Banking on KC – Sonya Jury of Business Sherpa
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Kelly Scanlon: Welcome to Banking on KC. I'm your host, Kellie Scanlon. Thank you for joining us. With us on this episode is Sonja Jury, who is the founder of Business Sherpa. She helps entrepreneurs and business owners take their businesses to new heights. And she's also the author of a new book out this year called, Mom Forgot My Birthday, A Daughter's Journey Through Alzheimer's.
Welcome to the show, Sonja.
Sonya Jury: Thank you. I'm happy, happy to be here.
Kelly Scanlon: Tell us about how you help entrepreneurs.
Sonya Jury: I like to consider myself a Sherpa, and I'm a Sherpa guiding you through whatever business quagmire or, you know, challenge that you have. And what I love to do is just have conversations with people, you know, just start.
We understand where they're at, where are they in their journey for their business, for their life, and what are their priorities. Pain points. Where are they stuck? What do they need? And I just really enjoy hearing everyone's story because everybody's different. Then what can I do if I'm the right fit?
Can I help them? Can I help them grow? So that's what Business Sherpa is. And honestly, it came about through a client. We were sitting and having a conversation. He had called, he and his son. father's son challenges of working together in a family business, which is a whole nother dynamic. He just kind of looked at me and he said, you're kind of like a business Sherpa, aren't you?
And I went, yeah, I am. And I thought, that is a really great. I consider myself a coach, teacher, facilitator, sometime a therapist, if you know what I mean.
Kelly Scanlon: Well, entrepreneurs say that only other entrepreneurs understand when in certain situations.
Sonya Jury: Exactly. And I try and coach my leadership teams to think like that.
If your name is on the door, or if you're Sonia Jury, your name is on the door, you may work for an organization, but you need to have the mindset of being the owner. And if individuals can flip that I'm not working for, I'm working with, and then I am, I have a responsibility. To the company, to the staff, everybody.
It really does make a mind shift change.
Kelly Scanlon: So do you work directly with the business owner or the entrepreneur or will you work with their entire team?
Sonya Jury: Both. I really like working with the team. I love understanding the team dynamics that are in the room and helping them just navigate through achieving not only one, uh, goal.
Setting a vision, you know, making sure everybody's in the same boat, rowing in the same direction. But then, how are we going to make it happen? How are we going to execute on that strategy? Um, if you've heard of CliftonStrengths, strategy is, happens to be my number one. And I do, I just love figuring it out and, and helping, um, companies achieve success.
Kelly Scanlon: Yeah. And that's really key because there's a lot of great ideas. Um, but. Figuring out a strategy, a plan, and then executing on that. That's a lot different than having an idea.
Sonya Jury: It really is. And so that's one of the reasons why I'm in my sixth year, I will just complete it as an EOS implementer. So EOS, Entrepreneurial Operating System, and it's a business operating system to help Again, manage the human capital that exists when all of our, uh, companies, um, because a lot of times people, they don't understand the why, why am I working?
You know, yes, I'm working to get a job to provide security for my family, but what's the bigger why? What's my purpose? And I think any one of us, um, who's, who went through COVID, We're seeing that backlash a little bit, and I don't mean it in a negative way, it's just people are being more mindful of, I only have so much time on this earth, you know, what is my purpose?
What is it that I'm doing that makes me happy? And if we can align that purpose with the company's vision, then it even more makes sense. Yeah. So. EOS is what I do right now.
Kelly Scanlon: Yeah. So if I were to, if my company were to engage you, what would be the first thing you would do?
Sonya Jury: Well, we start with what is called a 90-minute meeting.
And essentially it's just an interview process, me coming in and walking the leadership team through the EOS process. Tools and the EOS process so that they understand the context and how everything fits together in order to achieve the vision that they all, you know, want. And so then the first day is called Focus Day and that's where I teach all the tools.
There's the accountability chart, which is really fun, creating the accountability chart. Then we set quarterly rocks. We take a first draft of a scorecard to run the business on data instead of emotions. Which, how many times does that happen in a business? You know? And, um, I just teach them these simple tools that are proven to help them use the tools to gain the traction.
And you know, at the beginning it's, it's icky. It's boring. Funky. Um, a lot of teams, I don't want to say they struggle, but it's learning something new and it's just building a new habit.
Kelly Scanlon: Well, change is hard and sometimes it feels threatening to some people too.
