Proven Not Perfect
Proven Not Perfect
Unstuck: BevSource Founder Janet Johanson Shares her Lessons in Growing and Exiting a Business
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What if the secret to navigating life's obstacles isn't finding the perfect map, but developing a mindset that always sees options? Janet's remarkable journey from unemployed 24-year-old to successful business founder and philanthropist offers powerful insights on leadership evolution that will transform how you approach challenges.
Janet didn't set out with a grand strategic vision when founding BevSource. She simply needed a job after being laid off from a brewery. This necessity-driven beginning evolved into a thriving business that would eventually attract private equity investment. Along the way, she transformed from someone "super driven, somewhat selfish" into a leader described as patient, empathetic, and focused on serving others.
The cornerstone of Janet's success? A mindset that consistently sees paths forward when others see only walls. "My mom always said you always have an option," she explains. This foundation became her leadership superpower—being what she calls an "unstucker," someone who helps people navigate life's maze by showing them strengths they haven't yet recognized in themselves.
During our conversation, Janet shares the profound advice that changed her approach to business challenges: "You can turn a company around in 90 days or kill it in 90 days. Make a decision." She reveals how a leader's energy dramatically influences an entire organization, why self-care isn't selfish but essential for effective leadership, and how her definition of success evolved from financial wealth to witnessing others thrive.
Whether you're starting a new venture, facing seemingly insurmountable obstacles, or wondering what your next chapter holds, Janet's story offers a masterclass in viewing difficulties not as burdens but as opportunities to develop skills you'll need later. Her journey reminds us that true success comes not from accumulating wealth, but from helping others discover their own potential while navigating life with curiosity, resilience, and an unwavering belief that options always exist—even when we can't immediately see them.
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Leadership Qualities and Self-Reflection
Speaker 1Hey Janet, hi, how are you? I'm doing. Well, I'm doing better now because we're about to have a darn good conversation. I just know it.
Speaker 2I'm looking forward to it.
Speaker 1Excellent. We're going to jump right in because I don't want to miss a second of this opportunity to get time with you. So look, first and foremost, just your whole being is so calm and so relaxed, but yet so driven and so focused at the same time. Have you heard this before? I just got to say this we got to start here and unpack this and then we'll get into the next thing. But tell me about how, how do people say you are, and which of those things resonate for you? What are the adjectives that you hear about who you are? And trust me, all listeners, honestly, there's a method to the madness and you'll you'll understand a little bit more why I want to start here.
Speaker 2Yeah, I think now I mean over time it's different, right? I think the leader I was was probably super driven, probably somewhat selfish, you know my needs first, and then over time, it became how do I serve others and serve the client and serve my employees? So I think adjectives are probably giving patient, which is weird. Patient would not have been in the old description of people of Janet 20 years ago, and I think people see different versions of myself, right, I think my kids and my husband and my friends may see energy and energetic and probably not the. I'm not the patient friend. I'm usually not the empathetic friend, right? I'm the one that helps you get unstuck. I'm an unstucker, if that's a real word, but I think patient and empathetic when needed, but also pushy, and I'll take pushy I know that could be a bad adjective, but pushy and I think I have an ability to see strengths in people that they don't see in themselves yet, and once they get to trust the process, their growth is incredible and that's incredibly satisfying for me too.
Founding BevSource at 24
Speaker 1Wow. Honestly, I think we start with pushy. I think we start with seeing the best in people and establishing that as a standard. So, janet, I think all of those adjectives are the making of a founder of a major company, and I think it's also the reason why you can be successful, seeing that vision go and grow into something that is useful and probably even beyond your own expectations. So let's take it back to when you started BevSource. What was the problem to solve? Where did that come from? Because I suspect those adjectives that folks have kind of held up a mirror and shown back to you, a lot of those were useful in starting and founding a business.
