Ginger Jones is a speech-language pathologist and is also the Founder and CEO of Jones Therapy Services- a pediatric therapy clinic that offers a wide variety of services with 9 locations in Tennessee.
As Jones Therapy Services grew bigger than she imagined she knew it was important to help others by not only sharing her entrepreneurial journey to provide small business owners with inspiration and advice but also how to build a leadership team to ensure your success.
Since she started Jones Therapy Services in November of 2009, the company has received many awards such as ranking on the INC 5000 list for 3 years in a row.
- CEO Hack: Working from home to restrategize
- CEO Nugget: Being optimistic and more true to who you are
- CEO Defined: Being a visionary and responsible for anything that happens.
FB: www.facebook.com/gingergjones.slp
Twitter:@GingerJones
IG: @gingerjones
LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/gingergjones
Check out one of our favorite CEO Hack’s Audible. Get your free audiobook and check out more of our favorite CEO Hacks HERE.
Transcription
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Intro 0:02
Do you want to learn effective ways to build relationships, generate sales and grow your business from successful entrepreneurs, startups, and CEOs without listening to a long, long, long interview? If so, you've come to the right place, Gresham Harkless values your time and is ready to share with you precisely the information you're in search of. This is the I am CEO podcast.
Gresham Harkless 0:27
Hello, hello, hello. This is Gresh from the I am CEO podcast and I have a very special guest on the show today I have Ginger Jones of Jones Therapy Services Ginger, it's awesome to have you on the show.
Ginger Jones 0:36
I'm excited.
Gresham Harkless 0:37
No problem super excited to have you on and what I want to do is just read a little bit more about Ginger so you can hear about all the awesome things that she's doing. And Ginger Jones is a speech-language pathologist and is also the founder and CEO of Jones Therapy Services, a pediatric therapy clinic that offers a wide variety of services with nine locations in Tennessee.
As Jones Therapy Services grew bigger than she imagined she knew it was important to help others by not only sharing her entrepreneurial journey to provide small business owners with inspiration and advice but also how to build a leadership team to ensure your success since she started Jones Therapy Services in November of 2009. The company has received many awards such as a ranking on the Inc 5000 list for three years in a row. Ginger, it's awesome to have you on Are you ready to speak to the I AM CEO Community?
[restrict paid=”true”]
Ginger Jones 1:25
I am.
Gresham Harkless 1:26
Awesome. Let's do it. So the first question I had was the hear a little bit more about what I call your CEO story. What led you to start your business?
Ginger Jones 1:34
Sure, yeah. So for anybody that's read the E Myth, I would say that I kind of followed that journey. So I was a speech-language pathologist very blessed that I knew I always wanted to do that from a very young age because both of my parents have hearing loss. So I knew I wanted to work with children that had disabilities. And so I right out of graduate school started working for a larger healthcare company and had a great time there spent about six and a half years there learned a lot and kind of stretched my leadership muscles there, moved into middle management.
So where I was leading people, but also not the one ultimately making all the decisions. And I was still getting to do the work I love. So it was great. And then probably about six and a half years into it, or maybe I should say, five and a half years. Because that lasted there six and a half years, I started to just feel like the big organization wasn't for me and that things didn't move quickly enough for me, I wanted to make changes, and I wanted it to happen quickly. And now the bigger my organization gets, I definitely understand that things take time. But I think at that point in time, I was just not patient enough. So I decided to start my own company.
And I say often I really didn't have a formal business plan. I had really no idea what I was doing. But I just kind of figured it out as I was going along. And that was that'll be 10 years ago this year.
Gresham Harkless 2:47
Awesome, awesome, awesome. Well, happy ten years first and foremost. And, it's great to hear that you have a really, strong story with both your parents that you talked about. So you really sound like you're really passionate, firsthand the importance and the impact that you can have by all the services that you're providing.
Ginger Jones 3:02
Right. Yeah, I definitely think that, for me, I didn't have the background and the formal training that maybe a lot of business centers have had. But I definitely made up for that and passion. And thankfully, I've definitely made some failures along the way. And I think that one of the things that I've learned from and that other CEOs and entrepreneurs can learn from it's kind of taking those failures and not letting them knock you all the way down and learning from that. And then just making the next best step now that you've made that mistake, and not to do that anymore.
