Ep 85 - "Never Lose An Employee Again" With Joey Coleman

0:00 Bro. Jeez, bro. If only people heard all the conversation that preceded this. I know. Part of me wants to release. For all intents and purposes, it was downright salty. Isn't there part of you that wants to release a behind-the-scenes audio of things that get said prior to hitting record? Well, you're the one who restarted our recording because we were recording. And I said, just save it. This is fun. And you're like, no, I'm going to start a new recording. I want to get serious and be all... All right, quit fooling around. Quit fooling around. I wish I could be more excited about the show that we're about to record. Oh, dude. This is so good. I'll be honest. I welled up a little bit. Oh, yeah. I mean, I know between us, we're both softies, which a lot of people don't know, but I'm probably the squishier of the two of us.

0:42 And I... Dude, the older I get. My eyes got a little dry and I started to... Is that what it is? They got a little misty. It was your contact? Yeah. It was just your contact. Allergies. Yeah, that's right. Allergies. No, seriously. There's a lot of powerful moments. Yeah. Let's hit sponsors. Let's first think our sponsors. Okay, so you got one the other time. I'm going to do Liftify. Okay. Liftify. How many of you know you're leaving money and organic calls on the table because you're not doing a consistent great job in getting Google reviews? How many of you know that even though you say that your employees always ask for reviews that you know they don't sometimes? I mean, come on. Let's be real. Let's be honest. Because think about this. If you do, let's say, 1000 jobs a year, you're a bigger company and you only have 180 Google reviews on your profile.

1:30 The reality is your employees are not asking. Very often, in fact, much less all the time. So if that's you, and let's face it, it's most of us before we discovered Liftify. And you may have some other platforms like Podium or BirdEye or all these other things. Those things aren't bad. But what we've learned in our work with Liftify is that they struggle to convert those reviews just as much as you do, in fact. Yeah. Very low. So what we've seen with Liftify, and we've seen it. Brandon and I, we have Liftify for Floodlight Consulting Group. And we've recommended Liftify to every single one of our clients. And every single time we recommend them, within a matter of 30 days, we almost...

2:11 universally hear that client come back and say, Oh my gosh, it's working. We've added so many reviews. This is great. And what's the why behind it? It's more than just ego. It's more than just clients looking at, Oh my gosh, they have five-star reviews. No. The most important thing we learned from Zach and his team, and we've had this validated by a lot of other digital marketing people is... It's not enough to give out Starbucks cards to your employees for generating a whole bunch of Google reviews in a 30-day contest period. It's recency that Google is waiting now. Because a lot of people were doing all the gimmicky contest stuff to drive up their Google reviews and Google rightfully realized... People are gaming the system here.

2:52 And so if you want to have consistent recent Google reviews that drive organic search results, which is what we call free inbound phone calls with people that have likely had a loss event, then you need recent Google reviews every single week, week in, week out. And the way to do that is through Liftify. They have a really simple system. It's almost entirely automated. It's very easy and it's very effective. They convert 20 to 25% of the closed customer jobs that you've done into Google reviews. Dude, here's a new thing. You know the AI generated replies. I saw something about that. Yeah. Pretty neat. So he's coming back because we're going to get into the use of AI.

3:33 No way. Okay. But the AI tool is out. It will automatically respond to the reviews that get left for you. Oh my gosh. Automatically. I'll be honest, I'm a little slow with that. I know I'm a little bit, but that's where we're going to have them. We get the notification. Yeah, yeah, yeah. We're going to bring them out. That's good. Yeah. And we're going to learn all about it. But yeah, dude. So that's... That's very cool. That's there. Go to liftify.com forward slash floodlight. A lot of success stories. Like I said, you could be one of them. Yeah. Just add yourself to it. You know, I'm kind of enjoying selling these sponsorship little reads. It's kind of fun. Well, I like it because they're real. I know. Otherwise, no, it would just be lame shit. I get it. Well, you know what it is, man. It feeds this sales guy. It's been CNR Magazine, guys, they're our battle buddy, I think, for lack of a better way to say it.

4:17 We are huge fans of Michelle and her team. You guys know that. You hear us talk about it consistently. But it's more than that. Is the media that they put out powerful? Yes. Is it front edge? Yes. Does it get the scoops? Does it give us information that we can use and leverage? Absolutely. And she's just a friend to the industry. She's a friend to us. They're on a similar mission. They're here to help. They're here to provide you not just content, but insights and leverage and friendships and partnerships that help you and your team. So just do it. Subscribe. Be part of a team that's working very diligently to help you and help your businesses. So to our friends over there, CNR, we love you guys. We appreciate you being part of the show. And you should go and subscribe and be a part of that.

4:59 Dude, today's show. It's so good. He's like one of my, literally, and part of it is I don't know why he continues to be as gracious with us as he is with his time. This is the third time on the show. And literally, these are some of our top shows. Yeah, big time. When he jumps on. Well, I just... For me, I first saw this guy at one of Jason Gaynard's mastermind talks. He was one of the OG guys. I think the very first mastermind talk, which is this small little super VIP event that this acquaintance of mine has held with 40 people at it. And he brings in these incredible speakers. And Joey Coleman was one of the incredible speakers. And I heard this talk called The First 100 Days, where he unpacks his years and years of work on designing and creating customer experiences for amazing brands around the world.

5:50 And I was so enamored with it that I actually bought his first 100 Days course back when we were at Summit and we were building a restoration company. Because I just thought, God, this is so relevant. We get that first loss with the customer. What is the best way we can onboard that client to maximize the lifetime value of that relationship? And it was so good. The material was awesome. Well, and what we've learned too is how applicable it is to our selling in terms of our industry. Yes. Because so much of what he talks about as part of that system is this kind of long onboarding phase where you're really earning the client's respect before you even have a transaction, which is our space, right?

6:30 It totally is. And then of course, on our last, we had two previous podcasts with him. So all you have to do is just go to iTunes or Spotify and search for Joey Coleman. You'll see our episodes there. There's a first and the second episode about Never Lose a Customer Again, his first book. And it's based off that first 100 days workshop that I took of his. And I think what's so rad about the way he writes, he was a former attorney. And you can kind of in like the best way, like he's just incredibly smart guy in terms of laying at making a case, I guess. Literally. Like he's so good at just laying out in this linear fashion what the problem is, what the solution is, and what's the process to follow. And he takes the same approach with his newest book, which is one of the things that we talk through together today.

7:15 I mean, guys, first of all, if you didn't listen to those episodes, you have to. It's so incredibly valuable. It's worth your time. Yeah. And just get ready to take notes. Or maybe I would say this because I know a lot of you listen to the show on your windshield time. This is one of those ones where you want to go into the office early a couple of days next week with your coffee and You'll go in at 6.37 in the morning while the shop is still quiet and just listen to this and take notes because this is one of those things you're going to want to bring into your leadership meeting for subsequent weeks. You're going to want to share this book and buy it for your team. It's so, so good. So good. So let's... And he talks about when it's coming out. So stay tuned for that. And then hang till the end of the show, guys, because there's a really fun announcement about Joey and about our industry.

