Work-Life Integration
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In this episode, I talk with Allan Jaffe, VP of Technology at Top Speed Data, about his 40+ year career in telecom and tech. We cover what it means to be a technology advisor, how his team helps businesses solve problems without extra cost, and why cybersecurity is more important than ever. Allan also shares thoughts on work-life balance, daily routines, and how perspective and kindness go a long way in business and life.
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A Career Built on Adaptability & Relationships
Allan shares his journey from earning an economics degree at UC Davis to building a career in telecom and technology
Early work at Pacific Bell, experience in operations, then a shift to sales and leadership
How Top Speed Data formed: a group of former colleagues reuniting to launch a client-first technology advisory firm
The evolution of the industry: from black rotary phones to full-stack cloud solutions
The Business of Technology Advising
What a "technology advisor" really does
Why the independent broker model is a win-win for clients and providers
How Top Speed Data helps businesses find the right tech solutions without added cost
The team’s hands-on, community-centered, service-first approach
Common client challenges and how Allan and his team solve them
Routines, Success, and Work-Life Integration
Allan’s morning routine: early starts, dog walking, and focused deep work
How he structures his day and week for maximum impact
The importance of flexible work to show up for family
Reflections on “work-life integration” over the elusive idea of “balance”
The role of perspective and gratitude in staying grounded
Industry Insights & Common Missteps
The biggest risks
How ransomware attacks often target small and medium businesses
The growing threat of ransomware-as-a-service and data leaks on the dark web
Advice to companies: security is no longer optional, even for SMBs
Why Allan believes in doing what it takes to support both his clients and his family
Books, Reflections & Bonus Wisdom
Book Recommendations:
Nuts! by Herb Kelleher – customer service and culture at Southwest Airlines
Leadership in Turbulent Times by Doris Kearns Goodwin – lessons from presidential history
Unapologetically Ambitious by Shellye Archambeau – breaking barriers for women and minorities
Thoughts on perspective, resilience, and why even difficult jobs are a privilege
How growing up with strong family values and immigrant roots shaped his work ethic
The importance of hobbies, hiking, community, and... walking his wife's dog
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Jonathan Mahrt: This is on the Flywheel, a podcast where each week we talk to entrepreneurs and professionals about the practical things they do to build and keep momentum in their personal and professional lives. Hello and welcome to the podcast. Alan Jaffe, the vice president of technology at Top Speed Data. Thanks for coming on today.
Allan Jaffe: Thanks for having me, Jonathan.
Jonathan Mahrt: Well, I've been wanting to chat with you for a while because I think you have such a history, interesting background in technology, and you've done a lot of different things and you dabble in a lot of different things and you know a lot of people. So I think this is going to be an interesting conversation. So thank you for being on today.
Allan Jaffe: What happens when you get old?
Jonathan Mahrt: A lot of people that's. Well, some people don't, hopefully, if you've done it right. And I think, I think you have. So I always like to stop, start out just having guests talk a little bit about their background, kind of education, career. Just giving us a general outline of how you got where you are today at top speed.
Allan Jaffe: Sure. Well, I went to school at UC Davis, got my bachelor's in economics, started working for Pacific Telephone before Judge Green divested the bell system in 1984. And I went there because they had a great management training program and I was interested in that. I actually started in the property management portion in support services and moved over into operations after that. So I spent the first six or seven years of my career at Pacific Telephone, Pacific Bell in operations, installation and maintenance, special services, data circuits, things like that. And then I got tired of banging my head against the wall and, and moved over into the sales side.
Jonathan Mahrt: One thing I want to touch on real quick is I've heard a lot of people that I know that are maybe well experienced in life talk about working at a place because it had a good management program. But I never hear anyone say those things really anymore.
Allan Jaffe: Yeah, I think you're right because when I started, and this was 1983, when I graduated school and went to work for them, they were, there was a ton of training for everybody, basic management training, and then all the technical training you needed for whatever job you were in. And I did the same thing when I moved over to sales. There was like there was 10 weeks of school while you were learning to become an account executive. So I found that very valuable. And I stayed in the technology business. I worked for a couple other providers. I got my master's along the way in finance, not in it. I mean, there were computer science majors when I was in college, there weren't IT majors Yeah, it's different.
Jonathan Mahrt: It's different.
Allan Jaffe: And those of us that took some of the classes were relegated to the basement of the computer center on the weekends at midnight. So I had a few.
Jonathan Mahrt: Well, when you had shared computing resources.
Allan Jaffe: Right, there were no PCs? Well, there were a couple then, yeah. So I've been in the. In the industry for 43 years, and I'm unemployable doing anything else, so I like it. That's fun. I like having solved problems with technology.