Gresham Harkless 3:28
Yeah, that makes perfect sense. And I always say that, especially to in businesses, like even if you're as prepared as can be, there's always something that sometimes is a new rink or something that changes or technology changes, something changes, where you have to be able to kind of adapt, and as you mentioned, being able to be resilient and get back up is definitely a true sign of somebody that can be successful.
Ginger Jones 3:47
For sure.
Gresham Harkless 3:48
Awesome, awesome, awesome. And I know we touched on a little bit about what you're doing with Jones Therapy Services. Could you drill a little bit deeper? And tell us a little bit more about how you're supporting your clients.
Ginger Jones 3:56
Sure, yeah. So we have nine locations in Tennessee. Now we're getting ready to open the 10th one, hopefully in March of this year. And we provide speech-language therapy, feeding therapy, behavior therapy, and physical and occupational therapy to about a little over 6000 Children in Tennessee. And we've kind of grown organically over the last almost 10 years started out as just me alone doing a speech. And now we've got a huge team and offer a wide variety of services.
Gresham Harkless 4:24
Nice, nice, nice. Sounds like you you open up a new office every year, or is that that pace?
Ginger Jones 4:29
No, it hasn't been. And that's interesting. Do you say that? I think one year we opened three. And then for some years, we haven't opened any. So say that there were times in the growth when it just made sense to make sure that the legs were steady under the table. If it were up to me because I'm kind of the one who likes to just go do the new thing. And I'd probably open a few every year but thankfully I've got people that are a little bit more realistic on my team that kind of make sure that we're growing smart.
Gresham Harkless 4:54
Yeah, that's huge. I think too, and you can definitely correct me if I'm wrong, where you kind of recognize that in yourself and recognize what your strengths are. And it sounds like you're able to kind of surround yourself with a team that is able to kind of balance it out. And you guys can have and make the most, I guess, a correct decision that you can make.
Ginger Jones 5:09
Yeah, I think that's huge. And thinking, getting people that are just good at what you're not is one of the reasons that I've been successful. And from a lot of business owners. I know, too, I think that's the thing that can make or break the success of your company.
Gresham Harkless 5:22
Absolutely. absolutely. And now, I wanted to ask you for what I call your secret sauce. And this could be for you and or your organization. But this is what you feel kind of sets you apart and makes you unique.
Ginger Jones 5:32
Yeah, well, I always say, in my line of work, I want my competitors to be good, right? Because we're helping children. If I always say if I made a widget, it would be really cool. If I could, like, talk smack about the other person making a widget. Yeah, but I'm in a field where, it's like, we're all doing it to help people. So actually a lot of my close competitors around here. But, I have a great working relationship with where we share kind of the frustrations of being in healthcare and just the commonalities that we have between our companies. But I will say I think what led to our quick growth was, 10 years ago, at least in where I am, you didn't have a lot of options, and options that you did have families had to drive a long way for.
And so when I started opening locations, I was really considerate of some of these families that have children with special needs, they sometimes need two or three services a week. And so to drive to the middle of downtown Nashville Park, in a parking garage, and to do all those kinds of things, it becomes a full-time job. So we started putting locations in areas that were a couple of miles off the interstate, we don't have any offices that are in like medical buildings, we are more in like the retail, you just pull up, the parents can run in.
So that's something that maybe before I started my company, it might have taken two or three hours out of your day now can really take like 45 minutes to an hour now since, in the last 10 years, we've got more people that are kind of doing what I've done. So it's probably not as special as salts anymore. But I do think that the fact that we took all insurance payers, which a lot of people in my state weren't doing at the time is what kind of led people to us. And then we became a habit. So doctors refer to us and people know about us because as you grow your brand, you just kind of can rely on that more.
Gresham Harkless 7:12
Yeah, absolutely love that. And it's kind of like that, what I like to call your first mover's advantage, so to speak, where you saw an opportunity and took advantage of that opportunity. And you knew that because you drill down, and maybe it just came from understanding your client understanding who was coming to you, but you understood what a day looks like for them to come to the pathologist and what exactly might have been those pain points. And you found a way to kind of resolve that it sounds like.
Ginger Jones 7:36
Yeah, we did.
Gresham Harkless 7:38
Awesome, awesome, awesome. And I wanted to switch gears a little bit and ask you for what I call a CEO hack. And this might be an app, a book, or a habit that you have, but it's something that makes you more effective and efficient.
