Janis Petrini
An interview with Janis Petrini Owner of Express Employment Professionals
“At my core, I love to help people be successful. ”
Getting to Know Janis Personally
Tell us about yourself.
I'm Janis Petrini and I was born and raised in Canada. I like to say that because as Canadians we are very proud of our country. I grew up in Burlington, Ontario and from there I went to Carlton University in Ottawa which is in the capital of Canada. After college I traveled to Europe for a year and then ended up getting into the restaurant business, in Scottsdale, Arizona. I met my ex-husband in Scottsdale, and we had three amazing children. I was in the restaurant business for 11 years, traveling to different states, as a general manager. I learned a tremendous amount in that business. I learned about running several million-dollar businesses and about managing operations, sales, and people. It was certainly a very demanding business. As a general manager, you were responsible for the success of the business. After I was with that company for about 11 years, I was introduced to Express Employment Professionals, which is a franchise organization. I ended up going to work for them at the International Headquarters and so I got to learn about this business. An existing franchise became for sale in Grand Rapids, Michigan. My family and I had never been to Grand Rapids before, never heard of Grand Rapids before. My husband and I and our small children decided to move to Grand Rapids and open a small business. One of the main reasons was it allowed me to come back to being closer to my family. So we moved here, we bought a business in a city that we've never lived before, 26 years ago. Basically, we didn't know anybody, never lived here before but we decided to take the risk. I wouldn't recommend that as a business or marketing plan, but part of the draw was to be closer to my family. We heard that Grand Rapids was a great place to raise a family and so we came. My husband got out of the business after the first year and so I ended up running it. We started off very small and with a lot of challenges along the way, but 26 years later we have a family of companies. There's three companies now. We have a professional and executive search called Specialized Recruiting Group, our staffing company, which is Express Employment Professionals, and we also have a training company called Frontline Training Solutions, as well. We have 30 employees, and we are excited to be in business for 26 years in such a wonderful community. Today all my three children are married, and I have six grandchildren. Between my work family and my own family, it is such a blessing.
Are any of the family working in the business?
Well actually, my son-in-law is in the business with me. He joined our company eight years ago. His name is David Robb and he had been watching me run the business and he approached me about joining the business. David graduated from Calvin, and he been working in management for a digital marketing company, and he was passionate about business. David’s parents were small business owners. We talked about David joining the business for about 6 months just to make sure that it was a good decision. He came into the business as the Director of Marketing and helped our business flourish and then became the Director of Operations for the last few years. Starting this year, January of 2022, we've planned to co-lead together. He has invested in part ownership of the business. This is truly an exciting time for our business.
President of Express Employment Professionals
Tell us about your role as a leader in your company.
We adopt a leadership style of servant leadership. I'm still very involved in the business. I am very passionate about what we do. Our core business is helping talent find a long-term permanent job or help people find their next career move. We help companies find top talent. We're the bridge between the two. My joy is to connect talent and companies and help to make a difference in people's lives. I love to help to understand each person’s potential and help them to get matched to a company. I love helping a company find their next great employees so they can be sustainable. I love working with our leadership team to make sure that the employees in our care are well taken of and reaching their goals for personal and professional development. I am very involved in the community. As a team we want to support our community partners who are working so hard to provide resources to our community members. I am not an absent owner or an outside owner. I'm actually in the business alongside everybody every single day.
You said you have three businesses.
Yes, we have our training and leadership development company which is developing leaders and coaching leaders to success. We have our executive search company which places professional candidates, and our staffing business, which includes placement for administrative, skilled trades and light industrial candidates. Each company has managing directors and they are leading their teams and managing the companies. The companies are all Express Employment Professionals companies, but they have three separate focuses.
How long ago did the other two businesses come about?
Traditionally our business was always the staffing business. Then probably about 10 years ago, we grew each our talent solutions and we decided to create a separate company for our professional and executive search, and we launched our training focus. We have always had a passion to provide training, to invest in people, to help them reach their potential. We made an intentional decision that we were really going to develop this business strategy and now we have a training solution that are both classroom, on-demand, and live virtual and we are serving four different countries and three different continents with training solutions at this time.
What have you enjoyed about the journey of becoming an entrepreneur?
