Monica Challingsworth - Pickleballs & People Skills: A Founder's Journey

Monica Challingsworth takes us behind the scenes of her entrepreneurial journey, revealing how conscious leadership principles transformed her hospitality career and led to the founding of multiple thriving businesses. With remarkable candor, she shares her path from college graduate to founder of Eustress and Demeter restaurant consulting and co-creator of Dink and Dine Pickle Park—an innovative entertainment concept opening in Mesa, Arizona.

• Click HERE for information about Dink & Dine Pickle Park
• Click HERE to read the Influencer Daily article about Monica
• Click HERE for Monica's LinkedIn profile
• Click HERE to learn more about Eustress & Demeter
• Click HERE for the book Never Eat Alone
• Click HERE for the book Conscious Capitalism

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Chapters

• 0:00 Meeting Monica Challingsworth
• 3:25 Dink & Dine Pickle Park Vision
• 5:53 Building Trust with Business Partners
• 12:50 Leadership Books That Made a Difference
• 18:00 Learning from Boss Holes & Mentors
• 32:15 Collaborative Leadership vs Corporate Style
• 36:25 Episode Wrap-Up & Contact Information

Transcript

John Broer: 0:02

Welcome to all of our friends out there in The Boss hole Transformation Nation. This is your host, John Broer, welcoming you to this installment of The Boss hole Chronicles. Good to have you here and I'm so excited for you to meet our guest today, Monica Challingsworth. Monica and I were introduced by a friend, Crystal, so thanks very much, Crystal, and let me tell you a little bit about Monica. Monica is the founder and president of Eustress and Demeter, which is a full-service restaurant consulting firm that specializes in building sales programs for multi-unit restaurants and independent operators. She is also one of the co-founders of Dink and Dine Pickle Park, which is opening this summer. Very excited about that.

John Broer: 0:47

What I'm most excited about is for you to learn about Monica's journey and how, from a very early part of her career, she was committed to staying out of the bosshole zone. She's going to share a couple of Bosshole stories with us, but also what are some of the resources and the principles and practices that she's applied to be a better version of herself as a manager. So let's jump in. The Bossh ole Chronicles are brought to you by Real Good Ventures, a talent optimization firm helping organizations diagnose their most critical people and execution issues with world-class analytics. Make sure to check out all the resources in the show notes and be sure to follow us and share your feedback. Enjoy today's episode. Monica Challingsworth, it is a pleasure to have you here on the Bossh ole Chronicles. Welcome.

Monica Challingsworth: 1:43

Thank you, it's great to be here.

John Broer: 1:45

And our listeners have a little bit of insight about you. I was able to give you a little bit of an introduction before we jumped on here and they know that we've chatted and we've got a lot of really interesting ground to cover. You're an entrepreneur, founder of your practice that you actually founded with your mom. Is that correct?

Monica Challingsworth: 2:06

That's correct.

John Broer: 2:06

Yes, yeah, Eustress and Demeter correct, correct. Yeah, and what year did you start that business?

Monica Challingsworth: 2:12

That would have been the end of 2017, beginning of 2018.

John Broer: 2:16

Okay, very good, very good, and your career has taken you into some really interesting places. But they know our listeners know that Dink and Dine is on the horizon for you. I'm excited about this because, first of all, one of our team members at Real Good Ventures is an avid pickleball player and it has sort of infected the rest of the organization. So my business partner, sarah, loves it. She joined up in Toledo, toledo Pickle, which is brand new. So tell us a little bit about Dink and Dine, because I just want to highlight that and then we'll get a little bit more into your story.

Monica Challingsworth: 2:51

Absolutely so. Dink and Dine Pickle Park we're opening in Mesa, arizona, this summer, which I know sounds crazy to open in summer in Arizona but we do have indoor and outdoor courts.