7:57 So hang until the end. It'll be worth your time. It's so cool. All right, man. Let's go. All right. welcome back to the head heart and boots podcast i'm chris and i'm brandon join us as we wrestle with what it takes to transform ourselves and the businesses we lead man i love this industry Well, sir, Joey, thank you, my friend. We are excited to have you with us. And I know the audiences, most of them have already heard the first two episodes that you've joined us through. And we're on a whole different journey this time. So we're excited to get into it. Thanks for joining, man.

8:39 It is my pleasure. Brandon, Chris, thank you so much for having me back. I got to tell you, I get a chance to be on a lot of shows. What I always know when we've got something on the calendar is it's going to be a great conversation and I am pumped looking forward to it. And thanks to everybody else who's kind enough to keep coming back and listening to me. These guys, Brandon and Chris, I know why you're listening to them. I just appreciate you giving a little time for me on the airwaves again. Thank you so much. I've got this bursting secret that I just want to tell everybody about. But I'm going to hang a few more weeks until there's a couple more dots dotted and a couple more keys crossed. But we've got, I think, some pretty exciting news that is a possibility in August. But we'll wait until we get 100% to make the announcement.

9:22 But yeah, that's good. Well, here's where I... First of all, man, we got some early access to your upcoming book, Never Lose an Employee Again. And the content, very much like your first book, Never Lose a Customer Again, it is so actionable. I mean, you write it in such an easily digestible format that it's also really a playbook. I think this is the type of thing that business owners, business leaders can pass around to their team. And it creates a common language for what can we do with this. And I'm just curious about the origin story with the book. There's a lot of really cool case studies in here. Yeah. And I'm curious just how you went about assembling all the material in this book.

10:04 Was this face-to-face interviews with these companies? How did you do the research for this book? Because it is so deep and is so comprehensive. Oh, Chris, thank you for that question. It means the world to me that... somebody would read the book and be like, oh my gosh, this is actionable. It's a playbook. Because that was certainly my intention. And any bright ideas, any nuance, any tactics that people feel they can employ that come from the book is as a direct result of the amazing case studies I had the chance to include. The book includes over 50 case studies from every industry you could imagine on all seven continents. I I think I'm actually the first business book to ever have a case study from all seven continents.

10:45 Yes, we got Antarctica in there too, so don't worry, friends. And it's not a Penguin case study. It's okay. But what happened in doing the research is a couple of things. Number one, because of the work I had done in the customer experience space, I knew a lot of companies that were great at delivering remarkable customer experiences. And one thing I realized about five minutes into my 20-plus year customer experience career is, is that you can't have a great customer experience unless you have amazing employees who are delivering that experience. So the first thing I did is I went back to the folks I interviewed from the first book and clients and people that I know, and I interviewed them about their practices, and I got gems, gold, great ideas. But then I stumbled across something that was not my intention going into the interviews.

11:29 But during one of the interviews, a guy was talking and I just felt compelled to ask this question at the end of the interview. I said, you seem like a smart person, you seem like somebody who keeps a finger on the pulse of employee experience and what's going on. Who are the companies that you look up to as employers? The kind of place that if you quit running your company, you'd be willing to go work for? And it was as if I had asked this person a question they'd been dying to answer for decades. And they proceeded to not only tell me a handful of companies that they just loved and admired, but they knew some people at those companies. They followed them on social media. They had established personal relationships. I said, would you be kind enough to introduce me to them? This led me into a patchwork quilt of conversations with remarkable leaders, people who get it, who understand that, yes, being an employer is hard, but it's also a great responsibility.

12:20 We've got an opportunity. People who had weathered the storm of COVID and had gone from maybe being in-person work to remote work and then back again and then hybrid and trying to figure it all out. People that were operating small teams of 8, 10, 15 people. People that were operating international conglomerates. And what I love about the book, if I may, is that we were able to include so many great stories from such a wide variety of companies and organizations. It's so interesting. I think that piece that you're talking about is inspired leaders. They're looking. They've gotten direction, I guess is probably a safe way to say that, from somebody else.

13:01 And Chris and I just not long ago, we did a little two-day operational leadership training for some business owners. And we asked this question before we get going, like, hey, what are one of the big takeaways that you hope to experience while you're spending time with us? And we have talked about this several times since then. There was this overarching theme of tired and looking for inspiration. It was just said multiple different ways in their own context or language, but it was that. And what's interesting and what Chris and I have said about our industry is we feel like it's way more siloed than other industries. They're afraid to reach out. And what I'm hearing you say and what I'm telling the audience potentially is, winners look to establish relationships and follow examples of other winners.

13:48 Is that what we're hearing you say essentially? Yeah. Brandon, that is spot on. And let's be clear, not just because you want to be a winner or not just because you want to pick up the great technique or the tip or the idea that's going to move the dial in your business. The reason why I think the best leaders look for other leaders is for friendship, is for the confidant, for the person that also understands how hard it is to be a leader. I mean, what I'm about to say is not meant to be a criticism. But I have friends from throughout my life that are not business owners. They're not entrepreneurs. They're not speakers and authors. They kind of don't understand my life. That's not a criticism. I don't understand their lives. But as a result, it can be incredibly lonely.

14:31 It can be incredibly difficult. And what we've seen throughout COVID is so many leaders felt that they had to put on the strong face, the good face, and be the light for their community and for their team and be the optimistic, leaning forward. We're going to get through this. Let me throw all of you on my back and we'll keep marching forward. We'll be okay. And now that thankfully, thankfully, we're on the other side of at least the level of ramifications we were having back in the day during COVID, I think a lot of them are tired. And I think a lot of them don't know where to go. They don't have those friendships. I mean, how are you supposed to say to someone, yeah, my business made it through, but it almost killed me in the process?

15:11 Yeah. Quick story. I talked to two business owners about a year into COVID. One of them's called me and he said, Joey, can we just talk a little? I said, sure. He said, I just had to fire 4,000 people and I just need somebody to talk to to kind of listen to me for a while. And guys, my heart broke because I know how much he cares about his people and his team and the business he built. And it all came crashing down. Literally hours later, same day, I'm on the call with a guy and he says, Joey, can I speak bluntly? I'm like, of course, always. He said, we are having the best year our business has ever had. They were in the online payment space. Oh, yeah. He said, we have processed more money. in the last month than we did in the last two years.

15:53 Holy cow. He's like, but I can't tell anyone, because I've got buddies who are shutting their doors, and I'm having the best business experience I've ever had. So why do I share those stories? We never know what the other person is going through. We might have an idea and inkling and imagining. We might know some of the cards they have and some of the things they're dealing with. We never know the full story. And if there was one piece of advice I'd hope anybody listening to the show would take, especially a leader, is find a way... to create friendships with other leaders, whether it's in the industry, which by the way would be great. And the industry, I agree, too siloed. Find a way to create connection with other folks in the industry. And if not, if you don't want to go that far, find other business owners in your community or other business owners anywhere on the planet and get into a mastermind, get into a private group, make the investment in yourself to have people that you can talk to that get what it's like to be you.

16:48 Yeah, that's huge. That's huge. I think I just walked away from that event feeling a little sad. From the perspective of part of the reason that we felt like they were so uninspired is because they've just gotten so ingrained in the doing, just the business for the sake of business that they've lost track of the whole opportunity as a leader. Which I know when you're outside of it or flying parallel to it, it's easier to have that perspective. But I think that's the part that sometimes breaks my heart is, as leaders, we just really have an inspirational story to live out. We have this amazing opportunity, but man, we can just get so bogged down with the business that we forget the real high-level purpose of doing what we do.

