Greg Schnupp, Owner, Pets General Pet Store, Lakewood, Ohio

Gregg is a business owner, spouse, father, grandfather, employer, community citizen and friend. I value his perspective and love the conversations we have when he is visiting for his monthly saltwater tank cleaning. He comes with all things dog and cat for our household and helped me to fulfill the wish of having saltwater tanks and ultimately sea horses more than ten years ago.

We talk small business, how to be a leader/manager, politics, and family. He comes into my home and has seen me at my best and my most vulnerable. I so appreciate that we both have committed to the visits (safely) during this time of physical distancing. I want to support his business through this marathon and he wants to support my animal family. We both enjoy the friendship that has grown from the relationship.

On a recent visit, I seized the opportunity to ask Greg about his perspective on the marathon metaphor.

He liked the metaphor. He found it very relatable. He shared that he liked it more than calling this pandemic a war. For him, the war metaphor is too violent and negative. I feel similarly. And believe that choice of language is a leadership act. “Words create worlds” has been said. And the choice of our words will generate an emotional response. I chose a metaphor that doesn’t carry the weight of negativity but doesn’t diminish the difficulty.

Back to Greg’s response to the question, ‘If this is a marathon that we have been thrust into and we are to run the race, finish the race, and survive, what strategies from your experience would you employ?’

Greg was quick to respond.

• Take precaution with your health.

• It is too late to train for the marathon, but arrange yourself and your responsibilities to be in the strongest position for going the distance.

• Educate yourself as much as possible – be careful not to latch on to one single piece of information and base all of your decisions on that one perspective.

• Find ways to support all the individuals who rely on you. Help them to be safe, healthy, and contributing. Keep yourself healthy so that you will be available to them.

• Help anyone you can.

I so admire Greg. He was quick to figure out how to pivot his business to accommodate the need to social distance. He reassured his staff team that they would be employed throughout the duration appropriately. He found ways to help others like a school teacher who needed to move their multiple classroom animals out of the school on short notice. The menagerie are now housed and cared for in his shop. Greg has collaborated with his pet food supplier to donate bags of food to those unemployed and unable to support their pets. Each day he finds a new way to contribute. I love this man. This is the leadership that I am inspired by.

With each new set of strategies shared from life experience of people in my life, I will strive to incorporate them into my day and my response to the greatest new experience of our lives.

• Do any of the personal approaches appeal to you?

• What are some of your personal strategies?

• What do you do when you hit an emotional wall or physical breakdown?

Leslie

PS. I have sought out seven of the many people whose opinions I value and asked them to answer the same question about the marathon we find ourselves in. The series of blogs will resume tomorrow and be completed on Friday. I hope you’ll find what these folks have to say to be interesting. And valuable.