Monica Challingsworth: 3:03

So we have 10 indoor courts, so a whole air-conditioned, amazing building with a bar, restaurant in the center, eight courts over there and then a whole private dining space with two indoor courts, a bar. We're maybe going to do a game lounge. We're kind of going back and forth with that right now. Okay, we're opening this summer and really excited, so it's a full entertainment pickleball concept. So multiple bars, restaurants. We're dog friendly.

John Broer: 3:31

Oh nice, yeah, yeah, it's definitely a destination place. Oh, that's great and out of curiosity, we didn't talk about this before. Do you play pickleball? I mean, what was sort of the inspiration?

Monica Challingsworth: 3:43

So when I started it I didn't. So my business partner, dave, and I were talking and he is an avid pickleball, tennis, just racket sports guy and I'm on the food and beverage culture community sales side of the business and him and I were a little bit joking about wouldn't it be great to do this right the first time? And, you know, really build something that we believe in. And you know, even with, and so the idea came in COVID. So you know, when we were in the middle of that, you know all we all kept saying was, you know how much we missed the connection piece of it and being able to do something active. And you know, even for myself it's, you know, I want to go out and spend time with my family and my friends, but I don't want to just sit at a restaurant or sit at a bar. I want to do something active and do something to connect, and so that's kind of where the dream was born.

Monica Challingsworth: 4:32

And so that was three and a half years ago which is easy that it's going to be, yeah, close to four years by the time we actually get it open. But we spent a lot of time really planning, being thoughtful, being thorough, building the right team, and you know we're doing everything from all of our you know menu development and the hiring and development of our team, and you know we're thinking with scale in mind. So we are building all of our operations, manuals and SAPs and everything that we need to, you know, get this first one open and then grow from there.

John Broer: 5:05

Wonderful, wonderful, and again this expertise comes from. I mean, you have spent, wouldn't it be safe to say, the majority of your career in hospitality, consulting, so this is very familiar territory for you. Let's talk about your team. That's one of the things that I thought was really fascinating. We'll get to the whole idea of boss hole prevention in just a little bit, but when you and I had a chance to talk before, you put a lot of thought. There was a lot of thought and transparency that went into the partners that came together for Dink and Dine Pickle Park. What really resonated for me was a set of values and how you work together. Can you give our listeners just a little bit of perspective of why this is working and what were some of the standards you wanted to establish?

Monica Challingsworth: 5:53

with your partners, absolutely so. To even take a little bit of a step back, I think that you know, as I've gone through my career, the most important thing to me is who we're all surrounded by, so whether it's your friends or in a professional setting. And so Dave and I did work together on multiple projects before we started Dink and Dine, and so when him and I had this conversation, he had another gentleman who I hadn't met yet, who he brought into the fold, and our chef, kelly, who is the founder of Bruxy Chicken and Waffle they brought Nutella to the US done incredible work. Kelly and I have also worked together on projects Our CFO, who's the CFO of Dave's Hot Chicken as well, and just incredible, he had sent me, when I started Eustress, probably my first four or five clients. So all of us have really been through the ringer together.

Monica Challingsworth: 6:45

We have been, you know, in good times and bad.

Monica Challingsworth: 6:48

And so we all really know how the other team members are going to make decisions when they are stressed out or when they're a state of eustress, which is a state of positive stress, and so, because of that, we had a lot of trust coming into it together and we knew that we all had the same you know, the same goals, the same values, the same integrity, and that has made it, you know, something really, really special. So when we even, I would say probably the first maybe nine months of us working together, we all went to dinner, sat down and really just went around the horn and said you know what? What are you in this for? I want to know exactly what it is that motivates you, what your future plans are. You know your family dynamics because we want to make sure that you know if we're, if we're, working you know 80 hours a week. You know, are you? Is there an upset wife at home, or is there an upset husband at home?

Monica Challingsworth: 7:41

What does it look like? So we can all be thoughtful on how we work, as you know, the leadership team. But then also that's something that as we go through like we just hired our GM about a month ago and you know that was a lot of the first questions I asked him of tell me more about your family dynamics and you know what it is that makes you tick. Because that is what's important to us as a leadership team to help support him and everybody else to be successful.

