Kerry Siggins: Intangible Balance Sheet Episode 52

This week Kerry Siggins stops by the podcast to share her encouraging story. We cover resilency, the power of responsibility, the privilege of hard work  and meeting your own expectations for life.  Carrie also gives us a glimpse into her book 'The Ownership Mindset', a reflection on her philosophy about responsibility. Listen in for another great episode!  

Music by bensound.com

Transcript

Josh Klooz: 1:50

Hello, welcome to the wisdom and wealth podcast. I'm Josh clues, the senior wealth planner for Carson wealth here in the woodlands, texas. Today is another one of our Intangible balance sheet episodes that we feature over the weekend and it is my pleasure to introduce to you today Carrie Siggins. Carrie, welcome to the podcast and thank you so much for your time today.

Kerry Siggins: 2:09

Thanks for having me. I'm glad to be here.

Josh Klooz: 2:12

For those of our audience that may be, you know, just joining in or newer to the podcast, we call it the intangible balance sheet Because, at the end of the day, I believe that there are things in this life that we value far more than money, and largely those, those things that we value, or our principles, our first principles, life, life values that we live by, but typically they're bound up in stories and so, to the degree possible that we can, I like to invite guests on that are willing to share their life story, or maybe even stories that live on their families, in tangible balance sheet, you know, a generation or two back, and learn from and glean from the wisdom shared there. But, carrie, before we dive into that, would you mind just briefly introducing yourself to our audience and then we'll, you know, jump into the larger conversation.

Kerry Siggins: 3:02

Yeah, absolutely so. Carrie Siggins, I'm the CEO of a company called Stone Age. We've got a couple different companies that are part of the Stone Age family. We make industrial cleaning robots, we make sewer cleaning tools, we make, we help clients with IOT Devices, making smart devices, things like that. But we all are focused in the industrial space industrial OEMs, industrial manufacturing, industrial facilities. So it's a it's a dirty business that I'm in and I live in Jeringo, colorado. I have a husband. My husband, ryan, is an entrepreneur and we have a millworks company that he runs I called SoCo Wooden Windows, and I have a 10 year old son named Jack, who is a Jeringo kid. He skis, he bikes, he plays basketball, he plays golf. He does it all.

Josh Klooz: 3:55

Never a dull moment, I'm sure so he's be mentioned. Golf. Is that the the sport of of choice this time of year, since you're not skiing, or For my husband and son. Yes, I'm not a golfer.

Kerry Siggins: 4:14

I don't have the patience to learn how to golf and I like I like things like riding my mountain bike downhill really fast. So a little bit more action than than golfing. So they golf a lot. I'll go for a mountain bike ride, but yes, they, they actually just got back from a golf trip in Kansas this week. So they're doing, they're playing, lots and lots of golf.

Josh Klooz: 4:38

Got it. So In their downtime, do they force you to watch golf on TV? Because that's something I just have never been able to do oh god, no, it's no, I don't watch TV.

Kerry Siggins: 4:48

I have way too many things, way too many things I want to do in life than watch TV, and especially watch golf. So if you are never gonna find me in front of the TV unless I'm like sick Other than that, and then I'm definitely not watching golf so I like I don't mind keeping up on like what's going on, like all the you know the, the live versus the, you know PGA Drama and all of that kind of stuff and Tiger Woods, you know being amazing like he is, just like what a, what fortitude that Human being has. And you might not agree with everything that Tiger Woods is about, but you man, that guy does not give up. And so I listened to, like I pay attention to those kinds of things because it's more of like what you said, it's the stories behind it, rather than you know actually carrying about with the outcome of any particular gold match.

Josh Klooz: 5:40

Well, I like you in not much of a golfer. But Without further, further delay, more more to the point of the podcast, could you give us a little bit of background about your upbringing? I'm finding that more and more, a lot of the life principles that we bring with us, that we've lived by, can be encapsulated not just by the principles that our grandparents or parents passed on to us, but maybe there's even stories that go a couple generations back. Is there anything that stands out to you when you think back on your Parents, grandparents, maybe even great-grandparents generation?

