Angela Buege started with Jon-Don in 1988 as an account representative. She spent almost twenty years dedicated to the needs of the individuals in the carpet cleaning, building maintenance and restoration industry. She addressed concerns and solved challenges from “what product is best to use?” to “where does a new carpet cleaner get the best learning tools”.

Angela joined the Strategies for Success team right from the start way back in 1996. Her incredible attention to details is Angela’s strength. By making sure that all the “behind the scenes” events run smoothly at SFS Angela has become an indispensable part of the SFS team. Her goal is to have your learning environment AND your experience be absolutely superb at SFS! Here is how she does it …

Just like we teach at SFS, Angela buys into the importance of having a system to follow. (You will learn how essential systems are for YOUR organization when you attend SFS.) Angela starts weeks in advance of each SFS seminar with a 15-page “checklist” of things to arrange even before you walk through the doors on Day One. Then she has a day-by-day system to follow while you are attending the event. Angela says our SFS students’ observations and feedback have been a huge help in making the class what it is today. (Not to mention three of the best instructors in the industry plus an awesome staff at Jon-Don that keeps her on her toes as well). To date, Angela is always striving to make SFS even better.

Now the real story straight from Angela …

When I’m not coordinating and traveling with the SFS team, I’m spending my time in Park City, Utah with my husband, two active yellow Labradors and two cats. My husband and I love skiing, mountain biking and hiking the hundreds of miles of trails in our little mountain town. (The dogs are on almost all of our adventures. Sometimes I think they are getting in better shape than me!)

I also love to cook. (Food is sort of an obsession with me!) I’ve been put in charge by the SFS team to always locate the best restaurants for dinner when we’re traveling to our Jon-Don locations. I’m always open to hearing from the locals as to where the best places are to eat. Who would know better?

The best part…

Besides working with a great team, I think the thing I cherish most about being a part of the SFS team is getting to spend a week with Nick. I never tire of hearing his stories or his jokes. He’s a wonderful, down to earth boss who loves what he does. In fact, Nick always says “If you are not having fun with what you are doing, then go do something else!” (With Nick attitude is everything.) You will see this first hand by how his SFS team (and our attendees) treat him. Papa Nick (as Steve would call him) is a treasure. SFS will give you all the tools to run a successful business and Nick is a real-life example of the truth of these concepts. To me, Nick is doing what he loves and that is the real definition of success!

Nick Paolella started Jon-Don in 1978 with his cousin John Paolella in his garage. Over the last thirty years Jon-Don has grown into a national company with ten locations and over 120 employees. Nick lives in Medinah, Illinois with his wife, Judy.

Now lemme tell you the rest of the story …

I never dreamed of winding up as one of the owners of Jon-Don. In fact, I thought I was going to spend my life building roads and bridges as a construction manager. But then in 1972 I was out of a job but bound by a one year non-compete contract to not work in the construction industry. So what to do …

By chance, my next door neighbor owned a business manufacturing cleaning equipment so he hired me as a salesman. Since I was totally ignorant about selling he insisted I attend a sales training course. So I grudgingly enrolled in a program started by some guy I had never heard of by the name of “Dale Carnegie”.

The principles taught in the Dale Carnegie course changed my life and caused me to fall in love with the sales profession. I never went back to heavy construction building roads. Instead, I started constructing something very different. I began “building” close professional and personal relationships, many of which I am proud to say have endured to this day.

A few years later my cousin John came to work at the same company and our relationship grew into being more than just relatives- we became close friends and we still are.

Now in the mid 1970’s as I called on small distributors scattered over three states I noticed that each served a small pocket of their cleaning customers but there was no national company taking care of the other carpet cleaners out there. So against all odds and against a lot of warnings from people supposedly smarter than me- I decided to start serving all carpet cleaners.

I went to my cousin John, who at the time was 21 years old, sat down at his kitchen table and said, “I’m going to go in to business for myself and I’m thinking about taking you on as a partner.” Without even asking what we were going to do he replied, “I’m in!” And John still is “in” as a loyal partner and friend.

John and I started Jon-Don working out of my garage on June 15, 1978 with just a hand-shake. All we wanted to do was “make a living” for the two of us. As it turned out we’ve “made a living” for quite a few people! I’ve always tried to follow my father’s advice “Always surround your self with people much smarter than you and you’ll find out just how smart you can be!” (In my case it has been fairly easy to find people “smarter than me”!)

One thing we tried to do at Jon-Don right from the beginning was learn from the mistakes of our previous employer. He had every perk and benefit imaginable and enjoyed a luxurious lifestyle. But his employees had nothing! So John and I decided our goal was for our employees to have everything we wanted when we were working for someone else. And evidently our people appreciate this philosophy because many of our original employees are still with us.

I’ve always said, “Avoid doing business with your friends but work very hard at making friends out of the people you do business with!” And I sincerely hope you will let Jon-Don and I continue this philosophy with you as our valued customer … and friend!