Welcome to Always and Never About the Money. Are you ready to embark on a journey that will forever change the way you perceive money? Well, get ready because we're about to dive deep into the fascinating world of finances and human behavior. I'm your host, Chelsea Williams and Money Whisperer. I'm here to help you realize what your money story is telling you and how you can change it.
But hold on tight, because this is not the dull black and white talk about money. We're going to splash all the color into this typical nap inducing conversation. On Always and Never About the Money, we're going to explore the intricate relationship between money and our daily lives. From the impact history has left on us and how we still manage it, how your habits shape your money, and what beliefs are driving your habits, choices, and relationships, to the deeper values and emotions we've come to attach to it, we're going to unravel it all through insightful conversation and personal anecdotes.
We'll bring you the expert insights, real life stories, and meaningful, thought provoking ideas that will inspire you, educate you, and initiate some serious perspective change when it comes to your money. Remember, money is just a tool. Together, we'll untangle the web of emotions, beliefs, and values we've come to attach to it, and find a new perspective on how it can enhance our lives.
So whether you're looking for motivation, practical advice, or a good laugh, Always and never about the money's got you covered. Thank you for joining us in this transformative journey. Get ready to challenge your beliefs and embark on a financial exploration like no other. Without further ado, let's kick off the episode of always and never about the money.
If you stop for a moment and think about the people in your life that had the most impact on you, who would that be? And what is it that you took with them into adulthood? For me, I'm incredibly grateful that one of the biggest role models in my life Was my dad and that is such a special gift because parents are some of the biggest influence on us during the
most crucial time of our lives, right? And so I count myself very fortunate to have had a dad that was so amazing in so many ways. And before I let this podcast episode roll, I want to give you a little bit of a backstory on it. So I actually recorded this episode with my dad something like two years ago, and it was just never published for a number of reasons.
But now that I have the opportunity to share it with the world, I'm really excited. And I want to also just mention that. I know that I am so incredibly fortunate to have had such an amazing dad and for you women out there who the little girl in you did not have that father figure, my heart goes out to you in, in such a special way, um, because I, I see that.
situation play out with the people that I love in my life, even, you know, with my daughter, who's 15 years old now. And so I really don't take for granted what I have. And maybe for the little girl in you, this will give you. Some resemblance of the feeling that you get when you do have that in your life.
And look, even if it's not your mom, your dad role models and people to look up to, even if it's somebody that you've never met in your life, maybe it is a social figure that just inspires you and gives you those principles and makes you feel seen and heard role models are. So important. And so I wanted to get this episode live finally after two years because it represents so much of who I am and why I am my dad showed me how to connect.
As a parent, which I think in today's world can be very difficult to be present in our children's lives, to connect with them, to battle with everything else that is battling for their attention. And he also showed me how important it is. That we do this with intention because it really does leave a permanent impact on us, on our kids, on our kids kids.
And my dad is, was, and is a man of few words, but it was what I saw him do and was able to make sense of later. It was the example he showed me. He didn't tell me much of what he was going to do, but he showed me. And that was where the power came from as a little girl, watching him navigate these situations, watching him navigate his life, his businesses.
Really left its mark on me. He pushed me in a way that nobody pushed me to, to do more, to be more. He encouraged me to take, uh, a position with the city that we live in, working in the streets, working with only men. I was the first woman in 20 years to work in that department and. That put me in an environment where I was forced to fight as a woman, um, around nothing but men.
He just, and whether he knew it at the time or not, he pushed me into situations where I was forced to expand. And I am forever grateful. For that, for him doing that, I watched my dad build an entire business. And what I think my favorite part about it is he started with core values, which is why I am so adamant about having core values.
For yourself that also tie into core values around your business. When you have core values in your life, in your business, you have a grounding. It grounds you. It gives you a compass to work within and make decisions based around. And my dad. Is who taught me that and I'm so proud of him because today he is semi retired.
He is passing the business on to my younger brother who's been working with him for almost 20 years now and to see him go through this entire journey start to finish has just been amazing and I wanted to share his story because he deserves so much credit for the person that I am today. And all of my achievements.
So I want you guys to hear this. So this one is really special to me. I have with me today, my daddy and yes, I still call him my daddy. My dad had the biggest impact on me as a child. He is my hero because he was present when it really mattered. So we talk about here, you know, our core beliefs are formed by the age of five to seven.
And let me just tell you about what my dad did during these years. Of my life, my fondest memories of me and my dad were the following. So my dad used to read to me. So I'm going to date myself here and say that my dad used to read the golden binded Disney books, right? So some of you guys remember those Disney books that had the golden binder.
Um, he would read those to me. He also read a book, Black Beauty, which coincidentally enough, I developed a horse obsession through grade school to the point where every single teacher received an elaborate portrait of a horse galloping down a beach or where the ocean meets the sand or something like that.