At my core, I love to help people be successful. I think my restaurant business experience allowed me the opportunity to experience being the owner of a business. It was completely on my shoulders that that business was successful. I think this experience gave me the confidence that I had needed to run a business. I was completely responsible for it. When the opportunity to actually own my own business came about, I felt like I had been equipped to at least know what to do to be successful. Of course, there's no guarantee. I'm sort of a risk-taker, so I don't mind the challenge or the risk. Owning your own business is a very special thing to have and to be able to do. I was thinking about my children and something to maybe potentially be there for them. Just to know that you're right there in your community, helping and serving your community as a business owner is a very special privilege.
“Helping and serving your community as a business owner is a very special privilege. ”
It sounds like you found a lot of opportunities to live your purpose.
Absolutely. Every day. Helping people be successful and making a difference in people’s lives is my passion and I believe my purpose. I get to do this at work. It's been very challenging and there are certainly a lot of up and downs. There have been many challenges but you're learning not only to be a better version of yourself, but you also must be your best self for the people that are depending on you every day. Every day you're having to give your very best because you're thinking about wanting to make sure you have a sustainable business. It's all on your shoulders to make sure that you do that, and you have people depending on you. You've got to have the best people around you. You've got to be committed and you have a good plan. There's no backing out once you get in. You can't give up, you have to keep going. That never give up sort of approach has been something that's been very helpful for me in being an entrepreneur. When you own your own business, something else that's very fun is that you get to be creative and try things that are innovative. I think had I not had a small business; I would not have been able to experience the personal and professional growth that I have had and the ability to grow my faith. I was able to discover my purpose through my business and for that I am so grateful.
What was holding you back from becoming an entrepreneur?
I think what would have been holding me back would have been having three small children and risking a guaranteed income of a corporate job. I was in a situation where my ex-husband had tremendous health issues and so I was really the only sole provider of our family. When you think about being the sole provider and you have three small children, and then you are thinking about becoming an entrepreneur, it's a pretty big risk. You may fail and that is a big risk especially if you're the breadwinner for your family. For me, that was a major motivation to make sure that the work that was put into it, and the effort that was put into it had to be successful because my children were depending on me and so were my employees.
What really excites you professionally right now?
I'm excited for this next chapter. For 26 years, I've been the business's sole owner. I'm excited that I have a co-leader and a partner in my son-in-law David Robb. I'm still as passionate today about the business that I was 26 years ago but I'm also very excited about really helping my son-in-law be set up to succeed. I've always been a person that wants to do everything with excellence. My succession plan is very important to me. It's been a 10 year plan. On this particular moment of truth time, it's the next six years, I'm going to be really helping set up David to really lead this business. What excites me is our entire leadership team, investing in them and making them the best leaders that they can possibly be. I love supporting my employees to reach their dreams, all those things excite me today. Making a difference in my community and really making sure that I'm investing and helping steward a lot of great things that are happening in our community is also a great motivator for me.
You invest in the community, what are some of the things that you do and why is that so important?
I think ultimately, our customer is the community. For our business, we're serving people who are going to work, and families and children are impacted. We want to be a destination area for families who want to thrive, people that want to come to West Michigan. For me, anything that I can do to help strengthen and help the most vulnerable, as well as anything that I can do to invest in our community so that it's an attractive place for people to come and work and thrive is important. I think that we serve many different people in the work that we do. We like to support our community partners who are serving the people that we serve and make sure that we're all working alongside together to strengthen individuals and families, which in turn will strengthen our community. For me that's the responsibility of a small business owner or a business itself, is to pour back into their community.
What do you think you've learned about leadership the hard way?
So many things. I'm still a work in progress. I'm probably a very slow learner is how I look at it sometimes. I've learned about resilience as a leader. I've learned about how to show up in those difficult times. I've learned how to be an example setter when you don't want to. I've learned I've had to improve my emotional intelligence. I've had to have my own coach to be able to help me to be better. I've had to invest in my own leadership journey because if you're not growing as a leader, then your organization is declining. Your business doesn't ever stay the same. It's either growing because you're growing, or it's declining because you're not doing anything to improve yourself as a person and as a leader. A long time ago, I've had many mentors, but that was one of the things that, if I'm not personally looking in the mirror at myself every single day both personally and professionally in trying to get better, then my organization is probably not getting better.
