Today, I’m genuinely excited to introduce to Aaron Wenburg and, no, it’s not a coincidence that we have the same last name. Aaron is, in fact, my awesome husband. He also happens to be a Physical Therapist, the Co-Owner of Sandhills Physical Therapy and Sports Rehab clinics, and a loving father.
In this episode, we talk about why Aaron became a Physical Therapist, how what he does is a good mix of business and caring for people, some of the struggles he experienced along the way, how he overcame those struggles, how he knows when it’s time to have a difficult conversation with his team, the precautions his clinics are taking as they keep their doors open during the current health crisis, and more!
Aaron’s story is one of resilience and an example of what it means to show grit and keep moving forward when things are difficult. I know I may be a little biased with this one, but I really think you’re going to find this an inspiring episode.
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Transcript
People of influence know that their voice matters, and they can make it matter more. I’m Andrea Wenburg, and this is the Voice of Influence podcast.
Well, today, I am thrilled to introduce to you to Aaron Wenburg, who happens to be my husband. And he is also a physical therapist, co-owner of Sandhills Physical Therapy and Sports Rehab clinics, loving father, and awesome husband.
In the near future, we’ll be doing an episode where we really talk about our relationship, and how we handle each having businesses, and the kind of relationship that we’ve cultivated and grown over the past fifteen years. But for now, today, what I really like to do is share with you Aaron. He’s had a great amount of influence on my life and continues to in my business. He is respected, and people look to him quite often for advice or to help them figure out to answers to problem that they have.
So, I’m really excited, genuinely excited, to introduce you to him today and to share with you this interview. So, we talk about his own experience of why he became a physical therapist and how it really is a good mix of business and caring for people, as well as some of the things that he struggled with, how he overcomes those struggles… and his is a message of resilience, of learning to have grit, to keep going even when things get hard, to wade through the mess, even when things are messy, even if you don’t like it being messy.
I’m really genuinely excited to share with you the advice he gives and his experience because I really think that it’s going to touch you in a very special way. I did take a little bit of liberty and we went a little long on this interview. I mean, it’s not very often that I get to sit down with Aaron for a whole hour and have him talk the whole time. I don’t know if that’s ever happened quite frankly, but it’s so fun. It was so fun to be able to hear his perspective and get him to talk about himself, which is something he doesn’t ever do.
I really think that you’ll find it worth it, and in the end, you will forgive me for letting this interview go a little long. And at the end, we do cover some questions that people from our audience or our friends asked me to ask him for this episode, so I’m excited to share those answers with you as well.
All right, enjoy this interview with Aaron Wenburg:
Andrea: All right, Aaron Wenburg, welcome to the Voice of Influence podcast.
Aaron Wenburg: Thank you.
Andrea: I am so glad that you are here today. This has got to be one of my favorites; like, I’ve got this huge grin on my face right now. I’m excited to talk to you.
Aaron Wenburg: Well, good. We’ll see how it goes. No guarantees on this one.
Andrea: Well, thank you for agreeing to do it. Okay, so I have for you some questions about you, and then I have some questions that other people asked. I let Facebook know that I was going to be doing this interview with you, and we had some people chime in with a few questions that they wanted me to ask you and so I’m going to do that too.
Okay, so you are a physical therapist. You have a doctorate of physical therapy, and you did a residency after you graduated. It was about five years later that – right after we got married – that we moved to La Crosse, Wisconsin, and you did a sports medicine residency there for physical therapy.
And then we came back, and you had a job. And then we ended up moving to where we are now, where you are one of the owners of Sandhills Physical Therapy and Sports Rehab in North Platte, Nebraska. So, Aaron, what got you interested in physical therapy in the first place? Because you knew from a long time ago that you were going to do it, so how old were you when you first decided that you were going to be a physical therapist?
