Episode 14 - From Taker To Giver:
How Jim Neil Found His Place In EO

Join host Aaron Burnett as he sits down with Jim Neil, President of JL Northwest, to explore the accidental path into entrepreneurship, the grit required to rebuild through crisis, and how EO transformed his approach to leadership, vulnerability, and service.

About Jim Neil: Pacific Northwest business leader and longtime EO Seattle member with more than 30 years of experience in food brokerage and specialty restaurant equipment distribution. After helping grow his family’s brokerage company into one of the largest independent agencies in the region, Jim transitioned into restaurant equipment and now leads JL Northwest, serving major brands including Costco and Dutch Bros. He is passionate about servant leadership, operational excellence, and helping entrepreneurs grow through connection and community.

Note, this podcast features real entrepreneurs sharing real challenges and solutions. No pitches, no sales - just honest conversations about the moments that shape successful businesses.

The Accidental Entrepreneur

Aaron: Tell me a little bit about your entrepreneurial journey.

Jim: Yeah, so I would best describe myself as an accidental entrepreneur. I graduated college in 1992 with the intent of working in international sales and account management. The economy was absolutely awful at that point in time, and my dad was an entrepreneur. I think he recognized that he was seven years out and did not have an exit strategy. And so over lunch, I became his exit strategy. And so —

Aaron: And was that a surprise during that lunch?

Jim: A hundred percent.

Aaron: Yeah.

Jim: It was the last thing, honestly, on the face of the planet I thought I would end up doing — being an entrepreneur. I figured I'd end up being a big corporate guy. That's what I had gone to school for and kind of was prepared for. So I was an accidental entrepreneur — best accident that ever happened for me. It's been something that I can't imagine a change to.

Aaron: Tell me about the business.

Jim: My dad had a food brokerage company — a manufacturers' rep agency. When I joined, it was my dad, myself, and two other people in the company. Shortly after, my dad had a partnership down in Oregon. He ended up in a lawsuit. He ended up losing that part of the business. Plus, there was a massive consolidation that went on, and revenue fell by about 65%. So that was my first year of being an entrepreneur — watching 65% of a company's revenue disappear.

Aaron: That's trial by fire.

Jim: It was. And so the number of people in the company was cut drastically. Figured out what grit is. Are you going to handle it when you got a choice — you either get up or you get out.

Aaron: How many people were there when you started, and how many people were there at the end of the year?

Jim: There were six or seven of us to start, and there were three of us when all the dust had settled.

Aaron: That's a rebuild from the foundations.

Jim: Yeah.

From Food Brokerage to Restaurant Equipment

Aaron: And what's the company look like today?

Jim: I sold that company eight years ago, I guess, today. That same company that we built covers Washington, Oregon, Alaska, Idaho, Utah. And it was just sold to a private equity company.

Aaron: Congratulations. How recently did that happen?

Jim: About 18 months ago.

Aaron: Okay, but you're still there?

Jim: No. I sold out of that, and my brother came in as a partner in that business. After 27 years of doing the same thing, I just decided if I was going to make a change, I needed to do it then. So I went and dabbled my foot in the same industry, but a different segment of it.

Aaron: You sold the first company, but started a company in the same industry.

Jim: Got involved with another EO member, and joined that company. I came as a partner with those guys, and within 18 months of doing that, ended up taking over those companies as president of the company in the Pacific Northwest. So instead of selling food, we're selling specialty restaurant equipment.

Aaron: And how big did that company grow to be?

Jim: I took that over in 2019, and we were doing about 13 million a year in revenue. This year we'll do just over 22.

Aaron: That's fantastic. What was the experience like selling to private equity?

Jim: I wasn't involved in that transaction. I got to watch it from the sidelines. My brother was the one who was managing and owned the company at that point in time. It's a long, stressful grind. You need a lot of good counselors and people with experience to go through it. That's not water you want to navigate on your own for the first time.

Aaron: Yeah. Not for the faint of heart.

Jim: No.

Aaron: That's what I hear from everyone who's done that. And so what are you up to now?

Jim: Running JL Northwest, and just took over another business down in Arizona doing the same thing. So we distribute and service specialty restaurant equipment.

The Unbeatable Guarantee That Brought Him to EO

Aaron: You've been in EO for 17 years.