John Broer: 8:07

Right, right. Well, what strikes me as so profound about that is one there were some existing relationships, or even secondary, I mean you had a relationship and they had a relationship with somebody. So by transference I mean it sort of came together, but or by association it sort of came together, establishing those ground rules, I mean, and clearly defined expectations, because you know, being entrepreneurs and starting something, a new brand, and pulling it out of the ground, that is a huge undertaking teams, especially with startups.

John Broer: 8:46

If there is not that trust and you just said that trust established it's going to be really a hard road moving forward. And another way I would look at that is there's a degree of psychological safety that you are establishing right away and in our world, psychological safety is just the absence of the fear of bringing things up or calling out mistakes or being able to trust one another. That, if I you know, monica, if you said, hey, john, this is wrong, this approach you're taking, I have some real concerns about it. I trust your judgment on that and you feel safe enough to bring that up. And, in other words, destigmatizing failure. And that's powerful because all of you my guess is that this all comes from your own personal experiences and seeing failure and lack of trust and when things didn't work out, it's like let's make sure this is cleared up right from the very beginning.

Monica Challingsworth: 9:32

That's got to be huge. Yeah, it is. It is and you know, even on our eustress side of things. You know, that's something that I value so much in our team members and, like I, I truly know the decision that everybody's going to make when they're backed into a corner. And you know, and and based on what, what it is that's happening, and so that just means so much you know, you never have to think.

Monica Challingsworth: 9:56

I had a client of ours who I just told him this week at lunch the other day and I said the most incredible thing that you've ever said to me, which I've now taken and used a million times, is in the absence of information, people will make up their own.

Monica Challingsworth: 10:09

Oh yeah, and I love that because you know in in really anything. I mean it could be something as simple of you know where are you on a project and you know you might think, oh, they didn't even start yet because I haven't heard anything where the other person is. Well, it's already finished. I just wanted to have it perfect before I showed it to you Right Back to you know, a romantic relationship, a friendship, and so I think that the more that you know, you can have this trust and transparency, the same values, the same everything. This it just makes it so much easier to never assume, or you know, when we're all nervous sometimes, you know we think the worst and knowing all of that, you know it helps you. You know, see the best in whatever these situations could potentially be.

John Broer: 10:56

Absolutely, and those especially situations that involve a lot of pressure and chaos.

John Broer: 11:01

I mean, as Sarah, my, my business partner, um, would say you know, we are meaning making machines, and if we don't have objective data, if we don't have something concrete, we can create all kinds of stories in our heads and typically they're wrong. And that also reminds me of we're big fans of Patrick Lencioni, and when he talks about the fundamental attribution error is that in the absence of concrete data and information, we'll make stuff up about people all the time, and a lot of times it's wrong. So that's that is very powerful. And one other thing I think about is when we measure on a team psychological safety again, I mean, we have a diagnostic for that. It takes the guesswork out of it. It's like let's stop. Let's stop attributing meeting to anything and then really make sure what we're looking at. So so let me dovetail on something, monica, when you talk about input you've had from others and you've had great mentors and, I would think, influences in your career I'm sure your mom was one of them.

Monica Challingsworth: 12:01

Yeah, as she's at Coachella right now.

John Broer: 12:05

Oh, she is no kidding. Okay, her and my brother.

Monica Challingsworth: 12:09

Yeah, I think it's amazing, yeah.

John Broer: 12:11

That's awesome. Good for her. Well, we'll have to get her on the podcast sometime, absolutely.

Monica Challingsworth: 12:16

Love it yeah.