Ginger Jones 7:48
Yeah, I love this, because it's kind of new to me. But I would say my favorite hack is working from home. And I don't do it all the time I do it with non tend to be 10 locations, obviously, I think there's a need for me to be in there with kind of my finger on the pulse and seeing what's going on. But I was in the clinics all the time and actually heard the other day that the average CEO is interrupted every 20 minutes. And the hard part for me is that I love my people, I love the people I'm around.
So when somebody would need something for me, it felt like oh my gosh, I've got to help them, they feed me. But what I learned is when I'm not there, they actually figure it out. So I think that working from home, I do it definitely on Mondays and sometimes another day of the week. But it just really allows me to kind of get some big things off of my to-do list on Mondays. And so the rest of the week, if I need to be more reactive, I have time for that. And again, as I said, it was kind of like I knew I needed to do this, but there was a lot of guilt around it. And sometime in the last six months to a year, I let myself off the hook for being guilty about it. And it's been a huge game changer for my mental space and just being able to be there better for my team.
Gresham Harkless 8:51
Yeah, and I imagine what kind of sounds like you've even seen the leadership skills of your team grow as well, as you not actually being there, but been able to see that everything can go according to plan and go well as well.
Ginger Jones 9:03
Yeah, and actually, that's been one of the best things to kind of watch me now sometimes I'll kind of hear something that happened. And I hear after it happened and I think initially if you've got an ego about it, that can be hard to swallow. But I think that just realizing that's part of my job too, is to grow these people. The other thing I would say that definitely applies to me and I would assume some other entrepreneurs and CEOs is that the way my brain works is I just like to notice everything so when I'm in the office and notice if the waiting room doesn't look the way I want it to or if we didn't you know and so that again, it was just keeping me from like really working on the stuff that was really going to move the needle. And so I just needed to remove myself from that distraction.
Gresham Harkless 9:46
Yeah, that makes perfect sense. It's almost like because you're too close to and then literally too close to because you're literally in the office. So sometimes you have to have I mean I know myself sometimes that even if it's just going on a drive or whatever when you take yourself out of that regular environment, it gives you a different perspective lets you clear your head and those things that you don't think that you're noticing, but are still on your mind, like the waiting room you mentioned, you are able to kind of be away from that.
Ginger Jones 10:08
Yeah, I'm gonna take care of itself because it will.
Gresham Harkless 10:11
Exactly, exactly. And now I wanted to ask you for what I call a CEO nugget. And this is a word of wisdom or piece of advice. Or if you can happen to be a time machine, what would you tell your younger business self?
Ginger Jones 10:22
I think this is such a good question. So I read the other day, it was Seth Godin said, a different part of our brains is activated when we think about what's possible, rather than what's required. And for me, I've always been this naturally like, really optimistic person.
So I think I did this for a long time because it was just in my nature. But as I mentioned before, as the business grew, and I faced challenges, I think my natural instinct to be really optimistic started to be replaced with fear, I had more people relying on me, and, honestly, from an ego place, it seemed like more people were kind of, quote-unquote, watching me. So I put, I put really high pressure on myself to succeed. And so now I feel like after a few failures, and kind of working on myself, during those challenging times, I've just learned to honor that part of me that wants to try out a dream and see where it goes without thinking about all the roadblocks that can keep me from getting there.
So if I could tell my younger self, it's like, be more true to who you are. And just think about what's possible. And some people naturally are a little bit more, I guess, realistic. And so they may not struggle with that. But I think that really, during those times, when I wasn't being true to who I really was, the business felt like more of a chore.
And now that I've kind of gotten back to being like that person who's really just thinking about all the possibilities and really okay with failure. It's like, my joy in running the businesses back. Yeah, and I absolutely love that I myself, I consider myself definitely an optimistic person. So sometimes when you start flying, so to speak, and then you start to look down and you realize, Wow, I'm flying and you start to forget, you started to worry about, okay, like, I gotta keep flying, I gotta keep moving.
I hate to keep going. But sometimes it's just having that I guess, freedom of being able to fly and just, you know, going after your dreams going after, you know, whatever vision that you have that is your authentic. So yeah, I love that. I love that analogy. I'm gonna start using that.
