The best hire I ever made was family

My stepmom is also the President of Fifth Street DMC.

People hear that and say, "working with family is never a good idea."

It's the best hire I've ever made.

Zero ego, total commitment

Buffy stuffs gift bags at midnight and negotiates six-figure vendor contracts at 8am the next day. Zero ego. Total commitment. She tells me the truth nobody else will.

"That idea isn't ready" hits differently coming from someone who's known you since before you could drive.

Family in business gets a bad rap. Sometimes it deserves it. But when the boundaries are clear and the respect is mutual, it's a superpower.

The boundary that makes it work

Here's the boundary. At the office, she's Buffy the President. At home, she's family. We don't blur those lines.

That clarity is the whole thing. People assume family businesses fail because feelings get in the way. In my experience, they fail when nobody names the rules. When the dinner table and the boardroom run on the same unspoken assumptions and everyone is guessing.

So we made the rules explicit. Different rooms. Different roles. Same respect in both.

My team watches her and learns what professionalism actually looks like. Not performative. Just done.

Why this is the OMC model in miniature

At OMC we say it takes a village to build a company, and the best villages don't stop at the company doors. Buffy is proof of that. She's the President and she's family, and both of those facts make the work better, not messier.

We build companies around talented humans, not the other way around. Sometimes the most talented human in the room is the one who's known you your whole life and still chooses to show up at midnight with the gift bags.

Who's the unexpected great hire in your business? The one nobody saw coming? Mine calls me family at home and tells me the truth at the office. I wouldn't trade either.