Speaker 1: 0:31

John Gonzalez and the company is called Insperity and we do HR outsourcing.

Speaker 2: 0:35

Awesome and that. What does that entail, like, what exactly are you doing and what services are you helping businesses or clients with?

Speaker 1: 0:42

Sure, the idea is to get smaller, to provide smaller businesses with five employees or 15 or 25 employees the same type of environment and experience that their employees would have at a big Fortune 500, fortune 100 company. We provide them the technology and the people to help them through the hiring process all the way to retirement.

Speaker 2: 1:03

Okay. So when you talk about the environment, the same as like Fortune 500 companies and bigger companies. What exactly does that mean for the smaller companies?

Speaker 1: 1:12

Correct the idea of the field where I start with the, even the interview process. What does that process look like? What does the even further back, what does the process of sending out a job description? You know how often do they think about what that means? You know, with a bigger company, they've got you know 10 or 20 or 30 people working on these things and specifically for a division. You know they craft the job description, got you know 10 or 20 or 30 people working on these things and specifically for a division. You know they. They craft the job description. You know who they're looking for. They have people out there recruiting looking for these people. You know, looking through, you know, linkedin and other profiles to figure out who the best matches are and and who who to interview and who to take to the next level.

Speaker 1: 1:53

Smaller businesses 5, 10, 15, 25 employees. It's usually the CEO or the founder of the organization trying to do all that. So our goal is to help them, starting from that hiring process all the way to the retirement process, providing the technology that big companies have. You know a mobile app, a technology that big companies have. You know a mobile app, a website for employees to go to, to log in to see all their information, to learn about the company, how to grow. We give them the technology of how to do better at their job or do a different job.

Speaker 1: 2:28

Somebody wants to be a manager. What does that look like? You know we provide the technology and the videos and that sort of education, just like a larger company, you know, would Again right there on their phone, right there on their app, right there on their website. Same with benefits you know providing benefits. You know 401k have health insurance or a retirement plan, because they're too small or they just don't know how to provide that to employees of that, you know, of five or 10 or 15, 25 employees. And that's where we come into play and we provide that for them, similar to a very large company.

Speaker 2: 3:11

Wow, that is amazing because you actually don't stop to think about those small companies and how much help they actually do need with running their business and figuring out like, okay, I need to put this up to hire, I need to look for somebody, but what exactly do I put and who am I really looking for, like, what does this position entail? So that is awesome where you come in and you help them fill in those gaps and help them, like, make it an easy transition to do all of that.

Speaker 2: 3:34

Correct, so I think that is amazing make it an easy transition to do all of that Correct. So I think that is amazing. How did you get started in this industry? What made you want to do a business like this that helps the little guy?

Speaker 1: 3:42

Sure Good question. So somebody actually reached out to me to try and sell me on the services because I have a pro bono organization called US Charity Events where we just promote charity events across the country for free. And they looked at my website particularly and they looked at all the things I do across the country and the organizations that I'm involved with. Because one of the biggest things is how to present Insperity to even a nonprofit, because same thing with a small organization nonprofits pay a lot less, typically do not pay a lot in benefits or any benefits, because you know they are nonprofit organization. So got into a conversation and then a recruiter actually reached out to me to have a conversation too and said this is really in line with what we're trying to do in our culture, because the idea with Insperity also is that if you do feel good about your small business and you're in a community, you want to go work for a small business. Not everybody can work for a large, you know Fortune 500 type of company and most small areas, like here in Leesburg, loudoun County, you know, thrive on small businesses. So Insperity they felt that, or we feel that. You know, if you are paid well, if you have the right benefits. You feel confident in your job. You're being trained the right way.

