News & Views
Photo of Sandwich Village by Joe Janis
What is your name and the name of your business? Jon L. Greenawalt, Sr., Personal Mastery Programs, Inc. How did you get to Sandwich, NH? My mother bought my current home on Bearcamp Pond Rd. in May of 1945, just at the close of World War II in Europe (VE Day). As a family in those days, we lived in Grand Rapids, Michigan and were summer residents until I moved here permanently in 2017. Our family’s interest in Sandwich began in 1911 as a result of my mother’s mother (my grandmother, Florence Spalding) contracting Tuberculosis. In those days, there were no antibiotics and the usual treatment was rest at cool, dry locations. For reasons unknown to me, her family chose to send Florence to a rehab facility in Wonalancet, NH called Ferncroft. During her two-year recovery period, the rest of her family would visit for a few weeks in the summers. As a young girl, my mom fell in love with the area and the Sandwich residents who hosted them during their stay. One of those people was Elizabeth Wilde, who lived in the home next to what is now the Sandwich Children's Center. Fast forward to 1945, when my mother visited here and reconnected with Elizabeth who encouraged her to buy what is now my home. How did you get started in this profession? I had been an HR professional in two privately held corporations in Philadelphia, PA then Detroit, MI until 1976, when I left to join a local management consulting firm. After 11 years of experience and getting a sound footing there, I started my own firm, PMP Inc which is still active today. While a risky move and challenge, it has proved to be the most successful and gratifying career choice. I was and continue to be inspired by my Personal Life Vision, which is “For all people to identify and have access to their unique genius and share if as a gift to the world.” Further, I am committed to having every interaction with others be a contribution to them. Tell us about your business. What do you offer as a service? PMP exists to “Ensure the survival and growth of organizations with empowering their people to achieve their own life purpose in support of the mission of the enterprise.” Our programs are comprehensive in nature. We deliver value to each individual in client organizations by combining Team building, Strategic Planning, Personal Development, Leadership Development, and Management Training into systems that facilitate the development of a personal growth culture. A frequently heard complaint about consulting/training is that people return from such programs with new concepts and, when faced with on-the-job pressure, revert to old, ineffective behaviors. PMP's comprehensive approach, backed by our promise for results, guarantees sustainable change and unprecedented results. If you would like to learn more about what we do, please visit www.pmpcoach.com How did your business get started? My last corporate role, which was in the early 1970’s, while successful, was missing the support and commitment of the owner to ensure the success of the company. Then, after being a successful part of another consulting firm for 11 years, that owner refused to sell me controlling shares of his firm. I knew it was time to leave and create my own future. My own consulting began when I was asked by another Michigan business if I could help them bring the culture and leadership tools I had implemented at my current employer to them. After getting permission to do so from the owner, I met with the other company’s CEO, confirmed the challenges they were facing and put together a proposal which they accepted. Truthfully, I didn’t really have much of a plan and for the first year was consulting only on a part-time basis. I was really “winging it” while I was developing rudimentary programs and workshops for their leaders. As a good listener, I was able to build trust, pinpoint key issues, and coach the company on how to approach them. By doing this, I began to build confidence in my ability to help other companies as well. At that point, I resigned from my then current employer and started out by joining an existing consulting firm (previously mentioned) where I received training, technology and tools to build a practice and become successful. Then, after being rebuffed by that firm's owner from acquiring ownership control, I took what I had learned and created a new enterprise. What is the most fun/satisfying aspect of your work? Experiencing the frequent appreciation from people for my contribution to them, often positively impacting life-alerting situations for one or both their career and personal lives. Watching the sparkle appear in people’s eyes over the power of some new insight or opportunity they gained, along with their determination and commitment to pursue their dreams. What is the hardest? Seeing people give up on believing themselves capable of taking control of their lives, and reverting to a role of victim, blaming others or the circumstances for their distress, suffering or failures. How has this last Covid year affected your work? Fortunately, with minimal negative impact. I was able to learn how to be effective using remote technology (principally Zoom) to conduct coaching sessions, sufficiently effective for my clients. Most difficult was the challenging and ineffective requirement to conduct normally in-person training workshops for clients online?, which eliminates the critical dynamics and personal interchanges/dialogues that can only occur when people are in the same room. What are your goals and hopes for the future?
