How to Have a Winning Culture

One, two, three, four. Welcome everybody to Family Business Breakthroughs. Our guest today, Carrie Nelson, is the president of HN Fundkauser and Company, a family owned company founded in nineteen thirty two in Virginia's Shenandoah Valley. The company spans petroleum distribution, transportation, HVAC services, convenience stores, real estate.

Is a CPA graduate of University of Richmond, a former Peace Corp small business adviser, and a respected community leader. And I wanna highlight that she shares in the stewarding of an incredible culture in a multigenerational family business. Carrie, welcome to the show. Thank you, Jim, for having me today.

You bet. And so as we kind of rehashed, you know, this all sparked from an incredible story that you shared with our CEO, Betsi, about a young gentleman going to a store on a stormy day. And so I would love for you to repaint this picture for us because we posted it in our in our newsletter. You graciously led us.

And so repaint that picture. Tell us that story about this young man and what deeply moved you about telling this story. Well, when we our meetings here at Agent Funcows, we try to share our short successes successes or things that are impactful that are happening in our organization. And about two weeks ago, we had over six inches of snow on the ground in Winchester, which is a lot for us.

And my husband who usually has a long commute was working from home. He said, I really think I should just drive you to the office today even though I live about a mile and a half away. So I'm riding along in the car with my husband, there's snow all over the place, the roads are covered in snow, you can't see the blacktop. And I noticed somebody riding a bike in the snowy weather, cold, no gloves.

And I look at my husband and I'm like, I am pretty sure that's one of our team members trying to get to work this morning. And at this point we were almost to the location. So we see him ride the bike into our handy mark convenience store to open up the store that morning. But then the story continues because I knew through my dad that he did not have any transportation and that my dad had taken one of his old bikes and taken it to the bike repair shop to get repaired and given it to this young gentleman.

So here we have somebody that was given some form of transportation but even in bad weather made the effort to use it and get out. And my husband immediately said, he's like, here's somebody making probably under twenty dollars an hour that has the grit to get out in the cold, get to work and open up the store. And he said he works for a large fortune five hundred company. And he said, I know we have people that are making tons of money that are gonna use the snow today as an excuse to not do anything.

And I think it's just humbling that when people have an opportunity or when they're trying to do better in their life and move forward, the grit and the gumption that they have to show up and care and his showing up and caring was opening our store on this snow day. Wow, that's so incredible. Yeah because communities they thrive off of the small businesses that are there, the family owned businesses that are there. And there is no shutting down, you know this, got to keep coming No, we're essentially an essential business and just the partnering of the story of how he got the bike and the caring of my dad to be involved to help him, which was a tool for him for this young employee to be successful moving forward.

And we all start out at different areas in our life. I mean, everybody has had an entry level job that you start out getting to. So I think, when you continue to show up, then that's how you move forward in life. That's incredible.

That is incredible. I know that. Yeah, I did. I sold shoes for the longest time of my life and let me tell you, it didn't matter.

I still had to be there. But you mentioned in your meetings, you share these stories, which is incredible. So tell me about what does that say about the culture of awareness and responsibility that you guys have built? Well, think just focusing on the good things reinforces that behavior.

A lot of times people will share work successes but sometimes people will share personal successes that are going on. And I think you get to know your team members at a different level about what makes them tick or what they're proud of. And I think we've learned a lot about each other's families and about our job roles just through sharing these successes in a way that we wouldn't have otherwise been exposed to. And you bring this up really good because there are a lot of places that try to demand that this happens, but you're really cultivating it.

So how do you cultivate it versus saying we're going to do this or you have to do this? Well, think in the beginning people weren't quite sure and they were a little bit uncomfortable and this was probably three or four years ago. So I think whenever you have a new idea, how does it catch on? But now almost all of our meetings we have an agenda for and our beginning says the date and welcome but then the next item is sharing successes.

And when you have that on the agenda, then we just know we're gonna go around and everybody is thinking about it before getting to the meeting because they know that's gonna be the first item in the meeting. And I think it works on another part. They always say that when people have spoken once in the meeting, it's almost like breaking the ice or breaking the Trump card or whatever. Then you would feel more inclined to say something or chime in at a time in the meeting if you've already said something in a meeting.

So I think it also creates more collaboration in our meetings later on during the agenda. And I want to brag on you really quick because you have a phenomenal newsletter and I love it. I love reading it and I look forward to it all the time when Betsi shares it over. Oh, love that she shares it.

I knew that she got it, but I didn't know she always shared it. So thank you for taking the time. Yeah, she always goes through and she's like, hey, check this out. And your dad does some really fun stuff in there too with always sharing great old photos or he does videos as well, which I love, but you guys highlight each other.

