Michelle Micalizzi, Artist
All Rights Reserved
ORIGINAL WORK – SOLD | RETAIL Available Soon!
10% of the proceeds from the sale of this work benefits The Arizona Consortium for the Arts
My muse this week is Jessica (Payton) Barnett. Jessica’s father owns RTN Solutions where Jessica works as a Project Manager. She is a key employee in her long term family business.
WHY JESSICA QUALIFIES TO BE ONE OF THE 2015 FEARLESS THIRTEEN.
When I decided to do this project I put a call out to my BNI Business Leaders of North Scottsdale members (BLoNS). I gave them the criteria for the project and I asked who they knew who would be a good candidate or to let me know if they wanted to be part of the project. Jessica was the first of only 2 women to bravely approach me with a request to be part of the project.
Jessica’s father, Dee Payton, started their company in 1997. Jessica did what I did initially with my Dad, she worked for her father in the family company and then she took off on her own to see what it was like to work for someone else. She returned to RTN,as she jokes, with a much better work ethic and a good idea to focus on web development and social media.
The three biggest things that impress me the most about Jessica are:
- She has mastered work life balance.
- Her commitment to grow an already successful family business in a new direction.
- Her willingness to find a creative solution to work force retention that enables her to hire independent contractors.
In a nutshell….
Jessica did not mention that she is the mother of three and newly married in her video interview. After we shot the video we went to lunch, and during that lunch I learned that Jessica being a working mother and devoted wife is the most important thing to note about Jessica. Her biggest goal is not to grow a huge company. Her biggest goal is simply to sustain the success that she, her father and their team have been able to achieve so that she can continue to be the mom that is there when her children get out of school and a devoted supportive wife. She has found a way to balance being a key member of a successful family business with motherhood. I commend Jessica for keeping her priorities in check while finding creative solutions to the biggest challenge most small businesses have – finding good help that sticks.
If you want to learn more about Jessica’s company and what she does, please check out her ten minute BNI presentation shot in 2015: https://vimeo.com/136068074
FEARLESS INTERVIEW
Jessica took a few minutes out to answer the five Art of Fearlessly Doing Business Questions. You will not be surprised to hear that Jessica has found a way to utilize independent contractors to find good people who can get the job done!
WHAT CAN WE LEARN FROM JESSICA ABOUT BEING FEARLESS?
1.) Family is Business
Having grown up in a family business, I know that working in a family business is not easy especially when you are Daddy’s little girl. It takes a special kind of confidence to work with your Dad as an equal as an adult, especially when your Dad excels at what he does as our fathers do. Jessica was smart to work for someone else before she came back to the family business with her own ideas while supporting what her Dad had already built. It takes a certain special kind of fearlessness to work with family.
2.) Identify Bad Cultural Fits Early
Every small business struggles with this problem. When you have a small team it is really important to be sure you have good people with the right skills on your side. Being willing to let the wrong people go takes courage. Sometimes one would think a warm body is enough but small business owners know that the wrong warm body can turn long-term relationships with loyal customers, that it took years to build, ice cold.
3.) Be Prepared for Transition Time
Making a decision to not have control is an act of bravery itself. That is what you do when you decide work with independent contractors. You are hiring someone to do a job for you but you cannot control when they do it, how they do it or the equipment they use to do the work. Essentially you are buying the finished product. You are putting your faith in another vendor’s hands when you give a project to an independent business person such as yourself.
4.) Confidence Takes Patience
Jessica knew that as a young woman business owner that she needed to build up her confidence level. She used BNI to help her to do that and she was patient with herself while she got there. It takes time to be able to command a conversation with a client. Jessica has put the time in and now she is able to be a leader.
5.) The One Most Important Thing
You will have to take my word for it because I did not tape our lunchtime conversation. The biggest lesson I received from Jessica in the few hours that we spent together was in the conversation after the interview over a salad at lunch. Often times we allow ourselves to get caught up in the rat race of “more” and we over extend ourselves to that end. Jessica is very clear about her work life balance needs. She is not allowing herself to get sucked along. She knows that the reason she works is so that she can be not a good mom but a GREAT MOTHER. She has her priorities in order. I have an immense amount of respect for her understanding of what is most important at this stage of her life. Children are only young once, and Jessica has created a life that allows her to be present for her children. Jessica knows that the most important job a woman will ever have is that of being a GREAT Mother and she is not wavering. It is a strong and brave woman who doesn’t hesitate in stating that my kids and my husband come before “more”.
Thank you so much Jessica for taking the time out to be one of the Fearless 13!
Note from the Artist:
JESSICA’S ILLUSTRATION’S STORY:
Jessica’s Story is a simple one. Independent Contractors communicating with one another via the Internet to get the job done. The image is about pattern, balance and a simple solution, which is what Jessica and her father have found for their company. Each of the contractors is a light bulb, which is for me the universal symbol of being an entrepreneur.
Work was shown from December 18, 2015 – January 04, 2016 at {9} The Gallery
Thank you to our 2015 Partners: Peg Quinn | The Arizona Consortium of the Arts | Photos by Elena & Jim | Bradford Jones, Bradford Jones Photography | Jackie Wszalek, Splash Print & Marketing | Dennis Frazier, Cater Phoenix | Tony Medlock, PJ’s Florists
#Fearless #AoFDB #Entrepreneurship #VisualJournalism #Art #OneThing #Artizona #SocialPracticeArt
Entrepreneurs and inspiring stories of all kinds are Fearlessly Deliver’s muse and focus. As an artist, a business woman and a visual journalist Michelle Micalizzi paints with a purpose. The Fearless Art Projects are collaborative social practice art engagements that connect art + business + community.
THE ART OF FEARLESSLY DONG BUSINESS is an unprecedented and unique project celebrates the fearless entrepreneurial spirit by highlighting thirteen unique and fearless business leaders.