Speaker 1: 5:03

Like a big company, you're going to get involved with the community. You're going to get involved with the culture of the company. You're going to help the company grow. You're going to brag about the company. You're going to go volunteer at church, school, temple, little league, lacrosse, soccer, softball, whatever it may be. You're going to get involved with non-profits. You're not going to be afraid to go and volunteer for the pto or the pta or volunteer for a charity, a big brothers, big sisters american Society, or a civic organization like a Rotary, a Kiwanis Club, because you're not afraid of having that structure in your company. Like a big Fortune 100, fortune 500 company, they're out there on LinkedIn promoting this and social media, promoting that. They encourage their individuals to do that. They encourage them to get out in the community because they're paying them well and the culture is very good and they've got the benefits. So why not have that for a small business of someone at $5, $15, $25, $50?

Speaker 2: 6:04

Yes, I can agree more. And now, speaking of lacrosse, I think I saw that you have a history of like with sports, I think coaching. Tell me a little bit about that.

Speaker 1: 6:13

Yeah, yeah. So I was an athlete my entire life and have four amazing kids, and a lot of them are very athletic. My one, daughter, is in runs track, the other one plays tennis and my son you mentioned lacrosse he plays lacrosse too and swims. And a football player as well, Wow you got busy, yeah.

Speaker 1: 6:33

So a friend of mine, again me feeling comfortable about my job, I was okay, okay, I have the time to volunteer to be, you know, to be a coach. So got asked to do that by a friend of mine, his coach, my son's coach. So very rewarding to be involved. You know, being an athlete, you know the fire never disappears, it just changes a little bit. My shifts. Exactly now, my fire, you know, can be, you know, with coaching and you know, not just my son but you know the other kids.

Speaker 1: 7:02

Yeah, exactly so. And then even you know their kid, their younger siblings, to see them excited about. You know sport too. It's been very rewarding, so Awesome.

Speaker 2: 7:11

I love that. I love that you have a little history there with like coaching and helping them get better.

Speaker 1: 7:15

Like the little the little team, yeah, absolutely Watching them go to the bigger leagues, absolutely.

Speaker 2: 7:20

Yeah, as far as with your business, what are some issues that you have seen with companies that you? It's kind of like a trend where you're like, wow, suddenly everybody's like coming in asking for help with all of this Is there anything in particular that you've seen?

Speaker 1: 7:34

Yeah, I think right now it's probably the cost of health insurance, because it's, you know, can be astronomical. It's, you know, can be astronomical, no matter you know what, who, who's in charge, who's elected, you know it's. It's county by county, state by state. Everything's so different and it's so difficult. And when you have a situation you know where you might have a death in the family or a pregnancy that goes, you know that your child has to be in the NICU for a week or two weeks.

Speaker 1: 8:02

You know, a lot of times you see health insurance go through the roof and especially in the small business world, they don't know how to maneuver.

Speaker 1: 8:07

When one person in five employees something happens dramatically, the cost for all five employees could go up considerably and a lot of small business owners don't know how to forecast that or figure out what to do next. It's just a matter of well, maybe I don't include health insurance anymore because I can't afford it. We try and help them through that process to figure out, okay, what is the worst case scenario? What do you do when this happens? How do we figure that out? You can't eliminate the risk, but you can anticipate it and structure your future around it. So we see a lot of that, a lot of questions about health insurance and the what if? Moments. Unfortunately, a lot of times it's after something like that happens, it's like what do we do now Instead of okay, I want to prepare for this? Not a lot of people are saying I want to prepare for this because I think this is going to happen to me when that's unfortunately they need to.

Speaker 1: 9:05

You have to prepare for that worst case scenario.

Speaker 2: 9:07

Absolutely yeah. You never know what could happen, so why not be prepared, as opposed to not?

Speaker 1: 9:11

right, Exactly exactly.

Speaker 2: 9:13

And now tell me a little bit about marketing. How are you marketing what you do, what you offer to businesses and clients? Are you big on social media? Are you going to maybe B&Is or other networking groups?

Speaker 1: 9:26

Sure, Great question. Our company does a great job with providing us with a lot of content to post on LinkedIn and Twitter and Facebook and other Instagram and other outlets. They encourage us to get out in the community. Personally, I'm very heavily involved in say chamber of commerce, Loudoun Chamber of Commerce, the Reston Chamber of Commerce, Arlington Chamber of Commerce, the Fairfax Chamber of Commerce, Dulles Chamber of Commerce.

