An entrepreneur in the Valparaiso, Indiana, food industry, Rod Gardin owns a food trailer called Butter & Grace and a hot dog cart called Dr. Dawg! Since launching his food business in 2021, Rod Gardin has served thousands of customers. He has also helped the homeless population in his local community by offering free food and drinks.
After retiring from his previous job in public education, Dr. Gardin embraced his new career as an entrepreneur while also returning to university to pursue further education. He already held a master’s degree in educational administration and a PhD in leadership from Purdue University, and, in 2024, he obtained his master’s degree in counseling from Indiana Wesleyan University.
Since starting his career in counseling, he has led group therapy sessions for clients with alcohol use disorder, developed mental health presentations, and co-facilitated therapy sessions for clients with diverse issues ranging from generalized anxiety disorder to grief and trauma.
Rod Gardin completed specialized training in critical incident desensitization protocols to help people in the wake of crises and natural disaster. He also trained in acute traumatic incident processing, which uses bilateral eye movement to desensitize trauma survivors. Furthermore, he trained in mental health first aid and youth mental health first aid to help adults and adolescents experiencing mental health or addiction challenges.
Dr. Gardin is a member of the American Association of Christian Counselors. His hobbies include cooking, baking, woodworking, restoring furniture, and reading. In his free time, he volunteers at a local men’s shelter.
What is your typical day, and how do you make it productive?
There is no such thing as a typical day! Plans for a day can change based on what comes my way. However, my morning starts with my wife and I praying for God’s guidance and protection for us and our children. To make the day as productive as possible, I review what is coming up during the week, make a list of what needs to be done on which day, and work on the tasks throughout the day.
How do you bring ideas to life?
A colleague recently described me as a “get it done” type of guy. She said she noticed that when I have an idea, I begin planning and executing more quickly than others. I am a strategic thinker and when I have an idea, I plan out the steps needed to bring the idea to fruition. For example, when I was led to add a hot dog cart to our food business, I researched purchasing a cart. The carts were too expensive, though. Then I wondered why I couldn’t build my own cart. I searched and found plans for building a hot dog cart. Dr. Dawg! was ready to roll a few months later.
What’s one trend that excites you?
There seems to be a resurgence in a return to commonly held values such as the Golden Rule – do unto others as you would have them do to you. Concurrently, I see people are following the “be kind, for everyone you meet is fighting a battle you know nothing about” precept. If everyone would take a second to think before judging, we would have a much more pleasant and happier society.
What is one habit that helps you be productive?
Focus, focus, focus, along with determination. While thinking about the tasks and appointments for the week ahead is helpful, I consistently make a list of personal and professional obligations that have to be taken care of during the coming week. Making lists and writing them on my calendar helps me to remember what needs to be done and requires me to set aside time. Moreover, by listing the tasks and appointments for the week, I hold myself accountable for getting them done.
What advice would you give your younger self?
Relax, everything will work out. You don’t have to try so hard. Slow down and allow God to work through me. I have found that when I try to force my own plans to work out, they don’t. But when I slow down and rest in knowing that God has a plan for me, and I stop trying to figure things out on my own or implementing plans that I think will work, I feel more peaceful. When I feel peaceful, I can be more attuned to what God has going on in my life and I can follow his direction.
Tell us something you believe almost nobody agrees with you on?
I don’t think I am as smart or special as other people think I am, especially my wife. People who know me comment that they don’t know how I come up with ideas and solutions to problems. They see me as very creative. I don’t claim that. Thoughts and ideas just come to me. Along with creativity, people say I am a very hard worker, that I have several activities going on all at the same time. They don’t see me as splintered or having attention deficit, but as working all of the time to help others. I just do what I see needs to be done.
What is the one thing you repeatedly do and recommend everyone else do?
Capture your thoughts and don’t let your mind lie to you. As I counsel clients in my psychotherapy practice, I help them analyze and evaluate situations they encounter that they find distressing. In our discussion, I ask them if the situation will matter in five minutes, five hours, five days, five weeks, or five months. Most often, after thinking about the situation, they determine the situation they are dealing with will not matter in five minutes. When they determine that, they feel relieved that the situation was not as dramatic as they first thought. I use this same thinking in my personal life to help me stay emotionally regulated.
When you feel overwhelmed or unfocused, what do you do?
When I recognize those feelings, I ask myself, “What is bothering you? Why are you feeling the way you do?” Once I’ve identified why l’m feeling as I am, I ask myself, “What evidence do you have to support the way you are thinking?” For example, If I have a thought that I won’t get a task accomplished because it’s hard, I ask myself, “Have you done hard things in the past?” The answer is always yes. When I tell myself that I’ve done hard things in the past, I know I can do hard things in the present.
What is one strategy that has helped you grow your business or advance in your career?
Identify what people need and help them meet their needs. When you put other people first, growth and success (however that is defined) will follow. Listen to what others need and help them resolve the need. Clients come to me because they have a need that is not being met. For many clients, the lack of communication in the relationship causes great distress, and the client needs help in learning how to communicate better. By listening to my clients and reflecting back to them what I heard to verify that I am accurate in my appraisal of the situation, I can tailor a client’s treatment plan to meet their specific needs. When clients feel heard and their feelings are validated, they are much more engaged in therapy and have a higher degree of satisfaction with their treatment. When clients are satisfied, they tell other people how well they were treated. In turn, my caseload of clients grows and my business is more successful.
What is one failure in your career, how did you overcome it, and what lessons did you take away from it?
I wasn’t true to myself. I was hired to lead an organization and reestablish the culture that had been damaged by the previous person. I am, generally, a very easy-going and people-pleasing kind of person. In this role, I was expected to aggressively defend the board’s interests, which were antagonistic toward employees. Instead of a collaborative environment, which I was used to, I was in an adversarial one. Had I been true to who I was, I would not have had to leave that position.
What is one piece of software that helps you be productive? How do you use it?
Google Calendar – I keep all of my appointments in one place. TheraNest is essential in my therapy practice! TheraNest is the electronic health records platform that I use to schedule clients’ session, write treatment plans, keep notes, and facilitate billing. Without TheraNest, I would be spending hours a week on administrative tasks instead of helping clients.
Do you have a favorite book or podcast you’ve gotten a ton of value from and why?
The Bible. Even though it was written thousands of years ago, the advice, solace, and hope it gives is timeless. Instead of a favorite book or podcast, I have a treasured subscription to Audible. My Audible library is full of therapy books on all sorts of topics, such as relationships, addiction, parenting, faith, neurobiology, and psychopharmacology. Being able to listen to the books while I am in the car or working about the house helps to increase my knowledge base so I can better help my clients.
What’s a movie or series you recently enjoyed and why?
My wife and I enjoy fast-paced, intellectual, psychological thriller TV series and movies with unexpected twists or revelatory information. Series such as Suits, The Watcher, and The Woman in the Wall keep our interest and promote fun dialogue between my wife and me. We try to deduce what’s going to happen next in the episode.
Key learnings
- Put others first – stay humble
- Try to understand other people’s perspectives before sharing yours.
- You get what you give.
- Reflect often and what worked and what didn’t. A good post-mortem can provide valuable information.
- Be still and listen for God’s whisper.