Jim: Didn't think it had been that long. Maybe 15, 16. About 2010, I joined.

Aaron: And what brought you to EO?

Jim: Another EO member, a gentleman by the name of Mike Ross — very good friend of mine. When I went to work with DSL, when I made that transition, he made me the guarantee that no entrepreneur should turn down. He said, "Jim, this organization is going to change the way you do business and put you on a trajectory." And I said, "Mike, we barely qualify and I don't think I can afford it." He said, "Look, if you don't get value out of it, quit after the first year. I'll write you a check for the full amount personally." Pretty tough to say no.

Aaron: Pretty big guarantee.

Jim: It was 2010 or 2009, and it's something I look forward to resigning up on every single year.

Aaron: How has it changed you, and how did it change your business life?

Jim: The entrepreneurial struggle that we all have — there's one thing that we all have in common, but you don't recognize how many people you have that in common with until you find that network. You find that tribe of people who face a lot of the same challenges and struggles and try and find answers in places that they don't. So what it really did for me was a reframe — reframe what we were capable of as a company, what I was capable of as a leader and as an individual. And it challenged me to be probably more bold and decisive than I would've been without the organization.

Aaron: You made the comment that you feel like most entrepreneurs have the same problems. They look for solutions elsewhere, and coming to EO helps them address that same problem. How would you define the common problem that entrepreneurs have?

Jim: Especially for young entrepreneurs, it is: "I have to figure this out on my own." I think that's the number one thing they fight. I know that I fought it. "I have to figure this out." There's a lot of wasted time and energy associated with figuring it out on your own. It's not as much what the business does specifically — "I provide a service. I build a widget." It's: how do we scale, how do we hire the right people, how do we motivate, how do we manage all of the thousand things that are coming at us, and still try to do that with some type of balance? Especially if you're a young entrepreneur grinding every single day, and you've got a wife and kids at home — or a partner at home — and you're trying to figure out, how do I make all this stuff balance out?
We've all had a lot of days where you just need somebody to talk to. A lot of times that young entrepreneur trying to break through to whatever that level is — it can be a really lonely place. This organization provided not only a forum, but a group of individuals — a voice — that I could go to.

Aaron: What I suspect is the common problem entrepreneurs have, particularly entrepreneurs who come to EO, is some degree of imposter syndrome. A worry that, "I don't feel like I know what I'm doing. I think everyone else is an expert and I'm not." Particularly if you're a young entrepreneur.

Jim: You're always fighting. You've got to fight the market, you've got to fight your competition, and you've got to fight yourself — self-doubt and all those things. God bless those entrepreneurs who are just so headstrong that they feel like they're bulletproof and invincible. I don't know who they are.

Aaron: I know someone like that — who wakes up and thinks, "I'm pretty awesome today," nearly every day. I envy that. That's not quite how I'm wired.

From Taker to Giver: How EO Reshaped a Leader

Aaron: You talked about some of the issues that you're able to discuss and address through EO. How did you mature? How did you change as an entrepreneur through your experience with EO?

Jim: The more vulnerable you allow yourself to be in your forum and in the organization, the more you're going to learn. If you wring out the sponge and allow it to absorb something, now it's got some power. That's really, in my opinion, what the vulnerability part is. Because now if I can say, "Hey, these are what my problems are, these are the challenges I'm having," now I'm able to absorb more of that, and others are willing to give me more in those conversations.
The organization gave me an opportunity to serve in some different leadership roles very early on. One, it increased my connectivity to the organization. Two, it pushed me as a leader to find what it meant and how to be a public servant — not in the public/private sense, but to learn how to lead when you do not have authority over somebody. That requires a different skill set than walking in and telling your employees what they need to get done. Servant leadership is a great training ground. It was for me — to take a look at what those leadership skills were that I developed inside this organization, and how those translate to being a more effective leader and listener to my own teams and to my customers.

Aaron: You had the first business that you took over from your dad. Did you join EO while you still had that business?

Jim: Yeah. I started working with my dad in 1992, 1993, and I was with that company until 2015 — 22-plus years.

Aaron: When you began your work with DSL Northwest, were there things that you took from your experience — or learned through EO — that caused you to frame the business differently? Approach it differently, make adjustments versus what you'd done with the prior business?

