Latest / Steve Azar's Resonance: A Podcast for Leaders, Unpacking the Power of Song, Silence and Strategy / Resonance Season 3 Episode 8: Upstream Leadership

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Resonance Season 3 Episode 8: Upstream Leadership · Steve Azar's Resonance: A Podcast for Leaders, Unpacking the Power of Song, Silence and Strategy

• 0:00
  SPEAKER_04: This is Resonance, the podcast for leaders that unpacks the power of song, silence, and strategy.
• 0:13
  SPEAKER_03: We believe the great leadership begins with deep listening, not just to others, but to the still small voice within.
• 0:21
  SPEAKER_00: It's not just about being a successful leader, it's about being soulfully aligned as well.
• 0:27
  SPEAKER_03: In a world moving fast, resonance invites you to pause and reconnect with purpose, people, and possibility.
• 0:33
  SPEAKER_04: We'll dive into some cool stories, celebrate with friends, and dig deep into the music too.
• 0:39
  SPEAKER_04: Cause song has a way of saying what words cannot alone.
• 0:44
  SPEAKER_03: So whether you're leading a business, a team, or just trying to lead your own life with more meaning, this is Resonance.
• 0:50
  SPEAKER_03: Resonance, Resonance.
• 0:52
  SPEAKER_03: Hey everybody, welcome to Resonance.
• 0:54
  SPEAKER_03: Mike Farrell here with Steve Azar and Randy Harrington for another episode of Resonance.
• 0:59
  SPEAKER_03: Uh, here we go again.
• 1:00
  SPEAKER_03: I think this is gonna be like number 18 or something, if I remember right.
• 1:04
  SPEAKER_02: So holy smokes.
• 1:06
  SPEAKER_03: We're gonna look at 18.
• 1:10
  SPEAKER_03: So uh today we're gonna talk about uh the idea of upstream leadership and why discovery is a lot more important than execution.
• 1:21
  SPEAKER_03: And so we're gonna talk a little bit about what that looks like and why that's important.
• 1:26
  SPEAKER_03: And Randy, I know you've got a great story to kind of kick us off here.
• 1:30
  SPEAKER_03: So I'll turn it over to you.
• 1:31
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, the uh the idea of upstream leadership is at first not intuitive for many, and I'll set the stage for you.
• 1:38
  SPEAKER_00: I was doing some work for a state bar association, and that work was I was I was asked to do that work by a federal judge.
• 1:46
  SPEAKER_00: And I won't name any names right now, but uh, this is a woman, federal judge, who is a powerful person and takes no crap from anybody.
• 1:55
  SPEAKER_00: She is a tough cookie, and uh I like her very much.
• 1:58
  SPEAKER_00: She's very smart, and she talks extremely quickly.
• 2:00
  SPEAKER_00: And so I want you to channel her as she's telling me this story.
• 2:04
  SPEAKER_00: And we were in a car, as I recall it, when she told me this story.
• 2:08
  SPEAKER_00: I found out later that she did not make up this story, that it actually came from somewhere else, another author somewhere down the road.
• 2:14
  SPEAKER_00: So none of us can lay claim to this, but it's a story that we offer everyone.
• 2:17
  SPEAKER_00: And here we go.
• 2:18
  SPEAKER_00: She says, uh, well, here we are.
• 2:19
  SPEAKER_00: We're in Oregon, right, Randy?
• 2:20
  SPEAKER_00: We're in Oregon.
• 2:21
  SPEAKER_00: And people like to fly fish in Oregon, right?
• 2:22
  SPEAKER_00: I said, Yeah, they like to fly fish.
• 2:24
  SPEAKER_00: Oh, yeah, fishing in Oregon.
• 2:25
  SPEAKER_00: It's beautiful day, beautiful day.
• 2:26
  SPEAKER_00: You're standing out there, and what do they do?
• 2:27
  SPEAKER_00: They wade out in this river and it's moving really fast, and they wear those, what are they called?
• 2:30
  SPEAKER_00: Rubber pants.
• 2:31
  SPEAKER_00: I don't know.
• 2:31
  SPEAKER_00: They're called waders.
• 2:32
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, they're out there and they're waders and they're fishing, and it's a beautiful day.
• 2:35
  SPEAKER_00: And there's two guys, and they're just they're they're fishing, and I don't know if they're catching fish.
• 2:38
  SPEAKER_00: I don't fish, but I mean, they're out there fishing.
• 2:40
  SPEAKER_00: You have the scene in your mind, Randy.
• 2:41
  SPEAKER_00: Yes, I have the scene in my mind.
• 2:43
  SPEAKER_00: Okay, so they're standing out there fishing, beautiful day, and all of a sudden they see something floating down the river, and they're not sure what it is.
• 2:48
  SPEAKER_00: And so they wade out a little further, and one of the guys goes, Hey man, this is a basket.
• 2:52
  SPEAKER_00: There's a basket floating in the river.
• 2:54
  SPEAKER_00: So they grab the basket and they pull it over and they look inside the basket, and swaddled up in this basket is a baby.
• 3:00
  SPEAKER_00: And the guy goes, Holy crap, there's a baby in the basket.
• 3:03
  SPEAKER_00: This isn't, this is just amazing.
• 3:05
  SPEAKER_00: This is incredible.
• 3:06
  SPEAKER_00: So they they stagger over to the shore and they they put the baby down and they're looking at it and they're just shocked.
• 3:10
  SPEAKER_00: You know, Moses, holy smokes, what's going on?
• 3:13
  SPEAKER_00: And then uh they turn and they look back to the river and they see another one.
• 3:16
  SPEAKER_00: And they're like, holy crap! So they wait out there and they grab there's another baby in another basket.
• 3:20
  SPEAKER_00: Oh man, they pull that over to the side.
• 3:22
  SPEAKER_00: Then they turn around and look, there's two more coming.
• 3:24
  SPEAKER_00: And so now they're out there and there's two more.
• 3:26
  SPEAKER_00: They grab those and they catch them.
• 3:27
  SPEAKER_00: And so there's two more coming, and they're grabbing these babies in the baskets.
• 3:30
  SPEAKER_00: And finally, one of the guys carries his baby in the basket over, sits him down on the side of the river, and then takes off running.
• 3:39
  SPEAKER_00: And the other guy standing in the middle of the river goes, Where are you going, man?
• 3:42
  SPEAKER_00: Where are you going?
• 3:42
  SPEAKER_00: We still got babies in the baskets.
• 3:44
  SPEAKER_00: And he says, I'm going upstream to see who's putting these babies in the river in the first place.
• 3:50
  SPEAKER_00: That is the end of the story.
• 3:51
  SPEAKER_00: There you go.
• 3:52
  SPEAKER_00: No babies were harmed in the telling of this story.
• 3:56
  SPEAKER_00: Nice.
• 3:57
  SPEAKER_00: Then she says to me, she looks at me with steel in her eyes, and she says, That's the employee I'm looking for.
• 4:05
  SPEAKER_00: I don't want to have an employee who's gonna tell me the 700 ways I can catch babies in baskets better.
• 4:13
  SPEAKER_00: I don't want to get efficient at catching babies in baskets.
• 4:17
  SPEAKER_00: I want to solve the problem of why they're in the river in the first place.
• 4:21
  SPEAKER_00: Wow, that's pretty good.
• 4:23
  SPEAKER_00: That's upstream.
• 4:25
  SPEAKER_02: I think we can end now.
• 4:26
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, come on.
• 4:27
  SPEAKER_02: Great, smelling.
• 4:28
  SPEAKER_00: So I I told that story at NASA.
• 4:31
  SPEAKER_00: And at the break, three people come up to me, not all at the same time, one at a time.