Gresham Harkless 12:03
Okay. So, now I wanted to ask you my absolute favorite question Ginger, which is the definition of what it means to be a CEO. And we're hoping to have different quote-unquote, CEOs, entrepreneurs, and business owners on the show. So I want to ask you, what does being a CEO mean to you?
Ginger Jones 12:18
Yeah. Okay. So a lot of different things. And so I would say, and I'm sure people said this before, it's kind of the chief everything else is right. So to me, it means being a visionary, it means I need to maintain awareness of our operations, I need to maintain awareness of opportunities, I need to lead the mission of the company, I also need to be evaluating our successes, I need to really this was probably the hardest one is that I'm really responsible for anything bad. That's happened, right? So even if somebody else made a mistake, maybe I didn't equip them to do the job, right? Or I put the wrong person in the role, right?
So anything bad really is on me, and then one of the hardest things that I had to learn was, it's just really my job to make tough decisions. And for somebody that, , I'm a recovering people pleaser, I guess that was really hard for me. And I will flow through a lot of coaching, and just a lot of work on my personal development, reading books, and classes and things like that. That's something that's a little bit easier for me to do now.
Gresham Harkless 13:11
Absolutely. Yeah, I love that definition, and that perspective as well, too. So I truly appreciate you Ginger for taking some time out. What I wanted to do was pass the mic just to see if there's anything additional, you want to let our readers and our listeners know and how best of course, they can get ahold of you.
Ginger Jones 13:25
Yeah, for sure. I would say you can find out more about my company, which we have a lot of info on child development and resources for parents. And that said, jonnestherapyservices.com. And we're very active on Instagram and Facebook, we actually just did a Ask the Experts live last night. So lots of great insight there. And me personally, you can find me at gingerjones.com. And that's where I talk a lot about kind of my leadership and business journeys and things like that. I mean, lots of ways.
Gresham Harkless 13:50
Awesome, awesome, awesome. Well, we'll make sure to have those links in the show notes. But Ginger, I truly appreciate you for taking some time out. And I truly appreciate you for all the awesome things that you're doing to help out the world. And I appreciate you again and I hope you have a phenomenal rest of the day.
Ginger Jones 14:03
Yeah, thank you so much. It was a pleasure having a great day.
Outro 14:06
Thank you for listening to the I AM CEO Podcast powered by Blue 16 Media. Tune in next time and visit us at iamceo.co
I AM CEO is not just a phrase, it's a community. Be sure to follow us on social media and subscribe to our podcast on iTunes Google Play and everywhere you listen to podcasts, SUBSCRIBE, and leave us a five-star rating grab CEO gear at www.ceogear.co. This has been the I AM CEO Podcast with Gresham Harkless. Thank you for listening.
Intro 0:02
Do you want to learn effective ways to build relationships, generate sales and grow your business from successful entrepreneurs, startups and CEOs without listening to a long, long, long interview? If so, you've come to the right place, Gresham Harkless values your time and is ready to share with you precisely the information you're in search of. This is the I am CEO podcast.
Gresham Harkless 0:27
Hello, hello, hello. This is Gresh from the I am CEO podcast and I have a very special guest on the show today I have Ginger Jones of Jones Therapy Services Ginger, it's awesome to have you on the show.
Ginger Jones 0:36
I'm excited.
Gresham Harkless 0:37
No problem super excited to have you on and what I want to do is just read a little bit more about Ginger so you can hear about all the awesome things that she's doing. And Ginger Jones is a speech language pathologist and is also the founder and CEO of Jones Therapy Services, a pediatric therapy clinic that offers a wide variety of services with nine locations in Tennessee. As Jones Therapy Services grew bigger than she imagined she knew it was important to help others by not only sharing her entrepreneurial journey to provide small business owners with inspiration and advice, but also how to build a leadership team to ensure your success since she started Jones Therapy Services in November of 2009. The company has received many awards such as a ranking on the Inc 5000 list for three years in a row. Ginger, it's awesome to have you on Are you ready to speak to the I AM CEO Community?
Ginger Jones 1:25
I am
Gresham Harkless 1:26
Awesome. Let's do it. So the first question I had was the here a little bit more about what I call your CEO story. What led you to start your business?