Jonathan Mahrt: Yeah, I know. I relate to that. That's a lot of what I try and do. Right. And like you mentioned before the meeting, when we're talking about your job title, you're a chief.
Allan Jaffe: Chief enabler.
Jonathan Mahrt: Chief enabler, yeah. Right, yeah. And so talk a little bit. So you ended up. You end up at. You go into sales, and then eventually you end up at Top Speed.
Allan Jaffe: Well, I was in sales at Pacific Bell. We were acquired by SPC at the time, and that's really still the owner under the AT&T brand. And I moved up in management. I actually ran sales organizations in AT SBC before I left, and then did the same for a couple of other providers. And then. What year is this? 2025, I think. So 21 years ago, 22 years ago, I came to Top Speed Data. We all knew each other. The founders of Top Speed Data and the partners all worked together at Pacific Bell a long time ago. And in my last role at a different provider, they were my biggest agent. And this industry, this industry that I'm in, or this part of the industry is, used to be called a sales agent, but they call us technology advisors now.
Jonathan Mahrt: I like that better.
Allan Jaffe: So we're like an independent insurance broker, except we do the same thing for technology. We don't charge our clients, but we're a free consulting resource for them.
Jonathan Mahrt: So, yeah, that's very. It's great. And in my experience working with you guys, it's been. It's been a great experience because you. We do work together, and the amount of resources and providers that you have access to is crazy. Anytime I'm like, I have a client that has this need. I don't know if this thing exists. I'm just gonna call Alan or shoot him a message and say, hey, do you know someone that does this?
Allan Jaffe: Yeah. And that is the fun part about being in this part of the business, because we have a big toolkit, and anytime somebody just asks us a question, if we don't have that resource available to us, usually we can point them to somebody that does And I love that better than walking around with a toolkit that just has hammers. So I like having screwdrivers and drills and Allen wrenches and all that stuff.
Jonathan Mahrt: Yeah, yeah, I think that's really cool. Do you want to just talk about really briefly about kind of the, some of the different like overall things like services or that top speed brokers out?
Allan Jaffe: Yeah, we, we do a lot of the basic stuff that historically that telecom IT people did. We provide Internet service, cloud phone systems, cybersecurity services, software as a service. So people need Microsoft 365 or Google Suite of products or Adobe Acrobat. We have resources that can provide that for them and give them help desk resource as well. And we don't charge any different for the services than somebody does going directly to them. So that's one of the beauties of it. We're unbiased in our, you know, in, in providing the options for clients. So clients like that, providers like that because they don't pay us unless we place their service.
Jonathan Mahrt: Yeah, it's kind of a win, win for everyone.
Allan Jaffe: Yeah, yeah.
Jonathan Mahrt: No it's been, it's a, it's a great business and I was, had no idea it existed.
Allan Jaffe: No, most people don't.
Jonathan Mahrt: And until I started, you know, until I ran into you and learned about it and I was like I can't, I can't believe it. And then come to learn that this kind of model exists in a lot of other industries and different things like that where there's someone kind of middle person selling things. You know, represent a broker representing a.
Allan Jaffe: Variety of the, the kings of IT are the, the independent insurance brokers. I mean they, they have a ton of business. They do, they're very large, they've been around for a long time. Everybody else that's doing it, we're all kind of Johnny come lately. So our, our, this industry has really only been around in, in tech, in the technology space since 96 which would be when the telecom act happened and they, they kind of further broke up how the industry was laid out.
Jonathan Mahrt: Gotcha. Gotcha. Yeah. I mean because back then in terms of things you like there wasn't, there wasn't you know, cloud software right at that point.
Allan Jaffe: Right.
Jonathan Mahrt: And so it was either traditional on premise software or it was landlines and Internet.
Allan Jaffe: Yeah. There weren't as many options. I like to tell people when I started in the business you could have any color phone as long as it was black.
Jonathan Mahrt: Well now what, now what? Is it also white like.
Allan Jaffe: Well, we've kind of reverted To. This is all we're doing. But unless you have a, you know, your mobile phone could be a different color.
Jonathan Mahrt: Well, that's fair.
Allan Jaffe: My wife's is pink.
Jonathan Mahrt: Yeah, yeah. Cell phones are. You know, you got to have your personality. Right. So I want to jump into. That's kind of just a quick overview of. Of what you do and how you got to where you are. But I wanted to chat about a little bit, get into some of the personal things. And so in terms of, like, the things that you do on a daily basis that you feel like help make you successful. So is there anything. What I like to ask people about is just the routine. You know, is there. Are you kind of a. Are you a routine person or are you just every wake up in the morning and every day is. Is different?
