up doing another remote podcast, because at the end of January, rich and myself and a couple of his friends were going to go on an off roading adventure. I know that's so exciting. We'll do a nice off roading one, just like we did at the state fair. Yeah, I love it. So then we had. Shannon Don way, yes, Shannon, and she's going everything that she loves to do. She's teaching and raising her two children and still doing her podcast. Also,
Dina Simon 05:10
yeah, she is, and you're gonna see Shannon next week, and then Shannon is part of a small group of people that are gonna be doing a women's retreat with me in April, so I've been talking to her through that, but I can't wait to see her, if I don't see her before, well,
John Simon Sr. 05:24
and you know, it's gonna be hard to catch up with her, because she spends a lot of time in Hawaii now
Dina Simon 05:30
she does. Yeah, you guys are going to Hawaii in February. February we
John Simon Sr. 05:34
leave. Yes. And then we had Gary Allen Henson, which is a friend of mine. And Gary was the gentleman who spent nine years in the Navy, and he told great stories about being deployed and everything. And I think in 2024 we should get his spouse, Debbie Henson, on to talk a little bit about what it's like being the spouse of the person that's deployed as often as he was deployed.
Dina Simon 05:56
Yeah, I would love that. Yeah, he was so fascinating, and it would be great to have him back on then
John Simon Sr. 06:00
we had Darren Lynch, which I loved, hearing the stories about the Irish Titan and his legendary St Patrick's Day parties that he had, and the growth of his organization. Yeah,
Dina Simon 06:11
he has an event called the ecom forum, and it's, I think it was, September time frame, but he has every year, and I went, and it just continues to grow, and he just continues to thrive and support businesses. That was super exciting
John Simon Sr. 06:25
for Ace podcast, we had Colleen white Slingerland, who is your cousin, and she's had a lot of changes in her life since she was on the podcast.
Dina Simon 06:33
She has so she went through a major interview panel for promotion within her organization, and she and Henry, they are relocating to Asheville in January, and so huge changes. And she's so excited. That's
John Simon Sr. 06:50
a big change right there, going from Chicago to Asheville, but I'm sure she'll do well, and her passion for animals and helping other people,
Dina Simon 06:58
yes, very proud of her.
John Simon Sr. 06:59
We had Brad Lance, and Brad, you know, talked about being a calmer you and have bounced in your life, and I think he's helped you with that. Also,
Dina Simon 07:09
he has Yes, and I still see him, maybe about once a month, every six weeks, for lunch, just to talk through things. But he's just Yeah. He's a fantastic human being that helps people. He's a mental fitness coach, and just love him.
John Simon Sr. 07:22
Then we had Angela Chrisman. And the great part about having Angela, I had a chance and to meet her whenever we came up for the State Fair, and had a chance to have lunch with her and her husband and go to Stillwater. And she's doing great thing with liftbridge.
Dina Simon 07:40
She is. She's doing great things with liftbridge, and I went to one of her events, and one of the things that I told her after is she just has such amazing energy. She's just such a good human being, and it was really evident in a room full of hundreds of people that she just is. She's just genuine and just such a great human well. And
John Simon Sr. 07:59
it was great meeting with her and her husband and having lunch with them and just getting to meet him in person, which was really nice. Yeah, and then we had a fellow that I've known for quite a few years, Greg Jackson, and Greg's the entrepreneur, and he's really a guy that just takes his time and working with businesses, trying to help them do better, and doesn't charge him anything for it. He just gives them the knowledge that he's gained over the years and helps them build and grow their businesses. And as Greg always says, if you can measure something, you can make it better. And that's always been his philosophy, and he continues to do that, yeah, yeah, yeah. He
Dina Simon 08:37
was wonderful.
John Simon Sr. 08:38
We had Kathy paper, yeah, Rock Paper star, and probably one of the more competitive persons I think I've ever talked to, because she, I don't think she quits at anything. I mean, whether it's a sports or work. I mean, she's probably one of the more competitive people you'll ever meet.