“We made a decision that nobody would lose their job, nobody would be laid off. ”
Have you ever had an I’ve made it moment?
I think one I’ve made it moment was coming out of COVID. I mean that was such a challenge. I've had many challenging seasons as a business owner in the last 26 years and I don't think we've ever made it, but if you wanted to say we made it through COVID, as in, we're still in business. We lost 65% of our business in March 2020, when businesses had to close. As a business, supporting 28 people at the time, and all their families, it was a very challenging and scary time. We made a decision that nobody would lose their job, nobody would be laid off. We would just try to put one foot in front of the other during that season. There were no guarantees, but we just took it one day at a time. I don't take it for granted that we are sitting here today. I would say that's a big blessing.
What do you attribute your ability to get through that amazing downturn?
I've learned a lot over the 26 years, I think I've been through three other recessions. So I learned a lot during those three recessions, about what doesn't work and what does. When we got to COVID, first of all, I made a decision that nobody would have to worry about their job. That was something that I was extremely committed to. I learned through the other recessions, that you always must have at least six months’ worth of income on hand. Now as a small business owner, that's easier said than done. I wouldn't have even had three months’ worth of extra income on hand at 10 years of business. You have to be very intentional about that but I learned that if a crisis comes, you have to have the financial wherewithal at least to try to get you through six months. In those six months, you can hopefully try to figure something out to come back. That's where a leader really needs to step up, when there's so much unknown when people are feeling like their lives have been devastated. Our mantra was, we were going to care deeply for each other, for the people that we serve, for the companies that are out there and then we're also going to put one foot in front of the other every day. Just a little bit of forward progress every day. We just were very intentional, a lot of cheerleading, a lot of we're going to do it. Every day, we just said to each other, we're going to make one bit of forward progress every day. We had a plan and a strategy to get through it. Certainly, when you can't see the other side, you have to be the person that's going to help people to know that there'll be something around the corner that we're going to get to even if they can't see it. I think that's what a leader has to do even when you're scared to death, even when you don't know what's around the bend. That was definitely a very challenging time. All that has been invested in us and all that we've invested in ourselves is able to show up in those very difficult times. I think I kept learning through difficult, suffering times and it always prepares you for that next time where you're going to have to figure it. Business is an interesting journey. Every day is going to give you a challenge.
For sure, it's not a destination.
No, my accountant tells me you can relax a little bit, but I still look at every day like I hope we're going to be in business tomorrow. I approach it that way, so that I'm giving my best, giving the same effort and energy to each day, like it was my first day. I think that's also what you have to help your employees see is that we're responsible for a lot of people, and we're responsible to our community. We have to approach things with our very best.
If you had to start your business all over again, what would you do in the first seven days?
During the first seven days I don't know that I would change anything. In the first seven days of business, I went out to the community, this was 26 years ago mind you, so there was no internet or email or cell phone. I'm sure some people reading this don't even know what that would mean or look like but I just had to go out and meet as many people as I possibly could, tell my story. I learned very early on, especially being a newcomer to Grand Rapids 26 years ago that I had to make a lot of deposits. I went right away and started teaching life skill and job skill classes. I learned that I had to give and make deposits before people got to know me. When they got to know me through some of that volunteering, they just were more willing to be able to partner on business. I learned that people aren't just going to give you business, you have to earn it and you have to keep following up and following through. I feel like finding the right people in the first seven days is also very important. You have to have the right team in order for your business to thrive. Really pouring into the people that are walking alongside you. Really in that first seven days, certainly praying over your business and going out and developing relationships is really probably what I would do in the first seven days.
whAT IS YOUR mantra or favorite quote?