Aaron Wenburg: Hmm. Honestly, I’m not really sure. Probably in the latter part of high school, I guess. I grew up in a small-town funeral home. My dad was the local mortician in a town of 800 people. So, living there, growing up there, my brothers and I were exposed to various health-related issues. And I think that probably spurred some of my interest in health and general well being, I guess, at a young age from that. And then from that point, I think I saw my dad take a lot of call time – a lot of nights and weekends where he would have to get up and work – and I knew I didn’t necessarily want that.
I appreciated a lot of what he did and how he helped people and got to work with people, but I also knew I didn’t want to be on call. So, I kind of started looking at other healthcare-related fields from that end, and physical therapy allowed me to get to know the patient maybe a little bit more but also have some ability to make a diagnosis and affect health. And that’s been an enjoyable part of it, I guess, from that end.
Andrea: Yeah, it’s interesting. So, you knew early on when you were kind of deciding to go to physical therapy route that physical therapy allowed you to both help people with their health, but at the same time, get to know the patient maybe a little better than you would if you were seeing them once every few months or that sort of thing.
Aaron Wenburg: Mm-hmm, yeah. I guess there’s somewhat of the relationship component that I enjoyed. I guess I saw my parents have relationships with people, whether it was my mom teaching school or my dad in the community aspect. And I appreciated that and felt that physical therapy maybe allowed me to have a little bit more time with people. And, you know, unfortunately, many of the things I deal with in the rehab setting, people don’t get better quickly. As much as I try to help them quickly, most of it is a process and it’s working through the little problems and, “Well, this comes up. How are we gonna do this differently or how are we going to affect that?”
And with that, I get to use aspects of health and aspects of stuff I was looking into anyway as a kid that kind of spoke to me that way. And I guess I also kind of liked the aspect of it was a challenge to get into school. It was a nice aspect of, “Well, if you work really hard and do this, this, and this, you might have the ability to get into school.” And I enjoyed that achievement aspect of it too, I guess. So, I’d say that’s probably the initial drive towards it.
Andrea: And that drive and achieving entry into med school and then achieving other things has been a theme I think in your life. What do you think drives you to want to achieve different things? Some people are really, really motivated to achieve and others are just motivated to do other things, you know; it’s not always about achievement.
Aaron Wenburg: I don’t know. I think as I get older, I think that’s what one of the things I’m gradually learning more and more about myself in that I’m happier when I am working towards something. Or… yeah, I guess working towards something, have a goal and I can make in my head of the plans that I would like to work towards. Not that I achieve all those or anything, but it does help my mental side of things to say, “Okay, here’s the method or the workings that I’m going to go for, I guess, and then if it doesn’t work out, that’s fine.” But at least I enjoy the process of working towards that and I don’t sit still very well. I don’t have the ability to precisely relax.
Andrea: We’ve talked about how hard it is for us to have fun, and that fun for us is really more that if we feel like we’re building something or if we feel like we’re working towards something; that’s more fun.
Aaron Wenburg: Yeah. I enjoyed that, you know, making things better that we’re restoring something or building, knowing that I can say, “Hey, this is better because of some plan or some action or some process.” I don’t know, even when you’re playing a game or whatnot, it’s not just about winning the game, it’s about, “I’ll find more satisfaction in finding a new way to win the game and still win the game,” as opposed to just winning the game, I guess.
Andrea: Okay, sorry, apologies for the giggles here. Okay, tell me about the new way of winning the game piece, what do you mean?
Aaron Wenburg: Like I said, I enjoy the process of developing new things and discovering ways to do things. And, you know, many games I feel are a lot of chance and I like to build into as much of my own strategy that can win the game and still win the game of chance as well. I don’t know, I think that is a little extra piece of achievement that I like to throw in there, I guess.
Andrea: And that’s fun. It’s not fun for those who play with you, but unless we’re on your team.
Aaron Wenburg: Yeah.
Andrea: All right. So, let’s see here. I’m going back here a little bit to my questions. Did you always know that you wanted to be a business owner or own your own clinic? Or at what point did you realize that that’s what you wanted?