Dina Simon 08:54
Yes, I agree with that, and I'll be seeing her this afternoon, where we're actually working on a project together for the United States Tennis Association. There's a little project she and I are working on together, and that competitive spirit is definitely there. But I love that, that you picked that out. Oh yeah, she
John Simon Sr. 09:09
was, she was really good. And then I did a remote live from the Minnesota State Fair, which was a lot of fun, Rich and I were there, and we talked from every everyone from mechanics to truck drivers to school principals, and we had a we had a great time sharing stories and hearing their stories about what they loved about the state fair. And they they were always interested in the comparison between it and the Texas State Fair. And as I said many times on the podcast, there is no competition. The Minnesota State Fair is by far the best. And if there's anything you can put on a stick, they can do it at the Minnesota State Fair. Yes. And then we had Nick white, the founder of the 100 year manifesto, and he was very interesting, and he just talked about getting life right. And he was very interesting. And I'm sure a lot of our listeners found that also, yeah,
Dina Simon 09:57
yeah, he's great. And John one of. Things I'm doing with him next year is so he has all his different lunches. So best lunch ever. There's one focus on nonprofits and businesses, but Simon Says, given, Simon Says, lead, we're a sponsor for a series of the lunches next year, I'm hoping to get in front of some new people here in town, especially to talk about high five for supplies. 2024
John Simon Sr. 10:22
Wow. It's great how all these tie together, the people, not only that we've had on the podcast, but how you all work together also, yeah. And then we had Tamara Prado on and she's just a great business growth advisor, helping businesses grow and become much larger and more profitable.
Dina Simon 10:39
Yes, and Tamara and I are partnering on some very fun projects in the new year. And we just went to an event a couple nights ago, a women's event here in town. And it was super cute, because there were probably about five different people that when they learned what my business was and what her business was, they were like, Oh, do you partner together? Because it sounds very complimentary. And we just smiled and said, Yes, we do, and we hope to do a lot more of it in the future well. And it's
John Simon Sr. 11:05
great that people see that, yeah, yeah, about the way you work together and everything. So yeah. And then we have Jennifer Fleming. She's a great communicator and really big in public relations.
Dina Simon 11:18
Yes, she is, yeah, she is, and she's doing awesome. I just talked to her yesterday, and she's excited about 2024 so excited for Jen and all that she's got going on.
John Simon Sr. 11:27
And then Lisa Bob Yak was on as a life balance and burnout recovery coach, which I'm sure she's helped a lot of people, especially when you're an entrepreneur. One of the things we talked about when she was on is how you think you have to do everything, and really you can let other people do some things, but she helps people kind of make sure that they don't have the burnt out that a lot of entrepreneurs go through.
Dina Simon 11:51
Yeah, and you know what I just thought of as you're saying this is I need to make sure she knows Scott mckesh Because of his conversation that we just launched his podcast. But I need to make sure they know each other in the community, because of what happened to them physically right, from a physical perspective, when they were hitting kind of that stress level, and both of them are in kind of similar spaces as far as coaching and helping people. Okay,
John Simon Sr. 12:16
well, just again, it all ties together whenever we talk about it, then we had a friend of mine, Debbie Seeger. Debbie was a young lady that had 41 years with Modine Manufacturing Company and the first female director, and she set the stage for quite a few females at Modine Manufacturing. She
Dina Simon 12:35
did and I posted some stuff on LinkedIn about her. And just, you know how they said, Debbie, you have a chance to make it or break it for the females that come behind you. And she obviously made it, and has just such an amazing career. And the fun things she's doing now in retirement as a grandma and still extraordinarily active in her community,
John Simon Sr. 12:55
you know, she will always be that way and that, because that's in her DNA to do that. And then we had Heidi Olson, and at the time we were talking to Heidi, almost on the day that we talked to her, she started a new company called account annuity, and I'm sure that you've talked to her, and I'm sure that that's moving along smoothly for her, because she has really grown that business. She
Dina Simon 13:16
has, yeah, and she's doing great, and it's super fun, because she was so known for all in one accounting because that's the name of the company for 19 years. So now, when I see the new, you know, the new name, and in marketing and stuff, it takes me a second to go, Oh my gosh, yeah, that's Heidi. That's Heidi's company. So she's doing awesome.