Kerry Siggins: 6:20

Oh, absolutely, I mean, I completely agree with you. I think we are shaped by our upbringings and by things that our parents did, or things that our parents didn't do, and I certainly would say that very much brings true to me. So, first and foremost, I come from a lineage of hardworking women. In fact I am the last, I will be the last of the women in my generation coming from the women in my generation in my family. So that's kind of sad. I have a son, I'm not having any more children, so I'm it. So it's kind of like the weight of the responsibility of carrying on that legacy of hardworking women who, you know we're both both had careers and who raised families and were kind, generous, amazing human beings. So I feel like that is a strong thread that is woven through, you know, the fabric of my very being, and so you know, that being said, I come from a very strong background, a background of very strong work ethic.

Kerry Siggins: 7:29

My dad left when I was really young, probably when I was about four. He was in and out of my life. He's a very hard worker. He's almost 80 and he still works to this day, not because he has to but because he loves to. But my mom raised my brother and me on her own and she is the hardest worker I know. She would work three jobs to make sure that she had food on the table for us and that, even though we didn't have a lot of money, we never worried about. You know, we never worried about being poor, but she worked really hard. In fact, when I was 12, 11 or 12, she decided to go back to college and get a degree so that she could teach and she drove. I grew up in rural Colorado. She drove from Montrose, colorado, to Gunnison, colorado, which is where Western State University is. It is a ridiculous drive in the winter. She would do classes on Monday, wednesday, friday and she put herself through school while working completely on her own. So I just grew up with this idea of you know. Your value and your work is very much built upon how hard you work.

Kerry Siggins: 8:34

My grandfather was an entrepreneur. He moved from the Midwest to leaving executive, an executive role at the JC Penney Company and retail to start his own sporting goods stores. I started working in his sporting goods stores when I was 11 years old. I convinced him to hire me to count, inventory and restock things and then, you know, move to the cash register and eventually ran the marking room where I would mark all the inventory for all of his stores. So you know, I was just very much about about working hard to drive success.

Kerry Siggins: 9:06

The one thing and then I'll shut up because I know this is a long story but the one thing that I would say I didn't want to do is I didn't want to be like my mom in the sense of having to scrape by to make ends meet. I always knew that I wanted to do something that was different than that and I love my mother for what she does. She's amazing but I wanted to make more money. I didn't want to struggle like she did and constantly be worrying about it and have to work night jobs to make sure that she could pay the mortgage. So those are the things that really fundamentally set me up, for where I am today is work ethic and I am not going to be poor.

Josh Klooz: 9:52

And do you remember? So I've got to ask this do you remember the first time where you said you know, hey, I'm not going to trade time for money in the same way? Do you remember? Was that? Was there an instance that stood out to you?

Kerry Siggins: 10:05

For sure. And that was when I was pregnant with my son. So it was 2012. And I had just filled up my plate way too much. I was the kind of person that felt like, if I said no, I was going to one miss out on an opportunity to feel like I was letting somebody down. And so people asked me to be on a board I would say yes. People asked me to speak at something I would say yes. And I was about to how.

Kerry Siggins: 10:30

I was about maybe a month away from having my son and I completely broke down and and I was so stressed and my mom said you, if you can pick three things to be good at, what would it be? And I said be a great CEO and leader, be a great mom and wife and to make sure I'm taking care of myself, that I have time to exercise and get a massage and meditate and read Do the things that fill my, my, my, soul, besides working all the time. And she was like then, just do those three, three things, say no to everything else. And that was that first eye opening moment of I don't have to try to do it all. In fact, I'm going to have a much, much better life if I don't try to do it all, and I want to have time to be a great mom and I want to have time to take care of myself and and do things that feed you know, that feed my energy and feed my soul, that that isn't just about work, work, work, work, work.

Josh Klooz: 11:25

Yeah. So the hardworking theme I think you know comes through in most everybody's background that I they interview, you know by and large, and one of the reasons I think it comes through is is our parents, but also our community. Do you look back on the communities that you grew up in and do you see a work ethic or a an ethos that you look back on and like, yeah, that that shaped me, as well as my parents At all?

