Even Founders Need Vacations

Scott T. Janney here. I’m a passionate entrepreneur with 20 years of experience spanning industries. Welcome to my newsletter!

In my newsletters you’ll find:?

• Tips on what I think it takes to succeed as an entrepreneur based on experience gained, lessons learned, and things I’ve read over the years.
• Takes on business, industry news, entrepreneurship, and anything else relevant to my experience/knowledge.?
• Stories about my current work as CEO of Magazine Jukebox that I hope will be useful for budding entrepreneurs and interesting for others.
• Valuable content that’s also entertaining. As my newsletter name suggests, I’ll aim to offer a good mix of business and entertainment.

In today’s newsletter, I’ll talk about how vacations can bring value to your personal and professional life (referencing my recent trip to Disney World). Then, I’ll share some new tips and takes.

Vacations Enrich Personal & Professional Life

Last week, my family and I embarked on an unforgettable journey to Disney World in Florida, ?? and what an adventure it turned out to be! We're avid campers, as many of you know?, but we took it up a notch by hauling a 45ft fifth wheel —the epitome of a BIG RIG. ?? We stayed at Disney’s Fort Wilderness Resort and it was worth every penny.

No matter if you’re a founder or owner or employee, you always need a time in which you can unwind. It’s very hard for me and my wife, Lauren K. Janney , to do that. We’re both business owners and entrepreneurs. Neither one of us works a 9-5 job, so we can’t really turn work off. During our vacation, we received 100s of Slack messages and emails, and a handful of calls. But this is a reality of entrepreneurship. Employees can turn everything off. Founders can’t. This is what we signed up for. Even though we couldn’t fully disconnect, we were still able to get away and have fun.?

Taking time off to bond with your loved ones isn't just a luxury—it's essential for self-care and family unity. This trip reinforced the irreplaceable value of family time—a treasure no amount of money can buy. I not only got to see my kids be kids, I also reconnected with loved ones in FL, which made it even more special. Truly, it was a magical experience that reminded me of the importance of cherishing every moment together.??? At the end of the day, you can’t take things with you, but you’ll always have your memories. I’ll never sit back and say that I regret that I spent too much time with my family. I may say that I spent too much time focusing on work and not my family.

Vacations obviously bring value to your personal life, but they also bring value to your professional life. Vacations help you rest, relax, and recharge. They give you an opportunity to reflect, to remind yourself why you’re working. They put things in perspective and help you refocus. Vacations are also a great tool to give you new ideas for your business or to think about your business from a new perspective.

The Wonderful World of (Waiting at) Disney

My trip to Disney not only helped me get away from everyday life, it also helped me see customer experience in a new light. First off, the park was crazy clean. My father-in-law and I were walking around mesmerized with the cleanliness. People wiped down trashcans, ?? bathrooms were constantly cleaned.. I even saw upper management walking around with trash sticks, picking it up along the way wherever they were going. Their customer experience is a joint effort for everybody. I think this should be the case in every company.?

Being at Disney also made me think a lot about wait times since I was constantly waiting for something - coffee, a ride, a show, meeting a character… Waiting is inevitable and can be excruciating. So how do you make the wait time and experience better??

People are willing to wait, if what they are waiting for is of value (like a show or roller coaster). ?? What’s not often talked about is the fact that people even need to be entertained while waiting for entertainment. 华特迪士尼公司 makes sure that there are things in the line to keep people entertained every step of the way. For example, at the 7 dwarfs, there are turning barrels that project videos on the ceiling, water fountains, crystals that light up.. and at Winnie the Pooh, there are rolling tracks for kids to slide bees on a rail going into bee hives, drums that kids can hit, and a honey wall for parents. This entertainment had me thinking, thank goodness there’s a distraction here, because otherwise, I’d have to be the distraction. Keeping the parents happy makes them more likely to come back. This in-between entertainment is essential for customer loyalty and happiness.

The 7 dwarfs ride had a 79 minute wait soon after the park opened. My son and I got in line when it said 35 minutes (which actually ended up being around 90 minutes). But the waiting activities helped the time pass by more quickly. Disney World realizes there has to be stuff that’s visual and entertaining, and that it has to speak to the ride that you’re in line for. The waiting experience creates anticipation and excitement. It’s amazing that there’s so much to do even while waiting.

There’s a lot we can learn from amusement parks like Disney when it comes to enhancing the waiting experience. Whether it’s a doctors appointment, car service, or even something fun like a sporting event or theme parks, we are within a society that wants to be entertained. We want things now, we crave that instant gratification. When that can’t be given, a business needs to accommodate their customers.?

My company, Magazine Jukebox can not only do this, but we can do it in a way that requires minimal set up and maintenance. We help to solve this in-between. Following in the footsteps of Disney, we’re here to enhance and improve the customer waiting experience, leading to happier and more loyal customers. ??

My Monthly Tip

Seek education that will help propel you later in life. Try to think ahead, try to think in advance. Especially when you’re young, and the risks are less and the weight is lighter, do more. Do as much as you can. When I was 23, I didn’t have children and I wasn’t married. The only accountability I had was to myself. The thing that I needed to do was take a lot of risks at that point. I should’ve taken more risks and hustled more. I should’ve gained more skills while I had the time - like learning how to master Excel spreadsheets lol. ?? I wish I would’ve worked harder to play harder.?

My Monthly Take

What does winning look like??

- 50+ years in business

- 200 products actively made

- Presence in 70 Countries?

Bob's Red Mill is an American brand of whole-grain food, founded in Oregon. The founder, Bob Moore, recently passed away. He didn’t sell his company off, he transferred it to his employees. I found this fascinating, what a legacy. Find out more about the story of Bob’s Red Mill here (article from MJB's publishing partner Inc. Magazine ).

What’s Next??

Keep an eye out for next month’s newsletter to discover more about my experience with Magazine Jukebox , along with new entrepreneurial tips and takes. I hope you found this newsletter to be valuable and entertaining.?

Please subscribe and share my newsletter if you enjoyed it. Also, feel free to reach out to me on LinkedIn or comment below with any feedback - tell me what you liked, what you didn’t like, and what you’d like to see more of.?

By the way, we prepare a monthly newsletter for Magazine Jukebox. Feel free to subscribe to the Magazine Jukebox newsletter if you’re interested!

Thanks for reading!?

Interested in investing in Magazine Jukebox? Feel free to email me at [email protected] .

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