John Simon Sr. 13:33
And then we had Tamika Jones. Tamika was a wonderful guest. She's a creator of lip esteem, and she talked a lot about how she started a business right before or during the pandemic, and we did make a couple comments on it that people seem to care about two things, and one is how they look and the other is how they feel. And therefore makeup and alcohol are two things that make it look good and feel good,
Dina Simon 13:56
right? Yeah, yeah, yeah. She's awesome, and I hope she's having a great just holiday season from a sales perspective,
John Simon Sr. 14:04
and she once again, will be at the stage fair next year, and hopefully with a lot more product that she can sell, because I think she did very good on her first year there.
Dina Simon 14:13
She did, yes, and Ashley, I should send you the article. I'm not sure if I showed it to you, but she was actually in one of the Minneapolis publications. She had a little feature, and it talked, she shared the story about how, like, within six days, she had to set up shop and move fast, yeah, yeah. And
John Simon Sr. 14:29
then we had Kelly shoe trap on there, which she has a company called theftville, resound. And she talked an awful lot about, you know, all the businesses that she works with, yes.
Dina Simon 14:39
And she, I think, is doing amazing and super busy. So her leap of faith and going out on her own has paid off. I think she's reached capacity. She's got so much going on,
John Simon Sr. 14:49
good for her. And our 22nd guest was Adrian Kohler. And Adria is an executive coach, and Pete talked a lot about, you know what it's like dealing with entrepreneurs? And executives and some of the people that he dealt with, yeah,
Dina Simon 15:02
and he was super fun, because he was the first one that neither of us knew from Adam. Somebody reached out to us and said, Hey, we think he'd be a good guest. And he was fantastic. And then we did make sure he got some Lou malnotti pizza delivered so he could share with his family. But look forward to staying connected with him as well. Now, that
John Simon Sr. 15:22
was great of you to send him that, because one of the questions I had at the end of it, you like deep dish pizza or crest? And he said all he he just loves the deep dish. In fact, he was instrumental in Luma NAT. He's opening up a restaurant right near the church that he was working at at the time in in Chicago, right? I
Dina Simon 15:41
love that. That was so great. Yep,
John Simon Sr. 15:42
kudos to him. Then our final one last week was Scott mickish. And Scott works with that mental fitness and just to make your mind and your body a little bit tougher. And he was a great guest we had on. And I think he's from Fargo, North Dakota, originally, and migrated to Minneapolis from there, and really St Paul from there. And we had some nice conversations about everything that he has done. Yeah,
Dina Simon 16:07
we did absolutely. And it was funny, because I know you and I ended with him talking about how we could do a podcast just about what happens with life changes like retirement and stuff. Retirement,
John Simon Sr. 16:17
yes, he mentioned retirement, and right away I picked up on the fact that you know, when you when you leave a job after 20, 3040, years, day one, when you retire, you've left all your pretty much a lot of your friends behind, because most of us have friends that we work with, and you don't have as many social friends at that time. But then you have to start building on on your social life, because that's really what you've worked for. And I think it would be great to do a podcast about retirement. Yeah, I
Dina Simon 16:47
agree. I talked with somebody yesterday about Edmonds, so I know there's a need for it. So yes,
John Simon Sr. 16:52
so that kind of rounds out our first season, and we had some great, great people. And really looking forward to the start of the second season, we'll end up having a lot of good guests. We'll have some repeat guests, and like I mentioned earlier, I'll do at least one remote from the off roading trip that Rich and I are going to do awesome. And just want to wish everyone a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year. And thanks for listening to our podcast.
Dina Simon 17:17
Yes. Thank you to all of our listeners, and for those that are have been on the fence wondering if they should be a guest, they need to reach out to us, right? We'll
John Simon Sr. 17:25
be happy to share their stories with all of our listeners.
Dina Simon 17:29
Exactly, exactly. Well. John again, thank you so much for doing this with me. It's been so much fun. Both rich and Mandy have kind of laughed at me along the way, just saying, oh my gosh, you're loving this so much Yes, I am. It's just been so much fun doing this with you. So I look forward to next year. Well, good. I
John Simon Sr. 17:46
do also, and I guess to steal a phrase from Lester Holt on the evening news, you know, be kind to yourself and each other. Absolutely.
Dina Simon 17:54
Cheers. Thank you. You
John, welcome to Simon Says, inspire a podcast about life, leadership and building legacies. I'm John Simon, SR
Dina Simon 00:14
and I'm Dina Simon.