Speaker 2: 9:48

Oh my goodness.

Speaker 1: 9:49

Member of a BNI involved with Rotary as well as a lot of nonprofit organizations. I'm on the board of a nonprofit called IAS and they help individuals that are non-speaking. About 70% are autistic. The founder of the organization has come up with a thing called a letter board where they're able to point and start spelling. So it's been very rewarding again getting involved with the community. Once you do that, you go on a board. You're then involved with the board, you get to know board members, other industries, um. So for me it's been very involved with non-profits and my nonprofit background with the us charity events, um, being able to promote, you know, charities and being involved with them, going to charity walks and golf tournaments and you know different things lunches and galas.

Speaker 1: 10:40

To me, that's where I like to do a lot of my marketing, because you get to see people and you're not selling to them, you're having conversations, you're making an impact, exactly making an impact together, and it's usually like what do you do? And then I'll ask them what they do and we'll have a conversation. Oh, I'm a lawyer. Oh, I do employment law. Oh, I'd love to refer you know somebody in to uh to help and you know to help you, uh, you know, within spare day, I had this situation, I have that situation, and vice versa. Cause, to me, that's what it's always about, you know, uh, helping somebody else first, um, you know, and then someone's always gonna. It's the law reciprocity.

Speaker 2: 11:14

Yes, yes. And now, why is that so important to you? Like the beginning, like what, what touched you to want to give back to the community, did something or anything happen where it kind of changed you.

Speaker 1: 11:26

yeah, definitely, definitely my parents. I would say the loss of my mom. She had lupus for a very long time, um, yeah, thanks, and it was very difficult, um, but I look back and saw, uh, how often, how everything she was involved with the community you know, know in church, in the schools, in you know Boy Scouts, cub Scouts, all those different things as kids and then later in life when my dad passed away during COVID, I knew it came from him. Thank you, especially with the coaching and the inspiration and being involved, you know, in my occupation and stuff like that. But it wasn't until reading a lot of his things that he did and I didn't realize it or didn't remember that. You know he was involved with Rotary, he was involved with American Cancer Society, red Cross Society, but he would also do outreach. And we grew up in a small little town in New Jersey called Woodstown, new Jersey, home of the longest continuously running Saturday night rodeo in the country called Cowtown.

Speaker 2: 12:23

I did not know that. Okay, not in Texas, not in Oklahoma, new Jersey.

Speaker 1: 12:27

Woodstown, new Jersey. Yeah. So I got to learn a lot about what he was doing and he was inviting the presidents of the United States to come to our tiny little town to come speak at a luncheon there was no galas or golf tournaments back then, it was just a luncheon or go to the cafeteria at the high school or go to a church. And I have letters that he would send to say you know Richard Nixon, you know President Nixon and Carter and these different individuals inviting them. I don't have documentation or letters back from the presidents, but I do have them from different chief of staff and different individuals. So that was very fascinating to see that. And so a lot of people you know. I've showed that to them and they said see, this is where you get it from, not just that you're involved with the community, but you're not afraid of asking someone whether it's the president of the.

Speaker 1: 13:16

United States or the governor or a local politician or, you know, CEO of a company to come out and support a nonprofit and be involved with certain things.

Speaker 2: 13:24

So yeah, absolutely yeah, and not just your dad, but your mom, both of them were always so involved in the community, so it's only right that you continue on that legacy right With your family. That is awesome. That's incredible. So you grew up in New Jersey. How did you end up in Northern Virginia, or how did that?

Speaker 1: 13:41

Yeah, I came for my wife who lived in DC. So we decided to come here and recreate a life in Loudoun County, first moved to Ashburn and then tried to move out to Luckett's to do a winery. We were going to do a winery. We had about 13 acres.