17:30 Well, I think the other part is too, it can start to get monotonous. Yeah. You know, we're all the best practices. It's like we're talking about the same things. Yeah. The same processes, the same procedures, the same clients and stuff like that. And to your other point that oftentimes these leaders were looking to, they were admiring other companies that were totally even outside of their industry. But they just admired what they were doing, right? With their human capital and how they were managing their culture and stuff. And I think we've found that too. Like one of our inspirations when we were operating in the restoration industry was Ritz-Carlton. Sure. And I think when you reach outside the industry, you tap into some interesting novel ideas that the people just haven't tried in your industry yet.

18:11 Because we're all kind of doing the same stuff. It's like, you know, we're a consulting company. We work with a bunch of companies all over the entire United States. At the end of the day, we all struggle with the same kinds of things. We're all dealing with the same kind of challenges and problems. And you get outside of the industry a little bit and you discover novelty. It's like different types of companies, different challenges, and they're coming up with different solutions, some of which we can bring into our space. And it's really clever and unique and fun. Absolutely. It's a bridge into the work we're doing. Absolutely. You hit the nail on the head. What I love about paying attention to other industries is when you bring the best practice or the cool idea or the unique technique from another industry into your world, a couple of things happen.

18:56 Number one, people look at you and they're like, you're amazing. Where did that idea come from? You stand out in the marketplace. And if it's been proven in another industry, you already have a little confidence going in that it's probably going to work in yours. Because at the end of the day, humans are humans. I don't care what industry you're in. If we're talking about customer experience, if we're talking about employee experience, we're still talking about human experience. And so what can we do to make the most of those experiences? I think we can pay attention to those who have already figured it out and then shamelessly steal, borrow, modify, adopt. I mean, in some ways, that's the greatest way you can honor their success is by putting more of that energy into the world.

19:38 I totally agree. Okay, we have so much ground to cover. We do. We do. We talked about this in your last podcast. I first got introduced to you when you had your curriculum around the first 100 days, how to onboard a customer. And what does that continuum look like? And how can we influence it and so forth? And I just, again, I said this in the intro, but I love the linear way that you've mapped this out. in terms of from day one on through, how do we influence this new employee's experience? And you've broken it out into eight phases. And I just think it's so useful. It's so easy, again, for us to spread this across our team. Start with phase one. Where does this all begin? What is our goal in phase one? So phase one is the assess phase.

20:19 As a little preview, all of these phases start with the letter A. And the reason is not to confuse you, but rather to think about it as giving a report card to your employees for them to score you. And if you're doing well in all eight phases, it's like getting straight A's on the report card. That's what we want. So the first phase is the assess phase. In the assess phase, a prospective employee is trying to decide whether or not they want to come work for you. They're looking at your job listing. They're seeing your job postings. They're going to the About Us page or the career page on your website. They're probably checking out your social media profile. They're on LinkedIn seeing if they know anyone else who works with you and they're asking them, hey, what's it like to work there? They're going through your application process or submitting their resume.

21:00 They're going through interviews. This is the dance. This is the courting. When everyone's trying to figure out, hey, are you worth spending a lot of time with? And we're also as the employer asking, is this the person we want to spend time with? So in the assess phase, the secret, the way to stand out is to give that prospective employee the best possible understanding of what it will be like to be an actual employee. Model the employee experience before they've even become an employee. how you treat them, how you talk to them, how you communicate with them, what you show them, what you're transparent about, what you're clear about. Those type of efforts, number one, are contrary to what most businesses do.

21:42 And number two, if the prospective employee likes that and resonates with it, you know they're going to be a good fit. If they don't like any aspect of that, oh my goodness, what a blessing for you. Because you're not going to go through the pain of hiring them, bringing them on board, having them turn into a morale suck with the rest of your team and having them leave and cause all kinds of detrimental harm in the process. I'm a big believer of, let's find out early whether either of us wants to go. Because a lot of job descriptions are written with the idea of attracting the right candidate. I love to write job descriptions that repel all the other candidates. Okay, so here's one of the things that folks that have gone through, again, the how to not lose a customer again, this theme is...

22:28 One of the things that's very interesting that I really appreciate about your perspective is how outward bound it is. I think companies in general, all of us in general, it's so difficult to get out from behind ourselves. It's others focused. It's others focused. And so this is interesting to me. It's this idea of what are you presenting for that person to understand? How do I put myself in this experience? What will I be experiencing as part of my initial days with this team? From your perspective, from the case studies, what are one or two examples where a team is proactively managing the perception of that prospect, giving them a perspective on what it's going to be like being a part of the team?

23:09 Well, I'll give you two examples. One that is specifically from a case study and one that is probably the statement I make in the book that is going to raise the most eyebrows and have the most people saying, I'm not going to I don't know if I can believe this guy, okay? Let's start with the latter one, the thing that's going to shock people. Because that way early in the podcast, if you don't like this vibe, you can disconnect and come back next week for the next guest who will be much smarter, much more well-spoken, much more talented than I am. Okay, so here's the thing. It might just be the two of us, Joey. I don't know if we can live up to this. Well, and still, it'll be exponentially better than having me on the call. So here's the thing that is probably going to shock people. I think you should tell the candidate the questions you're going to ask during the interview before they show up for the interview.

23:52 Yeah, that is not customary. Well, I read that and the way you sort of wrapped that up is set them up for success in the interview process versus I think, and I've been guilty of this, you're almost trying to catch them. saying the wrong thing. You're trying to tease out where's the bad part of this candidate. And I love that. Give some practical example of how to do that. Giving them the questions ahead of time, I think is one piece. Have you seen any other tactics for how to set that right tone where they feel safe? Well, I think by giving them the questions in advance, you're automatically making them go, okay, wait, I've never experienced this before. Now, for people that are truly freaking out right now, give them 90%, 95% of the questions.

24:35 You want to hold one or two back live, tell them you're going to hold back one or two, and then do that. You can ask those in the interview. But think about what it's like to be an employee. I don't know about you guys, but everywhere I've ever worked as an employee, my bosses made sure that I knew a little bit what was going on before I was in front of a client. They were constantly like, well, we got to make sure he kind of knows how to speak and the things to ask and some of the industry terminology before we put them in front of the client. And how would they do that? Well, they'd train me, they'd teach me, they'd prep me. We'd have practice rounds, we'd learn things. And then I was elevated to, okay, we can trust you with the client. Why not model that exact same behavior with our candidates?

25:17 Why not say, we're going to tell you the topics that are going to be discussed. We're going to tell you the types of questions we're going to ask. We're going to tell you the criteria by which you will be evaluated. We want you to win here. We're not trying to trick you. We're not trying to pull the wool over on your eyes. We want you to know what it's like. And if this works for you, great. If it doesn't, that's okay to do. Another thing we can do early on, there's a case study in the book from a restaurant in Singapore called the Dallas Restaurant and Bar. And they do advertisements, classified ads, basically ads in the newspaper to get folks to come work at their restaurant. Hourly business, that kind of thing. And they ran an ad in the newspaper in Singapore looking for bartenders.