Aaron Wenburg: No, I did not set out to own a business, or that’s never been a grand goal of mine, for sure. After, you know, working for several different people, all great people, it was just this sense of not knowing exactly what, or this decision was made but not knowing the process of what the decision or how the decision came about, I guess. I don’t know, I guess I knew I wanted a piece of that. And part of that probably I can easily become a victim, make myself a victim, and sit in that, and I’m not very happy in that mode, but I can easily go down that victimhood road, I guess.
And when I feel like I have a part in the decision process apart in that thinking-through, it makes me become more a part of it, more active, and I don’t know more driven towards a certain goal with it. And I guess that was a part of the decision making to own a business or multiple businesses and be a part of that because like I said, I enjoy the process and enjoy, you know, that as much as the end goal, I guess.
Andrea: I love that. I love that you love the process because how else can you go through. I mean, this whole idea of being a business owner is messy and difficult but you’re saying that you like that because it is a process and you can do something about it in the midst of it. And, really, the role that you play at your clinics and, you know, you play multiple roles and everybody does, your partners do as well. And I think that you’re playing that COO role a lot, the operations and making sure that people are doing well and not just the patients but then also the team and partners who partner with you in other clinics as well. You are always kind of in that; you don’t mind the developmental nature of it all.
Aaron Wenburg: Mm-hmm. Yeah, I think the development is when you grow, and like I said the restorative, I hate to use the word process again, but the process of building, achieving getting better and better every day no matter what that is something I feel I’m happiest in. And I’ve always said it’s going to be hard for me to retire because I need that next process or that next activity to get to. And, yes, so whatever eventual retirement looks like or eventual whatever next twenty, fifty, seventy years looks like, I think it has to have some component of that building, you know, physically, emotionally, spiritually, health, and all of those components is when I feel I’m best and when I feel I’m making the most headway.
Andrea: How do you kind of cope when you’re not making progress in one of those areas, because I know that’s really hard?
Aaron Wenburg: Certain times in my life, I’ve done better at it than others. I mean, that’s pretty you can probably cover that as well as I can and say “Oh.” But you know, I’d say different times in my life, I’ve done different things as well. I think a fair bit of coping is waking up the next morning and the day after that and the day after that of keeping your head down and keep grinding and know that “Hey, this is the process,” and having that sense of, “Okay, what’s lately I’ve been trying to tell myself?” “Well, what’s the worst thing that can happen with this?”
Andrea: “With this,” meaning?
Aaron Wenburg: With whatever is going on.
Andrea: Okay.
Aaron Wenburg: With this activity or this event or this business or whatever. And, well, if that does happen, we’re going to be okay. We’ll figure that out and we’ll adapt and adjust and keep moving forward with, I guess, the fundamentals of faith, the fundamentals of things I know are true, the things that I value in my family, the things I value in friends and relationships, I guess. And that’s what I keep trying to tell myself that there are days better than others and I guess that’s the foundation that it goes back to.
Andrea: Well, I mean, that is hard. It’ hard, I think, for me too. It’s hard for anybody to feel like we’re stuck or that we are stagnant. And growth is such a part of, a beautiful part of life, and when we can’t, we feel like we’re not growing. I think it can easily start to feel like we have nowhere to go. But what you’re saying is, this is the way I would phrase what you were saying, “If I can’t be destroyed by this, then let’s just keep going.”
Aaron Wenburg: Bingo. Yep.
Andrea: I can’t be destroyed by this.
Aaron Wenburg: Mm-hmm. Yeah. I would very much say that’s a part of what has become more evident as we move along in life, I guess.
Andrea: Yeah. And like you were talking about the tendency toward feeling like a victim. I mean, it sounds to me like what you’re saying is, “As long as I can still do something about it, what can I do something about? As long as I’m taking action and I’m making some kind of impact, then I’m not a victim. I can have agency. I can make a difference. My voice matters.”