Speaker 1: 13:59

Oh, about 13 acres, oh wow yeah. And we did all these things. We had kids right away and I was a you know, stay-at-home dad trying to do this, trying to do some consulting as well in the non-profit space, and it took about an hour an acre just to mow, oh man, yeah. So it kind of defeated a little bit of the idea and this dream of having a winery, so decided that was okay, decided then to go and work for a winery called RDV it was one of the first $100 bottles of wine to come out of Virginia. So I moved my passion a little bit, that flame, just like being an athlete, you know the passion of wine and doing something with your hands.

Speaker 1: 14:37

I just moved it over to somebody else's dream Pivot a little bit, Exactly, pivot a little bit yeah bit and help them with with their dream. So you know, we Ended up and been here for under about 16 years now.

Speaker 2: 14:49

Wow, that is a long time now so you're basically like home, home.

Speaker 1: 14:53

Yeah, loudoun County's the home. Yeah, that's awesome.

Speaker 2: 14:55

And now, where do you see yourself five years like, with your company and with yourself as a person?

Speaker 1: 15:01

good question. Um, I think we're done, you know, having kids. We've got four amazing kids, you know 15 year old twin daughters, a 13 year old son and a five-year-old daughter. Um, so I, you know, to me life's about them right now and seeing where they want to go, preparing for high school and their sports and their education, um, you know, getting them involved with the community, getting them involved with different things, planning for college, planning for, you know, you know, anything else they want to do, whether they want to be athletes in college as well, and preparing them for what do they want to do, you know, in life, so that you know that takes up a lot of time, you know, mentally, you know, focusing on that and figuring that out, you know, with them, with them.

Speaker 1: 15:42

Five years from now, business-wise, I'd like to be at the top level of our company and be able to have enough clients that I've helped throughout the next five years and the past year that I've been there to help their businesses grow. I've seen that a lot with the clients I have brought on. We brought on, you know, we brought on started about five or six or 10, and now they're growing up to 20 and 30 and 50 employees. So it's very rewarding, you know, to see that, to get referrals from them Because they can say, oh, this is what john did, this is what john and disparity did, this is how they helped us. You know, grow and now we're, you know, giving back to our you know community, whether grow and now we're giving back to our community, whether it's in Florida or Oklahoma or New York or wherever it may be. That's awesome.

Speaker 1: 16:24

So, again, I think, just being there for the kids, 100% focus on them, but also 100% focused on you know, which I know adds up to 200%, but it's a little difficult, but you know, trying to pivot your mindset. You know, on a daily basis, on an hourly basis, from you know what do the kids need, what do the kids want to? Okay, how do you provide for them? How do you help and grow your own business?

Speaker 2: 16:49

Yeah, yeah, okay, and now currently with your business, how many employees do you have? Or is it mostly just you, and you have maybe a couple.

Speaker 1: 16:57

Yeah, so it's really just me. We're all employed individually. We're called business performance advisors. So in this area, Adam McLean, there's 30 of us, and then there's three admins, three district managers, and then we have a staff that's in there about, say, 30 individuals that provide the HR services the payroll experts, the compliance experts, the benefits experts, safety experts and different individuals to help then our clients.

Speaker 2: 17:26

That is awesome, and is there anything that you want people to know about your company and why they should hire you or why they should be looking into those services as a small company?

Speaker 1: 17:37

Yeah, good question. I mean it's really about having the conversation. You know what is your plan, why did you start the company and you know what's your plan after you started the company. Do you want to sell it? You know, in five years, 20 years? You know 50 years, you know. Do you want to turn it over to your kids? You know what's your transition period. Do you want to grow?

Speaker 1: 17:56

Does growth mean money? Does it mean a building? Does it mean multiple buildings? Does it mean multiple locations? Does it mean lots of employees or a little amount of employees? But lots of. You know lots of, lots of revenue, lots of sales.

