The Balanced Business Dad
The Balanced Business Dad is a conversation that focuses on balancing the important six pillars of life for the business and entrepreneur dad. Join hosts Dustin Hoog and R.J. Campbell as they talk about the challenge of balancing work and life with the pillars which are: Faith, Health, Marriage, Fatherhood, Brotherhood and Business. Whether you are a solopreneur, dadpreneur or owner of multiple businesses, you will learn from success stories, wins and challenges from these Christian business owners as well as hearing about using the Dad Up Framework to handle challenges.
The Balanced Business Dad
Resilience and Family Focus: Mark Hollander's Transition from Banking to Community Leadership and Business Success
How does one navigate a successful 35-year career in banking, face a life-threatening diagnosis, and emerge as a thriving community leader and business owner? Meet Mark Hollander on this episode of the Balanced Business Dad Podcast, where he shares his remarkable transition from banking to owning La Belle Vie café and leading Vision St. Charles County Leadership. Mark's journey is one of resilience, hope, and dedication to family and community after overcoming malignant melanoma. His story is a testament to the power of prioritizing what truly matters in life and leveraging his experience to uplift those around him.
We further explore the dynamics of working alongside a spouse in various entrepreneurial ventures and maintaining a healthy work-life balance. Mark opens up about effective communication strategies, the importance of clear role definitions, and how their business journey has influenced their children. Additionally, Mark discusses his heartfelt contribution to the book "Notes from Dad," sharing touching personal stories about fatherhood and faith. Tune in to discover Mark's meticulous approach to juggling his multiple roles, from councilman to restaurant owner, and how unwavering support from his spouse plays a crucial role in their balanced life.
You can join over 350 other Dads like you by joining The Balanced Business Dad's Facebook group here: dadupgroup.com
Check out our website at: thebalancedbusinessdad.com
Socials:
Dustin on Facebook at facebook.com/dustin.charles.718689
Dustin on Instagram at instagram.com/dustin_hoog
Dads, do you want a thriving business that doesn't control you, a passionate marriage and kids that adore you? Do you want to grow deeper in your faith, be healthier both physically and mentally, build more meaningful relationships with your friends? Welcome to the Balanced Business Dad Podcast, where, in each episode, we dive into balancing and optimizing the six pillars of life Faith, health, marriage, fatherhood, brotherhood and business. And here are your hosts, pioneers of the Balanced Business Dad movement Dustin Hogue and RJ Campbell.
Coach Dustin:What's up? The Balanced Business Dad, I'm your host, Coach Dustin here, live in the studio today and I could not be more honored with our guest today. This man I'm about to introduce I've known randomly through a lot of different aspects of life actually, and I think it was 2015 when we met, because it was right before we got married. And I'll tell that story in just a second. But first I want to introduce to the studio Mr Mark Hollander. Mark, how are you today? Amazing, thank you, that's awesome.
Coach Dustin:So Mark and I actually met right before my wife and I got married because Mark was running a financial peace class through Dave Ramsey Good old Dave Ramsey, Good old Dave Ramsey, and if you know anything about me, you know I really don't follow a lot of his teachings anymore, and yet it helped us so much in that. And then we came across through other things in life, through other organizations, which we'll get into. But God has woven us in each other's lives several different times. We cross paths frequently in different avenues and different venues. Yeah, and just super, super blessed for that. So, Mark, let's just kind of tell the audience who you are and kind of what you're doing these days. So, Mark, let's just kind of tell the audience who you are and kind of what you're doing these days.
Mark Hollander:Okay, mark Hollander. Live in St Charles, born and bred lifelong St Charles resident. Love the community, big passion around community. My wife and I own a cafe in the old Frenchtown neighborhood, opened it now almost four years ago called La Belle Vie, a cafe in Frenchtown. That has been an amazing explosion of craziness, but also wonderfulness as well. It's been a tremendous blessing. I'm also the executive director for Vision St Charles County Leadership. I've been the executive director now of that organization In a couple of days it'll be seven years and so I've been able to uh to, to assist and work with that nonprofit organization and lead that group, which has been, again, a great blessing and a wonderful experience. And then I am also a central city councilman board too. I've been doing that for just a little more than a year now, so I've got about four minutes of free time each week and that's about it.
Coach Dustin:And husband and a father and a man of faith, right. So, yes, yeah, she knows it is a guy, right. So I mean, it's hard to talk about all this, you know, uh, we met well again the day of, but then I was an alum through vision, right, and it's crazy that you said seven years, because I don't even think you were a part of vision that wasn't a title at that time when I was there, because we were pregnant with brody at the time, okay, and I and he just turned seven and a half actually, so yeah, wow, so I'm probably was on the board and helping at that point, but was it technically it?