Kerry Siggins: 11:55

Yeah, I don't think maybe, as maybe maybe more subconsciously than than consciously. But yeah, I grew up in, I grew up in a small ruled town, ranching community on the western slope of Colorado. It was not a town where there was a lot of money. It still isn't. It's a feeder town for telluride, so money comes through. But everybody was pretty much, you know, working class, middle class, you know people who are either ranching, farming or farming, or you know part of the service industry or creating businesses that that could keep a small town, you know, going and in the middle of nowhere.

Kerry Siggins: 12:32

And so, yeah, I do think that that hard work was definitely part of our community ethos, because that's what you did. Everybody worked. All my friends had jobs when we know, when we were teenagers and and we were all expected to contribute, and not only to chores at the house, but also, you know, go make your own money. I mean, I think that's part of being Gen Xers too. It's pretty much like you're on your own, like go figure it out, and so, yeah, I think it was a community thing, I think it was a generational thing as well. I feel like that's what we did. We all had jobs, we all worked.

Josh Klooz: 13:08

Yeah, when you think of the beliefs and principles that are most important to you now, are there any stories behind them, outside of hard work, that you look back on? You're like, hey, that was always there, I just couldn't quite put my, couldn't quite put my thumb on it at the time.

Kerry Siggins: 13:28

Yeah for sure, and that is being authentically who you are. I made a mess of my life because I was, for much of it through my teens and twenties, which was trying to be what I thought other people wanted me to be, because my dad left at a young age and he was in and out of my life and when he would be back in my life it was always traumatic. You know, you're not good enough, you're not smart enough, you know, don't eat that it's going to make you fatter than you already are, like all of those things that you know I'm sure he had good intentions for trying to, like, shape me into a good human being were really destructive, because I was like, why doesn't he love me? And I think that, combined with my personality type, which is one that you know seeks recognition and seeks approval, which I didn't know that at the time, but I know that now it led me to some pretty dark places, and so a lot of the decisions that I made about my career, like where I was going to go to college, my career choices, how I lived my life, was always trying to look through, like through the lens of how other people would view me, and it led me to. It led me to a really, really bad place.

Kerry Siggins: 14:39

And so, as I was rebuilding my life after hitting rock bottom back in 2006, and I started figuring out that this was a big part of my issue was this need to please and this need to shape myself into what other people wanted me to be I found, like who I truly was, and so now the work that I do, it feeds me as a human being. It feeds what my goals and what I really the kind of person I really want to be, not what I thought other people wanted me to be. So that was a huge part of my life. It dramatically shaped my life and I'm also really grateful for it because, you know, hitting rock bottom and having the opportunity to shift is also why I'm sitting where I am today, like literally living my very best life. I live a magical life, but I wouldn't have wouldn't be here if it wouldn't have been for those dark places of trying to be somebody else, that trying to be somebody who I wasn't.

Josh Klooz: 15:42

Yeah, I can't remember who said it, but it was a historian, I believe that said you know, we have that uniquely American disease that we want to be liked or we want to be you know we want to be something that other people regard rather than looking in the mirror and saying you know, hey, it's been worth it.

Josh Klooz: 15:58

Are there any time? Are there any stories and experiences that you know since that point that have been pivotal along the way, where you know you sit down and you say, hey, this is what I want to become, and any stories about you know kind of the direction that you took after that point?

Kerry Siggins: 16:22

Yeah, I mean lots. So I've always been a natural leader and I could lead people like in a really good direction and then also off of a cliff, and so a big thing that I learned along this process is the value of leading myself well. And I didn't really ever understand this concept of self-leadership until I was in my 30s, and we're always leading ourselves, whether we're doing it well or whether we're doing it poorly. But I think that a whole idea of I'm responsible for everything that happens in my life, no matter what, even if I'm a victim of circumstance, I still am responsible for how I choose to react to it or respond to it was really empowering, really empowered me to think about what do I want with my life? If I am responsible for the outcome of my life, what do I want to create? And when you take full responsibility like that, it while, yes, you know sometimes it can be hard because you have to admit your mistakes or admit, you know, face the parts of yourself that you don't necessarily like you also empower yourself to make those, to make changes, to create what you want. And really leaning into this idea of self-leadership and personal responsibility allowed me to say, okay, I don't want a life like this. I want a life like this instead. What do I need to do to make that happen? What kind of person do I need to be? What kind of, what kind of person do I want to be? What kind of self-reflection, what kind of self-awareness do I need to develop about myself so that I understand my impact that I have on others? And how do I make choices that help me get to that? How do I visualize what I want so I can manifest it?

