We recently connected with Judith Weigle and have shared our conversation below.
Judith, appreciate you joining us today. What did your parents do right and how has that impacted you in your life and career?
My parents allowed me freedom of expression at a very young age. I was precocious and adventurous.
At age 5 everyone in our classic 1950s middle class neighborhood went to kindergarten. I hated kindergarten. I didn’t like being told what to do. I didn’t like doing what all the other children did. And I never liked taking naps. I was a tough kid.
I made a proposal to my parents. I said that I wanted to quit kindergarten and spend my time working as a show producer, creating a neighborhood production company in which I had my neighborhood friends perform, and charge their parents to come see the shows in our garage. I even had the mothers make snacks and drinks, bring them to me, which I then sold back to them during the show.
It was inconceivable to me that my parents actually listened to me, and allowed me to start my first business at age 5. Many years later I asked my mother why she let me be me. She said, “What was I supposed to do with such an unusual request. Your dad and I saw that you weren’t a normal kid, and we thought the best way to handle you was to let you be you.”
This was the start of an independent life, a life that allowed me to flourish while living in hotels promoting a major circus, living and working in over 100 cities in the United States, and following my heart wherever it led me.
Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.
I started my podcast, THE Amicable Divorce Expert, after working as a divorce mediator and document preparation company since 2012 The podcast was to be my voice to the world, within divorce, to speak to people in a way that I didn’t feel I could speak with my clients one-on-one. I needed a little distance between us in order to provide the support, help, direction, and my honest thoughts on divorce challenges that could only be accepted if I wasn’t speaking directly to them about their divorce issues.
The thought of starting a podcast began several years before March 2019, my launch date. I asked myself ‘If I had to choose one way of earning a living what would I do?’ My answer was “talk”. I just wanted to talk, share my ideas, and connect with people on a one-to-many level. Like Oprah, my unofficial mentor, I wanted to add value to people’s lives by the topics I discussed.
The same principal that I applied to the question of using just one skill and talent to earn a living, was the same principal I used in my sophomore year of college when my dad asked me what my revised plan for a future job was as I left music school for another major. I gave my dad an aesthetic goal because I didn’t have a specific career in mind. I said that I wanted to work with as many cultures of people in the world possible, and in as many places possible in the world, too. Seven years later I saw THE ad for my job in the newspaper. It read: Circus, Circus! See the Country!! Clyde Beatty-Cole Bros. Circus is looking for Marketing Directors with backgrounds in Music, Journalism, Communication, English – everything that I had majored in.
I went on to become a valued employee with the Clyde Beatty-Cole Bros. Circus for many years. I became a location scout and eventually the Dancing Bear when I married the band leader and lived with the performers on the traveling show. That was a hugely beneficial experience. I learned lessons in not judging a book by its cover, accepting people for who they were, how they treated other people, not where they came from or how much money they had. Everyone was equal. Everyone’s job was important because without just one job done on time and consistently, the show would not go on. Everyone had an equal opportunity to be a star either in front of the audiences or behind the scenes with their peers.
My resume reads like that of a cartoon character, which totally pleases me: Kindergarten drop-out to start my Children’s Production Company at age 5, Crispy Critters Social Club at age 10, Clyde Beatty-Cole Bros. Circus, Sarasota Children’s Opera Company, Chicago Lyric Opera, North American Bear Corporation, and Corporate Concerts, Inc. Strange but true, andI wouldn’t have it any other way.
This last business incarnation of mediator in family law was a result of three people, two f them attorneys, suggesting I look into mediation as they both felt I had a good personality for it. I blew them off because I enjoyed being in the entertainment industry. When the third person suggested the same thing, mediation as my new profession, I thought I better listen.
When I took the reins of Divorce Resource, Inc. from the former owner, the third person who approached me to be a mediator, it was because I wanted an unusual challenge; I had been mediating for two years already. Not every job will last forever. I looked at what I learned as a divorce mediator, started a podcast, and will be embarking on a professional speaking career in 2023. Another line of work that will allow me to talk on a one-to-many level, sharing ideas and concepts to the masses, and make other people’s lives rewarding and an outgrowth of their dreams.
Any fun sales or marketing stories?
I was working with the Clyde Beatty-Cole Bros. Circus and assigned to promote Laredo, TX/Nuevo Laredo, Mexico. These are borders towns connected the the Guadalajara Bride over the Peace River. People from Mexico and Texas walked across the bridge all day to work and shop.
I was supposed to advertise the circus in Mexico, in Spanish, in order to attract Mexicans to buy tickets to the show. Although the marketing directors were assigned translators to take them to Mexico and speak for them in order to make media deals and to work with The Nuevo Laredo Chamber of Commerce to put posters up in town, I decided to brush up on my high school Spanish and take a crack at going into Mexico myself and doing business.
One of the roles in advertising the show was to book performers on the Spanish-speaking radio stations, so I did, three radio stations on opening day morning. When I went to gather the performers that morning, none of them would go. No, it wasn’t because they were afraid to give radio interviews; it was because they were concerned about getting out of Mexico on their Visas! So I, because I had brushed up on my Spanish, did all the radio interviews myself. I asked the disc jockeys to constantly interrupt me – not hard for them – because my Spanish was limited. I pretended that I was Sonya the liner trainer, Carmen the Baboon trainer, and Miss Electra the Electric Lady from the Side how.
We sold out those shows! Crisis management and being prepared were my super powers.
Can you talk to us about your experience with buying businesses?
I bought Divorce Resource, Inc., the company from which I offer divorce mediation and divorce filing, from the previous owner. This is a personal service business. I learned from my brother, who had previously bought a personal service business that two things were important: Buying the phone number, and working in the business for at least one year in order to be part of the company in the transition period so that when the original owner was no longer part of the company, that the new owner already had a presence, making the transition easy, without losing customers.
I had asked the previous owner not to talk to anyone about the sale of the company. I wanted to have a transition party after one year, and celebrate all of the attorneys, therapists, and other mediators who referred us, and who would be working directly with me going forward. Unfortunately, the owner posted on Facebook thatch was selling the company and our sales decreased by 50% immediately.
I no longer wanted to buy the company, or at least buy it for 50% less than I had offered. We needed a mediator to help us. The original owner agreed. I negotiated for almost 50% less, she accepted the reduced offer, and apologized for hurting the plans for a smooth transition. The power of social media became instantly understood by me, and the need for trust between business entities.
What should have been a fairly simple transition turned frightening as I saw the sales decrease. I since built the client base up again when the Facebook post was removed. But I have questioned whether I should have just walked away. Since I continued with the business, I wanted into grow beyond mediation and filing, so I aded the podcast, and now professional speaking and training. Could shoulda doesn’t work, but taking a turn of events and creating something new is the best way to deal with a business shake-up.
Contact Info:
- Website: www.TheAmicableDivorceExpert.com
- Instagram: @TheAmicableDivorceExpert
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/JudithMWeigle
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/judith-m-weigle-65b1268/
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCk2u7UQTUG2-ZgmyQoHBCwg The Amicable Divorce Expert
Image Credits
Judith M. Weigle Judith M. Weigle Judith M. Weigle Judith M. Weigle Judith M. Weigle