Speaker 1: 18:10

You know what that really means to someone, and for me it's about sitting down like this, being able to invite someone to your kitchen table. My parents always said that do business with the people that you want to have lunch, breakfast, dinner, with the people that you want to introduce your kids to or your parents to. So to me that's very important. I feel like at the company level in Spirity, it's very much like that. No matter where we are in the country, we do a lot of events. We're based out of Houston, so we do a lot of annual events there, semi-annual events there, training sessions and you hear the culture. The story duplicated throughout the country. So it really feels good and I think no matter where a company is a potential client, they can feel good about what we provide and we back that up. Been around since 1986, very strong public company and again the focus of being our culture to bring the passion to an area and give back to that community so that community can thrive and now you say you hold events.

Speaker 2: 19:20

Um, what kind of events are these and do you have any coming up right now?

Speaker 1: 19:24

yeah, so I'm involved with a lot of different charity events that I volunteer for. Um, in sparity, you know, does a lot of uh, sponsoring those events, you know little things like every Friday, we'll do office hours we call it at Topgolf, from two to five, where potential customers, potential clients, referral partners we call them center of influence, cois we invite them to come free of charge to just, you know, learn about Insperity, learn about what we do, and we always invite a charity to come and speak and get to know people and learn about what we're trying to accomplish and why and why we think it's important to give back to your community. So we do that every Friday. There's a lot of events that will pop up. We'll do a dinner, a luncheon, a happy hour, golf tournaments. Like I said, I think in the beginning, focus a lot of time on GovCon, national security, startup tech. So we'll bring them together with some bankers or investment type individuals, venture capital, private equity companies and put them together on a golf course.

Speaker 2: 20:31

Get to know each other.

Speaker 1: 20:32

Exactly Understand what kind of needs they have outside of just HR and you know benefits okay yeah, and now, when you're not doing all of this, who are you as a person?

Speaker 2: 20:42

what are your hobbies if you have time? Yeah, you're an entrepreneur like it's hard to make time for yourself sometimes yeah, but yeah, what do?

Speaker 1: 20:49

you like to do yeah, I mean it varies from day to day, especially because because of you know the kids, you know I spend a lot of time, you know with them and their activities, so maybe you know walking, running, jogging during their events. You know getting your steps in Two for one. Yeah, so I've come up with a goal of, you know, a minimum of 10 miles a day, and I was trying to do 100 floors a day.

Speaker 2: 21:14

I 10, uh, 10 miles a day and I was trying to do a hundred floors a day, so it's. It is funny.

Speaker 1: 21:20

Cause I can't even picture myself doing this. But that's awesome, yeah, um. So it started at 50 floors and then I'm a easy math person and it's I always want to double things, you know, cause it's just easy math, right? So 50, let's do a hundred. So I did a hundred floors and then it was okay, easy math. Well, can I do 200 floors, never thinking about how long this is going to take me. It's just like okay, I get up earlier, if I get up at 6, I've got to get up at 4. Or if I'm running at 6, I've got to run until 8, or I've got to run until 9 or 10 o'clock at night, whatever it may be, to accomplish that. So I did, I accomplished the 200. Then I'm like, same week, and I did it on a Monday, and say, you know, on a Sunday, and you know, felt good about, yeah, about that. So it's working those kind of things in while focusing on the kids and their activities.

Speaker 1: 22:02

Love golf, love the outdoors, love hiking, biking although I haven't done in a long time always love that. The beach is my you know the serenity, the you know my you know. Toes in the sand, the water, listening to it, the feel of it. Either you can do a lot of stuff or do absolutely nothing. You know looking at picking up shells or just watching people have fun little kids, you know. Or running around throwing the ball around, or you know adults, you know surfing, you know. So definitely outdoors, things that are outdoors, yeah.

Speaker 2: 22:35

I know, I think that's great. It's nothing like being outdoors. It's so easy to stay cooped up inside or scrolling your phone, so when and if you can get outdoors.

Speaker 1: 22:44

that is everything my dad used to have these sayings that were called blue skies and follow the sunshine, that's true.