• 4:36
  SPEAKER_00: And one woman comes up to me and she goes, Man, I'd love to see that basket.
• 4:40
  SPEAKER_00: And I said, What are you talking about?
• 4:41
  SPEAKER_00: And she goes, I work on astronautical uh astronaut safety design.
• 4:45
  SPEAKER_00: And man, if you could have babies in a basket be unharmed going down a river like that, I want to know what that basket is made out of because we could use that at NASA.
• 4:54
  SPEAKER_00: Second NASA person comes up to me and says, It would have been just as reasonable to run downstream to find out where the babies are going.
• 5:02
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 5:04
  SPEAKER_00: That's a way.
• 5:05
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah, yeah.
• 5:06
  SPEAKER_04: To do it.
• 5:07
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah, you you've made you've made them go into their uh whatever mode.
• 5:11
  SPEAKER_00: I had no idea what what I was starting with this baby in the basket thing in NASA.
• 5:16
  SPEAKER_00: I kept saying it it's a metaphor.
• 5:18
  SPEAKER_00: It's a it doesn't matter.
• 5:20
  SPEAKER_00: Like, can we put the basket into space?
• 5:22
  SPEAKER_00: What if the babies were in space?
• 5:23
  SPEAKER_00: That's where they wanted the literally, they didn't want anything metaphorically.
• 5:26
  SPEAKER_00: They wanted the real deal.
• 5:27
  SPEAKER_00: Oh, God love them.
• 5:28
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 5:28
  SPEAKER_00: So anyway, this is this was the foundation of this idea of what upstream leadership looks like.
• 5:33
  SPEAKER_00: And essentially, all it's really saying is if I'm upstream, I'm at the source, I'm at the beginning.
• 5:39
  SPEAKER_00: And this is where we want strategy to be born.
• 5:42
  SPEAKER_00: This is where we want that ends.
• 5:43
  SPEAKER_00: Mike, you have that phrase of your higher purpose.
• 5:46
  SPEAKER_03: Higher purpose vision.
• 5:47
  SPEAKER_03: Yep.
• 5:48
  SPEAKER_00: Higher purpose vision comes from upstream.
• 5:51
  SPEAKER_00: It's it needs to be the rainbow over that upstream vision.
• 5:55
  SPEAKER_00: And then as things come downstream, here's the way I think about it.
• 5:59
  SPEAKER_00: When you're upstream, you're in a strategy world, you're in a planning world, you're thinking about how things could be or should be.
• 6:05
  SPEAKER_00: And then as you move downstream, it gets more tactical.
• 6:08
  SPEAKER_00: By the time you're fully downstream, it's about real execution of your business plan.
• 6:13
  SPEAKER_00: So the upstream is the strategy management leadership, the downstream becomes tactics and execution.
• 6:19
  SPEAKER_00: And those that's what the river looks like.
• 6:22
  SPEAKER_00: And so, where are you in your river?
• 6:24
  SPEAKER_00: Maybe you are downstream and you're catching everybody else's junk, and you want to wave your arms and say, we need to change this.
• 6:32
  SPEAKER_00: I'm not getting the junk the right way, or I'm getting too much junk, or whatever.
• 6:35
  SPEAKER_00: So, do you create an opportunity for your downstream people to inform what's going on upstream?
• 6:41
  SPEAKER_00: That's just one example of a question you might get out of this.
• 6:44
  SPEAKER_00: And by the way, all of this is written very nicely in a fantastic little book called Slammed.
• 6:51
  SPEAKER_00: And Slammed is a succeeding in a world of too busy or too much.
• 6:56
  SPEAKER_00: It's by Randy Harrington, yours truly, and Carmen Vollike, an amazing human.
• 7:00
  SPEAKER_00: SLAMD! And you can buy it on lovely Amazon.
• 7:03
  SPEAKER_00: All right.
• 7:04
  SPEAKER_03: Oh, you're gonna go hawking your books.
• 7:06
  SPEAKER_03: I'm gonna we're gonna hawk ours too.
• 7:08
  SPEAKER_03: So along those same lines, I've got Ultimate Breakthrough Planning, the Business Final Approach.
• 7:14
  SPEAKER_03: You can get that one on Amazon too.
• 7:16
  SPEAKER_00: You can get it on Amazon too.
• 7:17
  SPEAKER_00: Okay.
• 7:19
  SPEAKER_04: You've got a stack of books, by the way, and while you guys are doing that.
• 7:23
  SPEAKER_04: I'm gonna, it's gonna be all about the kids to me, and me having the official state song of Mississippi, which I'm most thankful for.
• 7:30
  SPEAKER_04: I'm gonna go with the children's book, best-selling children's book, one, and with my illustrator Sarah Francis Hardy on Nautilus Publishing that you can get everywhere.
• 7:40
  SPEAKER_04: Look at these sweet kids she created.
• 7:42
  SPEAKER_04: Isn't it cool?
• 7:42
  SPEAKER_04: Right?
• 7:45
  SPEAKER_03: And yeah, and and for those for those of you just listening and not watching, you just missed a gross display of three people trying to sell books.
• 7:53
  SPEAKER_00: And I think Steve won.
• 7:55
  SPEAKER_00: I'm gonna tell you that right now.
• 7:57
  SPEAKER_00: If you're gonna buy any of these books, right?
• 7:59
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, you're in Mississippi.
• 8:01
  SPEAKER_04: We're really happy with this.
• 8:03
  SPEAKER_04: I you know, the funny thing about this whole book thing is, you know, they're the lyrics to my song.
• 8:07
  SPEAKER_04: One Mississippi, well, which is our song now, a Mississippi song.
• 8:10
  SPEAKER_04: It's uh been adopted by the state, so as in this loss, it's now I've spread it to everybody.
• 8:16
  SPEAKER_04: But with that said, going to schools and seeing kids partake in the book and get so excited, and then also sing every word, it's been uh it's been it's it's better, it's better than Madison Square Garden.
• 8:28
  SPEAKER_04: And I I yeah I can attest to that since I've been there as well.
• 8:32
  SPEAKER_04: So and Madison Square Garden was good to me.
• 8:34
  SPEAKER_04: So this is as I as I age and I you the things that you you think that are gonna well, you can't explain these things.
• 8:42
  SPEAKER_04: The the unexplainable are the things that move you the most.
• 8:45
  SPEAKER_04: It's a beautiful thing.
• 8:46
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah, you know, and you send the people working you put the even know the song in South Dakota, and they know it in South Dakota.
• 8:53
  SPEAKER_04: Thanks, Mike.
• 8:54
  SPEAKER_04: I've been witness to it.
• 8:54
  SPEAKER_04: It's amazing.
• 8:56
  SPEAKER_04: Well, so let's let's uh let's dig into today because for me I think it's a lot to do with a lot of aspects of my business, but I I think of the songwriting process when you guys do this.
• 9:08
  SPEAKER_04: You want me to start?
• 9:09
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, go for it.
• 9:10
  SPEAKER_00: Dive into songwriting.
• 9:11
  SPEAKER_00: How is songwriting an upstream challenge?
• 9:13
  SPEAKER_04: Well, right, the upstream is the challenge is inspiration, first of all.
• 9:18
  SPEAKER_04: Bingo.
• 9:18
  SPEAKER_04: There you go.
• 9:19
  SPEAKER_02: And let me let me have a muse.
• 9:21
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah, yeah.
• 9:22
  SPEAKER_04: And let me just say this you try to create inspiration, and that's the worst thing that you can do, but you have to put yourself in the room.
• 9:29
  SPEAKER_04: You gotta be there, you gotta put the time in for the moment to happen.
• 9:33
  SPEAKER_04: And if you never put the time in, the moment can't happen.