John Broer: 12:17

When we first talked about you being on the podcast, I was asking you know, as a leader, as somebody in a leadership capacity, not only as a consultant but also a business owner, how are you doing, or what have you done in your career to stay out of the bosshole zone? And you told me that you made a very concerted effort. You may not have thought it in that term, bosshole, but you know what the term means and I mean it's pretty easy and self-evident. But you said there were a couple of books. I asked you. I said if you were to recommend to somebody leaders, either newly minted leaders or managers, or somebody that was thinking of starting their own business what would be a couple of resources that were helpful to you? Would you mind sharing those with us? I mean, one of them was Never Eat Alone. Tell us a little bit more about the impact that had on you.

Monica Challingsworth: 13:06

So, um, when I so my degree is in hospitality management and I had graduated college I moved to California three days later and my one of my favorite professors, who were still really good friends to this day uh, gave me three recommendations, and one of them was never eat alone.

Monica Challingsworth: 13:24

And so I read the whole book on my flight to California and really took it to heart. So it's all about connecting for the right reasons, networking for the right reasons, being available to the resources that you have and that you find and by connecting others, with no ego or purpose behind it, so just truly, because you know you think somebody could be a value to somebody else. About you know the whole. You're like never burn a bridge and all of that, which is so true. Our world is so small and you really have your reputation to fall back on, and that's that's about it at the end of the day. So that was, you know, everything I really took from Never Eat Alone and so when I was, you know, coming from Ohio to California, I didn't know anybody, and so I had to put myself in the room with others and learning how to network was really scary. I went to my I remember going to my first networking event and I Googled, like what to do.

John Broer: 14:25

You just you don't know.

Monica Challingsworth: 14:27

And it's sometimes you know where, you know. It feels weird that if there's a group of people talking, you don't want to go up and interrupt them and introduce yourself, and so there's all these things that feel really unnatural to people and I was like, well, if I'm going to do this, I'm going to, I'm going to do it, I'm going to put myself out there.

John Broer: 14:44

That's right.

Monica Challingsworth: 14:54

I'm going to put myself out there and just be yourself and you know and genuinely listen to people and genuinely hear what they have to say, and remember that. So when somebody comes to me about needing I don't know it could be anything, you know, a lot of times I'm like, oh my gosh, I just met somebody at this event last week who would be perfect for you, who would be perfect for you whether I got their information or I remember their name and I'll find them on LinkedIn or just do an email, connect or call them, text them, ask if it's okay to introduce them to whoever this other person is. And I have been really living in that mindset and that philosophy since 2009. And since then, I mean, it's really done wonders. I think that you know, professionally I have an incredible network. Personally I have it and most of my that's actually really funny most of my best friends to this day. I met at that first networking event.

John Broer: 15:42

Oh really.

Monica Challingsworth: 15:43

Okay, two nights ago and the restaurant that they're having the same event at, they haven't done it there and the GM was asking, like you know, how is this group? And I started laughing and I was like, well, the two girls that I'm here with are two of my best friends in the whole world and I met them at that event back in like 2010.

John Broer: 16:02

Oh, that's cool. That's cool. No accidents, like we talk about, there's no accidents. That's very neat. Well, you also talked about conscious capitalism. You thought that was also a helpful read.

Monica Challingsworth: 16:13

Just give us a glimpse into why that was beneficial to you own and now I've, I've started several and and I love it and I would not change a thing. Um, but as I, as I discovered that book, you know it was all about. You know being driven by purpose and service, not go and not power, building companies that were again for all of the right reasons, that you're taking everybody into consideration. So you know, not just your investors, but you know your team members, your leadership team, your everybody, your customers, your community, your environment, that if you can look at how business is impacting everything and everyone around you, it can be done so beautifully. And you know the amount of jobs that you can create. But not just creating jobs to say, oh, we have another. Like I hate when everybody says, oh, we just need another warm body to be on the line or to do something that is awful?

Monica Challingsworth: 17:20

because they're not. They are humans with families and purpose and all of these beautiful things in their life, and you know that might, you know, be a small portion to whatever the business is but you could be their entire world.