Allan Jaffe: Well, man, you call my wife, you're gonna get the same answer, but a different perspective on it. So I get up.
Jonathan Mahrt: You know what? That's what we'll start doing is bring a person in and their spouse. Those would be wild interviews.
Allan Jaffe: I'm very routine oriented. I don't do well without one. I start forgetting stuff. So, yeah, I get up early. I walk my wife's dog for a little exercise, do a little workout.
Jonathan Mahrt: Always very specific that it's your wife's dog.
Allan Jaffe: It's my wife's dog. And I'm up at 5 on the weekdays and go into the office pretty early. I try to get stuff done before the phone starts ringing, before I have to make calls. And I find that very helpful. Cause I get a little quiet time and I can plan what I haven't planned the day before for that day. I try to get program work done, done before the afternoon.
Jonathan Mahrt: What would you define as program work?
Allan Jaffe: So my job as chief enabler is to vet technology for our team and to make sure that my team has those resources when they're talking to their clients. And that goes for talking to different suppliers that are out there and learning about new technology. It also would be to help solve a business problem with one of my team for their clients. So that's the kind of work that I'm doing early.
Jonathan Mahrt: And so that's like the thinking work, basically.
Allan Jaffe: Right. That's when I can think is before lunch ready for. I think if I were retired, I would take a nap at about 2.
Jonathan Mahrt: Okay, yeah, fair enough. Yeah, fair enough.
Allan Jaffe: So, yeah. And then I'm usually on the phone meetings. Try to get in front of clients as much as possible.
Jonathan Mahrt: Yeah.
Allan Jaffe: And yeah, that's generally my daily routine. And I try to front load my week just in case.
Jonathan Mahrt: So you have space in the back half of the week.
Allan Jaffe: Yeah.
Jonathan Mahrt: Very nice. Is there anything specific as a part of your routine on a daily basis that you feel like, hey, I have to do. Doing this thing every day helps set me up for success?
Allan Jaffe: No. Aside from having my clothes laid out.
Jonathan Mahrt: Just walking your wife's dog and walking.
Allan Jaffe: My wife's dog, that's fine.
Jonathan Mahrt: Yeah.
Allan Jaffe: That creates success at home.
Jonathan Mahrt: That's an important. Hey, that's an important part of life.
Allan Jaffe: Both of them are very appreciative of it. Both the ladies are very appreciative of my walking services.
Jonathan Mahrt: That's fantastic. Yes, yes, yes. No, it's important. Home life is just as important, if not more important than work life.
Allan Jaffe: Yeah. Nobody can make me sleep on the couch at work.
Jonathan Mahrt: Exactly.
Allan Jaffe: Because we don't have a couch.
Jonathan Mahrt: See, maybe you need a couch in your office and then you can have a little nap time.
Allan Jaffe: We have those comfy chairs. I don't really need to do that.
Jonathan Mahrt: Those chairs are very plush.
Allan Jaffe: I could tell you stories about. I have seen a couple people nod off in them.
Jonathan Mahrt: Well, I've seen some older folks sitting in them that really struggle to escape from them.
Allan Jaffe: Are you talking about me?
Jonathan Mahrt: No, not you.
Allan Jaffe: Good.
Jonathan Mahrt: Not you. Not you. Older than you. Very retired Rotarians. So anyway, I want to jump in now into kind of getting into the business life of things. So what would you consider the best and worst part about what you do?
Allan Jaffe: Well, the best part really is what our mission is. Solving business problems with technology and having a. A customer who's happy about it. Either we've saved them money, we've optimized their technology spend, or we've given them a better way to do business. And even if it's a break even for them, they're pleased with the outcome. The worst issues that we have have to do with technology breaking somebody not doing their job. And I also tell people if the providers did their jobs all the time, we wouldn't have jobs. And that happens. It could happen. Point in the process. Somebody, as I think you know, is not getting back to a client during a sale or during implementation or with a repair problem. Those things are all bad. And nothing makes me angrier than somebody not replying, going dark to a client.
Jonathan Mahrt: Yeah, yeah, yeah. No, it's. That is one of the most frustrating things as the client is when you just don't hear back from someone you're trying to do business with.
Allan Jaffe: Yeah.
Jonathan Mahrt: You know, and I think people are particularly sensitive to technology, especially people that aren't like in the space when it's, you know, just a regular business owner and they're like they're investing in a piece of technology and they're not. They kind of just expect things to go smoothly and be handled and for it to not be complicated and for it to just work.