Speaker 2I wish it was super strategic and I scoured the white space of the market for some opportunity and I was super smart when I was 24 years old. But it was being selfish. I needed a job. So I was at a brewery and the brewery started to go bankrupt and I was laid off and clients said would you help us find a new production facility to manage our production of our beverages? And I needed money. Right, I was 24. I didn't have a husband and kids back then and I had a mortgage to pay and friends living with me paying part of the mortgage. But so I said yes, and so we help people find new contract manufacturing for their beverages.
Speaker 2So, but then it changed over time right To always learning and always growing and how do you do it better? And then learning from the best you know. I think success shows us shortcuts like study the successful people and it's not rocket science just do a little bit of what they do and put your own mark on it. And I don't think I learned that right away either, that I thought I had. I know Jack Welsh like. I read all the books right Of all the great business giants and I thought I had to be like that, and as I grew over time, it was no, I need to be me, yes, also be authentic to myself and to the people around me, but then also have a good business sense and not let people walk all over me either. Right, there's that balance.
Speaker 1So when did you figure out the parts of you that were the proven parts, the parts that would allow you to? Quite frankly, when job loss is a situation, you're looking past that and you say, ok, I can't control that piece, but I can control these things. When did you learn that you could trust those things? Or when you started, did you even know?
Speaker 2No, when I started, I didn't know, right, like there was not a whole lot of responsibility. It was one of those things If this works, great, if it doesn't, I can always go get another job, right? I think there's always been calculated risk and there's always a backstop for me, right, there's, you know, like I have never jumped off a cliff and there was no going back. There's always a two-way door, right? Oh, there's options. And if people were to describe me, I think Were there options?
Speaker 1or did you just think there were options?
Speaker 2Oh, I just think there were options, it doesn't mean that there were real options. Yeah, I love.
Speaker 1No, I love that because I think that we're either built a way where we see these obstacles as immovable or you're like there's always going to be an option, right, and I'm curious about if that's sort of your psyche or no. Not really.
Speaker 2Oh, it was my psyche. My mom always said that she's like you always have an option, right, Like you don't have to go to bed, you just can keep your eyes open all night, right, you don't have to sleep. And I'm like, oh you know, and then I tried to prove it wrong and keep my eyes open all night, Right, but I think that was, that was in my upbringing. You always have a choice, right? You know, it may not seem like there's a choice in there, but there's choices in there and you always have one. And so, yeah, I I think to your point, when decisions come up, I don't know what the other choice might be, but I know there are other ones. And then you just kind of get gravitated and you, you follow your gut towards the choice that you know is leading you that way.
Speaker 1So take us to the earliest times, when, okay, now you've, you've made this decision, you've, you're 24 years old, you're, I mean essentially young in leadership, young in management. What does that look like? Tell me about the not so perfect parts.
Navigating Tough Decisions as a Leader
Speaker 2Yeah, I think the not so perfect parts are you don't know what you don't know and it's okay, right, like, and you just keep asking for help. I didn't know what a chart of accounts was and you, you just get curious and you ask lots of questions and use your network. You know, I played volleyball with some accounting company, had a team, and I've asked them while drinking a beer, like what's a chart of accounts? Like where do I? I'm going to start a business, how do I do my accounting? They're like, oh, you, just, you just get QuickBooks.
Speaker 2And they made it sound easy and I was like, okay, then I'll just get QuickBooks, right. So I think you just listen and ask questions and then, yeah, you just keep going. Yeah, there wasn't a lot to lose back then either, so that was easy. It got scarier as there were more things to lose when there were more people on the payroll and I knew that if I made a bad decision, not it wasn't just my livelihood I would affect, it would be the lives of other people, and so that got scarier later.
Speaker 1So what did that look like? How did you push past that fear?
Speaker 2It's a good question. It's. You know people always say you make the best decision with the information you have at the time. Right, and you know you start with a foundation of trust with your people and they know that you're just. You know, think about COVID or 2008,. You know the financial crisis. You're just making decisions the best that you can with the information that you have at the time.
