Episode 109: Get Involved And Give Back To Your Community With Jeremy Parsons
Jeremy Parsons has spent many years as a high school teacher and coach before achieving his childhood dream of becoming a Fair Manager. Today, we interview Jeremy about his family background of volunteerism in the community and how it led to his love of the Fair and creating a career that fulfills him.
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Get Involved And Give Back To Your Community With Jeremy Parsons
In this episode, I interviewed Jeremy Parsons, who has spent many years as a high school teacher and coach before achieving his childhood dream of becoming a Fair Manager. He has served as the CEO/Manager of the Clay County Fair in Spencer, Iowa, since 2011. He's a passionate advocate for the fair industry and is currently the Board Chairman for the International Association of Fairs & Expositions.
He has four priorities in life that he attempts to keep in order which are faith, family, the Chicago Cubs, and fairs. During this interview, we discuss his background of volunteerism with his family and what he was taught by his parents about getting involved in the community that has now led him to his love of the fair and creating a career that fulfills him.
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Jeremy, would you like to start off by giving you a little introduction to yourself?
I have the honor to serve as CEO of the world's greatest county fair, a large county fair in Spencer, Iowa. I'm one of those people that people say, “What do you do for a living? You don't do that year-round, do you?” Yes, event planning is year-round. I lead a team of twelve that puts on the event here as well as 300 other events throughout the year.
Besides that, more importantly, I'm a dad of three sons. My wife and I have been married for many years and are actively involved in the community as well. I enjoy being in the public eye so much. I'm also a public school board member. I've also spent time serving on both the Chamber of Commerce and the CBB here in Clay County.
You’re also the Chair for the IAFE, correct?
That’s correct, the International Association of Fairs & Expositions. I am serving a one-year term as chairman of the board and representing the entire industry throughout 2023.
I met IAFE and I am speaking there. I'm so happy to have you on because it's an interesting field. I learned a lot while I was there and am excited to hear your story. I like to start in the very beginning. Where did you grow up? What did your parents do?
I'm a Native of Southern Iowa. I grew up in a small town of about 2,000 people. I am with my mom and dad and one sister, just a normal rural Midwest upbringing. I didn't live on the farm but was very close to the farm and agriculture. I grew up with my grandparents in the same community, the stereotypical, maybe small, rural small town that has one stoplight, all that type of thing. I got to be involved in a lot of activities through high school, sports, FFA, and various things like that, then went off to college and got a degree in English. What do you do with a degree in English? You run a fair. Life takes a lot of interesting twists and turns for sure.
What was your father's occupation? What did he do?
He worked for the USDA, United States Department of Agriculture, in their natural resource conservation field. He was involved with a lot of soil conservation work and natural resource work. My mom was a stay-at-home mom but also operated an in-home childcare business, then later went to work for the State of Iowa, doing some work in the childcare field, like the registering and certifying of in-home daycares.
Were you involved at all with either of your parent's occupations? Did they take you with them or did you learn about it?
I was involved with my dad's volunteer occupation, which was serving as president of our county fair board and that’s where the love for fair came from. Not to their job but we did a lot of what my parents called forced family fun. Volunteer work like painting, cleaning at the fairgrounds, and those types of things. That got me started in this business but when I even looked back at public service, my dad was a school board member and a city council member. Both of them were heavily involved in our community and volunteer-type activities and through our church as well. A lot of my memories growing up are not so much about my parents' jobs but it was more about their volunteer jobs. It became like the family's job, basically.
How did your dad get involved with fairs in the first place? Why was this a volunteer area for him?
Again, my parents were both actively involved in the community. He was involved in several activities in Leon, Iowa, which is where I grew up in. That just led to being involved at the fair. He spent time on the fair board there and obviously, that was my introduction to the business as well.
What did you like about it as a kid? What was it about the fair that you enjoyed?
As a kid, I think the fair was a lot of work. From my perspective, growing up in what happened to get ready for the fair. I did not show livestock at the fair but exhibited in other areas. It’s not only seeing other families come out and enjoy the fair but that's where I spent a lot of time with my family as I look back at that.
What were you exhibiting?
All sorts of things in different like creative arts activities. Also stuff out of the garden, fruits and vegetables, and those types of things.
Did your parents ever talk about why they loved it and what it was to them?