26:01 And at the top of the ad, it had some gibberish. Looked at a couple of things in a quote. You kind of looked at it and you're like, what do these letters mean? But if you sounded out the words, it was this. All right, I have one more before I go home. They let their brand spirit show up. Because if you're a bartender, you're going to hear that statement. And they said early on, like, we're looking for a bartender that can translate this gibberish. Oh, and by the way, those without a sense of humor need not apply. That's pretty phenomenal. They just met their people where they're at. They gave them a preview of what it's going to be like to be a bartender. I've got a lot of people here who've had a couple drinks. Too many. You're going to have to be buffering and you're going to have to be translating.

26:43 My challenge to everybody listening is to let your spirit... Yeah, it makes you laugh, right? Imagine sitting in your home in Singapore. You're a bartender. You're looking for a new gig. And you're looking through the classifieds. And the first one is like, oh, do nightclub. We pay this much per hour. Next thing. Unanoo, really nice restaurant. We pay next thing. Next one. all right, I have one more before I go home. And you're like, oh my God, what is this? The right person is going to be so drawn to that ad. And the wrong person is going to go, what are these idiots talking about? That's not a scene I want to be involved in. Great. We haven't even had your resume come in. And we know who's a good fit or who's not a good fit.

27:25 I think what kind of blows my mind is how confident we have to be as an organization. And I think that's part of the challenge, right? Is that it's like as leaders in general, and I know I've felt this way. I mean, I still suffer. I mean, we're hiring more consultants right now. And I know I'm going to go through moments of this. There's this reality of how confident we have to be on who the right player is for our company, understanding that not everyone has a place on the bus. And it is challenging. It's very easy to say out loud, but it's very difficult to execute a strategy like that because it's bold. It's brassy. You have to be committed to what you're stating or the message that you're sending, right? So I don't know. Did you face that or is that part of what came up in conversation with folks?

28:08 Oh, only every day. Only every day with every leader, right? I mean, this is the challenge. But here's the thing, friends. You didn't become a leader by going for the easy route. If you wanted the easy route, you could have chosen, oh my gosh, easier roles, easier responsibilities, a heck of a lot of an easier industry. Are you kidding me? You thought, I know, I'll do a layup. I'm going to go be involved in restorations. Really? You already put yourself out at the front of the line saying, bring it on. I'll take the hard things. I'll take the things that people don't want to deal with, but they desperately need somebody to address. Bring it. So just embrace a little bit of that. And what I will tell folks is that the more you lean into who you are, the better your life will be.

28:54 I know that sounds contrary. And guys, I'll be the first to admit, I did not believe that in the beginning. As a speaker, my goal used to be that when I surveyed the audience, that 100% of them would have loved me. That was my goal because then I'll know that I've done a good job. But the more I thought about it, the more I realized, you know what? I'd rather have 80% love me and 20% be repelled by my comments, my suggestions, my ideas. Why? Because that means the 80% that are in are in. They're in 100%. And I'd rather run with the folks who are 100% in than the folks that are kind of one foot in, one foot out. Oh, sure, we'll see lukewarm, like on Facebook, blah, blah, blah.

29:35 No. I want the people who are like, oh my gosh, count me in. Whatever you're doing, invite me. I'm ready. You can build an incredibly successful business with a thousand true fans, as Kevin Kelly would say, instead of, oh my gosh, we've got to have 10,000 lukewarmers. No, you don't. You really don't. Gosh, dude, that's... advice is so sound. I just need to sit in that more and more often because that's just so personal. Even if there was no one listening, I'd be like, Well, that was well worth my time because that's just a message I got to hear. All right. Let's keep trucking. What's our second phase, my man? All right, so the second phase is the accept phase. In the accept phase, the employer says, you candidate, you prospective employee, are the one that I want.

30:17 We extend an offer and to our surprise and delight, the candidate accepts the offer. Now the secret in this phase, and I should probably clarify, I'm a recovering attorney, so the negative comments I'm about to make about attorneys, it's okay because I used to be one. All too often, the offer letter feels like a piece of boilerplate dribble. Yeah. Written by a lawyer with no emotion, checking all the boxes of the local jurisdictional requirements for at-will employees or whatever it may be. And you get to the end of the letter and you're like, I'm not even sure that we're getting together in an engagement here and that this is going to be there. But you want me to sign on the dotted line and...

30:59 It's just mass confusion and it feels anything but exciting. Contrast that to an experience I'd be willing to bet almost anyone listening has had at least once in their life. You go to the mailbox, you open the mailbox, and you see an envelope that's an odd size. It's not the usual size of an envelope. And on the front, in beautiful scripted raised ink writing or calligraphy is your name. And you see it's got all these stamps on it because it's an oversized package. And you open up the envelope and inside is another envelope. And you open up that envelope and there's another envelope. It's like the Russian nesting dolls of letters. Yeah. And you're digging deeper and deeper. And finally, you come across the invitation to the wedding. And the very nature of the invitation lets you know this is going to be a remarkable event.

31:45 This is an event you don't want to miss. And often that invitation says something to the effect of a favor of your reply is requested. Oh my goodness. What do you do? You go into the house, you tell your significant other, your spouse, your kids, guess what? Look, at this. Well, look at this invitation. Oh my gosh, this is amazing. We're going. Do you want the salmon or the chicken? I don't know. Let's fill this out. Let's get it back quick. We want to go. Which way do you want to invite your employees into your organization? With a letter from the lawyer or the invitation to the beginning of the next chapter of their life? Yeah. Oh my I love what you said about it. You called it creating milestone memory around that experience. And I remember this, I had a job where I got hired.

32:25 I got the acceptance email in this case. But the very next day, my wife got a bouquet of flowers with a card to her, essentially welcoming, showing appreciation for me and how excited they were to have her husband on the team and thanking her ahead of time for her support. As I joined the company and get up to speed and all this kind of stuff. And I was like, Oh my God, this is amazing. Powerful. Amazing. Amazing feeling for me and for her. Incredible. And now look what that company did. They created an advocate in your house for you going to work. Imagine, fast forward, two months, you've had a bad day at work.

33:05 You go home and you're like, honey, I don't know about this. This is ridiculous. These people, they don't respect me. They don't listen to me. I'm not happy with how it's going. What is she going to say? Most likely, now hang on a second, Chris. They're not that bad. I mean, they sent flowers. Let's sit down and talk about this a little bit. Let's not be rash. If you can create advocates in the household, oh my goodness, you're good to go. You're good to go. There's a funny example or a case study story that I have in the book where the CEO of Pepsi wrote thank you notes to the parents of her employees. So she's Indian and she was back in India visiting her family in the house. And she kept realizing, you know, she's now the CEO of India, Miss Noori, and she's sitting there and people are coming to her parents' house and she's presuming that they're going to come to the house to meet her, the global CEO of Pepsi.

33:58 And all these people keep going up to her mom and dad and saying, You must be so proud. Look at your daughter. Look what she's done. They're paying her no attention, but they're showering all this attention on the mom and dad. And the CEO has this revelatory moment where she says, oh my gosh, I need to thank my executive's parents for the work they did to make this happen. She goes on to tell a story that she writes a note to the parent of the head of Pepsi India. So the local bottling and the kind of preparation team who then later tells her that he had a bad day. He had a stretch of bad days. And he went to his mom and he was like, I'm thinking about quitting. And she was like, you will not.

