Jän Simon

Guiding conversations with community leaders.

In this podcast, we'll explore the human journey of leaders, their stories of humility, triumph, roadblocks and lessons learned. Come join us as we journey together and uncover the questions you've always wanted to know. This podcast is brought to you by the Gilbert Chamber of Commerce, perhaps providing resources, connections and belonging for business professionals.

And Rocket Space, an event and meeting venue in the heart of the East Valley with a full service four person podcast studio.

And here we are.

We're back for another episode.

It's been a bit, but it's been a long journey with you, Sarah. So here we are.

Here we are.

Okay, who do we have with us today?

Today's guest must have nine lives. Growing up in Washington, he was an active kid with a passion and aptitude for football and wrestling. He put himself through college as a firefighter for the forest Service in Oregon, spent a few months living in a tent on the beach in San Diego, and somehow made his way to Arizona. He is now engaged to his best friend Christine, and they together share four incredible young adults. Please welcome the Disney loving, humble leader we know and love, Jan Simon.

Yahoo.

Here we go. Jan.

I'm here.

Glad you're here.

Thank you. I'm happy to be here. Little nervous.

We're going to start out with a.

Program we call Rapid Fire Round.

Ben makes people nervous. It's okay. I'm here. All right, here we go. Would you rather travel to the past or to the future?

The past.

What is your hidden talent?

Wow, that's a great question.

That's why we asked it.

I can juggle fairly well.

Would you rather attend a hip hop or a rock concert?

Rock.

Have you ever lived abroad?

No.

What is your go to snack?

Reese's. Probably.

Never heard of it.

What makes you hopeful?

The future. I mean, what? What? Everything. Opportunity.

Are you more of a thinker or a doer?

Doer. I pretend not to think.

Here's a tough one. You ready? If someone was to play you in a movie, who would it be?

My daughter would say Will Ferrell. I disagree. I would say Ben Stiller.

What is your favorite pastime or hobby?

Woodworking.

All right, our trademark question. Glass half full or half empty?

Depends on what's in the glass. But half full.

Okay. That's awesome.

Gilbert. City Lifestyles is a locally owned publication whose mission is to find and share great stories in our community and help build a stronger, more vibrant local experience.

Become a digital subscriber@citylifestyles.com Gilbert.

Okay.

Good, good, good. Well, Jan, I know some about you. Sarah knows a lot about you. So this is going to be an interesting conversation as we put these two together.

Let's start though.

I always like to start in the beginning.

Tell us about how you, where you.

Grew up and kind of your childhood area and give us some background there first.

So grew up in Washington State. Was born on Whidbey island. And when I was seven years old, we moved to a small town in northeastern Washington, Colville, and really grew up in a family that was very involved. My dad was a high school and junior high coach and teacher, taught history and English, was a football coach, baseball coach. And his philosophy was, you're going to be involved or you're going to get a job. So I was heavily involved through, gosh, very young age. Started doing theater. Both my parents were very involved in the theater in town. My mom and dad both are musicians. My mom plays a piano, my dad plays a guitar. And so just grew up around a lot of opportunity. Small town, I think breeds that gives you the ability to do a lot of different things. So found that growing up I very much enjoyed a little bit of everything. So I played saxophone and drums, sang in both the jazz and ensemble choir, played football, wrestled, played baseball for a couple years, ended up turning that into golf. Ended up going to college because I didn't know what else I was supposed to do. So I just went to college. Ended up wrestling in college, and then while I was going to college, fought forest fire six years. Part of that time I rappelled out of helicopters, which was a blast. Would love to go back to doing that today, except for my body wouldn't be able to handle it. And started working. Actually, my degree, went to school because I wanted to do strength and conditioning and wanted to work with sports athletes. And that's a very hard industry to get into without just working in a gym. And I didn't want to do that. Ended up getting into Insurance. And 26 years later, here I am.

And here you are.

Here I am.

When you say small town, what's small? What is that?

We had 5,000 people in my town.

Okay, so a graduating class of like.

143 people, I think.

Okay, what's that?