Ginger Jones 1:34
Sure, yeah. So for anybody that's read the E Myth, I would say that I kind of followed that journey. So I was a speech language pathologist very blessed that I knew I always wanted to do that from a very young age, because both of my parents have a hearing loss. So I knew I wanted to work with children that had disabilities. And so I right out of graduate school started working for a larger health care company and had a great time there spent about six and a half years there learned a lot and kind of stretched my leadership muscles there, moved into middle management. So where I was leading people, but also not the one ultimately making all the decisions. And I was still getting to do the work I love. So it was great. And then probably about six and a half years into it, or maybe I should say, five and a half years. Because that lasted there six and a half years, I started to just feel like the big organization wasn't for me that things didn't move quick enough for me, I wanted to make changes, and I wanted it to happen quickly. And and now the bigger my organization gets, I definitely understand that things take time. But I think at that point in time, I was just not patient enough. So I decided to start my own company. And I say often I really didn't have a formal business plan. I had really no idea what I was doing. But I just kind of figured it out as I was going along. And that was that'll be 10 years ago this year.
Gresham Harkless 2:47
Awesome, awesome, awesome. Well, happy ten years for first and foremost. And, it's great to hear like you have a really, strong story with both your parents that you talked about. So you're really sounds like you're really passionate,firsthand the importance and the impact that you can have by all the services that you're providing.
Ginger Jones 3:02
Right. Yeah, I definitely think that, for me, I didn't have the background and the formal training that maybe a lot of business centers have had. But I definitely made up for that and passion. And thankfully, I've definitely made some failures along the way. And I think that one of the things that I've learned from and that other CEOs and entrepreneurs can learn from it's kind of taking those failures and not letting it knock you all the way down and learning from that. And then just making the next best step now that you've made that mistake, and not to do that anymore.
Gresham Harkless 3:28
Yeah, that makes perfect sense. And I always say that, especially to in businesses, like even if you're as prepared as can be, there's always something that sometimes is a new rink or something that changes or technology changes, something changes, where you have to be able to kind of adapt, and like you mentioned, being able to be resilient and get back up is definitely a true sign of somebody that can be successful.
Ginger Jones 3:47
For sure.
Gresham Harkless 3:48
Awesome, awesome, awesome. And I know we touched on a little bit with what you're doing with Jones Therapy Services. Could you drill a little bit deeper? And tell us a little bit more on how you're supporting your clients?
Ginger Jones 3:56
Sure, yeah. So we have nine locations in Tennessee. Now we're getting ready to open the 10th one, hopefully in March of this year. And we provide speech language therapy, feeding therapy, behavior therapy, physical and occupational therapy to about a little over 6000 Children in Tennessee. And we've kind of grown organically over the last almost 10 years started out as just me alone doing speech. And now we've got a huge team and offer a wide variety of services.
Gresham Harkless 4:24
Nice, nice, nice. Sounds like you you open up a new office every year, or is that that pace?
Ginger Jones 4:29
No, it hasn't been. And that's interesting. You say that? I think one year we opened three. And then some years we haven't opened any. So say that there were times in the growth where it just made sense to make sure that the legs were steady under the table. If it were up to me because I'm kind of the one who likes to just go do the new thing. And I'd probably open a few every year but thankfully I've got people that are a little bit more realistic on my team that kind of make sure that we're growing smart.
Gresham Harkless 4:54
Yeah, that's huge. I think too, and you can definitely correct me if I'm wrong, where you kind of recognize that in yourself and recognize what your strengths are. And it sounds like you're able to kind of surround yourself with a team that is able to kind of balance it out. And you guys can have and make the most, I guess, correct decision that you can make.
Ginger Jones 5:09
Yeah, I think that's huge. And thinking, getting people that are just good at what you're not is one of the reasons that I've been successful. And from a lot of business owners. I know, too, I think that's the thing that can make or break the success of your company.
Gresham Harkless 5:22
Absolutely. absolutely. And now, I wanted to ask you for what I call your secret sauce. And this could be for you and or your organization. But this is what you feel kind of sets you apart and makes you unique.