Monica Challingsworth: 17:35

I mean, we don't know what's going on behind closed doors, and so being able to you know, have those conversations and really understand the people that you're working next to, and whether you know you're, you're on the line with them or you're the CEO of the company, I think that you have to take all of these factors and go into all of them for the right reasons.

Monica Challingsworth: 17:59

And again going back to the safety part of it making sure that they do feel emotionally safe and they're not worried about losing their job every 10 minutes because the company's going through so much. And I believe in transparency I mean across the board and I think that there's a a very fine line between you know, all of the team members knowing what's happening in the business and not feeling afraid for their jobs, right?

Monica Challingsworth: 18:25

and also you know keeping everybody and also you know keeping everybody informed, but knowing that you know they are safe and they're not just another. You know finite amount of P&L.

John Broer: 18:36

Exactly, exactly and you know when. When we talk about our. Our mission at Real Good Ventures is to help people find meaning and fulfillment in their work. We help our clients do that. We just happen to do it through analytics and behavioral data.

John Broer: 18:49

Nobody goes into a job hoping that they're going to be miserable and at the same time a business leader can't be. You cannot divulge everything because I think it would put some people into a tailspin, but at least being included and feel like this is being communicated to me, I feel like I do have a a or a stakeholder. I'm a stakeholder in this business and ownership of my role. That is so powerful. But that is a huge change from now. I know I'm older than you are and you know I came up through the more of the command and control, management and leadership philosophy and that is such an archaic.

John Broer: 19:28

Living strictly in that model is not helping organizations right now. I mean, we're moving from that to what we refer to as a trust and autonomy workplace, and it's not one or the other, it is a continuum. But for organizations that are sort of rooted in that, you know my people are yes, they're our most important resource, but we treat them like a cog in a machine. That still happens. And do you wonder why? Disengagement, according to Gallup, is at a 10-year high. And so we have the business owners and managers. That's what the Boss Hole Chronicles is about. We can change that trend, but it's an inside-out job when it comes to leaders and managers. So I love that idea of being conscientious or conscious of it and realizing that these are human beings messy, fallible, wonderful human beings and they make. And my Michelle, who was my first like real boss she, she was so tough and she was so, oh, ok, vacation with her.

Monica Challingsworth: 20:45

Like it has been so many years, but but her toughness was from a place of love. Like you know, I was in college and I'd go out, you know, on Thursday nights, and then I have to work at a country club at two o'clock on Fridays and I would sleep until one in the afternoon in college.

Monica Challingsworth: 20:59

And so I'd get up and she'd be like Monica, you're, you're, you're, everything is wrinkled and like no, isn't gonna work, so like you need to like go back and change or whatever, and it's just really funny. So it was like when I say tough, it was you know, or I would try to call off because I was tired and she's like it's not happening.

Monica Challingsworth: 21:19

And all the years I worked there I probably tried to call off 50 times okay, I didn't call off actually once, because she's like you're gonna get your butt in here and you're going to be just fine, and if you need to take a break and she knew that it was just because I was tired. I wasn't actually if I was actually sick, of course.

John Broer: 21:36

Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah, but how cool, but how cool she took a vested interest in you.

Monica Challingsworth: 21:41

She did.

John Broer: 21:41

And it's her name is Michelle, michelle, okay, so, so. So Michelle is an example of a non-boss hole Tough, tough.

Monica Challingsworth: 21:50

Okay, which is which is a nice thing.

John Broer: 21:53

But that's, that's nice. But also, I mean she, she actually took a real vested interest in your growth and development. Maybe she saw that spark and she said Monica's got something and at the same time she could just be very conscientious about her role and how. You know, I've got to make sure these people that are on my team are showing up and what my expectations are, and I consider that to be obviously by the fact, by virtue of you mentioning it, mentioning her positive influence in who you are.

Monica Challingsworth: 22:22

Absolutely.