34:39 And he's like, what? She's like, the CEO is my friend. She values you. If you don't understand this, the problem is you. We need to have a conversation. I'm like, here's the thing. And we could have all kinds of conversations about culture and family and how those things influence that interaction as well. But the point here is, why not make it exciting? Why not make it a milestone memory and really cement that interaction of you're at the beginning of a new generation? it. And we want you to know that we feel it too. And you're wanted. Every human on the planet wants to feel wanted. Oh my gosh. That's so... And I feel like we kind of connected a couple dots there somewhat accidentally because phase eight, we're going to get back to it, is that advocate phase, right?

35:25 Correct. But in that second phase, part of that milestone could actually make that employee and advocate right out of the box. Right out of the box. Right out of the box. Or whatever, right? Exactly. Exactly. Exactly. And this is the thing. At every step in the eight-phase journey, you can do things that the ramifications and the ripple effect will last years. Yeah. Years. Years. Yeah, I mean, there's so many possibilities to do this. We are only limited by the bounds of our own creativity and our own willingness to give it a try. And to your point, Brandon, to lean in, to be bold and say, I am going to send the Russian nesting dolls of job offer letters to this candidate and it's going to cost me more and it's going to be a little crazy.

36:10 But you know what? They'll be talking about this offer letter even if they don't accept it for the rest of their life. No one's talking about the email offer letter they got. Sorry. Sorry. They're not talking about it. So just stop doing it. It's kind of funny too, because the reality of it is, is that at times, let's say you execute on one of these strategies, right? And I know in some cases, some people are thinking, oh my gosh, if I waste my money, right? We're just tiptoeing in most cases, especially in the restoration industry. When we're hiring people, we almost right out of the gate hire tentatively. Think that it's likely they're not going to be around, right? And so I'm just thinking to myself, there's probably going to be times where we do get a false start. But the fact that you set that tone when that person, if they do go away, and there's maturing that happens, chances are when they pull their head out, to say it bluntly, they're going to turn around and go back to the organization that set that memory, even if they weren't ready, right, to accept it in the moment.

37:06 Brandon, 100%. And if I may, I'd love to share a story that it didn't make the book. I mean, the crazy thing about all these interviews that I did is there were so many great ideas, not all of them could make the book. But the final chapter of the book is a case study about Lego Corporation. Because to be honest, my boys asked me about three years ago, Daddy, if you ever quit being a speaker and you went to work for someone else, Is there any company you'd work for?" And the first company that came to mind was Lego. I've been a Lego fan since I was a little kid. I love Legos. I love everything they do. And when I got into studying the history of the company, how they're run, how they operate, I loved them even more. Here's what Lego does when they send their offer letter. Not only do they send the offer letter to the person who got the job offer, but when they accept the offer, they send them a special box.

37:54 And the box includes some custom Lego sets. And they say, we're so excited to have you build your future with us and help us build our future. Amazing, right? Amazing. But what they also do is they send those sets to the two other candidates who didn't get the job. So they interview three candidates for the top executive job. They make it all the way to the end. They send those to the other two candidates as well with a note that says, I'm sorry that we didn't... extend an offer to you here. But we know there is still a future for you at Lego someday. And we're excited to stay in touch and continue the conversation and watch as you continue to build your career.

38:34 Now wait for it. When they make a mistake, when they hire the person that's the wrong person, and that person go and they don't work out, and they've got to fire them, or they've got to leave in two months, three months, whatever it is, How quick do you think those two people are who didn't get the job to pick up the phone and begin the conversation about a specific job offer and come and write in? Yeah, it's good. It's good. It's so legacy-minded though, Joey. I feel like all this stuff is battle patience, right? It's playing. It's not sticking band-aids on stuff. Yeah, it's 500-year business plans instead of what are you doing this quarter. The other thing just I think hanging here in the beginning is so key is because some people may be thinking, God, this is overkill.

39:16 You know, like with as many people as we hire and all this kind of stuff. But I think one of the other things is points to with the milestone memory is the idea of the love account. Yeah. Right. We know, especially a lot of our small service businesses, we know there's going to be some withdrawals. Yes. First 30 days. Somebody's going to feel awkward. There's going to be some aspect that goes wrong, goes awry. We didn't plan well, whatever. And it's like the more we can make those deposits right at the beginning. Like you said, the example of when the employee comes home upset, frustrated, it's not what they thought it was going to be. And the spouse is there advocating, wait, hold on a second. When was the last time you took a job and they did this? It reminds them, of the value the company's already put in.

39:59 It's almost an insurance policy. You know it's not going to be perfect the entire onboarding, right? Okay, so our battle is going to be that there's eight. I know. We need to do a second part again. We ran it this last time. We're never going to get into that. Let's keep plowing ahead. Yeah, I guess the reality of this, guys, is we're going to talk about drop dates for the book, obviously, before we let Joey go. And you're going to have to pay attention so that you can keep up with the rest of these. Okay, so I was... thinking about impact, right? One of the example stories from the book, and they talk about a series of things that happen as part of their onboarding process. There's multiple packages that get sent out to the individual. Again, it's like that. It's almost like breadcrumbs, right?

40:40 Leading them to first day. But then there's an assignment of two books, like right out of the gate. And I want to hear your perspective on this. This is the first thing that hit my mind. What a stage setter in regard to expectation around personal development and growth. 100%. Oh my goodness. Literally, the very first experience you have with this organization is, there's a deep connection, obviously. There's a deep valuing that's happened because obviously they've probably experienced one or two of these phases already. But then in this scenario, not only are we saying you're valued and respected in the way we want you on our team, and by the way, we're bringing you on to a team that has very neat expectations, very high value and expectations on where you're going and how to develop.

41:25 So I don't know. What did you pull from that in that interview? Brandon, 100%. So just to fill in a couple things quickly. So after you accept a job at Impact... in the affirm phase, which by the way is phase three. The affirm phase is when the prospect, the now employee, begins to doubt the decision they just made to accept your job offer. This is buyer's remorse in the customer context. It's new hire's remorse in the employment context. So they're beginning to doubt. So they get a series of mailings. The first one's your computer and all the tech stuff you're going to need to be successful. The second one is a bunch of swag and clothing so you can be excited you're part of the team. And the third one is two books.

42:07 And the package actually says your assignment for the first week on the job is going to be to read these two books. You're going to literally be in the office, sitting in your cubicle, sitting in your chair, sitting in your office, reading these books. Why? Because these books form the foundation for how we run our business and how we communicate with each other. And at the end of that week, we're going to have a little book club with your coworkers where we're going to talk about your key takeaways. They're going to share some of their key takeaways. And this is what we're going to be doing. Now, you don't have to start reading the books before you get here, What's really interesting is when I talked to their head of HR about this, I said, okay, what do you think?

42:48 She said, Joey, one of the best things about this is if we've made a mistake, this is usually the thing that catches it. If we've hired the wrong person, they go, yeah, I'm not really sure. I'm going to have to read for work? Not really my jams. Personal development, continued communication skills honing. I think I'm pretty good. And she said, it's beautiful because we never bring them in and introduce them to everyone else. They're out before we start. She said, but the people that do buy in, well, now we know they're in our book club. Now we know they're in our personal development club. Now we know they are committed to growth and learning, which is what our organization is all about. Oh, man. You can do things early on in the relationship to check your confirmation bias.