And how. What's your birth order? Where are you in?

I'm middle child.

Okay.

So yeah, so I've got a brother who's two years older, a sister who's two years younger, and I'm the middle child who is an athlete. My sister's a big time musician. She's a concert pianist by school and My brother is a mechanical engineer and extremely smart and I'm just a dumb middle child.

Oh my gosh. So you talked a little bit about wrestling and football and then in one of your notes you had mentioned that you had the opportunity maybe to play football in college and you didn't pursue that.

Yeah. So there's a couple different iterations of that story, I guess, if you will, depending on how deep we go. But I played football in high school, was actually a fairly decent football player. I didn't know really at that time how good I was and went to a couple different football camps, was encouraged by some collegiate level coaches to continue playing and I was offered a partial ride scholarship to a school that I ended up not going to. Went to Central Washington University and initially just went because I had friends that were going there and decided, you know, I'm just going to go walk onto the football team. And when I went to walk on, they had a list on the door going into the locker room that had positions, height and weight, what they wanted. I was a quarterback. I didn't think I was extremely fast, but I was quick and had a really strong arm. But I wasn't tall. I was six one, about 163 pounds, dripping wet. And it said they wanted six four, 225 pounds. I'm like, well, that's not me. Turn around and walked away. And ended up wrestling, which was good for me. But I always kind of wonder, you know, that what if had I said, you know, forget that and gone and if I could go back today and have a conversation with that 18 year old kid, I would have said, look.

Give it a shot.

Yeah, absolutely.

Just throw the ball, man.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. I went to a couple different football camps in high school. Was, was recruited by another high school to come play for them. Ended up staying with my high school because I didn't want to leave my senior year. My friends was encouraged by one of the, well, Washington State University. The coach that was there at the time, Dennis Erickson, who ended up going on to, to coach for the Seahawks for a little while, encouraged me to continue playing and, and, and I didn't. And I always kind of look back and think, you know, what if I don't know that I was good enough to play at the next level, but at least collegiate would have been cool.

You mentioned that your parents were both teachers, is that right?

My dad was a teacher. My mom actually worked in physical therapy.

Physical therapy.

Okay.

What, so coaching, he coached as well, was he? Yep.

Football coach, wrestling coach, football and baseball mostly. He was kind of a jack of all trades. He, he. He played AAA football coming out of college, so he played for a small team in Western Washington, but ended up hurting his knees and couldn't continue playing. But he was a coach and he was a driver and playing baseball. I mean, baseball's the other one where I played up until high school and decided not to play after my freshman year. But, yeah, we were baseball camp every single summer growing up.

So I'm going to guess he was.

Probably somebody that was very influential in your growth and where you were going or who do you.

Yeah, he was. But really, if you were to ask me who the most influential person in my life was at that time, it would have actually been my wrestling coach. And I think that's probably why I wrestled in college. He really put a lot of belief in me, had a lot of encouraging words for me at that time. My, you know, my dad love him to death, but he's old school and was very much a pusher. And at that time, I didn't understand what he was trying to draw out of me. I just saw it as he was kind of a jerk. And so my wrestling coach had much more of a. He was younger. I mean, I was a freshman his first year of teaching, so he was a young guy and we hit it off. But he was very much encouraging of my development and pushed me harder than my dad ever pushed me, but in a different way.

So I'm guessing like 125, 135 weight class.

Actually, oddly enough, I weighed 163 pounds dripping wet coming out of high school. And I wrestled 178 and went to state my senior year. Placed six in state my senior year. But there were three of us that grew up together, wrestling from second grade on. All three of us were pretty much the exact same weight. And. And I was one of the stronger of the three of us, so I actually wrestled up.

So, yeah, so I find it interesting, and maybe it was why you are who you are today, but to see that list and to actually choose not to do it and to walk away, that's not the Yan that I know. Jan's a risk taker and an explorer, and I want you to talk a little bit about. Because when I read living on a tent in a beach in San Diego for a few months, I mean, that's probably as much of a risk as anyone could take. Seems pretty extreme. Maybe firefighting and repelling from helicopters could be another risk as well. But what led you to that Experience.