John Broer: 22:23

Let's turn the tables a little bit, and I told you I was going to bring this up without any names. We'll talk about Michelle, because she's amazing and that's cool. Hopefully she'll hear this. Make sure you share it with her. But obviously, everybody has some really authentic bosshole stories in their career, and you shared two with me and, if you wouldn't mind sharing it without any names or any specifics, one was kind of affirming and the other was a little alarming, but I think that they really helped to stiffen your resolve in terms of the work you're doing as an entrepreneur. So would you mind giving us a glimpse into those two?

Monica Challingsworth: 23:01

Yes.

Monica Challingsworth: 23:02

So you know, I think they were both so powerful and profound and I thought about it last night after you and I had spoken of really the impact that both of these had and they weren't too far timeline-wise of when they both happened, and my last real job that I was at was I had connected with both of these individuals, was I had connected with both of these individuals and I I respected both of them, looked up to both of them and was, I mean, truly enamored by what they were doing in the industry, and so I I came into it, you know, with these, you know, big eyes and all excited about everything and um, so I think that's probably why it made more of an impact because of my perception of them coming into it.

Monica Challingsworth: 23:51

But I had really wanted a certain title at the place that I was at and we were acquired by another group and so it was a big change in our leadership team and I didn't get it. And when that had happened, I was, I felt very defeated and uh, you know, we, we had a little friction between our personalities anyways, and so when I did start my consulting group and we were doing so well, I saw him at a restaurant and had a little bit of liquid courage. So I was very driven to go over and say something to him. And it was so motivating because he had, you know, heard of all of the things that we were doing in our industry. He was very proud of me.

Monica Challingsworth: 24:39

He had, you know, mentioned that he had some regrets about how our relationship turned out and wishes that he actually would have promoted me and all these wonderful things, and anyways, it was just. We had a really nice conversation and I don't know exactly what my intentions were when I went over to him, but it ended in a really positive, beautiful light.

John Broer: 25:02

And.

Monica Challingsworth: 25:03

I take a lot from that of um, you know, in the way of just knowing that I was on the right track. And the second one I was definitely on the right track because we were doing very, very, very well and we were building, catering and incremental revenue programs for a lot of fast casual restaurant groups.

Monica Challingsworth: 25:24

And in California, a lot of them, you know are based here and it's a very small world. So the same CFOs that you know kind of move around and have given me a lot of them, you know, are based here and it's a very small world, so the same CFOs that you know kind of move around and have given me a lot of business. Same thing with the CEO, coos. Everybody really knows each other Right. And uh, there was a group that was really the one of the motivators to start my business and they were my dream client. I would have given anything to work with them. Them and I get a phone call to go and meet with them in their office and I was elated.

John Broer: 25:54

I mean.

Monica Challingsworth: 25:55

I was over the moon. I'm like this is going to be amazing, like I've. I've done it, I've succeeded. They're going to hire us and it's going to put me on the map and it's going to be so incredible and I get there and it. I was wrong. They were very upset about the work that we were doing because we were building these programs for their competitors. Okay, you know that I need to shut down my business, that you know that they should know that that this is a threat and that I should. I should really, you know.

John Broer: 26:38

Yeah, reconsider your choices, yeah.

Monica Challingsworth: 26:42

And at one point you know, or they didn't even at one point say like we would like you to come and work for us, or even be able to say like sign a non-compete. I've had some really large clients who I've signed non-competes with that wouldn't build these programs for their direct competitors and and those have been fine. None of that happened. And so I was so shocked and terrified and I left and I got in my car and I just started bawling my eyes out and I was shaking, like you know when you're, when you're so nervous, like the inside of your legs are shaking. So I called my mom and I am I'm like I can't believe this Like she thought I was calling her to be.

Monica Challingsworth: 27:21

Like they hired us and I'm like I don't even know what to say. I don't know what to do. I don't know what to say, like I think we need to, I think we need to shut down the business, like I was spiraling and so she let me, you know, talk it out. She's like you know, monica, all I hear is like we are on fire.