They're still both evolved at the fair. My mom is. My dad is no longer but I think the same thing. For them, it was a way to give back to the community. As you get older, you look back at things your parents did and you're like, “Why did they do that?” Now, as you get older, you see the importance that they obviously placed in the community and giving back.
Community Service: Kids are so accepting of whoever, whenever, and whatever. In some ways, they should be models for the rest of us.
The time when you're a kid, you don't realize that's what they're doing. I don't even know when we do those activities if we realize that's why we're doing it but when you look back on it, you see. There's a sense of pride in the community and wanting to help out. That's pretty cool when you realize it. At that time, you thought it was annoying. We’re like, “We’re going back there and paint again? Why can't we stay home?”
You said your mom was a stay-at-home mom with childcare. Was that what got you interested in kids because I see that you were a high school teacher?
Right out of college, I spent some time as a high school teacher and coach. I grew up with one sister but our family was unique. My sister is adopted. She's from South Korea. I remember not every eight-year-old goes to the airport to get their new sibling. That's what happened in our situation. Kids were also born. That ties back to the fare as well. Fairs are all about youth development. Again, as I am sitting here now and looking back, it is a lot about kids, youth, and being involved. I was able to do that for a while, teaching right out of college.
Going to your sister a little bit. What caused your parents to adopt from South Korea? What precipitated that?
That's interesting too, because when you're eight, you don't know all the backstory of those types of things. My parents felt like there were other kids that needed opportunities. They decided to adopt and worked with a Christian adoption agency out of South Korea and felt that that was a way that they could, again, help and provide a new life for someone. My sister, we know very little about her background.
She was one of those true left at the doorsteps of an orphanage-type deal. It's been interesting as she's gotten older, as with all of us, there are some hereditary medical and dental type things. When you don't know, it's brand new. It's not a hereditary type thing. She's a physical therapist. A Doctorate in Physical Therapy and runs the PT department at a hospital in my hometown where we grew up.
How did that feel when you met her at the airport? Do you remember that moment?
I remember that moment vividly. It was cool. I may have the details a little wrong on this but at that time, they would still bring the babies over. My parents didn't have to go to Korea. They brought her over. I remember we were at the Des Moines, Iowa airport and this lady walked off the plane. She had this eighteen-month-old baby in her arms in a backpack. Basically, she handed the backpack and the baby to my mom and dad. There you go.
There was no such thing as Zoom call, barely any internet, even at that time. That would have been in the early 1980s. It is a whole different world. I don't know the process behind how all that work necessarily but I do remember that vividly. It's like, “Here's your sister.” The only other thing I remember is culturally, in Korea and especially in the orphanage where my sister was from, sleeping arrangements are more like mats on the floor. Not really in beds. That was one of the adjustments we had to do for the first month or so when she was with us. I remember we slept on the floor with her because that was to begin the acclimation process.
What did it feel like to go home and calibrate that it was your sister?
I don't remember as much when I was eight. That was a few years ago, but I remember that change. Again, back to she was eighteen months old as well because she didn't have that process of adjusting from newborn to be you're a little sister right away. That could do things.
What has it been like being multicultural in the town that you're in? You're in a small town. Did that change anything growing up or your awareness or experience because of that?
I would say it did probably help my awareness more than I realized. Thinking about it growing up. I never thought about growing up in a multicultural home but that's what we were and still are. There were some things that my sister, I wouldn't say, faced any type of prejudice or anything like that, but it was different. I think back going to a small rural I was schooled, 50 kids in a grade, she was the minority in her grade.
It is different that way. For me, growing up in a home, in a multicultural type home and even a home where early on with some different traditions. Again, at eighteen months old, she knew some Korean, learned English, and all that was minor but still, there was that transition. Even the sleeping on the floor thing, I would've never even known that was a thing in the limited worldview that I had without that experience.
How was her experience growing up? Did she face any adversity because of it?
I don't think so. We were fortunate to be in a pretty accepting community. I think the situation would have been different obviously had she been 16 rather than 18 months. She was fully assimilated into the culture throughout her time. It's a different perspective. I can't say that she faced a lot of issues. I remember one time, my cousin and I thought this may have been a time. Sarah, my sister, probably wasn't very old but she came in one day.
