Speaker 1: Wind down with Janet Kramer an I'mheart Radio podcast. I
Speaker 1: want to introduce you to On the Job and host
Speaker 1: Avery Thompson. Avery shares stories of people making changes in
Speaker 1: their professional and personal lives. Whether it's a successful athlete
Speaker 1: transitioning into a new career off the field, a fly
Speaker 1: fishing tour guide trying to introduce a new segment of
Speaker 1: folks to the joys of the outdoors, or a stadium
Speaker 1: beer and hot dog hawker who doubles as a CEO
Speaker 1: of a red hot startup. We'll find out what drives
Speaker 1: them and what lies ahead. These are heartfelt stories of
Speaker 1: people finding their lives. Work on the Job is brought
Speaker 1: to you by Express Employment Professionals. This week, Avery talks
Speaker 1: to a Navy vet starting over in a small town.
Speaker 2: Welcome to On the Job. On today's episode, we're headed
Speaker 2: up to the Granite State to speak with John Bethell, who,
Speaker 2: after years of service to his country as a Navy chaplain,
Speaker 2: re entered the civilian life as a small town shop owner.
Speaker 2: But as different as a two livelihood are as well hear,
Speaker 2: John discovered they actually had quite a few things in common.
Speaker 2: When John Bethel was in the Navy, for two years.
Speaker 2: He was stationed on the Greek island of Crete. Being
Speaker 2: in a distant land poses challenges, especially when you forget
Speaker 2: your wallet.
Speaker 3: It was my second day in the village. I was
Speaker 3: explaining to him, like, hey, my wallet's there, I'll be
Speaker 3: right back. He goes, oh, no, no, no, you're the American.
Speaker 3: You're in the yellow house. We know where you are.
Speaker 3: And he's the only taverna. Taverna's a little restaurant. He's like,
Speaker 3: they're the only tavarnah in the village. He's like, you know,
Speaker 3: where are gonna go?
Speaker 2: And John, who's originally from New York City, found this
Speaker 2: small town trust amazing. And that's not the only thing
Speaker 2: he loved about life in Greece.
Speaker 3: I was very attracted to the way that it seems
Speaker 3: as though they scheduled stuff stuff. Things are open and
Speaker 3: closed as they're opening, closed and figure it out. And
Speaker 3: I remember when I first got there, I thought, how
Speaker 3: do these people live like this? But then after two
Speaker 3: years of it, the question I was asking myself was
Speaker 3: what do I have to do to look like this?
Speaker 2: A big part of the reason that John was so
Speaker 2: enamored of this Greek way of doing things was that
Speaker 2: it was so completely foreign to him. But as a
Speaker 2: Navy chaplain, he never really had any time off.
Speaker 3: With my job as a department head, and I had
Speaker 3: a duty phone with me. I had that phone with
Speaker 3: me everywhere. If I wanted a vacation, it wasn't really
Speaker 3: vacation because I had to have that phone him. I
Speaker 3: was the only chaplain for the whole piece.
Speaker 2: So after two years of being stationed in Greece, John
Speaker 2: was feeling an inkling to try something new. And ever
Speaker 2: since John was a kid, he had this idea of
Speaker 2: opening a print shop.
Speaker 3: I've always loved printing as a hobby. I was just
Speaker 3: going to open up a print shop. At first, I
Speaker 3: was just going to do a letterpress printing shop online
Speaker 3: or through an Etsy shop or through the website.
Speaker 2: So we starts bringing it up in conversation with some
Speaker 2: of his shipmates, saying, you know, I'm thinking about getting
Speaker 2: back to the civilian life, ideally in some small town
Speaker 2: in the US where I could replicate this Greek village
Speaker 2: way of living and lo and behold. One of his
Speaker 2: ship mate says, that sounds like where I'm from, Laconia,
Speaker 2: New Hampshire, and immediately John's ears perk up, but like
Speaker 2: a lot of the people that spend their summers in
Speaker 2: New Hampshire, they don't tend to stick around much Later
Speaker 2: into the year, Laconia was far from thriving, but despite
Speaker 2: its current condition, John could see the potential. So he
Speaker 2: put on his snow boots and went around town, introducing
Speaker 2: himself to some of the local business owners to get
Speaker 2: a feel for the place, and very quickly he experienced
Speaker 2: that small town charm.
Speaker 3: I said, hey, I want he kind of want to
Speaker 3: do this, and the cobbler said, you know, we have
Speaker 3: a cobbler. That's the kind of downtown Disney we have.
Speaker 3: The cobbler said, well, the frame shop is going to
Speaker 3: he's trying to sell it, and went and talk to
Speaker 3: the guy and he said, yep, you can have it
Speaker 3: for as all.
Speaker 2: Probably the hardest part for John about walking away from
Speaker 2: his Navy career were the relationships he built as a chaplain,
Speaker 2: a position that brought John incredibly close with people, but
Speaker 2: it turns out his new role as a shop owner
Speaker 2: still involved dealing with people in their times of need.
Speaker 3: I tried for the first six months of telling absolutely
Speaker 3: nobody that I was with an episcopal priest I was like, nope,
Speaker 3: I'm a shop owner, that is it. I'm not doing
Speaker 3: any of that stuff. And eventually who you are and
Speaker 3: what you're supposed to be he starts seeping out of
Speaker 3: you for wanting to walk away from being like an
Speaker 3: active priest. It has not stopped because people don't frame
Speaker 3: things that are not important to them.
Speaker 2: After three years in operation, Piedmont Printon Frame is doing well,
Speaker 2: well enough that John has taken on a coworker and
Speaker 2: some interns to help him meet the now steady work orders.
Speaker 2: And with the extra help around the shop, John now
Speaker 2: has more time to be part of the community, time
Speaker 2: to be the new chaplain at the Laconia Firehouse, time
Speaker 2: to volunteer with the local youth hockey team, or simply
Speaker 2: just time to stroll around his adopted hometown of Laconia,
Speaker 2: New Hampshire, saying hi to his neighbors.
Speaker 3: It's nice. It's just it's nice, like you feel like
Speaker 3: you belong somewhere.
Speaker 2: From the job. I'm Avery Thompson.
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