• 9:36
  SPEAKER_04: So there's there's all of this I hate to use any military term because our our soldiers, when they're in boot camp, that's serious.
• 9:43
  SPEAKER_04: But if there was ever a boot camp that was for songwriters, it's when you're just starting out and you're co-writing for the first time in your life, a lot of times with so big, big-time award-winning songwriters who, first of all, you walk in intimidated as hell.
• 9:59
  SPEAKER_04: And second of all, and then you have to try to somehow be a tenth of what they can be in that room.
• 10:05
  SPEAKER_04: Now, as I've gone through this thing, I've realized, and being on the other side of it, not not not the brilliance of some of the guys, I've never reached that, but being on the other side of it having success and working with new artists, I realize that we're all we're just as excited about the newbies as they are scared of us, right?
• 10:26
  SPEAKER_04: Right.
• 10:26
  SPEAKER_04: So anyway, so I've learned to everybody was really good to me.
• 10:30
  SPEAKER_04: 90% of them didn't scare me.
• 10:32
  SPEAKER_04: They made me feel comfortable immediately, so I learned to be that way.
• 10:35
  SPEAKER_04: And the ones that tried to scare the heck out of you, I learned not to be that way.
• 10:39
  SPEAKER_04: Right.
• 10:40
  SPEAKER_04: Right.
• 10:40
  SPEAKER_04: But but a song and the process starts with inspiration.
• 10:43
  SPEAKER_04: And when you do have something that you feel like is something, it's not a lie.
• 10:47
  SPEAKER_04: It's not a lie because you you you can't kid yourself, and also you can't kid everybody around you.
• 10:54
  SPEAKER_04: And so uh you know, there's a time when there's uh it's just invigorating when you're starting to work on something that you feel like could be something.
• 11:03
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 11:04
  SPEAKER_00: And and you can taste it a little bit, you can just kind of feel it.
• 11:07
  SPEAKER_04: And obviously, there's a craft in the songwriting process.
• 11:10
  SPEAKER_04: So I feel like once you get past the craft part and you can throw it out and not think about it, you know what I mean?
• 11:16
  SPEAKER_04: The walking and chewing gum at the same time, sort of mentality, that that's when you really can open your mind and heart and soul and your imagination, all the possible uh possibilities that can finally allow you to have a voice and make sense and write something that's really gonna stick.
• 11:32
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, and I'll so do you have Go ahead, Ray.
• 11:34
  SPEAKER_00: Excuse me.
• 11:35
  SPEAKER_00: I was just gonna say, do you have a muse?
• 11:37
  SPEAKER_00: Is there some like is there is there some ritual you go through at all, or do you just sort of let reality jump into your your your mind and after things started to make sense.
• 11:47
  SPEAKER_04: I mean, this is gonna be crazy.
• 11:49
  SPEAKER_04: I know we talked on the last episode about discernment.
• 11:51
  SPEAKER_04: Slowing down to speed up, right?
• 11:53
  SPEAKER_04: Well, I don't know why I didn't understand this before you guys helped me with that discernment thing.
• 11:58
  SPEAKER_04: The truth is, I had this one publisher, and I had a great I had a great one, some name Rick Sanchak.
• 12:02
  SPEAKER_04: His dad was one of the founders of BMI.
• 12:04
  SPEAKER_04: There was and he was such a he's still wonderful, wonderful, wonderful.
• 12:07
  SPEAKER_04: Just wrote a book on the music business, the fourth book.
• 12:10
  SPEAKER_04: His dad wrote three of them.
• 12:12
  SPEAKER_04: He did the fourth one now.
• 12:13
  SPEAKER_04: Wow.
• 12:13
  SPEAKER_04: Nice 40 years of the business.
• 12:15
  SPEAKER_04: It'll blow your mind.
• 12:16
  SPEAKER_04: It'll blow your mind.
• 12:17
  SPEAKER_04: So people that are listening, Rick Sancheck, just look him up, and it'll be the book of music business that will change your life.
• 12:24
  SPEAKER_04: It's that profound.
• 12:25
  SPEAKER_04: Anyway, and then I had uh Roger Murray, who was songwriter of the decade, and then I had during that period, and then I had Mark Allen Springer.
• 12:33
  SPEAKER_04: And Mark Allen Springer and I partnered up.
• 12:35
  SPEAKER_04: He was from Wiener, Arkansas, had written a bunch of big hits.
• 12:38
  SPEAKER_04: I made him take me to Wiener, by the way, because I didn't believe it existed.
• 12:42
  SPEAKER_04: Where he became Arkansas State basketball player of the year in that in his division, and he played at UCA and Pippen was on the bench, Scotty before he grew.
• 12:51
  SPEAKER_04: I mean, Mark Allen Springer got all of his cuts in the beginning on the basketball court.
• 12:55
  SPEAKER_04: He was that special.
• 12:56
  SPEAKER_04: But he also wrote great songs like Where Corn Don't Grow, four Kenny Chesney number ones, two sparrows and a hurricane that brought back Tanya Tucker's career.
• 13:03
  SPEAKER_04: The list goes on and on.
• 13:04
  SPEAKER_04: Anyway, he used to go, Steve, you need to slow down.
• 13:07
  SPEAKER_04: You need to go build something.
• 13:09
  SPEAKER_04: You need to get off the writing couch and out of the room that I used to be in.
• 13:13
  SPEAKER_04: And you need to go do something that's not uh so encompassing music.
• 13:19
  SPEAKER_04: You've already done the work, you've already known how to write a song.
• 13:22
  SPEAKER_04: Now let the song come to you.
• 13:24
  SPEAKER_04: Quit pushing.
• 13:25
  SPEAKER_04: And so I had to do that, and I'd go build something, add on to my house, do this and that, and that's when everything came together.
• 13:32
  SPEAKER_04: Everything.
• 13:33
  SPEAKER_04: So I had to slow down to speed up, but it was important because you kept thinking, well, if I'm not in the room, then what's gonna happen?
• 13:39
  SPEAKER_04: Which I just contradicted myself earlier.
• 13:41
  SPEAKER_04: But you had to put yourself in the room in the beginning and go through that process to understand what it was like to finally be free and let it come to you and write itself.
• 13:51
  SPEAKER_04: Does that make any sense at all?
• 13:53
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah, yeah.
• 13:53
  SPEAKER_02: It's profound.
• 13:55
  SPEAKER_02: I mean, it's I needed to hear that, Azar.
• 13:57
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, it really is interesting because I mean, when you think about the way you explain that the the songwriting and the inspiration and that kind of thing, I I liken it because I do so much of this, I liken it to strategic planning.
• 14:09
  SPEAKER_03: It's it's the same type of approach in that you have to when when leaders sit down and create strategic plans, they have to really think about what is it we're trying to accomplish here.
• 14:22
  SPEAKER_03: And and you know, I think one of the things, and and I think, you know, going and working on something or that kind of thing, I think there's so many leaders that think that strategic planning has to be done at a particular period of time.
• 14:33
  SPEAKER_03: Either you're planning the next quarter, you're planning the next year, or you're planning the next five years, or whatever.
• 14:39
  SPEAKER_03: Sometimes strategic planning needs to happen in the moment of what's going on in your business.
• 14:44
  SPEAKER_03: And it doesn't matter if it fits within a calendar or a time frame or something like that.
• 14:50
  SPEAKER_03: Sometimes you you take that inspiration.
• 14:52
  SPEAKER_03: Maybe something has changed dramatically in your business, good or bad, and you need to step back and say, okay, now it's time we need to really think through this to see how does this impact our business and how do we move forward.
• 15:05
  SPEAKER_03: And so this strategic planning, this idea of strategic planning where you just do it at a given time every year or every quarter or whatever, I think leaders need to understand that sometime that strategic planning process can happen anytime.
