An Interview With Candice Georgiadis
Communication and organization — Making sure to keep each other in the loop about what is going on with our busy schedules is more important than ever.
As a part of our series about lessons from Thriving Power Couples, I had the pleasure of interviewing Jonathan & Rebecca Falcon.
Jonathan & Rebecca Falcon are Hudson Valley residents that operate Slutsky Lumber in Ellenville, NY. They purchased the lumberyard in the summer of 2021 and have shifted from corporate life in New York City to running a small business in the Catskills. They have both embraced their new life upstate.
Thank you so much for doing this with us! Can you tell us a story about what brought you two to your respective career paths?
Both of us had corporate jobs in Manhattan for almost the last 10 years. Rebecca has always loved all things related to design since visiting Macy’s and Bergdorf Windows as a little girl. She worked doing corporate visual merchandising and later 3D design. She was still working from home when Jon left his foodservice consulting job to work full time on Slutsky Lumber. He always had a passion for woodworking and met the owners of a small lumberyard in the Catskills that were looking to retire.
We worked our full-time jobs when we purchased the lumberyard but quickly realized how much more satisfying running our own business was versus working for others. Once it became feasible, Jon left his job. After almost two years of working from home, glued to the computer, Rebecca joined him. She now offers design consultation and interior decorating. Our skills complement each other well — Jon handles operations and logistics while Rebecca handles marketing and design.
Can you share the most interesting story that happened to you since you two got married?
I think the most interesting thing that has happened since we got married was moving from the city to a farm and completely changing our careers at the same time. We had planned a weekend upstate with friends for March 15, 2020 and once we got here the world locked down. Our friends returned to New York City but we ended up staying for what we thought would be a month in the Hudson Valley. Since getting married, we got rid of our apartment in the city, moved upstate and bought a lumberyard. All of this was an unexpected adventure that we wouldn’t have believed would ever happened.
It has been said that our mistakes can be our greatest teachers. Can you share a story about the funniest mistake you made when you were first starting? Can you tell us what lesson you learned from that?
Watching Jon on the forklift at first was funny for a while. Pretty much trying to use any machinery or move any wood in the lumberyard is a lot harder than it looks. A lot of the work done there requires skill and knowledge more than strength to be done efficiently. We gained a lot of respect for the people who work what many consider to be unskilled jobs in construction. Working in the yard as a picker or loading and unloading trucks requires a lot of skill. This is especially true at our place which is located on an old farm with items stored in modified barns rather than a proper warehouse.
What do you think makes your company stand out? Can you share a story?
Slutsky Lumber is the last lumberyard remaining in Ellenville, NY. Thirty years ago, there were three other competitors in the area that have closed over time. A reputation for quality lumber and great service has kept our doors open. A lot of locals come to us but also people from further away when they need something rare that other stores most likely don’t carry. Our staff all has extensive experience and can spend a lot of time helping customers with their specific questions or challenges.
Recently, someone came to our store looking to replace some cedar shingles that were an odd size. Cedar products are very hard to come by these days but we had what they were looking for and were also able to help explain to them how exactly to install them. Asking questions on how to use items bought from big box stores is pretty much useless. Our staff is able to walk customers through all different sized projects — from insulating your basement, to building a deck.
Are you working on any exciting new projects now? How do you think that will help people?
Yes, we are! We’ve just launched the 2023 Slutsky Lumber Calendar. It features local artists, business owners and customers taking cheeky pictures around the lumberyard. A portion of the proceeds are going to support Family of Ellenville, a local nonprofit. They offer crisis intervention, emergency short term counseling, child care, emergency housing services and a lot of other crucial services to people in need in the community.
We also recently started building tiny homes on wheels at the lumberyard. There is a housing shortage in the Hudson Valley and Catskills. Tiny houses on wheels are an affordable option for people looking to get their own place. We’re also working to get the tiny homes on farms in the area to help farmers who struggle to find affordable housing for their seasonal staff.
