“Deep Relationships Lead to a Healthy Culture and Healthy Business” with Jon Vaughan

You probably wouldn’t know it driving down the Connector on a busy weekday morning, but Atlanta is known as the “City in a Forest.” This is because Atlanta is actually one of the least dense large cities in America, which leaves more room for the trees that provide character to our city. In fact, more than 40% of our city is covered by some sort of tree canopy. Now, you didn’t come to our little search firm to learn about horticulture, but we figured it would be a good segway into our guest for this month’s huddle, Jon Vaughan.

Much like his hometown of Atlanta, Jon and his family have been defined by trees. Jon’s grandfather, Cy Vaughan, and his business partner, R.L. Brand, started Brand Vaughan Lumber Company in 1946. They operated their business around certain core beliefs – honor God, maintain humility, live by the Golden Rule, focus on being the best rather than the biggest, and treat all people with whom we interact with respect. 

Years later, Jon’s father, Chip, took over the business and Jon joined him in 2006. Over the next two years, the economy collapsed and the dip in the housing market nearly drove the family’s business into bankruptcy, with their revenues dropping by more than 72 percent in that period. It was during those tough days that Brand Vaughan nearly fell victim to what happens to many family-owned businesses. According to the Harvard Business Review, “Some 70% of family-owned businesses fail or are sold before the second generation gets a chance to take over. Just 10% remain active, privately held companies for the third generation to lead.” Jon and his father were determined that would not be the case with their family.

By 2015, when Jon took over for his father as President, the business was healthy and growing again, but the lumber market had changed dramatically, causing many businesses like theirs to fail. From 2006 – 2009 the number of lumber yards in Atlanta went from 120 to 18, but Brand Vaughan remained strong, eventually growing to a $200+ million company by 2022.

So how did Jon and his family achieve this despite headwinds all around? As the leader of the business, Jon was intensely focused on building a healthy culture within the organization.

“Culture is harder to measure than smarts and takes longer to measure,” he said. “The healthy side of business is harder, but it lasts longer when you get it right!”. In order to get the culture right, he had to learn to listen differently than before. He believes that good leaders show people that they are listening through their actions. He had to build a strategy to meet and actively listen to people across all parts of the organization, which he called Java with Jon. This process took more than a year and was led by asking people to answer simple questions like “I like, I wish, I wonder…”.  At the end of that year, he reported back to the company what he learned, leading to increased buy-in to the mission across the organization.

The other byproduct of the leader as the listener is that it modeled for people across the organization how they should care for their customers. This starts with preparation. He ingrained this through the five P’s – Proper Preparation Prevents Poor Performance. People will recognize when you’re prepared and appreciate your preparation.  Always be more prepared for your audience than they are for you. That preparation frees you to truly listen to what the customer really values, and you can then help them meet their needs. Jon used the example of a customer’s 50th birthday party that coincided with a big industry conference.  One person gave the guy a nice bottle of champagne that probably cost a lot of money, but the recipient had been sober for 15 years, so he wouldn’t enjoy it. Jon and a group gave the customer a custom art piece of his family made out of records.  It cost them more – but it made impact and is something his friend will keep forever.  This is what drives deep and lasting relationships with customers.

Which leads us back to the forest. Did you know that trees actually talk to each other? Well, it’s true. Research has shown that trees communicate to others around them, creating a symbiotic relationship and a healthy forest. It doesn’t happen up in the tall limbs or the colorful leaves, but down deep in the roots, where they send signals back and forth, enabling them to share water and nutrients and remain healthy together. Like the trees in the forest, the deep relationships you build with your internal team AND your customers lead to a healthy culture and a healthy business.

In 2022, Jon sold Brand Vaughan Lumber Company to US LBM, which operates more than 400 locations nationwide under multiple brand names. Jon remained with the company for two years, ensuring that the legacy of the brand that carries his name will remain. Today, Jon’s LinkedIn profile lists his occupation as “Summer Camp Instructor and Youth Sports Coach.” So, maybe Jon isn’t spending as much time with trucks that have his name on it, but he is still investing in a family business, but now the name is on the back of a jersey …