Ailene Hartz: Makes Everything Crystal Clear

“Because of the type of leadership skills I have, I did not ever see myself working for someone else. I had to spearhead my own vision,” Ailene Hartz, co-owner with James Davis of Crystal Clear Services in Grandview, says with assurance.

Born and raised in the picturesque island of Barbados, Ailene wanted to be a nurse from the time she was quite young. But when her cousin cut himself badly one day when she was ten, and her knees grew weak at the sight of blood, she knew nursing was not her calling. In high school she was involved in the fashion design industry, which she thoroughly enjoyed.

Ailene was one of ten applicants chosen out of over two hundred as an exchange student to Grandview High School. Being a person who loves to travel, during her year at Grandview she visited New York, Boston, and Florida. “I found the Midwest to be the most friendly and relaxing.”

Back in Barbados after her exchange year, she was an apprentice to a well- known fashion designer. Crop Over Festivals are the most popular and colorful summer festival in Barbados, with origins back to the 1780s. There are many festivities and competitions, including one for king and queen of the entire extravaganza. “When I was an apprentice I had the opportunity to help design the queen’s costume, at the university level. That design was the winning costume.”

In 1993 she returned to the United States for the high school graduation of the youngest daughter of her exchange host family. “I began exploring my options and stayed on.” Also, her host sister introduced her to her future husband. Ailene's parents and two brothers live in Barbados.

She discovered that her plan to attend college in the US was more difficult than she had hoped. She worked for a local janitorial service for three years. Much of that time was behind a desk, not the favorite place for a person who calls herself adventurous.

In 1997, Ailene knew the best way she could treat both employees and clients with respect, as she was raised, was to start her own business. Also, because she has a business partner, she could concentrate on sales, marketing and networking, leaving operations management to him.  "I like to be out meeting people."

Crystal Clear Services is the flagship of three related companies.  Crystal Clear, JSI, and Extra Hands provide customized commercial janitorial services and supplies, in addition to temporary housekeeping staff to hospitals. Their high tech system appeals greatly to people who are budget-conscious.

It was a wise move from day one. "When I worked for the other company, I used to clean the Grandview Police Department. When I left the company, naturally I stopped cleaning for GVPD. Their quality of service went down immediately.  One of the police captains called and asked if we could help them out until the job went out for bid. We won the award. Next, two other companies that were using the previous company called. They became contract number two and three. I never contacted any previous clients."

Crystal Clear celebrated fourteen successful years on October 6, 2011. Innovation, diversification including the temp services and housekeeping training for organizations, and commitment to customer service has contributed to their business growth through the recent tough economy.

In business and out, this attractive single mom lives her philosophy of treating people as she desires to be treated.  Her advice to new business owners is,  "Above all, love what you do. Next, pay attention to customers' needs and always respond in a timely manner to your customers' requests. We treat every call as an emergency. No matter what it is, it's important to the person who made that call."

After a life-threatening illness several years ago, Ailene lives the reality of knowing that life is, "too short to be mean, grumpy or miserable. Everyone should follow their dreams. I tell my employees, life is too short to stay in a job you are unhappy with. Go find another job. Even if it pays less. If you are happy doing what you're doing, you have fulfillment regardless of the payment." 

With eyes that laugh when she talks about life, her daughter, her strong faith, and even her business, she adds, "I love the janitorial business. I meet people from all walks of life. I've never wanted to quit because I love what I do. I'm not saying there are no rough moments. That will always be. You just have to work through them. I heard a saying once. 'Skillful sailors are not made on smooth seas.'"

When you're considering services that the Crystal Clear group offers that needs to fit your budget, contact Ailene Hartz and James Davis.  You will be more than satisfied with your decision to participate in Ailene’s vision of exceptional quality service. Guaranteed.

Jeff Addison: Ice Sculpting is his Niche

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He smiled brightly from a chapped face and greeted me with a cold, but firm, handshake. “I just couldn’t figure out what I wanted to do when I grew up. I always liked working with power tools and making things out of wood. In high school when you take those surveys and they ask where you see yourself in ten years, I said I’d be married and working construction,”  Jeff Addison reflects on his professional journey as he takes me on a tour of the Cool Carvings operation.

        

Ten years, or more, finds Jeff married to his college sweetheart, Brooke, with two beautiful young daughters. He does work with power tools, though what he builds is not what he anticipated. Addison is a sculptor, one of the most ancient of artisan trades. Unlike the artisans of eight thousand years ago, Addison sculpts ice for his company, Cool Carvings.