Sonya Jury: Yes, it can. And you know, I was recently with a client and um, We were talking about sales, and we were talking about the growth, and what it takes to land that client, and when I walked him back through, you know, all the steps, the process, I just watched everybody around the room, there, it was like light bulbs went up, you know, in a cartoon above everybody's heads, and they all kind of like, Yeah, we gotta be doing the daily activities more.
We haven't been doing those. We haven't really truly been holding ourselves accountable. And there's, you know business, there's so much to it. And so what I like to say in EOS, we keep pulling back each layer of the business till we get to that shiny core that really sings and makes the company grow. And it's so fun when Success happens.
Yeah.
Kelly Scanlon: So what is it that, I mean, you've mentioned a few things, but if you had to put your finger on the one thing, and maybe this is an unfair question, but if you had to put your finger on the one thing that keeps entrepreneurs, okay, it's a two prong question, that keeps entrepreneurs personally from being everything they can be, and then by extension, their businesses achieving the greatness that it can, what would that be?
Sonya Jury: For me, it's clarity. And I know that is, that exists on so many realms, all right? The clarity of where we are headed as an organization. And one of the tools that we use, and yes, I brought a prop, but I'm just holding it up so she can see it. Um, is the VTO. It's a two-page strategic planning document, and I think we try and overcomplicate things too much.
Typically, the entrepreneur that owns the business, created the business, is a visionary, and they're going to have 30,000 ideas, right? But what we want to do is we want to be crystal clear and laser-focused on the vision and what we're going to do to execute on that to get to that vision. And I think A lot of times it's just, there's, everybody has an idea, but what we can, we want to bring everybody together with a common idea, a common goal, and, and move forward and have a direction, you know, a horizon line to some extent.
That's a good way of putting it. Where's my North Star? Where are we headed? I would like to share a success story if I may, and it's a local Kansas City company called EPC, and they've been around for a very long time. And we started in. 2020. Okay. COVID with EOS. Um, some of it was hybrid. Some of it was in person, but one of the things on the Vision Attraction Organizer we do is we create a core target, that horizon line that we talked about.
Where are we all headed? So when I spoke with my client recently, I said, where are you on your 2030, 10 year target that you set in 2020? He said, that is a really great question. He said, we're four years into it. We're 46 percent to goal, and he said we have a deal right now when we close it, we are going to be 80 percent to goal.
And that is, that is the clarity, that is that laser focus that I want for every one of my organizations. And listen, it doesn't, it doesn't happen overnight. It's not a light switch, as I like to say. It's going to take time and it evolves. And uh, when we talked about that this morning, I thought, that just makes me so happy for them.
They recently invited me to one of their off site meetings. They do an all staff, a fun half day. And they asked me to come in and speak. And uh, Walking into that room of 80 people and the smiles on everybody's faces, they actually like being with each other. It's culture and you can't buy culture. That is what I love about EOS, because when that culture really does happen, when you have the right people in the right seats, It is such magic because it really does make a difference.
Kelly Scanlon: It really does. And a really key point you made there is that the entrepreneur can have a vision and besides being swarmed by all of these ideas, totally get that, but, but being able to convey that vision to a team takes another skill. I want to shift here because you are the founder of Business Sherpa and we've just discussed what you do there.
From what I can tell, a theme that runs through you is education. You're educating, you're working with entrepreneurs, uh, now, uh, you've previously some years ago, you were the board president of KIPP Endeavor Academy, and just recently you have written a book called Mom Forgot My Birthday, A Daughter's Guide Through Alzheimer's.
And as I said, In the introduction, and that really is educating the public on how those relationships change when you have someone with Alzheimer's and some of the things that you might need to consider. And so I want to talk a little bit about the book and this, this new wrinkle of education that you are working on.
So what led you to writing the book? Obviously it's a true story, but what led you to writing it?
Sonya Jury: Thank you. My, uh, dear friend of mine and we were at dinner one night and, uh, she, you know, always was so sweet. How's your mom doing? What's the journey like? And, you know, I would share. And she said, you so need to write a book.
You really need to write a book because people have no idea what is happening in the world of not only dementia, but then Alzheimer's. Our society is not ready for, I don't want to call it a pandemic, but what is coming? We're not ready. We don't have the health care workers. That's a whole nother podcast.
