Listen to the interview here!
Toni Reece: Hi there. This is Toni Reece. Welcome to the Get Inspired! Project for Berks County Living Magazine. Today I have Jordan Kreitz with me. Hi, Jordan.
Jordan Kreitz: Hi, Toni. Thanks for having me.
Toni: You’re welcome. Tell me a little bit about yourself.
Jordan: I’m the Vice President and a partner in a company called Steer Clear. We’re a company that started locally about a year ago and have since expanded nationwide. What we’ve done is created a community of socially responsible individuals, both riders and drivers, to make sure that people get home safely with their car after a night out. We’re keeping impaired drivers of any kind off of our roads.
Toni: Love that! Let’s go into the first question. What does inspiration mean to you?
Jordan: For me, it’s what drives me when I wake up every day, even in difficult times. It’s the sense of determination that if I work savagely towards something, I will be successful and make an impact.
Toni: What creates that drive for you?
Jordan: For me, it’s wanting to make my family, friends and partners proud of what I’m doing, and wanting to make the world and my little piece of Berks County a little bit better of a place.
Toni: So when you see other people that are doing that, has that inspired you in the past?
Jordan: Absolutely.
Toni: And you are now doing the same.
Jordan: I’m trying.
Toni: I love the word that you use – savagely. You’re doing it savagely. Oh my dear! Let’s go to the savage part. How do you put that inspiration into practice here in Berks County?
Jordan: As a team, we started our little project for our own individual reasons, but we hope that at the core of what we’re doing and what we feel we’re accomplishing is making an impact on our community every single day. Whether it’s when we’re creating opportunities for our drivers to earn additional income to provide for themselves and their families, or keeping riders and our community as a whole safe and protected by keeping impaired drivers off the roads, we feel we’re doing good, and I feel that’s how we’re making an impact.
Toni: What stories have you heard that have inspired you to keep going?
Jordan: We have a wide variety of things that inspire us and me in particular. For instance, it could be something as simple as you open the paper every single day and see countless times of folks driving impaired and hurting others, or folks driving impaired and ending up in a bad situation. The ability to help prevent that keeps us going.
Then there’s the other side of our business that pulls at heartstrings a little bit further, which is it’s my grandmother who can't get herself to the doctor, but I know somebody, there’s a driver out there who is background checked and safe and will make sure that she can get to the doctor so that she stays healthy, so that our family can go to work so we can continue to provide for her every single day.
Toni: You had also mentioned to me that I think there’s a pride thing as well that I found inspiring. If that grandmother wants to use their own car because they don’t want to give up that sense of independence, it’s like, “Okay, I’m giving up the sense that you have come pick me up, but you’re using my car.”
Jordan: Right. Exactly. Anything we do, we have to transport someone in their own vehicle. My grandmother knows, “If I want to get to the doctor, I have to keep my car.” While she may not be able to drive it, she’s still telling the driver, “You’re driving my car, so you get me home the way I want to get home.”
Toni: What a self-independence thing that that allows for them. That’s awesome. Are there other types of stories of people that have touched you? Maybe not with even the business, but that you have seen and you have been inspired by that motivates you to keep going like this and work this hard?
Jordan: Yes. I’m motivated by my family and how hard they’ve worked to provide for me my entire life. While they may not be famous and it may not be glamorous, they’re hardworking, and I know that if I keep working hard they’ll be proud of what I’m doing. Hopefully someday my kids will look at me and think the same thing that I think of my parents and grandparents.
Toni: That leads us beautifully to the next question, which is, who in Berks County inspires you?
Jordan: On a personal level, I’m inspired obviously by my family and friends. My friends include my two incredible business partners that inspire me every single day to get up and do what we need to do. Their drive to succeed only increases my drive to succeed.
Outside of that, I look around our community, and I see the business leaders who dedicate their own personal time and their own personal money and energy to making Berks County a better place. Working with them on our projects and using them as mentors I think is inspirational to me.
Toni: How do you use them for your project?
Jordan: We work with them in a variety of ways, whether it be they recognize the value in helping to keep their employees safe, so they work with us on a variety of levels for accounts for their employees, that sort of thing. Or, just communicating with them and them seeing the value in what we’re doing is great for us.
Toni: On a personal note, from your perspective, Jordan, when you see what other people have done in this community, can you recall an act, a project, or anyone that has just absolutely inspired you, that you maybe didn’t realize would impact the work you’re doing now?
Jordan: Sure. I have a great affinity for kids and the Olivet Boys and Girls Club. I know somebody who has dedicated his life to working with kids in need. I think you look at it, and while it may not be the most glamorous job in the world, and it may not be the highest paid job in the world, he literally makes an impact on a child every single day of his life, and that inspired me to want to make an impact on someone every day of my life.
Toni: I love that! What do you want your legacy to be?
Jordan: It’s a tough question. I don’t think I’d consider it a legacy, but what I want to do is work towards something that’s changing our culture, where we’re a little bit more socially responsible, we think of others a little bit more, and we recognize that even the smallest thing can have a huge impact.
Toni: You’re currently doing that now, aren’t you?
Jordan: I like to think so.
Toni: Thank you so much for being part of the Get Inspired! Project.
Jordan: Thanks for having me.
