Today, I’m getting a little personal and sharing a story about my parents, Albee and Karen Allstadt, who are retired now and living a healthy, fulfilling life. But that’s not where their story began.

When I was born, they didn’t have health insurance.

My dad was an art teacher and wrestling coach. My mom was a substitute teacher and bank teller. They were both working multiple jobs, but it wasn’t enough.

So they got scrappy.

They took out a loan and bought two dozen Kirby vacuum cleaners. They sold them door-to-door, determined to earn enough money to pay the hospital bills from my birth.

That was the beginning.

A few years later, they opened a vacuum store in Apple Valley, Minnesota (while keeping their day jobs). Then a second location and eventually left their day jobs. Over the years they built a successful business with a flagship location and a service center. Along the way, they survived setbacks that would have ended most young businesses, including losing their prime location to eminent domain.

Instead of giving up, they convinced a bank to give them a loan, and started over. It worked.   

I grew up watching my parents do whatever it took to build their business. Selling vacuum cleaners. Demonstrating them on the showroom floor. Repairing them. Taking trade-ins. Serving customers. Finding opportunities where others saw obstacles. (After all, it was a “sucky” business).  

For 30 years, showing up to work every Saturday, because that was their busiest day.

They built something from nothing. More importantly, they taught me that scrappy isn’t something to hide: It’s a mindset and a way of life.

It’s resourcefulness when resources are limited. It’s courage when the outcome is uncertain. It’s finding a way when there doesn’t seem to be one.

Looking back, I realize I bring that scrappy with me to work every day… through years of corporate leadership, reinventions, and through moments when there wasn’t a clear path forward.

And… I’m bringing it now… walking alongside my coaching clients and helping them to find their own version of “scrappy” through their reinventions.

I’m realizing that some of the most important lessons my parents taught me were never spoken… they lived them. My parents brought their scrappy to work every day, and I’m still doing my best to bring mine.

Has anyone ever showed you how to be scrappy?