Anyway, and I took it to heart and I was with two ladies and we were chatting, said, what do you need? What's your need? And I said, my need is I need someone to help me write my book. And it was the first time I think I had verbally put it into the universe. And I thought, Oh my God, what have I done? I've committed to it.
Two and a half years later, it's published. Um, it was released in April. It's just been really fantastic. The positivity that it's helped people.
Kelly Scanlon: Yeah. You mentioned Alzheimer's and Dementia. And I know they're often used interchangeably, but they are not the exact same thing. So can you make the distinction for us, please?
Sonya Jury: Sure. So mild cognitive decline is really the, um, the healthcare version of what we talk about. And then typically it's It's dementia. That's what they named for my mother. That when May of 2012, Mother's Day weekend, that was the diagnosis from her physician.
Kelly Scanlon: So it's a broader category. It's a catch all.
Sonya Jury: Okay. It is a catch all because then there's, you know, there's Lewy body. There's Alzheimer's. There's so many different, um, other specific types, but at that point 2012, they were just still using Dementia. Exactly. And what I'm excited about from 2012, fast forward to 2024, how much they've sped up the research.
I guess. I don't know if there will ever be a cure. I would love to say that there is.
Kelly Scanlon: Thank you. Thank you for providing that, those definitions. But take us back to the book. You, you wrote it, um, because you had a story and it was one that you obviously had to tell. It was probably partly cathartic too, I would imagine.
Um. Readers, what do you hope readers take away from the book? What's in it that you hope will benefit others?
Sonya Jury: It's a how not to book.
Kelly Scanlon: A how not to? That's a different angle.
Sonya Jury: There is no way I'm going to give somebody a how to because every situation is different and I wrote a how not to book.
There's lessons learned throughout the book. I think there's a little over 30 lessons learned of don't do this, you know, be their advocate, that kind of thing. I just wanted people to understand that everybody is different, everybody has a story, everyone's situation is so different from what I had. But there are some similarities.
For example, have you created a will? I know that people are like, oh yeah, we'll take care of it. No. You say that, but when. Things happen, you have to have a will. Do you have the DNRs? Do you understand? Do you want to be put on a ventilator? Do you want to, if your blood pressure drops so much, do you want to have the shot that boosts your blood pressure back up?
I mean, there's so many forms of DNR, and it's a conversation that's taboo. And you need
Kelly Scanlon: to have that conversation while they're lucid and Oh, yeah. They are, you know, advanced enough. You may be past the point where they can make those decisions.
Sonya Jury: Exactly. And so it's that. And then even the simple thing of cleaning out your house, you know, there's a, there's a group here in town called the Aging Parent Answer Team.
I hope I can share that with you. And it's a, Five ladies, and each of them have a specific, um, subject matter expert, whether it's cleaning out the house, whether it's the legal ease of the will, it's insurance, it's looking for a place to stay, all of that, and none of that existed back in 2012. I didn't know where to turn to, so I felt like I was meandering.
Kelly Scanlon: People are going to be seeing a lot of their relatives over the next couple of months during the holidays. And there are bound to be people who are facing this situation, and maybe having some of these tough conversations as the whole family gathers. Uh, if you had to give them a piece of advice, uh, to start that conversation, what would it be?
Sonya Jury: Um, that's a really hard one, because I probably didn't, not probably, I didn't do it well with my mom and, and stepdad. And I would just say, listen, we love you both. Aging is always going to happen. I want you to age gracefully. I want you to age gracefully and with dignity. And that's it. What is it that you're, what are your wishes?
What do you want to have happen? And that's really hard for people, because it's talking about our own mortality. Yes. Right? Yeah. And no one wants to think of it in that terms, but I know that I want to be, I'm in control of what happens to me and my life and I've been very clear, not only with my husband but with our nieces and nephew and other family members and friends and I don't want this, I want this.
I don't want that, I want this. And even if you could just ask them to think about what they don't want. Okay, that's a starting point. This is an ongoing conversation. It's not just going to be done, one and done. I put in the book, um, Mom and Walt were of a certain generation where they didn't have laptops or iPads or cell phones or anything like that.
I didn't have to worry about passwords and closing everything out. True, true. Where are your loved one's passwords? You know, friend of a friend, um, their husband passed away. They didn't know a couple of the passwords. So what do you do in that situation?
Kelly Scanlon: Right. And that's not just for your social media accounts.
