Written by: Chloe Redmond, Executive Contributor
Executive Contributors at Brainz Magazine are handpicked and invited to contribute because of their knowledge and valuable insight within their area of expertise.
Ken Rohl was 50 years old when he decided he’d had enough of corporate life. Political in-fighting and conflicting opinions stifled his creativity and inspiration. He took his experience from his stint in corporate America and used it to start a business that was so successful that a Fortune 500 company bought it. He became a corporateneur.
Now more than 35 years in, Ken shares his lifetime of lessons learned in The Corporateneur Plan. It’s for those who feel trapped in their jobs with corporations that don’t recognize their potential or reward their contributions. And it’s for others who want to start out of the block, turned off by stories from their corporate-striving friends and the latest news of massive layoffs sweeping across corporate America.
Greg Rohl, principal of The Rohl Model, former VP of Marketing of the House of Rohl, and one of Ken’s three sons, also played a pivotal role in bringing Ken’s story and The Corporateneur Plan to life as your authoritative guide to entrepreneurial success.
Chloe Redmond, CEO of Vino Vaquera Consulting, sat down with Greg to inquire more about the messaging and creative process behind The Corporateneur Plan.
Hello Greg! Congratulations on the highly anticipated release of The Corporateneur Plan. As someone who is deep in the entrepreneurial journey myself, I found this story to be a profound professional roadmap. What would you say was the initial inspiration to share your father’s business journey?
Our family business was acquired by a Fortune 500 company in 2016. During that process, someone on the M&A team complimented the company referring to our “secret sauce”. It’s a well-worn buzz phrase, but it stuck with me for some reason. A few years later, after both my father and I were out of the company, I recalled that moment to him, wondering, “if there was something unique about our company, a “secret sauce”, could it be defined? Our dad’s always been a wonderful teacher and mentor, was there a curriculum that could be taught? He reached into a desk drawer and pulled out a stack of handwritten yellow legal pad pages, saying “well, you could start with this”.
Explain to us a bit about your personal involvement with the creation of the book? Did your Father approach you spontaneously for the collaboration, or has this been in the works for a while?
When I finished my post-acquisition tenure, Ken told me “You’re going to write a book.” I thought that would be a great experience but had no idea where to start. When he gave me those 65 or so pages, and I’m one of 5 people that can read his handwriting, I realized that transcribing this collection of memories, histories, notes from business school presentations, even poetry, was a wonderful opportunity to capture a little bit of his knowledge, his wisdom and voice. What followed was more conversations, and interviews with family and others involved with the business, and my own essays on concepts and business chapters. Eventually, I had accumulated 40,000 plus words of “research”. I felt there was something worth sharing in all of it, I just needed a professional to help us put it together.
What would you say your key takeaways are when looking back on the creating writing and publication process with Ken?
I’m 56, Ken is 88, so I realize how lucky I am to be able to work on a project like this. When I talk about the project, people always comment on what a cool thing to do, and how they wish they’d been able to do something similar with their parents or a special mentor or teacher. Then there’s just learning how to see through a book project. We’re so lucky to have had the relationship with Pam Danziger, who did the yeoman’s work of putting the book together. Ken and I had caught his voice, the history, the stories and lessons learned, but we really benefitted from having a professional researcher and writer to lend a third-person perspective.
We love exploring the foundations of a true family business. How has your father’s journey impacted your own enterprise and entrepreneurial journey?
After graduating from UCSB, I worked for a small family run publishing company. It was great training and I got to a lot of different things, editing, writing, ad sales, layout (it was the 1990’s), you name it, but the management style was pretty ad hoc, and the results could be really stressful.
What was it like for the two of you to see the finished product come to life?
It’s a kick for sure. But we’re most proud that the vision we had for the book – not just the material but how the physical book itself, came together. I wanted it to be a handbook, something accessible and easy to read and relate to, with clear takeaways and even open pages at the end of chapters to make notes. When we talk about creating a business plan, we highlight Vision as so important. You need to see what you want the business to look like, feel like, act like. We applied that principle to the book’s development, and it’s really gratifying that, for better or worse, the vision we had is what we have to share with others.
Who would you say would be the target audience for the book?
The primary intended reader is someone who is where our dad was, a mid to later career corporate person who’s growing tired of giving it all to something that isn’t at all theirs. Who is ready to do their own thing but not sure what they should take, what they should leave behind, and what they may need to add to their skill set as an entrepreneur.
We also feel that there’s much in the book that can inspire or provide fresh perspective to someone working within a larger organization, wishing to be a more effective “intrapreneur”, finding more meaning by weaving in more art and heart to days that have become a little 2 dimensional.
Finally, for the young, hungry, enthusiastic entrepreneur who doesn’t know what they don’t know. We feel there’s plenty of experience tested wisdom in the book that might result in a few less stumbles along the way.
What do you hope the reader will take away from The Corporateneur Plan?
Most importantly, that they feel the time taken with the book to be worthwhile, that the stories and anecdotes were interesting and entertaining, and that the book packs a lot of value into 365 pages, including what I feel is a unique perspective on how to operate in life and in business integrating the science with the art. We created a graphic we call the “corporateneur mandala” that we hope shows how characteristics of both are really woven together, that there are times when certain aspects must be the focus but that they’re always being influenced, nuanced by the others.
What do you hope to personally gain by sharing Ken’s story with the world? Do we have a future book tour in the works?
Ha! No, no book tour per se but we’re working to get the word out via our own networks and our old pr team, which we are so grateful to. And it’s another learning curve, where you get to ask for help, and find out where the opportunities are. We’re open to any opportunities to talk about the book and “curricularize” the material to share with different audiences depending on what the unmet need is. For instance, we’re writing an educational presentation adapting book concepts for an interior designer audience. We’ll do the same for small business leadership groups. And someone reviewed the book saying they wish it could be taught to high school students. I couldn’t agree more, so we’ll figure out how to make that happen.
We are so grateful for your time Greg! To conclude, what is one piece of personal entrepreneurial advice that you would like to share with our Brainz Magazine readers?
It’s a bit of bumper sticker or meme, but I’d say “be Hungry, but Humble”. Go hard for your dream but take a good honest accounting of your own strengths and weaknesses. Know you don’t know everything. Listen – a lot. Keep your promises, and treat your employees like family, your customers like employees and your suppliers like customers.
Copies of The Corporateneur Plan: Your Roadmap from Midcareer Professional to Entrepreneur in paper and for Kindle are available on Amazon, B&N, iBooks, and in local bookshops via Bookshop.org. And an audiobook version will be available soon.
Contacts for formal information & press inquiries:
Greg Rohl, The Rohl Model, 949-402-5078, Greg@TheRohlModel.com
Pam Danziger, Unity Marketing, 717-336-1600, Pam@UnityMarketingOnline.com
Read more from Chloe!
Chloe Redmond, Executive Contributor Brainz Magazine
Chloe Redmond is a leader in digital marketing, influencer partnerships, and social media management. A chance opportunity to work with Chopra Global (Deepak Chopra’s legacy company) in 2020 that left her with the understanding of how mindfulness and marketing can co-exist. She is dedicated in helping entrepreneurs reach their pure potentiality through intentional and intuitive marketing practices. Her mission: to teach others how to put their authentic self into play what targeting their niche and discovering creative partnerships.