• 15:22
  SPEAKER_00: It becomes a ritual otherwise.
• 15:25
  SPEAKER_00: And we just all sort of dance around it and then we think we've got something and we really don't.
• 15:29
  SPEAKER_00: There's no ground truth to the to the plan.
• 15:32
  SPEAKER_04: It doesn't exist can become stale, maybe and absolutely and maybe not so inspirational, right?
• 15:40
  SPEAKER_04: Right, yeah, exactly.
• 15:41
  SPEAKER_03: You know, and absolutely.
• 15:42
  SPEAKER_03: So I think that that strategic planning process is that upstream process.
• 15:47
  SPEAKER_03: It's that idea that says, all right, we need to see what's going on.
• 15:51
  SPEAKER_03: So the baby's in the basket, the guy that's running up upstream to see where they're coming from, he's got to see where he's got to figure out where they're coming from, and then he's got to figure out a game plan to stop them from coming down the river.
• 16:03
  SPEAKER_00: You know, yeah, or or what the heck is going on.
• 16:06
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, why does this make sense?
• 16:07
  SPEAKER_03: He's at the beginning of that strategic planning process and and really is looking at it from a standpoint of, okay, you know, and and I talk, you guys have heard me talk a lot about this idea of a higher purpose vision.
• 16:18
  SPEAKER_03: What are we, what are we really trying to accomplish with this business, this organization, with our lives, whatever the case may be, that's not driven by profit, that's not driven by money, that's not driven by success.
• 16:30
  SPEAKER_03: It's driven for a bigger thing.
• 16:33
  SPEAKER_03: It's something bigger than me, it's something bigger than my company.
• 16:37
  SPEAKER_03: What is it?
• 16:38
  SPEAKER_03: Why do we exist?
• 16:39
  SPEAKER_03: And what are we trying to do for others beyond just success of a business?
• 16:44
  SPEAKER_03: And I think, and Bob Quinn from the University of Michigan's Ross School of Business has some fascinating research on this that he's done.
• 16:52
  SPEAKER_03: That those organizations that really look at what that higher purpose is and focus on that higher purpose, they really excel.
• 17:01
  SPEAKER_03: They outperform the market, they outperform their peers, and it's it's pretty amazing to see those organizations.
• 17:08
  SPEAKER_03: The other thing that's great about having that higher purpose vision is now you use that as your litmus test.
• 17:14
  SPEAKER_03: So that every strategy that you look at building on, if it doesn't match up with that higher purpose vision, you're not gonna do it.
• 17:22
  SPEAKER_03: That becomes the question.
• 17:24
  SPEAKER_03: But when you determine what strategies you're gonna work on, the question is does that strategy match up with our higher purpose vision?
• 17:32
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, nice.
• 17:32
  SPEAKER_00: Take take take a look at this kung fu real quick and then I'll I'll I'll shut up.
• 17:36
  SPEAKER_00: Here we go.
• 17:37
  SPEAKER_00: So if we want to solve homelessness, for example, we might go and try to help homeless people.
• 17:44
  SPEAKER_00: Seems reasonable.
• 17:45
  SPEAKER_00: We might go and try to, if if we're trying to solve hunger, we might try to go and give them food.
• 17:50
  SPEAKER_00: What the upstream concept says, however, is yeah, we should probably do that from a humanitarian point of view, but the real strategic issue is why are these people homeless in the first place?
• 18:01
  SPEAKER_00: Can we can we change the conditions that create homelessness, that create hunger, that create cancer, that create disability, whatever it is.
• 18:11
  SPEAKER_00: Can we solve the problem by having it not be caused in the first place?
• 18:16
  SPEAKER_00: And so that's the real opportunity, I think, of a great strategic plan is you're actually getting out ahead of the cause and effect agents that, you know, can screw things up.
• 18:28
  SPEAKER_00: So it's what it's what restaurants, fast food restaurants have tried to do uh to battle the fact that they have a horrible reputation for being unhealthy.
• 18:36
  SPEAKER_00: So now we're gonna put some apples in the happy meal or whatever it is.
• 18:39
  SPEAKER_00: You know, they're gonna try to, they're they're trying to get ahead of it, they're trying to get in front of it.
• 18:43
  SPEAKER_00: But but to me, I really love it when a company has the realization we need to move farther upstream than we are.
• 18:51
  SPEAKER_00: If we want to have a guest have a really amazing experience, it turns out maybe the hotel room is only a part of it.
• 18:57
  SPEAKER_00: Maybe there's all kinds of things that are gonna influence that guest's experience that happened well before they ever check into our hotel.
• 19:04
  SPEAKER_03: And you know, and I think a great, a great example.
• 19:07
  SPEAKER_03: Go ahead, Steve.
• 19:08
  SPEAKER_03: Go ahead.
• 19:09
  SPEAKER_03: Go ahead, Mike.
• 19:09
  SPEAKER_03: I'm sorry.
• 19:10
  SPEAKER_03: A great example.
• 19:11
  SPEAKER_03: You use the fast food restaurant.
• 19:13
  SPEAKER_03: Well, you know, putting apples in a happy meal really isn't strategy, it's a tactic.
• 19:18
  SPEAKER_03: Okay.
• 19:19
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, and that and and and and I think so many entrepreneurs and leaders that I work with don't truly understand the difference between a strategy and a tactic.
• 19:28
  SPEAKER_03: You are seeing true.
• 19:30
  SPEAKER_03: And what I tell them is that if you can ask the question why, so if it's a tactic and I ask the question why and it relates to to something bigger, then it's a tactic.
• 19:43
  SPEAKER_03: If I ask the question why and it relates to the higher purpose vision, now it's a strategy.
• 19:49
  SPEAKER_03: Okay.
• 19:50
  SPEAKER_03: And and I think many, many leaders and business people miss this part.
• 19:54
  SPEAKER_03: But you know, one of the things that that talk about fast food restaurants, you know, Chick-fil-A is is amazingly successful.
• 20:02
  SPEAKER_03: And and Chick-fil-A, yeah, they sell great chicken, but Chick-fil-A has created an environment not only with their people, but with the communities that they serve, that their higher purpose vision is all driven by that.
• 20:16
  SPEAKER_03: It's driven by doing something for the common good.
• 20:20
  SPEAKER_03: It's not driven by how many pieces of chicken can we sell.
• 20:23
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, right.
• 20:24
  SPEAKER_03: That's that's the difference between a higher purpose vision and a goal, quite frankly.
• 20:28
  SPEAKER_04: Let me say this about a place like Chick-fil-A.
• 20:32
  SPEAKER_04: You already have enjoyed the chicken in the drive-thru line before you get your meal.
• 20:37
  SPEAKER_04: Right.
• 20:37
  SPEAKER_04: Absolutely.
• 20:38
  SPEAKER_04: Because of the way they treat you.
• 20:41
  SPEAKER_04: Found hospitality.
• 20:42
  SPEAKER_04: You're gonna hear this in our podcast a thousand times because you know, Mike, you've been speaking this for a thousand years.
• 20:46
  SPEAKER_04: Well, 1800 years, you know, the month.
• 20:49
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah.
• 20:49
  SPEAKER_04: I'm listening.
• 20:50
  SPEAKER_04: Wait a minute.
• 20:50
  SPEAKER_04: Where's my where's my listening sign go?
• 20:52
  SPEAKER_04: Who took it?
• 20:53
  SPEAKER_04: But I can tell you this that and then you think back of their core values and what makes them tick and what they care about, and then you already love the chicken.
• 21:02
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, that's exactly right.
• 21:04
  SPEAKER_04: No way you're not gonna love it.