John Simon Sr. 00:16
Today, we're recording on Friday, December the 15th, 23 and we thought we would take a little bit of time to go through some of the podcasts that we have produced this year. But before we do that, I'd like to first thank a few people. First of all, someone that I have never met or talked to, and that would be Eric. Eric is our editor and the one who really does a lot of the work in producing podcasts. So Dina, you could probably fill me in a little bit more about Eric, because without him, this wouldn't be possible,
Dina Simon 00:49
right? Yep. So I found ERIC through my friend Jen Fleming, who we've had on the podcast. She uses him for other podcasts that she helps produce, and just recommended him. And he's amazing, as you said, and we are very lucky. We found him because, as you know, it's magic. We send him the file, and he goes through it and makes us sound great.
John Simon Sr. 01:09
Well, you know, the one thing we we tell our guests before we start recording is don't worry about making mistakes or faux pas, because Eric does such a great job of fixing all of the little things that we may do wrong, like talking over each other and things like that. So I just wanted to give a big shout out to him, wherever he is. Yeah,
Dina Simon 01:28
he's in Dallas actually, which is super fun. Okay,
John Simon Sr. 01:34
yeah, so
Dina Simon 01:35
when I'm down there next time, for longer, we'll have to meet him in person. We'll
John Simon Sr. 01:39
have to go do that. Yeah, and the second one is our grandson, Jay, because really, he's the one that made this possible, right?
Dina Simon 01:46
Yeah, he is. He was the one that gave us the inspiration to come together and tell these stories. And so we have to thank him, yeah.
John Simon Sr. 01:54
And finally, you Dina, for everything that you do. You're the one who does all the work behind the scenes. I got to get on five minutes before or 10 minutes before, but you do all the setting up and everything. So I know it requires a lot of your time to do a 30 minute podcast. So thank you for all of that also.
Dina Simon 02:11
Well, you're welcome, but if I can just share right now, this has been so much fun for me. It's been so much fun just to have a weekly connection with you, and bringing our, you know, family and friends and people to the table to have these conversations. So it's truly brought me so much joy, and you have made it so easy also because you have done the research and spent time and worked on questions and stuff. So I actually feel you've probably done more heavy lifting than you think, but it's just been super, super fun.
John Simon Sr. 02:43
It's hard to release. We've done 23 of them already, right?
Dina Simon 02:46
I know, I know, and I think we both have been told that most podcasters start out, they maybe don't get to 20, and they don't keep going. And so I'm super excited. We surpassed that, and we're going
John Simon Sr. 02:58
to keep going. I believe we will. So yes, you know, if we take a look, we did our introduction one in June, and we just kind of talked back and forth about how we met and everything that you've done in life, and the things that I've done. And then our first real guest from Simon donaway, yeah, Simon,
Dina Simon 03:13
and you probably know, more updates, I think it's super fun to just like as we look back in the last six months and all the fun things that have happened to some of our guests. So Simon, in the beginning, he hadn't yet gone back to Alaska, so he's already had done his summer tour on the fishing boat. Yep,
John Simon Sr. 03:31
he did that. I think it was the second year at it, and he didn't get a chance to do any of the forest fires this year, so maybe there weren't as many, which is not a bad thing either, right? But now he's back to college and in helicopter school, so he saw him very well. Yeah, yay. And then we had Amy groves. We did have Amy Grove, a very good friend of yours. Yes.
