What our mom's though we did — Transcript
[00:00:00.00] Ken: My mom used to call me, we were probably 10 or so years into our business and we’d reach the point where we were truly doing management consulting as opposed to the whatever they’ll pay us for sort of stage. But I’d get a call from my mom about every other week, and, you know, she’d asked me how to fix it. something or to fix something on her computer or how to do something on her computer and I’d tell her you know that was kind of what I knew but about oh gosh probably 15 years into our business particularly after you joined and you’d converted me to the Macintosh or Mac computer platform. I suddenly lost all skills on Windows platforms, but up until the day she passed away, she would call me every other week to fix a Windows problem, or when I was visiting, she would have me try and fix her computer, and I was getting worse and worse at it every day. time, so I’d go and Google how to do things. But I finally asked her and said, “You know mom, you know this, I really don’t know much about this.” And she’s kind of said, “Well, but this is what you do for people, isn’t it?” And that’s, she truly thought I repaired computers up to and including, you know, taking the back off and putting in new cards and, and. something like that. Mom was a real smart woman, but she grew up in an era where a job meant basically you manufactured something, or you put something together, or you worked with your hands, or you managed people who did that, not kind of the nebulous service job that is management So all she knew was I helped people with things that were sort of technical, but she thought she translated that directly into computers. So that was sort of my mom’s, you know, take on what I did, and my, my big mistake was, I think, not really trying to explain to her. or I really eventually knew nothing about, not that I ever knew a ton, but I really knew eventually nothing about computers and the things I did know had nothing to do with how to set registry settings in Windows or how to get your video card working or anything like that. Did your… What was your mom thinking you did for a living?
[00:02:42.32] Jim: You know, I couldn’t really say. She probably fell into the camp of, I was a computer guy doing computer stuff, which as you just explained, really wasn’t true at all. understood the consulting thing I think I think she thought I was doing something sneaky because of my lame explanations because I I did spend the I spent two years flying from Seattle to Rhode Island darn near every week you know there were a few weeks a year I didn’t And then, you know, the next time I talked to my mom, I’d say I was flying to Denver and driving up to Wyoming, and so I think my mom, like a lot of people, couldn’t resolve these data points that didn’t make any sense. Like, why would you do that?
[00:03:42.43] Ken: - You should’ve told her you were a maple syrup smuggler.
[00:03:45.41] Jim: Yeah, yeah, no, that would have been more plausible. In fact, when I got tired of trying to explain to people or it was somebody that I, this wasn’t to my mother, but to people that I didn’t care if they understood what I did or not, I just would tell them I was because by that point I had memorized the whole routine of what the flight attendant says at the beginning of a… and I’d see it, I’d see it every…
[00:04:18.05] Ken: Put your oxygen mask on first before assisting others, yeah.
[00:04:24.21] Jim: And it’s interesting, at the time as a, as a man saying I was a flight attendant, And that was kind of a conversation ender anyway. So it did, you know, it just didn’t go anywhere. It was safe, but yeah, it was a hard job to explain.
[00:04:42.00] Ken: Well, and I think the point of some of this podcast is it wasn’t only a hard job to explain to your mother, it was a hard job to explain to anybody. To this day, if somebody, you know, says, “What do you do?” And I said, “Well, I don’t do anything.” And they say, “No, no, I mean, what did you do when you were working?” I say, “Well, it’s kind of long and boring and hard to describe.” And my wife will jump in and say, “Oh, he was a management consultant.” And they immediately glaze over, appropriately so. I think I would, too. I glaze over trying to explain it to people, so.
[00:05:18.85] Jim: Yeah, and so the it at some point it became super important to me that my kids understand what I did or at least see it and know what I was doing because I was gone so much and I was say I was pretty sensitive to that. I did take them to client sites. I mean I actually took them to at one point took them to Rhode Island and had them come in and meet our meet my clients and the people I worked with. They were young enough I’m not sure if it helped or just confused. them to be to be honest and I also took them to Wyoming later on and again I’m not sure if it helped them to understand what I did because I walked them around as you know our client site buildings tended to be multi-story kind of ugly government buildings and so a kid’s not going to be impressed by that. But in Wyoming, they got to meet just about every Miss rodeo from several states around, ‘cause we went to the big rodeo there. I think that’s probably what they took away.
[00:06:38.05] Ken: - And for a group of boys, that was probably, yes, bad, all right, right?
[00:06:45.12] Jim: Miss Rodeo’s were very interesting to those young men.
[00:06:49.80] Ken: - My story about my kids interpreting what I did. We had a neighbor one time asked my daughter, what’s your daddy do for a living? And my daughter is probably six-ish years old at the time, and at the time I had my office in the basement. our house, and she said, “Oh, he goes down in the basement and makes money.” So I think all the neighbors thought I was printing, you know, counterfeiting down in the basement. That was kind of the extent of it. I guess the other story with taking my kids to client sites was they didn’t really care about the client site. All they wanted to know was the hotel had a pool. Yeah, exactly. So I don’t think they ever knew what I did for a living
[00:07:37.33] Jim: And they didn’t care as long as the hotel had a pool. Yeah, so maybe it’s, uh, maybe it’s too early in the podcast, but here it goes. Uh, you know, I think we both landed on telling people that seemed interested that we were actually professional meddlers, that we were invited in to our client’s business, place of business, and give them permission to be nosy and meddle into problems that they had, and you know, that’s the subject for another thing. but I really think professional meddling, I think we both sort of landed on that, hence the podcast
[00:08:25.14] Ken: Name if I’ve got it right. Yeah, I guess if I were to summarize, I’d say, you know, mom thought I repaired computers because I was lazy and it was easier to explain it that way, but… to other budding entrepreneurs, your mom won’t know what you do either, no matter what, particularly these days where services is more and more what is sold rather than products, and just get used to the idea. It’s really difficult to explain what you do, but yeah. should have jumped in and said, too, that’s the reason we named this “Metalsome,” I think,
[00:09:04.48] Jim: is because that’s kind of what we decided we did. Yeah, and so back to the mom thing, and I think you’re, I don’t think I’ve ever met your mother, but just from the way you described You know, our mothers, all of their kids are the greatest kids ever, right? Yeah, sure. But my mom, I’m sure, couldn’t get over, “Yeah, he’s a good kid, but are you telling me there’s nobody in Rhode Island that can do whatever he’s trying to tell me he does?” I mean, they’re also very realistic about our abilities, and so that’s the part I could never get over with my mother was, yeah, that sounds okay, but why on earth isn’t there somebody in Wyoming that can do what you’re telling me to do?
[00:10:02.19] Ken: - See, and I had an Italian mother and she was convinced I not only knew computers. but that I invented the computer and she was not afraid to tell anybody that.
[00:10:12.46] Jim: Laughter
[00:10:14.17] Ken: Yeah, that’s just an Italian mother, you know, you can do no wrong and not only can you do no wrong, but, you know, you’re the best at everything. So, anyway, that’s…
[00:10:26.25] Jim: Yeah, not my mother. She may have believed that my older brother…
[00:10:30.18] Ken: Invented the computer, but not me. No, we were all great at everything we did.
[00:10:36.77] Jim: Yeah. I guess I was lucky in that regard. Yeah, well good. That’s a good, that’s a positive thing to have on your team, right? Right.