So my dad was also the explorer with me and my brother during this year, these years. So he used to take us camping. Um, we visited a lot of different campsites, had a lot of fun in nature, even if it was the creek behind my grandma's farm. Um, he, he gave us a lot of experiences, um, including, I remember one night we got in trouble, me and my brother did.
So I have a brother who's three years younger than me and we got in trouble and my mom was so angry. And my dad actually took us out back and took us swimming that night in the dark, um, in our pool in the backyard. Um, and my dad was a trucker, so he had a route to Chicago. We live in the Midwest, and I remember a lot of trips to Chicago, seeing the statues, even parking outside of the airport and watching the planes.
I remember he delivered to a place that grew caterpillars in a cup. Do you remember that? And he brought us back these little plastic cups with caterpillars. Um, that we could see cocoon up and, you know, become a butterfly. So he was also my early morning buddy, um, because he was a trucker. He had to wake up super early, like what?
4, 4 30 AM. And he would wake me up and get me out of bed and we would have oatmeal together. Um, before he went to work and then I would go back to bed. And now coincidentally enough, I love early mornings. And one of the things that I do, I remember about my dad that, you know, really stood out to me is that he is a humble man and exhibits humility.
Um, he would apologize when he was out of line. I remember he moved, uh, shortly after my parents divorced and there was a spider in mine and my brother's new room. And I freaked. out, freaked out and he got a little bit angry because I was probably being dramatic and with a new situation in a new house, that must have been very stressful.
But I remember after the dust had settled, you know, he came to us and he apologized and we all just sat on the floor and kind of hugged. Um, so that was really, really special to me. But he showed me Even after age seven, um, a lot of things that were equally impactful in my life. Um, when my parents got divorced, I was in the third grade.
My dad made the very most out of his time with us. Um, again, showing us adventures, taking us places, exposing us to new things. Um, it wasn't easy adjusting to the new way of things, but he did his best and displayed humility. I also ran track in high school and this man has followed me around the country.
Him and his now wife. Um, even though, so I ran track, if you know anything about track, you wait for hours to see a 30 second race. So you're really just standing around for most of the time. Um, but we kicked ass. So even though you spent all day waiting for us, it was definitely worth it. But what I want to talk about with you today, dad, is the leap that you took when I was in high school.
And so my dad took the entrepreneurial leap. And even before then, you had a landscaping business, right? How many years did you do that? Probably four or five. Four or five years. And you ended up selling that business. No, I didn't sell the landscaping business. I just kind of... Quit doing it because I didn't have time to do it.
It was just way too much work and it didn't get me to where I needed to, uh, where I was able to quit my full time job to go on to be self employed. Right. And then I started a handyman business along with that. Oh, that's okay. So the landscaping business and the handyman business, the handyman business is the one that you sold, right?
So you had been dabbling in the entrepreneurial world before this kind of opportunity came along. When I was in high school. Right. So tell me about when you first, and we're gonna try to do this, so, uh, we're not gonna say exactly what my dad does yet. We're gonna play a little game here. We're gonna try to describe this without saying it first.
and then we, uh, we will, we will. Expose what my father does later on. And this was a very interesting decision to me back in high school and not because he was going to start his own business. My concern was more the nature of the job. So we'll get to that later, but, um, tell the story about how you came across this opportunity.
Well, I can't say it all because I'm gonna expose what I do. Okay, if we expose it, that's fine. We'll do our best, but... Um, well, I was given an opportunity to buy a piece of equipment that is associated with my now full time job. Um, so I, uh, pursued it a little bit and 7, 000.
Not knowing a lot about it, I had, uh, done some of this type of work, uh, in the past that was somewhat associated with it. So I bought this piece of equipment, and, uh, I told my wife, Terry, what I was looking to do, and she was skeptical. Um, I had a full time job, very good paying, good ti uh, trucking job. So I pursued it, bought this piece of equipment, brought it home, and my wife Terry knew what it was, and she was just really...
skeptical about it. So I purchased this and, uh, was still working a 60 hour job, 60 week, an hour job driving a truck and would pursue this in the afternoons, uh, after two o'clock when I get back from my route and I was working 18 hours a day. Basically. And then another opportunity came up a month and a half later to buy a business from a gentleman who was retiring in the same line of work.
Um, so I pursued that as well. The gentleman rode with me for about six months, kind of helped me out to start, and then I was basically on my own. So, uh, I, I gotta say, you know, I'm a, I'm a Christian and I, I totally believe everything I prayed for had come true. And, uh, so at some point after a year and a half of doing 18 hours a day, uh, I came to the conclusion that my prayers had been answered and I, uh, wasn't feeling real good about myself, not quitting my full time job because I kind of felt like I was lacking on faith at that time.