My mom was crying because people were making fun of her because she was different. She was being made fun of because she had long dark hair. No one realized any of the other features but I do remember that. My mom was ready I know for this big conversation about, “You are different and it's okay.” It was more about the hair.
That's where it comes down to girls a lot of times.
I think it also shows that you look at kids, for the most part, as so accepting of whoever, whenever, whatever. In some ways, they should be models for the rest of us.
Community Service: To be a good boss, you have to be able to motivate employees and know what exactly makes each of them tick.
It sounds like in your house, not only did you have a sister that had a different background but your mom did daycare, you had a lot of different kids in your house. It seems like that would be formative because you don't have your mom to yourself all the time. She's the caregiver to everybody in the door. What do you think you learned from watching your mom do all this?
There were a lot of kids in and out of our house. You think about how kids are raised differently, then they go to daycare with different rules and things. My mom is still a very caring person. As I look back, one of the ways, she was caring was through that process of providing childcare. For a lot of kids in the community, she was the pseudo mom during the day.
Back to open my horizons. You have kids in your house that sometimes acted and maybe said things that we weren't allowed to say in our house. It was always interesting. That did, as I've thought about that, broaden my perspective a lot more than with other kids in and out of your house, you see that there are different ways to do life.
It sounds like your background is very much about the community, taking care of others, and family. They can see that you are going into the fairs with it being a family thing. How did you start getting involved in the first place? Where was the jump between high school teacher and, “I'm going to do this as a career?”
I got to go back a little further because life takes a lot of twists and turns. When I was in elementary school, we had to do a project, “What do you want to be when you grow up?” I knew I liked fairs. My dad was a county fair board president. We spent a lot of time at the Iowa State Fair, which was a huge event. It is one of the largest events in the United States. Spending some time there, I'm like, "For this career fair, somebody has to work there. Something has to do something.” This was upper elementary. As with all school projects, you have to write a letter to somebody in that career and get information.
I sent a letter to the manager of the Iowa State Fair at that time. He responded back and that began some conversation for the school project led into, “The next time you're at the Iowa State Fair, you should come to see what I'm doing.” It's a unique thing. Back to youth development, mentorship, and community that this guy is CEO of the Iowa State Fair and he tells us, elementary kids, to come to find me during the fair and see what I do. He was true to his word. I got to spend an hour with him at the fair, seeing what he did. That opened a door that then, fast forward to I'm in high school, I was offered a summer job at the Iowa State Fair. That was where I started.
Did you stay in touch with him?
I did, off and on. He became one of those people down the road that if he had a future career project, “I know this guy. I’ll reach out to him. A leadership project for a high school class, I know this guy. I'll reach out to him.” I loved working at the Iowa State Fair in the summers. I did that through high school.
What did you do there?
I was in the entertainment office. I was planning all the different entertainment aspects of the fair. I did that through college.
I've been to the Iowa State Fair and smelled the fried butter.
Very good. I was in the entertainment office there and that was a great summer job for high school and through college. I went to college and I thought, “This would be a great career,” but I just didn't know where the path was going to twist and turn. I took my English degree and started teaching high school English and I still had my summers open to working at the fair. I continued that for ten years of teaching, then decided it was time for a change.
I don't know if burnout is the right word. You just sometimes get a feeling that it's time to do something. I know your life story is pretty unique from CPA and all the different things you've done. I felt like it was a sense to do something else. At that time, a full-time opportunity opened up at the Missouri State Fair, where my wife and I were living in Northern Missouri and teaching. That led to that, which then led to my job here in Spencer. It was some twists and turns that way.
Now that you are running the fair from your background, your experience, and what your parents taught you, what have you been able to bring into your leadership there and you're planning that you can look back at where that came from?
First and foremost, if you've coached high school girls basketball, which I did for 6 or 7 years, you become a quick expert on team building, dealing with conflict, and more importantly, dealing with parents because the parents were always worse than the kids. I laugh about that law but it's so true. That in itself and teaching in general. When you're teaching, you have to be able to adapt, learn to do things on the fly, and figure out what makes each individual person tick to learn. It's the same thing as an employer.
I'm using those skills over and over. To be a good boss, you have to be able to motivate employees. You got to be able to know what makes each of them tick. That might be individualized. The coaching and teaching thing has prepared me a lot for my leadership and taught me also. I have mellowed over the years from being quite the control freak I was. Teaching helped me with that a little bit because you're not going to control those kids every second of every day. That's helped me now.