Ginger Jones 5:32
Yeah, well, I always say, in my line of work, I want my competitors to be good, right? Because we're helping children. If I always say if I made a widget, it would be really cool. If I could, like, talk smack about the other person making a widget. Yeah, but I'm in a field where, , it's like, we're all doing it to help people. So actually a lot of my close competitors around here. But, I have a great working relationship with where we share kind of the frustrations of being in healthcare and just the commonalities that we have between our companies. But I will say I think what led to our quick growth was, 10 years ago, at least in where I am, you didn't have a lot of options and options that you did have families had to drive a long way for. And so when I started opening locations, I was really considerate of some of these families that have children with special needs, they sometimes need two and three services a week. And so to drive to the middle of downtown Nashville Park, in a parking garage, and to do all those kinds of things, it becomes a full time job. So we started putting locations in areas that were a couple miles off the interstate, we don't have any offices that are in like medical buildings, we are more in like the retail, you just pull up, the parents can run in. So that's something that maybe before I started my company, it might have taken two or three hours out of your day now can really take like 45 minutes to an hour now since in the last 10 years, we've got more people that are kind of doing what I've done. So it's probably not as special salts anymore. But I do think that in the fact that we took all insurance payers, which a lot of people in my state weren't doing at the time is what kind of led people to us. And then we became a habit. So doctors refer to us and people know about us, because as you grow your brand, you just kind of can rely on that more.
Gresham Harkless 7:12
Yeah, absolutely love that. And it's kind of like that, what I like to call your first mover's advantage, so to speak, where you saw an opportunity took advantage of that opportunity. And you knew that because you drill down, and maybe it just came from understanding your client understanding who was coming to you, but you understood what a day looks like for them to come to the pathologist and what exactly might have been those pain points. And you found a way to kind of resolve that it sounds like.
Ginger Jones 7:36
yeah, we did.
Gresham Harkless 7:38
Awesome, awesome, awesome. And I wanted to switch gears a little bit and ask you for what I call a CEO hack. And this might be an app, a book or a habit that you have, but it's something that makes you more effective and efficient.
Ginger Jones 7:48
Yeah, I love this, because it's kind of new to me. But I would say my favorite hack is working from home. And I don't do it all the time I do it with non tend to be 10 locations, obviously, I think there's a need for me to be in there with kind of my finger on the pulse and seeing what's going on. But I was in the clinics all the time and actually heard the other day that like the average CEO is like interrupted every 20 minutes. And the hard part for me is that I love my people, I love the people I'm around. So when somebody would need something for me, it felt like oh my gosh, I've got to help them, they feed me. But what I learned is when I'm not there, they actually figure it out. So I think that working from home, I do it definitely on Mondays and sometimes another day of the week. But it just really allows me to kind of get some big things off of my to do list on Mondays. And so the rest of the week, if I need to be more reactive, I have time for that. And again, like I said, for me, it was kind of like I knew I needed to do this, but there was a lot of guilt around it. And sometime in the last like six months to a year I kind of let myself off the hook for being guilty about it. And it's been a huge game changer for my mental space and just being able to be there better for my team.
Gresham Harkless 8:51
Yeah, and I imagine what kind of sounds like you've even seen the leadership skills of your team grow as well to, as you not actually being there, but been able to see that everything can go according to plan and go good as well.
Ginger Jones 9:03
Yeah, and actually, that's been one of the best things to kind of watch me now sometimes I'll kind of hear something that happened. And I hear after it happened and I think initially, if you've got an ego about it,that can be hard to swallow. But I think that just realizing that's part of my job too, is to grow these people. The other thing I would say that definitely applies to me and I would assume some other entrepreneurs is and CEOs is that the way my brain works is I just like notice everything so when I'm in the office, and notice if the waiting room doesn't look the way I want it to or if we didn't you know and so that again, it was just keeping me from like really working on the stuff that was really going to move the needle. And so I just needed to remove myself from that distraction.
Gresham Harkless 9:46
Yeah, that makes perfect sense. It's almost like because you're too close to and then literally too close to because you're literally in the office. So sometimes you have to have I mean I know myself sometimes that even if it's just going on a drive or whatever when you take yourself out of that regular environment, it gives you a different perspective lets you clear your head and those things that you don't think that you're noticing, but are still on your mind, like the waiting room you mentioned, you are able to kind of be away from that.
Ginger Jones 10:08
Yeah, I'm gonna take care of itself because it will.
Gresham Harkless 10:11
Exactly, exactly. And now I wanted to ask you for what I call a CEO nugget. And this is a word of wisdom or piece of advice. Or if you can happen to a time machine, what would you tell your younger business self?