Aaron Wenburg: Yes, I would agree.
Andrea: Yeah. So, from what I know of you, Aaron, people who are close to you tend to come to you with their concerns a lot and they always have. They feel comfortable with you even though you’re not like some big charismatic whatever.
Aaron Wenburg: I’m not a lot of things, you’re right.
Andrea: You’re right. This is a stretch to be doing so much talking in one sitting, I think.
Aaron Wenburg: You’re right.
Andrea: Which is really fun for me. I’ve got a captive client or not client but a captive interviewee here. But people tend to feel comfortable coming to you with hard things or bringing their concerns to you. I mean, that’s what I’ve seen, do you sense that as well?
Aaron Wenburg: No. I don’t know. I guess I can’t speak for anybody else. But that’s kind of been one of those things along the way that has been just a part of me and is normal, I guess. I can’t speak to anybody else’s normal but that’s not me, I guess.
Andrea: Yeah. I wonder if it has to do with your desire for that developmental process, you know, to be a part of the development process. So, you are open to that, you’re constantly working on that and moving towards goals and fixing problems, really. So, when people have a problem and they think that you can speak to that or help them somehow they come to you.
Aaron Wenburg: Yeah. Yeah, I realized, I’m not perfect. I’m not close to perfect and yet still enjoy the process and the part and people do know that they can develop more and however much I can facilitate the better, I guess. I enjoy listening to people’s ideas. When I make a decision, I appreciate everybody’s inputs, their opinions, and whatnot. Not that I’m going to use any of them, but I do enjoy, “Okay, you think that’s because of what, or you think that’s because of that.”
And just as somewhat of a measuring stick to see if my ideas or activities align with the way you’re thinking or somebody else’s thinking, I guess. So, maybe that process of listening, the process of, you know, trying to figure out the problem as well as figure out that person or figure out a solution, one I find that enjoyable and maybe that translates to the person. And number two, hopefully, it benefits them as well.
Andrea: Hmm. Yeah, I like that answer. Okay, I have some questions from other people. So, I’m going to go ahead and start with those now. One of the questions, Ted asks, “Where do you feel your voice is most influential?” Would you tie it back to kind of what we were talking about just a little bit ago or do you have other thoughts on that?
Aaron Wenburg: The most influential. That’s a good question.
Andrea: Ted always asks good questions, right?
Aaron Wenburg: He does. Doggone it, Ted. No, I think it depends on the situation. But I play a little part in a lot of different roles. And I wouldn’t say it’s very influential at all, but I hope to get little nuggets in the people that I’m closest to, I guess. And apart from that, hopefully my actions, you know, speaks louder than my speaking ability or this podcast or any of it. But I think it’s probably most influential to those closest to me, I guess.
Andrea: I think that you’re right. What’s that?
Aaron Wenburg: Would you concur?
Andrea: I would concur, yes, because you’re not going to broadcast your voice.
Aaron Wenburg: No, no.
Andrea: I’m broadcasting your voice, but you wouldn’t do it on your own. Oh, gosh, we’ll get to that in a second. But I think it is that sort of steady presents, you care, and in fact that actually leads to a question that Rosanne asked which is, you know, physical therapy has to do with both healthcare and, you know, sort of the diagnostic kind of thing, but also with caring for people. And her question was, “How do you balance both, carrying, like, both the business side of things?” You know, you’ve got to get the job done and you got to keep things. You guys have to make sure that everything is sustainable and that the team is doing well and all that sort of thing, the business side of things, or the money side of things but then also the team and the patient side of things. So, how do you balance the two of those, which one takes precedence?
Aaron Wenburg: Honestly, it’s tough because you always have the money side of things and you can always look at the number of this or that from year to year and it’s easy to, “Okay, we just want to do this many dollars more than last year. We want to see this many more people. We want to, you know, keep reaching that goal.” But I think it goes back to you, “Okay, what is the main goal?” The main goal is to, you know, broaden our reach and help people and try to help them make the world a better place, and largely if we do that, generally, the business side of things takes care of itself.