Certainly never give up is something that for me personally, is something that I learned from a mentor of mine a long time ago. That's really helped me in my journey of life. I also think another favorite quote was, you can start your day over anytime you want. You don't have to wait till tomorrow. That's something I learned as a very young person in leadership. I had an incredible mentor who taught me if I was sort of whining or complaining, or maybe was below the line, he would just look at me so quietly and say, Now, you can start your day over anytime you want. It's that resetting, getting above the line as quickly as possible to be my best was a very special gift that he gave me. Then also, I think it's a Mother Teresa quote, something that's sort of a motivator for me is, most people live their entire lives and only live up to 10% of their potential. That to me is pure motivation because I just want people to live up to all of their potential. I get to be in a business that helps people to do that. I think that we've all been given incredible gifts and certainly we're here to leverage those gifts. Helping people realize their full potential, it's a privilege to be a part of that. That helps motivate me because sometimes people don't have people telling them what their potential could be. Sometimes people have never had someone come alongside them. For me, being able to actually help people to see they have so much to give and offer, I'm really passionate about.
“You can start your day over anytime you want.
You don’t have to wait till tomorrow. ”
Where does that come from?
Certainly through your help, Marc. I think all of us are given unique gifts and talents. Certainly, in my faith I feel like they're all God given, and I think that He uses those. All of us have a unique purpose on Earth. I think that the more we can realize that purpose and then leverage those gifts through others and to others, that's really our call to everyone and everything. Everyone is to leverage those gifts of love that we've been given. They show up in so many different ways in so many different people.
What was the best advice you ever received?
My Dad was a huge mentor of mine. He was a businessman. He was the leader of many businesses. Certainly my work ethic. He taught my brothers and I and he demonstrated that incredible work ethic. He demonstrated to us how to bring the best out in people. Early on, I had a great mentor in my Dad, he would bring me in with him to business meetings and along the way I would get to see him in action. Then I had a great mentor in my very first career job in the restaurant business. It was a person that saw something in myself that I didn't even know was there. Again, he was a gift to me because he saw potential in me that I didn't even know I had. He encouraged me to certainly go into management with this restaurant company, he encouraged me that I could do it. I didn't even think I could do it, and I didn't even want to do it. He persevered with me, and it was really an incredible experience that helped me to be successful in the restaurant business. I've had so many incredible mentors. There's not one piece of advice I would say, but I think you must take what you can to help you to be the best version of yourself. I don't think there's one piece, I think it's just through a lot of great mentors that I've learned a lot of great things, a lot of great coaches, a lot of great experiences that I've had to see people speak and to go to trainings and taking something from every opportunity. I guess one piece of advice would be to always take something out of every experience that you have to learn from and then apply it to your life and apply it to yourself first before you ask others to do that.
what is your vision for the future?
I really believe all of our companies are going to continue to grow and so that's very exciting. As far as for me, the future for me is to really be able to continue my succession plan with excellence, continue to make sure the leaders here are equipped well, my son in law is equipped well. Right now I'm committed to a six year plan of doing that. Then I guess I'll see what will happen after that. I'm completely excited about the future because I know I'll still be giving back to my community. I know I'll still be helping people. It's a lot to look forward to. However, I am always open to surprises and seeing where those might lead.
Share with us a time when you flat out failed. You came up against an obstacle or challenge and it was so tough you had to dig deep to overcome, how did you overcome it?
Several times in my business, I partnered with businesses as a customer and I believed that their best intentions were to pay us. I saw hints that potentially there was some financial problems or issues with them. I should have cut my losses sooner than I did. I kept hoping and certainly had I known, should have cut the losses sooner and I didn't. So several times in my business history, those several companies have declared bankruptcy and I've had to incur a tremendous loss. For me when I look back on it, I saw the signs but I didn't stop and end that relationship when I should have and kept going having hope that potentially we would be paid. It just wasn't the case. In my mind it was a failure to me in that I learned the hard way. I knew within myself that I should have stopped, and I didn’t, and it cause financial hardship for us as a business.
Random Thoughts
Progress or perfection?
As my career journey has come along, or my leadership journey has come along. I think excellence is a better word for perfection. One thing that I learned from my mentor is you can get better every day. That was another thing that he taught me is that just when I thought I was at my best he'd say, but you can get better. It would drive me crazy, but I'd always find something that could get better. I guess for me it's progress. It's making forward progress. It's getting better every day. It's a journey. It's a continuous improvement in business and in life. To me, if you're on a journey of continuous improvement, then you're pursuing excellence.
what core value is not negotiable?
Oh, that's a hard question because they're all so important to me. I would say for today continuous improvement. Just because I think if we're looking in the mirror at ourselves, and we're wanting to be the best version of ourselves, and we're in a state of continuous improvement, then a lot of other things can fall into place.