I learned to let people do their own thing a little bit, especially with teaching, as long as the kid got to the end product and it was quality. How they got there does it doesn't matter. Everybody learns differently. Had I not had that educational piece as a teacher, I would probably not be the type of boss I am now. I hope to be a boss of a collaborative nature, not micromanage and let people get to the end on their own but teaching helped me get there.
Is there anything that you believed about what it was going to be like to run a business that was wrong or did you learn you had to pivot or shift?
I came into this job with some preconceived notions of probably how things should be and quickly had to pivot and realize that while that may be is how they should be, that's not how they are. If I want to get them how I think they should be, then I've got to develop this process as a culture to get us there. It's not just going to happen because I snap my fingers type of a thing.
Community Service: It's good to give back to the resources that help you.
That probably has been the biggest change and, again, back to my parents, understanding the importance of being involved in the community. Many work relationships are based on community volunteer type stuff and if you stay cloistered in your office all day or only so focused on your job that you can't participate in the greater community around you, you miss a lot of work.
It may seem counterproductive. I'm not going to be at work for an hour sitting here at my desk because I'm going to go be involved on a Chamber of Commerce board but what I do at the Chamber of Commerce board makes my job easier in some ways. I think sometimes people get so focused on, “I got my job. I've got to sit here at my computer and do my job.” They're missing out on a whole lot of things that would make their job in relationships easier if they would take the time to do it.
It seems like you've also learned that from your parents about getting involved with that and the national fair association. How do you think that it's been important for your local fair to be a part of that?
It's been a great honor. To be able to represent in the county fair, it's a large fair to 300,000 people over nine days. It's not maybe what you think about your normal 2 or 3-day small county fair and carnival. It's a big event but yet, at the same time, it's been pretty exciting here in a smaller town in Northwest Iowa, where the fair is located, to be able to represent the fair on that national scale. Again, it is an opportunity. You look at even other fairs and the fair community to give back and to help the organization in that way.
I do a lot of volunteer work as well in the accounting profession. It's good to give back to the resources that help you. It's time you have to put aside and it can be a bigger commitment but I've always found you benefit from putting in that time with these associations. You want them to survive.
In fact, like what you said, they have played such a role in your formative development. You need, you should, and you should want to give back.
How did you educate the younger people that are working there to get involved with associations because that's an area that I think is hard for every association is getting younger professionals involved?
It is. I know, for us, it's been a little bit through modeling. Hopefully, they see what I'm doing and they want to model that. Also, I have been pretty forceful about you will be involved because, for some, they don't even think about it necessarily. If you're a younger employee here, use our trade association as an example, there are lots of little monthly webinars that they can participate in.
We make sure they know they need to build time into their schedule to participate in those. Over the course of time, they're going to do that on their own. Once you develop those connections, you're going to want to be involved and continue to do that. In nowadays world, I don't think every person is as fortunate as I was to grow up in that home or that was modeled.
You know that's true when you look at other community organizations. Everybody is looking for volunteers, so obviously, there's a disconnect there. It's a behavior you have to teach people. I was fortunate to have been taught that by my parents but others maybe need to be taught that by their employers just to help give back that way.
I'd like to end the interview with some rapid-fire questions. Pick a category, either family and friends, money, spiritual, or health.
Let's do family and friends.
Things or actions I don't have that I want?
I would say the thing would be more time just to spend with them.
Things or actions I do have that I do want?
For me, one of the things I've done, I want to continue. I intentionally removed work email off my phone. I have discovered it since I did that. Number one, I have not missed any big deal or the world has not missed. When I'm at home, even though I always have my phone with me, it is never anything work-related. Unless somebody calls or texts but I'm not sitting there answering work emails. That's something I have done and I am going to continue in the future because again, I can never stay at 9:00 at night when I'm sitting on the couch with my kids. The email that somebody may be sent me, I've always answered the next day and it's been fine.
That's a great example. Things or actions that I don't have that I don't want with my family and friends?
At this point, I'm pretty fortunate and pretty blessed to have good kids. What I mean by good kids is as they get older, I don't want them to have issues with substance abuse or bullying, for example. I know they are. That's coming but I would love to keep them in that bubble as long as I can.