43:31 Because the problem with interviews, we meet someone and we're like, Oh, I bet this person is going to be awesome. They're going to be amazing. They like the same team as I like. Oh, this is going to be great. And then two weeks into the job, we're like, who is this idiot? And what we often do is we say, who is the idiot that hired them? Right. It was me. And we beat ourselves up and we think, I'm not a good judge of character. I'm not good at managing. I'm not good at hiring. I hear so many leaders say that, you know, and they're just unbelievably harsh and critical of themselves. No, you made a mistake. It's okay. The problem is, if you don't change your systems and your operations, to not keep making that mistake. Yeah. I think the thing about this that motivated me so much is, so I have a military background.

44:13 And obviously, there's some pretty unique standards and expectations that you get pumped full of very quickly, right? And so there's some assimilation that happens almost out of default. But it's interesting how hard when I switched sides, I was now a civilian and started building... business building leadership teams and hiring employees and things like that. I had this internal mechanism that needed some kind of esprit de corps. It needed to be part of something that felt different. I had to be part of a bigger mission. And I liked that challenge. Here's my point. When it came time to build the team, something in my guts said, I just want more of that kind of mentality. They don't need to look like me, sound like me, act like me.

44:53 But I want to be unified. Just like in my time in the military, everybody came from wildly diverse backgrounds and scenarios. But once we all put that uniform on, we were all playing for the same team. End of story. It was non-negotiable. And I think as I was trying to build that inside our business, I just struggled because I just, the net was too big. I kept allowing the kinds of people on my team that were actually out of alignment with that expectation. And when we had the right players to make a suggestion about a leadership book or to make a suggestion about some kind of podcast or something like that, they would gobble it up. But we never institutionalized it. We didn't create a system around that filtering mechanism.

45:35 And I think that's why this is so powerful. The stage that it sets before anybody even launches is just really powerful. But again, brassy, right? Yeah, it is. And here's the other thing. Let's address the elephant in the room, Brandon. Lots of times we're in a state in our business where we're like, we just got to hire someone. I got a job next week. I got to have people. I got to have boots on the ground. I got to have people going in. So we kind of, it doesn't matter. I understand and I empathize with that feeling. And I'd love to encourage anyone who's having that feeling to do your best to pump the brakes and don't make that mistake. If we think, we talk to the best employers we've ever met, we talk to the people we admire, and we ask them, what are your biggest employment mistakes?

46:20 They will say that I hired too quickly. You should hire slow and fire fast. Yeah. Take your time getting the right person in the door. But if someone deviates from the core values, somebody shows you who they really are, it's time to go. It's real simple. We have a standard here. And you see this in the military, right? We have a standard. We have an expectation. If you want to come be part of that, great. We will embrace you with open arms. You don't want to come be part of it, that's fine. You're not coming to be part of it. And if you deviate from that, I'm sorry, you got to go. Now, I'm not saying somebody makes a mistake, you fire them. I want to be very clear. What I am saying is, if someone's not in alignment with your core values, they're probably never going to be in alignment with your core values.

47:05 Core values aren't something that we just try on for size. They pick some new ones tomorrow. These are inherent in who we are as human beings. And so our job as leaders is to suss that out. All right, Head, Heart & Boots listeners. Want to stop here just a moment and thank our underwriting sponsor, Bloodlight Consulting Group. As all of you know, right? You know, Brandon and I, this is our passion project, Head Heart in Boots is. But it's also a way more and more that our consulting clients find us. And in effect, they interview us, right? Those of you who've been listening to the show for a while, you get to know who we are, right? What we're about. So if Head Heart in Boots is valuable to you, one of the best things you can do is share it with your friends.

47:46 And it's been incredible to watch just the audience grow. And we still get text messages from many of you about shows that you really like and impacted you. So that's number one. And please keep doing that. Many of you have been huge advocates of the show. We also just want to remind you too, if you're a restoration company owner and you're interested in a partner in your growth, you want some help building out systems, developing your leadership teams, helping set up the infrastructure for you to scale and grow into the company that you're trying to build. That's what we do. That's what we do is we come alongside restoration company leaders and we're going to be a part of the business. We help equip them and we help support them in that growth trajectory. So if you're looking for that, go to floodlightgrp.com.

48:28 Potentially, we could be a great match for each other. Another way that we really do serve our client base and our sphere of influence is through our premier partners. We work really hard to vet those folks that we believe bring a level of value to the industry, that it can really be leveraged in a way to have a sincere, positive impact on your business. We take that very seriously. The folks that we create those kind of ongoing partnerships, that's not a check the box kind of scenario. It's we really see strategic alignment in the value that they bring. We see value in the way that their leadership teams and their partners are developed. And we've done very sincere work of ensuring that these folks that we introduce our clients and our sphere to can actually create vetted value. So go check out bloodlightgrp.com forward slash premier slash partners and see if there's some folks on there that you can connect with and begin developing some other resources to support your growth and your business.

49:22 But do you mind if we jump ahead to phase five? Let's do it. I read through phase five and what I read was clarity. And I know the phase five is titled Acclimate. But as I was reading through that, I'm like, man, this is really about establishing clarity. It's like when you start a new job and we see this with people on our teams, They want to know, how do I get accepted here? How do I fit in? How do I win? How do I look good? It's like all these ego things are happening when you're entering a new space that's awkward and whatnot. Can you talk about the four R's? Yeah, I appreciate this. And you are so right, Chris, that we really need to be in a position where... When we're bringing people on board, we're helping them to understand, like, this is how we measure things.

50:08 These are our criteria. This is what we do. And when I think of the four R's, it kind of like, you might remember from school, there was read and write and arithmetic, right? We might have heard that as we were kids in elementary school. Well, the four R's in a business context are requirements, roles, responsibilities, and relationships. And what I mean by that is, what are the requirements of you have to do? What are the roles? What position do you play in the operation of the business? What are the responsibilities? What are the things that if you don't do them, this whole thing falls apart? And by the way, that's often the one that we gloss over. People don't understand where they are in the chain of events and they don't understand that maybe being late on an assignment, not crossing the T and dotting the I has huge ramifications down the end.

50:59 in departments and areas of the company that they're never going to see or experience. But we need to make sure they understand that. And last but not least, relationships. Who are the other people they're interacting with? Who are the other people that they're going to interact with on a daily basis, a monthly, a quarterly? Maybe never, but they're still part of the team. Even just thinking about making a list, sitting down. Think of a position in your company, everyone who's listening, think of a position where, And write down on a sheet of paper all the requirements of that job, all the roles they play, all the responsibilities they have, and all the relationships they're going to have within the organization and who they're going to interact with. My gut instinct is we're talking about pages of notes.

51:39 Pages. Oh, and by the way, as you move up the hierarchical chain... We're talking volumes of notes. Then ask yourself this, how much of this are we teaching to our new employee? How much of this are we telling our new employee? And how much of this are we just hoping they figure out on their own as time goes on? The last category is probably the biggest category. Yeah, exactly. You know what I'm thinking is, we probably have some people that are like, we have an employee handbook. where all this and they have to sign that and they sign their job description where we've told them exactly. So with the companies in your research, what did this look like, feel like for companies to execute well on that? Did you see some really good examples?