So we were fighting fire. And I. And I was going to school, but I had taken some time off because I didn't know what I wanted to do. I wrestled, got in trouble with grades. I mean, I just, I wasn't a student. And I. Like I said, I went to school because that's what I thought I was supposed to do. Looking back, it was again, I don't know that I'd do it again. I definitely think there's trades that probably would have been better suited for me, but school was what I did. Taking time off of school. Had a buddy, actually was supposed to do a backpack trip around Europe. And the guy that I was supposed to go with ended up breaking an ankle, rappelling out of a helicopter. Oddly enough, he'd lost control of the rope and broke his ankle. So we ended up not going. Had another buddy that we just kind of decided one year, it's like, hey, let's rip the seat out of your car and throw this camper box in the back and go to San Diego. So we threw gas money in the glove box, figured out exactly how much it would take us to get there and get back. Said, that's our gas money. Can't spend it on anything, and we're just going to stay as long as we can. We got down to one can of creamed corn and we were driving back with the gas money. We couldn't buy any more food. We're like, we got to go back. But it was, you know, I was, you know, you go through things in life and I would say I was very much an adrenaline junkie as a kid, but I didn't have a lot of self confidence. So I was that kid, you know, whose older brother would say, hey, you ride your bike down this really steep hill and take that jump at the bottom, and if you make it, I'll go. And so I'd say, okay, cool, and I do it, and I'd make the jump and be fine. And then he'd wreck at the bottom, you know what I mean? But that was me. I mean, I just do it. But it was more. I didn't want somebody to see me fail more than anything, which is probably what drives me the most. But then as I got married and grew up, I guess, if you will, that risk taker kind of started to fade off. And I stopped making decisions based on the adrenaline and more on the thought process that goes into it. And, you know, you go through life, Got divorced, been with Christine, and she's very encouraging of me and so for me to kind of. I'm not saying back to that person that I used to be, but she's brought out in me more of that individual that is willing to take a risk, although not necessarily always the best thought process on it.

So you have kids, and what you just said resonates with me on that in the sense that reflecting back on it, are you like, I was just growing up. Right. Learning your ways.

Yeah. And I mean, at that point, absolutely. I mean, like I said, my dad was very old school. We grew up in what I would consider a repressed household, but not. I mean, you don't drink, you don't swear, you don't. I mean, if I said, geez, I got in trouble. If I said, gosh, I got in trouble. So you grew up under that. I brought home a Def Leppard and a Rush cassette in high school, and my dad got viciously upset with me because I was bringing devil music into the house. So that was the life I lived under. After I got out of high school. It was. I left at 18. I'm, like, free. No longer. Anybody has control of me, and I'm gone. So, you know, it's interesting because of now having kids that are that age. My daughter's 26, and Christine's son is 21. The other two sit in between there and just watching them, and I was way worse than they are, you know, and it's just interesting, but I feel like I had something to prove to myself.

So where'd your mom fit in this mix? Because your dad.

Yeah.

Drove you. Where'd mom do?

Mom was the rock. She was and still is. Gosh, we have conversations, long conversations, a lot of political conversations, which is interesting, and that's a totally another story. But she. She's the lover, you know, but she's. She was also the. You wait till your dad gets home, you know, and I'd go cry in the doghouse, you know, but she was always just the rock. And she was. You know, she's a mom, you know, and unfortunately for us dads, moms are the best. You know, dads are the raw. I mean, the hammer, I guess, if you will. But, I mean, moms can be the hammer. But I don't mean any offense to that, Sarah.

All I was going to say is my daughter would totally disagree. Her dad's the best.

That's funny.

Yes. There's definitely a hammer.

Yeah.

Well, over the years, you've shared a lot of wisdom with me and just been one of those guiding lights in my My life, keeping our organization at the Chamber, but also just my professional career on the right track and somebody that I've listened to and leaned on. So reading a little bit more about you and just even some of your words of wisdom, I just wanted to dig in a little bit on what some of this means to you. So one of them that I actually really enjoyed was says, face your fear. And the death of fear is certain. Thinking will never overcome fear, but action will. That's much easier to say than to live by. But you do your best.