Jim: Yes. Because I came in without any predisposition about how a sales and service company should be run. Selling a hard good and servicing a hard good — like the equipment that we sell — I wasn't burdened by the way that things had always been done. So it was a different set of eyes. I challenged a lot of assumptions as part of my learning process. Then I was able to take what made logical sense to me and marry that to the opportunities in the marketplace and say, "Alright, where do these crossover? What are the things we've done that should be changed, or should we look at changing? And how do we look at how we go to market and how we service those customers and create greater value and relationships with the customers that we have?"

Aaron: It's been a long time since you joined EO. Do you have a sense for what your inner monologue was then, and how it might be different today?

Jim: When I joined EO, one of the questions I got asked in my interview was, "Why should you be a member?" And quite honestly, I looked around at the board members sitting around there who were interviewing me, and I said, "I don't know what value I bring to you. I really feel like this is going to be a one-way relationship." I don't have brick and mortar. I don't have a huge business. I've got this really segmented business model — 99.9% of people don't even understand it, because I say I've got a brokerage company and they're like, "Do you trade food?" No.
I didn't know at that point what I could give the organization. All I knew was that I was looking around the table at a bunch of people that I thought, "I want to be like that individual, and that individual, and that individual." So in all honesty, there was a lot of selfishness associated with it. But I also knew that wherever I ended up, I was going to commit a hundred percent to providing as much value as I could — because I knew I was going to draw a ton of value.

Aaron: How do you think about EO differently now? What's your inner monologue about yourself or about EO today?

Jim: EO has grown and transformed from the organization it was 15 years ago. There were 55 people in the chapter at that point in time, so it was much more intimate. You almost knew everybody. Now I'm the old guy when I was the young guy. There's a bunch of us that all kind of came in around the same time, and have been in the organization for a long time. So it feels weird, but now I feel like I'm quote-unquote old guard.
I look at it today, and I just want to make sure that we — as the people who have been in longer — are finding ways that we can help that younger entrepreneur who's trying to figure out not only their own business, but how to maximize their value out of this organization. Where is it that I can not only take from the organization, but I can give back to the organization? Because if it's one way, it'll never last.
There's a long list of people who have joined, and if you are a consumer of the organization and make no donations back, my experience is that those people don't last very long. If you're going to be a consumer, you also need to be donating. That doesn't mean in any particular manner — it just means you need to be willing to give back to the organization and your forum and commit.

Aaron: I think that's absolutely true.

[ SPONSOR BREAK ]

Before we continue, I want to tell you about the community that made this podcast possible — the Seattle chapter of EO, that's Entrepreneurs' Organization. It's not networking, it's not selling to each other. It's real entrepreneurs sharing real challenges and solutions. If you have a business that does at least a million a year in revenue and you're curious about joining a community that gets what you're going through, check out EO Seattle.

Three Martinis and a Set of Keys

Aaron: Do you mind if I ask you again about your professional history? I looked at your LinkedIn background. I saw the first company, I saw the second company — but it sounded like you described that the second company was sold to private equity 18 months ago.

Jim: No, so the first company — when we started, I took over from my dad. My brother came in three years after I had gotten involved. So we'd kind of gotten the foundation back under us, and my brother joined the company. Three years later, on December 31st, 1998 — I guess it was six years in — I had a child on the way, I was in graduate school, and we were buying a company.
I literally — my dad and my brother and I went out to lunch. He handed over his keys. We were at the attorney's office, we signed papers, we went to lunch. He had three martinis. My brother and I went back to the office and said, "What do we do now?"

Aaron: He was retiring right now.

Jim: Yes. And so with that company, we were tiny. We were doing $300,000 a year in total revenue. We were holding on to paychecks, making sure everybody else got paid. But one of the things my brother and I decided was that we could grow this into a very different brokerage company than a lot of our competitors. So we worked our ass off to get that accomplished.
We moved and expanded back down into Oregon. Got out of that lawsuit, reentered ourselves into that marketplace. My brother — funny story, don't need to go into all the details — one of us had to move. He didn't own a house, he didn't have children, he wasn't married. One of us had to move. He's like, "I guess this decision's been made." So he moved down to Oregon, and we started working in building that market.
And so together, for the better part of 22, 23 years, we just had one focus — and that was to be the best agency that we could be. We were going to differentiate ourselves by not allowing ourselves to be rolled up, because there was a massive amount of consolidation going on in the brokerage industry. So our goal was to be the single largest independent in the Pacific Northwest, and we accomplished that. When I sold the company, my brother in turn moved into a couple of different markets, and is now one of the largest independent agencies in the country.

