Thankful for Jack

Dirty Secrets of Small Business

In This Episode

You might have noticed that it’s been a few weeks since we’ve dropped a podcast. It’s the first time in nearly 8 years of recording Dirty Secrets of Small Business that we’ve missed a week.

We have some sad news to report. My business partner of over 20 years in Maximum Value Partners, and my co-host for nearly 8 years on Dirty Secrets of Small business has passed away. Jack Mencini left this world two weeks ago on November 8, 2023 at the age of 80. While we had plans in place for MVP after Jack, we never really had plans for DSSB after Jack since he planned to continue with the show as long as he could. I am planning to take some time during this holiday season to figure out the next steps for DSSB.

In the meantime I thought it was appropriate to do a Thanksgiving show this year as Thanksgiving was Jack’s favorite holiday. He loved the food, family and friends, and football without all the pressure of having to bring gifts. Just a chance to be with people you love and reflect on all the things we have to be thankful for.

As you might imagine, I have so much to be thankful for in my 20+ year partnership with Jack and I wanted to share a few of them with you today:

• Partner: my wife said losing Jack is kind of like losing her. Jack was someone I saw, talked with, texted, or emailed nearly every day over the last 20 years. We spent a lot of time together coaching our hundreds of clients over the years, but what I’ll miss most is the times we were just hanging out talking about things. Everything from life to business to sports. And we took lots of trips together including several annual trips to baseball spring training in Arizona to watch our beloved Tribe and get out of the Cleveland winters for a few days. It’s hard to put into words all that Jack has meant to me in my life.
• Clients: we’ve been blessed to have a front seat view with hundreds of small business clients as they run, grow, and eventually transition their businesses. The outpouring of love for Jack over these past few weeks has been overwhelming. It’s safe to say Jack had an impact on just about everyone he encountered and just about all of that impact was positive.
• Listeners: what started out as a couple of amateurs live on the radio evolved into a weekly podcast that has helped so many folks. We initially started the DSSB podcast so we could help more small business owners as well as provide people with some insight for what it’s like to work with MVP. It’s been great over the years to hear from so many of you and how you enjoyed and looked forward to our podcasts. If nothing else, we could often provide you with a few laughs and a voice of reason to make sense of what can often be a crazy business world.
• 390: I’m so blessed to have recorded 390 DSSB podcasts with Jack. I’ve already gone back and listened to a few of our prior shows over these past couple of weeks. It’s so great to hear his voice and his laugh and to hear him tell his stories even though I know so many of the stories by heart.

I recently changed the wallpaper on my phone to the photograph I’ve uploaded for this show. This is a photo of Jack from our first Spring Training trip in March 2015. Every time I look at my phone I see this smiling face and I can almost hear the crack of the bat. I want to wish all of you a very Happy Thanksgiving and hopefully you remember you have a lot to be thankful for this year.

People, Companies and Resources We Mentioned in the Show

• St. Ed’s Obit for Jack with Senior High School Photo (https://obituaries.sehs.net/obituaries/john-e-mencini/)
• Busch Funeral Home Obit (https://www.buschcares.com/obituaries/John-E-Mencini?obId=29850202)
• WINT Radio (https://wintradio.com)