Coach Dustin:wasn't. Yeah, exactly, it wasn't a position I think it was right after my class that that position came.
Mark Hollander:17 would have been my first year as executive director.
Coach Dustin:Yeah, and I guess it was 16, because I was married, but Bernie wasn't born. He was born at the end of 16. Okay, yeah, so that is crazy. So A how did it all come to this? This is not where your life began. This is not where your life began. This is not where your career began, not at all. So what did you do before that that led into this?
Mark Hollander:I was a 35-year career banker, Worked on the retail side but then also the commercial side.
Mark Hollander:That process and being involved in people's finances, helping them get qualified for loans whether it was a mortgage loan or a commercial loan or a business loan, whatever it might be really triggered a lot of the passions that we had around getting involved in Dave Ramsey. We were working with a lot of individuals and customers that really were deserving of getting a loan but then didn't qualify because their personal finances were jacked or whatever it might have been. So really trying to then be able to, to help families from a different direction got us involved in doing the day for mc program and helping us personally on financial our path and getting much better healthy financially, um, but really kind of went through all that stuff then with the bank. I retired from the bank. Now about eight years ago I wound up being diagnosed with malignant melanoma and the doctors essentially gave me about a year to live and so I suddenly lost the passion for making business loans and open checking accounts and I thought you know, what I want to do is spend a lot more time with my family.
Mark Hollander:That's really the amount of time I had left. Yeah, a lot of prayer, a couple of experimental medications, a new process. Obviously, I'm not the testing phase at the time. I went through some different challenges there but then came out great. On the other side of that, that's now been about eight years ago that I was diagnosed and then so obviously they gave me about a year to live. That was eight years ago, so things turned out pretty well. That experience got me out of the bank and into.
Mark Hollander:Vision. I took over as executive director then at Vision really to just build some organizational structure around it.
Mark Hollander:Honestly, I think they thought they were hiring a temporary employee because they didn't really know how long I had, but it's turned into now a great option and a great opportunity, a great career for me as well, another chance to continue to work in community, which has been a crazy passion of mine. Leading through all of that kind of led both my wife and I then to say and what do we want to do with our lives? And something we had always talked about was building something in the community where people would gather Someplace, where they would come and sit down and have a great conversation or build a memory or have a lunch together or a cup of coffee or whatever it might be. So we kind of said, well, what the heck, we might as well Again, I think, the cancer diagnosis let us be a little more carefree and said, what the heck? What would be the worst thing? We could lose some money, okay, no big deal, let's give it a shot and decided to dive in and take that risk.
Mark Hollander:Now we stepped in about five years ago when we acquired the property and signed some letters at the tent and all those kind of things and kind of got it up and started. So the cafe's been going great, vision's been going wonderful. That's been, again, a great experience and a couple years ago now really decided to run for city council get more involved in the community, more active in the community there that we're planted in, we live and where we work, and get more involved there. So that's been a desire of mine for a long time and so, uh, getting involved more there, so I love that.
Coach Dustin:That is amazing.
Coach Dustin:I'm so grateful for people like you, because the last thing I'm gonna do is be on city council or own a restaurant, so, um, so that is awesome and, uh, as someone who goes to the restaurant frequently and also see my wife's charges for that coffee a lot, which we appreciate it is it is great. That's so cool. That story of you know a scare, a health scare, right, obviously brings health on the forefront, but it brings really the concept of the balanced business down to the forefront. You get the pillars straight. You get the faith, the health, the family aspect straight, well before that business stuff. Yes, and I love that and what I've seen, and maybe correct me if I'm wrong, but it seems like you started focusing on those pillars and the business just kind of rose with it, everything rose with it.
Mark Hollander:Well, completely, I had you talk about how important the faith, that marriage and those things are.
Mark Hollander:All of those steps wouldn't have happened if Melissa and I hadn't been online together, if we hadn't sat down and talked through it and agreed on the risks that were involved or the steps that were involved, whether it was retiring from the bank early or going ahead and taking that step, which, again, she was very, very involved in and knowing what a hit that would give us personal, financial wise, having our finances in order and having us being in lockstep together, making those decisions together and stepping out in what we believe to be our calling to do those things. A lot of times we say we have no idea in the world what we're doing, but we're trying to listen to him, listen to the guidance that he's directing us to do, be obedient in that process and not get our own desires in the way of what he wants us to do, and trying to pay attention to that, and that's not always an easy thing to do, but it's something that we try to concentrate on and always lead with.