And with good people around, it helps so much, and I guess the ability to know that it’s part of my job too. And I take decent satisfaction in, you know, providing jobs for good quality people that I know are helping people as well, and I feel like I can be of service and have helped that way too. So, I think trying to keep the bigger goal, the bigger mission, and it’s all about people, and generally, the money will follow, I guess.
Andrea: And I know that sometimes you had to make hard decisions or have hard conversations or whatever throughout life, but especially in the last ten years of, you know, really owning a business and owning a few businesses. In those cases, how do you know when it’s time to disappoint somebody or say no to somebody? You know what I mean? Like, have those challenging conversations that most people really shrink away from or they handle with such, I don’t know, heavy hand and arrogance that they come off as not being helpful to everybody in the end? How do you see a balance there for yourself?
Aaron Wenburg: I think part of that comes and really try to get a decent understanding of where the other person, the other event is coming from, I guess. I’m trying to put myself in their shoes… and granted, I can’t completely understand that and realize that they’re dealing with a whole bunch of other circumstances that I don’t know as well, and as well as they don’t know my circumstances from being on both sides of that and trying to take all of that into account. And I also know that, you know, I’m not right over half the time and neither are they, but we’re going to move through it and we’re going to be okay.
And you know, just having that point of resiliency, “Here’s what I know is true and we’re gonna keep moving forward and it’s not gonna be pretty and it’s not gonna be the most elegant thing in the world. But we’re gonna be resilient and we’re gonna muddle through this, and in the end, it’s gonna be better than it is now, I guess.”
Andrea: Do you think…
Aaron Wenburg: Go ahead.
Andrea: I definitely don’t like it when I interrupt you.
Aaron Wenburg: That’s all I got.
Andrea: Oh guys, you have no idea. I cannot interrupt my husband because he has a lot to say, but he doesn’t say very much. So when he is talking, I need to keep my mouth shut, but the interviewer in me comes out right now. So, it sounds like you’re pretty comfortable with mess, you know, that muddling through it like you said. Would you say that you’re comfortable with the mess or you’ve just gotten used to it, know that you’ve built this resilience over time?
Aaron Wenburg: No, I’m not comfortable with it. I don’t know anybody is and I don’t like it. But there’s a part of it, I guess, you can somewhat expect and nothing’s perfect. Nothing’s, you know, truly set apart. I mean, there were times in my career, I’d go to work thinking that, “Okay, today’s gonna easy day, great day. I’m gonna do this, do this, do this.” And then it never turned out that way and I’m like, “Why was I even setting my expectation up for that?” And that, “Okay, here’s some of the things I’m gonna have to work through and get through and it’s still gonna be a good day.” But that’s just the part of the living in our world as we see it, I guess,
Andrea: Yeah, like it’s not, it’s not going to be easy, but I’m going to get through it and it’s going to be okay.
Aaron Wenburg: Mm-hmm. Yep.
Andrea: Okay. And Brenda asks, “How have current events affected you or your business?” And she’s referring to, I believe, she’s referring to COVID-19 and everything that’s happened.
Aaron Wenburg: Oh, it’s difficult. But, yet, it’s also one of those things that, you know, however, it affects us or occurs, we are going to get through it. And I hope with everybody around me, we’ll get through it as well. We obviously are, you know, looking at expenses, looking at, you know, things we’re doing, absolutely. But also knowing that we will get through this, I guess, and know that we have great people on board and we believe in our mission and do feel that if it doesn’t work out, we’ll be okay as well.
Andrea: At the time of this recording at the end of April, you haven’t had to actually shut the doors on the clinic yet or the other clinics, what precautions do you guys have to take or have you been taking?