Allan Jaffe: Right. They're experts in running their business. They don't, you know, just like I'm not going to set up any video equipment.
Jonathan Mahrt: Right.
Allan Jaffe: I would hire that out.
Jonathan Mahrt: Right.
Allan Jaffe: They expect the provider to do their job.
Jonathan Mahrt: So what do you think? You can answer this as top speed or just you personally, like what do you think makes you different about how you conduct business?
Allan Jaffe: Well, I think, I think that, I think I'm part of the culture of top speed. And we genuinely have folks at top speed data that want to help their clients and do right by them. We've formed long term relationships. We've been around for almost 22 years and we've had clients for that duration because they're happy with what we do. We've created friendships with many of them. So you want to help your friends and your community and that's part of the, that's part the of I think part of the beauty. I don't think that there are other sales agents or technology advisors that aren't like us, but we're, we're ensconced in Petaluma and the communities where the. All of our folks are. We like helping the nonprofit community that's especially dear to us. So I'm not sure if that makes us different, but that's just kind of who we are.
Jonathan Mahrt: Yeah, no, I mean that's, I mean not everyone is. Not everyone's friendly and involved in the community. Right. And it does, I think it does make a difference. What about you personally? Like what do you attribute to being successful in the industry for so long?
Allan Jaffe: I haven't been found out yet.
Jonathan Mahrt: What does that. Let's dig into that. I'm gonna put on a psychiatrist hat for a second.
Allan Jaffe: Yeah, I mean I like what I do. I think I was raised with a very supportive family. They told us we could do anything that we wanted. I mean, except play basketball. I think that was pretty self evident. So. Although both my kids played point guard in yeah Works. I mean that is junior high and high school.
Jonathan Mahrt: That is the shortest position.
Allan Jaffe: It definitely is. And my kids are short, so. Yeah, I mean I just, I think liking what you do is a huge part of it. You can tell when somebody is miserable in their job and, and it's it's unfortunate if they are because it doesn't help customer relations at all.
Jonathan Mahrt: That is true. When it's like pulling teeth. Yeah, yeah, yeah. So, I mean, I think that does go along, that does go a long way is just being passionate. I mean, you're not going to love every aspect of your job every single day, but generally, if you enjoy going to work every day and doing the job, then that does make a big difference.
Allan Jaffe: One of my kids was a police officer and I always think about whatever the worst day I ever have and like, I'm not looking forward to whatever task I have to do. I think about it. Still beats doing that as far as having a bad day. And I just couldn't imagine, you know, walk going into a job where you're miserable for 8, 10, 12 hours. What a bummer.
Jonathan Mahrt: Yeah.
Allan Jaffe: I really like what I do.
Jonathan Mahrt: Yeah. Throwing away. I don't want to say throwing away, but like a third to half of your life you're just miserable.
Allan Jaffe: No, that is throwing away. Throwing it away.
Jonathan Mahrt: Yeah. Yeah, that, that sucks. And I think, I think that's a great point. So many people, like so much of life is just about perspective. There is to get. There's a book called Man. I think it's Man's Search for Meaning by Viktor Frankl. And there's a guy that survived the Holocaust.
Allan Jaffe: Yes.
Jonathan Mahrt: And he talks about his, you know, personal story of just how you. How you serve, mentally survive something like that, you know, and I think we. It's easy to lose perspective when you're in, you know, a bad situation. And then you think about, well, how much worse could it actually be? You know, like, I'm still breathing, I'm still here. Like, ultimately in the grand scheme of things, it's really just not that bad. I just gotta grind it out and get her done.
Allan Jaffe: I'm pretty doggone lucky. I mean, I have a good job. I. I have a great family. I, you know, have a house.
Jonathan Mahrt: Yeah.
Allan Jaffe: I got. I have first world problems for sure.
Jonathan Mahrt: Yeah. No, I have to tell that, you know, to myself sometimes I'm like, you know, I'm not where I want to be or I'm not, you know, this thing isn't the way I want it to be. And then I, you know, go. And even here, just in Sonoma county, look at what some of the things that other people struggle with. And I'm like, you know what? I really can't be complaining.
Allan Jaffe: I have that same talk with myself. Not frequently, but occasionally for sure.
Jonathan Mahrt: Yeah. Yeah, absolutely. So what, what do you see, like in your industry or business in general, like, what do you, what's something that people seem to just get wrong consistently or, or mess up regularly? That's just that you'd consider just fundamental to.
Allan Jaffe: In my industry or amongst my clients or both.
Jonathan Mahrt: Let's do both.
Allan Jaffe: The business community in general.