Yeah, and it's. That was a. I don't even know where it came from, but it was a quote that I had picked up somewhere along the way and carried it in my wallet for years. In fact, I still have that wallet in my closet and that quote is still in that wallet. And I mean, it's probably been 30 years. And I try to remember that. That everything new is scary. Right. The first time we do something, the first time we hear something, the first time we experience it, it's scary. But then eventually that scariness goes away. Right? I mean, we walk into a room and we have to talk to 500 people. That's scary. But at the end of the day, it's like, well, it happened and I survived and I lived. I mean, repelling out of helicopters. We repelled from 250ft out of helicopters into. I mean, I say into fires, but near fires that could have at any moment blown up. The first time I did it scared the crap out of me. But then it's like, you're going down that rope and that exhilaration takes over and it's like, this is awesome.

Do it again.

You know. Yeah, let's do it again. Let's go again. Let's go again. So, you know, that's that piece of it. Now, I can tell you there have been a lot of times in my life where I've allowed the fear to stop me. Even today, I mean, bringing on an employee, it scares the crap out of me. I know it's the right thing to do. I know in my heart of hearts that it's the right thing to do. It scares me to death.

It's all that responsibility.

Yeah.

The livelihoods of those.

Absolutely. Taking on a new position, you know, whatever that is. Whether it's a new job, whether it's work within the community, not knowing, you know, and then not seeing what it is that other people see in us. Because I think that that piece of it is the hardest piece to accept. Or you Know, accept into our lives, I guess, if you will, is having that confidence that what we do and what others see we're doing is exponentially impactful on those around us.

So I almost think sometimes, for me, fear is actually an indicator that it's something I probably need to do, that I need to push through it and get to the other side of it. There's probably something better waiting, but just getting outside of that comfort zone.

Yeah, absolutely. I mean, I think about starting the business and it took me 23 years, 24 years to actually finally do it. I've been partners in two others, but to do it myself. And, and. But it took a straw that broke the back to make me go, I'm just done. I can't take this anymore. I'm gonna go do it. But I always felt like I wasn't ready. I don't think you'll ever be ready. You just have to take that step.

Right.

Sometimes that fear is just disguised as anxiety.

Right, exactly.

So it's just more anxious than.

You never know everything you're going to need to know to do something. So just take a step.

So then you got to Arizona.

Yes.

What brought you here?

My ex wife.

Okay.

So I was working for Farmers Insurance at the time, and she had just given birth to our son, who is now 20. He'll be 23 in September, which just blows me away. But got home and she said, I'm moving to Arizona. You can come with me or you can stay here. I said, I'll give it a year. If I love it, I'll stay. If I don't, I'm leaving. I'm still here. I love it. So. I miss Washington. I miss Washington this time of year. The trees, the water.

You mean you don't like the heat?

I will take the heat over cold any day of the week.

Okay, well.

But I do miss the cooler weather in the evenings for sure.

Moisture, humidity.

Don't like humidity. Hey. Hate the humidity. But. But yeah, I missed. I missed the mountains.

Yeah.

The green.

Yeah. I mean, we have mountains here, but they're a little different.

So I'm curious because I know you're very proud of your kids, and they've gone on to do some pretty amazing things that I know you're so proud of.

Yeah.

What does it mean to you, that relationship, now that you have adult children.

Trying to stay relevant or be relevant, I guess, in their lives is a big thing. You know, I said I got divorced 12 years ago. The kids and my ex moved to Minnesota, so kind of lost A big chunk of life there. My son's still finishing school. He's actually done in Mankato, Minnesota, but his intention is to move down here, but trying to stay relevant, recreate those or generate those relationships. Christine's kids and I feel like, have great relationships. We're involved very heavily with them, but just being able to be there for them. And that conversation, when you want to give dad advice, you know, but you know they're not going to hear you. You're like, if you just listen to me for, like, two minutes, I'm telling you this not because I think I know better, but maybe I've had the experience. So. But, yeah, I mean, super proud of all four of them. We've been very blessed. And, you know, of any of them. I think I shouldn't say this on the air. My son will probably hear this, but of the four of them, I would have thought we would have had the most problem with him. And he's just finished up his commercial pilot's license, and he's doing instructor rating right now, and he'll be flying for a major airline here pretty soon, so really excited for him.

