Day 293: Gary Reece
“I guess at an early age those people saw something in me and coached me and scolded me and trained me and applauded me, and really, honestly, that’s why and who I am, like I am today.”
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Toni Reece: Thank you so much, Gary, for agreeing to be part of the Project today, and before we begin, can you please introduce yourself?
Gary Reece: My name is Gary Reece. I have a couple lives. I am President of Crystal Lake Chamber of Commerce, which is an organization of about 925 businesses and represents about 26,000 employees in those businesses, and I also own a business called Heartland Cabinet Supply, which is a cabinet/countertop shop and we have two places now in two locations and about 8-9 employees.
Toni: Fantastic! So Gary, with everything that you’re involved in, when you think about the word inspiration, who do you think you inspire, and how does that happen?
Gary: You know, I don’t know. I don’t know who I inspire. I write a biweekly article for the local paper here, and what’s been good about that is I’ve gotten direct feedback. People read it and they comment, and it’s always good, positive feedback, and they look forward to reading it. So I guess being able to take my little nuggets of knowledge that I have acquired over my 50 years and being able to share that with people, and my business experiences, is, you know … I guess just getting that feedback is very inspiring to me, and being able to take what I know, whatever that is, and share that with people and inspire them to do some things, I guess that’s a good reciprocal thing.
Toni: What happens with that article? What do you write about? What is it that’s important to you that you are writing about and you’re getting that feedback on?
Gary: Well, a lot of times as the head of the Chamber … and it’s a paid gig, it’s not like board chair or anything – I have a staff of seven over there, great people, great people – I write about, you know … a take on business. I’ll find a comment or a post online and say “Okay, that’s kind of interesting; can I dig a little deeper and share that?” I’ve written a lot about my own personal experiences.
For example, we have a customer that I’ve dealt with for a very long time, over two decades, and to be able to build those relationships … because all business is built on relationships, and he basically took me to task one day because of some things that people had worked for me had done, and I’m glad I got that feedback. I’m glad I had that relationship to be able to … you know, that he felt comfortable enough giving me that feedback, and I wrote about that. I wrote about how I had to go hat in hand to one of our best customers because of something that happened in our business. He’s still a customer, but being able to share those experiences and people, you know, they understand. They relate. And that’s I guess … I really take my experiences and write them in a personal way a lot of times.
Toni: So when you have these experiences, and being a business owner yourself as well as being in charge, sitting at the helm of an organization that supports a lot of businesses in your community, how do you think you might be helping other people explore their own potential?
Gary: Well, I guess it starts with me as far as I personally have very high expectations. Maybe some people don’t agree with maybe the way I ultimately get around to that. I’m a really driven person, and I have very high expectations. I have very high expectations of people who work for me, but that being said, I guess I was the type of person who would smell the roses or savor what accomplishments we as a team have accomplished, because I will be the first to admit that it’s not me. I can only think about where I want to take something, and it takes a multitude of people to be able to get there. We have achieved quite a few things.
Business this year for us, because we’re really in the homebuilding industry, has been very, very, very tough, but the Chamber, we’ve accomplished a lot of things where it’s like, okay, we’re implementing a new database, a new website, and it came about really quick and people were on board and they were excited about it, because they saw the possibilities of what could be done.
So I guess, you know, putting a vision out there of what can be — and it doesn’t have to be impossible, but it needs to be high – I think people get excited about that. Maybe a little nervous that they’re going to be able to accomplish this or not, but they see the possibilities; and I guess that’s really exciting to me to see this stuff come to fruition. Again, I get in enough to mess things up. I can only picture where I want it to go and the people that work with me are just tremendous, both at Heartland and the Chamber both. Really great people.
So I guess that’s … if you’re considered a leader, I guess that’s what I am, that’s what you do. You try to inspire people to … I really, truly believe that people can accomplish way more than they think they’re able to do.
