Every entrepreneur knows that starting your own business is grueling work. Bringing in family to help can be a great blessing, but it inevitably comes with a learning curve.
Today’s guests are a father-daughter Visionary/Integrator™ team who have crafted a partnership built on personal trust, professional excellence, and clear communication.
Robert Fleming is the Founder, President, and Visionary™ of Magnolia Pancake Haus and Tricia Schleicher is the Vice President and Integrator™. In this episode, they share what it takes to transform personal trust into professional confidence.
Key Takeaways:
- Family trust can be a great foundation for professional trust, but they are not the same thing.
- Clear, honest communication about your thoughts and feelings is essential to a Visionary/Integrator relationship.
- Stepping away from business operations to embrace the Visionary role is like becoming a grandparent.
Some Questions Asked:
- What skills do Robert and Tricia rely on to balance their father-daughter as well as their relationship as Visionary and Integrator?
- What challenges did Robert and Tricia face when learning how to work together?
- How did Robert learn to let go of working in the company in order to start working on the company?
A Strong Visionary/Integrator Relationship Makes Freedom Possible
Robert has been in the hospitality industry his whole life. However, when excelling at his job meant missing major moments of his daughter Tricia’s childhood, he decided to start his own business. In the early days of Magnolia Pancake Haus, Robert, his wife Sheila, and Tricia were the only workers, but they quickly found that their stellar cooking and customer service led to swift growth.
Tricia recalls how when she was just 12 years old, she carved out a space for herself in the family business as a waiter. About a decade later, it was that same spirit of motivation that led her to create and step into a leadership position at the restaurant, which eventually evolved into her current Integrator role.
When Robert and Tricia started implementing EOS® early in 2019, they had to learn several lessons.
- That their father-daughter relationship was not the same dynamic the company needed from them as Visionary and Integrator.
- Tricia learned to slow down, take smaller steps, and trust her dad’s experience with the business.
- Robert learned to trust that Tricia was capable of handling the operational tasks he’d executed for so long.
“I had at that point been in the business for 20 years, and I was like, ‘I’ve got to find my way out’ because [working in it] was no good for the business.” — Robert [17:29]
Now that Robert spends his time working on the business instead of in it, he loves his job more than ever.
“It’s exactly what I want. I am a consultant, I am here, I am the institutional memory… I go into the business now and I’m happy-go-lucky.” — Robert [18:24]
If you’re interested in learning how to cultivate professional relationships within a family dynamic or transitioning to working on the business instead of in it, don’t miss this episode of Rocket Fuel™.
Learn More:
- Robert’s LinkedIn
- Tricia’s LinkedIn
- Magnolia Pancake Haus
YOUR PRIVACY CHOICES