That is for your bills, for your retirement, for all kinds of important things. Yeah. To know where those are. Yeah, it's just having the conversation and it's so hard. You frame it in a way that is giving them freedom. And you're empowering them by saying, what would you like or don't like? You know, right now, tell me, because we want to make sure that things happen the way you want them to happen.
So, so you're really empowering them. And if you approach it from that way, it doesn't come off as, you're trying to put me in the grave already.
Sonya Jury: Right.
Kelly Scanlon: That is,
Sonya Jury: you framed that perfectly. I couldn't have said it any better. Yeah, because it is, it's just having a conversation. I really tried with Mom and Walt.
And I can't tell you how many times I heard the, don't you worry about it, we'll take care of it. And I said, I love that you're going to take care of it. I need to have the awareness and knowledge of where this information is if something does happen. I need to know cabinet, file cabinet you put it in, or stuffed it under a mattress, or whatever.
I need to know all of that information and They didn't tell me, and it was just that. I had to go through boxes and boxes.
Kelly Scanlon: You mentioned a coming wave of Alzheimer's. Um, back, you know, when I was younger, I never had relatives who had dementia or Alzheimer's, and now it's like everybody you talk to, they have somebody in their family that's experiencing this.
Why is that?
Sonya Jury: 6 million Americans of all ages had Alzheimer's. And it's estimated 6. 5 million Americans age 65 years and older are living with it. And one in nine are going to be having it. And it's so amazing how almost, I don't want to say all my friends. If I were to write out my friends, I'm like, yep, they dealt with it. And that's a whole nother thing about caregiving. We don't have the facilities. And it's expensive. You talk about caregiving for our children, you know, those five and under, but now we're talking about caregiving for adults. And that is really, A hard thing. I mean, I had my mom with me for one week and I just remember when we took her back to her apartment and my husband and I got home and I just looked at him and he looked at me and I said, there is no way I have the sanity and the patience to do this full time.
I've watched my family have to deal with that, some of that. And it's hard. It's really, really hard. And my mom always said, I never want to be a burden. I never want to be a burden to my children. So she gave me the grace. To allow myself that I knew that she needed to go into an assisted living facility.
Kelly Scanlon: And some people fear that and don't give
Sonya Jury: that kind of permissions. No, and there's a lot of denial with family members. Especially if you say you live away. And, and then you only visit on Thanksgiving and Christmas or Easter, so you only see a snippet of the decline, the cognitive decline in your loved one, but the person, the family member that's there full time, they see it all the time.
So listen to the person that's there full time dealing with it and figure out how you can support them to help them so it's not so much of a drain.
Kelly Scanlon: People wanted to find out more about Business Sherpa or your book. I'm sure that they can go online and accomplish both.
Sonya Jury: They can. So, Rainy Day Books, uh, grateful that they are selling my book and um, I actually did a Rainy Day book Author launch, which was kind of fun. Who thought? And then BusinessSherpa.org is how you can find me.
Kelly Scanlon: Okay. Thank you so much for coming on the show and talking with us about entrepreneurship and how you're helping entrepreneurs reach the full potential with their businesses. And also with this very important topic, which really, I know entrepreneurs who are dealing with this with their family members.
And if you want to learn more about this topic, you can go to businessSherpa. org. It is actually going to have business implications, not just in terms of facilities, care facilities and geriatric doctors and things like that, but for entrepreneurs themselves, this is going to be an issue or a challenge.
So thank you for coming and sharing this and BusinessSherpa. com or Rainy Day Books.
Joe Close: This is Joe Close, President of Country Club Bank. Thank you to Sonja Jury for being our guest on this episode of Banking on KC. Sonja shared her expertise in helping entrepreneurs navigate the complexities of business growth and team dynamics. Additionally, she discussed her new book. Mom Forgot My Birthday, which tackles the challenges of Alzheimer's care, a topic that holds significant importance for families and businesses alike.
As our population ages, the dual responsibilities of child care and elder care are becoming a pressing reality for many entrepreneurs. Presenting not only challenges, but also opportunities for innovative solutions in the business sector. At Country Club Bank, we recognize the importance of supporting our community as families and businesses address these multifaceted challenges.
And we are also eager to work with entrepreneurs who can turn these challenges into opportunities for growth and innovation. Thanks for tuning in this week. We're banking on you, Kansas City, Country Club Bank, member FDIC.