Aaron: That's great. Well, it sounds like you did a fantastic job together — gave him some good momentum.

Jim: Yeah, we went from 300,000 to a lot more than that in that time period, and really built a good foundation and established who we were as a company and what our principles and ethics and deliverables were.

Becoming the Kitchen's Strategic Partner

Aaron: What's your vision for your current company?

Jim: For example, if you walk into a Chick-fil-A, the fryers that they have, the ice cream machine that they have — all that equipment we sell to a company like that. Or if you walk into Costco and go to the food court, the ice cream machine and the slush machine that you see to get your smoothie or your frozen latte is equipment that we sell. So we work with companies like Costco or Dutch Bros or McDonald's or Burger King or any of the big national brands.
Really for us, the number one thing we are working on right now is to become the most important service provider in the back of that kitchen. The average restaurant has somewhere between 12 and 25 key pieces of equipment, and we want to be the resource that they can go to on any of that type of equipment. That's been a big strategic shift for us as a company — adding the additional skill sets that we need out of the core brands we service, and then creating that value and those partnerships.

Aaron: For the brands that you do represent, are you in a competitive context when you're selling an ice cream machine to Costco? Are you having to compete with others who are in the same territory offering the same machine?

Jim: We're an exclusive distributor for Henny Penny and for Taylor. Those are the two primary brands that we sell and distribute, and we're exclusive for that. So inside of our own territory, we don't have anybody else trying to sell that equipment. But we have plenty of other pieces of equipment that can do what our equipment does.
So for us on the sales side, when we're working with a customer, it's: how do we make you more efficient? The Northwest right now is one of the toughest places in the entire country to be in any type of food service industry. We pay more per hour. The restrictions we have are onerous — scheduling laws, all these kinds of things. All of which drives up the cost. Every time you go out to eat, it gets more and more expensive. Fast food, fine dining, family dining, pizza — you fill in the blank, whatever it is.
So what we're looking for, in the value we provide, is trying to figure out operationally: is there equipment that we have that can either A, generate you more money, or B, allow you to operate more efficiently — so that you can create either greater output or reduce the amount of labor associated with creating the output you're doing currently? Those are the riddles we're trying to answer.

The ROI Conversation

Jim: Do I understand your business? Do I understand what your challenges are? Can I find a solution that allows you to operate more effectively, more efficiently, more profitably, and more consistently? Because if I can find a solution to one of those three or four things, odds are that it's going to make sense.
And then of course, you're talking about restaurant equipment — I don't care what it is, but that stuff's going to break. It's very high utilization. So we then back that up with a service network of technicians who can come in and repair that when it goes down. Because when that goes down, now it's a crisis. We're dealing with what I would consider mission-critical restaurant equipment. A grill, a fryer, a milkshake machine — these things generate large amounts of profit and they go through high, high volume. When something goes down, those customers are calling and they're freaking out.

Aaron: They support interesting items, too. They generate a lot of profit, but they also generate disproportionate customer dissatisfaction if they're not available, because they're treats.

Jim: In a lot of cases, absolutely.

Aaron: Do you work with clients in a way that means you can track the impact that optimizing for efficiency has? And is that then part of your calling card?

Jim: Yeah. We can work with, let's say, a fast-casual dining concept — we can go through and show how a certain piece of equipment can improve throughput, reduce time, all these things that matter. We have a set of metrics that we can do that with, and we actually do some time-study analysis to prove why the investment is worth it, and what the ROI is on that piece of equipment. It's more than just slinging milkshakes and ice cream cones and hamburgers. It's about understanding how to create that value for the customer in order to help them and their business grow.
We don't just look at that restaurant as our customer — every patron that comes in there is a customer of ours. Because we're helping them deliver that. If we take a look at the customers we have, we have contact with roughly 400 million different consumers in the course of a year. So the equipment that we sell and service — we make a lot of contact with everybody out there every day. Everybody listening to this at some point in time this week will have consumed something that probably came through a piece of equipment that we somehow are involved with.