Monica Challingsworth: 27:40

If they are this worried about little Monica and what she's doing. You are onto something. Don't even think twice about this. This is going to propel you into everything and she's like. It just depends on how you want to take this Like. Do you want to sit here and be scared by some jerk or do you want to find this as a motivator and really get out there and continue to kill it?

John Broer: 28:02

Yeah.

Monica Challingsworth: 28:03

I was like, okay, you're right. I mean, I had like a two hour drive home where I thought about it and I, you know, put on some angry girl music and was like, no, you're right, you're right, this is going to be, this is going to be amazing and it really I mean, and we kept going and, you know, I made sure that you know that. Also, what that did teach me is all of our new clients as I, you know, we're going in for these meetings, I'd let them know if we were working with somebody very close in their space and just to say you know, we built this program for them.

Monica Challingsworth: 28:34

Your business is entirely different. I sign NDAs with everybody. You know there is and that has never once happened again. Even now. I mean, I'm so transparent about who we're working with and what we're doing that nobody once has ever been like well, I can't hire you because you just did this for you know my competitor across the street. They're like amazing, I see what you've done for them. They've taken a lot of our business. So you know there's enough to go around.

Monica Challingsworth: 28:59

But please come help us, because we want a name and so I assumed he was like, everybody was like him and not at all. I mean, that was so many years ago and that that has never even come close to happening again. Now we're still 100% referral-based and everybody who introduces us to somebody else I mean it's really cute on their emails They'll say we don't want to do this because we know what is going to happen. But we value you other CEO and COO of this restaurant group, and you should really work with Monica and her team, and you know so.

John Broer: 29:34

So it's wonderful sense, but Thank you for sharing both of those. I mean the first one, somebody who demonstrated real professional courtesy and an element of class, just to congratulate you and acknowledge that. You know we knew you were gonna crush it. Congratulations. Sorry that it didn't work out for us. So that, to me, is somebody that can take the higher road.

John Broer: 29:56

And this is also where we talked a little bit yesterday about how and I think you, I think you share this, we share this in common we very much take an abundance mentality at Real Good Ventures versus scarcity. The second, second boss hole, definite scarcity mentality. And you struck the fear in them and I don't know you were telling me that story yesterday. I was going yeah, all right, monica, yeah, and of course at that time you're thinking but it's like an adrenaline rush, you're shaking, it's like I cannot believe what happened, especially walking into that, thinking this is awesome and they called you to the office to do that. That takes a lot of guts. Uh, that's, that's true boss hole behavior right there. So, anyway, I, I I share that. I thank you for sharing that with the boss hole transformation nation because people need to learn from that. You clearly learned from that and again, I think it emboldened you and confirm you're on the right track. Um for sure, and it's thank goodness for your mom, too, being able to just sort of okay, you know, and there would have been somebody, but you know, nobody like a parent to be able to sort of level set things for you.

John Broer: 31:03

Well, as we begin to wrap things up, this has been great and I want to remind our listeners, go into the show notes. I'll put the link to the books that you mentioned. I will obviously put a link to your contact information. I'm going to put a link in there to Dink and Dine Pickle Park in Mesa. So, to all of our listeners out in the Mesa, arizona area, make sure you have this on your radar. Well, I'm thinking that Real Good Ventures. We take a retreat every year and last couple of years has been in Florida and we played a lot of pickleball, but maybe we need to go to Mesa.

John Broer: 31:33

So, yeah, so one one final thing I wanted to address, and you shared this with me yesterday. You know you've been as a business owner, business leader. Uh, I think you got some feedback around kind of your style about how you run things and how you. You are really not very corporate was the word you use. You're more collaborative and I totally get that, but apparently somebody was questioning not questioning in a bad way, but just wondering. You know it doesn't feel very corporate. You run things in a very open and collaborative way, which I think is your style. Why is that important to you?

Monica Challingsworth: 32:12

I'm in the middle of balancing this right now and I you know it's it's, it's really it's, it's really interesting because it's a business. But I you know that phrase like it's, it's not personal, it's business kind of thing, but it is everything's personal.

