By Charles Kramer
More than ten years ago, Richard Goellner, the owner of a large, regional commercial cleaning services company known as OK Vacuum and Janitor Supply approached me to do some legal work for his company. Goellner had been a top level executive with the Hoover Corporation for years, before deciding to acquire his own company and had a sophisticated knowledge of sales and business. We developed a personal, as well as professional relationship, as I assisted Rich and his company with every conceivable issue that could confront a company such as his. Ultimately, Rich decided to sell the company, and we structured a deal in which he sold all of the company except for the small stand alone retail store it operated to a competing similar business (which he sold to his wife). Leaving the retail operation in his wife’s capable hands, Rich then set out to help some friends with their business. They operated one of the largest national relocation companies in the United States and needed help with sales to national accounts. I continued to represent him, as well as the small family store, and stayed friends as well. A few years later, another friend of Rich’s, who owned a large trucking company in Michigan, reached out to Rich, and asked him to head up sales. Rich agreed, and was soon asked to operate that company. When the recession hit shortly thereafter, however, and the retail store back home began to struggle, Rich fired himself from his trucking company position, and joined his wife in operating the retail/vacuum repair store front. The Rich/Patti combination was the perfect combination. Rich became known as the king of clean, appearing on local TV and radio to provide cleaning tips, advice on other uses for home products, as well as working the floor of the store. His widespread knowledge of cleaning, sales, and management and his personality and contagious friendliness made him a natural. Not to be outdone, Patti’s work at the retail store inspired her to became “Aunt Patti,” and her website providing free video instruction on how to remove anything from everything—www.askauntpatti.com—became the top free cleaning tip site on the internet, with Rich frequently being “convinced” to be the onscreen demonstrator. Through it all both Rich and Patti remained clients and friends.
Time moved on, and Rich and Patti’s daughters moved away, one to Texas and one to the Florida Keys. More time passed, and recently each daughter gave birth to their first child – Rich and Patti’s first grandchildren. Suddenly, despite all of his success, Rich Goellner felt like he was not in the right place.
“When I leave this world,” he told me, “I don’t want to be remembered as the guy who could tell you how to remove cat urine from your sofa, even if I am doing it on TV. I’ve always wanted to help people in a more important way, and as helpful as teaching people how to keep things clean may be, it’s not enough”
So Rich Goellner began to do research both on the internet, and within him. On the internet he discovered an idea called “the Hero’s Journey,” a centuries old concept describing a conscious decision to change an aspect of your life, deciding where or what you’d rather be, and taking the necessary steps to get there. Rich realized that was exactly what he needed to do. Being someone who is always prepared, however, Rich decided that, if he was going to embark on a life-changing path, he would make sure he knew how to reach his goal. Using his strong business background, years of experience, and research abilities, Rich identified the reasons why a lot of people abandon such efforts of transition before accomplishing their goal, and the ways to avoid those pitfalls and obstacles. He also realized that, although he sought to accomplish a life of financial security, with less stress and more available free time for family, his true goal was to establish a legacy of having helped others.
Having set his goal in place, Rich began his journey. After long and thoughtful discussion with his wife Patti, they decided to sell the OK Vacuum retail store to their young, long time employee, at a below market price, to allow him to own his own business. They committed to help him learn the business operations side, and to support him during the transition time, while Patti concentrated on her Ask Aunt Patti website, and a related high end home cleaning service she had started. Rich, himself, researched various opportunities and life paths, and picked a path of transition that, frankly, surprised me. After years of rejecting “network marketing” programs (aka “multilevel marketing”) as a fool’s errand, Rich chose an association with Qivana health products as the vehicle for his journey. His reasoning was simple. He had researched the products and the company and believed in both the company and the products it sold. He also believed that the unique compensation set up, would allow him to help others make a sizeable living, easily. He was willing to commit fulltime to the program, and because of that willingness, the compensation structure would allow him to help his part-time, on the side, team members succeed financially by referring/recommending people to him rather than having to commit to the program fulltime themselves. By bringing products to people that would help with weight loss, heart health, sleep aid, digestion and the like, he would help people he cared about become healthier. By bringing the opportunity to join his business team to young and old who sought more money, less stress, and most time, he would help others establish their legacy, as he completed his own. The retail store will be employee owned by the end of this year.
Yet, that’s not what prompted this column. I am writing his column because Rich also has done something extraordinary. He has boiled down all of his research on the pitfalls and obstacles that thwart a lot of people’s efforts to improve their lives or achieve their goals, and has used additional research and his own years of insight and experience to distill the secrets of to how to avoid them into a straightforward forty-five minute presentation which he calls simply “the Hero’s Journey.” He rents out conference rooms, ballrooms, and venues of all sizes at his own expense, paying out of his own pocket, in order to present his findings for free in a simple, humorous, engaging and instructional presentation, simply to help other people help themselves. Richard’s new path will not require extensive legal advice. It will not lead to hefty legal bills. For all practical purposes, I have lost a client, but I have most assuredly gained a hero.
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To learn more about the Hero’s Journey presentation, you can reach Rich at Rgoellner.qivana@gmail.com.
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Under Analysis is a nationally syndicated column. Charles Kramer is a principal of the St. Louis, Missouri law firm Riezman, Berger, P.C. You may direct comments or criticisms about this column to the Levison Group c/o this newspaper, or direct to the Levison Group via e-mail, at comments@levisongroup.com.
© 2013 Under Analysis L.L.C.