Toni: I can imagine that by setting those high expectations, what I’m getting from you is that you set them for yourself, for your businesses, but, you know, I think that this is kind of a cool mirror effect here. Because as you stated, the homebuilding has suffered a bit because of the economy, so you not only have to keep your own business and your own people motivated and keep those expectations high, but you also represent probably a lot of small businesses in your area that also had to stay motivated and keep those expectations high so that when everyone comes out of it, they’re going to be okay. So to walk that talk and set that example, I would imagine, would be a fantastic way to help people explore their potential.
Gary: You know, one of the things that I’m able to do, and I’ve actually spent the last weeks going around talking to some of our customers, and the drum beats the same – it’s pretty rough out there right now. But when we have a new member orientation at the Chamber, we have a lot of excited people there. We’ll get 20-30 people in our conference room at a time. We go through everything that the Chamber does. A Chamber organization can be a great … especially for very small business, one or two man operations, that they can be really useful, because they’re very cost effective. You have to get involved, but they can be very cost effective.
But I’ll sit there and I’ll tell people, you know, not only am I here to help you and our staff is here to help you accomplish … you know, we can’t do it for you, but we’ll help you. But I sit there and I go “I know exactly what each one of you are going through at any time. You know, making a payroll, worrying about where the next sale is coming from, and trying to motivate employees, everything that comes in front of the business.” And I know you can appreciate that, Toni – probably all too well – but I understand where they’re coming from, and I say, you know, “If you want to go cry in your beer, I’m your guy,” but you know, most of those people aren’t going to be there in five years, either. They’re going to be gone. You know, just the reality of it. So being able to share with them and help with them in both a personal … through the Chamber and from my own personal experiences, I’m glad I can help some people. And I have, you know, I have.
Toni: So what inspires you, Gary?
Gary: You know what? I don’t know. You know, I look at … I’ve had a couple mentors in my life. My father, who got up and worked for somebody his entire life, but a man of incredible integrity. He traveled quite a bit, he was a salesman his entire life pretty much, and … there’s two ways I look at this. I’m very involved in the community, and my father wasn’t so much that, I think because of his schedule and his professional life and pretty much what he did. But there have been a couple gentlemen in town here that really, truly … and I mentioned those couple people … and any way you slice success, either business or financial or family, they’re it, and they just … they’re in their early eighties and they’re still at it. So that inspires me.
I’m going to be 50 this year and, I mean, if you think about where they’re at another 30+ years, I mean they’ve been doing this since their forties. I mean, it’s just amazing what these guys have done. Again, it’s a lot of people, but they had the vision to be able to create a … you know, there’s a beautiful performing arts center in downtown Crystal Lake. You know, we have some really great name acts and, you know, the festivals and the parades and just a lot of things that they had the vision to see were possible and had the foresight to get the team together to make them happen. To me, that inspires me.
I go and have lunch with these guys several times a year. I’ve got to tell you, Toni, I can relate really well … I think my strength is I relate really well to the small businessperson, but yet I will go have lunch — and I love this — with a man named Erv LeCoque, who is a former CEO of Aptar Group, a publicly traded company, and we have a riot. We have a very enjoyable lunch. I went to school with his sons, and I’ve never known this man until the last probably three or four years, and we enjoy our time.
I mean, there’s a gentleman named Bill Dwyer who really has inspired me greatly as far as what you can do businesswise and communitywise, and he really is the one that, when I was 29 years old, pointed a finger at me and said “You could run this festival in town.” For the next two decades, myself and a great team ran that festival.
I guess at an early age those people saw something in me and coached me and scolded me and trained me and applauded me, and really, honestly, that’s why and who I am, like I am today. Like I said, I’m a really driven person. I’m highly motivated, and I want to know … someday I’m going to figure out how and why I’m like that. I’m really trying to figure out what flipped a switch in me to be like I am.
