In this episode, we switch gears from interviewing another family business owner to exploring our own history and how we got to Kuder Consulting Group.

We delve into a unique and nostalgic understanding of small family businesses through the eyes of Connie Kuder, co-founder of Kuder Consulting Group. She has rich stories of growing up in Ohio around farm life and family businesses.

The conversation takes a trip back in time, discussing her family's significant historical agricultural roots, including the evolution of her family's farms, the sense of community, working collaboratively, and living in a more simple era.

She shares further aspects of bartering, life before modern technologies, and the challenges and dependencies that came with working in the family business.

You can watch the video version of this episode at https://youtu.be/emPLvmRKrzE

Key moments:

00:00 Introduction to the Episode

00:23 Connie's Family Business History

00:34 The Role of Agriculture in Family History

02:04 The Importance of Community and Bartering

03:32 The Impact of Isolation and Dependence on Each Other

05:26 Birth and Early Life in Japan

06:09 Changes in Society and Technology Over Time

09:21 The Role of Negotiation in Family Business

10:42 Balancing Family Needs in Business

11:45 Conclusion and Look Ahead

Welcome to another episode

of Exciting episode.

Exciting episode of

celebrating Small family es.

Yes.

And in this episode, we're going

to not be interviewing a guest.

We're gonna be talking about ourselves

in our own history a little bit,

and in the politeness, we're going

to start with the ladies first.

So, hi.

We can talk about Connie's history, right?

So, Connie, yes.

Tell me about your.

History of your, you know, the

origin story of your family business?

Well, actually there's two family

businesses, John, there's, and both

of 'em are farms in central Ohio.

Uh, one of 'em, uh, was created

around the turn of the last century.

Okay.

Which side of the business?

Of the family?

That would be my father's side.

Okay.

As far as I know, I don't

know beyond that history.

Okay.

I'm sure.

Being America.

They we're, we're all, uh, you

know, have agriculture in our roots.

Okay.

And then on my, on my mother's side,

I am, I, I'm going to go ahead and

say I'm the 10th generation Mm-Hmm.

That has had an

association with that Farm.

Farm.

Okay.

Farm.

And, uh, um, it was given to my

grandmother as a wedding present.

And, uh, so she and my grandfather,

um, moved there when they were

first married in probably the 1920s.

'cause my brother, my mother was

born in 1933, so they, they would

not have been married very long Okay.

Before they had her.

And, um, and it's grain farms, all

of them in central Ohio usually

are, um, corn, soybeans, and wheat.

Okay.

And then they rotated those in

and out and, you know, you, you

always had, uh, cows and hogs and

chickens and things like that.

Thank you.

I was gonna ask about Yeah, absolutely.

You always had, you had that as, as

part of mo mostly for the family.

It was

Okay.

More for food and whatever right.

For the family resources rather

than commercial production?

Correct.

That was other cousins.

Okay.

Other cousins had dairy farms

and, and things like that, so

there was a lot of bartering.

Oh, around, okay.

That, if you had a, a big crop of,

let's say something in the garden,

your tomatoes went crazy that year and

you could go , and barter it for, a

couple gallons of milk, hopefully.

Awesome.

So that would be one aspect of the extent

I, I guess the family business economy

or culture in the, in the community Sure.

Would be the, that ability.

To, to barter with family members

and potentially a, a little

bit higher level of trust.

Right, right.

Because,

because they're codependent on one

another through good and, and bad times.

Well, and my parents didn't even

leave the county until after

they graduated from high school.

Wow.

Uh, I mean, they were, that,

you know, they didn't have the

resources and, um, and, um.

I'm not even sure of the

curiosity at some point.

Mm-Hmm.

Because, you know, everybody

was kind of landlocked Mm-Hmm.

In that area.

And so they, they didn't, there,

there wasn't a lot of going out to

the big cities, so to speak, you know?

Mm-Hmm.

And, and going out to restaurants.

My, I can remember my mother saying,

you know, she was in her teens

before she ever saw a restaurant.

