We recently connected with Jason Day and have shared our conversation below.
Jason , looking forward to learning from your journey. You’ve got an amazing story and before we dive into that, let’s start with an important building block. Where do you get your work ethic from?
I’ve been very fortunate in my life in regard to who I was surrounded with and looked up to. My Dad was an incredibly hard worker. He’d wake up every day at 5am, catch a train to downtown Chicago to work and return each night not till after 8pm. And he did this every day. My Mom also was an incredibly hard worker and demanded the same from us. For me, specifically though, my biggest inspiration came from my oldest brother. He’s 19 yrs my senior so when I was born he was already in college. As a kid I got to watch him work his way through medical school and then his subsequent residency as he became a doctor. And since then I’ve watched how incredibly hard he’s worked his entire career. Plus, nothing was ever handed to me as a kid. I didn’t have an “allowance” or anything like that. If you wanted money, you had to do something to earn it I would go caddy at the local golf course when I was 13yrs old for $20/loop plus tips, which back then was great money. Or I’d mow the lawn, rake leaves, snow blow the driveway….anything to earn money. And when I was 16, I started working at Arby’s and a few other jobs while I was in High School. My parents filed for bankruptcy when I was 16 so when I turned 18, I moved out and began supporting myself while also putting myself through school. Work ethic is just something that was embedded into me as a kid and has carried on with me throughout my life.
Great, so let’s take a few minutes and cover your story. What should folks know about you and what you do?
I own 2 restaurants in Murfreesboro, TN called “Joanie’s.” They are both named after my late Mom, Joan, as she was such a huge part of my life and everything I have that’s enabled me to do this I’ve got from her. After working in healthcare administration for the better part of 11 years, I just didn’t have a passion for it and before I got to the end of my life I wanted to take a big swing at something that would challenge me and really see what I was made of. Plus I hated talking end-of-life with people for a profession and I wanted to do something that made people happy. So I took every dime I had saved, quit my job in California, and moved to Tennessee to begin building this restaurant. I had no restaurant experience but that’s what I liked about it. Again, I wanted to challenge myself. Of course, not having any experience lent itself to all kinds of issues in the beginning. Namely going well over budget and time on the build out to where, by the time we could finally open, I was flat broke and in debt. All the money I had saved for my entire life was gone. This was truly an “all-in” venture. In the beginning I worked most all of the shifts (both cooking and out front) while also managing the store and running its social media, marketing, etc. I would work all day then go home and work on the website till 2am and then do it all over the next day. Just as we began to get some traction, COVID hit 4 months into being open and derailed our momentum. But I think because I had no prior experience I was able to adapt pretty quickly, as I didn’t really know the difference. So we never closed, but just shifted operations to a carry out operation and expanded the menu to include more dinner options, etc. Long story short we pulled thru and coming out of COVID had a much more expansive menu and the place really began to take shape. Fortunately it became quite popular and within the next year I was fortunate enough to come across space in our beautiful downtown Square area where I would then build our 2nd location. We’re just about to hit 4 years at our original location and 2 years at our downtown location.
There is so much advice out there about all the different skills and qualities folks need to develop in order to succeed in today’s highly competitive environment and often it can feel overwhelming. So, if we had to break it down to just the three that matter most, which three skills or qualities would you focus on?
I think, as I previously mentioned, having parents and siblings all with incredible work ethics served me well navigating through this process. My Mom never allowed me to have a pity party when COVID hit or when things looked bad but rather encouraged me to get to work. To this day I can still hear her voice in my head when I want to start feeling sorry for myself or am having a bad day. My Mom was a tough lady and she made us tough, which is a big reason my restaurants are named after her. As for advice – the best advice I could offer would be to bet on yourself and put yourself in an uncomfortable position that you’re forced to navigate though. Only then do we really find out who we truly are. When there’s no safety net and you have no choice but to get through things. That’s when we really find out what we’re capable of. Moreover, be willing to put in the work. With few exceptions in life nothing positive happens without hard work.
Alright so to wrap up, who deserves credit for helping you overcome challenges or build some of the essential skills you’ve needed?
As previously mentioned, my parents were a huge part of my life. Again, to this day I can still hear my Mom’s voice in my head when I’m facing adversity or having a bad day. My oldest brother, Bart, has also been an enormous part of my life. He’s everything I aspired to be. He worked so hard to get the career he has now and I’ve been fortunate enough to watch that from the very beginning to now. I always looked up to him and he’s been a huge part of my life being able to come to him for advice, as he’s truly the smartest person I know.
Contact Info:
- Website: http://www.joaniesboro.com
- Instagram: @joanieboro
- Facebook: Facebook.com/joanieboro
Image Credits
Samuel Haslett