• 21:05
  SPEAKER_04: Isn't it funny that it's brilliant?
• 21:07
  SPEAKER_03: You know, you think about some of their advertising right now.
• 21:10
  SPEAKER_03: Their advertising is not about their chicken.
• 21:13
  SPEAKER_03: Their advertising is showing a story of something that they did for some customer that they went over and above to help some customer get something done or, you know, accomplish something or overcome something or whatever.
• 21:27
  SPEAKER_03: It's about that Chick-fil-A employee that went above and beyond to take care of that customer.
• 21:32
  SPEAKER_03: It has nothing to do with the fact that they bought a sandwich.
• 21:36
  SPEAKER_04: Very compelling.
• 21:37
  SPEAKER_04: They're not bragging on themselves, they're bragging on the people, and they're lift they're not bragging, they're lifting up the people and telling the story of people that work for them that are doing good.
• 21:46
  SPEAKER_04: That's exactly right.
• 21:47
  SPEAKER_04: Is which is I love that because it lets that employee know they're pretty special and what they're doing in their life matters.
• 21:56
  SPEAKER_04: I just think that that's all and they're spending how many millions of dollars on commercial.
• 22:00
  SPEAKER_04: Celebrating that, which is a lot.
• 22:03
  unknown: Yep.
• 22:04
  SPEAKER_00: You know, they have an ad.
• 22:05
  SPEAKER_00: I think you can see it.
• 22:06
  SPEAKER_00: It's not an ad, it's a training video that you can find on YouTube.
• 22:09
  SPEAKER_00: And it's basically a camera moving through a busy Chick-fil-A restaurant.
• 22:13
  SPEAKER_00: And as it stops and pauses on a person's face, over the image of the person's face, there's a little thought bubble that appears and it says, just found out he's going to be deployed overseas in the military.
• 22:25
  SPEAKER_00: And then the next woman just won a scholarship to such and such.
• 22:29
  SPEAKER_00: Another person just found out that her mother had a bad diagnosis or whatever.
• 22:34
  SPEAKER_00: So all of these people that they're serving this food to are having an entire emotional life that's very complex and probably very challenging.
• 22:42
  SPEAKER_00: And they're just trying to get a meal, but it it puts the seed of there's much more than you can see when you're serving this person.
• 22:49
  SPEAKER_00: It's not just about a transaction with chicken, it's about respecting and paying attention.
• 22:54
  SPEAKER_00: It's amazing.
• 22:55
  SPEAKER_04: That is amazing that they that's climbing to the top to find out where the babies are coming from.
• 23:02
  SPEAKER_04: Right.
• 23:02
  SPEAKER_04: That's right, right, right, right.
• 23:04
  SPEAKER_04: Beyond that, because to me, I mean, that just that's very emotional to me.
• 23:08
  SPEAKER_04: I mean, that that touches every heart string you got because it's real and it's honest and it's beautiful.
• 23:14
  SPEAKER_04: And so they thought that out.
• 23:15
  SPEAKER_04: That's not that that's not a tactic that is a how do you what would that be?
• 23:20
  SPEAKER_03: Well, that's a strategy.
• 23:21
  SPEAKER_03: That's a strategy that that's the that's a strategy that talks about how they uh how they want to perceive, how they want their their people to perceive their customers.
• 23:31
  SPEAKER_03: And Randy, you mentioned that video.
• 23:32
  SPEAKER_03: Cleveland Clinic actually has one very similar to that, where they talk about empathy and they they do the same thing.
• 23:40
  SPEAKER_03: They they go through all these patients and nurses and doctors and everything, and the little thing that says this is what they've got going on in their life right now.
• 23:49
  SPEAKER_03: And it's really all about this idea of empathy and really understanding empathy and compassion and and taking the the the robotic healthcare approach that so many of them take and realizing that there's a person attached to that, and that person is in a different position, in a different situation, and there's no way for you to know what situation that they're in.
• 24:12
  SPEAKER_03: And so exercising empathy and compassion is so important for that.
• 24:16
  SPEAKER_03: And and I think that that gets to this idea of a higher purpose vision.
• 24:21
  SPEAKER_03: Why do we exist and what are we trying to do that goes beyond the success of our business?
• 24:28
  SPEAKER_04: Think about the so when every airport we've ever been in, right?
• 24:31
  SPEAKER_04: We've been in them all, right?
• 24:32
  SPEAKER_04: So many times, right?
• 24:32
  SPEAKER_04: Well, you say we're we're pretty well traveled and continue to be on a Sunday when you're at an airport and you walk by, everything's open and Chick-fil-A's not.
• 24:40
  SPEAKER_04: Do you ever go, man, they could be making a bunch of money today?
• 24:44
  SPEAKER_04: Oh, sure.
• 24:45
  SPEAKER_04: What are they doing?
• 24:46
  SPEAKER_04: Like, you know, but but what does that tell you?
• 24:49
  SPEAKER_00: Yes.
• 24:49
  SPEAKER_00: Well, and again, it's a big thing.
• 24:51
  SPEAKER_03: That's that's the idea, you know.
• 24:53
  SPEAKER_03: It's a statement.
• 24:54
  SPEAKER_03: You guys have heard me talk about the difference between culture and community.
• 24:58
  SPEAKER_03: What they have done is they've built a community and it's based on who they are, their values and their morals and and those and their ethics, those kinds of things.
• 25:08
  SPEAKER_03: And when you build that community like that, the rest of the world is gonna take notice.
• 25:13
  SPEAKER_03: Now, some there's gonna be haters out there.
• 25:15
  SPEAKER_03: There's gonna be a lot of them that say they ought to be open on Sunday because I need my chicken sandwich, you know.
• 25:21
  SPEAKER_03: But for the most part, I think people look at it and respect it.
• 25:24
  SPEAKER_04: I believe in my heart, I mean, I believe this.
• 25:27
  SPEAKER_04: Eliminate my heart.
• 25:28
  SPEAKER_04: I'm gonna believe this in my mind.
• 25:29
  SPEAKER_04: My heart has nothing to do with it.
• 25:31
  SPEAKER_04: But I do believe that they probably sell more chicken in six days than they would in seven because people know they're not open on Sunday that are their friends.
• 25:39
  SPEAKER_04: They're gonna go, oh, I gotta go there today.
• 25:42
  SPEAKER_04: I have a feeling they may and maybe selling more.
• 25:44
  SPEAKER_04: Right, yeah.
• 25:44
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah, I go get two on Saturday.
• 25:47
  SPEAKER_04: Exactly.
• 25:49
  SPEAKER_04: Well, it's it's an amazing concept that they've taken off on the Sabbath.
• 25:54
  SPEAKER_04: I mean, it's pretty, pretty dang easy, and it's worked like it has, but it goes back to their core values, it goes back to how they treat you in line.
• 26:01
  SPEAKER_04: Hey, Mr.
• 26:02
  SPEAKER_04: Steve, you know, hey, Mr.
• 26:03
  SPEAKER_04: Randy, hey, Mr.
• 26:04
  SPEAKER_04: Mike.
• 26:04
  SPEAKER_04: I mean, they are they're all in, and it's just that brief little bit of communication that makes you feel so good, you know, and it's all the way from start to finish, and then you're out of there, you're going like, what just happened?
• 26:15
  SPEAKER_04: How come all fast food restaurants can't be that way?
• 26:18
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, right.
• 26:19
  SPEAKER_00: My my business partner, whenever we get in the car after going into a Chick-fil-A or something, I'll be yammering.
• 26:24
  SPEAKER_00: And my business partner will say to one of our other team members, Well, Randy's just fallen in love with another Chick-fil-A employee, and that's what's going on.