Coach Dustin:I love that. So I'm going to jump into that because, as most of the listeners know, my wife and I work together in multiple businesses and that's not always the easiest thing to do.
Mark Hollander:I don't want to recommend it to a lot of people.
Mark Hollander:No, no, no, I don't know that it's always wonderful. Because then, for instance tonight, when we plan this now, for now, a couple of weeks, tonight is date night. The idea is we are going out and laying the phones down and going out. We're definitely not going to the movies, we're going to go out and hang out, we're going to go do some of that stuff and we have to plan that stuff. We spend a ton of time together, but there's not a lot of together time. Yes, it might be walking past each other in the kitchen, or I'm on my way to a council meeting and we grab Kane's chicken and shove it down real quick, whatever it might be, but we have to make sure that we are consistently intentionally doing a lot of that Good, and so I love that.
Coach Dustin:So intentional date nights and setting the intention how does the roles in the business actually work? Do you have set roles? Everybody makes the decisions together, or one in charge of one one in the business actually work? Do you have set roles Everybody makes the decisions together, or one in charge of one, one in charge of the other? How do you guys do that?
Mark Hollander:Kind of evolved. Quite honestly, I am much more of the customer service in front kind of person. She is very, very operational. She had a career in banking as well. She was the compliance person. She is very, very operational. She had a career in banking as well. She was the compliance person. So she was big on the details. I did not care about the details when I was in there. I wanted to make a sale and go and talk to people and hang out.
Mark Hollander:So those roles have kind of recreated themselves within the cafe. She creates menus, works on details, makes sure that our portioning and our pricing is set. She works with the vendors on getting the right ingredients those kinds of things back into us. I work a lot more in front with the experience, making sure that tables are set right, tables are bussed properly, the food is delivered the right way, they're set down properly, the coffee line is set up. We've got staffing in place to be able to do that and so our roles kind of evolved into doing that.
Mark Hollander:We sit down weekly, go through every dollar that came in and every dollar that goes out we have that discussion every week and making sure that the expenses are taken care of, that profit is set aside appropriately and that we make decisions on every dollar that happens. We do that again very intentionally. That's a Monday morning meeting. We try and make sure that that is where we set schedule for the week and where each one of us are going and what time one of us might have to cover for the other. Make sure that that's all steady to it.
Coach Dustin:Love that. I think that they could not have said that better. If you're going to work with any kind of partner, but especially your spouse, make sure there's intention around it, and those meetings are business meetings. At that time, yes, I actually had a guest on the podcast probably about two months ago and he does a lot of relationship work with spouses that works together, and one of the things he said which I really loved is, if you're going to your spouse around a business that he says, hey, I am coming to you as the CFO right now and you know you're not my wife right now I'm coming to you as the CFO and then talk about that business and then all right, now they're back in their other roles and I really liked that because it just sets the precedent right there of that conversation.
Mark Hollander:I don't think we, I don't think that's something that we probably think about. Right, it's something we definitely do. Love that, yeah. So we, we sit down, we get a lot of times every Sunday night we go to dinner, okay, and so we have a Mexican place, we go sit down to dinner, we kind of debrief the week, yeah, and when that's done, we do personal stuff and so you're, we would probably do that, but I don't know the way and sit down and say, okay, I'm putting that out, yeah, but we definitely do that. Yeah, love that.
Coach Dustin:So let's talk about mark the father, because obviously, the balanced business dad. Now your kids are a little older, obviously, but let's tell it, you were mostly in banking when they were growing up. Is that correct? Yes, how do they feel about the entrepreneurial dad all of a sudden?
Mark Hollander:I believe that both of them are very proud of the process. They both are very involved in the business in different aspects. My oldest daughter, katie, who just turning 39. I said the other day that she was 40 and I got in big trouble for that. She's 39. She handles all of our payroll and handles the technical aspects of doing that for us. Younger daughter, maggie, is 30. She has worked with us in a couple of different ways and helped with us in-house behind the line, serving but then also doing a lot of baking and things for us, helped us create a couple of new recipes with challah bread and doing different French bread recipes and those kind of things.
Mark Hollander:Both are very involved and very excited, I think, about the existence of it. I don't know that either one of them want to own it or take it over, but I think they're both excited that we dove in and took the risk. I'm probably, again, being a banker, a little more risk averse. I think they were excited to see dad jump in and do that. I think they've got a lot of pride and a lot of excitement involved in that. Now grandkids oldest grandson he wants so bad to run the cash register and wants to be there and handle that and do that. He's been there for several different events and very helpful with those kind of things, so they're around and hang out with us as well. I love that. Yeah, both of them are a big fan of that.
