Welcome back to The Real Brian Show! We hope you had a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year! The end of the year was chalked up with some interesting events to cap off what can only be labeled an interesting year. To get us back in the groove and start off 2017 on a note of positivity and generosity, Brian catches up with Julie Damschroder, a lawyer-turned-franchise owner, and gets a glimpse into her experiences. Leaving her desk behind, Julie realized her passion for baking could be realized with a bit of elbow grease and a whole lot of love.
Do you have a Great Harvest Bread near you? We have them here in Minnesota and I never pass up an opportunity to pick up a loaf of Pumpkin Bread. I did not realize, however, that each location is an instantiation of a franchise! After hearing Julie's story, however, it makes a lot of sense. I've never had a loaf of bread from Great Harvest that I haven't loved entirely, and it's because the person who runs the store has an opportunity to express their skill and creativity through a lot of decisions that are often made, in non-franchises, over the head of local shops.
Julie brings her own ideas to the franchise and has an incredible passion for giving back to the community by never letting bread go to waste. From utilizing local markets to grinding their own wheat, from providing generous samples of the bread in-store to providing loaves to hungry children, Julie is in the business of spreading love through rich, healthy bread.
Comfort through bread, that's the vibe I get from Julie in this episode. While she is running a business, it's not all about making money. She wants to give back to the community and is able to do so with a natural passion for baking, a natural, holistic approach to life, and a deep desire to see healthy lives around her.
If you change your mind, I'll be first in line. Honey I'm still free, take a chance on me.
I couldn't help it. I had this song stuck in my head after listening to Brian discuss this idea of giving someone a chance! Then, of course, I was reminded of the scene from The Office when Andy is asking Angela out with his a cappella group and they use this song.
After I crawled out of the black hole of a YouTube rabbit trail, I thought about the song as it relates to the discussion you'll hear in this episode. While Abba's song is clearly talking about a romance, the sentiment still applies. Giving someone a chance, investing in someone, can produce an incredible result. Many of us get to the point where we cannot help every single person who asks for it, but I think the biggest distinction we're trying to draw here is building a spirit of generosity and selflessness within ourselves. Every person has to earn their own way in life. But there are some those who can't, due to physical or mental limitations, or won't, due to despondency.
Brian has some great things to say on this topic, and I wanted to add to the discussion by remembering a subset of people who often get passed over for chances. Sometimes it feels like the younger generations gradually lose their will to work hard or develop a serious work ethic. Whether they're privileged or being raised by a generation of Participation-Trophy winners, it's hard to say. But it is extremely difficult, and almost not even thought of, to take a chance on someone who doesn't seem to want the help or care about the leg up. Without evidence that someone will take our teaching moments and reap a plentiful harvest from it, it's hard to really throw ourselves into it.
Kids hardly ever know what they want, right? Whether they're being raised now or a hundred years ago. Life was much different in my grandparents' childhood. Listening to stories Papa tells about tending to the strawberry patches as a child make me feel lazy, but then I look at how his work ethic translated in the lives of his children and I can see that for each generation a new version of the same work ethic is implemented. In the spirit of not letting that go to waste, it is on my mind this year to start looking for opportunities to give younger people the encouragement they need to work hard and witness the fruit of their labor.
Giving someone a chance doesn't always mean they come to you begging for an opportunity to prove themselves, but it certainly may! With the global sentiment of 2016 being what it is (generally that the year sucked), it would not hurt us all to adopt a heart of generosity and recognize the difference between giving someone a chance and giving out freebies.