• 26:32
  SPEAKER_00: Just don't even worry about him.
• 26:33
  SPEAKER_00: He's just this happens every time.
• 26:35
  SPEAKER_00: And it's true.
• 26:37
  SPEAKER_00: Some lovely woman says, Oh, what else can I do to help you today, or whatever it is?
• 26:41
  SPEAKER_00: And I'm like, I think you're the most beautiful human I've ever seen in my life right now.
• 26:45
  SPEAKER_00: You know what I do?
• 26:45
  SPEAKER_04: You know what I do, Randy?
• 26:46
  SPEAKER_04: I'm pulling out, and you know, wherever it is, whoever it is that's really nice and special in drop through, Gwen cracks up because she's not paying any attention to me.
• 26:55
  SPEAKER_04: And I'll I'll I'll I'll leave, and the minute I'm leaving, I'll roll the window.
• 26:58
  SPEAKER_04: I love you.
• 26:59
  SPEAKER_04: Love you.
• 27:00
  SPEAKER_04: Oh my gosh.
• 27:01
  SPEAKER_04: I said, how great was she?
• 27:02
  SPEAKER_04: Or he like me?
• 27:04
  SPEAKER_04: That's we have the same problem, my friend.
• 27:06
  SPEAKER_04: Yes.
• 27:06
  SPEAKER_04: And then trust me, it's the opposite of when they don't.
• 27:09
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, right, right, right.
• 27:11
  SPEAKER_04: Cheating me.
• 27:12
  SPEAKER_04: Are you like, thank you?
• 27:14
  SPEAKER_03: How about you know, enjoy what I'm saying?
• 27:16
  SPEAKER_03: You know, I I find it interesting, and of course, I'm a you know, I've never met a cheeseburger I didn't like, so you know, I I I I try and eat them all, you know.
• 27:24
  SPEAKER_03: And uh but it's interesting that if you look at a lot of the big fast food restaurants, the McDonald's, the Burger Kings, the Taco Bells, those those places, almost every time you drive by one, they have a sign up somewhere that says we're hiring.
• 27:39
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
• 27:41
  SPEAKER_03: Especially if you see that at Chick-fil-A since COVID, you know.
• 27:44
  SPEAKER_03: And you don't see it at Chick-fil-A, you're right.
• 27:46
  SPEAKER_03: You drive by a Chick-fil-A, you drive by a Culver's, you drive by a Freddy's, there are there are some of them, and you can tell the minute you walk in the door why they don't have to have a sign-up that says we're hiring, because you can tell the way they treat their people.
• 28:00
  SPEAKER_03: Their people are friendly, their people smile, their people care about their customers, and that's all built into the idea of their business.
• 28:09
  SPEAKER_03: And it's definitely, I mean, talk about upstream.
• 28:12
  SPEAKER_03: That's that's going upstream and saying, this is how we're gonna create this, you know.
• 28:18
  SPEAKER_04: You're upstream looking down on, I don't mean looking down, but looking at all the people like where how would I like to be treated down there while I'm on the way up, right?
• 28:26
  SPEAKER_04: While I'm on the way up.
• 28:27
  SPEAKER_04: And also I think that they offer opportunity where you're not just stuck in one spot, right?
• 28:32
  SPEAKER_04: I think there's plenty of opportunity for a future, even if it's not in the chicken business, you know?
• 28:37
  SPEAKER_03: Right, right, absolutely, absolutely.
• 28:40
  SPEAKER_03: Yep.
• 28:40
  SPEAKER_00: So I'm gonna I'm gonna add another layer to this and hopefully it's meaningful.
• 28:45
  SPEAKER_00: So if we imagine that on one side we have upstream upstream and on the other side we have downstream, and we've made the observation that upstream seems to be associated with strategies, leadership, management.
• 28:57
  SPEAKER_00: Downstream is associated with tactics and execution, getting the job done, making it happen.
• 29:03
  SPEAKER_00: So if we're a burger joint, your upstream is gonna be about, oh, this is the recipe for the burger, this is where we should locate the restaurant, this is who we're gonna buy our products from to sell down the road.
• 29:13
  SPEAKER_00: Oh, there's a football game this Saturday, so we're gonna need to buy more.
• 29:16
  SPEAKER_00: That's all the stuff that's going on at the leadership side.
• 29:19
  SPEAKER_00: Down on the tactical side, downstream, it's about I got to fry these for burgers and I got to make them happen.
• 29:25
  SPEAKER_00: I gotta make 50 of these every 10 minutes or whatever it is.
• 29:28
  SPEAKER_00: So it's about cycling through the turnover and so forth.
• 29:32
  SPEAKER_00: But there's another layer here.
• 29:33
  SPEAKER_00: And the layer is there is your business as it sits right now.
• 29:37
  SPEAKER_00: I'll call it business as usual.
• 29:39
  SPEAKER_00: And then there's this nasty variable called the next opportunity.
• 29:44
  SPEAKER_00: So every business, I shouldn't say that.
• 29:46
  SPEAKER_00: I would say the vast majority of businesses can't just survive running on business as usual.
• 29:52
  SPEAKER_00: They must constantly be looking at the next opportunity.
• 29:55
  SPEAKER_00: So there's this paradox where we have to be in the business, do the business the way we've said to do it.
• 30:01
  SPEAKER_00: And by the way, we need to be ready to change and cycle it and adapt it and improve it.
• 30:07
  SPEAKER_00: And so on the upstream side, that really looks like okay, our business is doing great.
• 30:11
  SPEAKER_00: This is a fun conversation to be in.
• 30:13
  SPEAKER_00: Mike, I'm sure you've been in a thousand of these conversations.
• 30:16
  SPEAKER_00: Hey, we're doing great, but we know we need to bring AI into our business, or we know that we need to, we'd love to go to three more states, or we'd love to do these other big changes.
• 30:25
  SPEAKER_00: So, how do you change the business while you're in the business?
• 30:30
  SPEAKER_00: And that is a very sporty strategic thing to do.
• 30:33
  SPEAKER_00: If you're on the tactical side of it, it's how do we learn the new next steps?
• 30:38
  SPEAKER_00: How do I learn to use the AI?
• 30:40
  SPEAKER_00: How do I actually deploy this thing?
• 30:41
  SPEAKER_00: Oh, you bought this new software.
• 30:42
  SPEAKER_00: How in the heck do I use it and make it work?
• 30:44
  SPEAKER_00: In fact, there's a good chance I'm going to avoid using the new software because I think it's a piece of crap because I like the old way we did it.
• 30:50
  SPEAKER_00: Right.
• 30:50
  SPEAKER_00: So there's all the change resistance stuff that comes into play there.
• 30:54
  SPEAKER_00: But this upstream-downstream thing gets quite complicated when as soon as you move away from business as usual and you start moving toward oh, we have to add this big element of change into something that feels like it's smooth.
• 31:07
  SPEAKER_00: It would be the same thing as saying we're changing the course of the river or we're putting a dam in the river or we're putting big rocks in the river or whatever it is.
• 31:14
  SPEAKER_00: The river is gonna change, it is not going to be the same, and that is the difficult problem.
• 31:19
  SPEAKER_03: Right.
• 31:20
  SPEAKER_00: And so how do we deal with that?
• 31:21
  SPEAKER_03: Well, and I just had a I just had a leadership team a week ago that I worked with on this whole idea.
• 31:26
  SPEAKER_03: Uh, I didn't talk about it from a standpoint of opportunity, I talked about it from a standpoint of possibility.
• 31:32
  SPEAKER_03: Okay.
• 31:32
  SPEAKER_03: And when we reframe that and we began to start asking the questions that start with what if?
• 31:40
  SPEAKER_03: What if we did this?