If you could recommend one book, what would it be?
I love to read, this is my problem. I order every book as soon as someone tells me about it, so I have so many different books. I think one book that was influential for me in my life was a book called The Call by Oz Guinness. It was really a book about what we were put on earth to do. I was able to see him speak and I was also able to read his book. It really gave purpose to my life in everything, everywhere and with everyone unto God. Whatever you do in life, whether you're a full-time mom or you're a CEO, whatever your vocation is, or wherever you end up is just really leveraging your love and unto him. So that was a wonderful book for me because it really set a course for me and my purpose.
what technology is catching your interest right now?
We're always looking at technology that is going to improve efficiency and help us to better serve our customer in the long run. We want to be efficient and use technology to give not only a great experience to people but also to be able to help us have more relationship time with people instead of spending time in inefficiencies. We embrace all the technology that comes our way. We try to use it to the best efficiency we can but I'm really not the technology person here. So pretty much I do as I'm told. That would be my son-in-law, that would be a good question for him because he's always looking at what's the best technology and I see the purpose of it for sure. That expertise probably falls on someone else here not me.
what is your favorite hobby?
Spending time with my grandchildren is probably my favorite hobby. At this point in my life, I have six grandkids and so anytime I can spend with them is pure joy. Other than that I love to play tennis and I love to garden and read and spend time with friends and family.
what is one of your Bucket list items?
I've been chipping away at some of my bucket list items which has been fun. I think having a bucket list is a really great way to dream. Some really great things to look forward to. I've been blessed to be able to experience some bucket list items. For me visiting South Africa was a bucket list item for me. I was able to do that through a trip that I won with our parent company. I wanted to take all my grandchildren to Disney World and my kids to Disney World for my 60th birthday. We were able to accomplish that even during COVID. I'm probably going to be able to go in a hot air balloon and that is a bucket list item for me. Certainly, there's some places that I'd love to travel that are bucket list items. They can be as little as helping someone see their dream or as big as something that you want to do for yourself, but I encourage people to have a bucket list because it's so fun when you can really accomplish it and experience it.
soapbox topic
If you had a soapbox topic, what would it be?
What grieves me is often I see that there are so many community partners and non-profits doing wonderful work, but they need less roadblocks and more support to get their work done. When I'm looking at all this money being wasted, or I'm looking at where the money really needs to go, or I'm looking at all the many needs, but the funds aren't being diverted to the right places. I look at our most vulnerable populations and they need affordable childcare, and we need better transportation options. We need really some great programs for people to be able to learn and gain new skills. We have incredible community partners who are providing so many resources and support and we have so many great businesses and we have so many non-profits and churches and everyone is doing great work and I hope and pray that we can find ways to leverage all that everyone is doing with the support of great policies and leadership in the most efficient manner. I hope we can continue to build stronger collaborations. I also hope we can continue to build the message that work is meaningful and purposeful and good for our well-being. We need anyone that can work to come into the workplace. Work can teach us skills and help us build stronger relationships and help us to accomplish our dreams for ourselves and our families.
“The gap between needing the help and getting the help sometimes can seem insurmountable. ”
Where does that come from?
We work with people every day that are in a survival mode. It's just challenging for them to rise above that sometimes, even though we see there's so much access to help. The gap between needing the help and getting the help sometimes can seem insurmountable. Helping to ease some of those connections for people and be able to walk alongside them instead of just pointing them in that direction is really important. If you're in a situation where you're experiencing homelessness, you don't have transportation, you're surviving a trauma it is hard to walk this road by yourself. You can't do that when you're experiencing trauma and you're suffering we need more resources that are able to help people to walk to a certain point and then walk to the next point, and then walk to the next point, and provide more support around that. I think people would be more successful especially when they're experiencing the most trauma, to have that extra help along the way. Not to do it for them, but to walk alongside them. This is an incredible community. I just want us to be a picture of collaboration so people can get what they need in the most difficult time of their life.
To learn more about Janis Petrini and Express Employment Professionals, check out their website @ https://www.expresspros.com/grandrapidsmi/
Or
To meet Janis personally, join her for one of our BLConnect events