Jonathan Mahrt: Yeah.
Allan Jaffe: Well, I think the biggest thing people get wrong in general business, especially in the small medium business community, and that for us, that's companies with 25 to 500 employees is that they don't think that cybersecurity is a serious threat to them or they don't feel, they feel helpless to do anything about it. They think I either have to spend tons of money that I don't really have or they're not going to target me. I'm not target, I'm not MGM or you name any of the recent hacks that have happened, and that is a huge mistake. There can be financial repercussions, human repercussions, and that's not just to the business owner, it's to their employees, it's to their clients, it's to their donors. And I don't know about you, but I do not want people to remember my name or my company name because I didn't take care of things. And so that's what I see going on in a big way today. It's a little bit better than it was before the pandemic because people started working from home and companies realized, many of them, that they have to lock down data that's getting accessed from generally networks that aren't secured at home.
Jonathan Mahrt: Yeah, that's a much more complicated problem for sure when you start getting off premise with people's devices.
Allan Jaffe: Yeah.
Jonathan Mahrt: And working from home. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I think that's, I mean, I've seen businesses, I mean, they had three or four people that actually were in the office, maybe 20 employees, 25 employees total, get hit with ransomware.
Allan Jaffe: Yep.
Jonathan Mahrt: You know, it's, it's there, it's indiscriminate because all you have to do is click on the wrong thing and then they're in and they have, they have call centers.
Allan Jaffe: They do they. So a couple things about that particular problem. It's the gift that keeps on giving because not only is the company locked out of their data and hopefully they get most or all of it back one way or the other, whether they pay or they've actually had backups, but all that customer employee donor data gets sold on the dark web, even though they're giving you access back to it. They're making money again by selling that.
Jonathan Mahrt: That part's not talked about very often.
Allan Jaffe: It's not. And so that's why you get the notice. I counted last year, I got five letters from people that I do business with as a. As a person, as a consumer, saying that my data was breached.
Jonathan Mahrt: Wow.
Allan Jaffe: Now I'm probably about average in that I would guess most people are getting that much. And that means that my data's been sold multiple times. Unfortunately, we have services as a company that let me know when information of mine has been seen on the dark web. So, you know, that's one thing. The. The other thing that you talked about when you talk about ransomware, what's interesting to me is that I just read my. I think my first or second article about ransomware as a service in the mainstream press, not in the technical press.
Jonathan Mahrt: Oh, interesting.
Allan Jaffe: So in the Economist paper, there was an article last week about how ransomware as a service works. And that means that you and I can just go online and buy a kit. I don't have to know anything, but we can have our own ransomware out of a box and start hacking people.
Jonathan Mahrt: Not for ransomware specifically, but they used to in the kind of the nerd community that's called. They'd call them like script kiddies or script kids, where people just download scripts and then use it to do malicious things online.
Allan Jaffe: And this is a cottage industry. There are help desks for this.
Jonathan Mahrt: Yeah, yeah, I've heard about that. You know, the ransomware people will spring up a help desk because they want to get their money. They got to make sure that people get their data back and can undo whatever happens.
Allan Jaffe: Yep. And there's help desk for the people that buy ransomware as a service.
Jonathan Mahrt: Oh, of course. That's terrifying, honestly.
Allan Jaffe: Yeah. You got a lot of time. Do something good in the world.
Jonathan Mahrt: Yeah, well, it's easy money, though.
Allan Jaffe: It's also a lot of mostly foreign actors, and I'm not sure how much opportunity they have outside of that.
Jonathan Mahrt: That's a fair perspective.
Allan Jaffe: And actually, in other news from the Economist weeks ago, was an article about what's happening, you know, when people get actually kidnapped and they're in Asia and they're on these farms, these. In these big complexes, they're forced to do that.
Jonathan Mahrt: Wow.
Allan Jaffe: So it's not all people that want to do that.
Jonathan Mahrt: Yeah, that's a great perspective. So talk to top speed. So I want to jump. Keep moving here because we are getting surprisingly close to the end of time already. So what would you how do you. I want to talk a little bit about work life balance. So we've already touched on that. Personal life is just as important, if not more important than work life. So how do you balance. How have you, historically, you've lived a lot of life.
Allan Jaffe: Yes, I have.
Jonathan Mahrt: And so how have you over the years figured out how to balance that out? I'm also curious as someone with young children, how you did it when you had kids and how that's kind of ebbed and flowed for you over the years.