• 31:41
  SPEAKER_03: What if we did that?
• 31:42
  SPEAKER_03: What if what if this happened?
• 31:43
  SPEAKER_03: What if that happened?
• 31:44
  SPEAKER_03: When we began to map that idea out, then we can begin to identify strategies that allow us to start to make changes and start to go in different directions.
• 31:55
  SPEAKER_03: And so it's really important that initially we've got to get the top team on board.
• 32:00
  SPEAKER_03: But then as we begin to implement some of those things, I mean, John Cotter's done an amazing amount of work on this whole change management idea.
• 32:08
  SPEAKER_03: And really, you know, looking at, okay, and I in fact I had one of these, one of these leaders last week say, Well, nobody's gonna buy into this.
• 32:15
  SPEAKER_03: And I said, Well, then it has to be done incrementally.
• 32:18
  SPEAKER_03: First, we have to find a couple of cheerleaders, we have to find one or two people that will cheerlead this, that will say, This is a great idea, this is a great way to do this, this is a great new process or system or product or service or market or whatever.
• 32:32
  SPEAKER_03: We need that cheerleader, and then that cheerleader begins to build other cheerleaders.
• 32:37
  SPEAKER_03: And then we begin.
• 32:38
  SPEAKER_03: And and I think the other aspect of it, when we get down to the end of that change management and during the process of it, we have to make sure that we reward and we celebrate.
• 32:47
  SPEAKER_03: You know, we make sure that people are recognized for the things that they're doing, for the changes that they're making, for the successes that they're having.
• 32:56
  SPEAKER_03: We're recognizing them, we're celebrating them, we're doing those kinds of things because then that begins to build that culture that says, okay, now we're moving to this new possibility and focusing and doing this new possibility.
• 33:10
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah, people need pats on the back, they need reassurance that they're doing a great job, they need it to be heard, they need to be celebrated at times.
• 33:17
  SPEAKER_04: And when you avoid that as a leader, you're leaving a light at on the table.
• 33:21
  SPEAKER_04: I mean, you're really you're really messing up to me.
• 33:24
  SPEAKER_04: I really think that's so important.
• 33:25
  SPEAKER_03: Well, and I think, Steve, I mean, looking at some of the things with your Viking show and the way it's evolved, even just in the period of time that you've been doing it, it's not like you're doing it the same way you did it the first time you ever did it.
• 33:37
  SPEAKER_04: We might be the same songs, but it's never Yeah, right.
• 33:41
  SPEAKER_03: But but the experience from the time that they walk in to the time that they leave, you're constantly looking at that and and asking, what if we did this, or what if we served this, or what if we changed the way they came out?
• 33:54
  SPEAKER_04: We were doing one type of smoked meat and we realized that that we were people were eating 20% of it and we were giving the west rest away.
• 34:01
  SPEAKER_04: And then we decide, what if we change from pork to chicken?
• 34:04
  SPEAKER_04: And all of a sudden they're eating 85% of it, and we're not having to give any away, you know, like the and the the staff take it home.
• 34:10
  SPEAKER_04: Those are little things that it took us a minute to think about that and why, but we'd figure figured out why.
• 34:16
  SPEAKER_04: But it was a no-brainer, you know, and that's one of the many things that we serve.
• 34:19
  SPEAKER_04: You know, we we're very personal.
• 34:21
  SPEAKER_04: We got the hot tamales and the catfish and the you know, all the things that represent us.
• 34:25
  SPEAKER_00: But yeah, and this is an important thing for the for the employee to feel in their in their heart is that if they see something that's just out of whack, they should be encouraged, empowered to go.
• 34:38
  SPEAKER_00: This isn't working.
• 34:39
  SPEAKER_00: This there was a guy I saw on the interwebs who had a sign he was holding up that said, self-checkout isn't self-checkout if you have to help me every time I do it.
• 34:50
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 34:51
  SPEAKER_00: And I've talked to self-checkout manager people, and they roll their eyes and they go, Oh my God, you have no idea what it's like to try and manage it.
• 34:59
  SPEAKER_00: So the strategy is, oh, we're gonna have you guys do self-checkout and you'll feel better and happier about it, which is true if it works, but it often doesn't.
• 35:07
  SPEAKER_00: And so there you go.
• 35:08
  SPEAKER_00: But I love this idea that somebody is able to wave their arms and say, Hey, we could do this better.
• 35:13
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 35:13
  SPEAKER_00: Yep.
• 35:14
  SPEAKER_00: There's there's no reason we have to do it this way.
• 35:16
  SPEAKER_04: Little details, like you find, hey, first of all, uh there's an air the air conditioning units in this old theater, old building, high school.
• 35:24
  SPEAKER_04: On the far on each side, on the end of each row, in the middle, it's blows.
• 35:28
  SPEAKER_04: I mean, it's little things like and one of the uh ladies and one of the Viking folks came and one of our uh employees came over and and uh she's they both said, Hey, uh it gets a little cold right there.
• 35:39
  SPEAKER_04: So I said, That's great.
• 35:40
  SPEAKER_04: What do y'all think?
• 35:41
  SPEAKER_04: And said, Well, we came, we decided somebody's always gonna be standing on each side from row one to eight, and in this little section, you're gonna ask whoever sits there, hey, do y'all mind the air condition when it's blowing because it's gonna hit you?
• 35:53
  SPEAKER_04: If not, we'll move you.
• 35:54
  SPEAKER_04: And so we have not had a problem ever since, knock on wood.
• 35:58
  SPEAKER_04: But we did have a problem for a moment, you know.
• 36:00
  SPEAKER_04: And I know that that's a little thing, but it's not a little thing.
• 36:02
  SPEAKER_04: No, it's not a little thing.
• 36:04
  SPEAKER_04: If you are cold or hot, you can't be in that place.
• 36:08
  SPEAKER_04: Right.
• 36:09
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah, it's gonna affect our rating, it's gonna affect how it's gonna affect their experience because they can't get past that, you know.
• 36:15
  SPEAKER_04: So yeah, so you gotta think of every if, and, and but it's just too important.
• 36:19
  SPEAKER_04: Uh vegan high, you know, can we get vegan tamales made?
• 36:22
  SPEAKER_04: Yes, we can, but we needed to do that because there may be 10 vegans out of 400, and there usually is.
• 36:28
  SPEAKER_04: And so we wanted to make sure that they still could get the experience that we want them to get and taste our food, but how can we do that and make sure the quality is up to par?
• 36:37
  SPEAKER_04: Right.
• 36:37
  SPEAKER_04: Well, we have a hot tamale festival every year, and the one that wins the big has won multiple times makes this great spinach and cheese hot tamata.
• 36:46
  SPEAKER_04: You know?
• 36:46
  SPEAKER_04: There you go.
• 36:47
  SPEAKER_04: There you go.
• 36:47
  SPEAKER_04: So we, you know, we that became a supplier of ours.
• 36:50
  SPEAKER_04: So we've uh enjoyed that whole process.
• 36:52
  SPEAKER_04: And I gotta tell you something, it's kind of we call them curveballs.
• 36:56
  SPEAKER_04: Yes, and we you know, and we love them.
• 36:58
  SPEAKER_04: So we got a we got a call today.
• 37:00
  SPEAKER_04: Our show's supposed to be at five o'clock Sunday night.
• 37:02
  SPEAKER_04: Everybody, you're talking about 55, 60 employees, maybe 60, 60 plus.
• 37:07
  SPEAKER_04: So you're talking about that and having everybody's plan their weekend, right?
• 37:11
  SPEAKER_04: And uh, and we need to do the show at noon at 11:30 this week, like shows.
• 37:17
  SPEAKER_04: So the answer is yes, always.
• 37:19
  SPEAKER_04: Right.