Wow.

Yeah.

So that, that, you know,

that kind of shows the.

The isolation in some, some respects.

Mm-Hmm.

But I also, with insider,

probably a 10 mile radius.

Mm-Hmm.

There was extended family all around.

Mm-Hmm.

So you always had like, uh, I

can remember one time, uh, uh, my

great-grandfather flipped, uh, a tractor.

Mm-Hmm.

And somebody figured out,

they drove by, figured out.

Got everybody in there.

They flipped the tractor back over,

got him to the hospital, what he

needed to do, and he was back on

the tractor like a week later.

So,

and that somebody was likely a relative?

It was a relative, it was

actually one of his cousins.

Okay.

Who, you know, because there

again, everybody was driving

between the farms to check on them.

And, uh, because everybody kind

of had a hundred acre lots mm-Hmm.

Or plots, so to speak.

Hmm.

And, um, my great aunt and uncle

lived right across the street.

You could see, you know,

what, half a mile at that.

Mm-Hmm.

You've been up there.

Um, so, but they kinda

looked after each other.

Mm-Hmm.

There was a, there was a more

sense of community I think.

Than anything else.

And, and I, I'm, I'll say probably,

um, there wasn't, of course,

they didn't have the level of

medical care that we have today.

Oh yeah.

The hospital was, I think you've

said that the hospital was very

small and very, very mm-Hmm.

Um, limited resources in itself.

So people had to look out for

one another in that sense.

Well, and I was the first on both

sides, my, both sides of my, my parents.

Mm-Hmm.

That was born in a hospital.

Wow, congratulations.

The first, the first time, and I was

the first one that was born outta the

United States in coup, probably at

least a hundred and 150 200 years.

Okay, so explain that for our

listeners.

Okay.

I was born in Japan.

My father was military, and um, he left

the family farm for the first time ever.

Mm-Hmm.

And became a, went into the Navy as a,

and married my mother on the, kind of the

way outta town before he got shipped out.

And, um, so he went on and had

never been on an airplane before.

Mm-Hmm.

Had never been, uh, on a bus before.

Had never been on a ship before.

Wow.

So he, and, and went to California

for, for his, his basic training.

So what a eye-opening experience for him.

Yeah.

And, and then what to do and

then to go to a foreign country.

Yeah.

And so in your lifetime Mm-Hmm.

Um, you know, thinking about the, um,

just how society has changed and how, um.

And you, the modern, the technology.

Mm-Hmm.

Technology has, you

know, modernized things.

I mean, I, I know you've talked about

your, your very early days there was

no, there was not indoor plumbing

in either one of the farmhouses.

Right.

Your grandparents' houses.

Right.

And, and you know, that,

that was later added.

And, and you know, of course now

we've got, right.

And the farmhouse that we bought

that, that my parents, we right

after, uh, my brother was born.

No, we, we, I, I can remember sitting

in a tub and on the back porch taking

a bath, and that was part of the

rural, the more, you know, people

in, in, for example, in Dayton,

probably did have indoor plumbing.

Oh

yeah.

Everybody did.

And in, in town.

In the town, yeah.

They had it on both towns, but

out in the rural country, no, you

didn't have the infrastructure.

Uhuh, Uhuh.

It was all well water.

You know, you had subject tanks and, uh,

and you Oh, and there was no trash pickup.

Mm-Hmm.

I can remember my grandmother

burning everything.

Yes, yes.

Including 10 cans.

They have known people that still do that.

Exactly.

Exactly.

But yeah, so it was, it was kind of

that, and, and on both sides it was, it

was very, um, very hands-on huge gardens

and they grew everything thinking about

the, you know, the family business.

Mm-Hmm.

Then versus family businesses today

seems like one of the things to.

To really, to kind of celebrate is, is

that that sense of community that, um,

codependent, I don't like the word

codependent.

Dependency.

Dependency, yeah.

It really isn't the,

depending on one another and the,

and the support, the community

support within the family that.