        

He said hello to this world in Michigan but his father’s work took the family to many towns while growing up. Where does he think this love for ice carving came from? “As a kid my favorite things were camping, anything with scouts, everything outdoors. When I lived in Minneapolis across from our house was a city lake. In the winter, it was frozen and we ice skated all winter long. I always loved winter. In Lincoln we lived in an apartment with big parking lots. We seemed to always have a lot of snow. The plows would come through and make piles five and six feet high. I spent hours making tunnels through those big snow hills. I always had fun with the ice and snow.”  Maybe that love of snow and ice was inborn.

        

The handsome Eagle Scout graduated high school in St. Louis and went on to Southwest Missouri State (now Missouri State) in Springfield. He was still undecided about his major, let alone what he wanted to do with his life. But he found himself cooking to support himself and liked it.

In 1993 his sweetheart graduated and moved to her hometown of Blue Springs, MO. Unable to be so far from her, Addison moved into a studio apartment in the metro. His first job was to cook at Kauffman’s Stadium Club.

        

He wasn’t there long when one of the French chefs said, “You really like this don’t you?”

        

 “Yes, I do.”

        

“You need to do something with it. You need to go to culinary school.” 

        

Sensing the chef was right, Addison enrolled in the Johnson County Community College three year culinary program.

        

“I liked the creative side of cooking. One day in Kansas City, my Executive Chef got all the apprentices together and said, ‘I need somebody to do ice sculpting for Sunday brunch.’ I volunteered.

        

“He did one sculpture that I watched. And then he said, ‘You’re on your own.’ He supplied me with all the necessary tools but I thought, I can’t do this yet. Blocks of ice cost money. For this chef to give me a block of ice each week was saying a lot. For the first ten sculptures I was pulling my hair out. I could only see a block of ice. And then I was able to see through it and see the cuts I needed to make and cut through to the sculpture. I have to go through each and every cut from the finished piece and work my way backwards to know where to start.”

        

In the meantime, Jeff and Brooke were married in 1995. In a few years he was Executive Soux Chef and invited to move to Austin where he would have been Executive Chef. Did he jump at the chance?

“I had lived in 26 residences by the time I was out of college. I said, this is it. I am married and my kids are gonna have roots like my wife did.

        

“I was learning as much as I could but I realized what I enjoyed most was the catering aspect.” Soon the young couple opened Addison & Company Catering, thankful for her accounting degree. He soon discovered, “There were a lot of caterers, a lot of good chefs, a lot of competition. But not many offered ice carving as a professional business. Ice carving was always something small and done on the side by a chef.”

        

One day one his servers said,  “You ought to do that full time.”

To which Addison replied, “You’re crazy. There’s not enough work to do this full time.” But he looked into it and saw that there was work in this industry. “It’s my niche.” Cool Carvings opened its doors in February 2006.

        

“I am not gonna get rich with this. But I like what I do and I am doing a good job. People are happy with what I do,” shared the young entrepreneur. “Those first years you wonder how we’re gonna handle it and then we remind ourselves that God’s gonna provide. He always has. And if this fails then it does. And He’ll provide a different opportunity. I am not scared. But sometimes I wonder and just when we think we are not gonna make budget, the phone starts ringing.

        

“I am developing my craft. The repeat customers call back. But they want to see something new. There’s a lot of overlap between the two businesses. They both want new menus. Everything I gained knowledge wise – client relationships, selling - in catering, I have been able to use with this. Catering was a trial run. It was there that I established relationships with other chefs and event sites. I was able to call on those contacts when I started. I don’t think I would do anything different. It’s been a lot of hours but I would do it all over again.

        

“I like getting a challenge to do something large or something not done before. Lon Lane’s Inspired Occasions challenges me year after year. I have many large catering clients. But Lon has made me go to the next level. Like one year he said, ‘I would like a player piano that’s also a drink slide and the music cylinder in the piano actually spins’. So I did it. It was a life-size player piano, with individual keys, foot pedals, a cylinder that spun and it had two tubes for drinks.

        

“Last fall I did a display for the Kansas City Southern Railroad Executive Dinner at Union Station. It was a 21 foot long train. A detailed locomotive with 3 box cars. Each box car had one of their three logos carved into it. It was complete with wheels, couplers, rails, ties & spikes. It actually looked real. We delivered 128 pieces to the site and fused them together there. I really enjoy the big displays.

        

“Another client that challenges me is Aramark. They say, ‘this is the party, do what you think’. When they give me that creative license it’s the most fun and I do my best work.”

        

So how does Jeff keep a positive attitude when times are tough? “Prayer and dependence on God. During real busy times I sleep here. I carve for a few hours; sleep for a few hours. How do I make it through those times? I call my family, Brooke and the girls, and they come for a visit with a Waldo Pizza. A visit with them and I’m good to go.