Toni: Well, it’s interesting, Gary, because the question that I asked you is who inspires you or what inspires you, and your immediate answer was “I don’t know” but you do know, and you stated it so clearly, and the people who have inspired you and who have mentored you, including your father that you’ve stated, and also these people that … there’s words that I write down during these interviews, and people who are faithful listeners, they know that there are certain words that pop out, and you really gave it to me, and that’s relationship, and it’s relationship and community.
Not just in business, because what you’ve spoken about is that you are passionate and driven and you work hard in the business part of it, but you’re also very community driven, and building those relationships in the community to keep it thriving. And these people have inspired you by what they’ve done before you, and you’re doing that now so that someone else after you can continue to build on that. That’s the message that you’re giving out in this interview today.
Gary: Well, I guess that’s what is driving me. I have to tell you something. There’s a lot of players in any community, and Crystal Lake has its issues right now with retail and all of that. But what’s really nice, Toni, is that all the entities – and they have their own little turf, you know, the cities and the parks, and downtown Crystal Lake, which is a wonderful downtown, there’s Diana Kenney, she’s done a wonderful job down there – but we all play nice in the sandbox together. We all understand our roles, and everybody is interested in moving this town forward.
So you need good schools, you need good business, you need growing business, you need, you know, all the outlets, the parks and the festivals and the downtowns. You know, you just … I’ve said this before, our area is really … and maybe it’s because of the people that, you know, preceded me and hopefully will follow, that they care about the community. It’s really a benevolent area.
Toni: So Gary, I have one final question for you for the Project. What are you doing now – what do you do to continue to explore your own potential so you can keep building these relationships in the community and your family and these businesses? What are you doing?
Gary: It seems like every day … and a lot of times it feels like I’m spinning my wheels. I think a lot of people feel that sometimes where you just, you know, you’re not going anywhere. I try to read. I try to stay in touch with people. You know, I try to … I’m really trying to step back from what we accomplished and savor that …
Toni: Do a little bit more celebrating?
Gary: A little bit more celebrating. And I’ll tell you, you know, it’s been tough to do businesswise, but we had this huge renovation at the Chamber, and if you think, I mean, step back and think about what we accomplished over there the past year – and it was a lot of work. We totally renovated the building, brought it in under budget, and then a really good buddy of mine, his son, Jim Ewert, his son, Jared, for his Eagle Scout project put a deck on the back. And so what we did, the staff and all that, I grilled out for them. We redid the newsletter, and we finished the renovation, we got the deck built, and we developed the stuff in like six months, so we went out and we broke it in. We brought lawn chairs out and I grilled out stuff, and we just sat out there for like an hour-and-a-half and chatted, and we talked about high school.
It just really kind of, you know … even though we’ve worked with each other for several years, it’s getting to know each other a little bit better. It was just really enjoyable. We used to do that at Heartland, and I really want to get back to doing that where, hey, you know, we had a good week this week, let’s do something nice.
Toni: So it’s really going back to your relationship-building, which is, as you’re building those relationships, don’t forget about the ones you’re currently in.
Gary: Correct. You know, you just have to … it’s a constant, constant thing. You’ve just got to work hard to maintain them. You’ve got to work hard to get them, but once they’re there, you know, like this customer that I had for 20+ years – I mean, it really boils down to, you know, how you feel about a person and what kind of … even more than a business relationship, it’s liking and respecting somebody and doing right by them, whether it’s in a community event or in business, or whatever it is. You know, it’s really just … relationships are really important. Family, business, your friends, and it just … you’ve got to … I wish I was better at it, frankly, but you just need to keep nurturing those things.
Toni: Absolutely, and don’t forget who’s in front of you. I think that’s a lesson for everybody to take away from this interview with you, Gary. I can’t thank you enough for being part of the Get Inspired! Project. Just how very firmly you are entrenched in relationship building and the hats that you wear as a small business owner, but also really supporting other small business owners, and that empathy that you have. Thank you so much for being part of the Get Inspired! Project today, Gary.
Gary: My pleasure, Toni. Have a great day.
Toni: Take care.
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For more information about Gary Reece: www.heartlandcabinet.com, www.clchamber.com
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