Aaron Wenburg: Well, obviously, the payroll protection program has helped us maintain consistent cash flow through the clinics. But instead of taking it as, “Whoa, this is the terrible thing,” we’ve tried to switch that storyboard to, “Okay, this is a great time to improve yourself, a great time to get continuing ed work on certain skills or maneuvers.” We always have that list of stuff we want to read up on or study more and get better at, I guess. And, you know, trying to promote those activities as well as promote, you know, “Okay, as healthcare providers or influential people throughout the community, what things can we put more of our energy to now to further help people?” And one of the main things I like about physical therapy, it has a lot of great people in the profession.
Andrea: This is true.
Aaron Wenburg: And have a heart for people and want to see people improved, and I guess I enjoy that community. And, you know, they are always willing to help throughout the community and stuff like that too. So, we’re really trying to promote more of that and really feel like this is a unique time to develop skills also and help out and so far so good, I guess.
Andrea: Okay, Sarah asks, now this is a question kind of about me too, “What has been the most challenging thing for you in the transition of Andrea working, in particular, writing books, starting Voice of Influence and how have we worked through.” Now, I’ll say this, Sarah, we will cover this more in-depth in a future interview where we’ll have more of a conversation about our relationship and our working relationship. But, Aaron, what has been something that’s been really challenging for you in this?
Aaron Wenburg: In this transition…
Andrea: It’s not really a transition anymore; we’ll say that we’re full-in.
Aaron Wenburg: Yeah. I think initially for me, the hardest part was knowing when I could or we could have our discussions about activities, or many times I’ll come to you and ask what you think about this or that or that sort of thing. I think prior to that, it was basically all on my schedule and I could find you at various times or when you brought me the lunch or when you did this or that, I guess. And I guess I have to be a little bit more strategic with, “Okay, this is our time to talk. This is when, you know, I can, in fact, save this for when we get together,” or stuff like that. I guess that was probably the transition as much as any. And also in that time knowing that, “Yeah, this is the time that works best for us, so I need to fully present and get this, you know, figure out if this concerns in that time,” versus, “Well, maybe I don’t quite feel up to it, or maybe we don’t need to talk about this or that,” I guess.
Andrea: Yeah.
Aaron Wenburg: Does that make sense?
Andrea: It does. I think there was something about, like, we’ve started to look at our conversations in terms of when do we talk about your business, when do we talk about my business, when do we talk about our children or our family. And one of the things that we implemented, actually quite a while ago, was about every quarter so, every three months or so we’d go out to dinner and we’d call it our date. And we don’t really do date night. We go for walks or we talk, you know, we do different things. But if we have a chance to be playing with our family, we play with our family, otherwise, we’re building and doing stuff.
But we would take this time to go out to dinner, and it would be all about, you know, where are we? Where do we want to go? What are the challenges that we’re going to be facing here in the next few months? How do we want to handle that with our schedule? You know, what are our concerns about our kids or things that we want to make sure that they have and that sort of thing. So, that was one very practical thing that we started doing. And I would agree with you too that one of the hardest things is knowing when we’re in problem-solving mode and when we’re just in listen mode.
Aaron Wenburg: Yeah.
Andrea: That’s hard for me too, like men get a bad rap. They get that a lot like that they’re in this problem solving, “I just wanna be heard.” Trust me that’s been flipped around in our marriage too.
Aaron Wenburg: Mm-hmm. Good question.
Andrea: Okay. I think I’ll summarize the other two questions, Sam and Audrey were kind of asking about the blessings and challenges of living with a deep thinker, somebody like me. And Audrey used the words wonderful and talented. Thank you, Audrey. But I think the point is, you know, I’m stepping out there and I’m doing things or whatever and also the deep thinker thing. What are some of the blessings and challenges or maybe even just one of each for now?