Dina Simon 03:51
And Amy, her third book, launched on November 1, like she kind of alluded and promised it would. It's, am I enough? So that's her third book, and she's doing awesome things. She's out at places, signing books and selling books, and so that's super exciting, but that's her update,
John Simon Sr. 04:08
and that's that's great for her because of everything that she went through. Yep. Then, of course, we had rich. We did have rich, and he's been promoted since then
Dina Simon 04:17
he has, yeah, so he's been promoted, and he's taken one Europe trip, and he's working on his global plans for next year. As far as going to see some of his people out in the world, I know that even his people in China are eagerly awaiting to see him, because the last trip he was in China was in like, January of 2020, okay,
John Simon Sr. 04:38
so he's been a long Well, since, yeah, pre pandemic, I guess, yeah. And I think I'll probably end up doing another remote podcast, because at the end of January, rich and myself and a couple of his friends were going to go on an off roading adventure. I know that's so exciting. We'll do a nice off roading one, just like we did at the state fair. Yeah, I love it. So then we had. Shannon Don way, yes, Shannon, and she's going everything that she loves to do. She's teaching and raising her two children and still doing her podcast. Also,
Dina Simon 05:10
yeah, she is, and you're gonna see Shannon next week, and then Shannon is part of a small group of people that are gonna be doing a women's retreat with me in April, so I've been talking to her through that, but I can't wait to see her, if I don't see her before, well,
John Simon Sr. 05:24
and you know, it's gonna be hard to catch up with her, because she spends a lot of time in Hawaii now
Dina Simon 05:30
she does. Yeah, you guys are going to Hawaii in February. February we
John Simon Sr. 05:34
leave. Yes. And then we had Gary Allen Henson, which is a friend of mine. And Gary was the gentleman who spent nine years in the Navy, and he told great stories about being deployed and everything. And I think in 2024 we should get his spouse, Debbie Henson, on to talk a little bit about what it's like being the spouse of the person that's deployed as often as he was deployed.
Dina Simon 05:56
Yeah, I would love that. Yeah, he was so fascinating, and it would be great to have him back on then
John Simon Sr. 06:00
we had Darren Lynch, which I loved, hearing the stories about the Irish Titan and his legendary St Patrick's Day parties that he had, and the growth of his organization. Yeah,
Dina Simon 06:11
he has an event called the ecom forum, and it's, I think it was, September time frame, but he has every year, and I went, and it just continues to grow, and he just continues to thrive and support businesses. That was super exciting
John Simon Sr. 06:25
for Ace podcast, we had Colleen white Slingerland, who is your cousin, and she's had a lot of changes in her life since she was on the podcast.
Dina Simon 06:33
She has so she went through a major interview panel for promotion within her organization, and she and Henry, they are relocating to Asheville in January, and so huge changes. And she's so excited. That's
John Simon Sr. 06:50
a big change right there, going from Chicago to Asheville, but I'm sure she'll do well, and her passion for animals and helping other people,
Dina Simon 06:58
yes, very proud of her.
John Simon Sr. 06:59
We had Brad Lance, and Brad, you know, talked about being a calmer you and have bounced in your life, and I think he's helped you with that. Also,
Dina Simon 07:09
he has Yes, and I still see him, maybe about once a month, every six weeks, for lunch, just to talk through things. But he's just Yeah. He's a fantastic human being that helps people. He's a mental fitness coach, and just love him.
John Simon Sr. 07:22
Then we had Angela Chrisman. And the great part about having Angela, I had a chance and to meet her whenever we came up for the State Fair, and had a chance to have lunch with her and her husband and go to Stillwater. And she's doing great thing with liftbridge.
Dina Simon 07:40
She is. She's doing great things with liftbridge, and I went to one of her events, and one of the things that I told her after is she just has such amazing energy. She's just such a good human being, and it was really evident in a room full of hundreds of people that she just is. She's just genuine and just such a great human well. And
John Simon Sr. 07:59
it was great meeting with her and her husband and having lunch with them and just getting to meet him in person, which was really nice. Yeah, and then we had a fellow that I've known for quite a few years, Greg Jackson, and Greg's the entrepreneur, and he's really a guy that just takes his time and working with businesses, trying to help them do better, and doesn't charge him anything for it. He just gives them the knowledge that he's gained over the years and helps them build and grow their businesses. And as Greg always says, if you can measure something, you can make it better. And that's always been his philosophy, and he continues to do that, yeah, yeah, yeah. He
Dina Simon 08:37
was wonderful.
John Simon Sr. 08:38
We had Kathy paper, yeah, Rock Paper star, and probably one of the more competitive persons I think I've ever talked to, because she, I don't think she quits at anything. I mean, whether it's a sports or work. I mean, she's probably one of the more competitive people you'll ever meet.