Aaron: You have quite a track record. Do you have a sense of the improvement a new customer would typically see when they begin working with you? Lots of people can sell equipment, but you work with them and help to optimize for efficiency. So when a fast-casual restaurateur begins to work with you, do you feel confident that on average we improve efficiency by X or profitability by Y?

Jim: It's a great question. It's going to vary by what segment we're going after. Is it treats and desserts? Is it something coming off a grill, something coming out of a combi oven? There's a bunch of different things. So I can't provide you with one answer that says, "This is going to provide you a 10% better return and this is going to save you 20%." I can get into segments and tell you that our experience shows us that by using this, I can decrease your expenses by X. It really is customer-specific — not just about the solution, but the outcome — because there are so many variables that impact it. And how much volume are they doing?

Aaron: Sure. That makes sense. It's customer-specific, but it's also knowable.

Jim: It's knowable, yeah.

Twenty-Five Years with Costco

Aaron: When you are talking with a prospective client — or if you have the opportunity to speak with a prospective client — what do you want them to know about you and your company?

Jim: The most important thing to me is not knowing about me and my company, but knowing what your challenges are. What is it that you, as a business operator, are experiencing? And do I — does my team — have the skills, the connections, the ability to help you solve a problem that keeps you up at night? As that relationship develops, well, then they're going to get to know more about me and my company.
A lot of those are platitudes and things that are written on a wall: "Oh, we have great company culture." I believe we have all those things. But that doesn't matter to you. If I come in here and tell you we are the greatest place to work, look — "We've got, this company says, top 500 places to work in the country," whatever — none of that matters. What really matters is what is your challenge.
If you could just hand me three problems on a plate: "So, Jim, if you can find a solution to one of these three problems, we could do business together." All of a sudden, you're going to know me and my company as somebody who solved a problem you had that was keeping you up at night. Then it became tangible. Your opinion about what my company is will be framed by the way that you and I interact — the relationship that we develop, the service that we provide, the solution that we do, and the partnership we have moving forward to allow you to grow from one to three, to five to 25 to 35 stores. Because if we can't provide you value, it doesn't matter.

Aaron: In my business, longevity of our relationship — client retention — is a real measure of the quality and the value that we deliver for clients. I would assume the same is true for you, that once you're working with a client, retaining them is very good for you, but it's also a measure of, and a signal of, the value you deliver. Do you have a sense for your customer retention?

Jim: The most difficult part of what we do is identifying and creating that solution, getting it into test, and proving its efficacy. Once customers start working with us, we don't lose them. We've worked with Costco for 25 years. We've gone through some stuff, but our relationship is so strong, and what we're willing to do and the lengths we will go to to solve problems for them — when a competitor comes calling, which happens every day with a customer like that, the hurdle they have to overcome in order to get entry to that is super difficult. I've got 25 years of making sure that they are taken care of at every turn.
We're working with Dutch Bros — fastest-growing coffee chain in the country. We work with them extremely closely to figure out exactly what it is that they need, and how we can be a better partner for them as they're growing out and literally opening up eight to 15 to 20 new locations a month. That takes a lot of time, effort, and energy to figure out. And by the way, now that you're at 2,000 stores and you're on your way to 5,700 stores, there are a lot of moving pieces. We are helping them understand challenges they're going to have before they know they're going to have them, because they haven't ever crossed through this threshold before.
I believe that when customers start working with us and they really understand that we're not worried about this transaction — we're worried about their business and their employees, and their employees' families, and their customers, and the things we need to do in order to make sure all of those people are being served. That customer obsession — recognizing it's not just the operator, but all the people that they serve. How do we continue to do that, and what are we thinking about to help them and their business make sure the challenges that they have are overcome?
That can be anything from a new equipment solution to a preventative maintenance program, to a scheduled maintenance program — all different things, customized by location. Same concept, different franchisee, maybe a little bit different — different solution. There's no cookie-cutter thing that I walk in with and say, "This is a solution for you." In our opinion, every solution is dependent on that individual location, that individual owner. You can be a franchisee and have 12 locations — I'm going to look at each one of those 12 locations. Same idea, execution in each is going to be a little bit different based on exactly what your challenges are there. Being able to customize that creates this much higher level of connectivity and understanding and rapport — about the fact that we're not looking at every problem with the same solution. We're not just trying to gain market share by imploring, "Do this, do this, do this." It's: hey, there are specific things that we're doing. We're not the cheapest at what we do, either. But we're providing specific solutions for you and that location.