Aaron Wenburg: Mm-hmm, blessings. I enjoy watching you do your thing and enjoy sitting back and knowing the process and seeing it just, you know, flow out there and, yeah, make a difference. I guess I get probably more satisfaction from that than you do in all this, I guess. So, that’s a huge blessing even though there’s, you know, tough times and challenges and it’s not easy. But, yeah, I do feel and I’ve felt this for years that we needed to get your voice heard and out throughout the world and ability to make an impact wherever that is.
And so, it definitely makes an impact on me and is one of those things that, I get more enjoyment out of it than you probably know. And the challenge aspect of that, I don’t know, life is a challenge. I don’t expect it to be easy. And, I guess, whatever that is good and noble and just is going to be hard and in those hard times, I keep trying to tell myself that. So, I think just knowing that it is going to be hard and, you know, there has to be a process or a system or a way to work through that and get up every morning and get going with it, I guess. So, I don’t know of a specific on that but, yeah, that’s kind of what I got. I don’t know.
Andrea: That’s okay. That’s all right. Thank you. I’m tearing up a little bit, by the way. But you know as to Sam’s question about living with a deep thinker, Sam, you need to know and every audience you should know this, that when we were first kind of developing our relationship, before dating and whatnot, one of the things that Aaron said to me that really piqued my interest and made me even more interested in him as a, you know, potential life partner was, he said, I don’t like fluff.
And that word fluff, I kind of parsed it out a little bit after a while and kind of figured out that he’s a deep thinker. He thinks differently than I do. So, we’re deep thinkers in different ways, I think. But we both have a very strong sense of values, you know, common values about people and about process and development and moving towards a goal.
But then also that there was a little less tolerance for kind of things that are on the surface, which, for a while was hard for us to kind of figure out like when we first got married or whatever, are we supposed to look a certain way like other people and we were pretty serious. We’ve always been pretty serious, which kind of drives at least one of our children nuts. But we’ve also had to grow together, you know, being a little more lighthearted with our kids and being able to play and things like that too. So, I’d say that he’s also a deep thinker; I guess is what I wanted to say. It’s not just me, just so you know.
Aaron Wenburg: Yes, I would agree.
Andrea: And then finally, Sarah asks, what have you found most helpful from Andrea in supporting you in your career?
Aaron Wenburg: I think the recurrent themes of, “Hey, we’re in this together, I care about you and we’re gonna be okay.” And I think that reminder of, “Well, why did you say this?” Well, ultimately, it’s for my good. And going back to that, I guess, has been the most helpful and then from that respect and the conversation about this or that is valuable and the conversation about, “Well, I talked to this person today,” or “What do you think about this?” Just that additional partner in life that has ultimately good in mind, even though sometimes it’s hard, it’s tough, but going back to that, I guess, has been the most helpful. And that’s something that you’ve always done a good job of, and I appreciate that.
Andrea: Well, I appreciate a lot of things about you too. And I don’t know, your steadiness, especially right now in terms of what we’re all experiencing with COVID-19, just my reaction versus your reaction is very different. And you’ve always helped me to remain a little bit more steady, and I think that we balance each other out in some ways when it comes to our, you know, passion and what we care about. But I am grateful for you, Aaron, and your voice of influence in my life and how you have, I don’t know, all the things that you do for me as well.
Aaron Wenburg: Thank you.
Andrea: One last question for you, if you could go back to your thirty-year-old self and talk to yourself about being a voice of influence, like you’re going to want to have influence on people, you’re going to want to have an impact in the world or whatever, what advice would you give yourself?
Aaron Wenburg: Hmm. I would say, worry less and do more. I can get into the point of paralysis by analysis, and that would be one thing I would tell myself too, and just dive in and you’ll be okay, I guess. I feel I’m working through more and more of that as I grow older. Yeah, that’d probably be the most beneficial thing for me.
Andrea: Awesome! Well, thank you for taking time to do this interview, I appreciate it.
Aaron Wenburg: Well, you are welcome!
Andrea: All right.