Do you feel like you're. How did your parents influence your parenting style?

You know, I think probably the biggest thing is going to be from my dad, and that was I lived a lot in fear. And, you know, I can still remember my dad saying to me, hey, I'm a teacher. People are watching me. If I can't control my son, what are they going to think of me being able to manage their kids? And that's a ton of pressure. So I think that kind of always resonated in the back of my head. I think that it's important as a parent to make sure that we're keeping our kids. I'm going to say in line, but I don't know that that's necessarily the right way to put what I'm trying to say. It's important to use means to help them understand repercussions of their decisions. And sometimes that is fear. And I think that that's okay, but I think that we don't want to make it so much that the kid or the young adult lives in that space where they're afraid to do anything out of repercussions of upsetting somebody or hurting somebody's feelings or whatever. It's like you have to make the decisions based on the experiences that you've had and what you think is best for you, but also understand that whatever decision you make is going to have an impact on every single person around you. And that can be good or bad, but you got to figure that out. So I think I try to promote that. I don't know if I do a good job of it, but try.

I'm translating what you said in my own head. I'm thinking, like, holding them accountable, making sure they actually know that there's consequences for their actions. That's kind of what you're implying there.

Yeah. Yeah, absolutely. Absolutely.

So three years ago. I remember the day I walked in. I do, I remember. Yeah.

You came in, she was sweating, all excited. It was great. No, I got it on film somewhere.

Three years ago is when he started the business. Yep, you started the business, and it was an unexpected transition in your life. And I remember you coming immediately to the Chamber and having some really hard conversations with our staff about where you were and how frustrated you were. And now, three years later, you're building this incredible business and something that you totally didn't anticipate. But I just want you to share a little bit about that journey.

You know, it's interesting because in that moment, I didn't know where else to turn, which makes it sound weird. I mean, obviously there's Christine, and there should have been a conversation there. She was at work. I was just in that moment of, what am I going to do? And I felt like in order to do it, in order to do what I needed to do, which was build a business, because I just. Was done. It just broke the back of the camel. Really, Truly. And I just said, I just can't keep doing this. I felt like I needed a community, and the only community I knew was the Chamber. And so, you know, coming and having that conversation with you and Kathy was. That was just it. It was like, look, I'm going to do this, but I need your help. You know, I need the support to know that the chambers there, and just knowing that that, that support is there, I mean, that's. I guess, in a nutshell, that's how much the Chamber means to me, because there could have been, you know, obviously, other places to go and other people to have conversations with, but knowing the importance of the community and what I do is paramount. And so. So, you know, in that moment, the fear. The fear and the darkness of doing it myself was squashed by just my sheer. I'm putting the blinders on. I'm going forward. And so, yeah.

So other than those two yahoos who had your back in that process, who are you leaning on heavily? Well, get you through this.

Yeah. Christine, Big Time. And I mean, bless her. She's put up with a lot in me doing it, and I've been extremely blessed to have her in my life. I don't know that I would have been able to. I mean, I can probably say actually, I wouldn't have been able to do it without her support. Whether quiet support or the cheerleader on the sidelines. She's continued to do what she does and puts up with the crap she does every single day to allow me to push forward and hopefully, hopefully allow her someday and someday soon the ability to say, okay, you don't have to do that anymore. So.

And while you were doing this and could have easily said, okay, I'm letting go of everything else right now because I really need to focus on building a business. But instead, you double down on your investment in the community, serving others, building those relationships. You've been on the chamber board. I don't even know how long at this point.

Feels like forever.