Continue to fulfill my life’s purpose; treat others with dignity and respect; live to be 100 years old, and when I arrive there, plan for the next 10 to 15 years. What else can you tell us about yourself and your life in Sandwich?In addition to my business, I have been active since arriving in 2017 on various committees and board. I am a past Board of Trustees for the Barnstormers Theatre and a past Vice Chair of the Sandwich Business Group. I am a current member of the Sandwich Zoning Board of Adjustment and a member of the Bearcamp Pond Association. It is a joy living here full-time, realizing a lifelong dream. It is a beautiful state and community, with honest, helpful people who are good neighbors and a credit to our town.
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What is your name and the name of your business? Lobin Frizzell, Team leader of 603 Property Group How did you get to Sandwich, NH? As a native to NH, I grew up in Plainfield, NH on the Connecticut River. I brought my son Bryce to the Sandwich Fair when he was 6 years old and I knew then that this is where I needed to live. How did you get started in this profession? My mother was a realtor and she passed away when I was 20 but before she passed she made me get my real estate license as she had several transactions that would close after her death. I have been in and out of the real estate business ever since. In my younger days, I would start a business and then sell it, which is where my love for commercial real estate began. Tell us about your business. My team and I work all over the state of NH to sell residential and commercial real estate. We specialize in customer service and marketing of luxury homes. How did your business get started? I began working under the brokerage of Keller Williams and by their coaching and training my business grew to a point three years ago that I needed to bring on people to grow my business. What is the most fun/satisfying aspect of your work? I love helping people find their homes or hit a milestone in their life, like buying their first investment property. What is the hardest? When you cannot help. It's challenging when you have a young family that you have a relationship with that are hardworking and they are in need of housing because their rental is being sold and they are unprepared to buy. How has this last Covid year affected your work? Covid in the beginning was a boon to real estate. There seemed to be endless amounts of money-cash to buy any property on the market. As of late, the buyers are fatigued from the bidding wars and the seller's overinflated pricing is being corrected. The market seems to be shifting to a balanced market. What are your goals and hopes for the future? I love what I do. I have my license in Maine and Florida as well as NH, and I am building teams there. What else can you tell us about yourself and your life in Sandwich?
Another Sandwich project of mine was buying the North Sandwich Store in the hopes of adding value to the community. Pre-covid when my older children Bryce and Baylee opened the store for me as part of a why-not-try-it campaign, the store actually did okay, and with consistency would likely have continued at okay—okay meaning just covering costs, which I was fine with. However, when they left for college, staffing became the issue. What I would love is to find a like-minded individual who would like to operate it. At the moment I am working on a plan for a food coop but again I am stretched pretty thin and would need help. If you have any good ideas, please let me know! Sandwich has my heart. It has a lot going on for a small town. I love that I can ride my horse into town and get a cup of coffee. Really the thing that I find most amazing about Sandwich, beyond Squam, the hiking, and the Sandwich Creamery, is how interesting the people who live here are. I have raised three children in Sandwich and they tell me I can never leave. I think they are right. www.603propertygroup.com 66 Route 25, Meredith, NH, 03253 (M) 603-662-4095, (O) 603-569-4663 lobin603@kw.com What is your name and the name of your business? I am Cathy Crooker and my business is Crooker Consulting. How did you get to Sandwich, NH? Mine is one of the typical Sandwich stories – I spent my summers here as a kid. As a family we hiked, played tennis, went canoeing, and performed together in the 70’s versions of the Sandwich Players Gilbert & Sullivan productions under the legendary Bob Bates! When my parents, Charlie and Lib Crooker, retired here in 1980, this became “home base,” the place I came back to for family visits. I lived in Oregon all those years, primarily working for nonprofits doing fundraising, but treasured my visits to see family and get back into the mountains I love. When my husband, Griff O’Brien, retired a few years ago, I had the flexibility through my business to live anywhere, so we chose to return to Sandwich full-time. And we are so thrilled that we did! We love this community and are honored to be a part of it. What got you started in this profession? After graduating from Oberlin College with a Soviet Studies degree I migrated to Oregon. Like many fundraisers of my time, I happened upon an opportunity in development with no notion that this would be my career. When an entry-level job at the Easter Seals Society showed me how donors could