Aaron: You switch from being a vendor to being a strategic partner.

Jim: Exactly.

Aaron: In the context of EO, have you been able to work with other industry groups — to work with other folks in other territories with whom you can share information and collaborate?

Jim: We have a fairly robust food service group inside of EO Seattle, all doing different things. I think more, at an opportunity level as an organization, it's having the connectivity to other people doing things that are similar in different marketplaces. Being able to meet those people through regional events or global events or through MyEO — some of the different avenues that are there.
One thing to say you're an entrepreneur — that creates some connectivity. To say you're a member of the Entrepreneurs' Organization, and they are too, all of a sudden there's almost that intimacy that we talk about. We shake hands and find out, "Oh, you're — well, I didn't know you were part of EO." "Yeah, I've been in for 12." "That's great. So I've been in for 15." All of a sudden there's a connection and a trust that's developed, because you know what the core values of the organization are.

What EO Isn't

Aaron: I think that's absolutely true. What should people know about EO? What should a prospective member know about EO?

Jim: First and foremost, it is not a networking organization. If you're coming in because you think, "Hey, this is another way I can go expand," wrong, wrong place to be. Do you want to create connectivity and create relationships with other entrepreneurs who go through similar struggles, who go through their imposter syndrome, who have highs, have lows personally and professionally — and be willing to use that as a mechanism for self-growth and your company's growth? Then this could be a place for you.
If you want to show up and just check boxes and not be a contributor to your forum, to the chapter itself, to small groups and adopted forums, and not be willing to be vulnerable and be honest — then this isn't the organization for you. Maybe it's more about what this organization is not for me, in some of this description. Because if you take those things and you say, "If that's what you think you're going to get, or that's what you want out of this — you need to go someplace else."
Some of my closest friendships have been developed in this organization. I have a couple of forum mates that I've been in forum with for 13 years, 12 years. Been in their weddings and stuff like that. In some cases, almost brothers. That is because of a whole lot of time being involved in the organization, and relationships that I have with people that weren't even in my forum — that I've served on a board with, served on a committee with, met in an adopted forum, had a conversation at a retreat or an event. It is deeply moving and impressive that you can get so deep so quickly with somebody, and it's because of an organization like this.
The very foundational things that make the organization successful will be what make you successful inside this organization. Trust and respect. Willingness to go deep. Willingness to be vulnerable. They all matter. You don't get to pick and choose. You can't just say, "Hey, I'm just going to do this one." You've got to really embrace and understand what the values of the organization are, and then be willing to let those guide you.

Earning Your Place Through Service

Aaron: I think that's exceptionally well said. Is there anything else you want to talk about that I haven't asked you about?

Jim: One of the things is: how can you be a contributor to the organization? I think it's most important in the early stages of your tie to it. People that I know that are some of the longest-tenured members in this organization have all, in some way, shape, or capacity, served some type of leadership role inside the organization. You develop relationships. You truly understand what the core values of the organization are. You meet people outside of your forum. You're involved in the strategic thoughts that go into it. It's like sitting on a different board outside of your own business, and a lot of the things that you get from that, you can steal and take to your own.
Servant leadership is so much different than business or civic leadership. If I'm frustrated with the way somebody's performing inside my company, I can sit down with them one-on-one, or I can sit down with their manager and say, "Hey, these are corrective actions we're going to take." Nobody is beholden to you inside this organization that has to do what you're asking them to do.
The one expression I used to hate — I used to hear all the time — it's, "It's like herding cats." I think it's an absolutely terrible analogy that assumes that all the cats just want to run. So we have to create an environment, as that leader, where everybody feels they have a voice, that they have a common vision about what needs to get accomplished, and that there's a pathway moving forward — and we need you to be part of that.
So early involvement on the board, on a committee, doing anything — even a day chair for a learning event, any opportunity you have serving as your forum moderator — those are all steps and gateways to getting involved in the organization. If you do that, the likelihood that you are going to stick around — you'll have a better understanding of how it works and why it works, and the impact that you can have on the organization long term — will make a big difference.

Aaron: Yeah. Absolutely agree. I've appreciated this. It's been a great conversation. Thank you.

Jim: You bet.

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