Speaker 2In hindsight you'll always make a different decision, but you didn't have that information early on and you know there were days where I didn't. There were days, there were months, there were quarters, there were half a years where I didn't take a paycheck so that everybody else got paid. You know I live below my means so I'm able to do that. You know my husband also had a job and we were investing in real estate and things like that. So we have the ability to do so. But I wouldn't say those are like the brightest days.
Speaker 2But one person said to me at one point when things got really bad Janet, you can turn a company around in 90 days or you can kill it in 90 days. Make a decision. And that was the kick in the ass that I needed. It was profound and like, and it only takes 90 days, right? Like if you and people follow your energy and your lead, right? So if your energy is sucked for 90 days, the whole company gets sucked for 90, your energy explodes. You know they won't explode day one of 90, but by day 45, everybody's exploding again, right? So yeah, 90 days, I think, is magic.
Speaker 1So that burden, when I think about it, you know the responsibility of a leader, not only in setting the vision but also in setting the cadence and the pace it can feel very burdensome. It can feel exciting at the same time. What became your strategies, or what are some of your strategies? To carry that burden and to not have it absorb you and weigh you down right, and to not have it absorb you and weigh you down right, just to kind of keep pushing and keep people excited to be moving with you, because it's so much about the people's belief in you and the energy that you're sort of bringing up, right yeah.
Speaker 2I and I don't you know I my personality type isn't that I take it all in and it lives in my heart and my gut and then I have digestive issues, like I'm grateful that that is not how my body absorbs stress. My body absorbs stress by getting more curious, which is weird, just asking more questions. And how could I do this differently? Like like I was the person stuck.
Speaker 1Picture in your mind is a maze and never seeing like the end. You're always just like okay, well, that just means I can't go there. I keep going.
Speaker 2So that's, that's a fricking superpower. That is a superpower, and I think that's my new superpower, right? It's like I can unstuck people because I've been stuck so many times that I had to ask so many questions to get out of the maze and I might've had to go backwards to go forwards again. I think that's a great analogy, which is funny.
Speaker 1I love that. I just got chills thinking about it Seriously.
Speaker 2Yeah, Our actually real estate investment company is called Sona Investments and our little logo is a maze of getting out of the rat race. I did not know that, but yeah, but I think because I was stuck so often, it wasn't like I don't internalize it. I I find energy and finding the solution, instead of taking the burden and wallowing and kind of what the burden could mean for others. I don't spend much time there. You know we always talk about, we can always give ourselves like a 24 hour pity party, right Like something might happen, you know. You know an employee quits or something you think it's devastating. Right Like when, especially when we were small, and like we were five or six people and one person quits, it's like, oh my gosh, that's like 20% of the staff, you know. Okay, so give yourself a pity party for 24 hours and then get out of the maze. Right Like, but don't sit in the pity party, Cause that's not helpful.
Mindset: The Foundation of Success
Speaker 1I tell you, um, what I hear loud and clear, as I listened to you and I'm sure others do as well when you think about successful founders and and of businesses, a lot of times we focus on the what they did right and we want to jump in and say okay, what you do, how'd you think about starting it to your point? What, what thing were you solving for? And in the precise house? What I'm hearing loud and clear, and I wonder if others are as well, is mindset Chills, because I think that that emotes a whole different thoughtfulness around. Is it for me, and can I do it Right? Is it for me and can I do it Right? Because if you have a mindset that is not lending itself to seeing the obstacle to a point of obsession, and if you have a mindset of knowing that there's something behind you that has your back and that's going to be an option, whether it's real or not, it changes the game.
Speaker 2Yeah, and I agree with you. I think mindset seems to be like an overused word, like I don't know the kids doing mindset at school and things like, but it's so true. I was blessed with a great upbringing, with a mindset from my parents, right, you always have choices. So I had a good foundation. But then Sean and I my husband and I we do a lot of Tony Robbins stuff, because it's like a muscle. You can't go to the gym once and think that you're going to be ripped right, so you have to continue to practice mindset practices over and over again. To practice mindset practices over and over again. I mean, you go into battle, you march like this, right, because you've marched like this for a thousand hours, right, and so when those situations came up that were difficult, your mind already knows how to get out of it, as opposed to going backwards and wallowing in something else. So, yeah, I think mindset is, is key to anything, and that's whether you're in a leadership position or a non-leadership. You're a mom, you're anything.