John Broer: 32:33

It is Right.

Monica Challingsworth: 32:35

You know, when I think about our team members and the people who I've worked next to for so many years on the Usterist side, you know if it wasn't for them, we would be nothing Right. They know that. You know, on their side, if it wasn't for me then they wouldn't have all the work and all the business and they don't like this side of it. They don't like the networking and building the business and the invoicing and all the things that go with it. They just want to do an incredible job for our clients.

John Broer: 33:03

Right.

Monica Challingsworth: 33:03

And do. Our clients are so happy and making so much money and they're just. It's a win for everyone. And so you know when I really take a step back and look at how we scale as a consulting group which, by the way, scaling consulting is very challenging.

John Broer: 33:19

Oh yeah, absolutely it is.

Monica Challingsworth: 33:21

Like I thought I'm like, oh, this would be great, I'll hire more people, we'll get more clients, and you know the business side of scaling a consulting group, especially because we're in California and they're not employees of Eustress, so you have to be really careful about what that looks like and you know the work-life balance for them. But without them, you know there isn't, there isn't Eustress, there's just me and and that's that's. That's not going to get us very far, as we continue to add to our team, which we added three more team members last year. Okay, it was, and actually, ironically it's 100% women ran right now and that's not necessarily like on purpose, but I love that it is.

Monica Challingsworth: 34:04

And you know, as I continue to, you know, build out our team. You know, I kind of always ask the same questions about what is important to you. Tell me your family dynamic of always ask the same questions about what is important to you. Tell me your family dynamic, let me know. You know exactly, you know your financial expectations, because that's important to me of I need to understand, like what, what number it is that you need to be at each month to make you feel safe to make you not have to worry about.

Monica Challingsworth: 34:28

You know, trying to go and find other work somewhere else, and so and again, you know, without understanding all of that, without knowing everybody, without collaborating on those, then you're just somebody who is working for somebody else.

Monica Challingsworth: 34:41

Who's you know out and doing consulting work and you know, and we don't want that, we want it to feel like a family because we're going in and you know we're really helping turn these restaurant groups around and they become a part of us and we want to be the extension with them. And if we don't have that from our leadership side, then we can't do that for our clients.

John Broer: 35:01

Yeah, yeah, great point, great point. And again, I can't help but think that it's so much a reflection of, just in meeting you and your, how you're wired, your DNA, if you will very much a reflection of that, and that's probably why it feels very natural about how you run it. And other people may say, well, this isn't traditional or this isn't typical. Yeah, business, if we keep going back to the typical or traditional, we're still going to be struggling with the same old problem. So let's create some new positive problems, positive stress, if you will. The eustress.

John Broer: 35:35

The eustress. That's right. I will also put in the show notes, by the way, just to let our listeners know. This whole thing started. You and I were introduced by a good friend of yours, a client of ours, best friend in the whole world.

Monica Challingsworth: 35:46

Yes, yeah.

John Broer: 35:46

Crystal's amazing and I'm so glad she introduced us. But I also found that Influencer Daily did an article about you back in December of 2024. I will put that in there. And really the focus of that is your people-centered approach to management, leadership, owning a business. So please, everybody read that and get to know Monica a little bit better and definitely make sure you check out Dink and Dine Pickle Park in Mesa, arizona. But, monica, it's been a pleasure. Thank you so much.

Monica Challingsworth: 36:16

Thank you, john, it's been great.

John Broer: 36:18

All right, everybody, like I said, go check out the show notes. We will see you next time on the Boss Hole Chronicles. Thanks very much for checking out this episode of the Boss Hole Chronicles. It was so good to have you here. And if you have your own boss hole story that you want to share with the Boss Hole Transformation Nation, just reach out. You can email us at mystoryatthebossholechroniclescom. Again, mystoryatthebossholechroniclescom, we'll see you next time.