Confessions Beyond the Food
Confessions Beyond the Food is a podcast about working in the Food Industry. People who work in the Food Industry have grit and lots of stories to tell. W3 Sales, a sales & marketing company, will host this podcast with their confessions on how they have a new, fresh approach and invite guests to confess their secrets to their sauce.
Confessions Beyond the Food
Leading with Legacy: A Father-Daughter Story
Bill Burden and his daughter Jennifer Rolander explore the deep connections of family, legacy, and leadership that define their business journey. Their conversation reveals how childhood experiences shaped their professional paths and the critical importance of mentorship in family-run enterprises.
• Bill's journey in Burden China from childhood involvement
• Jennifer's early influences and desire for the family business
• The significance of family values in business practices
• The blend of science and craftsmanship in production
• Importance of mentorship and knowledge transfer
• Lessons learned from working together as a family
Welcome to Confessions Beyond the Food. I'm your host, nancy Redland. Let's dig in and get inspired. Hi, welcome back to Confessions Beyond the Food. Today, I have the incredible opportunity to sit down with not just one, but two powerhouse guests Bill Burden and Jennifer Rollander. This conversation is super special because it's not just about food service. It's about legacy, leadership and family. Welcome, bill and Jennifer.
Speaker 2:Hi, hi, nancy Hi.
Speaker 1:So Bill Burden is the former president of Texan China and was the owner of Burden China. He's known for his leadership, kindness and humility, and Bill has shaped not just a company but also countless careers and relationships in the industry. And also joining him is his daughter, jennifer Rollender. She was recently on our podcast and today we're bringing her back for something even more special, diving into their shared experiences, lessons learned and what it truly takes to make an impact on this business. So what do y'all say? Do y'all want to dive in?
Speaker 2:We're ready to go, let's do it.
Speaker 1:Let's do this, okay. So I first want to start off with Bill, like you know, with Burden China. So it was a family business, prior, correct, correct. And so tell me about how you got roped into it. Was it not at first sight, or was it just like I had to do it?
Speaker 2:No, I never had to do it, like I had to do it. No, I never had to do it. But you know, as, when you have a family business, as kids we were, my dad had started the business just after the war, in like 45 or 46. And so as kids, you know, we'd have to put things in bags and take, peel labels off of stuff, whatever had to be done. So it was something I started doing when, you know, I was probably seven or eight years old.
Speaker 2:I at one time had thought I was going to go on to electronic engineering, and then I ran into something called physics and I decided that electronic engineering maybe wasn't going to be my calling, and so that's what I kind of. I at college I started taking more marketing and business administration classes that I never really enjoyed going to school. So I finally I'd been to. I went to Cal Poly, pomona, and I'd been there about three years and I went to my dad and I said you know, I don't want to go to school anymore, I'd rather start work and study. He goes well, welcome aboard. There it was. It was never anything that I was pushed into, but I was always working at the company all through my youth teenage years, a young adult of it.
Speaker 3:And then I followed suit, because I did the same thing Worked as a kid for Bird and China.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and you kind of discussed that in our last podcast, jennifer. But growing up specifically around your dad's career in the beginning, did you see yourself following his footsteps? I?
Speaker 3:don't think I really thought about it much and I think it's kind of the same way is here was my grandfather running this business. I was always around it and you know, playing office, and I loved it. I mean that's what I used to do. I used to play office and, you know, get the in triplicate. You know where they had the carbon and stuff like that. I mean I used to even do that at home.
Speaker 3:I played office at home, so obviously it was in me. I wanted to do business there, home. I played office at home, so obviously it was in me. I wanted to do business. There was obviously something there. But I mean I had full, I had a desk and I had two phones and I created a catalog and I would be in my room and entertain myself playing office and having a business. That's amazing, yeah. So I just now I was thinking about that. It's really funny. So I think it definitely was in my blood because that was what I enjoyed doing and I loved going to the company and decorating mugs. I mean I challenged, I was like I was speedy on decorating a champion. I was the champion of decorating mug. So I think it was just innate. It was just there, and so that business sense just kept going, and then it just made sense to work for the company, and then my mom started working, and so it was the three of us you know as a family working together.
Speaker 1:Yes, and that's. It's funny that you say that, jennifer. I thinking back. I too played office and my dad was an entrepreneur, and so I did the same thing, where I would go to his office and play office at home with my sister, although we have like a store, so it was clothes, but same thing, right Photos plates.
Speaker 3:Yeah, I was doing furniture, china, all tabletop stuff.
Speaker 2:Give her all the old order books and things from the office and she'd bring all that stuff and she'd be upstairs and all of a sudden she'd come downstairs and we're in the family room watching tv or something and she's got her border book and she what can I get you? And you know what are you at prices.
Speaker 3:I do it's hilarious such a salesperson.
Speaker 1:I love it. And you guys literally have clay running through your. I've loved how you said that clay running through your veins yeah, yeah, that's right well. Also, bill, it's interesting that you said with your background, your science background, because you gave, I think, the best training on on china and dinnerware I've ever had. And I mean really I've been around a ton of different factories on China and I still love your informational videos, so did a lot of your science background change. Did that, I mean, play into any of this too?
Speaker 2:Well, I think it did. From the standpoint of there was a certain amount of you know, technical thing that I was always kind of interested in electronic engineering. I used to build radios, I built a color, we had a TV tv, obviously when we were, when we were first married, and I built a color tv from a kit and so we had a. I remember we I finally got it finished and we had a friends over and it was like turn it on is that's ain't gonna work and yeah, it worked and it did, yeah, and that tv for a long time.
Speaker 2:It was a lot of fun. But yeah, I think that background kind of helped with the technical part because even though ceramics is, you know, still hands and clay, you know that sort of thing there is a lot of technical back end to that in designing bodies and glazes and what different chemicals do. So you kind of need to have a little bit of that engineering type background. It kind of helps. I never was a ceramic engineer, but I had a couple of guys that we had as consultants a guy from England called George Vardy and he was classically trained in the UK as a ceramic engineer, and another guy that worked for Tuxton named Leo Suzuki and he was a Japanese trained in Japan. And oh man, these guys were really knowledgeable and they taught me a ton about ceramics and how things work and why this happens and what to look for, you know. So I had some really good people that I knew along the way. That helped with that.
Speaker 1:So you guys that are eating on plates, it's a lot more than just some clay. There's a lot that goes into it.
Speaker 3:I mean, I've always yeah, we're still lifting and flipping.
Speaker 1:Checking to see if there's any chips.
Speaker 2:Is there something?
Speaker 1:wrong. Sir, I've noticed your glaze is. You know it's not doing very well like you probably need to take this one conversation. Yeah, always the critics right, and so I mean I thought it was fascinating when you took us to china, when texas took us to china to actually see the plant and see the lab and the testing and to really understand the ingredients that go in affects how the color. I mean there's just so many variables and I thought that was.