Speaker 1Yes, yeah, that's right on. I love it, but I do. I do want to acknowledge that.
Speaker 2But it takes time. It takes time and it takes money, right, like I mean, it doesn't have to take money If you want to meditate every day. You know that's cheap, that's. You know. I think I was reading that book called the Happiness Hypothesis and you know we was free, you could have the same as some sort of antidepressant medication. Now, everybody wants to take the antidepressant, right. But you know, happiness is there. It's just having the right conditions around you and then waiting for your mindset to realize that you're already happy.
Speaker 1Have you ever been in a situation where the environment challenged that thinking at all? Where and what do I mean by that? So I know very, very clear on point A to point B. But and this is where mindset comes in I can find myself in a predicament where there's so many things that are happening around right. That are out of control. Have you ever had to sort of navigate and push through that, that kind of stuff, or no?
Speaker 2yeah, absolutely so. Like there's time and I you start to know yourself over time, right, there's times where, like I've been incredibly angry which reminds me of the old Janet from 20 years ago, because I used to get angry a lot, so it gets better right over time I get really angry and, like I give myself my 24 hours of pity party, anger party, whatever you want to call it and then I really try to find out why is this happening and what can I learn from this now. And I know that whatever skill I'm developing in that moment, it's going to serve me in the future. So you know one of my favorite phrases God doesn't give you patience.
Speaker 2He gives you opportunities to practice patience. Right, like, you're not given these things. You have to go through the anger or the hurt or the suffering so that you can develop that skill, so that it's going to show you you're going to need it. You put it in the toolbox and then you get to pull it out later, right? So I try and really focus on why is this happening and why am I angry and how can I use, how did I get out of this anger so that the next time I'm angry I can do it faster, you know, get out of it. That's what happens. But if, if, if you can get to that practice of I'm upset what am I trying what?
Speaker 2what is maybe God trying to teach me right now, and then be grateful for that lesson. You know, maybe you get some sort of disease or something like okay, what am I being taught? Oh, maybe I'm being taught to slow down and pay attention to the relationships in my life, and and, and then you get to do that again, probably in 10 years.
Transitioning from CEO to Philanthropy
Speaker 1So so there's a holistic piece about seeing it that way and living your life that way, and I truly know I mean you can say it sounds foo-foo. I know you and I know that these are anchors and pillars for you. So it's not foo-foo at all. It's actually an action, you know, coming through selling a company and I would imagine coming in 24 years old, figuring it out, allowing it to teach you along the journey and seeing it become successful enough for someone to say I value that too and I'm willing to pay you for it. That's huge. I would love to hear what's the mountaintop moment and thinking at that point what is that? What?
Speaker 1does that look like.
Speaker 2Yeah, so taking on investment from private equity wasn't the pinnacle for me, which you would think would be um, it was actually, uh, you know, taking on private equity investment leading the company for another 18 months or so brought on three great acquisitions, great great partners and, um, going to the annual company meeting having Shaletta Burnbridge who's amazing do our motivational speech. You know strength finders, and you could feel the love in the room. I knew that was my time. I knew it was. There was nothing left. I could teach this team any longer, right, like I've taught them love, and I knew that they knew how to embody love and teach others love. And that's when I knew it was my time to exit as CEO.
Speaker 1Wow, that's huge.
Speaker 2I called my husband the next morning and crying of course, and and I was like I think it's time.
Speaker 1Girl, if you've never heard that you are anchored in your purpose and confident in it, I just need to be the one from the cheap seats to say that that is oh you're.
Speaker 2you're in the arena, honey, you're in the arena.