Allan Jaffe: So number one may not be the example to follow if you also talk to my wife, but I've been very lucky in my job. One of us has usually had flexibility in our jobs where we've been able to be with the kids at their events and things. And since I was with top speed and even before that, I had a pretty good amount of flexibility. So I could go to all those life events. The school, the school plays, the musicals, the sporting events and whatever else that they did. We could be there no matter. Really a lot of times, no matter how far they were away. There were some, you know, there was some driving involved and I could bring it with me and so could my wife. And that was, that was really good fortune, I think, in what, in the careers that we chose. I had a boss at Northpoint Communications years ago. This was right after I left sbc. And she doesn't call it work life balance. She calls it work life integration because she believed that balance, there's not really. The scales are never even right. There are times when you're slammed at work and you just can't get away. And then there are times when stuff goes on that I had my appendix out when this has got to be 25 years ago. And like an idiot, after surgery, I told my wife I needed to leave a voicemail for the person who I was going to have take over for me during the week that the two weeks I was gone. I was high, I was medicated, and that message became a joke around the office.
Jonathan Mahrt: That's fantastic.
Allan Jaffe: So work life. I don't know if I'm the right person to ask about work life balance.
Jonathan Mahrt: That's fair. Well, I mean, I. It's actually something that I've talked about with other guests. In terms, when we talk about work life balance, is that it is a misnomer, right? Because you're never. I, I think there's not a lot of people that can say it's ever perfectly 50, 50. It's more, I don't know, a seesaw.
Allan Jaffe: Well, and people who have a. Who. Whose schedule is rigid, they don't really have a choice. Right. You've got to, you got to show up at work at this hour and. And both my wife and I were in jobs like that too, and it was harder with kids.
Jonathan Mahrt: Yeah, that is. That is tough. I. I do, I do. I think especially not to. I also think that that tends to affect people in, you know, lower socioeconomic jobs. Definitely tend to have much more rigid hours and then dealing with those things are much more challenging.
Allan Jaffe: Yeah. Well, skilled and unskilled labor. They both have times they have to show up. They've got to do the job that. You can't phone that in. Right.
Jonathan Mahrt: Right. Yeah, for sure. That is one of you coming back to everything about perspective.
Allan Jaffe: Can't put parts on an aircraft from your house.
Jonathan Mahrt: That. That is true. What are the. Some of the things that you do to like, recharge your batteries outside of work? Stay. Stay fresh, stay sharp. Besides walking your wife's dog.
Allan Jaffe: Walking my wife's dog, yeah. Well, we like to. We like to be outside a lot. My wife's a cyclist, hiker. We like to kayak. We like to garden. I still play hardball. I play baseball with guys who are too young for me to be playing with right now.
Jonathan Mahrt: That's awesome.
Allan Jaffe: That is. That to me, that's a time when, you know, away from my family, where I get to hang out for four or five hours and, and play a game that I've grew up loving. I may not play very well, but I play with some guys who are very good.
Jonathan Mahrt: Yeah.
Allan Jaffe: And so that recharges me and like I said, just getting out and, and hiking with my wife or seeing other family members that. Oh, I, I love doing that.
Jonathan Mahrt: Yeah. No, that's. That's, that's awesome. I think it is important to. To take that time away from, you know, take the personal time and do things you enjoy and helps kind of like just check out a little bit from stresses of personal and, you know.
Allan Jaffe: Professional life and, and, well, listening to other people, even in social situation at a party, it helps give you ideas for maybe what you're doing. Because I always love to talk to people about what they're doing in their lives and it's a great source of inspiration and information.
Jonathan Mahrt: Yeah, I do think it is interesting. It's always so interesting to hear what other people are doing. I think that's one of the things I enjoy most about, you know, networking. It's very time consuming, but it is so interesting to hear about and it's one of the parts of the things I enjoy about doing this podcast is just getting people's different perspectives on life and learning about the different, you know, what. Their industries and their jobs. And there's so much you can learn and take away from talking to people.
Allan Jaffe: There are no shortcuts to that, for sure.
Jonathan Mahrt: It's just talking.
Allan Jaffe: Yeah. And listening.
Jonathan Mahrt: Yes, listening. What's the, you know, two ears, one mouth? Use them proportionally. Right.
Allan Jaffe: I used to have to get told that a lot when I was a child.
Jonathan Mahrt: It's something I try and keep in mind because I do. It's not so much they don't enjoy listening to other people, but I am sometimes don't leave enough space for a moment to breathe, you know, trying to fill in the quiet spaces and just keep talking because I don't feel like I'm getting anything from anyone.
Allan Jaffe: Well, I think that happens when you're engaged, too.
Jonathan Mahrt: That's fair. That's fair. Yeah. And I'm also. I always joke one of my favorite hobbies is offering unsolicited advice, so I have to be careful about that.