You'll have one person at the Handy Mart store or it could be in a warehouse or wherever, a driver, and you're like, this is what he or she loves. This is what they like to do in their free time, talks about how many years that they've been there. And it's a great way like, you have a big company and so you can't always talk to every single person, not every driver or whatever, but they probably stop in those stores as well. They see those people and now they're they're creating those relationships too.

Well, we call it the employee spotlight. We just feel like it's a way to get to know each other a little bit better. I don't know, like I said, once again, we have so many successes and there was a local CEO of a bank and he would have a weekly newsletter and I just found it so impactful and that's where we got the idea. And once again, when it first started out, we didn't have a lot of sharing of things that people now are accustomed to it.

So when we have spirit days or when we have something exciting going on, people will share pictures or I had our dispatcher sitting in a sunset beside behind our building one time and he's like, Oh, look at our truck with the building and how neat it is. And so I think it just continues to foster connections and everybody wants to be in the know and just be educated about what's going on. So we have a lot of moving parts in our diversified business. So I think it's just a forum of a place for people to learn about each other and our company.

I'm sure they look forward to it just like I look forward to it. So it's really exciting. I'm very fortunate I have lots of people helping contribute to that. So it's not just me and specifically my assistant Susan Ward is starting, she's better at compiling all the things.

So I have to give full credit on, it's a collaborative effort to get that all put It's so great, I love it. Your background is very diverse. Not only are you involved in your own family business, but you're involved on boards, as we kind of mentioned, former Peace Corp small business advisor. How have those experiences really shaped the way that you see your team members and not just as workers, but as family as well?

Well, think I've just been fortunate. My parents just both have been great mentors and they both were always involved in community organizations at leadership levels. Really, I don't know if it's part of our faith as well, but just giving back to the community and how sometimes they say services, the rent that we pay of being on this earth, like how important it is. That's what makes a strong community.

And I think when you come to work, you bring your whole self. I mean, you bring your past experience and your current experiences and things. I'm gonna just turn off the ringer on my phone. No, you're fine.

We get it. This is just normal life, right? Yep, so I think when you're bringing your whole self to work, you just realize everybody is dealing with different great things in their life but also struggles in their life too. And you never know what each individual person is dealing with.

And they always say that's why it's so important to be kind to people because you don't know what it is that they're juggling or what they're handling at that time. There's a famous quote, I think it might have been Maya Angelou that said, she's like, people won't always remember your name or what you said or maybe even what you look like but they always remember how you made them feel at that moment. So I just think when people come to work, want them to feel embraced and cared for and part of our team.

That's powerful. That's great. That's what makes you guys such a great company. We hope so, we're learning just like everybody else.

Always humble too and Gracia, you're great. So your company was founded in nineteen thirty two. I've had the pleasure of meeting pretty much your entire family. I'll be seeing your dad again soon, which is Oh, he's so excited to come to Brian.

I'm excited to see him. It's been almost like seven years or so since I've seen him. No, he looks the same. He's so spells Jarvis attack.

But you guys have done a great job with being intentional. And I really want to kind of understand what kind of legacy are you guys intentionally building right now? Well, I think when you've been founded in nineteen thirty two and you're a small business, there's a lot of different things you're juggling. I just think we've been fortunate enough our community has supported us and we've tried to support our community.

We continue to grow in different ways. We recently started a pest management division. Our internal maintenance department starting to do external work for other companies. So I just think learning how to diversify and change with the times and grow is sort of our goal moving into the future.

That's incredible. Well, you guys are obviously trusted and respected in your community. That's why you guys grow so well. You guys got such great people.

Carrie, I wanna thank you so much for your time today and allowing me to interview you and you guys are just great. Thank you so much. Well, you for the opportunity and we also appreciate what Meridian has done for us and how you've helped us continue to grow and focus on different things and what's important. Everybody always sells the same thing.

Like we don't sell anything different than anybody else is selling. So the only way we really can differentiate ourselves is through our people and great customer service. And my dad always says, we have two types of customers. We have the external customers who are ultimately the boss because they're the ones who are paying all your bills.

But then you also have your internal customers which are your team members and we need to take care of our team members well so they can also take care of our external customers. Incredible. H. M.

Funkelser, incredible multigenerational family business. Carrie, you're an awesome We always appreciate you and we look forward to obviously just being here to support you in any way that's possible. Great, well, you for the opportunity. I always enjoy talking to you and good luck with your show.

Thank you. All right, see you next time.