Um, you know, of sharing

of resources and, um, yeah.

And knowledge and Right.

And, you know, you, you know,

you were all, you were all very

much connected, whereas we Yes.

You know, we've become such a mobile

society today that people in a,

in a extended family, instead of

living within a five mile radius,

they may be scattered across the

entire country.

Correct.

And I, and I can't even remember

speaking of that, even, um,

the community phone lines.

Oh, the party lines.

The party lines, yes.

And everybody had their own ring.

I remember.

Party lines and, and

they had their own ring.

Mm-Hmm.

But that didn't make, make any

difference because I could remember

my grandmother slipping in that chair.

She knew how to put her hand

over that, that, uh, microphone.

Microphone.

Mm-Hmm.

And listen in.

Listen in.

And she could remember.

And she knew who it was, you know,

and they're, again, small community.

Um, like going to church in

the, in the next little town.

And if you weren't there on Sunday, uh,

there was a call that was going out.

It was a phone tree.

Oh yeah.

You were, you know, are you okay?

What's going on?

So,

you know, it was.

And again, very community oriented.

We'll get into the family business

stuff, but it was, it was both checking

on making, it was like a safety check.

Correct.

You know, if you weren't in church

there, there might be something wrong.

Correct.

You might be hurt, but there was also a

little bit of reinforcement of Oh yeah.

You, you needed to be there.

Right.

And, and, uh, we're, we're

letting you know, we know you

weren't.

Right.

You know, right.

Kind of thing.

Well, and I think with the

family business, getting back

to that point, negotiations,

it was a constant negotiation.

Not only with, um, you know, the.

The people that you were doing

business with outside, you know,

selling your grain too and things like

that, trying to get the best prices.

Mm-hmm.

You were also negotiating

with other farmers.

I need you to have to have this part.

Um.

You know, I need your

combine on this date.

Can you bring it over

and we can work together?

Okay.

Who?

Everybody pulled resource.

Yeah, everybody pulled it because

you couldn't afford your own

equipment, especially with.

You know, you're talking every, everybody

couldn't afford, uh, their own, combine.

Combine for, for

a hundred acres.

Exactly.

When one combine is capable

of doing a thousand acres

multiple.

Exactly.

Or more.

Okay.

So what you did, it wasn't a

rental type of thing, but it was

more of a barter and or more of a.

An awareness that we could help each

other.

Okay.

Or did they have shared ownership?

Might, might.

Several members of the

family, they might have

co-own What piece of equipment?

Well, they did later on in my world.

Mm-Hmm.

I, I knew about that.

Okay.

But, um, but in the, in, um, in every,

it was just a, a cooperative situation.

And of course with my grandfather working.

You know, for my grandmother to

a point, he had to be quite aware

because he also had his family up

the road that he was also helping.

Mm-Hmm.

You know, farm.

Mm-Hmm.

So, so that was a whole nother

thing that, that was going on.

Mm-Hmm.

That he had to, uh, he had to balance.

Her side and her needs in that farm and

his family, his parents were getting older

and balancing that and, and working with

that too, and working with his siblings.

Something

probably a lot of people,

family businesses, members,

owners could relate to today.

Absolutely.

Because, you know, if you're in a family

business that's, well, you've, you've

lived that being my wife and being Mm-Hmm.

A daughter-in-law in our business.

Mm-Hmm.

In our family business and our family.

Mm-Hmm.

You know, they.

Your family had needs, but you

know, you lived with my family, so.

Right.

There's

always that dynamic.

Right.

Exactly.

You always have to, it's a

balancing act constantly.

So I hope that this has

been an interesting insight.

I think we're, we could go on and on,

but, oh yeah, there's

lots, we'll return to this for many

times, so, um, we look forward to.

Sharing about my family business

in another episode and then,

uh, some of the, the challenges

that we've seen in over time.

Oh yeah.

So thank you very much for listening,

and we will see you in another episode.

Thanks.