So I took the leap of faith and quit. And, uh, Have not looked back since it's been a great business that we're in. Um, I taught my daughter Chelsea here to drive a great big three 79 Peterbilt extended hood truck. Uh, she didn't know how to shift gears and, uh, took her out and taught her how to drive a truck.
Um, actually about the only employees I've had of the, uh, all of them. Uh, none of them knew how to drive a truck. And I taught every one of them, including my son, Cody, now who works for me. So, uh, it was a, it was a leap of faith, took it and, um, never have looked back since then. All right. So let's just, let's just tell them what you do.
And now you guys keep in mind, I'm in high school. Okay. You gotta be a cool kid in high school, right? You can't let people know you're not cool. So my dad owns Zesky septic cleaning in central Illinois. Um, and the trucks that we drive that he has clean the septic tanks in the area and also service grease traps for restaurants.
So, as you can imagine, this is a very interesting industry. It takes a certain type of person to be able to, to get down and to do that type of job, but. You know, I mean, like you said, dad, you were looking for, for an opportunity and you really, you didn't let that stop you. And I have to say, so when I first started working for you, it was two weeks after I had my daughter.
So two weeks after I had my daughter. I was riding around in the truck with my son and doing this labor intensive job. And we still have stories of customers that call and remember this, you know, little blonde chick hopping out of a big truck. I get phone calls wanting to know if she knew what she was doing.
So yeah, I could tell them honestly, yes, she knows what she's doing. I wouldn't send her if she didn't. And now I remember one of the first things that you did. So you've always taken pride in the image of your trucks. You were a trucker, even when you were a trucker, you made sure that your trucks looked good and they were clean.
Like you take your appearance. seriously. And I remember that you did on your orig had a slogan and you put on the truck. It was almo almost like one of the truck
say based service and customer
sati see this play out in your So you guys, this is trul Starting from pretty much nothing and building an entire business, it's, it's branding, it's messaging, it's core values from next to nothing. And I could see you play this out in your business, meaning you wouldn't just show up and clean it out and be done.
Like you started to educate your customers. You put together a packet because people don't really know a whole lot about their septic tanks. Right, and so you put together even an entire packet to start giving to your people and looking back and knowing what I know about business now, that was a true.
Identifier for you and your business. Something that you did that I believe was very different from what the people around you were doing. It was almost like if you could give somebody an experience around their septic system, you delivered it. Well, we've actually done, uh, homeschooling, uh, there's one customer.
I remember it had eight kids and they were from all different parts of the world, uh, all adopted. And we did a, uh, homeschooling education session. On, uh, that was their, uh, science project or whatever for the day. So they all stood around and watched the pump septic tank. I had to explain bacteria, uh, and, and that type of thing.
So that was kind of interesting. I've done a few of those, actually. This is, this is an entire underground like group, you guys, they have a Facebook page called pumper nation and everything. Like this is a whole industry. Um, but it was really, you know, and I didn't know how much of a role it would play when I was younger.
Now, now that I have, you know, become an entrepreneur on my own. Um, and I didn't realize what was happening back then, but I can see it now, you know, kind of what led to your success and that you were very invested in your business and even created a mission out of it, right. With your core values and, and really went above and beyond for your, your customers.
So, did you know back then, or did you think back then, that everything that you were doing would be such an example? Uh, yeah, I truly did. I, um, you know, with the values that I have and, uh, Educating customers. I had a good feeling that it would grow and we've had, I've had no, no problem growing. We still, to this day, 19 years later, we still get new customers.
Uh, we're very well known in our area. Um, we're even known 60 miles out from our area. So, uh, with the help of my son, Cody, my employee, Ryan, right at the time, but past employees as well. Uh, all my employees have had a very big role in what we do. Uh, we get compliments all the time, customers calling us and saying what a good job, uh, our employees are doing.
And with that, we do, uh, reward it, reward that. We give them a bonus. If a customer calls in and says, Hey, you know, this gentleman was here. Uh, or in the case of Chelsea working this, this young lady was here, uh, we, we, uh, reward him with that. And, uh, you know, without employees, a business is not going to get to where it's at unless you got good employees as well.
So. Not just myself, it's everybody involved. And that was really, I think, um, an amazing experience for me and my brother, Cody, for you to have really involved us in what you were doing and making us a part of it, even the parade. So, so, so you guys, my dad has a mascot. This is what I'm saying. He goes all out with this.
It's. It's hilarious and awesome at the same time. My dad has a mascot. It is a six foot tall skunk and we do local parades. I mean, the, the, the, the locals here, some of them know this skunk and in the surrounding towns as well. We will go around and do, yes, stinky, stinky. And he will, he, this is like. I mean, he represents Zesky Septic.