52:20 Because I'm also hearing orientation, right? Did you see any really great examples of how a company walks people through that and gives them that roadmap? I saw some wonderful examples. Let's take one that is tangentially related to the restoration space, okay? This is a company called JLM Partners. JLM Strategic Partners has a model where they believe it's important to teach their people Now let me tell you a little bit about their business. They help place architects and construction professionals for major infrastructure projects. So we're building an airport. We're building a bridge. These are big, multi-year, multi-faceted projects.

53:01 and they're helping to place the talent in that. So it's basically a talent agency for those top performers. When they bring new people into the organization, the CEO, Jason McCurious, his father was a teacher. And his father was very big on the teaching modality of there are some people who learn visually, some people who learn auditorily, and some people who learn kinesthetically. And so he always arranged his classroom to speak to the folks who learn by seeing, learn by hearing, and learn by doing. And Jason and his wife, LaShondra, who started the company, brought the same philosophy. When a new employee starts, they'll say something like, all right, as part of your job, you're going to be sending emails. Yeah. So you're going to sit here and watch someone compose an email.

53:42 We're going to show you how they do it. You're going to observe them do it. Then they're going to hand you a sheet that has the printed out requirements of how emails are formatted in this organization, how we do things, the things that are necessary. to be in every email we send. Oh, by the way, we're also going to give you a link of a video of somebody explaining why we do it that way, why those component pieces are there, which is also being explained by the person who's showing. And then we're going to have you switch seats and you're going to sit and see, then you're going to compose an email using the checklist and we're going to watch you and give you feedback as you go. They do this for writing emails, answering the phone, following up with a client, sending a contract, seeking references for any of their candidates.

54:25 They literally go through step by step every aspect of the project. And instead of telling, they teach, they show auditorially, visually, kinesthetically how it happens. Now, let's be clear. Does this take longer? Yes, of course it does. but they have unbelievable retention. They have unbelievable employee engagement and they have unbelievable growth and success because everybody is in the same boat rowing together. Oh, I think that's powerful. I think that's the mistake that we make. And we talk about this a lot that... in our desperation, we throw somebody in the field half-cocked. And the reality of it is that goes on a lot of times for months. Months. Months.

55:05 Even years in some situations. It's like, okay, so we spent a year getting 75% or we could have just delayed the whole shot by two weeks and gotten 100% or whatever the timeframe is. But it is just so difficult to manage. Okay, so in the same section, because I circled this because I just love the term, verbat, right? Is that... That's the name of this company? Yes. I wrote the term battle buddy because this is a thing that we love to promote with people. But basically, in this example, as part of this phase, the acclimate phase is they assign a buddy, a peer at the organization that immediately saddles up next to you as part of your first journey.

55:45 entry into the team, right? We use the term battle buddy for the same thing. But what did you get from that? What was this experience that the team was telling you that their employees had? Well, I saw two interesting things. I mean, there were a host of wonderful benefits that came from having a mentor. And the research on this is incredible. People who are mentors and who are mentees within an organization have higher productivity, higher efficiency, higher profitability, higher retention. Just by being in a program. Pardon me? Like substantially, like measurably. Substantial, like double digits higher across the board in every one of those categories. There's an amazing study we reference in the book that was done at Sun Microsystems where they did this with thousands of mentors and mentees.

56:27 This has been proven in the organizational hierarchy. This is just a good idea. But the thing that I liked about Verbit that was a little bit different, you get your buddy assigned before the first day on the job. Some people are like, wait a second, Joey. They're getting a mentor. They're getting a buddy before they've even shown up at work. Yes. Because what is the most stressful? That first day, I'm going to show up. Do I know what to say? Do I know what to wear? Who's there? What's it going to be like? Am I going to know anyone? When we go to lunch, am I going to have to go to lunch with people I don't know? Or worse, am I going to go to lunch and no one is there and I eat by myself? They assign a buddy who has calls with you before you start. Who connects with you and explains, hey, by the way, this is what I understand we have a dress code, but by the way, here's what everybody really wears.

57:11 And I understand that you've been told XYZ, but here's the thing. This is really how it works. Because let's be candid. In every organization, I get we have handbooks and things like that, but most of the handbooks were written once and never updated. Most of the handbooks were written by lawyers or the HR department designed to avoid lawsuits, not actually explain what it's like to work there. And a buddy can help you navigate that. A buddy can help you connect with why you're going to be successful there and then show you the way to be successful. I love that. I love that. Okay. I'm like, I hate this, Joey, because there's so much content to go through and I keep looking at the dang clock and I'm like, stop looking at the clock.

57:52 Don't worry about it. Okay. So there's a couple things I want to make sure that we hammer on before we part ways. One is... I'd just like to hear from you. And I know that obviously that this would be difficult. All eight phases are critical. There is no single silver bullet. But from your experience writing this, was there an element, one of the phases, one of the experiences or interviews or interactions that you had just caught you off guard that you feel like is really important for us to hear about? You know, Brandon, I love this question and I hate this question at the same time. It's like, of the 50 case studies in here, which is your favorite child? We know you've got one, right? Here's what I'll say. I imagine some of the folks joining us might be thinking, this sounds overwhelming.

58:35 There's a lot of pieces to this puzzle. Where do I even start? What do I do? I've got a suggestion, an idea, a gauntlet that I might throw down to give you an idea and will start to move the dial in terms of your employee experience. Here's what it is. I want you to think of the member of your team who you like the best. I understand you may not be excited about admitting that publicly, but someone just came to mind. You just thought of someone who's just, they're a rock star. They're awesome. You know you couldn't do it without them. Great. Pull out your phone. Turn on the camera. Flip it to selfie mode, and you're going to shoot a video. And the video is going to sound something like this.

59:17 Let's pretend that person's name is Marguerite. Press record. Hey, Marguerite. I was listening to this podcast today with these two crazy guys. Gosh, you should see their mustaches and beard combo. It's amazing. And they had this weird guest on the show that was going on and on about employee experience. And he created a challenge for us. And the challenge was, think of an employee who your business would not be able to exist if they weren't there. And I got to admit, I immediately thought of you. The spirit you bring, the energy you bring, the optimism you bring, the enthusiasm, you always have a smile on your face. When we ask people to pitch in, you're always there ready to help. When I think, who is the person that this entire organization would come crumbling down if we didn't have them on the team?

1:00:03 It's you. And I just wanted you to know how much I appreciate you, how much I value you, how much you mean to me and everyone else here. Thanks for being you. Thanks for being part of our team. It means a lot to all of us. And text send. Don't watch the video again. See, here's a pro tip. You film these videos and you think, I'm going to watch it. Just make sure I get it right. No, don't watch it. Because you're going to start analyzing yourself. And oh, the lighting wasn't good. And I looked weird. Or do, do, do. I could have said that a little different. I stumbled on one of the words. No, just send it. Some remarkable things are going to happen. Number one, the research shows that a text message with a video attached that gets sent gets opened and watched within 90 seconds of receipt.

1:00:44 Number one, they're going to get it. They're going to look at it. Number two, they're going to watch that video and probably learn something that they weren't 100% sure of before. They might have thought you felt that way. They might have heard you say it before, but now they have proof. They have evidence. They have a digital artifact that they matter, that they are creating impact and that they are seen and valued and appreciated. And number three, they are going to watch that video more than once. Maybe not that day, but they're going to save it and they're going to watch it again in the future on a bad day. In fact, they're probably going to show it to their significant other or their kids or their parents or a friend. your return on an investment for that three-minute selfie video, the ripple effect on that is going to be years, maybe even a lifetime.