Speaker 1But, man, and that's why I'm drawn to you, right? Because, um, it's clear, you, you get it, you, you get it more than you get it. The word that I want to say is you received it. You get it More than you get it. The word that I want to say is you receive it, Because I think that it's a big responsibility, even bigger than anything else, is recognizing the imprint that you're leaving on others and recognizing when you've done your part and it's time to move on to the next thing.
Speaker 1So then you moved on to the next thing and that, I feel like, explored even new aspects of love and and this time it was love and philanthropy and charity, and reaching out to communities that you know would have never known your name. Like tell us a little bit about that bridge, that journey of you know would have never known your name. Like tell us a little bit about that bridge, that journey of you know, a founder and and and Exeter as yourself that said, okay, it's not over, it's not done, there's something next, and what that sort of shift and pivot look like for you.
Speaker 2Yeah, I think, being able then to retire as the CEO that I founded a business. You know, I I get blessed with some time to reflect on what that journey looked like. And, um, you know, and you know, continued to go to seminars and I'm part of YPO and went to, like the United Nations, some summit and there was a great speech, You're a badass, but you know thank you.
Speaker 2No, kids listening but you know, thank you, no kids listening. Um, but I learned that like and and it was repeated over time in my BevSource journey that I'm a catalyst, right like I'd like to start things. I always love to finish them, right like I'm good at finding champions then to finish them, so I'm a good catalyst. I I think I live without fear. If the idea doesn't work, then I don't care, right, like I really don't internalize that. Um, again, superpower, I'm just yeah, like I just amaze it and be like, oh well, if we try and start black businesses beautiful, and that doesn't work, then we'll I don't know create up there, we'll create an online portal or I don't know, we'll just try something.
Speaker 2Like then it didn't work, right that that's more information gathering, but yeah, so like really, you know, taking my catalyst power to other locations, Right. So supporting Give Us Wings, a community in Africa smaller board. You know we consistently are at four hundred thousand in revenue for this small charity. You know, and it's all about creating the love on the board of directors, with the staff, and you know core values, all the business things. But it's like you said, putting it in action is super fun. And so, like the board now I feel really been doing that for about a year and a half. The board's feeling great, they're ready to move forward. The staff in Africa is amazing, Like everybody's energized and now I can hand it over to the champions, Right. So similar with the work at Junior Achievement in Minnesota. We started a program called 3DE and, of course, Janet wants to do everything faster. You know they're like we should start with one school and I'm like, how do we get to 10? Why can't we? You know, like asking the question and you know, for an entrepreneur, you know, leading that board when it's the, you know, CEO of US Bank and other bigwigs, like a Chandra Powell being the you know, oh, here I go, that's right
Speaker 2on Call it girl. Call it, climb it, but it's intimidating. I was like you want me crazy entrepreneur, to lead this board. They're like, yes, we do, we know, we know that you unstuck and you move things forward. And then I know that it's also time for me to leave. But I also know it's an important step that I have to find champions then to continue that energy and so that's also part of my strategy is replacing myself on boards with people that have just as much love in their hearts in order to keep that momentum going.
Redefining Success and Future Focus
Speaker 1I love that. Honestly, you embody all of it, and I think it's certainly something that you should be proud of. I think these are superpowers that you continue to keep giving. So tell us what would you say are your biggest leadership lessons in your journey? Or maybe even better than that how has your definition of success changed?
Speaker 2Yeah, you know, as a kid, success was money. Right, like my grandpa, I told him, I think, when I was seven, I was like I'll be a millionaire by the time I'm 30. And when I turned 30, I said, grandpa, I'm not there yet, give me another five years. You know, success was money. And, yes, and I was always the one playing the banker in Monopoly. And you know, we'd play house as kids and I would, you know, pick the kitchen so that I could charge my brothers and sisters for food, otherwise they wouldn't eat all summer. That drives you to a certain point. But then, you know, as the business started to develop, you know where I found great success was when customers were raving and employees were raving, and those were the stories that rave my heart, or? You know that make my heart warm, right, yeah, I think there's a quote recently that I read it's you know, better than sharing your riches is helping people find their own riches. You know their own talents, and that's what's really powerful.