Um, Stinky will go to all the parades. He will go to the home shows. And you know, that's another thing that you did too. You had a lot of fun with it. You made a joke out of it. Um, what are some of the sayings? Your shits are bread and butter. Number one and number two business. Uh, all of our trucks on the back say that they're filled with politician promises, uh, we get a lot of, a lot of people pull up behind, you can tell they're taking pictures, customers taking pictures of it, and we encourage them to, uh, post it.
And I have seen, I have personally seen that come across my Facebook page from somebody who I didn't even know. So I think it's awesome that you take what you do and you make light of it. Um, and take every opportunity to kind of make people laugh and smile about it because it is what it is. You know, somebody has got to take care of it.
Somebody has got to do it and you've taken what a lot of people would probably not take and you have made. a living. You have created an example for your Children. You have created an opportunity for your Children. Um, and I don't think that that is to be taken lightly. And I just want to thank you for all of the hard work that you put in and involving us and teaching us.
And even if you didn't know it, then being my hero. And showing me what it meant to create a business and put your heart and soul into it and have it serve you and also serve the people that you take care of your customers. And what I really learned from you is that it is not easy, but if you have good values.
It is only a matter of time. And even when I started core solutions group four years ago, you know, people used to ask me, how, how do you, how do you know it's going to work or, you know, what do you, how do you feel about it? And I would say it is only a matter of time because what you taught me is that if your heart is in the right place and if you truly believe and are willing to invest in what you do, that is what makes it successful.
Um, you also taught me that hard work has its place. Um, and it is valuable when the journey calls for it, you have to be willing to jump in the trenches and you talked about, you know, your team, your employees, um, I learned a lot of leadership from you in that. Leadership is not just about barking orders and telling people what to do.
It is being willing to get down and do what needs to be done with your people. And what matters even more is how you engage with others around what you do. Um, so my dad is a super social butterfly. Okay. Him and his wife, Terry could go to a restaurant and sit next to some people who they've never met before.
And end up being best friends and go to the bar afterwards. And I think that is one of the most impactful things that I learned from you was how to conduct myself in a social situation, how to start conversations with people that I don't know, how to actually listen to them. And it has served me Well, and I think that's a lot of thing that that's the thing that a lot of business owners are kind of scared of is getting out there, putting themselves out there, talking to people about what they do with confidence, um, and, and really believing in it.
So that is definitely something that I learned from you as well. And as a last note, I've learned a lot of things for you, but as a last note. Um, I really learned selflessness from you and everything that you sacrificed to start your business, um, and take care of your family and really show me and my brother those moments when we were little that we really needed, like you really showed up.
So thank you for that. You guys, my dad is really my hero. So after everything, after everything that you've done, um. You know, again, I really just want to thank you. And it was very special to me and it has certainly contributed to the person that I am today. The reason that I wanted to bring my dad on today was to give you some insight to.
You know, find the examples in your life. I'm extremely fortunate in that I have a kick ass dad, um, who was there for me and who really gave me a lot of good values and examples. Um, so whoever you can find in your life, you know, pay attention to what they're doing, look back and see how maybe you didn't realize it then.
Um, but how they impacted you and how they contributed to the person that you are today. And for people in a situation like my dad. Don't underestimate the example that you set for other people around you, even if it's not your daughters, your nieces, your, you know, family members, everything that you do matters and people are watching what you are doing, even if you're not aware of it.
So thank you, dad. You're welcome. Okay. Listeners. Here's the deal. We're on a mission with this podcast and I need your help. It kills me inside that people are not being taught about money and they are suffering because of it, especially our younger generations who are in school and not learning about it.
My big hairy audacious goal is that I want to be something like the female Dave Ramsey and spread financial literacy like wildfire, so we can change the course of history, together. So now I'm recruiting you to help me in this vision, and I'm incentivizing you to spread the word with some pretty cool giveaways.
Once we reach 50 subscribers, we are chucking out some goodies to the world. So here's what you need to do. Subscribe to our podcast and turn on those notifications. Repost or share wherever you're hearing or seeing this. And submit the form for our giveaway. That form will be either in the show notes. If you're hearing us on the podcast, social posts, we'll have them in the comments, and we also have it in our link tree, the literal day that we reach our first goal of 50 subscribers, we've got three chances for you to win.
Our first giveaway is going to be your choice of air pod pros or Samsung buds, a t shirt and a free money strategy session with yours truly. The second giveaway is an Amazon gift card, that same t shirt and the free session. And the third giveaway is the t shirt and the free session. I am so grateful to have all the listeners of always and never about the money.
And I think that together we can change the world's money story. If you liked this episode, be sure to show us some love by subscribing and turning on those notifications. You can find me on Instagram under the money whisper. And also where we encourage you to contribute, to join the conversation, ask questions, and share your thoughts so we can create more episodes tailored exactly to what you want to know about money.
I'm your host and your personal money whisperer. Until next time, remember it is always and never about the money.