Speaker 1: 22:52

And it's just, you know, he lived in Florida before he passed away and I'd call him up daily and I'm like you know, Dad, how's Sanibel Island? And he's like John, blue skies, not a cloud in the sky, right, I love that. And then later, when he was actually in a wheelchair before he passed away, and we were at a sporting event down in Tampa and we were looking for this, this suite that we we were going to, and the security guard, you know, said, oh, all you got to do is follow, follow the sunshine. It's like what it was just turn down there and follow the sunshine. You were like wait, like yeah, and there was this little peak of sunshine coming out from inside of the stadium and that was just like, oh, that was perfect, combining blue skies, the sunshine and that again the feeling I have when I go out and do recreation see outside, be outside. There's no sensation better than blue skies and follow the sunshine.

Speaker 2: 23:40

So poetic Love that and is there anything that maybe I have missed? I want to make sure I get all those key points, make sure we get the word out there, anything that you want to share that maybe I haven't touched on.

Speaker 1: 23:52

Yeah, no, I think it's really again giving back to the community, getting involved. There's so many things that are out there. I mean Loudoun County alone, you know 100 to 200 different nonprofits with all their events you know that they do in the DC area there's, you know, thousands. So for me, it's just about. I love getting the word out there and the more people that know about these events, the less the non-profit organizations have to do, um to and the cost of doing that, um, you know the cost of promoting, the cost of getting out there in the community. Instead, they can focus on the projects and the people that they help, you know, because the need is huge, it's absolutely huge.

Speaker 1: 24:29

Whether it's military families, you know, uh, individuals that, um, you know are homeless youth, I, whether it's military families, you know individuals that you know are homeless youth. I mean, it's just incredible. Someone that lost their job, someone needs help with a resume writing, someone that needs, you know, a lift up, a hand up. You know someone who needs, you know, shelter. Here it is. We live in the wealthiest county in the entire world. We still have a lot of need. So it's really just about getting more people involved, more people engaged, if you can't give your money, you can give your time and you give your expertise. So I just want more people to know about that, I guess.

Speaker 2: 25:03

That kind of goes hand in hand with my last question that I was going to ask you of. If you could leave a message for our listeners, what would that message be? It could tie into what you just said.

Speaker 1: 25:18

It could be on another topic or anything that's been in your heart, that could be completely off topic. Yeah, I think it's really. I think it's really that you know, like, give your time, um, if you can't give your money, give your expertise, whether it's daily, weekly, monthly, just you know, have that commitment, write it down that you're doing it. You know, just pick one cause, one thing you know that that moves you um, whether it's coaching, whether it's getting involved with church, temple, school, um or a or nonprofit organization. Just go ahead and do it, but write it down. Hold yourself accountable. When you write things down um, look at it daily, write it on you, you know, write it on your hand, um just to remind you um, you know, some people write it on their mirror before they.

Speaker 2: 25:54

Yes, lipstick, yeah, exactly.

Speaker 1: 25:56

Exactly little things like that, just to enjoy life, appreciate life, appreciate all that you have. I mean, it's great that you want more, but look at what you have and look at the people around you that don't have maybe what you have and just lift somebody else up. There's always somebody out there that needs, you know, being needs to be lifted up. You know, and do it for the right reasons. Don't do it to get something out of it. Do it because it feels good and you know. But one day somebody will you know, somebody will give back to you whether it's holding the door for you. If you hold the door, you know, I can't tell you how many times I've stood in a line for a coffee. And you're buying a coffee. I'm like, okay, what should I buy? I only have this much money. Next thing, I know somebody buys your coffee. I'm like what just happened? I'm like, okay, I've got to buy somebody behind me. I've seen it in the drive-thru lanes at a fast food restaurant, just little things like that.

Speaker 1: 26:48

They're $2, $5, $10 purchases, but you leave there feeling so good, but then that sense of obligation to give it back in some way. Again, the law of reciprocity.

Speaker 2: 27:00

Yes, thank you so much. That's such a good message. I love that it makes you feel really good and it's powerful. So thank you so much for being here for sharing your time and sharing your story and wisdom with us. We really appreciate it.

Speaker 1: 27:10

Thank you. Thank you for your time.