Allan Jaffe: Did you know my mother?
Jonathan Mahrt: No. I just grew up in a very, like, opinionated German family, and so opinions were. Were bountiful about the right and wrong things to do.
Allan Jaffe: As a Jew, we have a saying, if you have two Jews, you have three opinions. So I grew up with that as well.
Jonathan Mahrt: Yes, yes.
Allan Jaffe: I'm not sure if that's appropriate to say here, but it's inside baseball.
Jonathan Mahrt: You're Jewish. I am Jewish. I can't say that, but you can say that. The. No, I just, you know, I grew up in a family that just always. There's just like, there's a particular way that things should be done, and they really struggle to be able to see other perspectives, that there may be equally valid paths, even if you don't agree with them.
Allan Jaffe: I gotcha. Listen, I know there are quiet families. I didn't grow up in one night.
Jonathan Mahrt: Exactly. So what's, you know, part of on. The idea of on the flywheel is building and maintaining momentum in your personal and professional life. And so I'm curious, maybe if you could think of an event in your life, let's say professional, where you maybe, like, hit a bump, hit a roadblock that slowed you down, and, you know, what that was like and how you were able to overcome it and what you learned from it.
Allan Jaffe: Oh, goodness. I mean, I've failed a bazillion times, but I've certainly had bumps in the road. I Worked for a company that went bankrupt and I started as the vice president of sales and basically turned into the vice president of collections before we shut the doors. And those were not fun calls.
Jonathan Mahrt: Yeah.
Allan Jaffe: So, you know, you look for another. I think as a family guy, the one thing that I always kept in mind was if I have to, if I have to fry burgers or fries or whatever at a fast food restaurant to make sure that I can pay my mortgage and feed my family, I will do that.
Jonathan Mahrt: Yeah. Yeah.
Allan Jaffe: I think that's really what, what keeps me driven for that. And I, I do, I love helping my team and their clients. That to me, those are, you know, that's how you overcome any obstacle, is what, what is your mission?
Jonathan Mahrt: Yeah.
Allan Jaffe: At home, it's to make sure that everybody's taken care of. At work, it's kind of the same. Make sure everybody's taken care of.
Jonathan Mahrt: So you're. So what you're really saying is you're like the dad at top speed data.
Allan Jaffe: I don't know if I'm the dad. I don't know. Yeah, maybe.
Jonathan Mahrt: I think that is one of the, that attitude of like, I, you know, I'm just going to dig in and do whatever I have to do to, to, you know, make sure things are taken care of. I think that's lost a little bit on some people. You know, there's an, There's. I think we, we lose perspective that, you know, just even in the United States in general, we're an even. The people at the bottom of the ladder were relatively, were comparatively very wealthy to the rest of the world. And so there's a sense of entitlement that I've seen and like, even me, sometimes I have to check myself. But a sense of entitlement that, like, we deserve a certain standard of living and a certain job and a certain title and a certain amount of income, you know, and especially, I think I see it a lot too, with parents that worked really hard to provide for their children and their children grow up a certain way, and then they realize that how much work it is to maintain that lifestyle.
Allan Jaffe: You know, I, you know, so I'm the grandchild of immigrants, and I find that you see that as generations go after immigration, that the family that gets here works really hard just to scratch and claw. Then you have maybe that generation, the first generation that goes to college or also still has to work. My parents were middle class. They worked hard, but they kicked our butts and made sure that we did. I'm a baby boomer, so maybe That's. I don't know if that's necessarily different. There are a lot of privileged people my age.
Jonathan Mahrt: Yeah. I mean it happens in every generation. As much as the previous generation likes to crap on the next generation.
Allan Jaffe: You are right. You are right.
Jonathan Mahrt: But.
Allan Jaffe: Yeah, I mean, I think being in, in the richest country in the world and one of the richest in our state, the fourth richest economy in the world does help people forget that how they got there. Yeah, I think it's important not to.
Jonathan Mahrt: Yeah, I think, you know, my dad always taught me about leading from the front, you know, and being willing to do any job that you are. Will. That you are gonna ask anyone else to do, you know, and being given your background.
Allan Jaffe: Listen, I feel like I did a lot. I think every kid growing up should work in food service or in retail to learn how to do the dirty jobs and deal with humanity on a personal level and understand how to be a good customer. On the other hand.
Jonathan Mahrt: Or work on a farm.
Allan Jaffe: I was gonna say you're a step even beyond me. Being working on a farm. It's a mistress that will never let go of you. It's every day, all day, all times of the day.