Paying attention, as you said, is an important step to that. Last one, things or actions that I do have that I don't want?
Community Service: Get involved in your communities. Don't be afraid to give back.
Again, I think just even still distractions from work.
It's so hard to stay focused. You've had such a great story. Is there anything you want to make sure that people walk away from this interview that we didn't talk about that you want them to walk away with?
Be flexible. Again, life has a lot of twists and turns. Honestly, as I've sat here with you, I realized that the grounding that my parents provided in community involvement has stayed with me the whole way. I had never thought about it. Sometimes you got to talk out loud and stuff. That's the flexibility but then also, get involved in your communities. Don't be afraid to give back.
Thank you so much and I appreciate you taking the time to do this.
Thank you.
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Now for my Mindful Moments during this interview that I had with Jeremy Parsons, that were so embedded in family and community and how that has affected the choices that he made as he became an adult and also made decisions for his career. A lot of us would even note during this interview that we don't necessarily step back and realize why something resonates the way that it does with us. Also, why do we have certain desires that we'll pull on the inside of us that create decisions in our lives or pivots in our careers that are so important to identify?
It’s all about understanding what drives us, what's our personal purpose and how we are designing our lives to make sure we're aligned with those values, with those inner intuitions that we have about ourselves and what makes us happy. When we push those things down and we ignore them, a lot of times, we don't realize when we're feeling off until something happens that allows us to open our eyes and pivot.
We've talked about Jeremy's background with his parent’s volunteerism and their involvement with the community and the state fair. His mother has a home daycare and helps children from all different backgrounds in their house as well. Sometimes, you don't even realize that was affecting his mindset as he was growing up. He talked about how sometimes it felt like a lot of hard work to volunteer at the fair but over time, he had this desire that kept pulling him there. I loved his story of when he did a project in elementary school about “what do you want to be when you grow up.”
That's when he wrote a letter to the CEO of the State Fair of Iowa. He invited Jeremy to come and learn about the fair and what he does. A lot of us get so busy that we forget how important those things are of giving people our time, even if it's a few minutes. In this case, he gave his time to show what he did and ended up coloring his whole future. The things that he started placing the importance of and gave him the opportunity to work at the fair throughout his career, even as a school teacher. He was still working there during the summers.
We can't minimize how important it is to be reaching that handout and allowing people to learn how we got to be where we are in our careers. Everybody has a story and they're all interesting. That's what this show is about and what we can learn from each person. The other thing he talked about as far as being a leader and things that he learned from being a school teacher was team building, conflict management, and he’s dealing with parents, dealing with customers, and outside people that are still your stakeholders that you need to please.
You have to step back, pause, and try to understand what it is that each person needs and nurture that. Respond to it and show your care. We talked a lot about those things of how he's had to, even when you want to push fast and move forward faster, a lot of times, we have to slow down in order to speed up. Understand what everyone's personal drive is and motivation so that we're able to achieve the overall outcome that we want but we are nurturing the people on the way to get there.
Lastly, we talked about the importance of volunteerism and supporting associations. I know with the IAFE and state societies and associations as we talked about with the fairs and expositions. I'm part of a speaker's association. Wherever your career is, it's so important that we give back to our profession that we have developed careers. A lot of us think that maybe it's a waste of time or don't have the time but we always get back from giving.
It's important to step back and look at the things that you're doing and where you are giving back and having the right balance and boundaries because once you do give back, everybody is asking you to do a number of things. You do need boundaries of what you can handle and what you can't handle, so you don't get overworked there too, but truly understand what's been important to you, your life, your career, and how you can do the same for others. I hope you enjoyed this interview. Share it, subscribe to the show, and like it. Your comments and your support mean so much to this show to keep it going.
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About Jeremy Parsons
Jeremy Parsons, CFE, spent 11 years as a high school teacher and coach before achieving his childhood dream – becoming a fair manager. He has served as CEO/Manager of the Clay County Fair in Spencer, Iowa, since 2011. A passionate advocate for the fair industry, Parsons is currently Board Chairman for the International Association of Fairs and Expositions (IAFE). He is involved in his community as a member of the Spencer Community School Board. He has four priorities in life, which he attempts to keep in the proper order -- faith, family, the Chicago Cubs, and fairs. He and his beautiful wife Kelsi have three sons.