Toni Reece: Hi there. I’m Toni Reece, and welcome to the Get Inspired! Project for Berks County Living Magazine. Today I have Jack Fry with me. Welcome, Jack.
Jack Fry: I’m happy to be here.
Toni: So, take a moment and tell us a little bit about yourself.
Jack: Well, I was born and raised in Berks County, and actually grew up in Robesonia. Got married. Well, went to college first, got married, and came back home and got into the real estate business with my dad. I’ve been in the real estate business ever since I’ve gotten out of college. I moved all the way from Robesonia down to Wernersville and lived there for probably two decades — a little more than that. Then, moved back to a farm outside of Robesonia, and that’s where we’re at right now. I’ve been a resident of Berks County all my life and love it here.
Toni: Well, thank you for showing up for the Get Inspired! Project. Let’s go into the Project. So Jack, what does inspiration mean to you?
Jack: Inspiration, obviously it’s to be inspired, to be in spirit. When I’m inspired and in spirit, I’m probably the best Jack Fry I can be. That really ties into my mission statement that I have personally, and also for my company, and that is, “Quality living, embracing change, serving others.” The quality living piece about it is when I’m balanced, when my life is balanced — my spiritual life, my physical life, my marriage, my personal life, my business life — when all those pieces of the puzzle are balanced, I’m the best Jack Fry I can be. When I touch other people’s lives with my energy, I’m the best I can be. That is when I feel like I’m inspired. I have the highest level of positive energy when I’m balanced, and quality of living, quality of life is really very, very important to keep you inspired.
Toni: So, when you are in balance and all of those parts come together and you’re living your best life, that is when you are the most inspired?
Jack: Absolutely.
Toni: Can you tell when you’re inspired?
Jack: Yes. There is a smile on your face. There’s happiness. It’s joyful. When you get around somebody like that, you just really want to be around them. They’re fun; they’re neat. It’s high energy. When you get involved with somebody of that nature, you can tell it’s somebody you want to be around. They inspire you to be better than what you are presently. Yes.
Toni: When all of that works for you and you are in that state of mind and you are inspired, how do you put that feeling and that way of life into practice here in Berks County?
Jack: Well, when I’m inspired or I’m in balance and I touch other people’s lives, I believe that’s where I put it into my…to be inspired and put it into play, into practice out there in the world. It’s touching the people’s lives that I touch. I know that when I do that and I am in balance, I know that I give away…it’s a law of the universe. Whatever you give away expands. When I’m giving away that happiness and that joy, I know that it’s growing and going beyond me. I still have it. I didn’t lose it; but now someone else has it, and it has expanded, and it’s growing.
When I put it in play, it’s just touching other people’s lives on a very, very common denominator; just a common way of living life. It’s in the grocery store. It’s in the eatery you go to at lunchtime. It’s just talking to people. It’s paying something forward. Those are the ways that I can live an inspired life and touch other people’s lives that it becomes personal to them and me, and it’s a neat way to go through life. It’s fun.
Toni: Do you do that purposefully?
Jack: Yes. It’s on my top of mind, yes. It has become woven into the fabric of who I am and how I think and what I do each day. When I don’t feel that way, I know I have an off day and I’m not in balance, so I’ve got to figure out how to get back to balance.
Toni: Mm-hmm. Wow. Okay. I love that answer.
Jack: Great.
Toni: Who in Berks County inspires you?
Jack: There are a lot of wonderful leaders in our county, and they can be very, very inspirational to us, but I’ve got to tell you, the people that inspire me the most are the people on the ground floor; the ones that are touching people’s lives. Serving meals. Helping at shelters. Taking older people to the doctor. Just very what we would think are mundane things, but they do these things without looking for any praise or any acknowledgement. They’re doing it because of kindness and the joy of them serving other people.
They are inspirational to me, and they really carry the load. The people at the top are really great, and we need them — but the people that are out there in the field doing the things day in and day out that don’t get recognition for it, they are, I think, very inspirational. I love to see them. I just say, “Boy, I don’t have the time in the day, and I guess I could — but they take the time in the day to do it.” That’s inspirational to me.
Toni: Any particular people you’d like to give a shout out to?
Jack: No, I didn’t really think that through. I don’t have anybody particularly in mind now.
Toni: Okay. Fantastic. What would you like your legacy to be?
Jack: Well, that’s interesting, that question, because it was asked of me in a different way a few years ago when I was taking personal coaching to expand myself, my life, and balancing myself with work and family and everything else. My coach, we went through a whole year of coaching, and we got to the second to last session, and he said to me, “I want you to think about this question. I want you to tell me what is the one thing you want to be remembered for. I don’t want you to answer now. I want you to think about it and come back next week and we’ll talk about it.”
That whole week I gave it a lot of thought, and there’s a lot of things that went through my mind — an awful lot of things went through my mind as to what would be important to me, but it really came down to a very simple, simple answer. I want to be known as a joyful servant. When I can serve other people, I believe I’m doing what I was put here on this earth to do. It’s part of my mission statement. Quality living, embracing change, serving others.
Toni: I don’t even know what to say. You can see the joy. You can feel the joy. What an amazing answer and a way to live your legacy every single day. Thank you for showing up today in such a joyful manner. You totally made my day.
Jack: Absolutely my pleasure. Thank you.
Toni: Thank you very much.