Dina Simon 08:54
Yes, I agree with that, and I'll be seeing her this afternoon, where we're actually working on a project together for the United States Tennis Association. There's a little project she and I are working on together, and that competitive spirit is definitely there. But I love that, that you picked that out. Oh yeah, she
John Simon Sr. 09:09
was, she was really good. And then I did a remote live from the Minnesota State Fair, which was a lot of fun, Rich and I were there, and we talked from every everyone from mechanics to truck drivers to school principals, and we had a we had a great time sharing stories and hearing their stories about what they loved about the state fair. And they they were always interested in the comparison between it and the Texas State Fair. And as I said many times on the podcast, there is no competition. The Minnesota State Fair is by far the best. And if there's anything you can put on a stick, they can do it at the Minnesota State Fair. Yes. And then we had Nick white, the founder of the 100 year manifesto, and he was very interesting, and he just talked about getting life right. And he was very interesting. And I'm sure a lot of our listeners found that also, yeah,
Dina Simon 09:57
yeah, he's great. And John one of. Things I'm doing with him next year is so he has all his different lunches. So best lunch ever. There's one focus on nonprofits and businesses, but Simon Says, given, Simon Says, lead, we're a sponsor for a series of the lunches next year, I'm hoping to get in front of some new people here in town, especially to talk about high five for supplies. 2024
John Simon Sr. 10:22
Wow. It's great how all these tie together, the people, not only that we've had on the podcast, but how you all work together also, yeah. And then we had Tamara Prado on and she's just a great business growth advisor, helping businesses grow and become much larger and more profitable.
Dina Simon 10:39
Yes, and Tamara and I are partnering on some very fun projects in the new year. And we just went to an event a couple nights ago, a women's event here in town. And it was super cute, because there were probably about five different people that when they learned what my business was and what her business was, they were like, Oh, do you partner together? Because it sounds very complimentary. And we just smiled and said, Yes, we do, and we hope to do a lot more of it in the future well. And it's
John Simon Sr. 11:05
great that people see that, yeah, yeah, about the way you work together and everything. So yeah. And then we have Jennifer Fleming. She's a great communicator and really big in public relations.
Dina Simon 11:18
Yes, she is, yeah, she is, and she's doing awesome. I just talked to her yesterday, and she's excited about 2024 so excited for Jen and all that she's got going on.
John Simon Sr. 11:27
And then Lisa Bob Yak was on as a life balance and burnout recovery coach, which I'm sure she's helped a lot of people, especially when you're an entrepreneur. One of the things we talked about when she was on is how you think you have to do everything, and really you can let other people do some things, but she helps people kind of make sure that they don't have the burnt out that a lot of entrepreneurs go through.
Dina Simon 11:51
Yeah, and you know what I just thought of as you're saying this is I need to make sure she knows Scott mckesh Because of his conversation that we just launched his podcast. But I need to make sure they know each other in the community, because of what happened to them physically right, from a physical perspective, when they were hitting kind of that stress level, and both of them are in kind of similar spaces as far as coaching and helping people. Okay,
John Simon Sr. 12:16
well, just again, it all ties together whenever we talk about it, then we had a friend of mine, Debbie Seeger. Debbie was a young lady that had 41 years with Modine Manufacturing Company and the first female director, and she set the stage for quite a few females at Modine Manufacturing. She
Dina Simon 12:35
did and I posted some stuff on LinkedIn about her. And just, you know how they said, Debbie, you have a chance to make it or break it for the females that come behind you. And she obviously made it, and has just such an amazing career. And the fun things she's doing now in retirement as a grandma and still extraordinarily active in her community,
John Simon Sr. 12:55
you know, she will always be that way and that, because that's in her DNA to do that. And then we had Heidi Olson, and at the time we were talking to Heidi, almost on the day that we talked to her, she started a new company called account annuity, and I'm sure that you've talked to her, and I'm sure that that's moving along smoothly for her, because she has really grown that business. She
Dina Simon 13:16
has, yeah, and she's doing great, and it's super fun, because she was so known for all in one accounting because that's the name of the company for 19 years. So now, when I see the new, you know, the new name, and in marketing and stuff, it takes me a second to go, Oh my gosh, yeah, that's Heidi. That's Heidi's company. So she's doing awesome.