Coach Dustin:It's that work-life integration, that separation. Well, I love that. Yeah, both of us are a big fan of that. It's that work-life integration, that separation, so I love that. So you have all this stuff going on and then you decided to help with another project.
Voiceover:You were bored. I said I'm going to do this extra, right yeah?
Coach Dustin:So let's hear about this project that you just finished, right? Just so I'll let you take that away.
Mark Hollander:Yeah, I'll let you take that one.
Mark Hollander:Yeah, just launched A buddy of mine again, a guy that I met through vision, jason Myers-Hagan, who works with Central County Fire, came to me shortly after he graduated from the program and said hey, I'm putting together a group of guys and I want to get a book together that offers dad advice to tell the story about what it means to be a dad, what it was like with your father, some that didn't have a father, what it was like growing up without one, but just getting different stories mostly men of faith that want to share a story about what it means for them to be a dad.
Mark Hollander:He gathered 35 guys together and asked each one of us to participate by writing a chapter in the book. All of those chapters were then compiled and the book was just launched just recently, so it's called Notes from Dad and the book launched now I guess it's been maybe three weeks ago, four weeks ago but went number one international bestseller on Amazon, which was pretty exciting. That's amazing. Four different countries went to number one and so it was pretty neat. It was a big, big, big blitz and so we had 35 authors who went crazy with the social media and getting the information, the word out and everything, but it's been a cool, cool experience, really cool.
Coach Dustin:Well, what a concept, dad Because you know A to tell the story of being a dad. I love that. Telling a story about your dad, I love that, and there's a lot of people that need to hear that story. You know, we always joke. There's not a book on fatherhood. Obviously, there's a lot of books on fatherhood, but not one that tells you exactly what to do. So what? So what was that like? I mean, did that bring any memories up? How we were writing that? It's probably a pretty emotional experience. So let me hear more about that?
Mark Hollander:yeah, in a lot of different ways. Obviously I initially, when I sat down, I really wish, wanted to tell the story about my dad and what it was like. My father was a police officer. I grew up in a very controlled, regimented, rule-set household, which, again, I have amazing memories of being a kid and my dad being very involved in baseball teams and those kind of things. So initially when I sat down to write it, that's the direction I wanted to go. I sat down six or eight different times to try and write that and it never came out of my head and never, never really made its way under that onto the keyboard in any way so I really then one of the the editors said during one of our meetings just tell a story, don't worry about trying to pour something out.
Mark Hollander:that's tremendously impactful, just tell a story. And so then I really got around thinking about what it was like for me to be a dad. When it was like for me to be a dad, what it was like becoming a dad and actually the birth experience around both of my daughters was exciting and somewhat traumatic in both situations. And so I really kind of decided to sit down and share those things about what it was like to immediately become a father and to experience the birth of both of my daughters. So that is, I sat down, typed it out, changed a couple of words and sent it to the editor and thought it was done and he made a few changes and a few corrections in some of the way that I had words and stuff and those kinds of things, but it's almost verbatim how it came out of my head and how it immediately hit the typewriter. So the process of doing it was emotional and kind of reliving those experiences and those stories about the birth of both of my daughters and being able to share that. So it was fun.
Coach Dustin:That's awesome. I love that concept. I can't wait to read the book. So there's a lot going on in your life, mark, yes A. How do you keep it all balanced? I mean, besides the intentionality, what are you guys doing on a daily basis? I mean, how are you? I'm a councilman, I'm a restaurant owner and then I'm running this organization called Vision and then, I'm a husband. How do you do it all? Yeah?
Mark Hollander:scheduling is important. Communication is tremendously important. I wouldn't be able to do any of that if I didn't have the support of all of us. We have to be able to step in and to do a lot of those things. We every Monday, Sunday and Monday sit down and go through calendar and make sure that we both have time and are covered Sometimes I cover her, sometimes she covers me and being able to do that, so that communication is tremendously key for us. Calendaring things, I have different notebooks for each organization. I try not to get any of them mixed up or confused, so I'm very detailed in doing that. I think a lot of that stuff comes from putting together long packets and making sure the details are right and all that stuff right.