help improve the lives of children with disabilities, I was hooked! From there I went on to run all the special fundraising events for The American Heart Association in Oregon, and my path in fundraising was set! I went on to work in healthcare and higher education fundraising in and around Portland, Oregon, with a detour during the 1990’s running a business exporting food to Russia (another topic for another day!) Tell us about your business. What do you make, do, or offer as a service? Crooker Consulting helps dedicated nonprofit leaders achieve bold visions. I help volunteers, boards and staff learn how to raise more money, I help them develop strategies & visions that will resonate with donors, and I help boards grow and evolve. I have a passion for improving our community. It is a gift to be in a profession where I help connect committed donors with organizations that are creating positive change, whether that is curing cancer, housing the homeless or enhancing the cultural fabric of the community. And I know that anything is possible when we align our energies in common purpose! How did this business get started? In 2015 the wonderful woman I was working for at Community Action in Oregon was set to retire. I decided at that time I was also ready for a transition to the next phase of my life and was ready to launch out on my own to offer what I could to a range of clients. My experience in both very large and very small organizations lends me a unique set of skills. I am trained in the best practices of major fund raising inside large capital campaigns and I use my creative abilities to bring those vital tools to organizations with small staffs and limited budgets. I have learned that budget and size are not a hindrance to creating breakthrough fundraising strategies. What is the most fun/satisfying aspect of your work? When I see a board and an organization pull off a big dream that they weren’t sure was possible, I get a lot of satisfaction. The size of the budget doesn’t matter that much – for example, it was just as exciting for me to help the small arts cooperative raise the $100K they needed to repair their gallery as it has been to help the $55M arts center raise the money they needed. The joy comes from helping these incredibly dedicated volunteers achieve what they set out to do for their community. What is the hardest? I wouldn’t say it is hard, but it makes me a bit sad when an organization turns out to be “un-coachable.” It doesn’t happen often, but I have had a few instances when organizations paid me to give them advice, to help guide them, and then they decided not to listen and learn. I have come to understand over the years that when this happens, I need to sever the relationship as early as possible, and not take any more of their precious money, most of which was usually given to them by donors. I have to recognize when they are just not ready for the next step. What has happened to your business in this last Covid year? At the start of the pandemic my business did drop – several capital campaigns that were underway or about to start stalled or didn’t launch. But after a few short weeks of mild panic and some readjustment, I found new projects with some long-term clients who needed extra support during the crisis. For example, one of my very first clients, a food bank in Portland, Oregon, was raising MORE money than they ever had and needed a lot of help navigating through their busiest fundraising year ever! I was inspired to see how the community stepped up in unprecedented ways to give to this organization that was right on the front lines of the crisis, and it was also amazing to realize that with all our modern technology (bad internet in Sandwich aside…) I could be just as helpful to them from our little village as I could have been had I still been in Portland. Griff & were also able to adjust our lives so that during COVID – and now moving forward – I don’t have to work a hard as I did! So, I am taking more time for tennis, hiking, fiber arts, and spending time with friends. What are your goals and hopes for the future? My goal is to continue to be of service to the clients I have the privilege of supporting, and to balance that with plenty of time for all the richness that life in Sandwich has to offer – and to add more travel back into the mix! What else can you tell us about yourself? I am an avid hiker and active with the Over the Hill Hikers. I am also an addicted fiber artist - my new home studio holds my nine spinning wheels and multiple looms! Since moving to Sandwich, I have also enjoyed getting more involved in a formal way with some volunteer work, including serving on the Broadband Advisory Committee. Griff & I just recently moved into our new, permanent retirement home, a project that has been in the works for a few years (and a challenge during COVID). We are now enjoying settling into our completely off-grid home on Elm Hill Road.
Cathy Crooker 503-577-5448 catherine@crookerconsulting.com |
News & Views
News of what's happening in Sandwich and other items of interest. Meet Our Members
Please enjoy the Sandwich Business Group's 2021 project called Meet Our Members. Read interviews with fascinating people who live here and run businesses, organizations, and engage in other creative pursuits.
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