1:01:32 And here's the pro tip. Then shoot one for another employee and another employee and another employee. Just rinse and repeat. Until every employee over the course of a week, a month, three months has gotten a personalized video from you where you explicitly state the value they bring to the team, why you appreciate them and let them know that they are seen, valued and appreciated. Cover those things. You're well on your way to remarkable employee experiences. Dude, mic drop. That was valid. That probably was the most important part of the entire show. Well, you know, what was happening inside me, as you were saying that, is I was feeling what it was like for somebody to send me that video.

1:02:15 I think everybody was listening to that. I was getting choked up. And I'm like, when you led with, and do you know what's going to happen? I'm like, well, Marguerite is certainly going to cry. Totally. 100%. Right. And she's going to revisit that video. It's going to be saved in her photo stream for the next 10 years. And she's going to come back to that when she's having a crappy day, just like you said. But man, that is powerful. So powerful. I think it almost... Joey, that goes back to the beginning of the show and just that brief touch base on all these leaders just basically saying, I'm tired and I want to be inspired again. And that's how, right? Like this is the way that people can be reintroduced for all intents and purposes of, oh, this is what leadership is about.

1:02:59 And if I'm doing this with my time, this is inspirational. Like this is legacy. This is worth committing to and giving my time and energy to. Not easy to make the transition, but oh my gosh, if you can, how powerful of a change that is, you know? Satisfying, yeah. Guys, 100%. And I'll say this, Chris, to build on the marguerite crying. If you're not feeling moved when you're making the video, I want you to sit down and ask yourself whether you should be in this business anymore. Oh, that's good. Sorry. What are we doing? What are we doing? We get one time. We get one chance for this life. I have two little boys, a seven-year-old and a nine-year-old. My seven-year-old at dinner the other night said, Daddy, what if we got to come back and live again?

1:03:41 And he doesn't know anything about reincarnation yet. And we were kind of having a conversation about it. And I thought to myself, so many people are living their lives as if they're going to get a do-over, as if they're going to get another time. You're not. My rule is, personally, and I adopted this a long time ago and I've had a lot of careers, you're going to have bad days at work. It's going to happen. I don't care what your job is, you're going to have a bad day. My personal belief is if you've had two consecutive weeks of miserable days where you're like, I don't want to do this anymore. I hate my job. I don't know why I'm doing this. And that goes for 10 work days, two consecutive weeks. At the end on that 10th work day, you should resign. Life is too short.

1:04:21 Life is too short to be screwing around with things that don't light you up. And I understand there may be some people that are like, Joey, restoration lights people up. Yes. If you're in the right industry, you are lit up by the service you provide, by the help you give, by the aid that you provide people, often in some of their worst moments of their life. You're Superman. You're Superwoman. You're the one who's there. You're the one who's going to get them back up on their feet. Get them back making money again. Get them back in operation. Fill in the blanks. If you're not jazzed by that, how the heck do you expect your people to be jazzed by that? Yeah. It may be time to go and that's okay. Go find something that does light you up. Dude. Okay. So I got to confirm with you.

1:05:03 This is a little unfiltered check here. So before I say something out loud, did you say there is for sure ink in place? Oh, yeah. Okay. Okay, so two things then. First off, because we're going to be meeting with CORE tomorrow morning or tomorrow afternoon, actually. And CORE is going to be making a bit of an announcement with us on a Friday Live event. So stand by on that. But so first, Joey, what is happening with this book? When is it that we, the masses, can get our hands on it? When is that going down? So the book officially is out on June 27th. It's out in all three formats. Hardcover, if you like to write in your books. Ebook on Nook and Kindle, if you want to highlight digitally. Audiobook, if you've enjoyed listening to me talk, you can listen to me narrate the book to you because I'm the reader of the book.

1:05:46 It's available anywhere you buy books. Barnes & Noble, Amazon, the Indie Bookstore. Hey, fellow small business owners out there listening, I'm a small business owner too. Go buy it from your indie bookstore. It'll take you a little more time. But let's invest in the businesses in our community in the same way we want the businesses in our community to invest in us. Help them out. I'm not anti-Amazon. I'm not anti-Barnes & Noble. But if you get a chance, go check that out. And here's the promise I'll make to you. In the book, my email is in there. And if you read this book, you get all the way to the end and you're like, you know what, Joey, didn't apply to me. Doesn't apply to my business, not going to be able to implement any of this. Send me an email. I'll refund the price that you paid for the book. That's how confident I am that there's going to be something in this book that will help you create better experiences for your employees and will increase their engagement and retention.

1:06:35 I want people to be able to find the right people, hire the right people, train and onboard the right people, and retain the right people. And I like to think, again, due to the grace and courtesy and insight and wisdom from 50 plus case studies in the book, that there's going to be something in there for you. Joey, where do people go to connect with you? And then I have an announcement to make before we let you go. Yeah. If people want to connect with me, they can come to joeycoleman.com. That's J-O-E-Y, like a five-year-old or a baby kangaroo. Coleman, C-O-L-E-M-A-N, like the camping equipment, but no relation. joeycoleman.com. There's information there about customer experience. There's information there about employee experience. Connect. I'd love to continue the conversation.

1:07:17 And if they want to see you live, Brandon, when are they going to have an opportunity? No, I'm just going to chip it to you. Okay, gang. So listen, you guys have heard us talking about CORE before. CORE, obviously, is an organization that we just actually have a lot of admiration and respect for. The CORE Collective is in August. It'll be in Austin. Austin, Texas. Which is just going to be killer. And if you've seen hints of what Dan and the team does at CORE... you know that this event doesn't look like anything else that goes on throughout the year. And what we've found out through the grapevine is that Joey will be the keynote speaker at The Collective. So if you've caught any hint of where this guy's heart is and where his passion is, I would strongly suggest that you come see this guy on stage.

1:08:03 We're excited. The show will be there, obviously. And we're just excited to get some more hang time with Joey. when he gets off the stage. So we'll be doing some stuff with you potentially live from there and streaming that out. But we are so psyched, man, to have you come to the Core Collective and talk to us in our own industry and bring your heart for our employees and the growth of our businesses, man. So thanks for that. Oh, thanks, friends. It is my pleasure. I'm so looking forward to connecting in the analog world as opposed to over the digital world and airwaves, which is always great, but it's fun to see people in person. And yeah, friends, if you're listening and you're going to be at Core Collective, come find me at the event. come up and say, hey, listen, I got a fabulous mustache too.

1:08:45 I should be on the show. Let's chat it up. I tease these guys because I tell you, we get on these calls and I just have hair envy. I just look at these guys and I think, man, I wish I could grow facial hair the way these guys can. But look forward to meeting you in person. Love it, dude. Well, thanks again for your time, man. You're so generous. We appreciate your participating and hanging out with us. And man, hopefully we'll see you again soon. I look forward to it. All right, everybody. Thanks for joining us for another episode of Head, Heart & Boots. And if you're enjoying the show, but you love this episode, please hit follow, formerly known as subscribe, write us a review, or share this episode with a friend. Share it on LinkedIn, share it via text, whatever.

1:09:27 It all helps. Thanks for listening.