Mark Hollander:But I have a color-coded calendar that, uh, different colors represent whether it's a, a vision aspect or a vision appointment or a city council meeting that I have to do. Yesterday I was out all day long on a on a city council um excursion, from eight o'clock in the morning until 4 30 in the afternoon and then two different meetings and different appointments and things after that. Didn't get home until 7.30, 8 o'clock and then had to run over and help my mom do a couple of things and then after that, so still being a dad and a son and trying to help with that process too, so trying to make sure that those things were done. So yesterday was I barely saw Melissa, right, but then we made sure to connect and stuff. Then last night we began talking about what needed to be done today to make sure that those things are happening. So communication is key.
Mark Hollander:That calendar to me. I don't know what I would do without my Google Calendar, so strong, being able to live through that and again, those colored things that are set on there. So I got all my little alarms set, my little reminders set, so I head back out and give myself enough time to get somewhere. This was an 18-minute drive, so I made sure I left ahead of time so that I wasn't in those pieces too. That's important to be able to do that. I want to make sure that I'm accountable to each one of those areas and at home as well, and making sure that I don't drop the ball or miss something or disappoint someone in the process of doing that, so I want to try and make sure that I get all those buckets.
Coach Dustin:I love that. You know it's so funny. I'm going to say 70% of the new people I bring into coaching that I coach. You know the first few weeks are going to be in their calendar because it's such a simple task that people don't do it so many times. There's an old saying if it's not on the calendar, it doesn't exist, and that's just right. That's absolutely how we run our lives as well. Yeah, so I love that. So if you were a new business dad, you know, having the kids, having the wife what's the one thing that you know now that you would wish you would have known?
Mark Hollander:Oh man, um I. One thing that you know now that you would wish you would have known oh, man, I would say and you hit on it when we first started talking is making sure you have those things in the right order. A new business, dad.
Mark Hollander:Whether you're working for a company or you're working for yourself, I think the tendency is to put that business first because you feel like, man, you're providing for your family and you're working hard and doing that, and when that happens, that order gets out of whack, priorities get out of whack. You wind up missing a kid's play or baseball games or a dance recital or whatever it might be. And it's easy to justify it because, man, you're working hard and you're trying to do the right thing, getting those things in order and keeping the faith in line as well, in lockstep with your wife. Being able to do that and making sure that that is rock solid in doing those things is something that is. It sounds easy to say, it sounds like really simple advice, but, man, it is so simple to get those things out of whack and screwed up and out of place. So, yeah, making sure that they're in the right order.
Coach Dustin:Yeah, I love that and that's so true. All right, final question I ask everyone Besides the Bible as a man of faith, because I know people go to that one what's one of the books that have had the most impact on your life?
Mark Hollander:My probably. The book Blue Like Jazz, which is a book by Donald Miller, is a book about a young man without a father who lived, I think, in Portland, oregon, or it was far, far northwest it might have been Washington, but I think it was in Oregon about him coming to faith and it is a not your typical, not your regular sit down.
Mark Hollander:Let me share scripture with you. He came to faith in a very, very unusual way. He does a lot of marketing, a lot of studies. Now it is in a totally different area, but this book had a tremendous impact on me. Changed completely the way that I looked at sharing faith with other people and being able to live your faith in a different way. So it had a tremendous impact on me.
Coach Dustin:That is one I've never heard of, which is blue light jazz. I like it. That's awesome. Mark, this has been great. You know, my goal, and really our mission, is to bring value to the business stats out there, because we have a lot that we're handling and a lot going on, and I know that I got enough out of this and value out of this interview, and I'm sure all the listeners will too. So I just want to thank you for coming here today. So how can people find you? I mean, just go and order a cup of coffee.
Mark Hollander:Where can people find you? I was going to say 1,200 North Seconds. Absolutely, yeah, they're a lot Social. Yeah, I've been there a lot. Social media is probably the easiest way as well. Mark Hollander on Facebook. I am M-H-O-L-N-D-R-9 on Instagram. Those are probably the easiest ways to be able to track me back and get back with me, but I love to connect with people. It's again my favorite thing to do is sit across the table and share a cup of coffee and chat, and learn about people.
Coach Dustin:It's fun, that's awesome. Well, mark. Thank you so much, guys. I know you got a lot out of this. Again, we can always carry on this conversation at our free Facebook group, which you can go to the Violence Business Dad on Facebook to join that group we have over 400 guys there together doing life or you can go to dadupgroupcom. That gives you kind of a little lesson of how to use the DADAP framework and then jump right into Facebook. So until next time, thank you guys, and remember to DADAP. People in your life deserve it the most. We'll see you next time, thank you guys.