What advice would you give to other CEOs or founders to help their employees to thrive?
When shifting careers or starting a passion project, keep your full-time job as long as you can handle both. Having stable income for as long as possible allows entrepreneurs to take bigger risks with their passion projects. Outside income makes it easier to pay your employees before you pay yourself.
Delegating and trusting employees is key. There is a lot that goes into running a business and nothing is more important than working with people who show up and care about what they are doing.
How do you define “Leadership”?
Leadership is finding the right person for the job and engaging with them so they take ownership and pride in what they do. Once a business hires employees, leadership is what sets the culture of the organization.
None of us are able to achieve success without some help along the way. Is there a particular person who you are grateful towards who helped get you to where you are? Can you share a story about that?
Kelly, the manager of the lumberyard has made buying and operating Slutsky Lumber possible. He has worked at the store since the mid 1980s when he was in his 20s. He agreed to stay and work with us for a few years to teach us the ins and outs of the business. Even though he no longer owns the store, he still takes a lot of pride and ownership in what he does.
Pretty much everyday, Kelly goes above and beyond as the manager of the store. He’s the type of guy who will spend an hour walking a customer through a project. I’ve even seen him goes as far as stopping at a customer’s house on the way home to give them advice on getting a project done.
How have you used your success to bring goodness to the world?
We have conducted one building workshop at the lumberyard and hope to host many more in the coming year. Becoming a hub where people can come to learn different building practices is important to us. We see that the average age of carpenters going up and that a lot of knowledge isn’t being passed down to another generation. We are planning on our workshops to allow younger homeowners or aspiring contractors to pick up some useful, technical skills.
What are the “5 Things You Need To Thrive As A Couple”? Please share a story or example for each.
•Communication and organization — Making sure to keep each other in the loop about what is going on with our busy schedules is more important than ever.
•Time together without discussing work — We make it a point to have a date night during the week where we don’t discuss work. Since we never clock in/out it’s easy to let our venture consume a lot of what we do at home. Taking a break from even talking about work for a few hours is necessary.
•Patience — There’s a lot of frustrating things that happen running a business. We are both very patient with each other and try to avoid getting frustrated when anything doesn’t go as expected.
•Trust — We always trust each other to make the right decision when we are working independently.
•Sense of humor — It’s important to be able to laugh at some of the issues that come up. It’s better to be able to laugh at issues that can’t be fixed than let them get you upset.
You are people of great influence. If you could inspire a movement that would bring the most amount of good to the most amount of people, what would that be? You never know what your idea can trigger. 🙂
We’d love to inspire people to find ways to make their houses greener. A lot of people don’t realize little things they can do to make their home more energy efficient, even if it is a rental. Blocking cracks under doors or properly sealing windows can go a long way to reduce your energy consumptions. Insulating a basement or attic can also save a significant amount of oil or electric from being used to heat a house.
Can you please give us your favorite “Life Lesson Quote”? Can you share how that was relevant to you in your life?
You are responsible for your own happiness. We were both waiting and expecting things to happen at our old jobs that would make us happier or more satisfied. Going off on our own showed us that we needed to take more control over our work life to be happy. We think a lot of people get stuck in a repetitive, comfortable cycle instead of taking risks to potentially live a happier life.
We are very blessed that some of the biggest names in Business, VC funding, Sports, and Entertainment read this column. Is there a person in the world, or in the US with whom you would love to have a private breakfast or lunch with, and why? He or she might just see this if we tag them 🙂
We’d love to meet Anthony Capuano, the CEO of Marriott. We both think of our lumberyard as a kind of hospitality company as much as it is a construction company. We love when people want to spend time at our store, picking staff’s brains or asking questions about different things they want to build at home.
How can our readers follow your work online?
Instagram @slutskylumber
Thank you so much for joining us. This was very inspirational.
Lessons from a Thriving Power Couple, With Jonathan & Rebecca Falcon of Slutsky Lumber was originally published in Authority Magazine on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.