Speaker 1And I think that helps you to get more you have to take care of yourself.
Speaker 2I did not early on, right Like you eat junky food and you don't work out, and I know that all sounds cliche, but the more you can fill yourself.
Speaker 1Yeah.
Speaker 2And because that's not the way that I grew up. Right Like it's selfish to spend time working out or to go get a massage or do whatever makes you feel good. But what I've learned is when I'm full, I have more to give. And so, even in the business, like when I would have hard days, I'd talk to my head at HR and you know this person, you know, you know the things right, like this person that or and she goes, janet, have you worked out in the last week? And I'm like, okay, she's like call me back after you work out. She knew, she knew when I got ornery it's because I wasn't taking care of me.
Speaker 1Wow, that's it, that's it.
Speaker 2Yep.
Speaker 1All right, sis, we got some rapid fire questions because I think this will help us to unpack a little bit more of that mindset that's yours. One thing you wish you knew at the start of your career.
Speaker 2One thing I wish I knew that I didn't realize that the relationships early in my career are the deepest friendships I have today.
Speaker 1Yes, You're in the trenches and emotional components of that man. I tell you.
Speaker 2The deepest relationships are those people, right? And it's the dinners. You know, like all the you know you go to the dinner and you're like I don't want to go to the dinner, and then you go to the dinner and yeah, so, like, all of my old friends are now the CEOs of some of the biggest beverage companies, right, and that's because we were in the trenches, we were in the arena.
Speaker 1And I think you're telling too especially it's graduation season right now if you're listening to this podcast during the taping and, you know, with so many commencement speeches being done, I think that that is something that the younger should really really pay attention to, because you step out and you're starting your career and you feel so inexperienced and so unsure of some things and you feel so confident and so super knowledgeable about other things and what you're going to find out very soon is that you know less than you think you are in some sense think you do in some instances, know less than you think you are in some sense think you do in some instances and more than you think you do in others.
Speaker 1Right, and at the end of the day, it's who you show up as and how you focus on those relationships that you're developing, those new connections. That's what you're going to look back years later and you know. But you're going to look back years later and you know, acknowledge that to your left and to your right are some pretty phenomenal people that you wouldn't have had if you would have not been present and aware of yourself.
Speaker 2And it is hard, especially when I was young, right to show up to go to networking events like go to the Minnesota Chamber of Commerce, like what the yes. Show up, get uncomfortable. Life will make you uncomfortable, and if you're uncomfortable, that means you're growing.
Speaker 1So I think I already know the answer to this then, because you kind of went there coffee or connections, what fuels your career more? Oh, connections.
Speaker 2So don't have a pot. If you have a copy with me, I'll send you seven emails after this. I'll be like, oh, and then Friday, I also thought of this person, and then I was at this other thing and this person and like I don't care if you follow up with any of them. I just have lots of Janet ideas that I will connect you with, and then it's up to you and I can tell you that is true, true, true, true, true.
Speaker 1that Last one, and then I'm going to let you go. Morning routine must have.
Speaker 2I work out Currently doing well, water, lemon juice when I work, or first thing when I wake up, go to workout. Come home we have celery juice.
Speaker 1Yeah.
Speaker 2And then take the kids to school and be present and listen to them as we, as we take them to school.
Speaker 1Wow, all right, sis, thank you so much for your generosity in sharing the mindset of founder, a grower, a seller of a business and then also really starting to point us to what's next. And the beautiful part of your journey, your story, is that you're constantly positioned for the what's next, because you don't see the wall at the end of the maze. This is next, this is next. Yeah, this is next Girl and I'm excited about what's next because that's what we're doing together.
Speaker 1You're not growing, you're dying. I'm so excited to share you with others, although, selfishly, you're not really theirs. You're mine, you're mine. I love you.
Speaker 2I'll see you later.