Ginger Jones 10:22
I think this is such a good question. So I read the other day, it was Seth Godin said, a different part of our brains is activated when we think about what's possible, rather than what's required. And for me, I've always been this naturally this like, really optimistic person. So I think I did this for a long time, because it was just in my nature. But like I mentioned before, as the business grew, and I faced challenges, I think my natural instinct to be really optimistic started to be replaced with fear, I had more people relying on me, and, and honestly, from an ego place, it seemed like more people were kind of, quote unquote, watching me. So I put, I put really high pressure on myself to succeed. And so now I feel like after a few failures, and kind of working on myself, during those challenging times, I've just learned to honor that part of me that wants to try out a dream and see where it goes without thinking about all the roadblocks that can keep me from getting there. So if I could, if I could tell my younger self, it's like, be more true to who you are. And just think about what's possible. And some people naturally are a little bit more, I guess, realistic. And so they may not struggle with that. But I think that I really, during those times, when I wasn't wasn't being true to who I really was, the business felt like more of a chore. And now that I've kind of gotten back to being like that person who's really just think about all the possibilities and really okay with failure. It's like, my joy in running the businesses back. Yeah, and I absolutely love that I myself, I consider myself definitely an optimistic person. So sometimes when you start flying, so to speak, and then you start to look down and you realize, Wow, I'm flying and you start to forget, you started to worry about, okay, like, I gotta keep flying, I gotta keep moving. I hate keep going. But sometimes it's just having that I guess, freedom of being able to fly and just, you know, going after your dreams going after, you know, whatever vision that you have that is your authentic. So yeah, I love that. I love that analogy. I'm gonna start using that.
Gresham Harkless 12:03
Okay. So, now I wanted to ask you my absolute favorite question Ginger, which is the definition of what it means to be a CEO. And we're hoping to have different quote unquote, CEOs, entrepreneurs and business owners on the show. So I want to ask you, what does being a CEO mean to you?
Ginger Jones 12:18
Yeah. Okay. So a lot of different things. And so I would say, and I'm sure people said this before, it's kind of the chief everything else are right. So to me, it means being a visionary, it means I need to maintain awareness of our operations, I need to maintain awareness of opportunities, I need to lead the mission of the company, I also need to be evaluating our successes, I need to really this was probably the hardest one is that I'm really responsible for anything bad. That's happened, right. So even if somebody else made a mistake, it's maybe I didn't equip them to do the job, right? Or I put the wrong person in the role, right. So anything bad really is on me, and then one of the hardest things that I had to learn was, it's just really my job to make tough decisions. And for somebody that, , I'm a recovering people pleaser, I guess that was really hard for me. And I will flow through a lot of coaching, and just a lot of work on myself personal development, reading books, and classes and things like that. That's something that's a little bit easier for me to do now.
Gresham Harkless 13:11
Absolutely. Yeah, I love that definition, that perspective as well, too. So I truly appreciate you Ginger for taking some time out. What I wanted to do was passing the mic just to see if there's anything additional, you want to let our readers and our listeners know and how best of course, they can get ahold of you.
Ginger Jones 13:25
Yeah, for sure. I would say you can find out more about my company, which we have a lot of info on child development and resources for parents. And that said, jonnestherapyservices.com. And we're very active on Instagram and Facebook, we actually just did a Ask the Experts live last night. So lots of great insight there. And me personally, you can find me at Ginger jones.com. And that's where I talk a lot about kind of my leadership and business journeys and things like that. I mean, lots of ways.
Gresham Harkless 13:50
Awesome, awesome, awesome. Well, we'll make sure to have those links in the show notes. But Ginger, I truly appreciate you for taking some time out. And I truly appreciate you for all the awesome things that you're doing to help out the world. And I appreciate you again and I hope you have a phenomenal rest of the day.
Ginger Jones 14:03
Yeah, thank you so much. It was a pleasure having a great day.
Outro 14:06
Thank you for listening to the I AM CEO Podcast powered by Blue 16 Media. Tune in next time and visit us at iamceo.co I AM CEO is not just a phrase, it's a community. Be sure to follow us on social media and subscribe to our podcast on iTunes Google Play and everywhere you listen to podcasts, SUBSCRIBE, and leave us a five-star rating grab CEO gear at www.ceogear.co. This has been the I AM CEO Podcast with Gresham Harkless. Thank you for listening.
Transcribed by https://otter.ai
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