        

“I’ve quit a couple of times but I keep hiring myself back,” he laughs. “You know, an employee has a boss to complain about. I don’t have that. My mascot is that penguin on the side of my truck. I call him Chilly. He becomes the boss I can complain about. You know, he works me too hard and too many hours, he doesn’t pay me enough.” A smile of satisfaction appears under gentle eyes the color of rich coffee.

Plans for the future include the continued enhancement of events in the metro, with expansion well past this central area, by creating new and innovative sculpture designs and display elements. With that will come the building facility expansion with more walk-in freezer space and the installation of an ice CNC machine, which is a computer aided cutting machine, to assist in making logos. And one of these days when his daughters are old enough to work, he’d love to set them up with a snow cone stand at the Cool Carvings site property. That’s one way to keep entrepreneurs in your family line.

What about the slow times? How does he turn them around? “Start a major home remodel project. It works every time. Recently I said to Brooke, you’ve been wanting that new bathroom for a long time now. We’re pretty slow.  It’s time to do the bathroom. I got the bathroom completely gutted and all these phone calls started coming in. Now she has to wait a few months.”

        

Though this young man is a master at his trade, he remains humble. “It’s fun to look back and see God’s plan. I’m grateful to God for the talent he gave me. I didn’t pick that up from school and my own effort. It’s something He gave me and He gave me the opportunities to use it.”

        

Contact Jeff Addison and his apprentice at 13004 7^th Street, Grandview, MO, 816.765.1900 when you’re ready for an exquisite one of a kind piece of art at your wedding, dinner reception or other special occasion.

So what's your favorite sandwich place?

Today Entrepreneur.com released their list of the Top 10 Sandwich Franchises. These ten were selected from their Franchise 500 Ranking. I’m not sure exactly why they were selected but the common denominator is healthier meals at affordable costs. I’m not sure the outside-in cinnamon bites offered by Arby’s counts.

Of them all, I’ve only eaten at two, Subway and Arby’s. Personally I do not like either place.  In fact, it’s been years since I’ve been to a Subway and decades since I’ve eaten at Arby’s. Does that mean I should try them again now that they’ve made this coveted franchise ranking? I might. Or I might look for some of the others.

But I doubt that any one of them could beat the amazingly delicious sandwiches at Big City Hot Dog in Grandview, MO.  Since I worked in Philadelphia in the 1970s I have not had such an incredible Philly Cheese Steak. Anywhere.  Nor could any match the Big Texas at The Hard Bean Cafe, also in little Grandview. Ever. 

Have you eaten at any of them listed? What’s your opinion? Do they really belong on the top ten list? Do you have a local fave? Tell us all about it.

The Hard Bean Cafe

Big City Hot Dogs

The Top Ten Sandwich Franchises

   

St. Joseph, MO: Pony Espresso

Many years ago, Jim Fly had the serendipitous opportunity to taste the smoothest latte he had ever experienced. For years he recalled it as enchanting and often thought it would be great to offer  St. Joseph that same experience.  But he had no idea how to go about opening a true coffee shop.  As happenstance would have it, and when the timing was perfect for him, he waited at a traffic light one day next to a van with a phone number painted on the  side. The van belonged to one of the area’s premier espresso technicians who has been involved in the business  for decades.  He called the number and the rest is history.

Jim has owned Fresh Aire Fare Health Food Store since 1994.  Ten years later he converted Fresh Aire’s  storage area into an attached coffee shop.  It was the perfect size for a comfortable meeting place for the true coffee connoisseur or hungry passerby.

Healthy sandwiches  and salads made fresh to order complete the simple but ample menu.  Coffee table by leather sofas strewn with magazines, local artwork for sale on the walls. It all makes for a pleasant resting place.  Jim’s collection of cartoons from The New Yorker that are posted for all  to view can lighten anyone’s day.

Jim only serves  fine organic espresso and coffee, with his espresso being a very special Pony Espresso blend that makes the smoothest shots for miles. And his baristas  have been trained to pull shots like the best in the field. 

Pony Espresso baristas are quite inventive, too.  Folks go out of their way for an original barista creation called Cherry Mash Latte, named after the Cherry Mash Candy Bar that’s made in St. Joseph.

So if you’d like to be enchanted with a smooth latte like Jim was so many years ago, Pony Espresso should be your next stop. And like the Pony Express that began it’s  route west from this town long ago, The Pony Espresso can be the beginning of great adventures for you, as well.

 Pony Espresso

114 E. 8^th St., St. Joseph, MO