John Simon Sr. 13:33
And then we had Tamika Jones. Tamika was a wonderful guest. She's a creator of lip esteem, and she talked a lot about how she started a business right before or during the pandemic, and we did make a couple comments on it that people seem to care about two things, and one is how they look and the other is how they feel. And therefore makeup and alcohol are two things that make it look good and feel good,
Dina Simon 13:56
right? Yeah, yeah, yeah. She's awesome, and I hope she's having a great just holiday season from a sales perspective,
John Simon Sr. 14:04
and she once again, will be at the stage fair next year, and hopefully with a lot more product that she can sell, because I think she did very good on her first year there.
Dina Simon 14:13
She did, yes, and Ashley, I should send you the article. I'm not sure if I showed it to you, but she was actually in one of the Minneapolis publications. She had a little feature, and it talked, she shared the story about how, like, within six days, she had to set up shop and move fast, yeah, yeah. And
John Simon Sr. 14:29
then we had Kelly shoe trap on there, which she has a company called theftville, resound. And she talked an awful lot about, you know, all the businesses that she works with, yes.
Dina Simon 14:39
And she, I think, is doing amazing and super busy. So her leap of faith and going out on her own has paid off. I think she's reached capacity. She's got so much going on,
John Simon Sr. 14:49
good for her. And our 22nd guest was Adrian Kohler. And Adria is an executive coach, and Pete talked a lot about, you know what it's like dealing with entrepreneurs? And executives and some of the people that he dealt with, yeah,
Dina Simon 15:02
and he was super fun, because he was the first one that neither of us knew from Adam. Somebody reached out to us and said, Hey, we think he'd be a good guest. And he was fantastic. And then we did make sure he got some Lou malnotti pizza delivered so he could share with his family. But look forward to staying connected with him as well. Now, that
John Simon Sr. 15:22
was great of you to send him that, because one of the questions I had at the end of it, you like deep dish pizza or crest? And he said all he he just loves the deep dish. In fact, he was instrumental in Luma NAT. He's opening up a restaurant right near the church that he was working at at the time in in Chicago, right? I
Dina Simon 15:41
love that. That was so great. Yep,
John Simon Sr. 15:42
kudos to him. Then our final one last week was Scott mickish. And Scott works with that mental fitness and just to make your mind and your body a little bit tougher. And he was a great guest we had on. And I think he's from Fargo, North Dakota, originally, and migrated to Minneapolis from there, and really St Paul from there. And we had some nice conversations about everything that he has done. Yeah,
Dina Simon 16:07
we did absolutely. And it was funny, because I know you and I ended with him talking about how we could do a podcast just about what happens with life changes like retirement and stuff. Retirement,
John Simon Sr. 16:17
yes, he mentioned retirement, and right away I picked up on the fact that you know, when you when you leave a job after 20, 3040, years, day one, when you retire, you've left all your pretty much a lot of your friends behind, because most of us have friends that we work with, and you don't have as many social friends at that time. But then you have to start building on on your social life, because that's really what you've worked for. And I think it would be great to do a podcast about retirement. Yeah, I
Dina Simon 16:47
agree. I talked with somebody yesterday about Edmonds, so I know there's a need for it. So yes,
John Simon Sr. 16:52
so that kind of rounds out our first season, and we had some great, great people. And really looking forward to the start of the second season, we'll end up having a lot of good guests. We'll have some repeat guests, and like I mentioned earlier, I'll do at least one remote from the off roading trip that Rich and I are going to do awesome. And just want to wish everyone a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year. And thanks for listening to our podcast.
Dina Simon 17:17
Yes. Thank you to all of our listeners, and for those that are have been on the fence wondering if they should be a guest, they need to reach out to us, right? We'll
John Simon Sr. 17:25
be happy to share their stories with all of our listeners.
Dina Simon 17:29
Exactly, exactly. Well. John again, thank you so much for doing this with me. It's been so much fun. Both rich and Mandy have kind of laughed at me along the way, just saying, oh my gosh, you're loving this so much Yes, I am. It's just been so much fun doing this with you. So I look forward to next year. Well, good. I
John Simon Sr. 17:46
do also, and I guess to steal a phrase from Lester Holt on the evening news, you know, be kind to yourself and each other. Absolutely.
Dina Simon 17:54
Cheers. Thank you. You