• 37:19
  SPEAKER_04: And we we love curveballs, and uh and also, you know, be being a former catcher growing up, I love a good cardball.
• 37:27
  SPEAKER_04: But we we had to deal with that, and it took two seconds, and our team is all on board 100%.
• 37:32
  SPEAKER_04: They know that this is a priority, even though it's not with some of them, it's all part-time, but it's amazing how much it has become a priority.
• 37:40
  SPEAKER_04: And then, of course, the second ship we're hoping we're gonna hear that doubles the work.
• 37:44
  SPEAKER_04: Viking is extremely generous and and compassionate and caring about every employee, everybody.
• 37:51
  SPEAKER_04: They pay great.
• 37:52
  SPEAKER_04: I'm just telling you, king of what's the chicken of the sea, king of the sea, king of the sea is Viking Cruise Line, the way they treat people and how they are concerned about every single single person in there.
• 38:05
  SPEAKER_04: And if one person has a situation, they want it fixed.
• 38:09
  SPEAKER_04: And I love that.
• 38:10
  SPEAKER_04: So I've met I sort of met my match.
• 38:12
  SPEAKER_04: When I was growing up, I was really, really, really always freaking out.
• 38:16
  SPEAKER_04: How if that one person in that crowd of a thousand or that crowd of 50, or that crowd of 200, or that crowd of 10,000, it went on, if they don't dig what I'm doing, uh that is amplified.
• 38:26
  SPEAKER_04: I see nothing else but that one person.
• 38:28
  SPEAKER_04: How can I make that work?
• 38:30
  SPEAKER_04: You know, so that's who they are, and and their concern for the right reasons upstream, they see it all.
• 38:36
  SPEAKER_04: But and uh it's been a great marriage show.
• 38:39
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah, the answer is absolutely been a lot of fun.
• 38:43
  SPEAKER_03: Well, and I I think that their their higher purpose vision goes to that experience that they want to provide their their customers, you know.
• 38:52
  SPEAKER_03: And and I can take your higher experience, Steve, is is taking that and being able to do it in Greenville.
• 39:00
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, oh yeah, well no, and being able to generate the jobs and the opportunities and the revitalization of of the places that you've done in Greenville.
• 39:11
  SPEAKER_03: It has nothing to do with Steve Azar and selling more records.
• 39:14
  SPEAKER_03: No, no, no, no, no.
• 39:19
  SPEAKER_04: Well, let me say this: you have to have the river there first.
• 39:21
  SPEAKER_04: The Mississippi's gotta be it had to inspire me all these years to have the songs to sing to them that made sense, that eventually led to having the glue the state song on Mississippi.
• 39:29
  SPEAKER_04: All this stuff had to just happen.
• 39:32
  SPEAKER_04: And and then, but it's their core, it's Viking Cruise Line's core values that start at the top.
• 39:37
  SPEAKER_04: We know one of the top guys, we've known, and we've known a bunch that are underneath, and that I cannot explain.
• 39:44
  SPEAKER_04: You feel like you're talking to the same person when it comes to heart and soul and the reason they do it.
• 39:50
  SPEAKER_04: And it's all core values.
• 39:52
  SPEAKER_04: So at the top, they're hiring people that buy into those same beautiful values and core values that has made it the best cruise company in the world.
• 40:02
  SPEAKER_04: And that's why they're looking at number two, ship number two.
• 40:05
  SPEAKER_04: They're talking five and six ships on the Mississippi with us.
• 40:08
  SPEAKER_04: Now, I wow, hope I'll be around and physically fit to keep going.
• 40:11
  SPEAKER_04: But I don't know, man, but I gotta tell you something.
• 40:13
  SPEAKER_04: They this has been a dream gig to to work with because you know, we've talked about the ability to find folks that have those same values that you would like to work with.
• 40:24
  SPEAKER_04: I mean, when you find people, then you just it'd be a sad day when it ends, you know?
• 40:28
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah because you just want to work with them forever because it's uh because it's a marriage made, it's just that marriage you've been looking for in business.
• 40:35
  SPEAKER_03: Well, and I think that's I think that's a great segue because talk about gigs.
• 40:40
  SPEAKER_03: If somebody is listening to this podcast, they also have the opportunity to bring the three of us in for a gig and we'll come in and do a do a whole day with them and and take them through some of these ideas and things that we do compile combining that power of song, silence, and strategy.
• 40:56
  SPEAKER_03: So with that, fellas, we're gonna we're gonna wrap up today.
• 41:00
  SPEAKER_03: I want to make sure that everybody stays with us, though, for the next episode, because our next episode will be our first annual Christmas show.
• 41:08
  SPEAKER_03: So yeah.
• 41:10
  SPEAKER_03: So, you know, we're we're gonna we might even have to make Steve break out the guitar for that one.
• 41:15
  SPEAKER_04: So you know what?
• 41:16
  SPEAKER_04: You know, I've got one song I've written about Christmas, and it's called Catfish Christmas.
• 41:19
  SPEAKER_04: You know, I'll do it.
• 41:20
  SPEAKER_04: There you go.
• 41:21
  SPEAKER_03: We're gonna have to add that one on the next song or the next podcast.
• 41:24
  SPEAKER_03: So anybody want to bring us home?
• 41:27
  SPEAKER_00: Randy, bring us home.
• 41:28
  SPEAKER_00: You bet.
• 41:29
  SPEAKER_00: I will say that this whole uh issue of upstream is an opportunity.
• 41:33
  SPEAKER_00: It says that wherever you are in your organizational life and your career, be sure to check in on that upstream no matter where you are.
• 41:39
  SPEAKER_00: Even if you're the person who's licking the stamps and the organization in the mailroom, you need to be dialed into what that organization is really all about.
• 41:47
  SPEAKER_00: And if you are the big cheese, if you are the boss, you need to be looking at the changes that are happening all through the organization because it's not just about the way your company sits right now, it's about what your company needs to be in two, three, five, ten years.
• 42:00
  SPEAKER_00: So it's a very dynamic thing.
• 42:01
  SPEAKER_00: If I had to say one way to blow our minds, you might imagine what if that river was circular?
• 42:05
  SPEAKER_00: What if it, as it went downstream, it went all the way back to being upstream?
• 42:08
  SPEAKER_00: I don't know how that would happen in physics, but that's the way it happens in life.
• 42:12
  SPEAKER_00: It really is kind of a go-round sort of a thing that's happening there.
• 42:16
  SPEAKER_00: But uh, I hope you guys got something out of it because if you did, you now know how to work across the organization.
• 42:23
  SPEAKER_00: And that is a huge advantage for you as an employee wherever you are in the organization.
• 42:29
  SPEAKER_00: Buy all the books you heard about, that's for sure.
• 42:31
  SPEAKER_00: And uh, we will see you next time on Resonance the Podcast.
• 42:36
  SPEAKER_03: And don't forget to check us out on all the major platforms.
• 42:39
  SPEAKER_03: We're on Spotify and Apple and Amazon and all the other good places.
• 42:43
  SPEAKER_03: If you want to watch the video version of this, you can go to the YouTube channel.
• 42:48
  SPEAKER_03: And if you're not sure where to find any of this, I know Randy, I think, had somebody that couldn't find it.
• 42:53
  SPEAKER_03: Go to resonanceleader.com and all the links are there, and you can join us there.
• 42:58
  SPEAKER_04: And I want to tell you guys one thing.
• 42:59
  SPEAKER_04: Randy, what you were talking about if you were at a carnival, it's called the Tilcher World.
• 43:04
  SPEAKER_04: Later on.
• 43:06
  SPEAKER_04: All right.
• 43:07
  SPEAKER_04: See you guys.com.