Jonathan Mahrt: You, you could. I think what people don't understand that have never worked on a farm is that you literally could work 24 hours a day and the work will never be done. There's just no such. I mean, and that's kind of true of any job. If there was. If you got, if, you know, if you got.
Allan Jaffe: No, it's not like a cop. It was true. I don't know of any other jobs from emergency services that have that 24 hour a day. Like a farmer or a rancher.
Jonathan Mahrt: Yeah, yeah. Outside of. Yeah, outside of emergency for services or you know, a hospital. Right. You know, but it's just, it is, it is an interesting world and people don't. It's like that coming back to the perspective of things is there's always. Most people that have never worked on a farm don't realize how hard the work is and they take it for granted that their food just. And I could pontificate all day about agriculture, but the people don't take it for granted. Their food just shows up in the grocery store shelf.
Allan Jaffe: I spent very little time working in agriculture, but I can tell you from that very brief experience a lot of respect for what your family does.
Jonathan Mahrt: Yeah, I appreciate, I appreciate that. It's. Yeah, I'm always very passionate about it because that's, that's my background. And strong, you know, it's an important part of Sonoma county, and it is, it's been great to see Sonoma county kind of rally around agriculture the last couple years.
Allan Jaffe: Absolutely.
Jonathan Mahrt: That's been good. Well, we are kind of, we are about at the end of time, so I want to hit the, it's been lovely chatting with you, but I want to hit a couple bonus questions that I try and ask everyone and what are some of the, you know, I want to, I like to ask everyone about their favorite books. Either your, you know, your favorite book or a couple of the books that you've gifted the most to people. If you've got any off the top of your head that you can think about, sure.
Allan Jaffe: If we're talking business type books. I'm not a big fiction reader, so I like, I like history, I like reading business books, things like that.
Jonathan Mahrt: I'm with you.
Allan Jaffe: So books that I've given for a gift that I think are pretty valuable. I just gave this one recently, and it's an old book. It's nuts. It's by Herb Kelleher, the founder and former CEO of Southwest Airlines. And it's a great read. It's funny, but he talks a lot about customer service and even about firing customers. And those are, it's, it's good information to have. Great book. Leadership in Turbulent Times by Doris Kearns Goodwin really is, it's a, it's a political, it's about, you know, presidential leadership, but very valuable. And then the boss that I mentioned who talked about work, life, integration, Shelly Archambault wrote a book called Unapologetically Ambitious. And that's particularly valuable, I think, because it's written for women and minorities, because she is both. And it really talks about trying to eliminate imposter syndrome for women and making sure, you know, you have a place at the table as a woman or a minority. And I loved that book.
Jonathan Mahrt: Those are some great recommendations. I've never, well, I've heard of the Southwest book, but on that, I haven't heard of the other ones, so I will have to check those out. I love that. Thank you. And then the final, the final question for you is if you could put a billboard over the freeway that everyone could see, what would it say on it? What would you want people to be reminded about each day?
Allan Jaffe: Be kind.
Jonathan Mahrt: Great. Keep it simple.
Allan Jaffe: I'm a simple guy.
Jonathan Mahrt: Yeah, I think we, we, we forget, you know, you honk at that person that cut you off and you have no idea what's going on for them in their car. Was it intentional. Was it not intentional? They rushing to an emergency. What's the. What's the deal?
Allan Jaffe: There's a degree of anonymity when you put a windshield or a screen in front of somebody. And I think that we need to remember that the people behind those on the other side, just like us.
Jonathan Mahrt: Yeah. Whenever I cut someone off, I always have a good excuse. Right. We forget that.
Allan Jaffe: I only wish I could have a sign saying sorry or whatever.
Jonathan Mahrt: Always thought it'd be great to put, like, have a little LED sign in the back window and say, oops, that was my bad, I apologize. Or what was that for?
Allan Jaffe: I probably need that more and more.
Jonathan Mahrt: Well, Alan, it's been great having you on. Thank you so much. Is there any. Where can people find you? Do you want to throw out any links or things for people to check out?
Allan Jaffe: Oh, sure. Our website is www.topspeeddata.com. you can find us on LinkedIn. You can find me on LinkedIn. Same. Same way. That's it.
Jonathan Mahrt: That's great.
Allan Jaffe: See me around town.
Jonathan Mahrt: Yes. Thank you so. Thank you so much for being on. You can find the. The podcast at all the flywheel.com I'm with Flywheel Consulting, which you can find at flywheelconsulting co. Or find me on LinkedIn. Alan, thank you so much. Appreciate it. And we'll talk in soon.
Allan Jaffe: Thanks for having me.