Kerry Siggins: 18:04

And I think that was a really pivotal thing and I'll never forget it was my mom. She told me you know you needed when I had to come home after so I overdosed in 2006 on mixed substances, controlled substances, accidental, but it was totally rock bottom and my mom said you have to start taking responsibility for everything that happens in your life. You cannot lead others until you lead yourself well. And that was just such a jarring concept to me, because I blamed my dad, I blamed a crappy job, I blamed myself, I blamed all kinds of things rather than owning it, and that was a huge shift. That. That shift in mindset was really pivotal for me to be able to start to create the life that I really wanted for myself.

Josh Klooz: 18:52

Thank you for sharing that. The next piece of the podcast that I typically go through with people is it comes from a journalist by the name of David Brooks, and he writes for the New York Times, and he wrote a piece about 10 years ago where he talked about that magical moment in life where we shift from the achievements of life, you know, where we think it's more about a resume, to hey, I really need to be developing my eulogy. Some people will call it your ethical will, but I'm curious for you, Carrie, like as you think through some of the principles that will be on your eulogy. What do you want them to be and what are some of those things that you want passed on, whether it be, you know, for your family, or whether it be even the teams that you lead today?

Kerry Siggins: 19:41

I love David Brooks second mountain I am. I started the climb of my second mountain. Yeah, I think a lot about that. So I think a lot about this because I think a life best live is one that is both in service to others and in service to yourself.

Kerry Siggins: 20:00

And I know that that might be controversial, but my mother, for example, is in service to other people. She always puts herself last and there is a certain amount of suffering that comes from that and the certain amount of like man, I never just went for it. I never went for it because I was always, like worried about how that was going to impact others. And was I going to be able to serve you kids the way that you needed to? Was I going to be able to, you know, help my parents the way that they needed that help? And it's not that there's any regrets on her part, but she never just like went for it and did, went after some of the things that she wanted to do in life, because she felt like that was in service of herself instead of others.

Kerry Siggins: 20:47

And I think that the very best thing is to be able to do both. How do you bring the very best parts of yourself forward to make a positive impact on your own life and the life of others. And so you know what I want my eulogy to say is like she went for it. You know, she went for her goals, and not only did she create success and a better life for herself, but she touched the lives of so many others Like she inspired people to go after their dreams. She helped people to go after their goals and create the life that they wanted, and her generosity helped people, helped me get to where I am, but I was also inspired by the fact that she went for it, that she made things happen in life for herself and for other people. So that's what I would like my eulogy to say is something like that is is that there is a big, impactful life that created success for everybody involved, that left people inspired, feeling joy, feeling like they could, too, go for it and make their dreams happen.

Josh Klooz: 22:01

Carrie, thank you so much for just a really enjoyable conversation and encouraging conversation. So if somebody's listening to this and they want to learn more about either your podcast or your work, what's the best way that you would recommend that they do that?

Kerry Siggins: 22:17

They can. So you can go to a couple of different ways. So my company is called StoneAge. You can go to stoneshholdingscom and find all about our company there. We're an employee owned company, so we are doing really cool things with kind of reshaping the way capitalism is thought about and sharing the success with the people who are building the value in the company, which is our employees. So really cool things there. I have a personal website, carrysiganscom, which has all about my personal philosophy on owning it, on personal responsibility and self-leadership. And then the best way to connect with me is on LinkedIn and you can find me there. On Carrie Siggins, I have a new book coming out it'll be out in October of this year called the Ownership Mindset that I share a lot of this philosophy and this journey that I've learned to really truly embracing the ownership mindset and how it can change your life and the lives of those who you lead.

Josh Klooz: 23:21

Thank you again, carrie, really appreciate your time and know that we wish you and your family nothing but truth, beauty and goodness on the road ahead. Have a great day and we look forward to the book coming out and future conversations. Okay.

Kerry Siggins: 23:31

Thank you.