Jenni & Kelly Intent | The Illuminare Story Desk

On Jenni & Kelly Intent, Kelly and Jenni (veterinary practice co-owner) zero in on one word every business owner needs: intent. Jenni shares what it was like launching and growing a practice during a recession, with loans, hiring hard lessons, and unexpected setbacks, and looking back 18 years later wishing they'd put intention on the wall sooner. A Story Desk conversation about hustle versus thoughtful decisions, culture, hiring, and building with purpose instead of sprinting blind. Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/28TY9xz... YouTube:    / @illuminarestorydesk   Transcript (excerpt): Kelly: Hello, everyone, and welcome back to Shining a Light on Your Business by Illuminare Marketing Agency, where every business has a story, which is actually a really big part of your marketing. You know, because this is your brand, your story is your brand. So I'm here with my friend Jenni and Jenni and I go back, way back. We do another podcast together called Unfiltered Vet Discussions. If you're interested in the veterinary industry, we've got you. But we're talking about being business owners because Jenni and I are both business owners. And Jenni, you came up with the idea or more of a word called intent versus just flying by the seat of your pants, which is the family friendly version. Jenni: Yes. You do a lot of flying by the seat of your pants when you have your own business. Yes. And a lot of, oh, well, isn't that a new one? Well, that's a lesson learned. Maybe the hard way, but lessons learned. Kelly: Is there an easy way for learning lessons? Jenni: I haven't found it yet. Kelly: No, me neither. So you own with your husband a veterinary practice. When you started the practice with Simon, you got some great stories that you've told me with starting the practice and a kid all at the same time. And a lot of starts and a lot of I hope this works. But you're saying now 18 years later when we were talking, looking in the rear view mirror, the word intent may have been a really good word to like maybe put on a postcard and put on the wall or the mirror or just like stop and think about this for a hot second, right? Jenni: What I was thinking was, we never questioned starting the business when my husband was in vet school. He said, I think he was a sophomore in vet school. And he said, you know, I think I'm going to own my own business one day. And I was like, okay, that's bold. He is an amazing veterinarian and a terrible, terrible business person. Like he was not allowed to pair personal bills because those always went in late, you know, all of this. And that's not a money man, which is fine, right? Because the veterinary field is really a service industry. So that's fantastic. But I decided to go back to school and get, you know, degrees in marketing management. You know, my actual degrees in public relations, so with journalism. And so I, you know, we kind of had it in our mind that eventually we'd want to start our own practice and kind of do things different. You know, we had worked at a few places and learned how we didn't want to do things, which I think is usually how we all make that decision to do something different as we see something and go, I think there's a better way. So yeah, we had our oldest child in 2007. And we opened up our practice in 2007. And we bought land and a building in 2007. So I think it was designed to have a bridge. And then it is Larry has a bridge of the bamboo forest, but there was evidence beyond today. And there wasn't really all shoes on the tree. Can we put a surgery table? Where can we put our X-ray, you know, unit, you know, all of that? And I think in the beginning, we kept saying, when it slows down, let's take a minute to discuss this or think deeply on this or really And we just kept saying, when it slows down, when it slows down constantly. And now here we are right 18 years later, and we're saying, hey, maybe we should start meeting a strategic planning between the two of us. And where do we see our practice going? And, you know, because we really have not taken that time. And looking back, I think when you first start a business, the hustle is real, right? Like, and the fires are real. Like, out of the blue that you were not like at all expecting. No, you're not even prepared. Kelly: Like, you know, intent equals slowing down, right in my mind. Instead of being intentional and saying, you know what, let's take a minute. #StoryDesk #SmallBusiness #Entrepreneurship #Illuminare #Veterinary #Intent