Good News Florida

LIFEWORK LEADERSHIP 12 APRIL 2018 Good News • South Florida Edition In reflecting on legacy, John Kassing, CEO of Marquis and a Lifework Leadership alumnus, said “Our children will be the living testament to who we are; they are our legacy.” His wife, Susan Kassing, a Lifework Leadership Coach and alumnus, agreed, “The most important job on the planet is parenting.” Because they wanted their adult children to be “contributing, productivemembers of society and church,” the Kassings have made Lifework Leadership a family affair. After encouraging their daughter, Lauren, and her husband, Jordan K ohley, to go through the program, sons Ryan and Peter look forward to participating. The Kass- ings have also become sponsors of Lifework Leadership through their family busi- ness, Marquis, where Ryan also works in sales with his father. Lifework Leadership has activated their faith and transformed their approach to giving. Now they are incorporating principles picked up at Lifework Leadership into their family culture, encouraging each family member to set annual goals and spurring one another on during family gatherings. John Kassing explained, “Every Christmas when we get together, we have a for- mal family dinner out. It’s evolved over the years, but most recently we put a challenge to the kids to be more intentional and think about their giving strategy and how they will live out their responsibility as a Christian. We challenged everybody to have a Donor Advisory Fund with NCF, the National Christian Foundation, and discussed how they might leverage those funds. So now when we get together at the end of the year, we ask, ‘What did you do this year? What was your plan and what did you accomplish?’ That was kind of a fun dinner this last year.”Ann Blair Thornton [Ryan’s fiancé] was a part of that and said, “I definitely walked away pretty proud. Everybody had some very definitive plans, and what they were doing and planning to do was just very cool. I’m honored to join this family.” “It’s a time when we reflect and project,” added Susan. This is a noble endeavor, especially when you consider the family is spread out across the country, with siblings residing in Texas, Michigan and Illinois, while Mom and Dad maintain home base in South Florida. I sat down with the Kassing family, some participating remotely via speaker- phone, to discover how Lifework Leadership has impacted their lives. Good News (GN) – First, tell me a little about Marquis. John – Marquis is a software solution consulting company for banks and credit unions. We write software applications for various functions, and we consult around that and give them guidance… Our niche is more focused on marketing and client relations. We also work in an area called compliance where the banks have to adhere to a lot of the rules that we read about in the press. We provide them the software to be able to track and manage their activity. They are two very different functions, but they are both basically database functions with consulting. We have about 750 clients, banks and credit unions to whom we supply various solutions. GN - Are you the founder? How long has Marquis been around? John – My father, my brother and myself started it about 32 years ago. Compli- ance and Database Marketing were just beginning at the time. And over the years, I have two other brothers that came into the business and were very instrumental in the growth, then, in time, Ryan was a welcome addition to the business. GN – Our cover story this month is on legacy family businesses. That’s interest- ing that you’ve got that many family members involved in your business. Is that chal- lenging at times? John – I don’t think there’s any business that doesn’t have challenges because you are going to have disagreements. In our case as brothers, the four of us came from very different walks, so as we came together we would have different perspec- tives. I would say the overriding principle for us when we got into any type of contro- versy was we backed off and punted. We didn’t push any decision that was going to cause any real split in the family. Generally speaking, we were a little more conser- vative, which served us well in the long run. Family came first. Now as I say that, we didn’t have a great deal of controversy. Most people marvel, saying they wouldn’t work with their brothers or sisters and can’t image four brothers working together, but it worked quite well for us. GN – How do you feel about working for your dad, Ryan? Ryan – One of the unique things about working for a family business, or maybe it’s just unique to ours, is that at the end of the day, whether it was the brothers, the employees, myself or our clients, everyone knew that our name and reputation came first, and doing the right thing was more important than just turning a profit. John – Well, it was basically surrounded by taking care of the client. Susan – Ryan would often say to me: “Mom I love my job. It’s a great job, but I really enjoy the fact that I can help the family.” That was a real big reason why he wanted to come on board. Ryan –Working for something bigger than yourself is always something to strive for, and for me, I don’t think it gets any better than working for a family business. You’re not just supporting yourself but the family as well, so Mom’s absolutely right. GN – How and when did you get involved in Lifework? Susan – John Offerdahl had been asking me for years and years and years to do Lifework Leadership. I’m too busy. I don’t have time. You know the excuses. So finally, my husband said, “If you’re not going to do it, I will.” I watched how it changed him, not that he needed to be changed. But I just saw such a change in him in the giving area. GN – So why did you say, “I want to do this?” John – Susan had been to one of the sessions as a guest and thought it was very cool. I believe I went to the next one…They had a lineup of great speakers. Ron Blue, Doug Holliday etc. it was a who’s who of speakers at that particular time, so I thought, I want to do this! As I look back…Lifework was learning about how to exercise my Christian walk in business and in the community. I look at these three areas of impact: How I can live out my faith in business with my staff. Secondly, how I can become involved and make a difference in the community; and thirdly, we were introduced to the world of Christian charities. I think that’s part of the conversation with Lauren, Jordan, Ryan, Ann Blair and Peter. Pick your head up and look around. There’s a lot going on out there beyond just going to church. We’re supposed to be an outreach group not an inclusive group. Where can you spend your time and talents beyond just your church. Whether its dealing with foster children or homeless, the list goes on of all the needs out there that need some level of attention. It was very eye opening to me about what was possible and what we could do as part of our legacy. GN – What do you feel, then, was the biggest impact you got from it? Susan – Stephan’s Jesus Journeys are just amazing. The speakers – some- times you feel like you’re the only one going through these struggles and then you hear the speakers and their transparency makes a difference in my life. And then the books . The Treasure Principle by Randy Alcorn made a huge difference in my life, realizing that nothing I have is mine; it’s all God’s. So those three areas I’ve enjoyed. And of course, meeting the class members. Lauren – I loved how every month Lifework really broke down the leadership characteristics of Jesus such as humility or courage or generosity. He had these char- acteristics that drew people to Him. My main take away is that Jesus is an incredible leader; people still follow Him 2000 years later as Christ and as a powerful leader. One of the books we read was Lead Like Jesus. That book can be used at home and at work. It was a powerful read. GN – Susan, you decided to be a coach. Why is that? Susan – I am such a believer in Lifework Leadership and the changes it makes in the lives of those who are going through the class that I wanted to help. We have made some great friends in Lifework Leadership. That’s for sure. GN – Has Lifework affected Marquis and the way you do business? John – I would say, yes, but I don’t know that everyone there would recognize it. There’s a lot that I took away and shared with some of my brothers. David McKin- Lifework Leadership Spurs Family Legacy Shelly Pond Good News Editor Ryan Housefield, Ann Blair Thornton (Ryan’s fiance), Jordan Kohley, Lauren Kohley, Susan Kassing, John Kassing, Peter Kassing (Continued on page 31)