Yeah. You just completed 6 years on Gilbert leadership board. You serve the town. I'm trying to. I. I just know you give a lot of yourself, and I think it's a real testament to the character that you are and that you bring to. To the work that you do.

I appreciate that. I think. I think it's so important for us to do that, though. I mean, the only. The best gift we can give somebody is time. Right. Because we can never get it back. But it's time. I was brought up in a family, very faithful family. And one of the biggest things was that. That you help when you can and where you can. And sometimes we don't have a lot of money. I grew up with not a lot of money in my family. One of my biggest things, graduating high school and college is I'm going to give my kids way more than my parents ever gave me. And now as I've gotten older, I've realized what they gave me was int. Tangible versus the stuff that I was able to acquire. But I think that it's important to give of ourselves and give of ourselves as freely as possible. And I truly believe that when we do, it's going to come back. And it may not come back in the way we expect it, but it'll come back. And it may not be tomorrow, maybe 10 years from now, but I feel for sure, you know, very much. And I. And I've seen it in my own life. I mean, I've definitely seen it, but I. And I don't give. I don't do it because I'm Expecting it to get back, it actually fills me up. I would say that's the thing that probably fills my cup more than anything is just to be able to help somebody or do things for other people. If I could get paid to do that, I'd do that.

So looking ahead now, what's the future got in store for you? What's on the horizon for you?

I want to build an organization that supports people in their success. I do insurance. Right. I have the ability to establish a business that will help people gain wealth, gain knowledge, and if I can help them be successful in whatever it is that drives them, that's what I want to do. I want to build an organization that people are excited to go to work at, that people, you know, wake up and not necessarily can't wait to get to work. I don't think will ever be that, but, but people that, that enjoy the atmosphere and the people and the camaraderie and it helps us do better and the service that we provide to our customers. So if I can build that organization, I mean, that's, that's really the dream. I don't necessarily have a timeline for that. You know, I've. It's interesting because now being three years in, I start. I've started getting calls to sell the agency. Yep. Not ready for that. You know, is that 10 years down the road? 15 years, you know, 20 years down the road? I'm starting to look at that where I'm like, ah, you know, someday I probably should look at retiring, but if I can build the organization the way that I think I can, it could be an auto generating business that allows people to be successful. So really it's about helping people.

Yeah. So that's awesome. That's good. And I think that's a key indicator of who you are and your Persona and how you live your life. What's the biggest driver that keeps you going? Like, what's, what's that motivator out there? Is it fear? Fear?

I don't want to fail.

So is that your dad in the back of your brain thinking about that voice?

I think it was, but I had a pretty big failure when the last market crash happened. My, my life imploded and I don't want to experience that again. So, yeah, I think that's what drives me. And I want people to be happy. I want people to be happy. I want people to feel like. And I tell people, every single client is our only client in that moment, that we have that conversation with them. I don't care how big or small. They are. They're our only client, and they need to feel that, and that's how I hope I make people feel.

So.

Yeah.

Well, you do incredible things. It's an honor to be able to work alongside you in this community. And I don't know that I have the ability to say it, but if I could, I wish that you would see your opportunity the way the rest of us do, because you do amazing things and we're very proud of you.

Well, thank you very much. I really appreciate that, and thank you for having me on. I greatly appreciate the opportunity.

Absolutely. We're glad you're here. All right, well, if you enjoyed this.

Show, because I know you did.

Join our tribe, subscribe and learn more and hear more from our conversations with other amazing people like Jan as we get guiding growth out there for everybody else. Thanks for being here today.

Guiding conversations with community leaders.

Ben, let me ask you a question.

How do you see other community members.

Being involved in this podcast?

This is going to be a great opportunity for so many people in the community to have a chance to be heard if they want to tell their story or if they just want to be part of this journey with us and help sponsor in a way that helps bring more people to the table with us. So I think there's many opportunities at hand. Whether you want to again be on the show, reach out to us, let us know what your story is and how you think you could be part of it. We'd love to hear from you. Reach out, let us know and we'll see if we can make that connection.

Sa.